a99kitten's Musings

Ok, next stop on my cupcake tasting experiment!

Today is a grand experiment! I have never baked cupcakes from scratch – no boxed mix! There are no store-bought red velvet cake mixes that I know of (Sprinkles sells one I think though) so I figured go with making something I couldn’t get a mix for anyway. Especially since I won’t attempt chocolate cupcakes from scratch as Dough Boy and Betty do such a GREAT job with their nummy mixes :)

I found this recipe on www.pinchmysalt.com when I was searching for a homemade cream cheese frosting recipe. It seemed easy-ish (knock on wood…) Not toooooo many ingredients or crazy prep work.

My hand mixer is in Tahoe so I will be breaking out the Kitchen Aid countertop mixer that we got as a wedding gift. 10 years ago. And I think this might be the first time I’ve used it :) Excellent maiden voyage (after I clean the layer of dust off of it!!)  :)

Here are the ingredients:

Red Velvet cupcake ingredients

You need to use room temperature eggs and buttermilk (clearly diet cupcakes…) and softened butter so plan that a little early (unlike me who had to wait a while after planning to start!) :)

Had to sift and then re-sift the flour. Between this and the cheese grating from last week, I learned to switch off hands doing it so both the left and the right are equally as sore. I wonder if boys do that too :-0

So you make the red part of red velvet using red dye (I read other ways to do this in other recipes but I like this recipe.) Oh, and..so…red DYE stains your fingers…go figure :)

Red part of recipe

Then you mix, and mix and mix some more of the various bowls of ingredients (the butter/sugar mixture, the flour mixture, the red and cocoa mixture (above) and then the the vinegar and baking soda (science class time – it fizzes!) mixture last.  p.s this mixer was AWESOME. To quote Ferris Bueller “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

Batter up!

Then you fill your cupcake pans using an ice cream scoop.  At first I thought that was goofy but it works great!!

Now you bake for 20 minutes and voila! 24 naked cupcakes!

Naked cupcakes

Now I let them cool for a while (so I could get other chores in the house done!) and then frosted them with the same cream cheese frosting I tested a couple weeks ago, also from www.pinchmysalt.com:\. I used red sprinkles to decorate :)

YUM! - Done!

Storm wanted to help with the cupcakes….

Storm wants to help frost cupcakes..

His argument was that these were not chocolate! I told him we had to use cocoa so no dice..he asked why I didn’t make pupcakes then. Good question!

I just tried one…yum….

Bite!

Would I make them again JUST for me? No..I’d just drive to Sprinkles for a cupcake. But if I needed to bring cupcakes to something, it was someone’s birthday or someone wanted them – yes, they are quite tasty :)

Now I am putting 3 in tupperware for home and the rest into other tupperware to take to the office to make them fat :)

Recipes here: http://pinchmysalt.com/2009/02/04/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/

Yesterday I tried a cupcake from Sugar Butter Flour (Campbell, CA.) I have never been there or tried anything from there  before now and, since I am doing my great cupcake experiment, I wanted to try one :) Was supposed to try Kara’s (at Santana Row) but we forgot in our post-brunch-get-to-the-shopping haze :)

My friend bought 4 cupcakes. 3 of them looked like a homemade version of the historic Hostess Cupcake.

Hostess

The 4th stepchild cupcake looked like a vanilla/whitecake with chocolate frosting. But I did not try that one. I was still so amazingly full from brunch that it seemed like I would be committing a deadly sin (GLUTTON!) by eating more…But…there they were…

SugarButterFlour cupcakes

So I had 1/2 of the Hostess looking one (the officially and aptly named “Chocolate Cupcake”.) My friend kept them in the fridge so they were cold (she had picked them up that morning so they were fresh.) I think this actually helped as the cake was still moist because they were fresh from that morning and the frosting was cold so it seemed more fudgey.  Quite tasty. I would definitely say better than the 2 chocolate flavors I have tried at Sprinkles (have tried the Black & White and Vanilla Milk Chocolate flavors there.)

So I feel I need to try other flavors there (Red Velvet and perhaps the Coconut.) http://www.sugarbutterflour.com/products/Cupcakes.htm

So onto the next place. I am thinking I *might* make some homemade red velvet this weekend! Yikes….:)

I love cupcakes. I have always loved cupcakes. This is not a latching-on of the trendy cupcake fascination there is today (although I like it!) So today I decided to begin my cupcake taste test :) This will be a combination of making my own and trying them at various local places.

My mom used to make homemade cream cheese frosting and it was the only frosting I ever really liked.  One time,  one of my best friend’s got the recipe from my Mom and gave the recipe to the dessert chef at Stars in San Francisco to make my cake for my birthday. I will always remember that!

Since I am in Tahoe, I didn’t want to experiment with homemade cake recipes due to the high altitude.  So today I used Betty Crocker’s Super Moist Butter Recipe Chocolate mix. It’s good. Not the best chocolate cake mix I’ve tried but good. And very soon I AM going to try the red velvet cupcake recipe on www.pinchmysalt.com! I need to compare the red velvety-ness to Sprinkles… (my favorite one of bakeries/cupcakeries so far) :)

I DID make a homemade cream cheese frosting. It is DELICIOUS! Much creamcheesier than the pre-made store ones (which are quite yummy and easy!)  I found several recipes online and chose one from pinchmysalt.com to try as my first homemade experiment.  It is very simple:

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Ingredrients!

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).

Bowl o'frosting

I baked all of my cupcakes, let them all cool and then made the frosting. The frosting is quite simple and quick to make and super delicious. The cupcakes are very yummy :)

Cupcakes!

I’ve sent my husband with plates full over to our neighbors to get them OUT of my house. I packed a Tupperware container with some for the office and I know a couple friends who will probably try them for breakfast tomorrow before we go river rafting :) I will save 2 for me – one for tonight and 1 for tomorrow night.

a perfect dessert...