Marbled Lavendar and Honey Cupcake

This is another entrant for this month's Iron Cupcake Earth challenge, but this time it's sweet cupcake!

Her name is Cassie Baker and she, well, bakes. She bakes a lot of cupcakes and other yummy goodies and documents her trials on her blog How to Eat a Cupcake.

I like Cassie's blog because she uses a wide array of ingredients. Sometimes they're less exciting, but still tasty (marshmallow, chocolate malt balls) and sometimes they're weird and make you think "dear God, save us all why oh why would you do that?!" (like apple and cheddar or beer and peanuts).

Cassie's sometimes unusual flavor combos are a result of her readers suggestions. Based on the most popular suggestions, she lets readers vote on what she should do. And isn't that what America is really all about? I think we should all start referring to cupcakes as "Freedom Cake". Yes, let's try to make that happen.

Despite the oddball requests, she always manages to do something delish with it!! I mean, who else do you know that could take mountain dew and turn it into a refreshing, albeit green, summer treat?? WHO, I SAY!?!?!

These are her purple and white marbled cupcakes scented with lavender and topped with sweet honey frosting. How did she know I had a weakness for anything scented with lavender?

Marbled Lavender Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

Makes 16

1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk, room temperature

1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature

2 tablespoons lavender leaves, finely chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Honey Frosting (my own recipe)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon heavy cream

Food coloring, optional1.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and cream.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream chopped lavender, butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two addi­tions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.

3. Measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Stir purple food coloring into reserved 1 cup batter.

4. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of white and purple batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a cake tes­ter inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes (Mine were done at about 18 minutes). Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To make frosting, combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on low until combined. Increase speed to high and whip for 1 minute.

Basil Cornbread Cupcake

Ahhh, the savory cupcake. One of life's lesser known, perhaps under-appreciated, delectable treats.

Okay, so I've never actually eaten a savory cupcake, but I have definitely salivated over many!

This one comes from Bitsy the Baker's blog. It's a basil cornbread cupcake, filled with mushrooms (mmmmmm!) and topped with a tomato creem cheese frosting.

This is her entrant for the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge, which is a cupcake cook-off that requires bakers to use one "mystery" ingredient. Ya know, kinda like its namesake Japanese show...is it coming together...oh...yep, there it is.

This month's theme was "herbs", so naturally the savory cupcake makes a lot of sense. The real question is, when are they gonna choose octopus...?

Here's the recipe:

8 large white button mushrooms, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 TBS salted butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. chopped basil

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until the butter is bubbling and the garlic is sizzling. Add the mushrooms and spices, and stir to distribute them evenly. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the mushrooms are nice and dark. You will have a lot less than you started with! Stir, cover, and turn off heat. Set the pan aide while you make your cupcake batter.

Cupcakes:
1-1/4 cups buttermilk(or regular milk with 1 TBS vinegar or lemon juice added)
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 egg
dash lemon juice
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar or evaporated cane juice
1 TBS baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 TBS finely chopped basil

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners. You will have enough batter to make 14 cupcakes, so put the pan on a cookie sheet and put two foil liners on there as well.
2) Mix wet ingredients in a bowl.
3) Mix dry ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer; add the wet ingredients and mix well.
4) Add the basil, and mix completely, scraping down the sides and making sure that the batter is thoroughly mixed.
5) Using a regular cookie scoop, put one scoop in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Put 1 TBS of the sauteed mushrooms in each liner, and then put one more scoop of cupcake batter on the top of each.
6) Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven, and let cool for 5 minutes.
7) Remove all of the cupcakes to a cooling rack, and once they are cool to the touch, make the frosting.

Frosting:
1 8 oz block full-fat cream cheese
2 TBS tomato paste
1/2 tsp. red chili flakes
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder

1) Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer; beat in the tomato paste.
2) Add all of the spices, and mix thoroughly.
3) Frost the cupcakes and top with a basil leaf, if desired. Enjoy!

Mika "We Are Golden"...and we love cupcakes apparently

Mika's new video came out this week. You may remember him from such as-featured-in-Ugly-Betty songs as "Lollipop" or "Big Girls (You are Beautiful)".

Mika sounds like a cupcake tastes: sweet, happy, and colorful!

The real reason I'm posting the vid though is because if you fast forward to 2:00 it seems that Mika is wearing a scarf covered in cupcakes!!

Guess who just became my new favorite singer/songwriter!? (JK, I could never do that to Gaga)

For more Mika, click here.

Cupcake Blog Spotlight

Photo by Cheryl Porro

Alright, so I get that a lot of you aren't avid cupcake blog readers, BUT in the event you decide to branch out from this one (which you shouldn't because this is the only one you'll ever need for LIFE!! but if you do...), then you should absolutely 100% visit http://cupcakeblog.com/

You can go to get a great recipe for anything from the basic vanilla cupcake to a friggin' Basil Cream and Mint Cream Filled Cupcakes with Raspberry Mousse Frosting! I know, right?!?

The website is basically closed now, which is a crying shame since this woman is clearly a cupcake genius but it seems like she comes and goes (she's a mom to a toddler, give her a break!). Regardless, I still like to go back every now and then to look at her beautiful photos and copy a recipe every now and then.

Banana Caramel Chiffon Cupcakes

There’s no description on this one, but my best bet is banana cupcake, filled
with a caramel chiffon, topped with cream cheese frosting and a caramelized banana slice

Photos via flickr, babe_kats

Red Hot Cupcakes

Spicy cinnamon, red hot cupcake, topped with
Red Hot spiced toasted meringue frosting

Recipe can be found here

Photo: © 2007 Cheryl Porro

Cupcake Practice--S'mores Cupcakes

This weekend, Kyle went camping with some friends. I was invited to go but a.) I haven't had a weekend at home in a month what with travelling, visitors, and plans and b.) I don't go camping.

So with Kyle out of town, I had more free time on my hands this weekend this usual, hence, the two batches of cupcakes I made.

I made a s'mores cupcake with a graham cracker cucpake with a graham cracker crust, topped with marshmallow frosting, drizzled with semisweet chocolate. It was supposed to be dunked in the chocolate, but I'll explain that later.

As I started to get my ingredients together (mind you it was around 9:30 pm), I realized the can of baking soda I bought earlier in the week from Trader Joes was actually baking powder. They are not the same thing and there was not way for me to substitute. So, I hauled myself back to the grocery store, in the rain people!! to get my can of baking powder. Thanks to my basement level apartment, I generally have no sense for the weather system brewing outside, which is why I headed out without an umbrella. With no time to spare, I braved the rain umbrella-less. Needless to say I looked a hot tranny mess when I got back to my apartment.

But I had the baking soda!

So, here were my ingredients for the s'mores cupcakes:

I've got the recipe below, but here's the general progression of things, pictorially:

Yes, those are pink foil cupcake liners, why do you ask?




The ceremonial scraping of the vanilla bean. (I do have plenty of cutting boards, but i was lazy and did this on a paper towel instead. What's it to you, huh?)

I forgot to document the process after this until they came out of the oven. Ooops!

I really need a stand mixer, but in the meantime my handheld mixer really does a good job:

Tear. These may be the prettiest cupcakes I've ever made.

Okay, so here's where things kind of went, a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle south. This marshmallow icing needs to sit up for a while before you try to dunk it in chocolate, or else this happens (cue the disaster music):

It's supposed to maintain that tall swirly-do shape with a chocolate coating, but alas, the marshmallow succombed to the yummy chocolate and I got this nice marble-effect. Whatevs, it was still de-lish!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Because I wanted the rest to look a little more presentable, I ended up drizzling the rest with the chocolate instead of trying to dunk them. Then I dusted some crushed graham cracker on top. Frankly, I think these look pretty damn fantastic:

Try them for yourself. Just make sure you have baking soda beforehand!

Graham Cracker Cupcakes (adapted from Chokylit recipe)

12 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

1 cup graham cracker crumbs, from 6 whole graham crackers
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs, from 2-1/2 whole graham crackers
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.
2. Scoop a heaping teaspoon into each cupcake paper, pressing down to cover the bottom.
3. Beat butter on high speed until soft, about 30 seconds.
4. Add brown sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.
6. Whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
7. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
8. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
9. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
10. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
11. Scoop into cupcake papers three-quarters full.12. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Swiss Meringue Marshmallow Frosting

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 egg whites
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine egg whites and sugar in the top of a double boiler (or a glass bowl over but not touching a pan of simmering water). Whisk constantly over medium-high heat until sugar is entirely desolved (should feel smoth between your fingers), about 5 minutes. Remove from double boiler and continue to beat on high for 6 minutes or until room temperature and soft peaks form. Add vanilla extract 1 teaspoon at a time until desired flavor.

Drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate and garnish with crushed graham cracker.

Larry's Ice Cream Review

My friend Chris woke me up, uhhh, I mean texted me Saturday afternoon. It's always fun to hear from Chris. We have equally superior taste in fashion than everyone else, which is why we get along. I know Chris because we used to work together, but now he's in law school. BORRRRING.

Anyway, he texted me because he was in the city for a bar exam prep class. It's ironic because Chris is admittedly one of the laziest people I know, but somehow he managed to make the trek out from BFE for a class downtown on a Saturday afternoon. So he texted me and asked if I wanted to hang out, catch up, maybe get a cupcake after class. Did someone say cupcake?! I'm there.

We grabbed a little lunch then decided to try the cupcakes at Larry's. Now, for all you who don't live in Dupont Circle, Larry's is historically an ice cream shop. However, last winter they started selling "homemade" cupcakes. Probably because the ice cream business slows when it's 15 degrees out. It's just a guess.

Despite their new menu item, I hadn't tried them in all the 7 months or so since they began selling them. Could be because I already have my favorites; could be because the people that own the shop run the place like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, which makes the entire process of choosing your ice cream quite stressful. Suffice it to say, I figured, with Chris by my side, this would be an opportune time to give the place a try.


The selection was pretty mediocre. Ice cream is still their line of business, let's not forget. But they had the basics--red velvet, chocolate, vanilla--and they had one interesting flavor, key lime filled with mango, topped with coconut icing. The man working the counter, presumably "Larry", made me feel welcome, saying "hey cutie, how can I take your money?" It's really nice to know that chivalry's not dead.

Chris ordered the mango-coconut thing:

I ordered the chocolate with sweet cream icing:


(I'm totally Lady Gaga-ing in this picture.)

They weren't the most attractive cupcakes. The icing was haphazardly piped on in stacked swirls. It obviously doesn't make the cupcake taste any better, but when you're in the cupcake biz they should look really pretty and neat.

My cupcake smelled really good. The icing gave me some concern right away though. It was definitely airy, definitely homemade, but it was SO buttery.

I love buttercream as much as the next cupcake-maniacal-Lady-Gaga-obsessed-red-head, but this was plain greasy. The cake had a light texture, a delicate crumb...it reminded me of something.


Hmmm. What is it?


Wait. No...couldn't be. But the sign, it says homemade.


Yep, this was definitely from a mix. The cake was far too light to have the same butter content as a homemade product. A homemade cake is much more dense than the kind you get from a box. Larry's just made $3 off the one cupcake I bought, which is about what it cost them to make the batch of 24. Can't blame them for a creative business model!


Chris's cupcake, on the other hand, wasn't from a mix, which was nice, but the icing was still too greasy. There wasn't much mango filling either. Overall, not a terrible cupcake, but they've got to do something about their icings. A little vanilla bean would definitely help, and obviously more sugar. They should also whip the butter a little longer to make it fluffier so you don't feel like you need a triple bypass afterward.


I'm glad we went, mostly because it gave me fodder for the blog, and because it was fun to see Chris get hit on by the dude working at Starbucks, but I probably won't go back. I'm annoyed by the employees more than ever and I'm pretty sure I'm still sweating butter.

Apricot Pina Colada Cupcake

Photo by NorwichNuts

Now, this is a vegan cupcake. It looks delicious, don't ya think? I've never tried a vegan cupcake, but I think should. Get me to a cupcakery!!! This come from gonnagowalkthedogs and everything she does is vegan, so if you're offended by the use of animal by-products but love cupcakes, you should totally check it out. In fact, no matter what your opinion of animal by-products, you should still check it out!

Vanilla Cake:

½ cup Soy Cream

½ cup Tofutti brand Sour Cream

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup vegetable margarine

¾ cup raw sugar

3teaspoons spearmint extract

6 tsp spearmint tea

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line mini tins with cupcake liners. Seep tea in soy creamer.Cream margarine and sugar two minutes – beat in spearmint. Mix all dry ingredients together and then alternate soy cream-dry-soy cream. Add the sour cream at the last and incorporate then fill liners 2/3 full and bake 10 minutes. Cool completely.

White Coconut Butter cream:

¾ cup vegetable margarine

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 tablespoons Coconut Cream

Beat all ingredients until fluffy – pipe onto cup cakes.

Pineapple Rum Sauce:

½ cup pineapple juice

3 tbsp agave syrup3 tsp rum

Mix well.Serve with apricots – pour sauce over cuppie and apricots.

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Red Velvet--a cupcakery review

I've never formally reviewed a cupcake shop, but hey, there's a first time for everything right? I mean, if Heidi Montag can release an EP, I can definitely review a cupcake shop!


Now, if you live in the DC area, you'll know good and well that we're not short on cupcake options. Hello Cupcake, Georgetown Cupcake, Baked and Wired, Cake Love, and most recently, Red Velvet in Chinatown.


My friend Shannon was in town last week, and being an out-of-towner, I was really fulfilling my duty as host to escort her to our newest cupcake offering. (Shannon lives in Ohio, where there isn't yet a cupcake shop for every Starbucks. Yet.)


Now, by no means am I out to dog any cupcakes, okay? I want to make that clear, because a lot of people in DC consider themselves to be "foodies." And while I'm sure I am one, I don't want to seem arrogant about my opinions, even if they are always right. Look, what I'm saying is you're entitled to your wrong opinion.


Anyway, the point is I am so not judgmental...not in the way of food and cupcakes, at least. But these cupcakes were gross. Okay, well maybe not gross, but they were definitely not good.


We ordered two to split: Red velvet, obvi and key lime with a white chocolate icing. My first reaction was that not only was the place small, a little unkempt and hot (DIVA up in hurr), but the prices were the highest I've seen in DC, $3.25 a pop! Believe me, they weren't large enough to justify the cost. That's what she said.

Anyway, we took them back to my apartment to share. They were cute and had a decent-sized glob of frosting just the way I like it. After the first bite though we knew, oh we knew. They were bland. Bland bland bland bland bland. There was no chocolatey goodness to the red velvet cupcake and the cream cheese icing tasted like cream cheese. I could have been eating a bagel for all I knew! The texture was fine, but who cares about texture when you can't taste anything!! There was no hint of citrus in the key lime cupcake, and again the frosting wasn't sweet at all. And I'm not just saying that because I maintain my girlish figure by eating sugar by the cupfulls, okay?! Shannon has very sensitive, um, senses, and she also thought they were really lacking in flavor.

Will I go back to Red Velvet? Probably not. I don't live in Chinatown and takes me about 15 minutes to walk there. Walking is for peasants. Plus, I've got Hello Cupcake right around the corner (review to come) and frankly, that fits the bill quite well, thank you.

So, if you like your cupcake bland and overpriced, then these were GREAT! But if you're looking for more bang for your buck you might as well go to the old standbys. Or you could buy a Betty Crocker mix and do it yourself.

So, has anyone out there tried the place? Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you HATE me but LOVE Red Velvet?? Did you make it this far to the end???

Tom Selleck Cupcake

Chai cake with cardamom cream cheese frosting,
topped with a Selleck-inspired moustache

Photo by Jessie Oleson

This comes from a San Francisco cupcakery, Cynically Delicious. Please my friends in San Fran, PLEASE order this. RIGHT. NOW.

Looks like it's just delivery at this point, but these were snapped from a craft fair by another of my favorite blogs, CakeSpy. mmmmm dessert!

What I like about this place (ya know, cus I've never even had a cupcake from there, nor do I live in the Bay Area, let alone the west coast, but still, I can have an opinion...it's never stopped me before!) is owner/baker Sabrina's, hmmm, what's the word I'm looking for..., cynical perspective on cupcakes. Plus, I love me some Tom Selleck. Did you hear that? I think I just swooned.

The Daily Cupcake-Cherry Coke Cupcake

Cherry coke chocolate cupcake baked with a cherry inside,
topped with cherry buttercream, a dollop of vanilla
buttercream, and a maraschino cherry

Hello. Funny meeting you here.

Actually, I'm glad you stopped by. See, because we do/don't work together, you may/may not know how much i love/eat cupcakes. In fact, dear friend/relative/coworker/acquaintance/perfect stranger, I love cupcakes so much, I'm currently the editor of my own cupcake listserv.

I send out a picture of a cupcake with its description every day to a very lucky listserv of friends/relatives/coworkers/acquaintances/perfect strangers. 

Now, while I do love sending out my Daily Cupcake e-mail each day, it's become a bit of chore typing in every e-mail in the "to" box, not to mention there are so many more people in the world who may never have the opportunity to salivate over my literary genius! It's GENIUS I tell you!!

So anyway...here's the blog for all of you and your friends/relatives/coworkers/acquaintances/perfect strangers to visit and feel included. So, I re-ree ho--enjakljvcoiafnkwl.

Sorry, I was eating. Anyway, welcome and enjoy!