Sometimes you just want a classic. With a cherry on top…

When a cupcake-loving houseguest came to stay, I kept it simple. I baked my favorite vanilla cupcake and whipped up my regular buttercream frosting with a square of melted Baker’s Semi-sweet Chocolate. I topped them with a sour cherry.

These didn’t last long.

Root Beer Barrel "Chip" Cupcakes with Root Beer Buttercream Frosting (Photo by Jason Yung)

Root beer was the flavor requested by the birthday boy, my boyfriend Jason, and I took on the challenge. I’d read that adding straight root beer wasn’t really enough to get the flavor in cake. Many recipes I found online use root beer concentrate, something I could not find anywhere in my neighborhood. (Stinky Bklyn, a local shop with a range of gourmet ingredients in addition to cheese, didn’t have any. However, they did say it sounded awesome and would look into it.) I was tempted by the Sodastream root beer flavoring I saw in one store, but that seemed like cheating. I decided to cook down a bottle of root beer, much like I cooked the beer for my Guinness cupcakes. I hoped that would work better than just root beer itself.

I also procured two bags of root beer barrels candy. I originally thought I would just put one on top of each cupcake, or crush and use as a topping. To guarantee more root beer flavor into my batter, though, I crushed one bag with a hammer and added them to the cake batter, much as I did the cinnamon discs for my red hot cupcakes. I didn’t let them sit to dissolve this time, so they were more like root beer barrel “chips” than a flavoring incorporated into the batter.

The recipe was otherwise basically that of a regular vanilla cupcake, though with only about 2/3 the sugar. I did add a bit more flour to balance the liquid, the root beer which I simmered until reduced by about half. The cupcakes smelled more like muffins than cake when baking, but any sweetness they lacked was made up for in the frosting.

I thought I might cook down some more root beer to add to the icing, and crush more root beer barrels to sprinkle over the top. Deciding to try a different crushing method, I stuck them in my blender. The result was a mixture of big chunks of mangled candy, still too big to sprinkle, and a sugar-like powder. I realized I’d accidentally made something that was basically root beer sugar. I filtered it out from the larger pieces of candy and used that in my frosting rather than actual root beer. The end result was very sweet and root beer-y, so much so that I didn’t put any more of the candy pieces on top.

The birthday boy got his much-loved root beer in cupcake form, as requested, at his birthday picnic!

The happy birthday boy!

Satisfied party-goer #1

Satisfied party-goer #2

I usually put golden raisins in my carrot cake, and no nuts. (I like nuts, but I don’t love nuts in my cupcakes.) Fresh out of raisins, I remembered I had some crystallized ginger stored away. Sounded like a good combo to me, so I chopped up the ginger and threw it in. The sugar cooked off and into the cupcakes, leaving slightly crispy chunks of pure candied ginger in with the shredded carrots.

I made a big batch of cream cheese icing, coloring some green to pipe as grass, the rest pink or yellow. I got lots of piping practice with the “grass,” for which I used a multi-opening decorating tip. I could have used icing with a slightly thicker consistency. Some of my grass looked a little like green spaghetti. The general idea came across, though! They were topped with M&M’s Speckled Easter Eggs Candy to finish the look.

All I can say is that they went fast! At the party where I served them, I ate two myself (usually I try to stick to one), and I don’t even love carrot cake. For me, the ginger made it.

Recipe: Tea Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups tea-infused butter*
1 1/2 cup sugar
6 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup almond milk

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place 30 paper baking cups in muffin pans.
2. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth.
3. Sift dry ingredients and slowly add, alternating with almond milk. Mix.
4. Spoon/scoop into tins and bake for 18-20 minutes.
5. Remove from oven, cool in pans 5 minutes, then remove to cool completely on racks before icing.

I made buttercream frosting using tea-infused butter in place of about 1/2 the regular unsalted butter.

Newly baked and iced, the cupcakes had a delicate but certain tea flavor throughout. Interestingly, it seemed to fade from the cake but intensify in the icing over the few short days these sweets lasted.

For decoration and a bit of flavor, I added half a slice of candied lemon to each cupcake. I had made them the night before, simmering lemon slices in sugar and water for an hour and leaving them to dry on racks overnight (the Pip & Ebby blog has good instructions, if you’d like to try making these yourself). I think the candied lemons were a nice enhancement, the taste of lemon complementing the tea.

Taster Response

My friend Scott told me, “Your cupcake was not a super saccharine, hostess-flavored, over stylized designer cupcake, it was a adult cupcake. I hoovered it.”

“Adult” it may have been, but Miss Sophia (below) seemed to be a fan, too.

*Stef of the Cupcake Project seems to have thought of everything. I found her post “How To Get the Flavor of Tea Into Your Baked Goods” when researching the best way to make tea-flavored cupcakes. I did pretty much what Stef suggests to make enough tea-infused butter for the cupcakes and frosting, and it worked like a charm. I kind of want to use this stuff on everything now. Do check out Cupcake Project for lots of impressive—and successful—cupcake experimentation!

I followed this recipe from Holidays Central, but there are several versions across the web to consider trying. Some add Baileys and/or whiskey to complete the Irish alcohol theme. This one uses reduced Guinness in both the batter and frosting, embracing the stout flavor. The alcohol is cooked off, so these cupcakes are appropriate for all. My changes were that I used bittersweet instead of unsweetened chocolate and reduced the sugar to 1 1/2 cups.

Cooking beer on the stove top was a new one for me. The entire apartment smelled like it. I simmered a cup of Guinness with a stick of butter, adding chocolate, and that started to smell just delicious.

Beer and butter, eggs and sour cream

Also new, eggs and sour cream are not usually the first thing that goes into my mixer, and I don’t usually mix batter with the whisk attachment. It all worked out a-ok, though.

While the cupcakes were baking, it smelled a bit like baking bread. One who tasted them made a comment that they tasted a little bit like sourdough. Interesting… I did notice that the Guinness flavor seemed more intense when the cupcakes were a day old.

For the frosting, I added all of the reduced Guinness, determined to get the taste, but the mixture went a little weird, separating. I added more butter, which started to smooth it out, then more powdered sugar, until I got a consistency I like. The Guinness buttercream was still different from my regular frosting, it didn’t seem to want to completely let go of its bubbly beer nature.

They really did look a bit like nice frothy-topped mini pints of creamy Guinness.

I couldn’t resist going green for St. Patrick’s Day, so I colored some of the frosting with green food coloring and piped swirls and dollops on top. They were all dressed up  in green, ready to make an appearance at two St. Patrick’s gatherings that evening.

They tasted like chocolatey beer in a decidedly pleasant way. The flavor was more subtle in the frosting, but it was there, a twist on my regular vanilla buttercream. The consensus was that they were great. My baking with Guinness got a thumbs up!

I tackled artificial cinnamon flavor in my last post, and I was happy to turn to the real thing this time! It was a friend’s birthday, and his girlfriend tipped me off to his love for cinnamon. I had no problem fulfilling her request that it be the flavor of my contribution to the party fare.

I worked from a regular vanilla cupcake recipe, adding a tablespoon of cinnamon to the batter. The frosting was vanilla buttercream with a teaspoon of cinnamon. I added a little honey to both for good measure. If the honey flavor was evident in the cake or icing, it was subtle, but I took care of that. Once baked and cooled, I piped on swirls of cinnamon buttercream and drizzled them with honey.

The cupcakes before transport, newly iced and drizzled

Much of the honey had been absorbed by the time I reached the party, or run off and made a sticky mess of my cupcake carrier, but the unique flavor of honey sweetness remained.

The guest of honor seemed to approve!

The birthday boy

A cupcake for a rose? A sweet exchange...

My Valentine requested cupcakes with Red Hots, but there were none to be found. Really… Was there a run on Red Hots in Brooklyn? I had to switch gears, so I purchased a store-brand bag of cinnamon discs (individually wrapped hard candies) and a box of Hot Tamales!

Supplies

How to get the “hot” flavor in the cupcakes? I just didn’t know what to expect if I put Hot Tamales in the batter, so I went another route. I crushed cinnamon discs in a baggie with a hammer (now that’s what I call fun!) and used them instead of about half the sugar in my vanilla cupcake recipe.

I put the crushed cinnamon discs in with the sugar and butter when creaming, then proceeded as normal. The candy powder and pieces were not melding with the rest, so I let the batter sit about an hour before giving it a last mix and scooping it into the tins to bake. The time I let pass allowed the color and flavor of “cinnamon” seep into the batter for a more cohesive look and taste.

Creaming butter, sugar, and crushed cinnamon discs; newly mixed batter; after an hour

Then for the frosting… I was avoiding using any real cinnamon in these cupcakes, as I wanted to get the real fake taste of “red hot” candy right! I opened up my box of Hot Tamales with an idea.

Fun fact: Hot Tamales will burn before they melt! I cooked them on the stovetop, keeping them at a low-medium temperature with a little water, but only the outer shells melted. Sure, ok, it was partially my fault for turning away for 2 seconds, but I’m calling trying to melt Hot Tamales a “Bad Idea.”

What did work, to some extent, was simmering a couple of cinnamon discs in about 1/3 cup water, letting them dissolve. I added some of this liquid to the icing, otherwise a regular vanilla buttercream, which added a little flavor and color. I could have made it stronger, but I was scared. (As as aside, I also set some mac and cheese on fire about the same time. Oops.)

Once I had piped frosting on the cooled cakes, I added—finally—two Hot Tamales.

Mine!*

I served the cupcakes to my Valentine (and me!) with scoops of vanilla ice cream. Some lucky Webgrrls enjoyed the extra cupcakes at a workshop the next evening!

They did not taste terribly spicy, but they had a little of that red-hot kick, I’d say. I’ll let my tasters comment!

*This lovely hand-stamped vintage spoon, part of a pair (the other says “Your Ice Cream”), is from Beach House Living.

I followed a recipe I like for a lighter chocolate cake, but I used only 2/3 of the cocoa it calls for. I put one cup of Whoppers in a zipped plastic baggy and went at them with a hammer. I added these crushed candies to the batter and baked as normal.

I was expecting the crushed Whoppers to really flavor these cakes, but the maltiness didn’t really come through very much. They just tasted, to me, like a very light chocolate cake. I was also thinking that the Whoppers might remain as chunks in the cake, but the candy mostly dissolved into the batter.

The consensus was that the cupcakes were good, but some had a hard time placing the flavor. “What spice is in these?” asked one party guest. (Um, only the finest ground Whopper seed?) Adding malted milk powder to the batter would have been a good idea, but I did not think of that until later!

I finished with a buttery, sugary vanilla buttercream that turned out especially well this time, according to one frequent Amélie-cupcake taster. I topped, of course, with a whole Whopper on each cupcake after frosting.

We got on our aprons and set to work! Mama started zesting and juicing, I began mixing the batter.

I missed my stand mixer, but I loved having extra counter space and a "sous chef."

When it was time to separate the eggs, Mama had a surprise for me. Thank you to Kent of Follette Pottery for this amusingly disgusting gift to my mother, a nose (and ear and throat) doctor.

"Ewww..."

The lime curd was very yellow from the yolk. I added a drop of green food coloring. It looked awful, more slime than lime. I added a second to make it scream, “Lime!” (Or maybe… “Alien slime!”)

Martha Stewart’s recipe instructs inserting a pastry tip into the cupcake while piping to get curd in there. I didn’t have a pastry bag or tips, so I settled for a plastic baggy.  Since that wasn’t going to force any curd into the cupcake itself, I poked a hole about halfway in using the rounded end of a wooden honey dipper, which seemed about the right size (you might use a wooden spoon or similar implement). I dusted the cupcakes with powdered sugar, then piped lime curd into the holes, pooling more on the tops.

They tasted sweet and tart with a lovely lime flavor—delicate in the cake, strong in the curd.

Ready to try our creations!

Below are my modified ingredients to make these lime beauties. I halved the original recipe, which makes a huge amount! Find the full recipe (with lemons) in Martha Stewart’s cupcake cookbook, it isn’t available on her website. For the recipe online, see 52 Cupcakes or iVillage.

For 21 cupcakes
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 oz. cream cheese
3 1/2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar

For plenty of lime curd
1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
green food coloring (optional)

Shreveport

Buttercups
6535 Youree Drive
www.ilovebuttercups.com

Buttercups at the Shoppes at Bellemead, the bakery’s second location, opened about a year ago. This is where I was shopping when I spotted frosting and sprinkles! The original Buttercups is located in Bossier in The Villaggio (1115 Villaggio Blvd., Bossier City).

As it was Christmastime, I chose the seasonal gingerbread cupcake first.

I hadn’t yet done my research, so I didn’t try the red velvet. You see, Kim Wood and Mary Craig of Buttercups were on season two of the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars (episode 10, if you want to check it out). Though they didn’t win overall, they were voted the best red velvet cupcake.

I settled on the most chocolately I could get for my second cupcake, and I was quite satisfied with my choice.

I had them boxed up, and I brought them to my grandmother, an expert on both chocolate and gingerbread. Both cupcakes got her stamp of approval.

“I never do this, but…” said my grandmother, as she ate up the crumbs that had fallen on her (very clean) counter!