Banana Caramel Cake in Phyllo Cups

In January this year, I was challenged to make a cupcake combining the 3 flavors of banana, caramel and phyllo dough. Certainly not a bad combo of flavors to be coerced into working with. The reason for the delay being the challenger of this flavor combo is not someone I see often, so am only now getting the opportunity to accept the request.

On another side note of importance, I have succumbed to the pressures of the many food bloggers out there, all with their pretty food pictures, and finally invested in a DSLR. And if the absolute joy in I felt in taking this evening's pictures is evidence, I think it may have been a good decision. If you're keeping tabs, it is a Canon Rebel T2i. I'd take a picture of it, but that would not only be tricky, requiring mirrors or something, but also a little "chicken or the egg" for me.

Anyway, back to cupcakes. Aside from them looking rather dashing, I wasn't wrong about the flavor combo being delectable. I tried a new banana cupcake batter this time (which, oh by the way has rum in it - yum), and whipped up some homemade caramel sauce for the occasion. Which if I haven't mentioned before, is pretty freaking easy and completely delicious, so why would you ever bother buying it?

Caramel Sauce
I've tried many variations of this before, and think I've landed on my favorite. Taken mostly from Simply Recipes (frankly, you might as well check out her instructions because she goes into way more detail and includes safety tips - I just leave you to your own devices!):

• 1 cup sugar
• 6 tbs butter, but into pieces
• 1/2 cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

First off, do have all your ingredients ready to go before you start. In a heavy 2-3 quart pot, melt sugar over low to medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Once sugar has melted, it will be begin to darken into an amber color. This is where you get to choose how rich you want your sauce. Be careful to not let it burn though. Once it reaches the optimal caramel color, removed from heat and add in butter. It will foam up a bit. Whisk until smoother, then add in cream. This will really bubble up, and seize. Just work through it and keep whisking until it comes together. Let cool for a bit, then transfer to a glass jar or container to continue cooling.

Phyllo Cups
Melt 1/2 cup of butter in a small dish. Unroll one log of phyllo dough, placing one sheet upon a work surface (cutting board or cookie sheet will do), and brushing it all over with some of the melted butter. Add another sheet on top, and repeat the process so that you have about 5-6 layers of phyllo. Cut dough into squares that are roughly 2-3 inches wider than the cavities of a muffin tin. Or bigger, or smaller, or wider, or longer - whatever you think will look good. mold each square patch of phyllo into the cavities of every other hole of the muffin tin. Mine was overlapping a bit, so I didn't want to have issues with the phyllo getting stuck in cake batter or something like that, so just kept the spacing between them to be safe. I did have to repeat with another batch of 6 sheets of phyllo, but didn't end up using the entire log of dough.

Once the tins are prepped (I made 3 tins based on the amount of batter and layout mentioned above), make cupcake batter.

Banana Cupcakes
Stolen almost completely from Baking Obsession
2 cups flour

¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups banana puree (about 3 large bananas)
½ cup sour cream (I forgot to buy some, so used milk with a 1/2 tsp of white vinegar mixed in)
2 tbsp dark rum
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350˚

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, soda, powder and salt and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream (or milk), rum and vanilla and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add in both sugars and beat until creamy, scraping down sides of the bowl at least once. Add eggs one at a time until incorporated.

In batches, mix in 1/3 flour mixture, then 1/2 liquid, flour, then liquid then flour until incorporated. Fold in banana puree.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill phyllo cups with dough and bake for 20 minutes. Phyllo should get nice a crispy in that time. Rotate pans halfway through if one side is getting browner than the other.

Let cupcakes cool while you make the frosting.

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Can't have Banana cupcakes without some kind of cream cheese frosting.

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 tbs caramel sauce

Beat butter until creamy, then add in cream cheese and beat together, scraping down sides of the bowl at least once. Gradually add powdered sugar until mix gets thick and creamy, scraping down sides of the bowl still. Beat in caramel until smooth. Texture will probably be on the softer side, but isn't exactly runny. If you want a firmer frosting, reduce cream cheese quantity and bump up the butter a bit.

Top cupcakes with frosting, then swirl in caramel sauce on top. I attempted to fill a cupcake with caramel too, but it seemed like a bit too much. Maybe I was wrong and it would be insanely delicious. Give it a shot. Surely you could garnish these cupcakes with slices of ripe banana as well. I was too in love with the swirly pattern to let it be obstructed by anything.



I hope I win the challenge!

Arnold Palmer Cupcakes

While sipping on some ice tea this weekend, it occurred to me I hadn't ever tried making a tea cupcake before. I've thought extensively about making an Earl Grey flavor, cuz it's just the best tea ever ("Tea, Early Grey, Hot" of course), but still haven't gotten around to it.

But it is pretty much summer now, and that means iced tea is in order. While I enjoy my iced tea simply and unadorned, an Arnold Palmer is quite a refreshing twist, and a great excuse to use up some lemons I've been neglecting.

I didn't stray far from a traditional vanilla cupcake recipe, and probably could have used a higher concentration of tea to balance out the lemon (maybe seep 2 or 3 if you want the tea flavor to pop), but I think otherwise they came out quite tasty.

Black Tea Cupcake with Lemon Zest
1/3 c + 1 tsb milk
1 bag black tea
6 tbs butter, room temperature
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350˚.

Line cupcake tin with 10-12 liners.

In small saucepan or microwave safe dish, heat milk to just boiling and seep tea bag until cooled.
Whisk together dry ingredients & zest in a small bowl.

With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars together until creamy. Scrape down sides of bowl and then add eggs, one at a time until incorporated.

Beginning and ending with flour mixture, alternate gradually incorporating milk and flour. Do not over mix.

Fill cupcake liners, then bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Lemon Frosting
1 stick butter, room temperature
1-1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tbs lemon zest
1-2 tbs lemon juice

Beat butter until creamy. Gradually add in powdered sugar until crumbly. Add in zest and juice until frosting is light and fluffy.

Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes. I garnished a few with lemon slices, but candied lemon would probably stay better. Or none at all. I just thought they were pretty.

Rootbeer Float Cupcakes

I do adore anything that qualifies as "retro," from neon signage, to clothes, to cupcake flavors. When I saw BrownEyedBaker's Rootbeer Float Bundt cake, it reminded me that I still had to try my own cupcake version of this flavor combo. It has been on the (ridiculously long) list of things to try baking ever since I made Dr. Pepper cupcakes, but hadn't got around to it yet.

So, I really did follow the bundt cake recipe verbatim, but only made half the amount of batter. (Quick tip for approximating quantities: each 1 cup of flour per cupcake recipe will typically turn out approximately 12 cupcakes). (though in this case I managed 14).  (Hey, I said approximately!) Instead of making the fudgey rootbeer frosting, I made a malted vanilla buttercream, hoping to mimic the somewhat malty flavor that happens when you pour rootbeer onto vanilla ice cream, without the need for ice cream (sorry, nothing agains ice cream, but when it comes to cupcakes, I prefer to keep my options open by not requiring a fridge/freezer).

I brought these to a friend's Memorial Day get together, and am pretty sure they went over well considering the call for "who wants another cupcake?" was met with a chorus of takers (and none leftover). Overall, the flavor was rich and chocolatey, texture was spongy and moist, and the frosting was reviewed as having "something" about it that was delectable (yay malt powder!). I do have to say though, it wasn't very rootbeer-y, which I think I could counter with a nice rootbeer flavored filling of some kind. But for now, I still recommend it as an almost perfect chocolate cupcake worthy of baking again.

Bundt cake recipe here, cut in half to accommodate a dozen +/- cupcakes.

Malty rootbeer frosting:

• 3/4 c butter, room temperature
• 2-1/2 c powdered sugar
• 1/2 c malt powder (at first, I thought this was too much and panicked, but it turned out to be just fine)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbs rootbeer syrup, cooled (from the 1 bottle of Virgil's I had, after using 1 cup for the cupcakes, what was left I let boil down slightly until it was de-carbonated and a thicker viscosity)

Whip butter until creamy. Add in malt powder and powdered sugar until crumbly. Add in vanilla extract and continue to whip (scraping down sides of bowl as needed) and then add in rootbeer syrup until frosting has smoothed out.

I though it would be cute to dollop a "scoop" of frosting on top of each cupcake so it would look like ice cream. I think it worked out all right, but if you didn't know that was what I was going for, I think they kind of just looked sloppy. If I ever think to do a "scoop" of frosting again, I will chill it completely before scooping. I didn't have enough time before heading out the door to let it fully set, which is why I think it had some issues.

Enough of my rattling on about it - go bake some cupcakes already!

Happy Memorial Day! 

Ugli Cookies

You read that correctly, but I do mean these cookies were made with Ugli fruit.

Ramune trying the Red Velvet cupcakes

Backstory: I went on a lovely vacation a couple weeks ago (yeah, I'm just catching up on life now) to visit my ol' college buddies who still live on the East Coast. Good times, ate too much, tried lots of desserts (lots of cupcakes), which I thought I would blog about, but am not sure I'll get around to it now. I'll just do a quick shout-out now to the one cupcake that really stuck in my mind that was from a place in DC called Red Velvet. Not too crazy about their actual red velvet flavor, but their special that week was a cherry ginger with yuzu buttercream, and it was pretty amazing. I'm a sucker for anything yuzu though, so that could be why I fell in love.

But I digress. Another highlight of my trip was the chance to bake something with my friend and fellow blogger, Kristy, which is a rare occasion considering the 3000 miles that are generally between us. We thought it would be fun to bake with something neither of us had tried before. We settled on rhubarb, and were certain that the posh grocery store Dean & Deluca was sure to have some. Our dreams were dashed when we discovered we were wrong, so struggled to come up with a plan b on the spot. I was tempted by the fresh passion fruit which honestly, I've never even seen before in person (yet no rhubarb? Com'mon D&D, get with the program). But Kristy pointed out this "special" looking citrus that was begging to be made into something sweet. Tempted by its description as being somewhere between a tangerine and a grapefruit, we snapped a couple up and headed home to experiment.

Kristy recalled a grapefruit cookie recipe that she'd been meaning to try, so we went to it. It is a delightful, rolled butter cookie with a smack of grapefruit buttercream sandwiched between to cookies. I took on the task of zesting and juicing the fruit while she made the cookie dough. I also took an opportunity to document the process, as this fruit was pretty stellar to photograph. It had a very asymmetrical, lumpy shape about it, with a sort of greenish yellow hue to its rind. It was a little larger than a grapefruit, and not nearly as firm. When it came to cutting it in half, to our surprise it was brilliantly orange inside. As well, it seemed like the fruit was naturally separating itself from the pith, which I don't think I've ever seen happen before.

Kristy showcasing the finished product

After making the cookies (which we made verbatim to Martha's recipe, minding the change in fruit), we discovered that the Ugli fruit is way more subtle than grapefruit, so in my opinion, would add a bit more zest and, as well, add zest to the buttercream. I also think I would cut down on the amount of juice that goes into the buttercream as it seemed a bit too runny for a filling and we had to keep the cookies refrigerated so they wouldn't get too sloppy.

But an overall success, and fun attempt to try something completely new.  

Easter Baskets

For a special Easter treat, I will be making cupcake Easter baskets, available to order. A baker’s dozen of 3 mini cupcake varieties: Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting decorated as Easter eggs, Zesty lemon cupcakes with homemade marshmallow chicks, and Chocolate malt cupcakes with ganache chocolate bunnies, all arranged in a decorative basket. 

$45, plus tax. 

Please order by this Friday, April 22. No early orders can be filled. Pick up Saturday afternoon (local orders only).

Chocolate Marshmallow Cream-filled Cupcakes

I was about to call this a "Fauxstess" cupcake, but realized that the name is reserved for the more vegan alternative to our dear "Hostess" cupcakes. These are not vegan, not even kind of close, so I guess I'll have to relegate them to simply "Hostess knock-offs." A rich chocolate cupcake filled with a homemade marshmallow filling and topped with semi-sweet ganache and the classic white swirl. Growing up, these were some of my favorite "bribes" my dad would offer in order to get us to go with him to walk the dog each night. I mean, I don't think I really disliked taking the dog for a walk, but the extra incentive was always appreciated.

So, these are definitely a little more "real" tasting. I haven't had an actual Hostess Cupcakes in a many years, mostly because I am afraid to know what's in them. Not to suggest that these homemade versions are "good" for you, but at least I know the ingredients that go into them are not chock full of preservatives.

A quick note about the filling. Today a couple friends and I got together to work on prepping for some Easter goodies. We decided to make homemade Peeps (a later post), which are basically molded marshmallows. Having made what I thought was French Meringue once, I noted that it was super similar in flavor and texture to marshmallows, so thought it would work very well as a marshmallow frosting which could be piped into little chick shapes. What I didn't know, was that I was actually making Italian Meringue. I found a very helpful article about the difference in Meringues here, via Martha Stewart. I think this is also called boiled frosting, and any number of other code names. In any case, the texture is lighter and stickier than marshmallows, but it worked for its purpose.

Make Ganache First:
Semi-sweet Ganache

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup corn syrup (this can be optional, see below)
8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces (or chips)

Heat cream and corn syrup until they reach a boil. Pour over chocolate and let set approximately 2 minutes. Whisk together until fully incorporated. Set aside to cool (do not refrigerate as it will get too hard).
So, you don't really need to add corn syrup to ganache, but it really does smooth out the texture and add a really nice sheen to the chocolate which is very appealing. If you have dietary restrictions or just don't like to use corn syrup more than you have to, you can skip it. Maybe just up the cream by a couple tablespoons or so, and add a tablespoon or so of butter to help the texture. You can also add vanilla, if you're so inclined.


Chocolate Cupcakes
Whisk together:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In large heat proof bowl, melt:
6 tbs butter
Whisk in
1/3 cup cocoa powder
then
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In small heat proof bowl or saucepan, heat until almost boiling:
1/4 cup milk
1/2 -3/4 cup water

Alternating between flour mix and water mix, beginning and ending with flour, mix together with sugar/cocoa mixture until incorporated. The batter will be a bit on the runny side, which you can control with how much water you put in. I think somewhere between 1/2-3/4 cups water in addition to the milk make an excellently moist, but still stable cupcake.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool.

Italian Meringue

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 large egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of salt and cream of tartar
Directions

Bring sugar, water, and corn syrup to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook, undisturbed, until syrup registers 248 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Meanwhile, whisk whites with a mixer on low speed until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar. Increase speed to medium, and whisk until soft peaks form, about 8 minutes.

Reduce speed to low, and pour hot syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Increase speed to high, and beat until mixture stops steaming, about 3 minutes. Fill piping bag with frosting - fit it with any large circular tip you have on hand.

Once cupcakes have cooled, cut out the centers either with a melon baller or apple corer (you probably want a larger hole to cram as much fluff into the cupcake as possible). Fill each cavity with the marshmallow cream filling. Dip each cupcake in the ganache and swirl slightly to coat the top completely. If your ganache got a bit too hard to do this with, defrost in microwave for no more than 10 seconds and stir until smooth.

Let the ganache set for a bit. So, I happened to have a bit of leftover buttercream so I could easily pipe on the little swirls. It would kill me if I had to make a whole batch of it just for decorating the tops of these, but if you must do it, here's the recipe for a small batch of frosting:

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Beat at medium speed until creamy
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
Add in 
1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar
until mixture is crumbly. Scrape down the sides, then add
1/4 tsp vanilla
Beat until mixture comes together. Beat in 
a few drops of milk
to smooth it out. 


Fill a small pastry bag fitted with a small circular tip with the frosting and gently pipe out the swirls on top of each cupcake. They are a little tricky to make look consistent. Good luck!

π Day = Apple Pie Cupcakes

Happy π Day!

In celebration of March 14, I made a pie inspired Apple Pie Cupcake. I thought this was a cute idea, but it didn't turn out to be the most photogenic one. Beige frosting on beige cupcake with white wrapper on white background. If I thought ahead, I could have at least saved one of those deliciously green Granny Smith's to pop in the background for a boost of color. You will simply have to take my word for the fact they're quite tasty even though they look rather dull. 

Make Approx. 16.

Apple Juice reduction:

Boil down 1 cup of apple juice until thick and syrupy - approximately 2 tablespoons worth. Cool.

Basic Vanilla Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream, or buttermilk)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line cupcake tins. 

In medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In larger bowl, beginning with gently whisking eggs, mix together the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix dry into wet until blended. 

Filling:

1 tbs butter

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced. 

3 tbs brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add apples. Once the apples start to sizzle, add a dash of water and cover with lid for about 5 minutes, or until apples are semi-translucent. Break apples up with a wooden spoon until only smaller chunks remain. Add brown sugar and stir until apples are coated and syrupy. Remove from heat. 

Frosting:

3/4 cups butter, room temperature

2-1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbs apple juice reduction

Whip butter until smoothly. Slowly add in powdered sugar until combined. Scrape sides of bowl before adding the apple juice reduction. Whip until smooth and creamy. I added a little dab of red and yellow food coloring to try and get the color a little more "baked pie crust" color, but should have done a little bit more. 

Once the cupcakes are cooled, remove centers of cupcakes using a melon baller (or any other tool you prefer). Fill cavity with apple sauce filling. Pipe a large dollop of frosting onto each cupcake. Using an offset spatula, smooth each dollop into a uniform mound, tapering at the sides. Using a small frosting tip, pipe curly cues around the edges of the cupcake, to make it look like a pie crust.  I tried putting little divots in the tops of each cupcake, similar to the venting holes you cut into pie crusts, but they didn't look very good, so I did without. I highly recommend using a different colored cupcake wrapper too. Gotta liven these up a bit. 

In any case, Happy Pi Day. I want to leave you with a little Pi story that I just learned about recently. Back in 1897, the Indiana legislature almost passed a bill to legally define pi as a rounded off 3.2. Their only saving grace was the presence of a Mathematics professor from Purdue who gave the Congress an impromptu math lesson on why that was impossible. Nice try!