Blackberry Cupcakes

So I'm just going to pretend that there wasn't an awkward hiatus.

You might recall that I mentioned last summer I made the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe and conveniently lost the photos, which resulted in me never writing a post on them. On the off-chance you do remember me mentioning these cupcakes, fear not! I made them again with the photos and everything!

(Mini) Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 24+ mini) - adapted from here
 Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk (I used 2%)
- 1 tsp. vinegar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tins.

In a large bowl combine milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes.

Add sugar, oil and vanilla and whisk until foamy.

Sift remaining dry ingredients and whisk until no lumps remain.

This batter is very thin so I poured it into a squeeze bottle to fill the cupcake liners approx. 3/4 full. I had remaining batter although I did not use it so I can't say how many more cupcakes it would have filled. If I had to guess I would say at least a half dozen.

Bake for 9-14 minutes.

Since blackberries were coming into season I thought to add a twist to the cupcakes this time. Ironically, I couldn't find any Ontario blackberries.

Blackberry Cream Cheese Filling:

Ingreients:

- 1/2 cup of cream cheese

- 2 tbsp. milk

- 2 tbsp. blackberry syrup (alternatively you could use a puree with some added sugar)

 Combine ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Using a BBQ skewer, carve a cylindrical hole out of the cupcake. 

Fill a piping bag with blackberry filling. Insert tip into the hole and fill the hole. Remove any extra icing.

Wash and rinse a dozen blackberries. Cut each blackberry in half. Insert blackberry over the hole with the cut side face up.

Using a petal tip and white buttercream, pipe petals around the blackberry. Optional: sprinkle some black decorators sugar over the blackberry.

You'll be hearing from me soon. I promise. Scout's honour. Pinky swear. etc. etc.

The Past Three Months

I realize I haven't been active in the past three months and while I haven't had the time to bake it does not mean that I haven't done anything "blog-worthy".

For Christmas this year I baked Eggnog Macarons (of which I have no photos). I baked three batches on Dec. 23 before I decided they looked good enough to serve my friends and family. I think that was enough macaron baking to satisfy me for another year.

After Christmas I went on a family vacation to London, England. I wanted nothing more than to go to Peggy Porschen's bakery while I was there as she has been my cake decorating idol since I started baking. Of course, the one time in my life (thus far) I'd had a chance to taste something of her's, her bakery was closed for the entire length of our trip, reopening a couple days after we'd left.

Fast forward a bit to March...and here I am, not baking anything delicious and preoccupied with what am I going to bake for Easter (and my dad's birthday which is Easter Monday this year). Well as fate should have it (or perhaps the baking gods intervened) Anna Olsen, of Food Network fame, not only happens to be an alumni of my school (in politics, no less) but was visiting and speaking on behalf of the Queen's Student Alumni Association. So I went, bought a cookbook, and was completely starstruck getting it signed!

 

Her talk was great, all about the great seasons we are blessed with in Southern Ontario and wonderful local produce we have in Canada. She gave the audience tips on dressing for the camera (never wear black!) and that on Tuesdays they film the time lapses for her show. She also shared that in every episode of her show Bake with Anna Olsen, you can find the mini chiffon cakes she baked in the first episode. By far, the best moment was (surprisingly not when someone asked her out to dinner) but when someone asked her about the most difficult thing to bake, to which she answered "French Macarons"!

 It was an amazing opportunity to hear from her as an alumni and celebrity chef and her new cookbook will definitely inspire me to come up with something delicious for Easter and will fuel me with (NOT CUPCAKE) recipes for the summer.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

The best part about coming home for the holidays is without a doubt that I don't have to cook, rarely have to clean and my parents pay for groceries. While I should be studying for my exams, I couldn't help but take advantage of this and bake some delicious cupcakes that are both festive and expensive.

When I first came across these cupcakes on the internet I couldn't get over how cute the gold wrappers looked on the cupcakes with the Ferrero Rocher on top. And while I couldn't find on specific recipe that was practical and fit my vision I took inspiration from here and here to achieve it.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (makes approx. 12)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

7/8 cup flour

3/8 cup dutch processed cocoa 

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup buttermilk (I substituted 1/2 2% milk with a teaspoon of cream of tartar rather than buy a whole carton of buttermilk)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1/3 cup boiling water

Directions:
In large bowl mix together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, powder, and salt and combined. (Sift if any ingredients have gotten lumpy)

Melt chocolate in the microwave, taking it out every 30 seconds and stirring.

Keeping the mixer on low add egg, milk, oil and chocolate. Add each individually, until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides between each additions.

Add boiling water and stir by hand until fully incorporated.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove from tins and cool on a drying rack.

Nutella Buttercream Frosting (enough to pipe swirls on 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

1/2 a 375g container of Nutella (or half 13 ounces)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 bag of icing sugar (or about 2 cups)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

whipping (heavy) cream as needed

Ferrero Rochers for toppers

Directions:

Mix butter and Nutella together until combined.

Add icing a cup at a time. The texture of the icing will be like sand after this.

Add vanilla. Add whipping cream one teaspoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. 

Pipe and top with chocolates.