Wednesday, April 30, 2008
tropical birthday cupcakes
this order was a lot of fun. not only were the ideas creative, but there was a story behind it. my client ordered these cupcakes for her boyfriend's 30th birthday party. her boyfriend had sent her clever cupcakes for valentine's day! to go with the tropical theme there were monkey, coconut, banana, palm tree, and surfboard cupcake decorations in addition to the number 30 of course and for some reason carrots. the flavours were equally as fun; vanilla cupcakes with bubblegum buttercream, vanilla cupcakes with orange buttercream, coconut cupcakes with lemon buttercream, and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.
yahoo! cupcakes
now where was i? april started off with a bang. we received a really fun order from yahoo! canada to be sent to an ad exec in montreal. the funny part is that we had sent the same exec a birthday box from google canada just a few weeks earlier.
cupcake hero: earth day
i am fast forwarding to present time so that i can post my cupcake hero entry for april. then i will come back and fill in the rest of the entries i skipped..
the cupcake hero theme for april is earth day. i had planned on making a raw vegan cupcake, but before i knew it the deadline had arrived and i hadn't made anything! then it came to me. in a pinch my boyfriend's mother always makes what she calls piano cake but what is more commonly known as icebox cake. so, my entry this month is icebox cupcakes! the tie in with the earth day theme is that there is no baking involved, so in the spirit of earth day it is an energy saving dessert.
recipe: yield 5 cupcakes
26 mr. christie chocolate wafers
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
whip cream by hand (earth day, remember?) and incorporate powdered sugar. place chocolate wafer in the bottom of a cupcake liner, top with approximately 1 tbsp of whipped cream. repeat 4 more times ending with the 5th wafer. once all 5 cupcakes are done place remaining whipped cream into piping bag and pipe onto the top of each cupcake. crush the leftover wafer and sprinkles the cupcakes with chocolate wafer "earth". freeze for at least 1 hour before eating. enjoy!
the cupcake hero theme for april is earth day. i had planned on making a raw vegan cupcake, but before i knew it the deadline had arrived and i hadn't made anything! then it came to me. in a pinch my boyfriend's mother always makes what she calls piano cake but what is more commonly known as icebox cake. so, my entry this month is icebox cupcakes! the tie in with the earth day theme is that there is no baking involved, so in the spirit of earth day it is an energy saving dessert.
recipe: yield 5 cupcakes
26 mr. christie chocolate wafers
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
whip cream by hand (earth day, remember?) and incorporate powdered sugar. place chocolate wafer in the bottom of a cupcake liner, top with approximately 1 tbsp of whipped cream. repeat 4 more times ending with the 5th wafer. once all 5 cupcakes are done place remaining whipped cream into piping bag and pipe onto the top of each cupcake. crush the leftover wafer and sprinkles the cupcakes with chocolate wafer "earth". freeze for at least 1 hour before eating. enjoy!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
whippet cupcake
A whippet is a cookie that is only made in Montreal. It consists of a biscuit base topped with marshmallow and then coated in a hard shell of pure chocolate. Since the coating is pure chocolate, it is very prone to melting, and as a result is available in very few areas outside of Montreal. Many people eat whippets in a ritualistic fashion. A common method is to smash the marshmallow side of the cookie on your forehead to break the chocolate coating before taking your first bite. I am not sure this would be an apt way of eating a Whippet Cupcake though since most of the frosting will likely end up in your hair rather than in your mouth!
cupcake hero: marshmallow
marshmallow was the theme for march's cupcake hero competition. marshmallow was a hard ingredient for me. i figured there would be alot of s'mores, coconut, and whoopie pie cupcakes, so I decided to try something different. for some reason marshmallows make me think of sweet potatoes, even though I have never eaten them together, i believe alot of sweet potato recipes call for marshmallows. for this reason my marshmallow cupcake hero entry was sweet potato pie cupcakes.
recipe:
sweet potato cupcakes (adapted from martha stewart's "baby sweet potato cakes")
yield: 16 cupcakes
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup buttermilk
3 cooked sweet potatoes (approximately 1.5 cups cooled and mashed)
1. preheat over to 350.
2. mix butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. add eggs one at a time and mix until well encorporated.
4. in a seperate bowl combine flour and baking soda.
5. In another bowl mash sweet potatoes with buttermilk, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla.
6. add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until just combine.
7. add sweet potato mixture and mix until smooth.
8. spoon batter into cupcake liners and bake until toothpick comes out clean (approximately 20 minutes).
homemade marshmallows (recipe from cooking for engineers website)
1.5 tbsp gelatin
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/8 tsp sale
1/2 tbsp vanilla
for detailed instructions see: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/106/Marshmallows .
follow instructions until marshmallows are done mixing, then put marshmallow mixture into a piping bag, poke the the piping tip into the top of a cooled cupcake, squeeze until cupcake seems full, pull tip out and repeat until all the cupcakes are filled.
graham cream cheese frosting
4oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tablespoon milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
beat cream cheese, butter, and milk until smooth. slowly mix in powdered sugar then mix on high speed until mixture has lightened up. add graham cracker crumbs and mix until well encorporated. frost cupcakes
mini marshmallows
open bag. place on top of icing.
enjoy!
NOTE: i am normally a bit leary of encorporating vegetables into desserts, but o have to say these were delicious, possibly the most moist cupcakes I have ever tasted. also, while i thought i was being original there ended up being at least 3 other sweet potato cupcakes in march's competition.
recipe:
sweet potato cupcakes (adapted from martha stewart's "baby sweet potato cakes")
yield: 16 cupcakes
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup buttermilk
3 cooked sweet potatoes (approximately 1.5 cups cooled and mashed)
1. preheat over to 350.
2. mix butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. add eggs one at a time and mix until well encorporated.
4. in a seperate bowl combine flour and baking soda.
5. In another bowl mash sweet potatoes with buttermilk, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla.
6. add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until just combine.
7. add sweet potato mixture and mix until smooth.
8. spoon batter into cupcake liners and bake until toothpick comes out clean (approximately 20 minutes).
homemade marshmallows (recipe from cooking for engineers website)
1.5 tbsp gelatin
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/8 tsp sale
1/2 tbsp vanilla
for detailed instructions see: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/106/Marshmallows .
follow instructions until marshmallows are done mixing, then put marshmallow mixture into a piping bag, poke the the piping tip into the top of a cooled cupcake, squeeze until cupcake seems full, pull tip out and repeat until all the cupcakes are filled.
graham cream cheese frosting
4oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tablespoon milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
beat cream cheese, butter, and milk until smooth. slowly mix in powdered sugar then mix on high speed until mixture has lightened up. add graham cracker crumbs and mix until well encorporated. frost cupcakes
mini marshmallows
open bag. place on top of icing.
enjoy!
NOTE: i am normally a bit leary of encorporating vegetables into desserts, but o have to say these were delicious, possibly the most moist cupcakes I have ever tasted. also, while i thought i was being original there ended up being at least 3 other sweet potato cupcakes in march's competition.
baby shower cupcakes
the end of march brought a large order for baby shower cupcakes. the bib and footprint designs had been used in previous orders, and to that we added two new stamped designs of a baby outfit and baby carriage, as well as one of my favourite new designs; the pacifier. since the gender of the baby was not known our client chose gender neutral pastel colours. all 5 dozen cupcakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream filled with whipped cream. the cupcakes were a big hit!
" i just wanted to thank you for the cupcakes. they were absolutely gorgeous and actually even exceeded my expectations. the display was the talk of the shower and was truly incredible to look at as well as eat!"
" i just wanted to thank you for the cupcakes. they were absolutely gorgeous and actually even exceeded my expectations. the display was the talk of the shower and was truly incredible to look at as well as eat!"
montreal fashion week 2008
Near the end of March we had the honour of serving our cupcakes at the m0851 Fashion Show and Press Lunch as part of Montreal Fashion Week. Our cupcakes were being served along side Neige Ice Wine so we developed some new flavours that would pair well. After much taste testing which involved eating cupcakes and drinking ice wine (it's a rough life but someone's got to do it!) we decided on: vanilla cupcakes with maple frosting, apple cinnamon cupcakes with vanilla frosting, and my favourite cashew cupcakes with mascarpone frosting. the frosting was tinted to match the colours of the m0851 spring line. our cupcakes were a big hit, even with the models and on top of leaving with the satisfaction of a job well done, i also left with an awesome swag bag!
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