nosheteria » cupcakes

It's Here!

Adrienne — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:32:00 +0000

February 10th will forever be a birthday of sorts. The birthday of my book. What does one do in celebration? Surely it will be different than birthday parties of yore, with the meal of my choosing, a round of duck-duck-goose, and an angel food birthday cake heaped with clouds of loosely whipped cream. A birthday party seems a bit premature. But a little birthday cake—a cupcake—was just the right thing with which say, I’m thrilled.

There is a settling immediacy to blogging. One writes, posts, and puts it out there, for all of the world to see. But it is different with a book. With a book you write, send it in, and then you wait. Wait for comments from your editor, who shows it to her team of people. You edit, she edits, you read, and reread, write some more, then send it back in. Write, read, repeat. There is a gentle to and fro, a collaborative working that occurs, and then—a book.

Now, I look at my book and when I thumb through the pages, a mess of feelings erupt inside of me. Of course there is pride. Being a reader for over 25 years, I am now so proud to consider my work sitting on someone’s bookshelf. Cooking and Screaming was a long time coming, with so many loved ones playing integral parts in my life—thus my story. But there is also a lot of trepidation, and a lot of anxiety. I have put my story out there for the world to read, and to judge, and I only hope that they enjoy what they find within the pages.

Woo! That was a bit serious! So, now what?

Oh yes, cupcakes! They’re good! And these little cakes were very good. The recipe comes from The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book, a compendium of old-timey recipes, the type that have been passed down through the generations, donated as part of a community cookbook, or won a state fair. I bought a copy at a used book store recently, and while going through it and dog-earing recipes, this one, for Burnt Sugar Cake with Burnt Sugar Buttercream Icing, was a stand-out.

A three-parter, with the recipe for burnt sugar syrup starting the whole thing off, this recipe is originally for a standard layer cake. Easily made into cupcakes (about 14), the cake was not too sweet, the perfect foil for the rich and sweet buttercream. I modernized the recipe a touch by adding fleur de sel crystals as a garnish, creating that salty-sweet combination that I love. And the crunch can’t be beat.

So make the cupcakes, and read the book, preferably together. I think that they made a pretty good combination.

Burnt Sugar Cake
from The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book

Burnt Sugar Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Spread the sugar in an 8- or 10- inch skillet. Cook undisturbed, over medium heat until the sugar begins to liquefy and color. Then begin stirring until desired color is reached, a deep caramel hue. Remove from heat, then carefully stir in the water, watching as sugar may splatter. Return to heat, and continue stirring until any remaining lumps have dissolved and mixture thickens slightly.

Burnt Sugar Cake

2 cups unbleached flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons burnt sugar syrup
¾ cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°. If making a cake, grease and flour two 9-inch pans, lining the bottom with parchment paper. If making cupcake grease and flour cups or line with paper cups.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. In a large bowl beat the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar, creaming well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add alternately (three parts dry, two parts milk), the remaining ingredients. Spoon batter into prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched in the center.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out on wire racks. Remove parchment from cake bottoms and cool completely. Frost when cakes are cooled completely.

Burnt Sugar Buttercream Icing

8 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons burnt sugar syrup
3 ¾ cups powdered sugar
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
fleur de sel (optional)

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the burnt sugar syrup until smooth. Add alternately blending after each addition (four parts sugar, three parts cream) the remaining ingredients. If necessary, add additional cream to make frosting spreadable.

Sprinkle with fleur de sel, if using.

Cupcakes are Lame… or at Least I Keep Telling Myself

Adrienne — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:25:00 +0000

I’m over the cupcake, in theory. They are so fashionable that they have become passé. A new Magnolia Bakery has moved in to the Upper West Side, so now ladies, babies and dogs can experience their confections a little closer to home. Hauling your butt down to the West Village, waiting in line with countless tourists for that bite-sized treat can be a grueling task.

So, in theory, I’m over them… and yet, I keep making them.

Hypocrisy? Perhaps. Delicious? Definitely. I feel like a hamster in a sugar-coated wheel, running away from and to this American dessert. There is just something about the cupcake. For a person like myself, a girl who is often looking for her will-power, a diminutive dessert is ideal. I could cut myself a huge hunk of cake, or I can savor one darling little cupcake. They are the perfect size to satiate my sweet tooth.

These cupcakes were topped with Swiss Meringue, a not too sweet concoction of egg whites and sugar that beats the pants off of 7 Minute Icing. After mounding each cupcake with the pillowy topping, I put them in the broiler for a moment. They browned to a lovely, crisp top, firming ever so slightly. The cupcakes were like little bites of meringue pie.

So I guess I will continue making cupcakes, I will just hate myself while eating every delightful morsel. I’m just a cupcake masochist.

Camping in NYC

Adrienne — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:43:00 +0000

Well, we are here. And we’re camping. Sort of. No, we haven’t pitched a tent in Central Park, (though it is only blocks away). But we are waiting, my husband much more patiently than myself, for all of our goodies (like our bed, who knew the bed was a luxury item?) to arrive from California. Until they do we are making due on our new click-clackin’ sofa bed. So no, we are not exactly camping and no bits of plant debris must be plucked from my hair.

New York is great, lively, and busy, and HOT, because, well, it’s August. I’ve already explored some markets up and down the West Side, and have been forced to restrain myself in terms of buying, reminding myself that buying Sand Dabs without having a saute pan in which to quickly pan fry them in, would just be a shame. Our computer access is still spotty, so I’m not quite sure when all of the regular postings will continue, so bear with me. I’m already dreaming about cooking something scrumptious.

But until that time, I will leave you with a photo of the last thing that I baked in the Bay Area: devil’s food cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, each topped with the perfect cherry. Mmm, frosting…

Brown Suede Cupcakes

Adrienne — Thu, 11 May 2006 18:02:00 +0000

I admit it, there is nothing I like more than a good Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Icing. I also admit that all that red food coloring, the very coloring that gives the cake its charming name, kind of gives me the heebies. The way that it colors your fingers when you pick the cupcake apart, the way it leaves an incriminating red mark on your tongue long after you have consumed the sugary goodness, and really, just the idea of eating all of that food coloring, despite the delightful sweetness of the cupcake– puts a bad taste in my mouth. And so, when faced with the stunning problem of what do when faced with desire to have the cupcake, without all of the mess, I decided to make Brown Suede Cupcakes.

The Red Velvet Cupcake minus the red food coloring, proved to be just the thing to cure my sweet tooth, all the while maintaining the rules of my finicky palate. A Red Velvet Cupcake is simply a butter-heavy batter, tinged with cocoa, giving the cake only a slightly chocolatey flavor. When baked up (minus the food coloring), the cake is moist and light, with just a hint of chocolate’s color and flavor. What is the opposite of Red Velvet? Well, it’s Brown Suede. And don’t ask me why.

Although I may be breaking with tradition– perhaps you are supposed to get rosy fingertips, and a shockingly pink tongue when eating your dessert. But if you’re anything like me, and do not desire the evidence of your dessert long after you have eaten it, then Brown Suede Cupcakes are the way to go.