cupcake | Bewitching Kitchen

Please consider skipping fireworks, they bring chaos to so many! How about cupcakes instead?

RED WHITE AND BLUE CUPCAKES
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

150g granulated sugar
60g butter
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
red food gel
150g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
120ml buttermilk
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp red velvet emulsion (or vanilla extract)

Heat the oven to 350F.

Mix the flour with the salt. Reserve. Those are your dry ingredients.

Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes in high-speed. Add the egg, beat until the mixture is fully incorporated and light. Add the cocoa and the red food dye.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 more of the dry ingredients, followed by the rest of the buttermilk. Add the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix well. In a small bowl whisk the baking soda with the vinegar. Add to the cake batter and mix for a few seconds on high-speed. Finish by mixing the batter by hand, then add portions to regular cupcake tins, do not fill more than half the volume.

Bake for about 15 minutes until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Cool completely before decorating.

BASIC BUTTERCREAM FOR CUPCAKES
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

226g butter, unsalted, softened
452g powdered sugar
pinch of salt
Vanilla extract, about 1 tsp or more to taste
a couple or more tablespoons of milk (to adjust consistency)

Place the softened butter in the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer with the paddle attachment, add the pinch of salt, and whip at high speed for about 7 minutes. It needs to be really soft and lighter. Stop the mixer. Eyeball the amount of powdered sugar, add 1/3 and mix at low speed at first, once the sugar is starting to get incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high.

Add the second portion of the sugar, and incorporate the same way. Add the final portion, start at low speed, clean the sides of the bowl well with a spatula, add the vanilla and increase the speed slowly all the way to high. Whip it until very smooth. Add milk to desired consistency. Divide the buttercream into three bowls and dye one with red, one with blue, leave the third one clear.

Fill piping bags fitted with the icing tips of your choice. Ice fully cooled cupcakes.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: For these cupcakes I used a 1M tip for the red rose, a 102 petal tip for the blue swirl, and an open star tip 4B for the white decorations. All cupcakes were donated, so I don’t have a picture of the cake crumb but I got nice feedback about them. I think red velvet goes perfectly well for the 4th of July theme…

Just a couple of days ago I celebrated 15 years as an American citizen!

Time flies when you are having fun…

ONE YEAR AGO: Sonic Blade Sourdough Scoring

TWO YEARS AGO: Happy 4th of July!

THREE YEARS AGO: Happy 4th of July!

FOUR YEARS AGO: 4th of July Inspired Baking

FIVE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, July 2019

SIX YEARS AGO: Brigadeiros for the 4th of July

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Kaleidoscopic Macarons

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Zucchini Noodles with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

NINE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, July 2015

TEN YEARS AGO: Sous-vide Pork Chops with Roasted Poblano Butter

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Roasted Strawberry-Buttermilk Sherbet

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Amazing Ribs for the 4th of July!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Baby Back Ribs on the 4th of July

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Blueberry Muffins

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: A Pie for your 4th of July

Today I share six recipes from blogs I follow and love. You can find the links to each recipe so you can visit the original source and get to know them too…

Here they are, in the chronological order they showed up in our kitchen…

HANIELA’S CHOCOLATE WHIRLS

Haniela is a cookie decorator, but her blog covers all kinds of cooking, including savory stuff. Definitely worth subscribing to her feed. This particular recipe can be found here. The chocolate variation is in the end of the post, I made no changes and used the highest amount of powdered sugar listed. I made them as sandwich cookies, and used a little caramel buttercream that I had leftover from another project. Recipe for the filling is here. I loved the contrast of the chocolate with the caramel buttercream, so keep that combination in mind.

MARTIN’S LEMON VERBENA SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Martin blogged on these cookies right after the Botanical Episode from Great British Bake Off aired in the US. He’s been very diligent about baking along with the show, and of course, he is the best person to do that, having won the last Great American Baking Show, with a totally stellar performance. I was lucky to meet him in person when we were in London taping season 5. The recipe for these super tasty cookies can be found here.

If you’ve never baked with lemon verbena, please do so, it has very unique flavor and works absolutely perfectly in a shortbread format. I made no changes whatsoever to his recipe, and it turned out wonderful!

KAREN’S SIGTEBOLLER

Sigteboller are Salted Rye Rolls, made with a little rye sourdough starter and some commercial yeast. Rye is a very tricky flour to work with, but I had no issues with this recipe. Both hubby and I absolutely LOVED these rolls. The salt on top is a touch of genius, but everything works with them. The taste and texture, spot on. I think Paul Hollywood should send a virtual handshake to Karen for these! Recipe available here.

HELEN’S HASELNUSSMAKRONEN

Also known as German Hazelnut Macaroons, these should go into the OMG files of Baking… Helen does it again, shares a recipe that is super simple to prepare but amazes the tastebuds once you try a bite. My only change was to use Nutella to fill them because I realized too late that I had no seedless raspberry jam in our pantry. You can find her recipe and super detailed tutorial here.

TANYA’S IRRESISTIBLE SPICE CAKE CUPCAKES

In case you don’t know, Tanya was my tent-baking friend in Season 5 of The Great American Baking Show and we have kept in touch ever since. Recently she and her husband visited us and we baked together, but that is a story to be told another time (SOON!). Tanya’s recipes always work, and if she says something is irresistible, I pay attention. I was forced to modify the buttercream icing, because her original post uses cream cheese frosting, but I never know for how long the cupcakes will sit at room temperature once I donate them. I felt it was safer to go the route of American buttercream, so I “spiced it up” to go along with the cake. They smell simply amazing, and although I did not get to try any, the reviews from the volunteers who served them made me super happy, and I am sure Tanya will be glad to hear that also! You can find her recipe here. For the buttercream, I used my default recipe adding 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice.

CARO’S EASY PEASY SMOKIN’ CHEESE CRACKERS

Caro’s blog is one of my go-to sites when I want a recipe that will not disappoint. As I mentioned before, her posts are real tutorials, all the details that matter to make a recipe work. These cheese crackers are addictive – salty, hot to the right level, great texture. I used two types of hard cheese for them, so play with what you have in the fridge and have fun. Recipe can be found here.