Apple Cider

Sorry I've been lax about updating--I've been leaving a lot of cupcakes unfrosted for breakfasts and making a lot of the same flavors, so they haven't been real photo-worthy. However, these need their own post!

I've been pondering a few "innovations" in my recipes and Apple Cider cupcakes were the first one I decided to go for. It required more than just swapping around some extracts and I wasn't sure how they'd come out, but WOW! They were delicious and came out perfect. I topped them with some apple icing and they were a wonderful fall breakfast for several days! The icing sunk into the cupcakes a bit, but I think the melted butter was too warm in the icing and next time I'll let it cool a bit in the fridge.

I'm looking forward to trying some other new creations!

Experiments

Catching up once more! I've been working on perfecting what has become my all-time favorite cupcake--Maple! The first picture is of the original maple cupcake recipe (with "fluffy maple frosting"). This recipe called for nutmeg as well as real maple syrup. I'm not a big fan of nutmeg, apparently, and the real maple syrup is expensive, so while these were good, they weren't AWESOME. However, I *LOVE* the maple frosting! I think I'd eat rocks if they were coated in this frosting. So, in an attempt to find the perfect cupcake to be topped with maple frosting, I set out experimenting. I tried it on top of plain vanilla cupcakes, which was good but not perfect, and then I created Vanilla Maple cupcakes. The first version didn't have quite enough maple flavor to the actual cupcake, but the most recent incarnation (5th picture) was perfect! Definitely my favorite.

The second picture is a basic Chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting, made for a birthday party. I used the regular chocolate frosting recipe instead of my "non-milk chocolate" lighter one and I wasn't as happy with it. I guess maybe for chocolate lovers, it'd be good, but I think I'd probably make the "not-milk chocolate" be my standard chocolate frosting because I like it better!

Third is a tray of Golden Vanilla cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting (first attempt). These got rave reviews at the playdate I made them for, as did the Golden Vanilla with maple frosting!

The fourth picture is what I'm calling "Pink Lemonade"--lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting (second attempt, I prefer this version!). I've avoided using food coloring because I think the customer base we're looking at (vegan, health conscious, allergic) often includes those who avoid artificial colors, but my daughter requested pink "fairy cakes" for her birthday party, so that's what I made! I'd like to find a natural food coloring option to use instead, I just haven't looked into it much yet. The fifth picture was also for this birthday party, my final Vanilla Maple version with fluffy maple frosting. Both flavors also got rave reviews from everyone at the party!

Catching Up

I have quite a few flavors to catch up on here, so bear with me!

First, we have Mocha Chip, topped with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. This was my last attempt at mocha, I think--the batter seemed perfect, but the cupcakes ended up just tasting like chocolate after baking, again. The chocolate chips were great and these made a wonderful breakfast cupcake without the frosting. I'm disappointed that I couldn't taste much "mochaness" in these, but I think it's just wasting the coffee extract. I'm going to revise my Mississippi Mud plans to use either a chocolate or coffee cupcake base, I think. Delicious, it's just not clear enough that they're mocha instead of just chocolate.

Next was my first...well, not failure, but less-than-success. My goal was Strawberry Cheesecake and Blueberry Cheesecake cupcakes. Unfortunately, my frosting plan backfired because the fruit added so much extra liquid to the frosting and I wasn't able to thicken it enough to fluff back up. The blueberry just didn't taste very good; the strawberry tasted good but looked like goop! Everyone said they were delicious, but it just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I have some plans for the next incarnation of Strawberry Cheesecake, though, and I look forward to trying those out!

The third and fourth photos are Chocolate Chocolate-Chip with vanilla and chocolate buttercream. They got rave reviews at a playdate I brought them to, so I'm happy! These ones taught me to love the chocolate buttercream--I thought I preferred vanilla but I made a "light chocolate" instead of the regular chocolate buttercream frosting and it was delicious. I'm trying to come up with a name for it to contrast the two--but I guess "milk chocolate" vs "dark chocolate" is probably not going to work! Maybe a "Not-Milk Chocolate"?

The fifth is English Breakfast Tea cupcakes, sprinkled with powdered sugar. These came out a little different from the first time--not as heavy and dense, and the tea flavor wasn't quite as strong. They were yummy, but I'm not sure what caused the difference. The tea flavor may have been because I made a single batch instead of double like last time, or maybe I didn't steep the tea as long before adding it to the batter. I'll have to play around with these more, and I'd like to try some other tea flavors too!

Last is a simple Golden Vanilla with "not-milk" chocolate buttercream frosting. These were whipped up to bring to a brunch before our FAAN Walk for Food Allergies today at Delaware Park and got rave reviews, too, from another allergy family as well as friends of the family. Seeing the many walkers today just confirmed our belief that there's a broad market out there for allergen-free cupcakes!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip

I was a little skeptical about these, because I loooove pumpkin bread but have never combined it with chocolate...but YUM! They're delicious! Great texture, nicely rounded on top, easy to peel the paper from, and the delicate cinnamon icing is just awesome! Definite success!

I'm thinking I better create a Cinnamon Bun flavor just to get more use out of this cinnamon icing!

English Breakfast Tea update

Because these cupcakes are so dense, the heavy frosting was starting to bother me. I wiped off the frosting and sprinkled powdered sugar on some for breakfast this morning and WOW! What a difference! You can really taste the tea and the dusting of sugar adds just the right touch of sweetness on top. SUCCESS!

Mocha Oreo encore, Carrot, and Tea

I whipped up a quick batch of Mocha Oreo (frosted with chocolate buttercream--top photo) last week to see if I could get the mocha aspect to come through more strongly in the cupcake, but it didn't seem to work. I'll try a plain mocha cupcake (sans Oreo) at some point, but I think the Oreos make it hard to really taste the mocha. Perhaps "Mississippi Mud" will just be a chocolate cupcake with Oreos, topped with coffee or mocha frosting (maybe a coffee or mocha "Cookies 'n Cream"). Still delicious and one of my favorites!

Next came a batch of Carrot cupcakes with "cream cheese" frosting (second photo), and these were a lesson in humility as well as in preparation. I skipped an instruction that seemed odd and unnecessary, and as a result, the cupcakes stuck to the liners pretty badly! After sitting overnight, though, the liners peeled away fine, so we were saved from total disaster. The "cream cheese" frosting was delicious, but I was missing a key ingredient (ground ginger) and tried replacing it with something else. They were very good but just not *quite* right! I look forward to making the next round correctly.

Finally, today's batch was English Breakfast Tea cupcakes with vanilla "hint of lemon" buttercream frosting (third and fourth photo). YUM! These are great. Much denser than the other flavors but very unique. The recipe recommends just dusting them with powdered sugar and I can see why--the tea flavor is so subtle and yummy. The frosting overpowers it a bit! Still scrumptious though, and I think this will be a fun one to experiment with!

Lemon

I'll preface this by saying we love lemon cupcakes in this house. Lemon was the first flavor of "safe" boxed Duncan Hines mix we tried and it became a fast favorite, especially as a breakfast treat (usually unfrosted). However, having to swap out the eggs in a boxed mix just never creates a truly light, fluffy cupcake.

Vegan recipe to the rescue! These lemon cupcakes (using the Golden Vanilla base with lemon extract) came out just beautifully! I think I left out "doubled" ingredient on the Golden Vanilla/Coffee batch (ie I doubled everything else but forgot to double this), and I KNOW I overbaked that batch (I need a good digital timer, that's on my supply list), but whatever the difference, these are fantastic! I was torn about frosting flavor, because we've used a variety of ready-made frosting flavors on our old lemon cupcakes, but I ended up going with a straight vanilla buttercream. Lemon buttercream or some kind of berry flavor were also on my list of possibilities, but the vanilla is a lovely complement to the lemon cupcake! I topped a few with a blueberry and they've quickly replaced our "old" lemon cupcakes as a beloved favorite. Light, fluffy, and not-too-overpowering in flavor: overall, a great success!

Mocha Oreo

...or possibly renamed Mississippi Mud? HOLY YUMMINESS! These are a chocolate cupcake base with added coffee extract and crunched up Oreos, some frosted with coffee buttercream and the rest with mocha buttercream. Wowza! I've enjoyed every flavor I've made so far, but this coffee frosting is by far my favorite creation! I'm so excited about it. The mocha frosting this time around is better, too, because I added less chocolate to it so the mocha-ness shines through better.

I also tried the one decorating tip I hadn't used last time, which is just a plain round hole...I love it! I feel like it gave me a lot more control and just really comes out looking like a mountain of deliciousness. It gives me a few options for style, too--swirly mountain, "dab," flat swirls, zig-zags, and "dots," though I only used the swirly mountain and dab methods this time. I'm really happy with how these came out and they look beautiful!

Coffee and Vanilla

This week's venture was a batch of Golden Vanilla cupcakes (with chocolate buttercream frosting) and a batch of Coffee cupcakes (with mocha buttercream frosting). The vanilla cupcake base comes out a different texture than the chocolate base--lighter and springier. I altered the frosting recipe a bit and prefer it to the first batches of chocolate buttercream, so I'm quite happy with that. I didn't feel like the coffee flavoring in the frosting was quite strong enough for "mocha," but it worked well in the cupcakes so I think next time I'll just adjust the amount for mocha frosting.

The big excitement of this batch was decorating! I got a "cupcake decorating set" that's sort of a tube with a plunger and decorating tips, instead of a pastry bag. I have mixed feelings about the tube versus a bag--I feel like I have less control--but the tips were fun to experiment with. They didn't all come out as beautifully as I wanted, but I'm sure I'll be getting plenty of practice! Cupcakes make great breakfast food. ;-)

Next attempt will be mocha cupcakes--Mocha Oreo, maybe! I want to recreate one of my favorite ice cream flavors, Mississippi Mud, which was coffee ice cream with Oreos and a fudge swirl...but I don't think the coffee cupcake base is right for it. I'm thinking Mocha Oreo cupcakes with maybe a coffee frosting, drizzled with chocolate ganache?

Cookies 'N Cream, Take 2!

By request, I made another batch (okay, a triple batch!) of Cookies 'N Cream for a birthday playdate tomorrow. I frosted half with the Cookies 'N Cream frosting and half with chocolate buttercream, again using my "poor man's pastry bag" technique. I'm not sure what the chocolate-frosted ones might be called...Chocolate Oreo? I'm hoping to get a pastry bag and some decorating tips (the metal kind, not the advice kind) this weekend so I can practice with those, and some other ingredients so I can try out some other cupcake flavors! I think I need to practice my cupcake photography as well...but in any case, they taste fantastic!

Cookies 'N Cream, Mint Oreo

My first attempted recipe (no picture, sorry!) was "Cookies 'N Cream"--a chocolate cupcake with Nabisco Oreos, frosted with a vanilla buttercream frosting mixed with Oreos. After almost two years of using "substitutes" in non-vegan/non-allergy-friendly recipes and cake mixes, we were SO EXCITED over how these came out! They don't stick to the papers, they round up nicely like regular cupcakes, and the consistency was just perfect. I found the buttercream frosting a touch too sweet for my taste, so I'll be experimenting a bit on the basic vanilla buttercream to see if I can tweak it, but the cupcake part was great!

The second attempted recipe today morphed into "Mint Oreo" (pictured above--chocolate cupcake with Oreos and mint extract) with chocolate buttercream frosting. The mint was a bit too strong, so I'm going to use less next time, but the frosting came out pretty well (tasted better than the vanilla/Cookies 'n Cream frosting, at least). I tried my hand at piping the frosting instead of spreading but I had to use a "poor man's pastry bag," ie a plastic sandwich bag with a jagged hole cut in one corner. The look wasn't quite right, but it was good practice and I'm going to get my hands on a real pastry bag and decorating tips as soon as possible! I think they'd probably look great topped with an Oreo, or even frosted with a chocolate version of the Cookies 'n Cream frosting. The Mint Oreo cupcake base leaves room for plenty of different frosting options, I think, so once I adjust the amount of mint extract, I'll have to play around with other frostings!

By request, I'll be doing another batch of Cookies 'N Cream later in the week and will try to adjust the frosting(s) on those. Aside from that, I'm just compiling lists of ingredients and tools that I want to have on hand, and deciding which recipes to try next!

Welcome!

Welcome to my cupkake blog. Why is it spelled that way, you ask? Cupkake is an old family nickname, so it seemed appropriate for someone wishing to create delicious, allergy-friendly desserts!

As a family faced with the daily challenges of food allergies, we've come to realize how hard it is to find--and trust--good, "safe" treats for folks with allergies. Our oldest daughter is not quite 3 and is allergic to eggs, milk, and peanuts. Baking has become both a pleasure and a necessity for our family and we're ultimately hoping to provide a safe "made-to-order" cupkakery for allergic individuals in our community. Our cupkakes are free of milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish--and I'll be working on figuring out some wheat-free and soy-free options as well to round out the "Top 8 Food Allergens."

For now, we're trying out various recipes, tweaking them, and perfecting our baking and decorating skills. This blog is designed to illustrate this journey for interested readers. At this time, we won't be posting the recipes themselves (if you want to bake your own, we highly recommend the book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World), but will instead detail the successes, insights, and challenges we're sure we'll face along the way! Please bear with us as we work on our decorating--at the current time, we're still gathering our decorating tools and practicing with them!

We hope you'll enjoy sharing this journey with us, dear readers--we know we'll enjoy sharing it with you!