A place to find my attempts to cook Slovenian and Uruguayan foods, the way grandma used to make, with a dash of my North American faves to fill in the gaps.
I hope all of you are getting ready for Halloween, I know I am! Last night I made some cupcakes to bring to work - here is a little taste. It was hard to decide what exactly to bake since there are so many things out there (many of which require meticulous planning) but I went with the old fave instead. If you baked something cool, please feel free to forward your pictures and recipes, I would love to see them.
Anyway, I hope you all have a very spooky Halloween!!! =)
I am back with some more tasty treats for the holidays! If you read the last post about the Raspberry Cupcakes, I mentioned my new Martha Stewart cupcake book. This Red Velvet recipe also comes directly from there. I first tried this cupcake at Starbucks earlier this year when they had them as part of their Valentine's day specialties. It was AWESOME! I had many a sugar rush at work from these little guys, much to the dismay of my poor co-workers. This recipe is very much like the ones there, although not exactly. Either way well worth trying!
Ingredients:
Cake: 2 1/2 cups cake flour (Not self rising type), sifted 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil 2 large eggs, room temperature 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food coloring 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup buttermilk 1 1/3 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
Frosting: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 1 pound (4 cups) confectioners sugar, sifted 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Method:
Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together the cake flour, cocoa, salt and set aside.
With an electric mixer set to medium-high speed, whisk together the sugar and oil until they are combined. Add eggs, one at a time making sure each one is mixed in before adding the next. Now, mix in your food coloring and vanilla.
Reduce your mixer speed to low and start to add your flour. Add it in three batches, and in between each batch add half a cup of butter milk until its all integrated. In another small bowl or container, mix together the baking soda and vinegar (it will foam). Add this mixture into the batter and mix it on medium for 10 seconds.
Your cake batter is now ready to be added to the cupcake pan. Make sure you add the same amount to each cupcake - 3/4 full. You can now place the tins in the oven to bake, make sure you rotate the tins half way through baking to ensure even cooking. After about 20 minutes they should be done, test with a toothpick to make sure.
Now before you do anything else, get these guys onto a rack or somewhere where they can cool while you make the icing. You don't want to be putting icing onto hot cupcakes.
Icing:
With your electric mixer on medium-high, beat butter and cream cheese until its fluffy (a couple of minutes). Reduce the speed to low and add sugar a 1/2 cup at a time, followed by the vanilla. And your done!
This icing can be refrigerated for up to 3 days (according to Martha). After your done you can ice these guys which ever way you like. I also put some red sprinkles on after I iced them, but that's up to you.
Not many pics of the process on this guy unfortunately, I was in a bit of a hurry, but here are a few anyway featuring my special helper Sebastian. Enjoy!
What a mouthful! But a good one at that ;) This little recipe I took from a new cookbook I got (thanks to a recommendation from Louise!) by Martha Stewart. The book is called 'Cupcakes'. If you are at all interested in making all different kinds of cupcakes you should definitely pick up this book. I will be posting a couple different recipes from it in the next week.
Here's the recipe,
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 1/2 cups plus 5 tablespoons sugar 1 container (6 oz) fresh raspberries 2 pounds (4 cups) cream cheese, room temperature pinch salt 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 4 large eggs, room temperature cupcake papers
Method:
Preheat your oven to 325F. Line your muffin tin with cupcake papers and set aside. Take your graham crackers, butter and 3 tablespoons of sugar and mix them together. With a spoon or whatever utensil you want, press 1 tablespoon of the crust mixture firmly into the bottom of each lined muffin paper. Once your finished, put the tins in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Process raspberries in a food processor until smooth (about 30 seconds). Pass the puree through a sieve into a small bowl, and get as much liquid out as possible. You can throw out the solids. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of sugar.
With the electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the cream cheese until it's fluffy.
Now set your mixer to low speed and add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a steady stream. Add your salt and vanilla and mix until everything is well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each one.
Your filling is now ready for your muffin tins! Spoon in about 3 tablespoons of filling over your crust in each cup. Drizzle 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry puree on each cake. Now comes the fun part! With a toothpick or other such device, swirl the raspberry sauce through the filling in whatever design you like!
Place each tin in a roasting pan filled with enough hot water to come 3/4's of the way up sides of the cups. You may have to do this in several batches (I did). Half way through baking, rotate the pan so you ensure even cooking. Bake for about 22 minutes or until filling looks set.
Once they are done, just put them on a wire rack to cool. Once they are fully cooled down, make sure you put these in the fridge for at least 4 hours so they finish setting.
And that is it! Hopefully you enjoy these guys, they are pretty easy and look nice too!
A funny girl who likes making sweets and eating them too! This is my blog to share Uruguayan foods from my childhood and Slovenian foods I love thanks to my husband!
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