.boston cream cupcakes.

Earlier last month, the girls and I surprised my husband with a trip to Boston for his birthday. It's only a 3 hour drive from here and while I've been once, I didn't get to do any sightseeing because I was there for work. We had the greatest time seeing all the sites. We went to the New England Aquarium, walked the Freedom Trail, shopped at the Farmer's Market, saw street performers, and ate lots of lobster. It was a fabulous vacation!

Since taking that trip, I have had a hankering for Boston Cream Pie, but I wanted to change it up a bit and make it a cupcake instead of a cake (it really is a cake even though they call it a pie). Boston Cream Pie is really a yellow butter cake filled with pastry cream, then topped with chocolate ganache. So delicious. So decadent. So fattening (but it's okay to indulge every now and then!).

You want to start by making your pastry cream.

2 cups Milk

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 Tbsp butter

pinch of salt

In a saucepan put 1 3/4 cups milk and sugar. Bring to boiling point but do not let boil; set aside. In a bowl, mix together the yolks, the remaining milk, and the flour and salt; mix well. While whisking, temper the yolks by slowly pouring the hot milk into the egg/flour/milk mixture. You don't need to add all the hot milk. About 3/4 cup.

Pour the tempered yolks/milk back into the saucepan and put over medium high heat.

Whisk constantly until the sauce has thickened. Remove from the heat and add

the butter and vanilla.

Put the saucepan in a ice bath to cool down the pastry cream. Make sure you stir this occasionally as it cools so it doesn't form a skin on the surface.

**NOTE: Pastry Cream can be made a day or two ahead of time and kept in the fridge in an airtight container.

How we want to make the cupcakes. If you're in a hurry, you can use a boxed yellow cake mix. I prefer cake from scratch. Here's the recipe I used:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in the vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Alternating, add the milk and flour until well mixed.

Fill each cupcake mold 3/4 the way up. Put in a preheated 350* F oven for about 20 minutes.

The tops should be slightly domed and lightly golden. Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

When the cupcakes are cooled, use a knife and cut out the center top of each cupcake. Spoon in a small dollop of pastry cream (I used a mounded teaspoonful).

Top with chocolate ganache (recipe) and put in the fridge to set.

This recipe made 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.

.lemon meringue cupcakes.

My mom always taught me, when life hands you lemons... make lemon meringue cupcakes.  Okay, maybe she didn't really teach me that, but today is so gloomy and yucky that I needed to make something to bring a little sunshine into my family's life.  And what's better than cake, and lemon, and fluffy, toasted meringue?  (I can't think of much else)

Someday I really would love to open another bakery and offer a big line of cupcakes.  These will definitely be on the menu because they were so delicious.  A little sweet, a little tart.... yum yum yum!

There are three steps to making these.  Step 1:  The lemon curd.  Step 2:  Lemon cake.  Step 3:  Fluffy meringue.  You can buy the lemon curd if you need to, especially if you're in a hurry, but the curd *can* be made at least 2 weeks ahead of time and held in the fridge.

In a bowl, put 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks.  Make sure you reserve the whites from those 4 eggs in a separate bowl.  We'll need them for the meringue.

Whisk the eggs and yolks together.

Zest 3 lemons.  I use the small grater on my grate box to do this.  Don't zest your lemons too far in advance because these will dry out if left out too long.

Set the zest aside.

After you've zested, juice all three lemons.  Set aside.

In a saucepan put the 2 eggs/4 yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, and the lemon juice (which should be 1/2 cup).

Turn the burner onto LOW and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.  There will be lumps in this but don't be worried.  We'll take care of that in a minute.

Remove the curd from the burner.

Dump it all into a fine mesh seive and use the wooden spoon to force it through.  This will filter out any of those lumpy egg particles.  Make sure you scrape the bottom side of the seive once it's all been pushed through because there will be a lot clinging to it.

Add the lemon zest to the bowl and mix in.

Now take 4 Tablespoons of butter.  Drop one piece in at a time and stir as it melts.  This will incorporate the butter into the curd, giving it a velvety smooth texture.  Repeat until all of the butter has been added.  Do not add it all at once.  It won't work and will cool the curd off too fast before it all melts in.

Cover the curd with saran.  Make sure you let the saran sit directly on top of the surface.  This will keep a skin from forming.  Put in the fridge and allow to chill.

Now for the cupcakes!  In a mixing bowl, put 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temp and 1 cup sugar.  Cream until smooth.

Add 3 eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Make sure you scrape down the sides of your bowl too.

In a bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In another small bowl put 1/2 cup buttermilk and 2 tsp oil.

Alternate adding the buttermilk and the flour mixture until it's all added.

Scrape sides with spatula.

Zest 1 lemon, and then juice it.  Add all of it to the bowl and mix well.

Spoon cake batter into a greased muffin tin about 2/3 full.

Put in a preheated 350* oven for about 20 minutes. 

Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Pop from the pan and allow to cool on a baker's rack.

When they're finally cool, use a sharp knife to cut out the centers.  I removed some of the cake from the "lid".

Spoon some of the chilled curd into the little hole.  Put the lid back on top.

Place all of the filled cupcakes on a baking sheet.  Time to prepare the meringue.

Remember those 4 egg whites we saved from the curd?  We're going to need those.  They need to be almost room temperature.  You'll get fluffier egg whites if they lose the chill from the fridge.

When the whites start getting frothy, slowly add 1/2 cup sugar while the mixer is on.  (You should be whisking on high)

As soon as the sugar is poured in, add 1/4 tsp cream of tartar.  

Allow to whip until the meringue has nice, firm peaks.

It'll be like fluffy clouds of goodness!

Put the meringue in a piping bag fitted with a wide round tip.

Pipe onto the the surface of the cupcake.  I made it all spikey, but you can pipe it on however you like.

Pop under a broiler for a quick minute, keeping a VERY close eye on them.  If you do spikeys like I did, the tips will start to burn so you need to make sure you pull them out before you have a giant fireball of meringue in your oven.

Keep these stored in an air-tight container in the fridge (if they last that long).  

This recipe makes 1 dozen cupcakes.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_145f8tg4nxk

.strawberry cream cupcakes.

We were at Costco yesterday and I noticed they had strawberries in stock. I swear I could live on strawberries alone. I love them so much. If you've ever bought them at Costco you know they come in this huge package. My husband asked me what I was going to do make with all of those strawberries. Well DUH. I don't have to make ANYTHING! I can eat them all by their pretty little selves!

Well, that wasn't a good enough answer so I told him I would make some strawberry cream cupcakes for him to take into work. I think they're starting to love me there because Jim has so far taken in Cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, muffins, and now cupcakes. Maybe they're hating me for expanding waistlines? *gasp*

This recipe comes courtesy of Martha Stewart. She had a big cupcake thing on her show last year and this was a recipe given or shared by Sprinkles -- that famous little cupcake shop out west in California. I thought I'd give them a shot. :) (For the record, I did have to eat one of the cupcakes. Poison control, right?)


First we have to wash the berries. Make sure you only wash what you need. Don't put wet washed berries back in with the dirty ones because it promotes mold and we don't want our strawberries going bad before we eat -- I mean use them all.








Remove the stems on about 10 strawberries. We need enough to measure 2/3 cup mashed.

Use a fork to smash their itty bitty heads in. (such violence!) I would smash some and then put into a measuring cup. When I reached 2/3, I let Paige eat the rest (I helped).













See? 2/3 cup. I think there might actually be closer to 1 cup in there. You'll be safe if you inch up to 1 cup. I wouldn't go over though because strawberries produce a lot of juice when they come in contact with sugar, which can be instant death to fluffy little cupcakes.







Measure out 1/4 cup milk and pour in the measuring cup with the strawberries. Add 1 tsp vanilla as well.










In a bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking powder.











In a mixing bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter (softened) and 1 cup sugar.











Add 3 eggs and whip on high until everything's creamed together and a little fluffy.










Alternate adding the flour mix and strawberry/milk mix until everything has been put into the mixing bowl. Don't overbeat this. When everything has come together, remove the bowl from the stand and do a courtesy mix with a rubber spatula just to make sure there's nothing left on the sides and bottom of the bowl.





Spray down a muffin tin. This made almost exactly 12 cupcakes. I didn't have paper liners so I spooned it all right into the pan. If you have or want to use liners, go ahead and use them. I have never met a fussy cupcake. :)

Put in a preheated 350* oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Insert a toothpick to make sure they're baked through.




Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then dump the cupcakes out and let cool on a wire rack.

While they cool, let's make the cream cheese frosting.







Cream together 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, and 1/2 cup butter.











Add 4 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing between each addition. You don't want to add it all at the same time because when you go to turn on your machine.. POOF! You'll be coughing on a big powdered sugar cloud.

So add a little at a time, and scrape your bowl often.






You won't even have to add any milk to this recipe. The moisture from the butter and cream cheese is enough. Add a little vanilla and some pink food coloring. Mix well.









Fill a piping bag with a star tip and swirl the frosting on the tops of the cupcakes. I washed extra strawberries and patted them dry to put on top. Paige remembered I bought Valentine sprinkles at Target a couple weeks ago so we sprinkled some of those on top after the strawberries were put in place.

Keep these stored in an air-tight container and put in the fridge. That's if they last that long. ;)

A sweet little treat for your special Valentine's to enjoy this week.


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_135gmkjk3c8

.banana cream pie cupcakes.

I have a problem. I can't stop coming up with new projects for me. LOL My husband retires from the Navy in October and I've been thinking if we move back to the Seattle area (where I'm from), my sisters and I could open a cupcake shop.

Cupcakes are all the rage right now! Martha Stewart even had a big cupcake week last week where she had people submit their cupcake photos for a contest. Martha even shared her favorite cupcake bake shops. I've had a bakery. I could surely have a huge successful CUPCAKE bake shop in the suburbs of Seattle, right? And to make it a family affair with my sisters? Perfect!

My husband told me NO WAY. :( :( And my younger sister, Marcia told me she wants to open a scrapbook store, not a cupcake store. I think I could convince her...or maybe we could do both!? *lightbulb moment!!*

The other night when we were watching a movie, I came up with yummy cupcake flavors. I have a list of about 50. This was one that is on the list. Banana cream cupcakes. Mmmm...

The cupcakes are a basic butter cake. Here's the recipe.


In a mixing bowl, cream together 1 cup (2 sticks) butter and 2 cups sugar.


Add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Keep mixing on high until the batter becomes really light and fluffy. It will almost look like frosting it's so fluffy. Slowly add 1 cup milk and 1 tsp vanilla.

In a bowl, sift together 3 cups flour, 1 Tbsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Spoon into the butter mixture while the mixer is on low speed.


The finished product will be light and airy. It will look nothing like a cake mix batter. This will give you a wonderful buttery dense cake.


Spoon into paper lined muffin pans. This will make 2 dozen cupcakes. Since we won't eat that many, I split the recipe in half to make only one dozen. Bake at 350* for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Dump from the pan and put on cooling rack.

While the cupcakes cool, make a box of banana pudding. Sure I could've made pastry cream myself, but I decided to give myself a break. Maybe when I have that cupcake shop, I might make my own pastry cream.



Slice up a banana and add to chilled pudding. Put the pudding in the fridge and hold until you need it.


Take a paring knife and carefully cut the cupcake top. Remove the top.



Spoon some of the banana pudding into the cupcake.


Pull off the cone part of the top and put the top back on.


Put some graham crackers in a ziploc and smash (or use pre-crushed graham crackers)







Make whipped cream.

Put 1 cup COLD whipping cream in the mixing bowl. Begin whipping on medium speed. If you put it on super HIGH, you'll have cream all over your cabinets and self.















When ribbons begin to form in the cream, add 1/4 cup sugar slowly.

Kick up the speed to HIGH.

When the cream is nice and stiff, add 1 tsp vanilla.


You want a nice stiff whip because we will be piping this onto the cupcakes and you don't want it to just slide right off. Put the whipped cream in a piping bag with a large star tip.








Pipe in a circular fashion making a nice peak. Sprinkle the top lightly with some of those crushed graham crackers and put a slice of banana on top.

Eat immediately (like I have to tell you that ;) ). If you make these ahead of time, keep them in the fridge before serving.

I really think these will do well in my cupcake shop. :D :D

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_34fxnx32d9