Oregon Ducks Cupcakes

The same weekend I made all those wedding cupcakes I was asked by another friend at work to make cupcakes for her son's baseball team party. I asked if there was a theme and she said their team was the Oregon Ducks and their colors were yellow and green. Apparently all the teams in the league are named after colleges. I took that and ran with it. I searched out the Oregon Ducks logo on the internet and liked the simple "O" they used. The night before, when I was waiting for the wedding cookies to dry, I came across a video that showed how to pipe royal icing onto wax paper, that could then be used to top cakes or cupcakes. That was in the back of my mind, and since I'm not that great at freehanding logos just yet, I thought this would work out perfectly for the Oregon O.

  

I printed out some Os and taped them to the table. I took wax paper and placed it over the top. As I finished one O, I would move the wax paper around and pipe several Os on the same paper.

 First, trace the shape, as if piping the outside of a cookie.

 Then fill the shape in. I used the same consistency of royal icing to pipe as I did to fill. My frosting is on the thicker side, I using the ten second rule to gauge. I wanted to make sure my lines would hold. 

These needed to dry overnight, just like royal icing on a cookie would. The next morning I frosted the cupcakes and placed the O on top of the wet frosting. I thought they turned out fantastic! The best part was, a guy friend walked in and said, "Oh, Oregon cupcakes, cool." They were recognizable, mission accomplished! I love this little cheating way of getting the logo to match almost exactly. I will definitely use this technique in the future. Even if I do get a little better at free handing, I thought the royal icing decorations were so fun as cupcake toppers.

 

Just a few notes on the actual cupcakes. I used Barefoot Contessa coconut cupcakes for the cake, just without the coconut. It was the perfect white cake.  For the frosting I used a new buttercream frosting recipe I found on Food Network. I loved it! These was the perfect combination of frosting and cake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

As a kind friend pointed out to me the other day, it's been a month since I blogged. I couldn't believe it. Not to make excuses, but after those coconut cupcakes I skipped the country and took a little Eurpoean vacation. (Lot of food blog posts to come.) Then I came back and got sick, tis the season, and then work and life got in the way. But the good news is I was cooking and baking the whole time.

I had every intention of blogging last weekend, but I got a little tied up with these red velvet cupcakes. A friend that I teach with had asked me to make red velvet cupcakes and wedding cake sugar cookies for her sisters cocktail wedding reception. I was beyond excited to take on the challenge.

When you start a big project, make sure you have all your ingredients and plan a head. I ended up running out of red die after my first batch so I made an emergency run to the store only to find that they only had generic brands of die. The first time I made a red velvet cake I could taste the die in it, tasted like chemicals. I wanted to use the same brand I had tested this round with, McCormick's; I couldn't taste it at all.  Anyway, I went to a second store to get it and forgot that I also needed oil, so I run back into the second store for a second time, only to realize that I left my wallet in the car. I go get it, and get back in line for a third time. Moral of the story: plan a head (a little better than I did).

I enjoyed that this project gave me an excuse to learn how to pipe frosting on cupcakes, instead of just frosting with a spatula by hand. I bought the Ateco 6-piece pastry tube set and did a few practice tries before I took to the actual cakes.

 After the practice tries, it still took me a few to get it perfect. I held the large pastry tube in in my right hand, and used my left hand to guide it while I worked counter clockwise. (I'm right handed.) I still had a few kinks to work out. Here are a few of my early mistakes. 

 

The bald cupcake: I thought I was close to the edge on these, but turns out I wasn't. They look bald, and skimpy on the frosting.

The lopsided cupcake: As I tried to fix the first problem, I ended up with this one, a little too much frosting on one side. I tried to get closer to the edge, but turns out, only on one side.

The last problem I came across was this little beauty, where the frosting didn't quite meet.

After much practice, I managed to get the perfect swirl atop these lovely red velvet cup cakes.

Now just a few notes on the actual cupcakes. As I researched out and found a few recipes I wanted to try, I found a lot of talk about using butter verses oil in the recipe. As you can see above, mine were a little oily, as I went the oil route in the recipe. But I found the oil recipes to be much more moist than the butter recipes, and no one likes dry cake. I did double up on the cupcake liners, and cooled them on a paper towel on top of my cooling rack. By the time I packaged them up they weren't greasy on the bottom at all. But do note that the cake its self wasn't oily to the taste, just moist and delicious!  The recipe I ended up using comes from Cake Man Raven. He was featured on a Throwdown episode and I found his recipe again on the blog The Way the Cookie Crumbles, who does a great comparison of other red velvet recipes. This recipe was by far the easiest to make, very simple and straight forward.

Hand frosted

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Yields 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. cake flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 TBSP cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk
2 TBSP (1 oz.) red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. white distilled vinegar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted


Directions:
To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.
(Note: I used a lot more frosting when I used the piping bag than when I hand frosted. You may want to double or make a batch and a half.)

Source: Cake Man Raven, adapted from Annies Eats, and The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Coconut Cupcakes

 

Working my way through the original Barefoot Contessa Cookbook let me to these little lovelies last weekend. And as hard as I tried to give all of them away, Brian and I were still left with a dozen. So we decided to exercise a little self control and not eat them all in one day. Yeah, that didn't happen. They maybe lasted until Monday. Brian would eat one for breakfast, then we'd each have one in our lunch, for an afternoon snack, and then for dessert. If I haven't mentioned it before, I love, love, love Brian's sweet tooth. He is so fun to bake for, and loves all my treats. Anyway, I mention all of this as a round about way of saying that these cupcakes are a. mazing. The use of the almond extract, that I've never used in cakes before, took these babies over the top, and gave them that little something extra. And, still wanting use up the extra buttermilk I had from two cakes ago, makes the cupcakes very moist. I got about 28 or so cupcakes from one batch, using regular size muffin tin. But I only used half a batch of frosting. I actually use this frosting for my coconut cake, and knew how much it made. So I cut it in half and had plenty to top the cakes with. Also, note that she uses extra large eggs in this recipe. Ina seems to be the only one using extra large eggs in baking, but I didn't doubt her, and went ahead and got the larger ones for this recipe. Loved the cupcakes. Love Ina.

I gave these away as a thank you. How cute do they look in this box?

I wrapped these up as pre-Valentine's Day treats!

Coconut Cupcakes
Ingredients:
3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups of sugar
5 extra large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pur almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
 14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut
 Cream Cheese Icing (recipe follows)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 
• In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes
• With mixer running on low, add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. 
• Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well
• In separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
• In three parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. 
• Fold in 7 ounces of coconut. 
• Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
• Fill each cup to the top with batter
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops are brown and toothpick comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes. 
• Remove to a baking rack and cool completely. 
• Frost with cream cheese frosting and sprinkle (or dip) in remaining coconut. 

Cream Cheese Icing
(This is the half recipe, for more just double)
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
3/4 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted

• In bowl of an electric mixer, blend together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and almond extracts. 
• Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth

Source: The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Dark Chocolate Frosting

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I tried a new chocolate frosting recipe. I have been doing some cupcake research for a upcoming wedding I'm baking for. In doing so, I stopped by our local cupcake bakery, Sprinkles. If you haven't been there, or heard of them, it's probably because they don't have a location in your city, yet. Sprinkles is the original cupcake bakery, and you may have seen owner, Candace Nelson, as a judge on Cupcake Wars. We've had our Newport Beach location for quite a while, but I usually only go there with out of town visitors. We buy a ton of different flavors and then taste test all of them. Their cupcakes are delicious, and they have so many flavors to choose from. The cupcakes are moist and the frosting is so creamy and full of flavor. But my favorite part is the simplicity in which they are frosted and decorated, the whole store, really. It's modern, sophisticated, simple and cute. Anyway, point of my story is that I went to google to see if I could find any of her recipes online, and I did. She did a few videos and lent a few recipes for Oprah.com. I tried out the dark chocolate frosting and loved it. (She didn't give any recipes for chocolate cake though, sad.) The frosting calls for sour cream, so I'm not sure how long you should let them sit out, but we were eating them a few days later and lived to tell about it. I made a half a batch of frosting, and had enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes, probably more. I thought the frosting, on top of Ina's chocolate cake, tasted pretty close to a Sprinkles original.

Sprinkles Dark Chocolate Frosting

Vintage Baseball Party: Food

I wanted to post a few more pictures of the fun party we had for Brian and tell a little about the food I served. This is, after all, a food blog! Because I was so busy doing all the decorations, and I had to haul everything up to his parents house 30 minutes away, I decided that I would not do the food myself. I also knew, that despite the fact that I was doing a baseball theme, I would not be serving hot dogs. When I first thought of doing this party months ago I thought it would be fun to get Mil Jugos, the Venezuelan restaurant Brian loves, to cater. Brian loves the food and the country and I knew he would love sharing that with all his friends. I thought for a second that people might not like it, but the food is pretty mild. I ordered chicken and beef arepas, a variety of empanadas, and rice and beans. Everyone loved it. You top it off with their special sauces and it is a sure treat!




For dessert I thought simple cupcakes and homemade chocolate ice cream would do the trick. I wanted to decorate the cupcakes somehow to incorporate them into our theme. We did these the morning of the party, so didn't have time to do anything too elaborate. My mom was helping me with the cupcake project and she said that when we were little and she would make cupcakes for our birthdays, long before they were popular, and she would put stickers on toothpicks and stick them in the top of the cupcake. We always had the best birthday parties! We ran with that idea and I cut out little pennate flags and mom hot glued them to toothpicks. I think they turned out darling!


I tried out two new recipes for the cupcake frosting. The vanilla buttercream frosting recipe came from the book More From Magnolia. It is recipes from Magnolia Bakery in New York. I was there on one of my trips and the line for their treats was out the door and around the corner. (Pictured below) Definitely worth the wait! I found the recipe online here . It tasted great, I didn't adjust the recipe at all. However, it says for two dozen cupcakes, and I only used about half for my two dozen. I used a generous amount too! I kept the frosting in the fridge for a week and used the rest of the frosting to frost birthday cupcakes for a friend. Worked perfect!

Besides cupcake toppers, mom's other job was finding a chocolate frosting recipe. She finally decided to just use the one of the back of the Hershey's cocoa box. We did, and it was delicious. We used quite a bit more powdered sugar than it calls for so the frosting would be thicker. We kept adding the sifted powdered sugar until the frosting was a lighter color of brown. (Sifting will help with the lumps.) But if you add to much the frosting loses it shine. We found that the perfect consistency will ribbon off the back of a spoon, in nice, thick strands. I'm posting the recipe as is on the box, add at least a cup or two more of sugar to thicken. Delicious.
Hershey's Chocolate Chocolate Frosting:
1/2 Cup butter
2/3 Cup Hershey's cocoa
1/3 Cup milk
1 Tsp vanilla
3 Cups powdered sugar
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk if needed, stir in vanilla. (Makes about 2 Cups)

Joan's On Third

Continuing on with our LA food trip, we spend our first meal on Friday at the cutest little bakery/cafe I have been to in a long time, Joan's on Third. I heard about Joan's on Third from The Best Thing I Ever Ate. I can't remember which chef it was that was going on and on about a chocolate coconut cupcake from Joan's on Third, but I like chocolate, coconut and cupcakes, so I added Joan's on Third to my list of places to visit.

We went there about noon, thinking we'd grab some lunch and a cupcake to go. We walked in and it was the most amazing site I'd ever seen, I was in love. Off to the right was the bakery counter, cake plate after cake plate filled with everything from cupcakes, to cookies, to dark chocolate bouchons. Their cafe counter had cases of wonderful looking salads, meat, and pastas on display and you can also order their signature sandwiches, soups. Throughout the rest of the store was gourmet food market that is complete with a wide variety of cheese, olives and prepackaged pastries.




I decided to order a warm short rib sandwich that was featured on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine. It was amazing. So warm, perfectly toasted and the meat was very tender and seasoned to perfection. It was topped with just the right amount of cheese and arugula. But let's not forget the pickled caramelized onions, they made my mouth very, very happy! (I looked up the Bon Appetit article they gave the recipe for the sandwiches. That might be fun to try, but if you can go there, even better.) Brian ordered one of their newer menu items, the Croque Monsieur. It is also a hot sandwich, built with ham, gruyere, Dijon mustard and béchamel sauce. I made him give me a bite, and I would have been equally satisfied if I had ordered that sandwich. Another melt in your mouth sandwich, with some very flavorful cheese and sauce. Brian is already talking about going back!





Now that our stomachs were very satisfied, we decided to get dessert to go and eat as a snack when we weren't quite so full. I planned on just getting the chocolate coconut cupcake I came for, but the selection was too good, and I knew we wouldn't be back for a while. So, I also ordered a chocolate chip cookie and a dark chocolate bouchon, I love dark chocolate. Brian then proceeded to order a peanut butter and jelly bar, a snickers cupckate, a white chocolate raspberry cupcake, a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow filling, and a vanilla coconut cupcake. (I'm happy to report this is not all gone yet, two days later.) I made Brian give me bites of a few of his. I loved the chocolate marshmallow. It was so moist and the marshmallow was soft and gooey, not like a hard store bought marshmallow stuck in the middle. The bouchon was good, very rich dark chocolate flavor. I thought the cookie had good flavor but was a little dry, not my favorite chocolate chip cookie. The chocolate coconut cupcake was every bit as dreamy as I imagined. The cake was moist, which is my number one quality of a good cake, I hate dry cake. The coconut frosting with coconut flakes on top was super creamy. It wasn't the cream cheese type of frosting I was expecting. Just sweet and the perfect compliment to the chocolate cake.




All in all I'd say we had a very successful trip to Joan's on Third. I'm pretty sure Joan has my dream job, and I'll be back to visit her very, very soon.