Cupcake 28 - Toblerone Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream

Toblerone was the key ingredient this week. I had several bars hanging out in my pantry and was waiting for inspiration. For me, Toblerone and holidays go together, only because it seems to high ad season for the Toblerone folks, making this chocolate top of mind. Somehow the wish-washy weather this weekend pulled me into a denser cupcake mood. I cut the bar into chunks, slightly bigger than a chocolate chip. The chunks gave the cupcakes nice pockets of milk chocolate, almond and honey. I added espresso to batter to lend a little bitterness to coca which allowed the two chocolates to play well together without being overwhelming. I toyed with adding ganache to the top, but thought it might be too much, and opted instead for a vanilla buttercream. Slightly less sweet, but creamy in texture. Overall a good cupcake, very moist.

(sorry for the delay)

Toblerone Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

2 T warm water
1 T espresso powder

1 1/2 c AP flour
3/4 c Dutch Process cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 c unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 c sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 c sour cream
1 t vanilla
1 c Toblerone chunks, about 4 bars cut into 1/4 chunks, plus additional for garnish

Preheat oven to 350. Line two 12 well cupcake pans with liners.

Stir water and espresso powder in small bowl until dissolved, set aside.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into medium bowl, set aside. In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter until fluffy and light. Gradually add sugar, beat until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating between additions. Add espresso, sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture in 3 increments, blending well between each. Gently fold in Toblerone chunks. Fill wells of cupcake pan 3/4 full. Bake 20-24 minutes, do not over bake. Cool on wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 c unsalted butter, room temperature
4 c powder sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
1 t vanilla
2 T cream

In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add salt and vanilla, mix well, add powdered sugar in three increments. Beat until well blended, add milk and mix until desired consistency. Turn mixer to high and beat for 4-5 minutes.

Cupcake 27 - Triple Lemon for Mother's Day

I'm behind, without a good excuse. Yes, I baked, but failed to blog. I went Lemon for Mom's Day. It was Mom's request, sorta. I think her words were, "I'll like anything you make, like lemon or chocolate, you know I'm easy." I was psyched. I checked in with Mom later on in the week, and bounced a filled lemon meringue cupcake or a coconut hostess type cupcake off of her. She was good, but reminded me that my brother and father, who are much less adventurous, may not like those choices. We were having a family dinner, so I was eager to please everyone. I mentally put the meringue away and forgot about the tinted pink coconut I was planning in my head. I went lemon. A very nice, if I do say so myself, triple lemon. Lemon curd played a starring role - I added it to both cupcake batter and frosting, along with lemon juice and zest. I also baked a batch of basic chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with lemon buttercream. An indulgence for me as much as Mom.

Lemon and chocolate is one of my all time favorite flavor combinations. I thought I had invented it at 13 working the summer at the church snowball stand. Between snowball customers, I had nothing but time on my hands, so naturally I experimented with flavors. After way too many snowballs and a summer-long sugar high, I concluded chocolate pretty much works with every flavor, except Batman. Blue stands alone. Lemon worked extrememly well with chocolate and held up flavor- wise to the eventual sweaty melt that brings a snowball to an end. Running a snowball stands at 13 is cool, and has much better fringe benefits than babysitting or a paper route.

Lemon Curd
1 T + 2 t lemon zest
1 C lemon juice, freshly squeezed. No cheating with the bottled stuff.
1 1/2 C sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
3/4 C + 2 T butter, unsalted, cut into chunks

Add sugar, zest, lemon juice and a pinch of salt in sauce pan, stir well. Add eggs and butter. Cook over medium-low heat stirring constantly, until thick and first bubbles appear, 10-12 minutes. Pour into fine mesh seive to remove any chunks. Cover and chill.

For cupcakes, replace liquid in standard yellow cupcake receipe with 1 C fresh lemon juice, 2 T lemon zest and 2/3 cup lemon curd.

Lemon Buttercream

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
8 ozs cream cheese at room temperature
2 T lemon zest
3 T lemon juice
1/3 c lemon curd
4 C powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Cream butter, cream cheese, salt and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add lemon curd and mix well. Add powdered sugar in 3 installments, mixing well and scrapping down sides. Add lemon juice. Set mixer to high speed and whip for 4-5 minutes until frosting reaches desired consistancy.

26 Cupcackes later

I have a few observations after 26 cupcakes, nothing earth shattering, but things I've noticed

• Cupcakes make people happy. Free food in an office always pleases, seeing cupcakes in action is nice. More than a few people have told me they look forward to Mondays because of cupcakes. One person even admitted to working a day off around cupcakes.

• On a good day, I know a lot about my co-workers quirks. Bring foodstuff into the picture and it opens a whole new can of worms. Maybe teetering on TMI.

• I like and dislike every cupcake I make. Most cupcakes have at least one "new to me" ingredient or combination of ingredients. I'm curious to see how they react and taste together. I'm a very harsh critic, perfection does not come easily. I'd like to revisit most recipes, tweak them a little, but I also want to keep trying new cupcakes. I've got a huge growing list and have only gotten to a few. Maybe in fall I'll come back to some of my favorites.

• I miss baking other things, especially cookies and brownies. My day job gets in the way during the week, weekends turn into cupcake centric gigs.

• Vanilla is more popular than chocolate, a very sad surprise for me.

• Every holiday is easily tied to food, drink or both. Its incredibly easy to tie in a cupcake too. Not all of them work.

• Flavors evoke strong memories, things I have not thought about in years.

• I'm tracking butter, sugar and flour prices like a stock broker tracks the Dow Jones.

• I don't usually eat a whole cupcake. For me its the creative process, I taste every cupcake, just a bite and I'm done. Same with cooking, I could spend the day making an elaborate meal, happily walk away and go out to dinner.

• A batch of 24 cupcakes from start to finish takes 3 hours. This does not include recipe research, ingredient gathering and changing my mind several times.

• Because I'm baking regularly and I'm messy I have to mop the kitchen floor every week. In my defense my floor is black old school linoleum and shows every speck of flour. I'm also trying to stay on top of the fine mist of powdered sugar which settles on pretty much everything in the kitchen.

Cupcake 24, 25 and 26 - Margarita Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream, Gaucomole Cupcakes with Avocado Buttercream and Mint Julep Cupcakes

A 3 cupcake week, whew! I had planned something chocolate, but then realized that Cinco de Mayo was looming large. I changed it up to make Margarita Cupcakes. And because you need "a little something" with your margarita, I took a stab at Guacamole Cupcakes.

Thoughts - Margarita cupcakes were nice and moist, but a little too orange for true margarita flavor. The frosting was good, with a strong lime flavor. Next time I'd reduce, maybe omit, the triple sec and focus on the lime flavor in the cupcakes.

Guacamole cupcakes were an experiment. I wanted the tomato flavor to be strong, but without the aid of other spices they tended to be flat. Maybe a better muffin? Maybe with chunkier tomatoes? And the frosting, again, it needed something. The avocado did not have enough taste on its own. Maybe cumin? More lemon? After you got over the EWE factor, overall, boring.

Margarita Cupcakes

To standard yellow cupcakes replace liquid with
1/2 C vegetable oil
2/3 C margarita mix
1/4 C lime juice
1/4 C tequila
2 T triple sec
1 T lime zest
1 T lemon zest
1/4 t lime extract

Bake 350, 15-20 minutes

Frosting
1/2 C butter, at room temperature
3 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 T lime zest
1 T lime juice
1 T tequila
1/2 t lime extract
pinch of salt

Cream butter, zest and salt. Add powdered sugar in three increments. Whip until well mixed, add lime juice and tequila, beat 3-4 minutes until desired consistency.

Tomato Cupcakes
1 C butter, at room temperature
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1 C light brown sugar
3 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 C tomato juice
1 T tomato paste

Cream butter and sugars, and pepper. Add eggs one at time, mixing well between each addition. Combine baking soda, baking powder, flour and salt. Combine tomato juice and tomato paste. Add flour mixture alternating with tomato juice mixture, mixing well between each addition. Bake 350, for 20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Avocado Frosting
1/2 C butter, at room temperature
1/2 C mashed ripe avocado
3 T lemon juice
3 C powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Cream butter, avocado, lemon juice and salt. Add powdered sugar in three increments. Whip until well mixed, add additional lemon juice to reach desired consistency Beat 3-4 minutes.

I had switched gears to focus on Cinco de Mayo and I realized I was ignoring the first leg of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby. Not sure why I'm compelled to acknowledge the Derby, I'm not a horse racing fan by any stretch. I think deep down, very deep down, I fancy the elaborate hats worn at the Kentucky Derby. Many years ago, at my first ad agency job the owner would sometimes wear hats for client meetings. More often than not, she would put together an elaborate costume of an outfit complete with extreme make-up, bold jewelry and gloves. Yes, gloves. The size and decorations on the hats increased by importance of the meeting. On especially large garish hat days we would know to leave her alone unless summoned. The hats served as a barometer to her mood, impending client meetings could make her a notch above giddy or downright mean. The Kentucky Derby and advertising, not everyone walks away a winner, but you get to keep your hat.

As for the cupcakes, I went Mint Julep instead of Derby Cake. For me, the cupcakes did not have enough mint flavor, they seemed wishy-washy. Nice and moist, but next time I'll add some mint extract. And more bourbon in the sauce.

Mint Julep Cupcakes
Bake standard yellow cupcakes, doubling the vanilla to 2 T. Bake as directed.

Butter Bourbon Sauce
1/2 c confectioners sugar
1/3 cup butter melted
3 T water
2 T bourbon

Melt butter in small sauce pan, stir in sugar, water and bourbon. Mix well. Using a wooden skewer, poke 6 - 8 holes in cupcakes and generously brush tops with sauce.

Mint Frosting
1/2 C butter room temperature
3 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 T Creme de Menthe
1 C white chocolate chips, melted
pinch of salt

Cream butter, melted chocolate chips and salt. Add powdered sugar in three increments. Whip until well mixed, add Creme de Menthe beat 3-4 minutes until desired consistency.