Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Cinnamon Jack O'Lantern Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Time for my halloween cupcakes!  I had originally planned on making these pumpkin cupcakes with maple buttercream, but was craving something chocolate.  I used a recipe in one of my cupcake books, Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcakes to make a nice cinnamon spiced cupcake (a mexican chocolate cupcake, I suppose) that's the perfect spicing for fall.  It was also a lovely complement to the maple buttercream that I made using my maple extract.  I made two batches of the buttercream.  I dyed one batch orange using gel food color to spread on the cupcakes.  I dyed the second batch black/grey and green, for the faces and the stems.  I'm not planning on carving a pumpkin this year, but these jack'o lanterns are just as good for the halloween spirit.  Happy Halloween! Note: no eggs are used in the recipe, but the balsamic vinegar activates the baking soda and helps the cupcakes rise.  The vinegar evaporates and has no taste.

Chocolate Cinnamon Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used about 3/4 of a tsp)
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup granulated sugar (less than the original recipe calls for)
3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 T balsamic vinegar

Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and cinnamon) in a small bowl.  In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, coffee, coil, vanilla and almond extract.  Mix in the flour mixture until smooth.  Mix in the balsamic vinegar.  Scoop batter into 12 lined cupcakes in a silicon cupcake tray.    Fill 3/4 of the way full.  Bake for 25-30 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.

Maple Buttercream (I made two batches of the recipe below)
1 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 T maple syrup
1 tsp maple extract

Beat the buttercream ingredients until smooth before frosting.  Enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Cinnamon Jack O'Lantern Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Sasha's Kitchen: Pretty in Pink Chocolate Cupcakes

Over the weekend, I wanted to make some cupcakes that were girlish and carefree and . . . very, very pink. I made these basic, but delicious chocolate cupcakes with a bright pink frosting, using gel based food coloring to get the vibrant color (since I discovered gel food colorings, their use has totally replaced the conventional grocery store four color box that I had used since I was a kid). I used some pink icing to make flowers and hearts on the surface of the cupcakes after piping the frosting professionally using a frosting bag. I would have fashioned the flowers and hearts out of fondant, like I have sometimes in the past, but I was out of fondant at the moment. I wanted to make something that could be readily eaten without picking off the fondant, as I am not crazy about the taste of fondant. With respect to the gel food colors, New York Cake is the best place to buy them, as well as just about anything else you could ever want for baking.

Chocolate Cupcakes With Pink Buttercream (makes 10-12 cupcakes)
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

For the Frosting
1 stick of butter, room temperature
3 cups of confectioner's sugar
4 oz cream lowfat cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
several drops of fuchsia gel based food coloring

You don't need a stand mixer for the cupcakes, but I advise using one for the frosting. For the cupcakes, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, vanilla and egg. Slowly add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the sugar/egg mixture, alternating and stirring until combined completely. Fill your silicon cupcake molds 3/4 full. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 for 25 minutes, using a toothpick to check for when the cupcakes are done.

To make the frosting, beat the butter and sugar for several minutes on high in a stand mixer until it forms a frosting - you really can't beat too long or too high, as it just acquires a nicer, smother texture. Beat in the food coloring, vanilla and cream cheese. Pipe on the cupcakes using a frosting bag.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pretty in Pink Chocolate Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate NYC Subway Sign Cupcakes

By now, my readers know that I like doing unusual cupcake, whoopie pie and macaron recipes. I just bought some rose flower water that I plan in using in some new offbeat baking creations. But last weekend I made some very traditional (and still delicious cupcakes) with a fun twist. I'm sharing my favorite recipe for chocolate cupcakes (other than those amazing Guinness Stout Chocolate Cupcakes) - Julie Hassan's Chocolate Cupcakes from her book 125 Best Cupcakes, one of my favorite books of cupcake recipes.

Since I live in NYC, I decided to make these cupcakes NYC themed cupcakes.  And what's a better way to do that then making them look like NYC subways signs.  I did a number of trains on different lines, but was sure to put in some cupcakes for the train lines I have taken on my various commutes from the different places I have lived in both Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Julie Hassan's Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dutch process cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
[I omitted the chocolate chips]

Sasha's Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick of butter
8 oz cream cheese
3 cups confectioner's sugar
gel food coloring
[I used store bought food coloring tubes to put the letters on the frosted cupcakes]

To make the chocolate cupcakes, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, canola oil, egg and vanilla and whisk until smooth. There is no need to use a mixer. Alternatively whisk in the buttermilk and dry ingredients. Combine well and fill 12 cupcake liners. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees fro 22-27 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

To make my icing, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and then beat in the confectioner's sugar. Add the desired food colorings and frost with a spatula or a frosting bag.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate NYC Subway Sign Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Toasted S'mores Cupcakes And A Cupcake Necklace Giveaway!

I love s'mores.  Ever since I was a kid, s'mores over a campfire were one of my favorite summertime treats. I liked a deeply toasted marshmallow,  all gooey and browned, sometimes even a tad on the burnt side.  When my husband and I got married, on the first night of our honeymoon we had s'mores for dessert at out hotel, The Grand Wailea in Maui.  That was the perfect setting for lovely beachside/tableside s'mores on a September night.  Cupcakes are my favorite baking project, so for the start of a beautiful spring, it was only natural for me to prepare a s'mores cupcake.  These s'mores cupcakes weren't toasted campfire-side, but they were toasted using our kitchen torch (more commonly used in creme brulee preparation).  They incorporate all three elements essential to genuine s'mores: toasted marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker.  I made these on the perfect Friday night with one of my favorite people and sous chefs, my friend and cousin Alicia.  They were also the perfect dessert to our Saturday brunch yesterday that we hosted for some close friends.

The marshmallow frosting was perfect - it toasted exactly like a true marshmallow would have in the campfire, and even crackled the same way as a marshmallow when contacted with the creme brulee torch.   I suggest making these to bring back memories of those perfect summer nights when you were a kid.  These are also perfect to make with children if you don't have the opportunity to make it to a real bonfire.  They taste completely authentic and are fun to prepare.  The recipe is below, but first, I am providing details on my very first site giveaway!

CUPCAKE NECKLACE GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  Also, I am giving away two cute glass cupcake necklaces from New York Designer Moon & Star Designs to two lucky readers of this blog!!!!!
To enter in this Giveaway, 1) comment on this post with your email address or 2) or send an e-mail to giveaways@akitcheninbrooklyn.com.  You must be a follower of this blog on the follower tab (located midway down on the right sidebar of the blog, since I am not sure if this link will work) OR a fan in my facebook fan group to enter because I want to reward facebook fans and blog followers.
You will get one entry in the giveaway if you are a facebook fan and a second entry if you are a follower.  So, if you are not already a google follower or a facebook fan, please both to get two entries.  You must also reside in the United States to Enter.  This giveaway will be ongoing until Midnight Sunday April 4, 2010.  One of the glass necklaces is pictured below from Moon & Star Designs:

TOASTED S'MORES CUPCAKES RECIPE (Derived and adapted from this recipe on Martha Stewart's Website) (makes 2 dozen; feel free to halve the recipe to make less)

2 1/4 cups plus 2 T sugar (for cake)

Additional 1/4 cup sugar (for graham cracker crust)

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup plus 1 T dutch process cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Marshmallow Frosting Recipe (I used this recipe)
8 large egg whites
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees.  Line two muffin tins with cupcake liners.  Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa and sugar) in a mixing bowl.  In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Put in a mixer and combine the wet and dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of your mixer as you mix on medium speed.  Add the boiling water and stir to combine.  Set aside.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and butter.  Place 1 tablespoon in each cupcake liner and press into the bottom of the cupcake liner.  Bake for 5 minutes at 350 until lightly browned.  Then, add the cupcake batter to each cupcake, about 3/4 of the way full.  Bake at 350 until done (testing with a toothpick) for about 20 to 25 minutes.  The toothpick should come out clean when the cupcakes are done.

Prepare the Marshmallow frosting by placing the sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar in a metal bowl over summering water in a double boiler.  You can simply use a small metal bowl floating in a pot of simmering water.  Whisk or stir  constantly until the sugar is dissolved, over medium heat, for 3-4 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla and transfer to your stand mixer.  Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and beat on high until it forms a marshmallowy-meringue.  You will need to beat continuously on high for five to seven minutes until the marshmallow frosting looks like the picture below.  You will need a stand mixer (or at least a hand mixer) to make this frosting.

Froast the cupcakes using a frosting bag fitted with a plain round or french tip.  I used a french tip.  Then, follow the instructions for your creme brulee torch to toast the marshmallow frosting.  It toasts very quickly, just like a marshmallow would in intense heat. Thus, you will only need to brulee each cupcake for no more than 15 seconds.  Like I said above, when you eat this, it is just like eating a s'mores, only in cupcake form.  These were enjoyed by all of our friends who got to try them!

Cupcake

Sasha's Kitchen: Toasted S'mores Cupcakes And A Cupcake Necklace Giveaway!

Sasha's Kitchen: Lemony Limoncello Cupcakes

I have always loved to eat tangy and tart foods.  As a kid (and perhaps a bit more recently) my favorite candy was always sweet tarts.  I love anything with a bit of lemon flavor and a bit of tang.  Therefore, it was only a matter of time before I decided to experiment with some lemon flavored cupcake variations.  You may recall, that I made my own Italian Limoncello liqueur about a month ago.  I decided to use the limoncello today in my baking, to make lemon cupcakes with a twist, and jazz them up with a bit of limoncello.

I started by including lemon juice and limoncello (in lieu of vanilla extract) in a basic recipe for vanilla cupcakes, adjusting the proportions of the flour and eggs, to accommodate the addition of limoncello as a key ingredient in the cupcake batter.  Then, I made a lemoncello infused cream cheese frosting.  In between layers of the cupcake and the frosting, I prepared a basic lemon with limoncello to add a burst of that lemony-limoncello flavor.

These cupcakes are a cheerful, lemony treat.  They are different from your standard lemon cupcakes in that they have a bit more of a burst of flavor and impart the sweet tangyness of the limoncello.  Here is the recipe below that I settled on in the end:

Sasha's Lemony Limoncello Cupcakes (Batter) (Made 11 cupcakes)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 T homemade limoncello (or store bought)
3 egg whites
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup of milk
1 cup sugar

Lemony Limoncello Curd
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 T limoncello
3 egg yolks
zest of one lemon

Lemony Limoncello Frosting
1 stick of butter
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
2 cups of powdered confectioner's sugar
3 T limoncello
drop of yellow food coloring

To prepare the cupcakes, beat the butter and sugar in the mixer.  Continue beating on medium high, adding the egg whites (save the yolks for the curd) one by one.  Beat in the lemon zest.  Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.  Alternate (while beating on medium) the addition of the dry ingredients and the milk.  Beat in the lemon juice at the end until combined.  Fill your silicon cupcake trays (lined with cupcake liners) about 3/4 of the way full and bake until it comes clean with a toothpick, which took me 35 minutes in my oven.  Allow the cupcakes to cook completely.

To make the curd, combine all of the ingredients over medium heat. Heat, stirring constantly, until a curd forms that is slightly translucent in color.  Top each of the cupcakes with a dollop of curd.  You can also put the curd inside, if you prefer to do it that way.

To make the frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese in the basin of your mixer, on high speed.  Beat in the powdered sugar until combined into a frosting.  Add the limoncello for the flavor, and add a drop of yellow food coloring to add a subtle boost of color.  Beat until combined into a frosting and frost the cupcakes using a fluted tip fit onto a pastry bag.

Sasha's Kitchen: Lemony Limoncello Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Miniature Starry Night Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

My latest recipe for cupcakes should provide some good reading for a snow day.  The snow this morning caught me totally off guard.  I didn't listen to the updated weather forecast and after a entire day of slushy snow that didn't stick well at all, I was surprised at the foot and a half or so of fresh snow on the ground this morning.  Being a Rochester native, who is accustomed to snow, I thought the snow hurricane was just some NYC tough talk when I went to bed last night.  But here I am, home writing about cupcakes on a snow day.

To prepare these cupcakes (which I actually made Tuesday evening), I followed my recipe for chocolate stout cupcakes, both for the frosting and the icing.  I have repeated my recipe below.  If you are making full size cupcakes, follow the recipe exactly.  However, I made two trays of mini-cupcakes using my two new Wilton silicon cupcake trays, another gift from my mom.  Therefore, I cut the recipe in half so I wouldn't have a lot of extra batter.  If you are doing the same, I advise you to also halve the recipe.  The full recipe makes two dozen full size cupcakes.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes (Makes 24 large cupcakes or 48 small cupcakees - so cut in half)
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa (use Droste Dutch chocolate, which is the best on the market)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 bottle or can of chocolate stout or regular stout (I used Guinness in tonight's batch)
1 stick butter (melted)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup non-fat sour cream (because we want to keep our cupcakes healthy. . . yeah right)
1 T vanilla extract


Half Recipe for Sasha's Frosting
2 cups confectioner's sugar
4 oz (half package) cream cheese
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 T honey
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
Add a drop of high-grade professional quality orange food coloring


To prepare the cupcakes, follow my instructions in my post for chocolate stout cupcakes.  In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (the cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt). Then in a separate bowl, I combined the beer with the stick of butter that I had melted first in the microwave. After you do this, the mixture will look absolutely disgusting and may even curdle (mine did). Persevere and don't worry about this, as it will turn out all right in the end. Then add the vanilla and the three eggs, one at a time. Next mix in the sour cream until fully combined. Next, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well.


Fill two mini cupcake trays with the batter.  Bake in an oven preheated to 350 F for about 25 minutes until done (test with a toothpick).  Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting them, or they will melt.  I made the frosting by beating the ingredients in a stand mixer following my instructions in my previous chocolate stout cupcake post.


To decorate the cupcakes, use a spatula or a frosting bag (I used a spatula) to top each cupcake with the frosting.  I used colored fondant that I bought at New York Cake along with star shaped fondant cookie cutters to make purple and orange stars out of fondant to decorate the mini cupcakes.  This was pretty easy - I plan on doing more high-skill, complicated cupcake designs in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.

Sasha's Kitchen: Miniature Starry Night Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

My newest cupcake iteration combines my favorite candy bar, the Butterfinger, into a Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcake.  The chocolate cupcakes were perfect, though I will be the first to admit that the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes are still my favorite.  However, the synthesis of the chocolate Butterfinger cupcake with the perfect peanut butter frosting was the perfect combination.

I've actually only been making cupcakes regularly for about two years now.  In the beginning, I did not have an artisan mixer, so this presented all kinds of problems when I got to the stage of whipping up a good frosting.  In those days a used a hand mixer, which usually resulted in spraying bits of butter and powdered sugar all over the kitchen, including sticking to the wall.  This never pleased the person in charge of cleanup duties  (my loving husband).

A second problem was that I did not have a good cupcake book - the book I started with (which shall remain nameless) was terrible and every cupcake recipe I tried never was worth repeating.  Then, I tried Julie Hassan's book, 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, and immediately every cupcake I made was a huge success.  After a few months of making Julie's amazing cupcakes (with some recipes I will eventually share here), I have started writing my own recipes and coming up with creative and fun ways to decorate the cupcakes.

In her book, Julie has a recipe for candy bar cupcakes using Three Musketeers and Snickers bars.  I don't care for those candy bars, but I wanted to use candy bars to create a chocolate peanut butter classic.  So from there, I went on to devise my own recipe for a candy bar cupcake.

 Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcake With Peanut Butter Frosting

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cups cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cups milk

2 Butterfinger candy bars, crushed into small pieces with a nut chopper

Peanut Butter Frosting

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

pinch salt

2 T milk

If you want a crunch peanut butter frosting, you can mix another Butterfinger bar into the frosting

To make the cupcakes, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add the oil and sugar to the mixer and combine on medium speed.  Then add the vanilla and eggs.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the mix, until fully combined.  Put in silicon cups with cupcake liners and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until done (check with a toothpick).

To make the frosting, beat the butter until soft.  Then combine with the other ingredients and beat at a high speed in your stand mixer until you have a light and fluffy peanut butter frosting.  This stuff tastes amazing, that you almost forget that it's so fattening!

More chocolate cupcakes?  Check out my Red Velvet Cupcakes and my Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

Cupcake

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Butterfinger Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

Sasha's Kitchen: Sushi Cupcakes - Where Art & Food Unite

For tonight's recipe, instead of preparing something focused primarily on taste, my goal was some creative design and aesthetics.  I decided that I wanted to prepare cupcakes that had the look and feel of sushi and sushi maki rolls.  It was an attempt to artistically combine two of my favorite foods - sushi and cupcakes.  I'm not the first baker to attempt to make sushi cupcakes, but I decided to prepare sushi cupcakes using my own original design.  I prepared two types of sushi cupcakes to make my 10 piece Sushi Deluxe: a five piece maki roll (california roll) and 5 pieces of sushi on rice (salmon, tuna, tamago (egg), flying fish roe and shrimp). 

There is a line when food borders on art.  I realize tonight that I have definitely crossed that line.  Art has always been one of my passions - I took AP Art in high school and have always loved painting in acrylic, oil and watercolor - my paintings usually focus on flowers though.  Tonight, I put those painting skills to good use in painting the fish for the sushi cupcakes on rolled fondant, using an array of gel based food colors.  This is the first time I have ever used fondant, as it is more commonly used in creating ornate and elaborate wedding cakes, such as by famed wedding cake designers like Sylvia Weinstock. 

Tonight, I learned from this project that rolled fondant is an incredibly flexible and adaptable medium, which was quite easy to work with and can allow you to do almost anything when it comes to decorating baked goods.  In the future, I plan on creating a decorative cake made out of painted, rolled fondant.

Here's what you will need to make 10 piece Sushi Deluxe Cupcakes:

* 10-12 of your favorite cupcakes (I made a 1/2 batch of red velvet cupcakes, using the recipe I posted last week for Valentine's Day)

* white sprinkles (jimmies) [note - sweetened coconut would be an acceptable alternative]

* orange/red nonpareils for the flying fish roe
* rolled fondant
* gel based food colorings for painting the fondant
* watercolor paintbrushes
* foil cupcake liners
* silicon cupcake tray
* Sasha's signature frosting - click here for the frosting recipe
* optional - cupcake liners that look like sushi - I found that these were not really needed and did not use them in making this recipe

First, bake the cupcakes and allow to cool.  When the cupcakes are done baking, remove the foil liners.  Prepare the frosting, but do not color the frosting, as you are best leaving it white - the same color as rice.  Then frost the top of each of the 10 cupcakes with a spatula (my recipe made 11, but my husband ate one of them . . .)

Dip each of the cupcakes in a bowl with white jimmies.  This will resemble the sushi rice.  As a possiblke alternative, you could use sweetened coconut instead.  To make the tuna, tamago, shrimp and salmon, I rolled out a large piece of fondant using a rolling pin to the desired thickness and painted using my gel-based food colorings (which didn't require too much dilution).  I made bands out of the fondant and painted them black to resemble the seaweed.  Of these fish, I think the shrimp is my favorite.

For the flying fish roe, I added some extra frosting (about a tablespoon) in the middle of the sushi "rice" and dipped that in the red/orange nonpareils.

To make the maki roll - a california roll - I cut small squares out of the fondant, three squares for each of the five cupcakes.  I painted one green, one orange and one black.  I pressed the fondant into the cupcakes.

One of my favorite parts of this project was setting the sushi up for photographs.  My husband proposed to me several years ago, the first time we prepared homemade sushi (of the actual fish variety), so I have quite a few sushi sets we subsequently received as gifts, and used them to present the sushi photographically, with the accompanying chopsticks.

If you are interested in reading my post on how to prepare actual sushi, rather than my offbeat cupcake sushi, click here.

I really enjoyed this project immensely, in part because it was a very art intensive project that allowed me to combine my painting with my food and culinary passions.  I think these cupcakes were not as hard to make as I thought they would be, but came out exaclty as I envisioned.  I hope to do additional baking projects in the future that bring out my artistic side.  Just goes to show that food can and should be treated as an art form, just like painting or sculpture when executed properly.  In addition, I love all the bright colors and the textures of the cupcakes. 

Since starting this blog, tonight's post was one of my favorites both to execute and to write about.  I hope I made Henri Matisse, my favorite artist, proud.

Cupcake

Sasha's Kitchen: Sushi Cupcakes - Where Art & Food Unite

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Stout Honey-Vanilla Frosted Cupcakes

I love making cupcakes. I have made dozens and dozens of cupcakes since receiving my artisan stand mixer as an engagement gift. I have experimented with different flavors of cupcakes and icings, as well as different colors for the icings (from mango to chocolate cherry to coconut to mexican chocolate to vanilla). If there's any food I like, I will put it in a cupcake.

I have always been fascinated with cupcakes since I was a kid - they're cute, sweet and oh so pretty - a little girl's favorite dessert. I have studied various recipes from different cupcake chefs over the last few years (Martha Stewart Julie Hasson and Magnolia Bake Shop in particular).

The problem with many cupcakes is that often times the cupcake itself is overpoweringly rich (especially the case with chocolate cupcakes) or that the frosting is overly sweet so that you can't have more than a bite. What I am striving for is a cupcake that you can eat and enjoy without feeling overpowered by the flavors in the cupcake (note: this does not mean that the cupcake doesn't contain tremendous amounts of butter and sugar).

Who would have thought that the very best cupcake I ever made would involve pouring an entire beer into the cupcake mix? If I told you I made something that required mixing beer, eggs and butter, you would probably laugh at me and tell me how disgusting that sounded. But the truth is, it is the perfect combination for an amazing chocolate cupcake.

With respect to the icing, I always make my own icing recipes at the last minute on the fly - most of the time they work out and this one was a success. For tonight's recipe, I decided to incorporate some honey in the cupcake icing. I read about a different, but really great cupcake recipe on the white house food blog (which I plan on making at some point). What caught my eye was that they have been using a lot of honey in their baking by utilizing the White House beehive. This made be consider incorporating honey into my vanilla icing for the cupcakes.

Just an aside here - the White House Beehive must be a new thing under the Obama administration (along with the well reported on vegetable garden), as I keep getting this image of George Bush accidentally stumbling into the beehive and getting chased by a swarm of angry yellow jackets. I'm sorry, I can't help it. To read more about backyard beekeeping at the White House as a culinary adventure, click here. The foodie focus of the current White House is a current interest of mine that may periodically appear in my articles.

At any rate, below is the recipe for the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes that I prepared today, which makes two dozen of my favorite cupcakes:

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa (use Droste Dutch chocolate, which is the best on the market)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 bottle or can of chocolate stout or regular stout (I used Guinness in tonight's batch)
1 stick butter (melted)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup non-fat sour cream (because we want to keep our cupcakes healthy. . . yeah right)
1 T vanilla extract


Honey Vanilla Icing
1 pound box confectioners sugar
1 8 oz package of cream cheese (I used Temptee cream cheese)
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 T honey
1 stick of unsalted butter

To make the cupcakes, I first combined the dry ingredients (the cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt). Then in a separate bowl, I combined the beer with the stick of butter that I had melted first in the microwave. After you do this, the mixture will look absolutely disgusting and may even curdle (mine did). Persevere and don't worry about this, as it will turn out all right in the end. Then add the vanilla and the three eggs, one at a time. Next mix in the sour cream until fully combined. Next, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well. At this point the batter should look and taste delicious.

Bake the cupcakes about 25 minutes at 350 degrees F after filling about 24 cups 3/4 of the way to the top. I love using silicon cupcake trays, which I line with cupcake liners. These can be purchased almost anywhere, these days, and are an essential addition to the kitchen if any aspiring baker. I registered for both silicon cupcake trays and silicon loaf pans when I got married a few years ago and it has made baking a wonderful experience.

The cupcakes should rise nicely and you can test the inside with a fork or toothpick to make sure they are done. Then allow them to cool completely before frosting them.



The icing recipe is something I whipped up tonight on the spot that worked beautifully with these cupcakes. First I whipped the cream cheese and butter in the mixer until combined. Then I added the entire box (yes, you really do need to use the entire 1 LB box, which I why I don't eat or make cupcakes every day) of confectioner's sugar. Then to thin the cupcakes to make a better tasting, smoother frosting slowly add heavy cream while the mixer is running. I added somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 a cup of heavy cream. Next add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla, and finally 2 tablespoons of honey.

Just a word of caution, while it is generally a lot of fun to use food colorings to dye your cupcake frosting, I chose to leave this one white. First, I think it accents the chocolate cupcakes nicely. Further, if you are using heavy cream, you cannot use conventional food colorings because it will curdle and ruin your icing (I had a bad experience once with curdling purple cream icing). If you must color this particular frosting, you will need to experiment with various oil-based frostings. I tend to limit my use of colors to a more conventional buttercream and cream cheese icings.

These cupcakes were great - the Guinness in the chocolate cupcake is nice but subtle (it won't get you or your kids drunk, as the alcohol is lost in the baking process). The chocolate flavor is therefore less overpowering, which is what I had sought. And it accents nicely with the honey-vanilla icing.

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Stout Honey-Vanilla Frosted Cupcakes