Alrighty – before we get down to the details, let’s recap Experiment 1-1, the Chocolate Guinness cupcakes, with tangerine curd. So flavor-wise, the first batch of cupcakes looked like a crowd pleaser, but there was definitely room for improvement.
First of all, the yellow curd with white icing had a decidedly “poached” egg appearance. Great for Easter maybe, but not so much for our wedding. Second, the tangerine curd took a TON of time to prepare – especially considering Lela and I lack a proper double boiler, and didn’t really taste very much like the original fruit. Additionally, the icing and the tangerine curd were both waaay too soft, which made it really difficult to pipe atop the cupcakes, because the icing kept melting and sinking into the curd. Finally, though the cupcakes were moist enough, we were both hoping for a slightly “fluffier” type of cake.
This time around, Lela and I decided to take an entirely different route – forgoing the dense rich Guinness batter for something more akin to an Angel Food Cake, skipping the curd altogether in exchange for a glowing jewel of passion fruit jam, and using a stiffer, more robust cream cheese frosting.
The results were pretty good, and Lela’s classmates seemed to enjoy this batch as much as the last one. We did, however, learn a few more lessons this time around as well: a) The passion fruit jam – while pretty – was VERY sweet and didn’t really taste like passion fruit. b) Make sure that when you fold egg whites into your cake batter, that you don’t leave pockets of unincorporated egg foam sitting in your batter, otherwise you get little mutant tendrils of egg white rising out of your cupcakes. c) We don’t know how to use food coloring. d) Due to the difficulty of the process, and our general lack of artistic ability, there is some intense debate about whether we should continue piping our icing, or if we should try spreading instead.
Anyway, here is this week’s recipe:
Almost Angel Cupcakes:
(ingredients stolen from here )
(technique inspired by Alton’s chiffon cupcakes and Nigella’s chocolate pavlovas)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup 2% milk
2 large whole eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 egg whites from large eggs
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar (instead of cream of tartar)
Directions
0) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
1) Mix the dry team (flour/sugar/baking powder/salt/butter)
2) In one bowl, mix the egg whites and apple cider vinegar, and beat until your egg white foam has stiff peaks
3) In another bowl mix the remaining wet ingredients (whole eggs/milk/vanilla)
4) Leaving the egg white foam to one side, combine the wet and the dry teams, and mix until well incorporated
5) In four batches, add the egg white foam to the batter, and fold (not mix) to combine
6) Scoop the batter into the cupcake tins (two-thirds the way up)
7) Bake for 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean
Cream Cheese frosting:
4 oz butter
4 oz cream cheese
3 tablespoons sour cream
3 cups powdered sugar
Directions
0) Beat butter and cream cheese till fluffy
1) In 1/2 cup increments, beat in powdered sugar
3) Fold in sour cream to soften frosting
Passion Fruit Jelly – store bought :p
Filed under:
Uncategorized by Joe
