14.8.10

Cupcakes



Lately I have been craving cupcakes. I don't know where it came from although it could possibly be from watching How I Met Your Mother, where cupcakes featured in an episode I watched recently. A friend of mine told me they are all the rage in the US.

Only problem with a cupcake craving in Germany is that the Germans don't eat cupcakes. So there are none to be found and no mix in the store to make them.

So I decided to try to make some myself.

First attempt was on Tuesday night. I take great pride in my cooking and baking skills so I was devastated with the results. Maybe I was being too ambitious. I wanted to make Salted Caramel Cupcakes and found a recipe on the internet. Actually it was three recipes - one for the cupcake itself (kind of a sweet-salty cake), one for a salty-caramel frosting and one for caramel sauce. It was a long, difficult process and at the end I had heavy, flat cakes, liquid frosting and a good caramel sauce. Everything tasted right but the textures were a disaster. Into the garbage.

Second attempt was on Thursday night. I decided to switch to Red Velvet cupcake with a Cream Cheese Frosting. I did some research on the flour situation, which is different than flour in the US, and decided to combine a few tips I saw. First, mixing 405 and 550 type flour (half-half), weighing instead of measuring the flour and adding some baking powder to the flour. Well, the cupcakes came out almost flawless. Taste and texture were great, food coloring to make the cakes red didn't do anything. The frosting was another disaster. It called for whipped cream, easy enough to make normally. However, when I was whipping the cream it decided to chunk up and separate on me. It was late, stores were closed, and I had no more cream to try again. Into the garbage.

But as you know, if at first you do not succeed, try, try again. So today I gave it another go. Decided to go for a rich chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting. I used my flour tips again to get it right and was a little worried when the batter turned out a lot more liquidy than the last time. Baked them up anyway and they came out absolutely delicious. No issues with the buttercream frosting either and I piped the frosting on to make it look a little prettier, sprinkled on some chocolate and topped with a just in season blackberry.

Yum yum yum.

Now I need to stop with the experimenting. I am starting to look like a cupcake.



Posted from Munich

10 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Now those look yummy!!!

Can I make a correction? They are all of the rage in Canada too! We even have a cupcake store here in Victoria which opened up about 6 months to a year ago... Yup... It makes me laugh..

My friend comes, maybe I'll break down and buy one instead of making them!

Your photos belong in the magazine this time!!!! Sell em!!!
(Sorry hated my spelling error so reposted)

PapaScott said...

German McCafés have cupcakes, but that's probably not as much fun as making them yourself. :-)

Andrea said...

They look fantastic. Great job! Cupcakes are all the rage here in Paris too. I make mine using the Australian Women's Weekly recipes. You can get the recipes here if you want:

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/slideshow_ajax.aspx?sectionid=9868&sectionname=food&subsectionid=156605&subsectionname=collections_cupcakes_slide

Expats Again said...

Thanks for the flour tips. I will have to make some cup cakes since your photo makes them look irresistable.

Michelle said...

Thanks for all the nice comments. Love these couple of photos almost as much as eating these sweet little things!

Juelle-Ann said...

Cupcakes are all the rage in the SF Bay Area. Rage? they have their own boutique bakeries! But they are soooo yummy! I can eat them only once a month or so as they elevate my blood sugar so much! Your fine baking looks as good as any from these fancy stores, I must say! Congratulations!

Unknown said...

There is a cupcake bakery in Munich: http://www.wirmachencupcakes.de/ They promise to open a shop soon...

G in Berlin said...

But where's the recipe? I need to make cupcakes for my daughter's class and these look great.

Milly said...

Might I recommend the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? Seriously divine with half the guilt :) ...

And there's a Cupcake shop in Berlin called, you guessed it, Cupcake Berlin (in Friedrichshain, right off Boxhagenerplatz); a bit far to go for a cupcake craving but totally worth it (they have root beer floats too)