Pumpkin Cupcakes

In a recent trip to northern Portugal to pick grapes at the farm house of some friends parents we were given, in reward for our work, a number of things.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Homemade Marmalade

After making margaritas the other day I realized that we have triple sec just sitting around. By we I mean my friends whose house I bake at on a frequent basis. Minor correction. My friends had triple sec sitting around and who knew when we were going to make margaritas again. Too much lime squeezing for poor Migs to merit making them all the time.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I’ve gotten into something of a routine since coming here to Chile and as you can see from this post, it’s not always the healthiest.

Saturdays are my day to go to the market.  There I buy all the ingredients I need to cook for the week and a few extra things to do some baking for my friends.  This particular weekend was special, however.  My friend Chris had just returned from a trip to the States and aside from bringing me all the things I’d asked my mom to mail to his house, he brought me a couple surprises.

Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes

It was my birthday several weeks ago which I decided to use as an excuse to throw a party and get all my friends together.  The theme of the party was to be Portuguese/Spanish because I was in Lisbon on my birthday last year (on a trip while studying abroad in Spain) and I wanted to replicate the awesomeness of that birthday.  The theme was twofold also because of my inability to find many Portuguese foods.  So some of the things I offered were Spanish.  The menu for the party had 3 sections, tapas, drinks, and desserts.  The tapas consisted of toasted baguette slices, Spanish cheese triangles, stuffed olives, and Spanish bar nut mix.  The drinks were varied but stayed mostly within the theme only varying with regards to the homemade limoncello (which my coworker gave me).  Other than that it was all port wine, Portuguese vinho verde, and Spanish wine.  The desserts strayed from the theme entirely, however.  They consisted of flourless chocolate cake with ganache frosting (which my parents ordered me for my birthday), Ferrer Roche chocolates in 3 flavors (which my aunt had given me as a birthday gift), fresh strawberries, fresh blackberries, and these Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting.

After seeing these on Ming Makes Cupcakes (aka the link that ruined my life for a week because of my desire to make these Chocolate Chambord Cupcakes instead of doing work) I knew that I had to make them at some point.   However, I wasn't quite ready to randomly splurge on the specialty ingredients required such as, port wine, cherries, and mascarpone.  Then my birthday rolled around and I decided to ignore costs (for the most part) and make these cupcakes.  The response to them was well worth it. Though I made around 22 cupcakes (and there were not that many people at my party), I still ended up with just a few cupcakes leftover and tons of compliments.

As good as these were, it took a bit of tweaking the original recipe to produce the exact cupcakes I wanted. Instead of making chocolate cupcakes with chunks of cherries inside (I didn't like the idea of having chunky cupcakes) I decided to make plain chocolate cupcakes and soak them in cherry port wine sauce before frosting them. Next time, I also think I'll add more cream to the frosting recipe and double it because I ran out, and I hate skimping on frosting!

Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Nosh With Me)
Yield: About 30 cupcakes (but I ended up with just 22 because I made enormous cupcakes)

Ingredients: 
2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
 ½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions: 
1) Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350 F.
2) Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
3) Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
4) Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5) Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Cherry and Port Wine Reduction Sauce (adapted from Ming Makes Cupcakes)
Ingredients:
1 cup port wine
¾ cup jarred Morello cherries (I couldn't find these so I just used jarred bing cherries)
Directions:
1) While the cupcakes are baking, simmer port and drained cherries in a saucepan for 5 to 10 minutes.
2) Using a toothpick, poke holes into each cupcake before carefully spooning port wine liquid over top.  3) Reserve cherries to use as decoration after frosting with Mascarpone Frosting.

Mascarpone Frosting (adapted from Ming Makes Cupcakes)
Ingredients:
8 oz. mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
½ - ¾ cup heavy cream
½ cup confectioners sugar
Directions:
1) Beat ingredients together at high speed for 2-3 minutes or until soft peaks form.
2) Spread on cupcakes and top with port wine soaked cherries.

Chocolate Chambord Cupcakes

All this week I have been dying to bake.  A fact that I blame on my friend Dan and his cruel decision to send me this link on Tuesday night.  After all, how was I supposed to work after going through an endless page of cupcakes with names such as Coconut Rum Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting or Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting?  Swoon.  And please just tell me how I was supposed to continue working with the knowledge that we have chambord and Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Chambord Frosting were just waiting to be made.  

It was tough.  I needed a lot of self control to make it through the week without making these cupcakes. But Friday, I broke, and fortunately my friends, Dan and Micah, were willing to help me make these cupcakes which received so many compliments throughout my house.  The frosting was the best part though (In part, I think, because of how beautiful it looked as a result of my new frosting piping bags! Thank you Mamá).  I think I may swap out the cake next time since it was just so-so in my opinion, but my edits to the frosting definitely resulted in one of the most delicious frostings I've ever had.  The key was just extra cocoa powder instead of using the pound of confectioner's sugar it called for.  So, even if you don't make the cupcakes, make some kind of cake or something to spread this frosting on because it is so good.

Chocolate Chambord Cupcakes (lightly adapted from Ming Makes Cupcakes)

Cupcake Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp berry jam
1 Tbsp Chambord liqueur

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350ºF
2) Mix flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl
3) In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy
4) Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and egg
5) Add milk and dry ingredients alternately while still mixing
6) Mix in jam and liqueur
7) Pour batter into lined cupcake pans, fill about ¾ full
8) Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean

Frosting Ingredients:
½ cup butter (1 stick)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup milk
1/8 cup Chambord liqueur

Directions:
1) In a saucepan or in the microwave soften the butter until almost melted
2) Using a hand mixer, mix in cocoa and confectioner's sugar
3) Add milk and vanilla and continue mixing on low speed
4) Add in Chambord and mix until frosting is smooth
5) Frost cupcakes and top with a dollop of jam (or fill cupcakes with jam before frosting).

Coconut Cupcakes

Living a in a co-op has meant some pretty good meals so far this year including: bison steaks, filet mignon, smoked salmon, the list goes on. For college kids, we may eat too well. But the most amazing meal came from our special dinner. It's a dinner that on campus houses have once a quarter. Most houses have a chef and he or she will cook up amazing food like steak, lobster, tuna steaks, duck etc. It's really quite absurd. But since we're a co-op and cook everything ourselves. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. But people really outdid themselves. Our dinner consisted of but was not limited to smoked salmon, ribs, fig and mushroom galette, risotto, two kinds of fresh bread, potato salad, hummus, tomato, mozzarella and basil, steak, prosciutto wrapped melon, tacos de lengua and al pastor, fresh bread topped with cheese and caramelized onions, salad with homemade crutons, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something else. I, of course, volunteered to make dessert. Wanting to make something fun, somewhat gourmet, and not too complicated I finally decided on making Ina Garten's (aka The Barefoot Contessa) Coconut Cupcakes. My godmother made them for the first time a few years ago and they've been in a hit in our family ever since. So I figured, why not? And in fact, they turned out pretty well. I was concerned about doubling the recipe, whether I had enough time to make them in the two hours I had before dinner (I'm now even more in awe of the people who are able to make 1000 cupcakes and put them on a stand on Cupcake Wars in just 2 hours, I think) and whether or not I would produce enough cupcakes since we were supposed to scale for 80 people instead of 40 as we do for a regular meal. But, shockingly, I ended up with 70 cupcakes which was more than plenty for the number of people at dinner who still had room for dessert after dinner and chose my cupcakes over the delicious berry-rum trifle and strawberry shortcake. They were also fun to make and I got to use a pastry bag to pipe the frosting out onto the cupcakes which made them look (I hope) pretty classy.

Coconut Cupcakes (by The Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients:
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.
3) In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut. (A bit less could be used)
4) Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. (I would suggest filling just 2/3 of the way full, you get more cupcakes and if you fill them to the top they'll overflow) Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.

Frosting
Ingredients
1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.
On a rimmed baking sheet, evenly spread the remaining coconut and toast, in the oven, until lightly golden.  Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the toasted coconut.

Kingston Family Vineyards Bayo Oscuro Syrah and Chocolate Cupcakes

I don't make cakes. As you can probably see from this blog thus far, my propensity for making cakes, well...let's just say it doesn't exist. In fact I might as well have been la hija del Monstruo de las Galletas. Because that's what I make. Cookies. Cookies, cookies, and more cookies!

But not for my friend Micah's birthday. Cookies would never do. It would have to be a cake. And since it was his 21st birthday, preferably a cake with alcohol. I toyed with doing a rum cake, but then I remembered the recipe for Bizcocho al vino tinto which I saw on Mercado Calabajío last summer. I had really wanted to make it then but, the problem was, I didn't have any wine last summer. Luckily that was cured by my employment by a winery this summer.  Kingston Family Vineyards to be exact! And suddenly there was wine. Very good wine.

So I decided to use some for Micah's 21st birthday cake. But measurement conversions are always difficult from the metric system or the way they make things in every other country but the U.S. (or at least I think, maybe Canada uses cups...) In any case, I'm still not exactly sure, by weighing everything I guess, a phenomenon which I never witnessed in Spain, no doubt due to the fact that my host mom was no baker. In fact there were no sweet things in the house unless I baked them. Just these sort of orange flavored cookies which said “Digestive” on them. But I digress.

In any case, Micah's birthday cake, sad to say, was something of a disaster. It looked pretty good, but looks are deceptive. The batter was too dry and then I over baked the cake. On top of that the chocolate wine ganache simply didn't taste anything like wine and there wasn't enough of it. Sigh. Not one of my finer baking moments.

However, I was determined to get it right to share it with my wonderful coworkers at Kingston! So, for my last couple of days at the winery, I decided to make this cake in cupcake form and do things a bit differently. I added a bit more wine to the batter, I fluffed the egg whites more (aka I followed the directions better), I made a red wine reduction for the ganache and I doubled the ganache recipe. Wow. Lots of corrections. And low and behold, the cupcakes (unlike the original cake) came out stellar. There were rave reviews all around! I think I got it right this time!

Kingston Family Vineyards Wine Cupcakes (based on Bizcocho al vino tinto by Mercado Calabajío)
Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup of cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1 cup of flour
14 tablespoons of softened butter (awkward amount, I know)
3/4 cup of red wine (preferrably Kingston Family Vineyards  Bayo Oscuro Syrah!) :)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350ºF
2) Separate the egg whites and the egg yolks into two separate mixing bowls.
3) Using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer if you're lucky enough to have one!) whip the egg whites until they are almost snow-like but haven't yet turned into meringue. (I suggest looking at the pictures on Mercado Calbajío for points of reference, even if you can't read Spanish)
4) Add the sugar to the egg yolks and mix with a fork.  Then, a little at a time, mix in the very softened (but not melted) butter.
5) Add the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and mix well.
6) Next, add the cocoa powder and mix before adding the wine.
7) Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and add to the cocoa mixture a bit at a time until just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix!
8) For the cupcakes, line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill each one about 2/3 of the way full. Or if you're making a cake (and I add this sheerly because I find it entertaining), butter or spray a 9inch round pan with cooking spray (a "great invention" which it seems they have only just discovered in Spain based on Mercado Calabajío's comments and the suggestion of buying it on theamericastore.com)
9) Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just a few crumbs.

Kingston Family Vineyards Wine Ganache (based on the ganache for Brownies with Chocolate Wine Ganache by Diana's Desserts)
Ingredients
10oz dark chocolate (I used a bag of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup of red wine
6 tablespoons of cream

Directions
1) In a small saucepan, reduce 1/2 cup of the same wine you used in the cupcakes, to two tablespoons.  Or, you can just add 2 tablespoons of the red wine instead of reducing it. Though it lends a different flavor to the chocolate ganache, it's still good.
2) Whisk all ingredients in small saucepan (or double boiler) over medium-low heat until melted and smooth.
3) Remove from heat and set aside.  Allow the ganache to solidify a bit before pouring or scooping a generous amount onto the top of the cupcakes.
4) Let the ganache set up, preferrably overnight, before serving.
5) Enjoy as your friends, family, and coworkers ooh and aww over the decadence of these cupcakes.

Sheer Deliciousness

I knew that the spice mill I bought (aka a cheap coffee grinder) would come in handy again. This time it was not used for spices but to puree the beautiful raspberries which I used in this delicious cupcake recipe. The other day Micah said he had extra raspberries (Who ever has extra raspberries? this concept is totally foreign to me) and he wanted a recipe to use them up so he asked me to find one. This cupcake recipe was just the right thing. We had all of the ingredients minus a little powdered sugar and more berries. So Micah and I went down the road to this little store that sells all kinds of fruit. It's great, a classy version of a roadside stand they also sell cheese, bread, baked goods, and dried fruit and nuts. Amazing. And that's not the best part. They have samples. Of everything. You can try literally every fruit you're thinking about buying. Plus most of the vegetables. So I naturally tried every fruit in the place and the berries we ended up buying, several times. Then we brought home our wares and began making these delicious cupcakes. The one thing that bothered me is that the frosting didn't have quite the consistency it was supposed to. It was a little too runny. But no matter, these cupcakes still taste absolutely amazing. We baked them just right, a first, in this oven, and they're soft and beautiful on the inside. Sure, they're not that pretty and Micah wouldn't let me add more than a pound of powdered sugar to the frosting (which calls for 1-3lbs) citing the fact that we were going to get diabetes if we added more so I relented and we didn't. It also made the berry flavor a bit more intense so I guess that was good.

Fresh Berry Cupcakes (from The Cooking Photographer)

Use the best quality berries you can get. They are the stars in these moist cupcakes. By letting the berry puree macerate for a day, the sugars will release making these cupcakes much better. (I skipped this step but the cupcakes were still delicious)

Ingredients
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberry puree, or any berry of choice pureed with juices
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup half & half or whole milk
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions
1. Gather enough thawed or fresh berries to make the puree plus more for the frosting (below). Then completely process the berries in a food processor (or a bit at a time in a coffee grinder, sacrilege, I know) and store in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for a day to let the sugars release. If using berries with seeds like raspberries or blackberries, strain the puree through a fine mesh sieve before refrigerating.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners, or lightly butter and flour the tin.

3. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer and a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and salt together until mixed well. Then add the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat until mixed well. Add the half & half or milk and berry puree and beat until mixed. Add the cornstarch and baking powder and mix to incorporate. Then add the flour and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.

4. With an ice-cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin tins. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until no longer wet looking and comes free of crumbs when tested with a toothpick.

5. Cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry or Any Berry Frosting 
Frosting can be as thick and dense or as fluffy and light as you like by adding more or less powdered sugar. Play around with the amount and see what works for you. (As previously mentioned, we used just a pound of powdered sugar)

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
¼ cup cream cheese, very soft
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup of the strawberry/berry puree to taste
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon strawberry extract (Use only if your frosting needs a little more flavor, hopefully you won’t need it)
Powdered sugar, between 1 and 3 pounds depending on consistency preferences

Instructions
1. With a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat all the ingredients together adding the powdered sugar a few cups at a time until desired consistency is reached. Berry flavor will come out even more after sitting for a bit. Flavor with strawberry extract only if needed. (We didn't need any because our berries were so good) Use immediately and store extra covered in the refrigerator.

2. To frost these, I filled a plastic bag and with frosting and cut off a corner to create a hole about ¾ of an inch wide.  I then pressed a large dollop of frosting onto the middle of the cupcake and then followed the instructions of the Cooking Photographer to gently tilt the cupcakes so the frosting would be moved to the edges. Which it did since it was a bit thin.

3) Top with a fresh raspberry for decoration. Success!