Friday, January 13, 2012

Beautiful First Time Cupcakes

Hello blogworld!

I am so very proud of what I am about to show you, for my last two days of crafting business were totally botched. I am not sure, but I'm pretty sure that they can be salvaged by some greater power, and maybe that will be me soon. Anyway! I delved into something I'd always wanted to do, or at least do well. Cupcakes!! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that during my childhood, I've made cupcakes...at some point...maybe. The fact is, my mother has worked in a bakery my whole existence, so that kind of limited her wish of baking recreationally. So, I didn't get much homemade baking experience until I grew up and got married, or well, dating my husband, since that was, in fact, how I won him over. I proved the age old adage that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! Now, behold the splendor!!



These, my dears, are Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting. (I also apologize in advance for the horrid pictures. I'm by no means a professional photographer, and I am limited to a camera phone for my capturing)

Now, I've made plenty of cakes, and I've made ganache as well, so I knew that I could most likely do this. But it was still my first cupcake venture, and they have turned out beautifully! I'm so very very excited. I literally did the whole flappy wrist girlish squeal dance when they came out of the oven, and was vigorously patting myself on the shoulder, vocally, echoing in my little kitchenette "OH DAMN! Have you ever SEEN such beautiful cupcakes?!" And yes, I realize I am quite lucky my husband loves me, because yes, I did look ridiculous.

Moving on, I found the recipe at foodnetwork, which I'm always halfway leery about, knowing that they are often quite difficult for a product that I don't find particularly impressive, but these sounded good! Especially since I'm a sucker for cream cheese, literally eating it out of the package, and these were filled with such. So I was sold. You can find the recipe here!

I followed the recipe as closely as I might, though some of the things I skirted the whole 'room temperature' bit, though that was mostly the milk, which I didn't feel like microwaving, and the egg, though I did microwave that for like ten seconds, and seemed to work well. The batter turned out really really silky, by feeling of my fingers, and I knew from there that I was going to be delighted with my results. Or at least so I hoped. At that point, my husband got home, so I got to have his phone, and got pictures!

My cupcake papers, adorably spring pastels, and my batter, and filling.

Close up of batter and filling


Before and after filling.


To be honest, to fill my papers, I just used two regular spoons, and my fingers. I found the need to spread the batter a bit at the bottom, and the top, kind of a touch and shape process since it was nice and thick and silky. Twenty minutes later and we have...



Beautiful cupcakes! I was so excited when they came out nice and professional looking with the pretty crackly tops and it was quite a moment for me! After popping them out of the tins three minutes later...



More beautiful! (Please forgive the mt. dew and such behind)

For my ganache, I cheated. I totally took a 'modern housewife' shortcut, and simply microwaved my cream, carefully avoiding bubbling it too much and causing unforseen problems. I think I microwaved about a minute, maybe a touch more.

Hot cream. Mm.


Adding my chips, I just stirred with a spoon, and the chips melted perfectly into a beautiful ganache. I was afraid I might have to microwave it again, but no, it turned into a lovely dark yummy euphoria.

Ganache and cupcakes ready for dunking!


Again, I was slightly worried this might be a bit difficult, but it was surprisingly easy just to dip it into the chocolatey wonder and spin it a bit and voila! Shiny decadence in a cupcake wrapper! I love how ganache makes things look so chic and upscale, and it is so easy, just cream and chocolate.



And there you have it folks! Beautiful and relatively simple cupcakes. I'm so excited to try them, and will report on how they turned out, if they were as tasty as they were pretty. I'm so happy for some success in my crafting business now, though this technically isn't crafting persay, but it was a success, and I will take it where I can get it!

Update! The cupcakes were very very nummy! Dense though, not sure if it was meant to be or not, but mine were, and it was good. Not overly sweet, or rich, but still very good. I actually kind of prefer it this way sometimes!

P.S. I was further reminded I hate cocoa powder. Sooo messy!! Anyone have some tips for me in how to work with it so it doesn't go everywhere?

SO! With successful love,

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