Posts filed under 'Wedding Cupcakes'
Blooming Garden Cupcake – luscious devil’s food cupcake frosted with slightly sweetened whipped cream and decorated with marshmallow flowers. Price available upon request.
my sweet, edible flower garden
Wow, it’s been a while since my last post as I had been busy with projects here and there. And with the holidays creeping around the corner, the days ahead will no doubt increasingly turn hectic.
This is actually the very first decorated cupcake I made. In our house, chocolate rules so I baked my foolproof devil’s food cake into cupcakes. I saw the decoration in a magazine and I decided to adapt it as well. Since I dislike powdered sugar-based buttercream, I used slightly sweetened whipped cream tinted green. The flowers are made of snipped marshmallows and the life-like butterflies are made of wafer paper—entirely edible, as I want all my cupcake decors to be. You can either print them on wafer paper with a special printer using food colors as inks or you can buy printed designs from a cake decorating supply store. However, I had a bad experience with the store from where I got my butterflies so I will not be revealing which store this is. Sorry!
Notwithstanding the unpleasant shopping episode, the cupcakes are wonderful to look at and divine to eat!
November 14th, 2008
Midnite Bliss Cupcake – rich devil’s food chocolate cupcake iced with bittersweet chocolate glaze marbled with white chocolate. With a large chunk of bittersweet chocolate inside. Price available upon request.
chocolate, chocolate everywhere
There are many versions of devil’s food chocolate cake and among the ones I’ve tried, this is the one I like best. It’s made with cocoa and semisweet chocolate both mixed in boiling water. According to the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, water allows for quick release of full chocolate flavor.
But there’s more. Inside the cupcake is a chunk of bittersweet chocolate. When the cupcake is eaten at room temperature, the chocolate chunk also gets soft, making this a variation of the molten chocolate cake without the gushing gooey center. The cupcake is then topped with a bittersweet chocolate glaze marbled with white chocolate. With all the chocolate in one small cupcake, I think this qualifies for the “died-and-went-to-heaven” dessert category!
October 20th, 2008
Blackgold Truffle Cupcake – silken, decadently-rich flourless truffle cupcake, topped with whipped white chocolate ganache flecked with edible gold luster dust. Price available upon request.
chocolate rush
I have this recipe for a flourless chocolate truffle cake and once again, I converted it into miniature cakes. If you are a true-blue chocoholic, this cupcake is for you. I bake this differently and that accounts for the silky texture through and through. I have tried countless recipes of flourless truffle cake and this is the best of the lot. It has a deep chocolate flavor and is not too sweet although it is indeed rich. But then chocolate IS supposed to be rich. No sugar-free chocolates for me!
The cupcake is decadent enough so I just topped it with a whipped white chocolate ganache that is also not cloyingly sweet. And to highlight its richness, there is nothing more appropriate than flecks of edible gold luster dust.
October 6th, 2008
Days of Wine and Roses Cupcake – light chocolate cupcake with grated bittersweet chocolate, a hint of cinnamon and a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon, with red wine-infused bittersweet chocolate ganache topped with red rose made of pliable candy. Price available upon request.
life is a cabernet
There used to be rules on how to pair wine with food but as people’s palates became more adventurous, there seems to be no more right or wrong combinations. It all depends on one’s experimentations. There is still this basic guide, though: light foods goes with light wine, and robust food goes with heavy wine.
This is also true when serving wine with chocolates. Strange bedfellows, one might say, but their combination can actually be a match made in heaven. However, this unusual pairing is not for everyone. Again, it depends on individual tastes and preferences. You should try this though and see what works and what does not.
This cupcake recipe calls for dry red wine, and I use Cabernet Sauvignon for its bold flavor which also goes well with bittersweet chocolate, one of the cupcake ingredients. If you happen to get hold of a recipe calling for dry red wine, you can either use a Zinfandel, a Merlot, a Shiraz or a Cabernet Sauvignon. Just remember, if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook (or bake) with it.
As I was mixing the batter, I tasted some and I liked it. Rightfully so, I also liked the baked product. So this was what I learned: if the cake batter tastes good, the resulting cake will also taste good.
The ganache topping also has a splash of Cabernet. I wanted to name this creation “Days of Wine and Roses” so what better decoration to put than a life-like red rose (molded from pliable candy) on top?
By the way, I think this cupcake can also be served during weddings or debuts. While I cannot change the color of the rose (alas, the candy only comes in red color), the motif can be reflected in ribbons tied around the cupcakes. You can also choose which cupcake flavor to go with this type of decoration. Kindly contact me for details.
* * *
Some useful wine terminology:
Aroma – the smell of a wine, especially young wines
Bouquet – the complex of aromas that develops with age in fine wines; young wines have aroma, not bouquet
Dry – not sweet, except in sparkling wines, where dry means sweet
Full-bodied – full proportion of flavor and alcohol; big, fat
Legs – the viscous rivulets that run down the side of the glass after swirling or sipping, a mingling of glycerin and alcohol
Long – fine wines should have a long finish, or aftertaste
Oenology – the science and study of all aspects of wine and winemaking from the grape harvest to bottle
Oenophilia – love of wine
Oenophile – lover of wine
Tannin – a natural component found to varying degrees in the skins, seeds and stems of grapes; most prominent in red wines, where it creates a dry, puckering sensation in young reds of concentrated extract; mellows with aging and drops out of the wine to form sediment; a major component in the structure of red wines
Vintage – the year in which a particular wine’s grapes were harvested
You can find more wine terminology here.
August 23rd, 2008
Chocolate Banana Cupcake -tender cupcakes made with overripe bananas topped with bittersweet chocolate ganache and white chocolate curls. Price available upon request.
the cupcake and muffin conundrum
This banana cupcake recipe is originally for a large-scale cake. I tweaked it a bit—substituted an ingredient or so with another—and baked the batter in cupcake tins. Almost any cake recipe can be converted into cupcakes. After all, cupcakes are really just miniature cakes baked in a cup-sized mold. What about muffins then? They do look similar to cupcakes. What distinguishes one from the other?
Google “cupcake versus muffin” and you will find myriad discussions on this topic, from the scientific (difference in basic formula) to the hilarious ( “if you threw a cupcake against the wall, you would hear something of a “poof”; if you threw a muffin, you would hear a “thud!”).
The list of differences goes on. Here are my own conclusions:
1. Cupcakes are fancy, muffins are homely;
2. Cupcakes are frosted, muffins are “naked”;
3. Cupcakes are airier and lighter in texture, muffins are denser;
4. Cupcake batter involves longer creaming, muffin batter is mixed only until dry ingredients are moistened;
5. Both cupcakes and muffins are good!
Some also say that muffins are eaten for breakfast while cupcakes are reserved for dessert, but who’s to stop you from having a cupcake for breakfast? Any which way, cupcakes and muffins are both special treats and they do share one thing in common, after all. If one is not careful, devouring large quantities of muffins or cupcakes are likely to result in the dreaded “muffin top.” Ouch!
August 18th, 2008
Next Posts
Previous Posts
