Cupcake #3 and #4: German Chocolate and Marble Cupcakes

Cupcake #3: German Chocolate

Recipe Overview: 

Due to Valentines Day and an increase desire to have cupcakes I decided to tackle two different cupcakes. First was the German Chocolate cupcake, which is the basic chocolate cupcake (pg 37) with Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting (pg 147). The Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cupcakes are made with the marble cupcake recipie (pg 83) and topped with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting ( pg 142). 

Preparation: 

The Thursday before Valentines Day I decided to make the German Chocolate cupcakes for two reasons. First was that I was going to my grandmothers house the next day to visit her and other family members including my mother. The second is that the only cupcake my husband will eat is German Chocolate and considering that he is my sweetie and it's Valentines Day I would make these with him in mind. 

The goal of not making a complete and total mess of my kitchen was completely achieved with this cupcake. However, due to the fact I was so clean, I was incredibly slow baking this cupcake. I was so slow that my son actually put himself to bed without me knowing it. Anyone who knows my son is that this was HUGE because getting him into bed is normally a process and a lot of "NO" coming from him.  Despite the fact that it took me a long time to mix and bake the base cupcake, they were the best yet. They were really moist and formed perfectly. Plus they looked really cute in the Valentines cupcake liners. 

The frosting was another adventure, not because it was particularly hard but because I didn't have the proper tools. The recipe calls for a sauce pan to heat the coconut milk and sugar. I don't have one, so I used a small skillet. BIG MISTAKE. I turned my head for two seconds and the next thing you know I have bubbled over sugar stickiness on my stove. Note to self... invest in a sauce pan for the short time I'm in this apartment if I decide to do this again. After the mess was gone though, this was the easiest frosting I've made and tasted super yummy even before combined with the cupcake. 

Cupcake #4: Chocolate and Vanilla Marble 

The Chocolate and Vanilla Marble cupcake was made on Valentines day with me and my son. The reason it was chosen is because I had all the ingredients from previous cupcakes and a lot of frosting left from when I made the Strawberry Tall Cakes. 

When making this cupcake, I was neat again considering my son was involved, but much quicker with the whole process. First I made the vanilla portion. The batter was much denser than I thought it would be. Then the chocolate portion came, which basically was just adding some cocoa powder and a little water to the vanilla batter. Again, very dense. 

When it got to the part of filling the cupcake liners, I suddenly understood the need for the density. So the first step is putting in a little vanilla batter, then a little chocolate, the a little vanilla again. Next you swirl, which my son LOVED. The density is needed so you don't end up with a chocolate milk looking cupcake, but instead you get a nice swirl. This process was VERY messy for just me, especially messy for my son. 

This was the only time I haven't had frosting drama cause it was already made. I basically just used a star tipped bag and piped on the frosting I had. Throw on a couple of vegan sprinkles and bam! ... cute cupcake. 

Results:

Well, for the German Chocolate I figured my family would eat them up. After all I had brought vegan cupcakes for them before, all though they were not mine. However, only one person ate one half of a cupcake. Thank goodness my husband liked them because he helped me east some of them along with co-workers the following week. 


The marble cupcakes were all mine. Not because I wanted to keep them all to myself ... but due to public safety. My son has been battling a cold for the past week and I know he got the cupcakes all germmy. Therefore, I had to eat them all to protect the general public from contracting a horrible cold. Your welcome. They were super yummy by the way. 


Thoughts While Baking:

So as you know, I'm working on my PhD and have come to a crossroads. I've started wondering what the hell am I doing this for. I'm normally not the type to start something and then not finish, so this realization is kind of bothering me. Not to mention the guy I want to do my dissertation with seems to be too busy to keep a meeting with me. If I can't meet up with him, I think I'm just going to stop. Seems pointless to keep torturing myself with this PhD thing if it's going to be burdensome for me as well as others.  We'll see what happens. 

Cupcake #2: Peanut Butter Heaven Cakes

Recipe Overview: 
The base is a basic chocolate cupcake (pg 37) filled with Peanut Butter Cream filling (pg 151). Then it is topped off with Rich Chocolate Ganache (pg 143) and then piped with more Peanut Butter Cream Frosting (pg 151). I added my personal touch with vegan sprinkles. 


Preparation: 
With my first attempt done and fairly successful I came at making this cupcake as if I were a pro. However, I was quickly brought down to reality when I decided to "shake up" the ingredients in my sifter without thinking that "hey ... this might actually sift and get all over the place." I had cocoa powder from one end of the counter to the other. Goal for next time is to keep the mess down. 


After the sifting mess cleaned up, I finished mixing the ingredients, filled the cupcake liners (football ones again for Superbowl), and put the cupcakes in the oven. The recipe called for 18-20 minutes, so I thought that I'd settle on 19 minutes. However, it wasn't quite long enough so when I opened the oven too soon the cupcakes kind of deflated. However, since I was going to fill them with peanut butter filling it really didn't make too much of a difference. 


Once the cupcakes were out and cooling, I took to the peanut butter filling. It was fairly easy to make. I had let the peanut butter stand out for a little bit to get nice and soft , which it made it easy to mix. The next part was filling the cupcake with the peanut butter mixture. In trying to be on top of my game here, I decided to invest in a simple cake decorating kit which included a filling tip. I got a little too ambitious and my first cupcake exploded with peanut butter. Once I got the knack of it, this was easy. 


The chocolate ganache was fairly easy as well. I took vegan chocolate chips and melted them down with a little soy milk. I think I put a little too much soy milk in though since the ganache was kind of runny. But still .... ok. 


Lastly was the peanut butter frosting, which is essentially peanut butter filling but a little more sugar for stiffness. As long as I kept the frosting cold, everything worked out ok. I used a rounded tip to pipe spirals of peanut butter. However, as I was piping the spirals I could not help to think I should have used a star tip. The peanut butter had a brown, smooth texture that kind of made the frosting look like a nice turd on the top of my cupcake. Thank goodness I had the sprinkles to jazz it up a little bit. Lesson learned ... brown icing must have a star tip. 


Results: 
Despite the cocoa powder explosion, the slightly runny ganache, and the poor decision in frosting techniques, they came out just as the name would say ... heaven! They were SO yummy that I ate two in one sitting. Now, I have to say I was pretty scared to even try one because peanut butter and I are rarely friends.  The last time I had a desert with peanuts in it I couldn't walk for an hour because of the pain. However, due to the vegan-ness of this cupcake I had no problems (phew). I do need to find a better chocolate to use for the ganache topping. The chocolate I used tasted a little more nutty than I would have liked. The nutty flavor was probably extenuated even more in that I used soy milk for the base. I'm sure this is just a matter of experimenting and finding the right chocolate though. 


I also brought these cupcakes to church along with the strawberry tall cakes and non-vegan cupcakes. I didn't tell anyone the difference and between the cupcakes and EVERYONE said that the vegan ones were better. My church ladies were loading their purses with them at the end of the afternoon. The next day I brought the same batch to work, but told people of the difference. I'm really surprised to how many people thought the vegan would taste bad. They just bypassed them and didn't even want to try. Little did they know what they were missing out on ... and left more for me to enjoy. 


Thoughts While Baking: 
While baking these suckers I was very nervous for two reasons. One was that I desperately wanted to eat the whole jar of peanut butter and had to make sure to contain myself. The second was that my hubby was competing in a jujitsu competition. Knowing how important this event was to him, all I could think about is hoping that he would place or get to a good round. Unfortunately he didn't make it past the first round, which put him in a fairly grumpy mood for the rest of the weekend. Oh well ... life goes on and there are always more cupcakes to look forward to.

Cupcake Recipe #1: Strawberry Tall Cakes

Recipe Overview: 
The base cupcake is a simple Golden Vanilla Cupcake (pg 33), strawberries stuffed inside,  with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting (pg 142) to pull it all together.

Preparation: 
So this is my first time ever making a cupcake from scratch. I'm normally a Betty Crocker kinda gal, but Betty doesn't do vegan. I went with using an oil base vs. margarine. I couldn't find any margarine which specifically said it didn't use GMO's, so I figured the oil was going to have to be the first attempt. The ingredients went together fairly well. I used football themed cupcake liners in celebration of Superbowl, filled the cups 2/3rds of the way,  and threw the tray in the oven while I prepared the strawberries and frosting.

The filling was super easy. Just a bunch of sliced strawberries and maple syrup. The frosting ... well that's another story. My new sifter was not as efficient as I had hoped. It took me almost the whole entire baking time to sift 3.5 cups of confectioners sugar. When I thought I had everything under control, I goofed the last step. The recipe for the frosting calls for a lot more soy milk than I think it should so my frosting went from being "Fluffy Buttercream" to "Fuggly Buttermess". I had to save it by adding more shortening and sugar to get some of the consistency back and put it in the fridge to firm it up a little before use.

Once all the pieces were prepped and the cupcakes were cool, I went into assembly mode. My son caught the smell of cupcakes from the living room, so I had to sacrifice one of the 12 to ensure that the 11 could become cupcake master pieces. I spooned out the centers, filled with strawberries, topped the cupcake with the spooned centers, and garnished.

Results:

For my first attempt at baking vegan from scratch, all-in-all I think I did ok. My son came back for seconds, which is always positive. They were a little more crumbly than expected and if they were out of the fridge too long they fell apart. But then again, who cares cause they were SO yummy.

Thoughts While Baking: 
Tonight I was just excited to get started and try a recipe out. I've been talking about my little baking experiment at work and with friends to mixed reviews on my sanity. However, when I bring these delicious little suckers into work to share I'm sure they will change their tune.

And so it begins ...

So as many of my friends and family know ... I LOVE cupcakes. However, when I was pregnant with my son I had some complications which have led me to watch what I eat. I've been to many doctors, exploring natural and standard medical options but no one can really pin down what's going on. Basically, I can equate what happens to food russian roulette. One day I can eat a meal and be perfectly fine. But the next day I can have that same meal and feel like someone beat me up. The worst part is I never know when the pain is going to stop or if the next bite I eat is going to make it worse. At one point, I lost 20lbs in a month and a half because I couldn't eat anything without hurting. 

That's enough sob story ... so back to cupcakes. What seems to cause my problems are fatty foods like meat, oil, cheese, dairy, eggs, and cupcakes. When I was pregnant and couldn't eat more than 15g of fat in my diet I would occasionally splurge on a vegan cupcake. When I started having problems after pregnancy, the vegan cupcakes again were there to be my comfort food. Even though they still are not the healthiest thing for you, they lack the eggs and dairy that really hurt me. Luckily both of those times I was living in a major metropolitan area with plenty of vegan bakeries to choose from. 

However, now I'm temporarily living in the middle of nowhere NJ where I can walk to the Walmart, but have to drive 45 minutes to get to a vegan bakery. Also, my husband is really getting into mixed martial arts, which leaves me at home with our son a lot of evenings by myself. Lastly, I'm at a cross-roads with my PhD studies and I don't know if I want to keep going or just relax and enjoy the successes I have achieved in life. Therefore, my only logical conclusion is to bake. 

I've always liked baking. It's helped me clear my head and gives me something constructive to do. I also like the instant gratification it provides. To start with raw ingredients like flour and sugar and end with a cake makes me feel like I've accomplished something, which is wonderful since now that I'm in the dissertation phase of my PhD I feel like I'm wandering aimlessly around. 

Since I've taken a small break to regroup on the PhD, I've had some free time. One evening while surfing the net I came across the book " Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Moskowitz and Romero. I immediately ordered it. The day that it got to my door I tore it out of the box and read it as I enjoyed the nice, very non-vegan meal my husband cooked for me. As I read through the first few pages it talked about how much more fun it is to blog about cupcakes than how horrible your day was or space exploration.  All of a sudden, I had a Julia and Julia moment. 

As most of you know, I have a soup week once a year and like to post pictures to Facebook of my creations. A friend of mine suggested I blog about my soups, but alas soup week had come to an end. If you take my friends comment, the inspiration in the book, and then the conclusion that I must bake to fill my free time and clear my head ... you now have the inspiration for this blog. 

So here's my plan. There are 75 recipes in the book. I move back to the city in June (17 weeks). As of June, I better have my act together on my PhD. Therefore, I will be baking as many cupcakes as I can between now and then. As I make them,  I will blog the picture, the results, and just maybe some interludes into my life. So lets see where this takes us ...