Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Marble cupcakes with Halloween decoration


I know I'm a little behind on my blogs and Halloween is long gone. But better late then never! With my daughter going to day care now, i got to sign up for something to bring for their class party. Of course there had to be cupcakes, and no one had signed up for them! I did and this is what i came up with. They had to be Halloween themed, but i also wanted to keep them fun for the kids. So i made pumpkins with some orange colored fondant, and drew in the faces with edible markers. How cute are they?? Super easy to make them and great for decorating cakes and other food. As for the frosting, i used Class Butter cream icing and kept it at a medium consistency and pipped some grass using the grass tip. I have to say, i had a great time putting these together and the kids loved it. Now to the cupcakes. They were marble cupcakes from Martha Stewart's 175 cupcakes recipe book. Really easy to make them and they were just delicious. Which kid doesn't like cupcakes with both vanilla and chocolate!

Cupcakes can just be so much fun. They are easy to eat, and you can be as creative as you want and personalize them in your own way. Here's the recipe for the cupcakes and butter cream:)

Marble Cupcakes
Makes 16 cupcakes

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
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

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

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream 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. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

4. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate 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 (i.e. toothpick) inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 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 finish dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving. Or personalize in your own way!


Class Butter cream

4 cups confectioner's sugar sifted
1 tablespoon meringue powder
1 cup shortening
2 table water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Using a whisk attachment, whip together the shortening and liquids. Add the sugar and meringue powder and whip until ingredients come together. Whip on medium speed for 1 min. This recipe makes thick consistency so you have to thin it out to a medium consistency after it's whipped up. Color frosting as needed. Frosting can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks in an air tight container.

2 comments:

  1. If you weren't family, I would hire you and Neena to do my wedding cake!!! Have you come across any good eggless cake recipes?

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  2. heheh...thanks:) I've not tried any eggless cake recipe yet. I think i have a couple from some recipe books i have. Maybe i'll give it a try and when i do, i'll let you know:)

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