So, if anyone wants to spend a ton of money on me.
Tiffany’s Cupcake Charm would look very nice on a chain around my neck. Thanks to Shelley for alerting me to the fact that this exists.
So, if anyone wants to spend a ton of money on me.
Tiffany’s Cupcake Charm would look very nice on a chain around my neck. Thanks to Shelley for alerting me to the fact that this exists.
I realized today that I never photographed my strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. They were the 2nd cupcake I baked and were quite delish, although the frosting was waaay too sweet.
Graham cracker crust with strawberry cake topped with strawberry cream cheese icing. Why did I not photograph? I don’t remember it being especially ugly…
I guess I’ll have to make it again so I can document it.
So, today I baked….
Mr Shuck sent me an email last week with Martha Stewart’s recipe for Ginger Molasses cupcakes. Original recipe is here and suggested whipped cream as a topping. I got a can of RediWhip (actually Mr Shuck bought the RediWhip for me) in case the icing didn’t work out. I didn’t want an overly sweet icing, so I hoped the flour/milk recipe icing I had been given recently would work out. Not the most beautiful cupcake I’ve made, but very tasty!
Ginger Molasses with Lemon Icing- Click to enlarge
My version (slightly altered)
Ingredients
To prep the ginger: the original recipe called for minced ginger, but I was not about to mince 9 ounces of fresh ginger, so I put it all in the blender with some water and made a ginger puree. After it was pureed, I strained the pulp out and used the water for the hot water. A problem I experienced is that most of my ginger was of the “older” variety and fibrous, so my cupcakes turned out a bit “hairy”. See photo
"Hairy" ginger- Click to enlarge
Directions:
Icing: (Thanks to Cathy P for sending me her grandmother’s red velvet cake icing recipe and to my aunt for suggesting citrus)
Ingredients:
Directions:
Rating: ♥♥♥, but I think it could be ♥♥♥♥ if I find a way to have less hairy ginger.
I ventured back to The Chocolate Box to have another one of Look’s yummy mini cupcakes. My choices for today: Molasses and Pumpkin. The chick who placed my cupcakes on the plate told me, “Molasses with Ginger Icing.” The chick that rang me up and gave me more details for my public described them as “Molasses-Clove”. I wish I had heard that little extra word “clove” while I was selecting; I’m not a huge fan of cloves.
Molasses Clove and Pumpkin Ginger from Look Cupcake
So that being said. I don’t think anyone is going to be surprised now that I didn’t like this cupcake. In a word: BLEH! It wasn’t just the clove problem, although that was a major contributor. The case the cupcakes are kept in must be refrigerated (or too close to the gelato freezer) as they were COLD. I ate the cupcakes we purchased there previously at home, so they must have had time to defrost. The cake seemed very dry. My companions also tried the cupcake and their reaction was similar. If this means anything; 3 people ate some of this MINI cupcake and there was still some left on the plate. My rating: 1/2 ♥ and it’s verging on wanting to cross the street to avoid it. Even though the clove swirl in the ginger frosting was disgusting, it was pretty.
Cupcake #2: Pumpkin with Ginger icing filled with cinnamon cheesecake. As I reported previously, there was not enough filling in the cupcake to be considered filled, especially considering that the filing didn’t have much flavor to it. (Again, this may be a by-product of being cold.) This cupcake wasn’t dry, but it wasn’t what I would consider “moist”. It did have pumpkin pie flavor and I ate the whole mini cupcake (by myself, even). Rating: ♥♥. I wouldn’t purchase this again.
photos to come…..
I’ve been trying to get a better setup for photographing the cupcakes. There are mini photo studios available, but I didn’t want to spend that much money. So…after a trip to Ikea today, this is what I came up with. Hopefully it will lead to better photos.
Mrs Shuck's cupcake studio- Click to enlarge
On the way home from Ikea, Mr Shuck and I were thinking about cupcakes. I called Yellow Leaf (yes, I do have them in my cell phone) and was intrigued by the Boston Cream that was available today. However, traffic on I-5 was starting to back up, so James suggested we try out the Columbia City Bakery. So, we ended up avoiding traffic, broadening our cupcake horizons, and trying a new restaurant (Tutta Bella, also in Columbia City).
Our cupcake selections: Hazelnut (for me) and Carrot (for Mr Shuck)
Coffee and cupcakes- click to enlarge
Hazelnut: The icing was good: very ganache-y and reminiscent of Nutella®. The cake, on the other hand….very dry. It had nice hazelnut flavor, but was crumbly. Rating: ♥ and 1/2
Hazelnut from Columbia City Bakery: Click to enlarge.
Carrot: Mr Shuck says, “It was fine.” My little taste was dry: not as dry as the hazelnut cupcake, but still dry. The cream cheese icing was not very flavorful either. Rating: ♥♥
Carrot Cupcake from Columbia City Bakery- Click to enlarge.
The bakery was very crowded when we went by. I liked the square cupcakes: different. I also liked their cupcake carriers: upside down plastic cups. I would probably give them another chance…if I’m in the area…which is likely since we LOVED Tutta Bella.
Columbia City cupcake carrier
Chocolate peanut butter- click to enlarge
Mr Shuck has eaten 3 already and has given them ♥♥♥ 1/2.
I used a chocolate cake recipe found on Allrecipes. I was led to this recipe by The Red Deer and I attempted her recipe for Swiss Meringue butter cream, replacing 4 tablespoons of the butter with 4 tablespoons of peanut butter and using meringue powder instead of the egg whites. I realize that I shouldn’t be changing recipes that I have never attempted.
Ingredients:
Unwrapped Reece's cups- click to enlarge
I probably used only 1 cup of milk, instead of 1 1/2 cups. The batter seemed really runny at that point. I was afraid the Reece’s cups would sink if the batter was too thin. It ultimately didn’t matter as they did sink. The 1st problem that I’ve experienced with these cupcakes is that the Reece’s cups have sunk to the bottom and when you try to peel off the cupcake liner, the peanut butter cup comes with it, resulting in a bottom-less cupcake. Maybe I should have chopped up the peanut butter cups. Maybe I should have used foil liners, since they don’t seem to stick as much.
The 2nd problem I had is that the Swiss Meringue butter-cream was too runny. I attempted to use meringue powder instead of egg whites because I never like the taste of meringue I’ve made myself. I put it in the frig for a bit and was able to pipe it after it chilled some. Hopefully, I won’t wake up to icing dripping all over the cupcakes.
We actually stopped by Yellow Leaf YESTERDAY. I didn’t want to seem like the sort of person that would visit 2 cupcake places in one day, but apparently I am. We’ve already established that I have a problem….
Today’s choices: Sweet Potato with Maple/Brown Sugar icing and Strawberry Banana.
The reviews:
Sweet Potato: I am assuming since this is a beige cake and not an orange cake that Yellow Leaf used white sweet potatoes. (An assumption that was confirmed with a quick email to Michael at Yellow Leaf.) I think technically the orange ones are yams. Overall, it was a nice cupcake. It didn’t have any sweet potato or yam taste; It was a basic spice cake. I had to concentrate really hard to taste the “maple” in the icing. Maybe the brown sugar sprinkled over the top interfered. Yellow Leaf’s cupcakes are typically pretty, but this is somewhat boring since it’s all beige. Rating: ♥♥
Strawberry Banana: Strawberry cake filled with banana cream and topped with strawberry and banana icings. The strawberry part of this cupcake was delicious. The cake was very moist and had a “natural” strawberry flavor. There were red specks in the cake and the icing, so I assume real strawberries were used. The banana filling and icing had an artificial banana taste. (I wouldn’t expect real bananas to be used since they might turn brown.) Mr Shuck “really liked it” but it “almost had too much going on”. My rating: ♥♥♥. Mr Shuck’s rating: ♥♥♥ 1/2.
Today is definitely a cupcake sort of day: rainy and cold. We were in need of a little cupcake smile. In search of something new, we ventured to the Chocolate Box to check out Look Cupcake. I had been to the Chocolate Box before to buy truffles or gelato, but I had never tried the mini cupcakes. I found out today that they are supplied by Look Cupcake who are special order only and don’t have their own storefront. These are mini cupcakes and cost $1.50 each at the Chocolate Box.
Our sampling today:
La Nina de Chocolate Diablo: Mexican spiced chocolate cake with Kahlua buttercream frosting filled with a peppery chocolate ganache. I only had a little bite of this as I don’t really like spicy. This was a beautiful cupcake. The cake was very moist. The icing was smooth and buttery like Italian or Swiss Meringue. It did have a kick to it and I felt it in the back of my throat afterward. Mr Shuck said he “wants a big one of these.” He would put it on his favorites’ list if it were larger. The chocolate pink ribbon garnish was also spicy. His rating: ♥♥♥♥
Coconut Praline: Vanilla cake with meringue buttercream dipped in toasted coconut and pralines (candied pecans). It seemed like the pralines might have been salted. I love the mix of salty and sweet. The cake was very moist and had a tiny dab of chocolate ganache in the middle. My rating: ♥♥♥
Chai: All I can say is that it tasted like chai. The cake was a little dry and the appearance overall was very plain. Rating: ♥♥
Lemon Rosemary: This flavor was intriguing to me before I tried it. I thought it was light and refreshing. Mr Shuck thought it was horrible and was tasting it for about 30 minutes after he ate his bite. (Maybe he got a rosemary leaf stuck in his teeth.) My rating: ♥♥. His rating: zero hearts. (He’s shaking his head in disgust as I type this.)
Overall: We’d make a special trip to the Chocolate Box to see what cupcakes Look has provided.
Since I was off (still sick) Mr Shuck and I ventured over to the Alhadef Grill, a restaurant run by the Culinary Arts students at South Seattle Community College. (Great deal, by the way. $20 for upscale lunch for both of us.) Afterwards, we stopped by Bernie’s Pastry Shop, which is run by the Pastry Arts students. We will be returning!
Bernie's Pastry Shop- Click to enlarge.
Selection #1: Not exactly a cupcake, unless you consider it a cheese cupcake. Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake.
Pumpkin Spice Cheese Cake- Click to enlarge
When I opened the container (compostble plastic from Cedar Grove), the scent of pumpkin pie was amazing and the pastry was incredibly cute with the marzipan pumpkin sitting atop. I’m not sure what the straw was made from…it didn’t have a distinctive flavor, but added a bit of texture to the creamy cheesecake. Nutmeg was very apparent, but not overwhelming. Rating: ♥♥♥♥.
Selection #2: Pumpkin Cupcake layered with marshmallow and marscapone cheese, topped with caramel glaze and fleur de sel, and filled (we realized later) with caramel. (Yes, we had a pumpkin extravaganza!)
Pumpkin Cupcake- Click to enlarge
After my experience yesterday with Cupcake Royale’s bitter, overly burnt tasting caramel, I was a bit hesitant to try the caramel on top of this cupcake. The marshmallow layer was a bit rubbery and didn’t “stick” to the other layers, so the cupcake fell apart when I cut into it; this revealed the caramel center.
Click for a better view of the caramel filling
Because the cupcake broke in half, I ended up essentially having 2 different cupcakes: Pumpkin with salted caramel and marshmallow AND pumpkin with marscapone and caramel. Both were delicious. The caramel in this cupcake did not have the burnt flavor of Cupcake Royale’s icing. The salt was AMAZING on the top of the cupcake and was such a contrast to the sweetness of the marshmallow and caramel. As for the bottom of the cupcake: the marscapone was creamy and light and worked well with the caramel, pumpkin and spices. This cupcake just bounced Trophy’s Strawberry Lemonade off the top 5 list. Rating: ♥♥♥♥
Mr Shuck has added this to his top 3 cupcakes, joining my Mocha Truffle cupcake and Cupcake Jones’ What’s Up Doc (carrot). And surprisingly just suggested that we return to the pastry shop on Friday to see what they have!
Extra special info: Our total pastry bill: $4.75. What a bargain!
The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection 