The First Baking

Well, its official; my cupcake challenge has begun! Boy, does it feel good to finally be able to say that. The process was long, the ingredients messy. Twice, did I get batter in my hair and yet, I persevered. Today, I set out to do something and I accomplished it.

I suggest you grab something to nosh on, this post is going to be a lengthy one. But fear not, I have taken the courtesy of breaking the post down into sections so you can just skip around if you so wished.

The Preparation Process

 I would love to say that when I awoke this morning, I was all bright-eyed and eager to get the day going. Unfortunately, at 9 am this morning, I had yet to figure out a way to divide the cupcake recipe three ways. Five hours later, I come home from work to find a thoughtful email from my mother: search for a way on google.com. Gee, why didn't I think of that. Just a few clicks of the mouse and keyboard and I landed on the most amazing website that my twenty year-old eyes had ever seen. http://www.fruitfromwashington.com/Recipes/scale/recipeconversions.php

For anyone who has ever tried -and failed- to figure out a way to half, double, or triple a recipe but lacks the math mojo to do so, I strongly suggest this wonder of a website. I think I'll be referring to this link for a long time. 

After my discovery of the recipe converter, I set to work of gathering the ingredients, washing the bowls, and lining the cupcake pans. I would like to make note of the time in which I started my preparations, 3:30 -trust me, you'll understand this later. Then came the butter. My cat, Ella really enjoyed this part. Its a shame I didn't get a photo of her pawing the butter packaging but she unfortunately is not so photogenic.

Look at my cupcakes pans, all shiny and new. I'm so proud of these little beauties that I will try my hardest to make sure they don't get banged up or misused. And yes, that is a KitchenAid up in the top right corner of the first of picture. Purchased in the late 90s, this thing is really a trooper. Though I 

was just informed by my mom that the mixer is normally used during Passover; guess that tradition is over. (Sorry mom).

Putting it Together

Cookies & Cream, that was name of game today. If you note in the first picture, the cookies that I used were Oreo's, Gingersnaps, and -yes, I know it's not a cookie- Baby Ruth bars. I'll be honest right now, one of the variations called for graham crackers, but I decided that Gingersnaps would be a good alternative. Yes, I cheated, but it still counts (so ha!)

The butter took much longer to melt then I thought it would. I usually I forget to pull out the butter when I need it for baking and often put it in the microwave which usually results in a plate drenched in melted butter. But, I waited, and after thirty minutes, the first of the 1/3s of butter (I used three, one for each recipe I baked today) and cautiously combined it in the mixing bowl with the superfine sugar. The recipe said to just combine all the ingredients into a bowl but I didn't want to take any chances. Considering my track record of mistakes, I wanted to be extra sure that I didn't mess up. After adding in the flour, vanilla extract, baking powder, and egg (one for each), I  noticed that the recipe looked a bit dry, but at first paid it no mind. Then came the fun part; crushing the cookies. I put three -then added another- Oreo's in a bag and used the handle of a knife to crush them. Probably not the best item to use for the job but it worked so I'm not complaining. 

Then came pouring the batter into the pans. 

In the past, when I have made cupcakes, the batter is usually extremely liquidy (is that a word? now it is). This first batch of batter was very dry, almost enough to the point that I could pick it up and form it into small balls. Unsure of what to do next, I suddenly remembered a little tid-bit that I had heard on the Food Network yesterday. Some hearty looking woman was hosting her cooking show and making a peach cobbler, or crisp, or whatever. After combining some ingredients in a mixer, she started talking about how temperamental flour can be. Sometimes it does what you want it to do, other times it stubbornly refuses to do anything you ask of it. So, she added water, and that stubborn flour complied. Unsure if the water trick would work for me, I tentatively poured a table-spoon worth of water into the bowl. I did some mixing and suddenly, everything was back on track. Now you're probably thinking that this was the time that I popped them into the oven. Nope. My house's oven cooks really fast, and I didn't want to be hogging it for when my mom needed it to make dinner. Pushing the pan off to the side, I repeated the process twice more, substituting the Oreo's with Gingersnaps and Baby Ruth respectively. By the time I finally popped them in the oven it was four-fifty. Factor in the additional twenty minutes of bake time and, yes, you're reading this right, it took me nearly two hours to bake eighteen cupcakes.

It's Frosting Time!

This was the moment I had been waiting weeks for. As I'm sure I have mentioned before, I have always wanted to try my hand at a pastry bag ever since I first some a chef on TV using one. It was definitely worth the wait. Not totally sure which metal topper to use, I just took a leap of faith and selected the first one my fingers touched. The recipe for the frosting itself was really easy (I didn't divide it by three under the assumption that the original recipe for the frosting would produce more then enough) and it tasted super delicious. The only negative moment out off the whole frosting process was that I couldn't find any washing directions for the pastry bag so I decided that good old water and soap would suffice. When my mom finally saw the finished product, she immediately commended me on my frosting skills, even going as far as to say that it looks professionally done. They looked good, but not that good. Give me time and I am sure that my frosting skills will improve. Of course, there was the other problem that I had created by ignoring the directions in the book that said to store the cupcakes unfrosted in the freezer or fridge. By the time I realized this mistake, I had already frosted every single one of them. Oh, and have I mentioned that I still lack some proper storage containers? I'm hoping that I'll have found some by the time I bake again.

The finished product

Let's Eat

Aren't those cupcake wrappers cute! I found them at the store when I was buying my ingredients on Sunday. Of course, the life-span of a cupcake wrapper is incredibly short-lived unless its re-useable. When it came time for dessert, both my parents greedily tore the wrappers off and took a bite. Next to waiting for my transcripts from school, this was one of the most nerve-racking moments of my life. Of course, when my parents both gave me the thumbs-up sign, I took a bite of my own cupcake and knew that all my hard-work had been worth it. I only tasted the cupcake baked with Baby Ruth bars mixed in but my mom gave me great feedback on the Gingersnap cupcake. I'll be trying that one in the next few days.

So that it, three recipes down, four hundred and ninety-seven to go. I'm hoping that next time I can shave off an hour or so from start to finish. In total, it took me about four and a half hours to bake just eighteen cupcakes. I doubt that I'll have enough time at school to take four plus hours to bake.

Here's the recipe for Cookies & Cream and the variations. In italic is the measurements that make six, the ones in bold make eighteen

For Cupcakes

• 1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened (I used 2/3 cup)
• 1 cup superfine sugar (I used 1/3 cup)
• 2 cups self rising-flour (I used 2/3 cup)
• 1 tsp. baking powder (I used 1/4 tsp)
• 4 eggs (I used one for each recipe so three, would have been four if mom had let me use mint)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 10 crushed cream-filled chocolate cookies (I used four)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place 18 foil/paper baking cups in the cupcake (or muffin) pans. Combine all the cupcake ingredients, except the cookies, in a large bowl and beat with electric mixer until smooth and pale. Then stir in the cookies

Spoon the batter into the cups and bake for twenty minutes. Take the pans from the oven and give it the old tooth pick test. If it comes out clean then your good. If not, put it in for an additional 3-five minutes (I was lucky and didn't need to do this though I did check ever single cupcake just to be sure)

With the variations it calls for substituting the 10 cookies with 1/2 cup of graham crackers or chopped Baby Ruth bars. Once again, I just used four of each. If you want to try it with mint, then just use 10 cookies as advised.

Frosting

• 3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks)
• Pinch of salt
• 10 chopped cream-filled chocolate cookies (I crushed one cookie, and chopped one candy bar)

Beat confectioner's sugar, butter, and salt using electric mixer. Spread frosting onto the cupcakes and sprinkle the cookies or candy bar on top.

Store unfrosted in airtight container up to 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months
(recipes adapted from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly)

Me crushing some cookies with a knife