Of course, I wasn't content to simply follow the recipe ideas in the book. No, I had to get even more complicated/creative. I have a deep love for crumbs cupcakes and thought it would be awesome to try to make my own version of their creations.
For the cupcake base I used this recipe, which only makes one cupcake. I wanted to make two, so I simply doubled the recipe. I used applesauce and for liquid, I used almond milk. My oven always takes about five extra minutes to bake these cupcakes, just keep an eye on them and test them using a toothpick.
So what kind of cupcakes did I make?
Cappuccino, like from crumbs, as pictured above.
and apricot almond, like this cupcake from Le Pain Quotidien.
To make the cappuccino cupcake taste like coffee, I subbed coffee extract for vanilla extract. For the apricot almond cupcake, I used almond extract.
Then came frosting making time. Immediately, I grabbed my hummingbird bakery cupcake book and gathered the ingredients to make their vanilla frosting. Using my math skills, I figured out how to make a single serving of frosting.
Single-Serve Cappuccino Frosting
inspired by The Hummingbird Bakery Cupcake Book
2 tbsp Butter
5 tbsp confectioners sugar
Splash of Almond Milk
Splash of coffee extract
Dash of coco powder
Blend the butter and confectioners sugar together on medium speed until they are fully combined. Then, turn the speed to low and add the milk and extract. Blend until combined. Turn the speed up to high and mix for about five more minutes. Add in coco powder, mix some more. The more you mix the fluffier the frosting becomes, so keep tasting it as you go along.
Almond Butter "Frosting" it acts more like a glaze!
2 tbsp Almond Butter (you may have to add in more as you go!)
4 tbsp confectioners sugar
1 tbsp almond milk
Blend almond butter and confectioners sugar on medium speed until they come together. This takes quite a long time, but if you feel that the mixture is too crumbly after about five minutes, add in a little bit more almond butter. Pour in the almond milk and blend on low until the milk is absorbed. Increase speed to high and blend until you reach desired consistency. This is a thick glaze-y frosting so keep that in mind when blending. You are never going to reach the light fluffy level of a buttercream.
**I found this to be extremely melty so I stuck my frosted cupcake in the refrigerator. It will still run a bit, but much less. Keep this is mind when frosting. I was also making these on quite a hot day so it might be different depending on the weather in which you make them.
Not content to have normal cupcakes with frosting only on the top, once the cupcake cooled, I cut little holes into the middle. In these holes I added some almond butter frosting and apricot pieces for the apricot-almond cupcake and some of my new chocolate-coffee spread with guittard chocolate chip for the cappuccino cupcake.
who doesn't love a filled cupcake?
Then came frosting time. I used my handy-dandy frosting knife and smacked some frosting on those beauties. Last year, I had a friend who was really into decorating cupcake and taught me how to properly frost a cupcake to make it look at least kinda professional. There are some good videos here and here. To make them look even more spiffy, I added some chopped up apricots to the top of the apricot almond cupcake and some chocolate chips to the top of the cappuccino cupcake.Now, crumbs adds a lot of frosting to their cupcakes, something which I'm all for! So keep in mind with these frosting recipes that they will definitely give you a crumbs amount of frosting...
Yum! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my cupcakes this week, but my dad thought we bought them at a bakery (don't know if this is a compliment or not!), so that's got to count for something!
Stay tuned for more cupcakes coming next week! In the meantime...
What is your favorite type of cupcake? Do you like lots of frosting, or a little frosting?
Un Bacione,
Emilia
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