Love Cupcake

Won't you be my buttercream?

Buttercream is my favorite frosting for cupcakes and I believe every baker should have a good go to buttercream recipe. My favorite recipe for buttercream comes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. I have used this recipe multiple times and in my opinion is the easiest and adaptable recipe ever. I love it. Oh, and it's delicious too.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book)

5 large egg whites

1 cup plus 2 tbsps sugar

pinch of salt

1 pound unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, room temperature

1 1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract

 

Combine the egg whites, sugar and salt in the heatproof bowl of a standing mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and the has dissolved. The mixture should feel completely smooth when rubbed between your fingertips.

Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and starting on low and gradually increasing to medium-high speed, whisk until stiif and not dry peaks form. Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and glossy, and completely cool. You can test by touching the bottom of the bowl. Takes about 10 minutes.

With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a tim, mixing well after each adition. Once all the butter has been added, whisk in vanilla. Switch to paddle attachment, and continue beating on low speed until all the air bubbles are gone, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of bowl if needed and beat until frosting is completely smooth.

Keep buttercream at room temperature if using the same day, if not store in an airtigh container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze up to one month. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat with a paddle attachment on low speed until smooth, about 5 minutes.

And now for the variations...

-You can add color to your buttercream by adding gel-paste food color, dip a toothpick inside the gel-paste jar and dab into the buttercream. You can add as little or as much color as you would like but trust me when I say a little goes a long way.

-Chocolate buttercream is delicious, adds so much flavour to your buttercream. Yum!! to make, melt 4 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate and allow to cool. Add into buttercream after adding the butter, along with the vanilla extract.

-Raspberry buttercream this one is so good too. Especially if you love raspberries, you can also do it with strawberries. Beat in 6 ounces (about one container) of raspberries after all the butter has been added and beat until the buttercream is not streaky.

 

(My sister and I making some buttercream for some Christmas cupcakes, 2009)

The best part about this recipe is that it gives you the chance to flavour it no matter how you want. You can experiment with different fruits as well so, give it try!!

Lemon Cupcakes

I have been wanting to make these cupcakes all summer. Lemon cupcakes are delicious!! They're my hubby's fave. Anytime we visit a cupcake shop if they have them he'll have one.  I ended up making these for my father-in-law's birthday. And just like his son, he enjoyed them too.

Lemon Cupcakes

(from Style At Home website) 

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl and using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter and it looks creamy, about 1 minute. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. if the eggs are cold, the mixture may look slightly curdled, which is fine. On low speed and in 3 additions (3 flour, 2 milk), add the flour and milk; alternating, but beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

3. Fill each paper liner and bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Allow cupcakes to cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, grated lemon peel, and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed for about 1 minute to lighten the frosting further.

2. Pipe frosting onto the cupcakes. I used a Wilton 1M tip to make the swirls, it's also one of my fave tips.

Super delicious cupcakes and so easy to make. The only thing I would change is maybe add more lemon flavor, make it more lemony. Either way it's delicious!!

The Ladybug Cupcakes

For my nieces first birthday in July, my sister had told me that she wanted to do a ladybug themed birthday. I had been warned way in advance so, I had time to practice and look for the ingredients I needed.

The first thing I practiced was making grass out of butter cream frosting. I had a good opportunity to practice making grass with making cupcakes for Easter dinner.

Cute, eh? Now the cupcake is just a basic chocolate cupcake. And the grass is a green dyed butter cream. It does take a bit of practice with piping grass. I used a Wilton tip #233. Now the trick to piping grass, is to do it in a quick motion, that's how you get those wispy grass leaves. In the beginning mine looked like long grass blobs but if you quickly pull away the piping bag you'll get your grass. It just takes practice, trust me and once you get it you will feel so proud. Another tip is that butter cream melts pretty quickly if left out in the heat for too long so, make sure you leave it a cool place so your grass still looks like grass and not blobs of green.

So, I had mastered piping butter cream grass. Now I had to find marzipan, that was the hard part. I went around and asked in Steveston, my Mom and my friend Tanya and they all had seen it usually around Christmas time. Now with being July that didn't help me. Then about a week before my nieces birthday my Mom called me and told me that she had found it at London Drugs of all places. So she got it for me and I saved it until I was about to use it.

A couple of days before the party, I decided I was going to tackle making the ladybugs. I had my red and black dyes, some plastic vinyl gloves; to wear so, I don't dye my hands, confectioners' sugar to help with the stickyness of the marzipan. I was set.  I opened the wrapping of the marzipan only to discover that the marzipan was covered in chocolate, it was more a candy/dessert not something to make ladybugs with. I must admit I was a little freaked out about it. What was I going to do? I tried calling my Mom and she wasn't home. I needed a recipe for making marzipan. So, I called Tanya and she helped, between the two of us we found a good recipe for making marzipan. Luckily I was going grocery shopping the next day so, I could get the ingredients that I needed.

Almond Paste Recipe

Marzipan Candy Recipe

Making marzipan may seem a bit daunting and hard but, it actually isn't at all. Super easy and messy. I made a huge mess, with confectioners' sugar everywhere. And I was happy to say that at least I had made ladybugs.

I know they're a little big, but for my first time I am pretty happy. I was just happy to have ladybugs and show my sister and niece.

The large cupcakes were on a cake stand and I had the little ones on a three stand tray. The cupcakes were blueberry, my nieces' favorite berry and they were delicious.

Thanks for stopping by and please let me know of any tips you may have for working with marzipan. Have a sweet day!!