March « 2011 « Cupcake Faktory

Monthly Archives: March 2011

Mar 27 2011

Jamaican Punch

by Virginie

This week I made birthday cupcakes! The IT guys at work usually do a birthday lunch when its one of their birthdays and they usually buy a cake. This time, they asked me if I would make cupcakes instead. So this week I got my first paying baking gig! Woo! The birthday guy is originally from Jamaica, so they asked for a flavour that would relate to that. I did a bit of research online to find fruits that come from there and came up with a combination of 4 fruits: passion fruit, pomegranate, papaya and mango. I call it Jamaican Punch. Here is the recipe for 16 cupcakes:

cake:
- 1 1/2 cup of passion fruit juice
- 1 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice
- 1 1/2 cup of papaya juice
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup of cream
- 1/2 cup of milk

method:
- boil each juice until they are reduced down to syrup
- preheat the oven to 350
- beat the butter until it is light and fluffy
- add the sugar and beat thoroughly
- add the eggs one at a time and beat in between each addition, then beat on high for 30 seconds
- sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and combine with the butter/sugar mix
- add the cream and milk and combine until smooth
- separate the dough in three bowls
- add a different syrup to each third and combine
- line a cupcake pan with paper cups
- put a scoop of the passion fruit dough in each paper cup, then the pomegranate dough and finally the papaya dough on top to get a lovely layered cake
- bake for 20 minutes

icing:
- 3 egg whites
- 165g of sugar
- 1 1/4 cup of butter cut in 1 inch cubes
- 1 mango (the small yellow kind)

method:
- combine the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler
- whisk a little until all the sugar is melted away
- take off the double boiler and beat on high until cooled and turned into a firm meringue, touch the bottom of the bowl to make sure its at least body temperature
- add the butter one cube at a time while beating on a lower speed
- beat on high until you get a nice fluffy texture (it will turn to a cottage cheese kind of texture about half way through, just keep beating)
- puree the mango and combine it to the icing

Since I made these cupcakes on Thursday, I thought I’d try to bake something different this weekend. I went for scones. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at scones for sometime now and I’m really glad I did. I love kneading dough. I feel so connected to the food when I work it directly with my hands. I took the recipe for these lemon scones from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.

Enjoy :)

Categories: Fruits | 3 Comments »

Mar 20 2011

White chocolate and matcha green tea

by Virginie

This week’s cupcakes have a bit of a story with them. The earth quake and tsunami that happened in Japan recently is a real tragedy. A few of my colleagues are Japanese and one of them has baked everyday last week. She baked simple cookies to traditional Japanese dessert. She brought her baked goods into the studio to collected donations for her to give directly to the Japanese Red Cross. I offered up this week’s cupcakes to help her collect more donations. (You can also donate online on the Red Cross website.) I tried to find an appropriate flavour and went with white chocolate and matcha green tea with fondant decorations on top. Here is the recipe for 18 cupcakes:

cake:
-100g of white chocolate
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 1/3 cup of cream
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp of almond extract
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup of cream
- 1/3 cup of milk

method:
- put the white chocolate in a bowl
- bring the milk and cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate
- let sit for 5 minutes and whisk together
- preheat the oven to 350
- beat the butter until it is light and fluffy
- add the sugar and beat thoroughly
- add the eggs one at a time and beat in between each addition, then beat on high for 30 seconds
- sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and combine with the butter/sugar mix
- add the chocolate and combine
- add the cream and milk and combine until smooth
- line a cupcake pan with paper cups
- bake for 20 minutes

icing:
- 3 egg whites
- 165g of sugar
- 1 1/4 cup of butter cut in 1 inch cubes
- 1 tbs + 1 tsp of matcha green tea

Enjoy!

Categories: Chocolate, other sweet flavors | 5 Comments »

Mar 13 2011

Guinness and chocolate

by Virginie

This Thursday is St-Patrick’s day! I thought it was the perfect occasion to try Guinness and chocolate cupcakes! I took the recipe for the cake from Design*Sponge, a lovely design blog. I found the recipe was very easy and quick to make. Its very good on top of it too. The cake recipe makes about 22 to 24 cupcakes and are ready after 20 minutes in the oven. I replaced the cream cheese icing by a simple vanilla italian buttercream. I thought it would make it a bit lighter. I decorated the cupcakes with a fondant shamrock to make them even more appropriate to the upcoming St-Patrick’s day festivities.

Enjoy :)

Categories: alcohol, Chocolate | 5 Comments »

Mar 8 2011

Chocolate and peanut butter

by Virginie

This week’s flavour is chocolate and peanut butter! A classic inspired by Reese’s peanut butter cups. I had this on my list of flavours to try for a while now and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out! The icing might be a bit too sweet and stiff so I suggested to put less sugar then I did in my recipe below. The recipe also gives a lot of the filling, but if you don’t use it all in your cupcakes you can always spread it on your morning toast when you run out of the healthy stuff you usually put on them. I know that’s what I’ll be doing anyway. Maybe I won’t even wait for my healthy option to run out. Maybe I’ll put some on my toast tomorrow morning.

Here’s the recipe for 16 cupcakes:

cake:
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 1/3 cup of cream
- 100g of dark chocolate
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 2 tbs of cocoa powder
- 2 tbs of milk

method:
- put the dark chocolate in a bowl
- bring the milk and cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate
- let sit for 5 minutes and whisk together
- preheat the oven to 350
- beat the butter until it is light and fluffy
- add the sugar and beat thoroughly
- add the eggs one at a time and beat in between each addition, then beat on high for 30 seconds
- sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together and combine half with the butter/sugar mix
- add the chocolate and combine
- add the other half of the flour and combine again
- add the milk and combine until smooth
- line a cupcake pan with paper cups
- bake for 22 minutes

filling:
- 150g of milk chocolate
- 1 cup of peanut butter

method:
- in a double boiler, melt the milk chocolate and peanut butter together until smooth
- put in the fridge while you make the icing

icing:
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 3/4 cup of peanut butter
- 3 cups of powdered sugar (could’ve put only 2 1/2, try it and if its too smooth for you liking add another half cup)
- 2 tbs of milk

method:
- beat the butter until it is light and fluffy
- add the peanut butter and beat until combined, light and fluffy
- sift the powdered sugar and beat
- add the milk and beat until smooth

Enjoy :)

Categories: Chocolate, Nuts | 2 Comments »