cupcake heaven

I have been searching for the perfect cupcake recipe. So many seem to produce cupcakes that are dry and crumbly. This recipe is adapted from the Crabapple Bakery recipe. And it makes the best cupcakes I have tried so far.

I have also been searching for the perfect buttercream icing recipe, one that is not heavy and icing sugar laden (or falls off the cake when you go to take a bite)...so I tried a buttercream recipe from 'Baking, from my home to yours' by Dorie Greenspan. This has a meringue base so makes an icing that is very light and silky, perfect! It is a bit more time consuming to make but very much worth the effort. The texture of the icing is perfect with the cakes, it literally melts in your mouth.

Vanilla cupcakes

100g butter, softened
1 c castor sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract/paste
1 1/3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c milk

In a cake mixer beat the butter and sugar until very light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time and beat well to combine. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Using a spatula,gently fold in half the flour mix, followed by half the milk. Repeat. Spoon into paper cases and bake at 160-170c for 15 minutes or until they feel spongy when gently touched. Makes 15.

Buttercream

2 egg whites
1/2 c castor sugar
150g butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place egg whites and sugar in a metal bowl that is sitting over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk continuously for around 3 minutes or until the mixture feels hot to touch. (I used an electric beater). Remove from the heat and keep beating for another 5 minutes or until the mixture is cool. Transfer to a cake mixer with the paddle attached. Mix on medium speed, gradually incorporating the butter. Beat for another 8 minutes or until icing is thick and smooth. Add lemon juice and vanilla to taste, icing is ready to use immediately.




The crumb of these cakes is very moist and soft and not at all dry - which a lot of cupcakes seem to be. You can see the Heilala vanilla paste I used in the cake batter which has the seeds through it, which looks good and gives the cupcakes a beautiful concentrated vanilla flavour. The quality of the vanilla would make a huge difference to the taste of cupcakes, as they are quite plain, so I would only make them using proper extract or paste.

WILD about cupcakes

Well last weekend Hokitika played host to the annual Wildfoods Festival. Being a newcomer to town I thought it a good opportunity to try selling some wares. Not wanting to tread the well trod carnivorous track I settled on cupcakes. With a few mildly wild additions of course...

Chocolate and Wild berry (blackberries painfully plucked from local bushes), Banana, Baileys and Bush honey, Wild Lavender and Lemon (culinary lavender courtesy of Delphi), Orange, Almond and Marigold, and little babycakes adorned with 'snails' and 'ladybugs' of the confectioners as opposed to garden variety. Oh and some Carrot and coconut for the most timid of punters. As predicted the tried and true chocolate and banana cupcakes were the hot favourites but there was a surprising amount of interest in the Lavender and Lemon.

We shared a stall with the 'Richard from Westport, Braveheart and Spiderboy' trio who were peddling champagne of the non alcoholic sort in rhubarb and elderflower flavours. Delightful, and a suitably ladylike accompaniment to a (mildly) wild cupcake.

Wild about cupcakes shut up shop at lunchtime, the cake stands thankfully bare before things took a turn for the wilder...