Cupcake Friday Project

Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg … such wonderful spices. This past Friday’s cupcake captured the flavors of the season, balanced sweetness and simplicity. Essentially, this is a pretty damn-near perfect cupcake, if I may say so myself.

Sure, it doesn’t have any razzle dazzle; no fancy fillings or hand-spun sugar toppings. But what this handheld dessert does have is a moist, springy cake laced with spices, topped with a sweet and creamy frosting. The garnish of sugar and spices sprinkled on top links everything together into a big grin and happy belly.

I don’t think I would change a single thing about this recipe, except maybe to add more spices and throw a vanilla bean into the frosting. I used my caramel cupcake recipe as the base, as well as my standard vanilla frosting recipe. Sometimes it’s best to work with what you know.

Chocolate. Salt. Pretzels. This is an indulgent cupcake that’s not too over the top. I got the idea from another bakery and took it in my own direction–namely marrying chocolate and salt in the frosting.

Like I mentioned previously, the cake is a bit too delicate for my tastes, but that can be remedied by nixing the oatmeal stout and keeping the buttermilk at the full amount. The frosting, on the other hand, is perfection. It’s rich without being overpowering, and the salt mimics a chocolate-covered salty pretzel.

I rolled the edge of the frosting in crushed pretzels and topped it with a homemade chocolate-covered pretzel; making your own is completely worth it.

This is a cupcake that I’m really happy with and could see doing well in a bakery. I also think that a salted chocolate frosting could have multiple uses with other cake flavors … any suggestions?

I feel like I went a little out on a limb for last week’s Cupcake Friday cupcake, and I’m happy that I did. Two weeks ago, Chris LaPierre of Iron Hill Brewery in Maple Shade offered me some unhopped oatmeal stout wort, which I knew I couldn’t pass up.

For the cupcakes, I used the wort to reconstitute the raisins and heated it to mix in with a portion of the oats. Chris was so generous with the amount of wort he gave me (it looks to be just under a gallon), I was able to reduce some of it to make a syrup for the frosting (to get a stronger stout flavor), as well as make oatmeal stout ice cream. One word there: YUM.

Even after all of that, I still have enough for this week’s cupcakes, which I’m looking forward to revealing on Friday. But until then, let’s talk about the oatmeal raisin cookie cupcakes with oatmeal stout frosting.

Last Tuesday I scaled down the recipe from Hallee the Homemaker to test it first, just to see if it would work. I liked what I tasted, and made some changes. Then, when I made the recipe to scale, I made a few more changes (mainly to the dry ingredients, when I added the oatmeal, etc.) and liked where it was going. I’m glad I mixed oatmeal with the wort, as well as added some at the end. It resulted in the cupcakes being flecked with chewy bits–between the oats and raisins–and to me, that nails the oatmeal raisin texture perfectly.

The cake is moist and well-spiced, without being too sweet. Also a plus. As for the frosting, I had to fight with it a bit to get the flavor where I wanted it, but I think it complements the cake nicely. I’m also totally in love with my Wilton 2D tip. I love the ruffled look I can get with it.

So thanks to Chris for the wort and Hallee for contributing to my final recipe inspiration. This is DEFINITELY a recipe I’d keep in the books for opening a bakery.

Aside from the issues I had with my cupcake carrier on Friday, this version of the Autumn Maple brown ale sweet potato cupcakes is pretty top notch. I’m definitely glad that I upped the amount of sweet potatoes I used–this made for a more moist cupcake with a sweet, malty flavor.

The cake is moist and spiced well–you can pick up the notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger easily. These cupcakes could possibly taken even more sweet potatoey-goodness, in my opinion.

The frosting is smooth and sweet, and you can taste the deep sweetness of the beer and maple syrup. Topped with more of the Autumn Maple beer syrup, and you have a truly satisfying cupcake. This will definitely go on my permanent list, and can be made with vanilla bean frosting, or even a maple buttercream. A sticky meringue frosting could work, too.

Caramel apples. You see them at Fall Fairs and candy shops, but they’re not always for everyone (super sticky caramel … harder than a rock apples). But I wanted something to embody early fall and those flavors, so I worked on a recipe for caramel apple cupcakes.

I’m already happy with the caramel cupcakes I’ve made, so I looked around online at how other people did caramel apple cupcakes. Some put caramel in the center. Some used diced apples. But I came across one recipe that called for baked apple mush, and I knew I wanted to go in that direction.

I tweaked my original caramel recipe, added some spices, the apple mush and cut the buttermilk in half so I could include apple cider. And I was blown away by how apple-packed these cupcakes are, flavor-wise. I would have never expected it, but they are!

The texture is good, and the cake pairs beautifully with my tried and tested salted caramel buttercream. Add a caramel drizzle on top, and voila! A cupcake worthy of calling itself a caramel apple without the sticky mess and potential for dental disaster (yikes!).

The chocolate pretzel cookies from Shelly Kaldunski The Art of the Cookie: Baking Up Inspiration by the Dozen were a welcome challenge for this cookie baker.

While I had mentioned previously that I was a little unsure about the recipe, I kept to it (with my little addition of vanilla) and was pleasantly surprised. The cookies are a bit delicate, but the flavor is definitely there. It’s more of an adult-chocolate flavor: not super sweet, but still rich.

The salt—in this case my sel gris because I couldn’t get a hold of flaked sea salt—is crucial. Don’t even bother with these cookies if you’re not willing to sprinkle some salt on them. They just won’t taste the same, and you will have wasted your time and ingredients.

I’m still waiting on some comments from my taste testers, but all in all I would call this a successful cookie recipe. And I got a lot of practice twisting dough into pretzel shapes, so maybe this means I should make real pretzels soon!