MSC: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Megan from My Baking Adventures, one of my personal favorite bloggers, selected the cupcake recipe for the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club this month, Martha's Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.  As you may recall, we present our cupcakes on the 15th of each month and swap notes on what we thought of the cupcakes and the process of making them, and somehow, this month, the 15th appeared out of nowhere.  Maybe it was that darn Daylight Savings Time garbage this weekend that threw me off...

Husband was positively stoked when I told him about this recipe a while back.  Unfortunately for him, this spring forward weekend has been a bit of a mess, so I had to resort to a few shortcuts to manage to get these cupcakes made.  I have promised him an I.O.U. for a future making of these cupcakes, complete with seven-minute frosting and lemon curd. These cupcakes are really lemon meringue imposters.  I did manage to make the lemon cupcakes...but time was working against me when it came to making the lemon curd.  And well, I was already cutting corners, so I decided to make a simple vanilla buttercream frosting for the cupcakes rather than the seven-minute frosting.

What's cooking in Toddler's kitchen?  Could it be?  Has he mastered Martha's cupcakes?

These were a great treat for Husband.  We had a rough weekend, between having some serious computer challenges and Toddler becoming the pickiest eater on the planet, throwing tantrums left and right at the dinner table.  I think he really enjoyed sitting down to watch "The Amazing Race" with a yummy lemon cupcake.  And these sure were yummy.  They might not be beautiful, but they did taste good.

They may not appear on Tastespotting, but they were still tasty in their own right.

Yo Gabba Gabba Cupcakes

When you're obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba, it's a good thing that your mom is pretty handy with piping frosting, so she can create these little precious babies!

For the record, Toddler's name is not Yan. Or Nay. Or Ayn.

Never heard of Yo Gabba Gabba? I wish I were still in that boat sometimes. It's a kids' show on Nick Jr., featuring five different characters, Muno, Plex, Brobee, Toodee, and Foofa. They play in a place called Gabbaland and learn lots of different lessons, as well as activities. The one thing I like is that it encourages the kids to get up and move, to dance around. Toddler loves it. He calls it "Yo Bagga" at the moment, which is really cute. His whole party was "Yo Bagga" themed, so he was just in hog heaven.

I did find the perfect yellow cupcake recipe for these, at the last moment, and I was super thrilled with how they turned out. They were a big hit at Toddler's party. Come next year, no recipe hunting necessary! Unless, that is, he develops the deep love and appreciation for chocolate that his mommy has. This year, he was really just interested in the frosting, with a few nibbles of cupcake. He chose to eat Toodee, the blue character, so he got the whole messy cake experience under his belt - last year, he barely wanted to touch his cake, he didn't want to get dirty! So without any further adieu, here's the recipe:

Perfect Yellow Cupcakes

adapted from Martha Stewart and America's Test Kitchen

Printer-friendly recipe

3 2/3 cups cake flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

24 tbsp (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups sugar

8 large eggs, room temperature

2 tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups whole milk, room temperature

3 cups of your favorite frosting

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then vanilla, until combined, about 30 seconds.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture, and the remaining milk. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated.

4. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined.

5. Line three 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners and use a greased 1/4 cup measure to portion the batter into each cup. Bake the cupcakes on the upper-middle and lower-middle racks in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 15-20 minutes through baking. Let the cupcakes cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Spread the frosting evenly over the cupcakes and serve, or decorate to your heart's delight and serve.

MSC: Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes

How did it get to be the 15th already? I opened my journal this morning, wrote today's date, and had a total freakout because I realized I hadn't yet made my MSC cupcakes! Eek! I get up early, so I quickly scrubbed my sweet potatoes and tossed them in the oven, and managed to get my cupcakes in the oven by 9 o'clock. Phew. It's been a busy week or so around my house. Between the garage sale we held on Saturday, my first Wilton cake decorating class on Thursday night and just general insanity the rest of the week.

So...on to the cupcakes. I'm not a huge sweet potato fan. In fact, if Karen hadn't picked the Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes for this month, I'm quite certain I would have never baked them. Fortunately, my husband likes sweet potatoes, so I'm hopeful that he'll like them. As a result, I did halve the recipe, which seemed to work out just fine.

I skipped the candied pecans for two reasons - not kid-friendly in my house (my munchkin can't have nuts yet, and I have a feeling he will totally dig these cupcakes) and my husband isn't super-big on pecans. And the most important third reason? I was in a rush.

And by the way, I totally suck at using my kitchen torch. I do indeed own one - it was on my registry when I got married several years ago. This marks the second time that I've used it. Needless to say, I did more burning than browning the marshmallows. Argh. Oh well, here was my prettiest attempt:


Will I make these again? Probably not. But I suppose it's good to know that I need WAY more practice with my kitchen torch!

See what I mean?

MSC: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

This month's Martha Stewart Cupcakes recipe was selected by Kim at What the Whisk. We baked the Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes on p. 236.

I was admittedly excited to try these cupcakes. First of all, marzipan scares the crap out of me, and this time I let the fear win. When I saw the picture of Martha's cupcakes, the first thing I thought of was one of my favorite Halloween treats - Mellowcreme Pumpkins. So, yes, I cheated, and planned to use Mellowcreme Pumpkins on my cupcakes. Sue me. Then I promptly forgot to put the damn pumpkins on the cupcakes before my little photo session. So imagine a Mellowcreme Pumpkin atop this lovely cupcake.

The batter for this recipe was really easy to put together - no muss, no fuss. Nothing too complicated, although I did halve the recipe, and double-checked my math no less than 3 times before I let myself get started (I've gotten burned too many times by halving recipes!). I do think that the cupcakes should have cooked perhaps a minute longer than they did - they felt especially spongy after cooling off fully. Speaking of which, does anyone really turn out their cupcakes the way Martha says to? Whenever I try this method, my cupcakes either totally fall apart, or they stick to my countertop. Any advice? Tips? Tricks? I usually wind up using a knife to try my cupcakes out of the pans.

I did taste these, which is especially daring for me, because I'm not a pumpkin fan (nor am I a big fan of spice cake). I didn't despise the taste, but I also didn't love them. I didn't feel compelled to to eat an entire cupcake. This is precisely why I have an impartial taste tester, who loves spice cakes and anything pumpkin to determine how they were. Husband said the flavor was awfully tasty and the cupcakes were super moist. He likened them to pumpkin pie in a cupcake, although the cream cheese frosting didn't exactly evoke the whole pumpkin pie flavor. He did say that these are another "muff-cake," just like the Banana Pecan Cupcakes and Zucchini Spice Cupcakes.

I strongly considered making a different frosting for these cupcakes, because this would be the third time I've made Martha's cream cheese frosting - not to say that I don't enjoy the cream cheese frosting, it just kind of gets tiring to make the same frosting over and over and over. But I only thought about it briefly before remembering that I had bought all that I needed for cream cheese frosting, so I stuck with it.

Next month, we'll be doing Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes, I'm very curious about those, given that I've never heard of a sweet potato cupcake. It will be interesting, I'm sure! Stay tuned for more Martha Stewart Cupcakes adventures!

MSC: Banana Pecan Cupcakes

Woo hoo, it's my second Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club challenge! This was a bonus challenge this month, since we already did the zucchini spice cupcakes earlier this month. I was all for a bonus challenge so I could work on my cupcake skills.

These cupcakes were relatively easy to prep, although they made lots of dishes! I am quite a mess-maker in the kitchen in the first place, but today's mess was pretty colossal. I also realized that Martha must be some kind of descendant of Julia Child, the way she uses butter. I buy butter in bulk (I know it's not super-spiffy European butter, but it saves a couple of bucks), and I've already gone through 4 pounds of butter in the last couple of months. It's not all Martha's fault - I happened to buy some crappy cocoa powder which screwed up two batches of my chocolate buttermilk cupcakes, but still.

I got a little creative on Martha this time - I didn't have buttermilk, so I made some sour milk out of whole milk and vinegar. I also made some kid-friendly cupcakes without nuts, since most of the kids I know are under the age where nuts are OK. The mini-cupcakes took about 12

minutes to bake, and they were kind of exciting - they were my first mini-cupcakes!

Husband said the banana flavor was a bit mild, so maybe next time I'd add another banana, but other than that, the flavor was quite good. I paired my cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, because I have a serious backache and couldn't stomach the idea of standing over the stove to make caramel today. So cream cheese was it. I also altered the cream cheese frosting, since this was my second time making it - I omitted the extra 4 oz of cream cheese, since the packages I buy are 12 oz. So instead of making cream cheese frosting with 16 oz of cream cheese, I used 12 oz, which yielded a much stiffer frosting that I much preferred. I will make a note in my book

about that.

I also learned how to use my camera better when it comes to photographing my cupcakes (and other food!). I learned about the macro function - yay! So instead of my cupcakes looking like this...

They look like this!!

The recipe is available in the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, on p. 41. Don't forget to tune in around the 15th of next month, to see our next project, the Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes from p. 236, selected by Kim at What the Whisk.

MSC: Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Have I mentioned how excited I am to be a part of the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club (MSC)? Well, I totally am. I am so honored to be a part of it, and so excited to bake my little butt off.

What is MSC? Well...MSC is about cupcake love, freedom, and community. Our goal is to make and bake the 175 cupcake recipes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. All of those involved share one major thing - a love of baking and especially all things cupcakes.

And now, I've officially survived my first cupcake challenge with the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club!

See! I did it!

Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures selected this month's recipe, the Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes (pg. 44) with Cream Cheese Frosting (pg. 303). To be honest, I've never baked anything with zucchini before, so it was an adventure from the get-go for me. I'd also never zested a lemon, so that was interesting too. All in all, despite the fact that I was doing some things I've never done in baking, I still enjoyed making this recipe. Maybe it was because I baked these while Husband was home to watch the munchkin and because I could kind of zone out and get into the baking zone.

I did omit the nutmeg, mainly because I wasn't about the drag my butt to Publix for just one missing ingredient that I could go without, but the flavor still seems to be quite amenable. I also wasn't a huge fan of the consistency of the frosting. Mine was really soft, and a little difficult to work with as a result. I had to immediately refrigerate the cupcakes, otherwise the frosting started to slide off the cupcakes, which wasn't so fun. I've made a few different cream cheese frostings and never had that problem before, so I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if that's just how Martha's is. Then again, the recipe did say something about refrigeration and the frosting recipe said to hand frost, not to pipe - I can't imagine this frosting piping too well, but I'll bet when I check out everyone else's blogs I'm going to see some piped cupcakes, because I am clearly a big novice compared to some of the other bloggers participating in these monthly challenges.

Mmm, look at all that frosting!

Next month's recipe will be hosted by Kim at What the Whisk, and she has selected the Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes, which I'm sure Husband is going to be counting down the minutes for. Pumpkin is one of his all-time favorite things about the fall, so I have a feeling he's going to love these. Stay tuned!

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes

I completely happened upon this recipe by accident, but wow, I'm glad I did. I was in need of a good chocolate fix this holiday weekend, and while visiting Martha's site, I came across this recipe from Everyday Food, one of Martha's magazines that is also a PBS show. The look of the cupcakes reminded me of my favorite cake, Brown Beauty Cake, so I figured these cupcakes were going to be good.

These were almost a one-bowl recipe and super easy to put together. I had them put together and in the oven within about 15 minutes, if that. I did use Dutch-process cocoa powder, from Williams-Sonoma (because I can't seem to find it anywhere else), and I used real buttermilk, not powdered. You can always make your own buttermilk at home if you don't have any, but I happened to have some on hand from a recent red velvet cupcake recipe I made (which I will be posting soon). To make your own buttermilk, use 1 cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice. I've read that you can also use vinegar, though I haven't tried that method personally.

Enjoy the yumminess!

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food
Printer-friendly recipe

Makes 12 cupcakes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
6 tablespoons buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 tablespoons hot water until a thick paste forms (this process intensified the chocolate flavor - no joke, it really works!). Add butter, buttermilk, egg, and egg white; beat until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.
3. Scoop (or spoon) batter into prepared tin(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread icing over tops. Decorate as desired.

Here's Martha's suggestion for frosting: Light Cream-Cheese Icing (and this will keep your cupcake around 180 calories!).

Here's mine, the more decadent version:

Super Easy Vanilla Buttercream (sort of)
1 stick of butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp half and half
Shake of salt
3 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter first with a spoon, then add vanilla and half and half and beat in. Next, add powdered sugar gradually, and mix until combined. Taste. Does it need a little salt? Probably, especially if you use unsalted butter. Add the salt and combine, then spread with an offset spatula on cupcakes.