Saturday, January 1, 2011

A fine start indeed...

The entry deadline for the Chocolate Adventure Contest is tomorrow. I have entered not one, but two cupcake recipes! Both vastly different from the other. My long suffering family has endured recipe testing and tweaking...all without complaint. So sweet and supportive of them.

Creative Baking Genius at work...


My entries were "Twisted Velvet" and "Blackbottom Gingercake with Crumbly Cocoa Topping"...I'll post the recipes in the comments later. Once I decipher my own scribbles.

4 comments:

Dori said...

"Blackbottom Gingercake with Crumbly Cocoa Topping"

Cupcake ingredients:
2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup packed Brown Sugar
1 cup Apple sauce (unsweetened)
3/4 cup Stout Beer (I used Guinness)
1/2 cup Oil
1/4 cup Blackstrap Molasses
2 Eggs
2 tablespoons Ground Ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 6oz bag of SCHARFFEN BERGER 62% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate Baking Chunks

Crumb Topping:
1/4 cup SCHARFFEN BERGER Roasted Cacao Nibs
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
4 tablespoons Softened Butter


In a small saucepan heat Stout Beer until boiling. Remove from heat. Stir in Baking Soda. Once foaming has subsided add both sugars and stir to dissolve. Whisk in Applesauce, Molasses and Oil; set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl sift the remaining dry ingredients (Flour, Ginger, Salt, Ground Pepper, Cinnamon, Baking Powder). Whisk to combine.

Pre-heat oven to 350 (F).

Line 2 regular size muffin tins with cupcake paper liners. Lightly spray bottoms with cooking spray.

Place bag of Chocolate Baking Chunks in a ziplock bag and pound lightly with a rolling pin or meat hammer to break up the chunks a little more. Place about a tablespoon of broken chunks in the bottom of each cupcake liner; set aside.

In a medium size bowl add all of the Topping ingredients (Cacao Nibs, Flour, Brown Sugar, Butter) and mix well. Topping will be crumbly. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk Eggs and then whisk into Stout mixture.

Add Stout mixture to dry ingredients a third at a time, throughly mixing each time. Mixture will be fairly wet.

Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full (a 1/4 cup scoop works perfect).

Sprinkle about a tablespoon of Topping on top of each cupcake.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, rotating muffin pans about half way through.

Cool. Enjoy!


"Twisted Velvet"

Cupcake ingredients:
1 cup Stout beer (I used Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout)
2 medium size fresh Beets
1/2 cup Oil
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup SCHARFFEN BERGER Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder
2 tablespoons Buttermilk Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Chipotle chili powder

Frosting ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
4 Egg Whites
1 1/2 + 2 tablespoons softened unsalted Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoons SCHARFFEN BERGER Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder

upcake instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (F)

Measure out 1 cup of room temperature stout beer, set aside to de-foam.

Line mini muffin tin with mini cupcake paper liners, set aside.

Peel and quarter fresh beets, puree in blender or food processor, set aside.

In a large bowl sift all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, buttermilk powder, baking soda, salt, chipotle). Whisk to combine.

In a medium bowl or large measuring cup whisk together stout, beet puree, eggs, vanilla and oil. Add to dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Fill mini muffin cups 3/4 full (a 2 tablespoon scoop works perfect for this!)

Bake for 9 minutes (14 minutes for regular size cupcakes)

Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting instructions:
In a metal bowl (bowl for mixer works great) over a pan of boiling water combine sugar and egg whites--stirring just enough to mix.

Slowly stir until sugar is all melted (no grains felt between the fingers).

Transfer the bowl to the mixer and whip until soft peaks form.

Add vanilla and cocoa powder, whip to combine.

Add the softened butter, one stick at a time. Whip until it has the texture of heavy cream. It will go through a stage of looking completely broken and curdled but it will come back together!

Transfer frosting to a piping bag. Cut the tip to the size swirl desired and pipe a swirl of frosting on each cooled mini cupcake. Enjoy!

CM said...

Oh my goodness, they both sound soooo good! Pictures?!???

Suburbia said...

Mmmmm!
Good luck in the contest :-)

Anita said...

I HOPE YOU WIN!!!