Oktoberfest Cupcakes... and welcome to Blogger!

So... what are we doing here??  Lately, I have been feeling way too long winded for Tumblr... its a great site, and I really love the photo-blogging trend it has inspired... But to me, food is love and when I love something I need to talk about it!  So I have decided to extend my reach into the interwebs once again and join Blogger - Welcome!  Please continue to visit my Tumlbr page at adventuresincupcakery.tumblr.com for additional photos and my first few cupcake adventures (which I copied here).  Anyway, enough accounting.  On to the good stuff: cupcakes!   

It’s fall, and you know what that means… Oktoberfest of course! (What, you thought I was going to say pumpkin? pshaw) In case you grew up directly beneath a large boulder, Oktoberfest is a 16 day celebration of beer held in Munich, Germany that has been lovingly adopted by malt and hops enthusiasts across the globe… Myself included.  In honor of this haze-inducing holiday, I have baked!

Oktoberfest Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

For these cupcakes, I recommend using an Oktoberfest beer that has a good beer flavor - nothing too malty, the beer taste won't come through once they're baked.  I used Heavy Seas Marzen - delicious to drink and great for baking!  I poured out the beer and let it sit for a little while before I baked it to release some of the fizziness... but not too much!  

1 cup Oktoberfest beer
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each allspice, nutmeg, cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill 12-cup cupcake tin with liners.
Mix together the first 5 ingredients until sugar dissolved and frothy.  Sift in the remaining ingredients and mix until combined and there are no lumps.  Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way (it works out to a tiny bit more.. just use all your batter and make them even).  Bake 18-20 minutes.  Drink the rest of your beer.  Let cool before frosting.

Yum!!

These came out delicious!!  You smell the beer as soon as you peel off the liner, and they have a great sweetness and spice.  Also, you get the beer flavor, but not too much - yumerlicious!

I confess, the frosting on the cupcakes in the picture was my attempt at a brown sugar frosting which I thought would have been a great pairing with the cupcake.  Unfortunately, I tried veganizing this recipe and it didn't quite work out as planned.. I think either my margarine was too soft or I messed up the roux or there was just too much liquid - the frosting refused to hold together - but it tasted delicious! I will try it again and make it perfect :)  I recommend a simple vanilla buttercream anyway - I made them this weekend and it was great!  The frosting tasted good but didn't compete with the beer flavor or the cupcake... so we will have to find something else to top with the brown sugar frosting - I guess I will have to make more cupcakes!  Will the atrocities I endure never end??

Thank you to my beer geek husband and my friends at Growler and Gill for inspiring beer-baked-goods!  Also, they will be selling these cupcakes at their Grand Opening celebration next weekend!  With the delicious vanilla frosting of course...  I'm so excited!!  I will definitely bake those batches with some extra love... Get 'em while they're hot!  (Obviously they'll be cooled by the time you buy them... its just an expression...) 

Rosh Hashanah Cupcakes

Applesauce Cupcakes with Agave-Caramel and Sauteed Apples

Hello and Happy New Year!  So… yes, I know when Rosh Hashanah is and I know that it passed… but that’s ok - cupcakes are good anytime!  Plus, you could make these for Sukkot!  These are very fresh and slightly sweet and could almost pass for a breakfast cupcake.  If you want to amp up the dessert-factor I have suggestions below… These were enjoyed at our Rosh Hashanah table, but they did come in second to the beautiful homemade apple pie that we had, so you might want to consider increasing the wow-factor depending on your competition.

Applesauce Cupcakes
3/4 cup soymilk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350º and line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Combine soy milk and apple cider, mix until frothy and set aside.  In a large bowl, combine canola oil, applesauce, sugar and vanilla then add the soy milk.  Mix until well combined.  Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Let sit 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
While the cupcakes are baking, make the caramel sauce and saute the apples.
Agave Caramel Sauce
1/4 cup soy creamer
1 cup agave
2 Tbsp margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan, heat and let bubble 10-15 minutes.  Reduce the heat and keep warm, stirring frequently until ready to use.  This sauce will not thicken, but it will get a beautiful dark amber color and smell like delicious caramel.
Sauteed Apples
2 medium apples
1 Tbsp margarine
Heat margarine in a non-stick saute pan, add apple, heat until softened, about 10 minutes.

To assemble: Place apples on top of the cupcakes, drizzle the caramel sauce over the top of each cupcake.  You can add more or less sauce depending on how sweet you want these to be.

Suggestions to make these totally awesome:Alas, the creation of our delicious Rosh Hashanah feast got in the way of making these cupcakes a true new-year masterpiece.  Here’s what I would have done…
Saute the apples with the margarine, some brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until caramelized and delicious.  When cupcakes are cooled, slice off all or most of the top.  Spoon apples inside the cupcake, top with the caramel sauce, really letting it soak into the cake. Then, replace the cake top and pipe on some cinnamon-cream cheese frosting.  Finish with some more caramel or just a drizzle of straight agave, or maybe some leftover syrup created by the apples…  Eat and enjoy - don’t worry - get that syrupy goodness all over yourself.  Its worth it.

Chocolate Eclair Cupcakes (that need a better name…)

Last weekend, my handsome husband and I had a friend over for dinner… Even though I love to entertain, we don’t do this very often b/c our house is usually a mess. Not dirty, just messy… like, Stuff. Everywhere. All the time. Its a constant work in progress for us to keep this under control, but we’re going on 2 weeks successful - hooray! So, I made a nice dinner: homemade kalamata olive bread with eggplant spread, then baked tofu with blueberry-chipotle bbq sauce (from theppk.com… are you noticing a trend of who my favorite chef might be?), corn on the cob w/ cilantro-lime vegan butter and kale-avocado salad… OMG - everything was so good, I’m even talking about it on my cupcake blog! For dessert, fresh peaches with homemade coconut whipped cream… YUMMERS!!
Why am I telling you this? Because I had A TON of coconut cream left… Ok, not an actual ton, but a whole hell of a lot! And I needed to do something with it. So, for lack of a better name, the chocolate eclair cupcake was born! I started with the basic vanilla cupcake from… you guessed it! Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Once they were cool I cut out the middles and filled them with the coconut cream, and replaced the tops.

Then I topped it with some melted chocolate… It was delicious!

Ready for topping!


The chocolate was super chocolatey and then the cream added this nice coolness… ah-mazing.  The coconut cream actually does not have a coconut flavor at all, its just a nice whipped-creamy delight.
Vegan coconut whipped cream
2 cans full-fat coconut milk
2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp vanilla
Chill coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight.  When ready, open cans and scoop out the solid coconut fat.  You don’t need the liquid part, you can reserve that for something else - or drink it!  Its delicious.  Using a hand mixer, whip the coconut cream until light and fluffy.  Sift in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, tasting for sweetness as you go.  Make sure to fully incorporate the sugar each time so everything stays nice and creamy.  Once its sweet enough, add the tapioca flour and vanilla and whip again until super smooth, creamy and fluffy.  Enjoy on all kinds of stuff!  This recipe makes way more than you will need for cupcakes… so you can eat it with some fresh fruit, or just right off the spoon…
Chocolatey Cupcake Topping
1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup chocolate chips
dash agave syrup
Heat soy milk in a saucepan over medium heat - careful!  Do not let it boil.  Mix in chocolate chips and agave, and remove from heat as soon as the chocolate is mostly melted.  Continue to mix until smooth.  Let cool, mixing occasionally, to almost room temperature before topping cupcakes - you don’t want the chocolate to melt your whipped cream into a soupy mess.  Enjoy!  This is another thing that is delicious right off the spoon… Its also good if you dip a peanut butter Newman O in it… just sayin’.



The money shot

The next morning… Hello breakfast!

Peaches and Basil - in a cupcake?? Hell yes…

In anticipation of these cupcakes, I bought a package of vegan cream cheese.  Once my husband saw it in the fridge, he started talking about homemade jalapeno poppers, and I knew I had to move fast!  So I didn’t waste any time making Peach Pie Cupcakes w/ Basil Cream Cheese Frosting.

First, I sliced up some sad looking peaches in my fridge that were begging to be rescued from their current state of deterioration.  This part was for the filling.  I put them in a saucepan over medium heat w/ a little water and some agave syrup and heated until they were nice and soft.  Then I pureed them and set them aside.  Really for the filling I wanted a peach-compote type of thing, but like I said, rush, rush rush!  So I rough-chopped them to get them in the pan, and then once they were cooked, I was really only left w/ one option.  It actually worked very nicely once inside the cupcake though…
Next - I made the standard vanilla cupcake again from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.  Its always a winner.  I promise I will start experimenting with my own cupcake recipes soon!
Last - I made the frosting… I started with 1/4 cup cream cheese and 1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening, then sifted in 2-3 cups confectioner’s sugar (I always go 1 cup at a time and then taste for sweetness) and added 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.  Then it was time to add the basil… I took some frosting, put it in my blender with 5-7 basil leaves, and… nothing!  It just whirred around and nothing happened.  I was not prepared for this, and I really didn’t have any ideas for how else to get this basil in my frosting!  So I just chopped it up a little smaller than chiffonade and threw it right in.  It worked pretty well - when I first tasted it, the texture of the basil in the frosting was a little weird.  But by the next day it had softened enough that I didn’t even notice it - but the flavor was awesome!  I probably ended up adding about 10-15 basil leaves and it tasted amazing!
Then I filled the cupcakes with my peach puree, and topped with the basil frosting - YUM!  Gourmet cupcake goodness at its best.  I shared it with my trusty tasters (ie: husband, Mom) and it was agreed!  A vegan delight!

Are you drooling yet??



I used up all the frosting!  Ok… I might have squirted some into my mouth right out of the piping bag… don’t judge me!  The professionals do it all the time…

Pink fluffy goodness makes me smile

Whew!  What a week… I was so excited for my first cupcake adventure, I couldn’t wait until Thursday!  Like 90% of America I am usually counting the minutes until 5 PM on Friday, but this week Thursday night held the coveted spot at the end of my countdown.  I have cupcake fever.  After getting home from work, eating dinner, then running back out because I realized I needed more powdered sugar (which as it turned out I did not need - of course, isn’t that always how it goes?), I was ready to bake!


I had a plan: for Neapolitan Cupcakes I wanted a layered cupcake, so it would look just the like the ice cream - a chocolate than vanilla layered cupcake with strawberry “butter”cream frosting.

First, I cut up some strawberries and put them in a saucepan over medium heat with a little water and a good squeeze of agave syrup.  I didn’t really measure anything here… I figured on about 1/4 cup strawberry puree for the frosting, so I just eyeballed what looked like enough.  I knew I wouldn’t need a lot of agave b/c buttercream has enough sugar already… so i just put in a little to make everything happy.

Next I made 2 batters - one vanilla and one chocolate.  In future adventures I am going to attempt all my own recipes, but I figured, its the first one!  I need to pace myself, right?  No need to start off sprinting… so I used my favorite cupcake recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (do you have this book?  If not, you need to get it, it is redonculous).  Luckily, they both have mostly the same ingredients (except one has cocoa powder and one doesn’t - duh!) so I just made the batters simultaneously side-by-side.  I filled the cupcake liners, first with the chocolate batter and then with the vanilla.  This was the hard part b/c they all have to be even - but I just eyeballed it and it worked pretty well - it was messy though!  I am definitely going to invest in a batter dispenser soon…


And now for my favorite part!  Into the oven goes some batter, out comes beautifully formed and perfectly moist cupcake nirvana!  Well, hopefully… 350 degrees for 22 minutes - I think I turned on my oven light at least 10 times to see how my creations were doing.  And finally they were done!

There was some mixing of the batters which is not what I planned, but they baked up nicely.   And, they had a great layered look looking from the side.



While the cupcakes were cooling - onto the frosting!  Sometime during my batter mixing the strawberries cooked up and softened, so I turned off the heat and left them there to cool.  Once the cupcakes were in the oven, the strawberries were room temperature and easy to work with.  I pureed them in my Ninja and then strained out the seeds.  It was an awesome red color and tasted fantastic!  I used my own recipe for the frosting.  The instructions are for a standing mixer, but you could easily use a handheld:
Scrumptious Strawberry Frosting
1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
2 1/2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/3 cup strawberry puree
Put the shortening in the bowl of a standing mixture and mix until smooth.  Sift in the sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing until smooth in between. Make sure to scrape the bowl a couple times also, especially the bottom. After the first 2 cups, taste for sweetness and continue to add sugar as needed.  Once mixed, add the vanilla and 1/4 cup strawberry puree - mix until fully incorporated.  If you think the frosting needs a little more moisture, or a pinker color, or more strawberry flavor, or all three, add the rest of the puree and mix 2 minutes on high until smooth and fluffy. 


Of course, when I went to make the frosting, I realized that what I needed was shortening (not powdered sugar like I thought), and I only had about 3/4 cup. I just adjusted down the rest of the ingredients and it tasted delcious.  After piping on the frosting I ran out before I finished all the cupcakes, so I just spread it on the last of them - crisis averted!




The inside was not what I expected at all! But that’s cool… and they tasted delicious!!  The cake was perfect and fluffy, and I could taste vanilla, chocolate and strawberry in every bite!  Some wonderful vegan goodness - it was a tantalizing treat for my tastebuds for sure.  1st cupcake adventure = success!

Yummers!  If heaven has a cupcake bakery, these are made there for sure.

(original post at adventuresincupcakery.tumblr.com)