The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

Author Archives: MLea

• 1st trip to Dahlia Bakery will not be the last

  Posted at 8:52 pm by MLea

  Nov 4th

  We visited Dahlia Bakery today after a wonderful lunch at Dahlia Lounge. They only had 2 different cupcake flavors so deciding was easy!  I took one of each!

  Malted Cupcake with Chocolate Flake Butter cream: Silky (meringue?) butter cream with flakes of bittersweet chocolate topping a moist dark chocolate cupcake.   Neither the cake nor the icing was overly sweet and a definite malted milk flavor to the icing.  Very good.  Rating:  ♥♥ 1/2

  Caramel Popcorn Cupcake: This has knocked something off the top 5 list….I’m going to have to ponder for a bit to decide my new favorites.  Incredible!  The silky icing tasted exactly like caramel-covered popcorn; it was sweet and a bit salty.  There was a bit of texture to it which seemed like maybe ground up popcorn.  The cupcake itself was a sweet cornmeal cupcake with rich corn flavor.   I wish I had bought more than one.  Rating: ♥♥♥♥  Update 11/23:  Confirmed from Dahlia bakery that there is indeed pureed caramel corn in the frosting.  The caramel corn is made in house.

  

  

  Malted Cupcake from Dahlia Bakery- click to enlarge

  

  Caramel Popcorn from Dahlia Bakery- Click to enlarge

  
  
  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged caramel popcorn, chocolate malt, Dahlia Bakery

• Cheesecake Factory Cupcake @ Barnes and Noble

  Posted at 4:49 pm by MLea

  Nov 3rd

  Betsy at work gave me a coupon for a free cupcake (with purchase) from the Barnes and Noble cafe, so I ventured to University Village today to check it out.  Apparently they are provided by the Cheesecake Factory.  I was having a skinny vanilla latte, so I decided to take the all vanilla route and ordered a vanilla cupcake.  (The other options were Chocolate Fudge and Red Velvet.)

  

  Cheesecake Factory Vanilla

  Maybe my cupcake taste is becoming a little too snooty, but this is another one that I didn’t finish.  The butter cream icing was horrible: grainy, overly sweet and with an odd artificial taste.  The cake was fairly moist and vanilla-y, but also tasted a bit off.   I ate 2 bites probably and left the rest on my plate.  I’m glad I didn’t pay for this.  Rating: ♥

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged Cheesecake Factory, vanilla

• Reattempting Strawberry Cheesecake

  Posted at 9:52 pm by MLea

  Nov 2nd

  So today I made Strawberry Cheesecake cupcakes for the second time.   I wanted to see if I could make any flavored variation of the cooked flour frosting.  That was a bit scary since I had no idea how it would turn out or if it would stay put on the cupcake overnight.    I couldn’t remember what recipe I used last time for the cake, so I just used one on Martha Stewart.com.

  Crust:  All I had in the house was some vanilla wafers.  I forgot to get graham crackers at the store, so I made do.  I crushed up 15 wafers and added about 2 tablespoons melted mutter, then mixed well.   I placed about 1 tablespoonful in each cupcake liner, then smushed it down with a juice glass sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake at 350 for 5 minutes.

  

  Vanilla wafter crumbs for crust- click to enlarge

  Add the batter on top of the crust and cook as directed.

  

  Strawberry Cupcakes- click to enlarge

  Frosting:  Will it work?

  • 1/4 cup strawberry puree
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 5 tablespoons flour
  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar (I used superfine)

  Add the strawberry puree to the milk.  Mix a little of the milk mixture with some flour in a jar and shake well to blend.  Add to a saucepan over medium heat.  Rinse the jar out with the rest of the milk mixture and slowly add to the pan.  Whisk to blend.    Heat until thickened.  Remove from heat, place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so until cooled.

  Cream together butter and cream cheese.  Add sugar and whip at medium high speed until light and fluffy (about 6 minutes).  Add the cooled flour mixture and whip until uniform and fluffy.   Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

  

  Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake- Click to enlarge.

  When I next make this cupcake, I will use only cream cheese in the icing.  This version of the icing was very good: not too sweet, very creamy, stayed attractive through the next day.  However, more cream cheese flavor would be better for a “cheesecake” flavored cupcake.   Overall, I love this icing.  It’s creamy and soft and not overly sweet.  I’ll have to experiment more with flavors, but I would imagine, I could substitute any other fruit puree for the strawberries.

  The cake was good, but the strawberry flavor was a little too subtle.   I will use more strawberry puree next time.

  Rating for this version:  ♥♥♥.  (Mr Shuck agrees.)

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged strawberry cheesecake

• Another gift idea for Mrs Shuck

  Posted at 7:34 pm by MLea

  Oct 31st

  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.

  Posted in Cupcake Stuff! | Tagged jewelry

• Strawberry Cheesecake where are you?

  Posted at 7:30 pm by MLea

  Oct 30th

  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.

   

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations

• Ginger Molasses Cupcakes with Fluffy Lemon Icing from Mrs Shuck

  Posted at 9:49 pm by MLea

  Oct 27th

  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

  • 3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoon(s) baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon(s) salt
  • 8 ounce(s) (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted (I actually just softened it in the microwave, but not all the way to melted)
  • 1 1/2 cup(s) sugar
  • 1/3 cup(s) unsulfured molasses (I used Jack Rabbit, full flavored.  The original called for 2/3 cup, but batter smelled very molasses-y after 1/3 cup, so I stopped and added more hot water instead: 2/3 cup instead of 1/3 cup)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup(s) hot ginger water  (see note in instructions)
  • 2 piece(s) (6-inch, 4 1/2-ounces each) fresh ginger, peeled and pureed

  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:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add molasses. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
  2. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with hot water and ending with dry ingredients. (I didn’t end up with dry ingredients.  Oops!)  Stir minced ginger into batter. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.
  3. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

  Icing:  (Thanks to Cathy P for sending me her grandmother’s red velvet cake icing recipe and to my aunt for suggesting citrus)

  Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 pound butter (softened)
  • 1 cup sugar (granulated)
  • Lemonade flavor Crystal Light® to taste (this is the only “citrus” I had in the house, next time I will use lemon zest/juice)

  Directions:

  1. In a sauce pan, add enough milk to the flour to make a smooth paste.  Slowly heat and gradually add the rest of the milk, whisking constantly, until all the milk is added and mixture is smooth.  Heat over medium heat until mixture is thickened (like gravy).  Let cool completely.  (This will lump up a bit as it cools, I re-whisked it before adding it in the next steps.)
  2. Whip butter until creamy.  Add sugar and beat at medium speed for 6 minutes, until fluffy.
  3. Add cooled flour/milk mixture and beat until fluffy.  (Original recipe warned to not overbeat.  I don’t know what happens or how you know if you’ve over beaten.)
  4. Add lemonade mix a bit at a time until lemony enough and not too lemony.
  5. Put on cupcakes and munch away!

  Rating:  ♥♥♥, but I think it could be ♥♥♥♥ if I find a way to have less hairy ginger.

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged ginger, Lemon, molasses

• A Second Look at Look (Cupcakes)

  Posted at 6:18 pm by MLea

  Oct 26th

  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…..

  Posted in Look Cupcake | Tagged clove, molasses, pumpkin

• Preparations for a cupcake review

  Posted at 6:37 pm by MLea

  Oct 24th

  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

  Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged photo studio

• Columbia City Bakery

  Posted at 6:01 pm by MLea

  Oct 24th

  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

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged carrot cake, hazelnut

• Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes by Mrs Shuck

  Posted at 8:03 pm by MLea

  Oct 18th
  

  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:

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • Reece’s miniature peanut butter cups (the ones wrapped in foil)

  

  Unwrapped Reece's cups- click to enlarge

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare cupcake liners in pans.
  2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk. Once all of the ingredients have been incorporated, mix on high speed of an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared cupcake tins then drop a Reece’s miniature into each one..
  3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

  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.

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged chocolate, peanut butter

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