NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover cupcakes
10 Aug
At 1 AM Monday, Ray and I woke up in the middle of the night to watch , make what we hoped to be a successful landing onto the surface of Mars. It was pretty cool to watch this on UStream on Ray’s iPad while in bed–something that made me think that my mother’s father, a man fascinated with science, machines and the stars, would have loved to have experienced if he had lived long enough to see it all. Since he didn’t, I was sure to soak up all the sciencey space-geek goodness, so much so that I ended up teary-eyed as members of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory cheered and celebrated once Curiosity had found its footing, safely, on Mars.
In honor of this awesome occasion, I decided to dedicate this week’s cupcakes to the Curiosity rover and to Mars, the “red” planet named after the Roman god of war. I requested flavor ideas on Twitter, and got some good ones back, and finally decided to do Red Velvet, but with a twist.
You see, the few times I’ve had this traditional southern cake in cupcake form, I’ve never been impressed. It always tastes like nondescript cake to me. Moist and fluffy and, I don’t know, a vehicle for cream cheese frosting? So I’ve avoided it thus far, but knew I should eventually get around to taking a stab at it.
At Sweet T’s Bakeshop, where I had apprenticed for a few months(and would love to get back to once my schedule lightens up!), Toni has a signature Blueberry Velvet cake. It’s based off of the traditional recipe, but is bursting with blueberry flavor. So, in a similar way, I decided to bake strawberry velvet cupcakes topped with a strawberry buttercream. Then, for my pièce de résistance, I dipped the cupcakes into chocolate ganache and finished with some red luster dust shimmer (Yes, I know Mars isn’t truly red, but I’m playing off of the solar system knowledge you pick up as a kid).
Since I don’t have a Red Velvet recipe in my repertoire, I adapted the recipe from Brown Eyed Baker, who had adapted it from Joy the Baker (and so on and so forth). I’m happy with how these cupcakes baked up and the strawberry extract makes them smell and taste heavenly. Mincing fresh strawberries for the buttercream seemed like a pain, but in the end it was totally worth it. The buttercream is delicious, and when topped with the chocolate dip to form a shell … well let’s just say these cupcakes are a bit .
Also, a fun thing to note: me, Cupcake Friday Project and this geeky science-fun baking post have been nominated for the Epikur 2012 Writer of the Year Award!
Ingredients
Directions
For the cupcakes, heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and position the racks toward the center. Line cupcake pans with papers.
Sift the flour and salt together. Set aside.
Whip the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until combined.
Add your gel food coloring, followed by the cocoa and strawberry extract.
Alternate the flour mixture and buttermilk and beat until combined.
In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda and stir--it will foam up a bit. Add to the batter immediately and beat on medium for about a minute.
Divide the batter between the wrappers in cupcake tins and bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack completely before frosting.
For the frosting, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup of sugar, beating until combined. Add the minced strawberries. Finally, add the remaining sugar gradually and whip until light and fluffy.
For the chocolate dip, put the chocolate chips and oil/shortening in a microwave-safe dish covered with parchment paper and microwave in 30 second increments until melted. Set aside and let cool slightly (if this cools too much and begins to harden, microwave it for 15 seconds).
To assemble, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, then freeze for 30 minutes until firm. Working with one cupcake at a time, dip the top of the cupcake into the chocolate, submerging the top (but avoid getting the cupcake wrapped all chocolatey).
Once dipped, turn upright immediately. Put back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to set the cupcake. Optional: using a clean brush, dust on red luster dust over the chocolate shell.
These win. That’s my favorite cupcake you’ve done. Period. You should mass produce these and distribute them to grocery stores on a national level. They’d be as addicting as Girl Scout cookies. I’d buy a box a week.
The red velvet cake came out nice, but for me it’s the strawberry butter cream covered in chocolate dip that just explodes with a flavor somewhere between chocolate covered strawberry and really great truffle. Thank you for mincing those strawberries, it was totally worth it!
I look forward to Cupcake Friday every week, no matter what’s Melissa’s planned for. But. I have to admit: red velvet’s not my favorite cake and and while I like strawberry, it’s not my most favorite fruit flavor.
So now that I said all that… this cupcake blew my mind. I think it’s one of my all-time favorites as well!!! The strawberry red velvet is *delicious* and the butter cream – my God the butter cream – with the minced stawberries? Holy sh*t.
Melissa, you’ve made me a red velvet/strawberry lover today. Great job! DEFINITE keeper.