The Adventures of Croissant and Bagel

Carrot cupcakes August 26, 2009

My best friend is having a champagne and cupcakes 21st and I volunteered to make the cupcakes. These were a weekend experiment to try and prevent any disasters on the day. I had never made carrot cake before, which is odd when I think about it. Or maybe not so odd, seeing as when little sister discovered these were carrot she put her cupcake down and said ‘I just cleaned my teeth’. Subtle.

Since these cupcakes have to be finger food I thought a small size would be better. These were made in mini muffin pans and can be eaten in 1-2 mouthfuls. I kept the icing minimal because I don’t really like those cakes that have a tower of icing about the same height as the actual cake. They are also a bit small for a really strong cream cheese flavour so I used 50-50 Philadelphia/butter. I topped them off with a small piece of grated carrot that I had soaked in hot water for 10 minutes.

Carrot cupcakes (adapted from Womens Weekly ‘cupcakes by colour’)

• 1 cup peanut oil (the recipe says vegetable but I ran out)
• 1 1/3 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups firmly packed coarsely grated carrot
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 1/4 cups self raising flour (sifted)
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line mini muffin pans with little patty pans. I did some big as well because otherwise it makes a lot of mini cakes.
2. Beat oil, sugar and eggs together in small bowl with electric mixer until thick and foamy.
3. Transfer mixture to food processor, add carrot and walnut and blend until they are the desired size.
4. Transfer mixture to larger bowl and mix in sifted ingredients.
5. Fill the cases about 1/2 to 2/3 full. The cakes rise so take care not to overfill the patty pans.
6. Bake about 15 minutes.

It might seem annoying to keep transferring bowls but I found the carrot and walnut was too chunky for a little cake if it didn’t get blended in. I guess for a larger cake it wouldn’t matter so much. The cakes keep quite well, they were still nice the next day and the day after.

Lamington cupcakes August 10, 2009

I had been wanting to try this for a while and I finally got the opportunity. Lamingtons remind me of my grandparents and childhood birthdays. They aren’t something I ever buy because they just don’t live up to my memories of them. Anyway this sponge worked well for cupcakes because it didn’t sink after I took them out of the oven. Whether it was because the egg is slightly cooked before everything is mixed in or maybe I just cooked them for too long, but I was happy with the result. The cake is a little drier than I would have liked but luckily the cream mostly counteracts that.

Lamington cupcakes (adapted from Gourmet Traveller website)

• 4 eggs
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g plain flour
• 15g butter (melted)

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar over a bowl of simmering water until they are warm (about 5 minutes). I used an electric whisk to get it really fluffy.
3. Transfer to an electric mixer with whisk attachment and whisk on high speed for about 10 minutes
4. Sift flour over egg mixture in batches and mix in with a metal spoon, trying not to disrupt too much air from the eggs. Fold through melted butter before folding in the last of the flour.
5. Fill patty pans 2/3 full of mixture. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, keeping an eye on them to ensure they do not burn.
6. Makes about 12 large cupcakes.

To assemble

1. Mix together 2 cups of icing sugar, 2 tablespoons dark cocoa, 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of hot water to make a thick paste. Continue adding water a little at a time until it is the correct consistency (thick but runny)
2. Dip tops of cakes into icing and then dip into coconut. Leave to set (I left them overnight).
3. Cut out tops of cake out, pipe in whipped cream then replace tops.

Choc-mint cupcakes July 5, 2009

My little sister has just left for the snow. That requires a day of driving, so i promised her a treat to take with her for the car ride. I figured something with a lot of sugar might keep her awake. I had been meaning to try choc-mint cupcakes for a while because I love the combination. Mum used to buy packets of chocolate covered mint sticks for dinners but soon gave this up as a waste of time up because I would eat most of the packet while she wasn’t looking. My father and I soon discovered that leaving an empty packet would ensure mum never found out until later.

The cupcakes were better than I was expecting. I was trying a new type of cocoa and I think this really made the difference. I also decided to exercise some patience (cake is usually something I make in a hurry) and let the butter and eggs reach room temperature before I started. This really seemed help the texture and made the cake very light.

Chocolate cupcakes

• 100g cubed butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 190C
2. Beat butter until soft (if it is at room temperature this only takes a second) and then gradually add sugar. Beat until fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each. Add the vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa and salt. Combine them with a whisk.
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients, then the milk. Keep adding small amounts alternatively.
6. Fill patty pans about 1/2 full.

The cakes rise quite a bit but they have a flat top. They are cooked when a skewer comes out clean.

Choc-mint ganache

• 200g chocolate
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3 mint leaves
• Peppermint essence

1. Melt the chocolate and cream over a double boiler
2. Add peppermint essence to taste
3. Crush the mint leaves in the ganache to give fresh taste.

Kate is quite fussy so i kept the mint taste subtle, but it can be easily made stronger or lighter. I must confess that the fresh mint leaves were an afterthought and i just used a spoon to crush them in the mixture. It may have been better to boil them in the cream. I will have to play around with the method a bit.