Moving Mayhem - Raspberry Cupcake Edition

Call it prophecy or call it coincidence… either way, it’s somewhat humorous that I made this post one year ago and titled it Moving Mayhem – Bread Pudding Edition.  It’s almost as if I was setting myself up for another edition.  I just hope there isn’t another Moving Mayhem post in 2013.  This move should go much more smoothly than last year’s, even though we’re basically just doing the second half of that move in reverse.  If the weather forecasters are right, we at least won’t be dodging tornados.  So, since this move is only 500 miles and we’ll be doing it in basically 2 days, I’m not getting rid of everything.  That meant I could make whatever I wanted and didn’t have to worry about using up my good stuff.  It will be going with me.  With that in mind, I decided I wanted raspberry muffins, but since Seeley recently made muffins, I decided to change it to raspberry cupcakes, and the cupcakes vs. muffins discussion began.

Either way, here’s what you’ll need:

½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs, separated
⅔ cup buttermilk
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon powder
1 cup raspberries 

So, I have to admit to not getting the best looking berries.  One of the other brands had much bigger, prettier berries, but they didn’t smell at all.  These ones, on the other hand, smelled amazing.  In fruit, aroma almost always trumps appearance. 

If you can’t find any that are good, you could probably use frozen ones.  Just make sure they have thawed and come to room temperature.  In fact, it’s important to note that everything in this recipe must be room temperature.  So, on that note, throw your softened butter into the bowl of your mixer.

Add the sugar and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until it’s light and fluffy. 

Next, separate your eggs and put the whites aside. 

Add the yolks and vanilla to your butter mixture and beat until thoroughly incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. 

Add ⅓ of the dry mixture to the batter and mix to combine. 

Follow that with half of the buttermilk. 

Then another third of the dry, the other half of the wet, and finally the last of the dry.  You should have a nice smooth batter.  Obviously, everything needs to be scraped down.

Now back those egg whites you set aside.

Whip them until you have stiff peaks. 

Now, rinse your raspberries and add them to the bowl. 

You don’t want to totally decimate the raspberries, so just mix enough to break them up some.  It will be more evenly distributed after you’ve finished folding in the egg whites. 

Which you’re going to do now.  Start with half of the egg whites.  Just drop them on top.

Then fold them in.  This will lighten up the batter some, which will makes the second edition easier to incorporate. 

Fold that in now.

Um, somewhere in that process you should have preheated your oven to 350°.  Scoop the batter, filling the cups almost to the top.  I used a ¼ cup measuring cup for this process.  Somehow I haven’t managed to buy a muffin scoop.  At some point after I’ve moved, I’ll probably remedy that situation. 

Just before you put the cupcakes into the oven, turn the temperature up to 425°.  Place the cupcakes in the oven, leaving the temperature at 425° for 5 minutes, and then turn it back down to 350°.  That extra heat helps to keep your cupcakes nicely rounded on top and stops them from sinking in the middle.  Bake them for a total of 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, or perhaps with a few crumbs on it. 

Remove them from the pan as soon as you can and place them on a rack to cool.

Now it’s time for what I think makes a cupcake a cupcake… the frosting.  I keep reading about this amazing flour/cornstarch based frosting that is the most amazing frosting ever made.  I guess it’s time I gave it a try.  After much research, I took the parts I liked from different sources and put them together to form my own version of said frosting. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

¾ cup milk
¾ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ sticks  (¾  cup) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla 

When making frosting it’s important to use unsalted butter.  Salty frosting… not such a good thing.  Place your sugar, salt, and cornstarch into a medium saucepan.

Whisk them together until there are no more clumps of cornstarch. 

Add the milk.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens.  You don’t want it to reach a rolling boil.  You’ll know it’s ready when you start to see the pan while you’re stirring. 

When you’ve reached that stage, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool.  It’s important that it is room temperature, and not even a little bit warm when you start the next part.  Place the softened butter into your mixing bowl.  You’ll want to use the whisk attachment this time.  Whip the butter until it’s nice and fluffy. 

Pour in the cooled milk mixture and add the vanilla. 

Then just start mixing.  At first you’re going to have a curdled mess.

But just keep mixing.  We’re talking like high speed for at least 5 minutes.  I actually had to walk away from mine for a bit so it could do its thing without me panicking and hovering.  Eventually, you’ll have this.  A smooth, creamy, and quite frankly, perfect frosting. 

I think the reviews I’ve read were right.  Not only is the flavor and texture of this frosting seriously amazing, but it pipes beautifully. 

Pipe it on or spread it, whichever you prefer, then just top with a fresh raspberry, and you have cupcake perfection. 

These cupcakes are moist and tender, and the slightly tart berries pair perfectly with the sweet frosting.  Seriously divine. 

So what’s the difference between a cupcake and a muffin to you?
    
 

And so begins the Mayhem!

Last May, we had a wee bit o' the crazy going on. Taneasha was eating nothing but road food as she was being chased across the country by tornadoes, I was posting about ice cream and toads (and dumb fuck june bugs) and neighbours with guns and really, we barely made it out alive.

So, this year, we decided to do it all over again.

Of course the first thing that happens is I get locked out of the website while Taneasha is trapped in a car crossing 5 different state lines in 12 hours. And so, No Post For You! (today? yes, Tuesday? no)

We're pretty sure she's not going to be homeless in the middle of the month, but I'm evicting her from Fridays for a while.

Carrot Cake Cookies with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

(Yes, that whole thing is the name of the recipe. Yes, I'm a freaking genius to mix white chocolate and cream cheese)

What you need:

• 2-3 carrots (~1 1/2 c once grated)
• 1 c butter
• 1 1/2 csugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 2 1/2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

not shown, but also worth adding

• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1 tbsp orange zest

What you gotta do:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Grate the carrots. If you do this by hand, you are insane and you probably have no skin left on your knuckles.

Since you've already got the food processor dirtied, may as well go all the way. Switch from the grater blade to the regular blade.

Dump in the butter and sugar and let the sharp things do all the work.

I was going to continue the whole recipe in the food processor, thinking I could save dishes that way, but I wasn't convinced that it would be able to hold the whole recipe's worth. Cut this recipe in half and do the whole thing in the food processor. It makes a lot of cookies anyway and you can save a few dishes.

If you're doing the full recipe, dump the sweet carrot butter into a bowl and add the egg, vanilla, and spices (and orange zest).

Mash this all together then start adding flour. I did a cup at a time and mixed well after each one.

This gradual-addition-and-lots-of-mixing method will result in a cookie with a cakier texture.

You should have a stiff, but sticky dough.

And you also should have added the baking powder with the flour... dammit.

I sprinkled about half a teaspoon of baking powder over the dough and mixed it for a couple more minutes. Seemed to work.

There are a couple ways you can make these cookies.

You can just drop spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet and bake them, but they don't spread like most drop cookies. They hold their shape. So you'll probably end up patting the tops down a bit so they aren't so blobby.

You can also chill the dough for about half an hour and then roll it into balls and poke them until they're shaped like eythrocytes. (word of the day, bonus points if you know it, google it if you don't)

Bake them at 350 for about 14-16 minutes. They should be barely browning on the bottom and look dry on top.

This recipe makes 5 dozen cookies! I really recommend cutting it in half. Good luck with the egg.

Now, you could eat these as is. But no one eats carrot cake because they like it. They're all after the icing.

• 1 c cream cheese
• 1 c icing sugar
• 4 oz white chocolate

Cream the cream cheese and icing sugar together.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave on 50% power 30 seconds at a time until you can stir the last of the lumps out of it.

(yes there are only 3 oz in the bowl. I added the fourth after I decided I wanted it)

Pour the melted chocolate into the sugary cream cheese and mix well.

Making the icing is never the hard part. Icing 61 cookies with what I'm pretty sure is the world's stickiest icing is the hard part. It never really sets, and it stays sticky, even after an hour in the fridge.

But they taste damn good.

 Did you know what an erythrocyte was??