Icing and Frosting

These are my two basic frosting/icing recipes. I don’t usually measure the ingredients but here is a basic method:

Cream Cheese Frosting

 About 400g cream cheese, softened
 4 cups sifted icing sugar mixture
1 cup (about 230g) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

 Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

 Buttercream Frosting

 250g butter, softened
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 Icing sugar mixture

 Beat butter with electric mixer until soft and whipped.
 Add vanilla.
 Add sifted icing sugar mixture 1 cup at a time and mix until well combined. Keep adding icing sugar until you get the consistency and taste you like. If it gets a little dry add some milk.

 

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Edit: These got the thumbs up all around. People were still talking about them a day after I shared them at work. This recipe is highly recommended!

According to Wikipedia

“A whoopie pie is a baked good made of two round, mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, sometimes pumpkin cake, with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. While considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition, they are increasingly sold throughout the United States. According to food historians, Amish women would bake these and put them in farmers’ lunchboxes. When farmers would find these treats in their lunch, they would shout Whoopie!”

I used this recipe from Baked NYC. Martha Stewart featured it on her show and website last year. I halved the recipe (and used the other half of the can of pumpkin for choc-chip pumpkin loaf) and still ended up with about 18 whoopie pies of various sizes. I don’t have an ice-cream scoop so my pies aren’t perfectly shaped like the ones pictured in the book. Adding ice-cream scoop to my Christmas wish list. The baked parts of the pie are quite soft and sticky, more like cake than a cookie or biscuit.

Hubby will taste test these for me and then I will report back. Go to Martha Stewart’s website for the recipe and video demonstration.

 

 

Chocolate-Dipped Heart Cookies

Everyone loved these cookies but they didn’t interest me too much. Very cute but not tasty enough for me. I was curious to try them as they have cream cheese in them. Hubby ate them plain with jam and was in love.
The recipe probably made almost 70 biscuits as my heart-shapped cookie cutter isn’t as big as the one specified in the recipe.

New Year’s Eve Cupcakes

These are modified red velvet cupcakes in fireworks colours! Well, they are the closest I could get to fireworks-inspired cupcakes in a limited amount of time. Mini M&Ms sit on top of cream cheese frosting.
I immediately made a new friend when I arrived at the NYE party carrying these – she was maybe six years old and followed me everywhere until I opened the box.

Pink Velvet Cupcakes with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red velvet cupcakes using this recipe from The Food Network. The recipe filled 12 Texas-size muffin tins and took about 28 minutes to cook. Texas size is very big, I’m starting to think they are too big! The base is 2 and a 1/2 inches wide, the top is 3 and a 1/2 inches across.

Carrot Cupcakes

This is my old faithful carrot cupcake recipe. There is a lot of butter in it, I think it would still work well with less. Sometimes I top them with buttercream frosting, sometimes cream cheese frosting and other times I leave them plain. Walnuts are optional, I didn’t use them this time. The recipe makes 6 Texas-size cupcakes, 12 small cupcakes or 1 cake in a 20cm long loaf tin. They took almost 30 minutes to cook through. I believe the recipe is originally from an Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook, however come across the recipe when I was in high school – in my Food Technology class. I think these won over my now father-in-law a week before I married his son. Thank you cupcakes!

Carrot Cupcakes

Combine 2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and two grated carrots.

Mix in 185gm melted butter and 3/4 cup of brown sugar.

Stir in 1 cup self-raising flour, 1 cup sultanas (golden raisins) and 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts.

Pour into tray – a lined loaf tin, 12-hole cupcake tray or 6-hole Texas size cupcake tray.

Cook for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius for small cupcakes, or 30 minutes for whole cake or large cupcakes. Test with skewer.

Carrot Cupcakes – update

When I made these carrot cakes I put some in the freezer, wrapped in cling-wrap. They defrosted well, some I left out and others I defrosted in the microwave. They still tasted fresh and delicious. The cupcakes are very yummy eaten without icing, warmed up, with some butter.

Hummingbird Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Fruity and very moist, these cupcakes are delicious! Some people say the cake got it’s name from:

“…the sweetness, which is supposed to be reminiscent of the sweet liquid that attracts hummingbirds to their feeders.”

while others say:

“This southern classic takes its name from the fact that it tastes so good, you’ll ‘hum’ when you eat it.”

The recipe is another from The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook; I halved the amounts again. I made 16 cupcakes, using pineapple I crushed into pieces myself. I omitted the ginger, as I didn’t have any on hand. It’s an easy one-bowl recipe that cooks in about 20 minutes. Hummingbird cakes are usually topped with cream cheese frosting and coconut. This is the first time I have baked or eaten hummingbird cake,  so I can’t compare the recipe to others for the same dessert.

I packaged four cupcakes in a Wilton box to give to my cousin tomorrow as a small thank-you gift, we’ll see what she thinks of them!

Purchase Wilton cupcake boxes here for US customers. Purchase smaller Wilton boxes here for Australian customers.

Brownie Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

To cure my craving for chocolate, I made cupcakes using my favourite brownie recipe today. The recipe is from Donna Hay Modern Classics, Book 2. Take a look inside the book here. Most recipes I’ve made from the book have been succesful with after adjustments.

The brownie recipe is always a winner. I usually bake it for 40-45 minutes, instead of the suggested 50 minutes, in a shallow slice tin. Watch the brownies carefully as they cook! If you overcook them, the fudginess will disappear. I have found the best results with the mixture come from using the cheapest dark cooking chocolate I know of - Black and Gold. I’m sure that goes against every rule in the book but it works! I plan to experiment some more with chocolate brands. I’m not yet convinced that brand names are better quality (taste, texture etc) for every cooking ingredient.

This is the first time I have made them as cupcakes. The mixture made roughly 24 smallish cakes in about 25 minutes at 160 degrees C. I filled the cupcake tray to at least 3/4 full as the brownie mixture does not rise as much as a cake does.
 

To please the recipients, I topped them off with cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese isn’t my cup of tea, so I left some plain. The frosting mixture generously iced about 12-15 of the cupcakes.

Chocolate Brownie
From: Modern Classics, Book 2 by Donna Hay

200g/7 oz dark (couverture) chocolate, chopped
250g/8 oz butter, chopped
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/4 cups plain/all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsuis/320 degrees Farenheit.

Place the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

Place the sugar, eggs, cocoa, flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the chocolate mixture and mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a 20 cm/8 in square slice tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 50 minutes or until set. (I bake it for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester/skewer comes out slightly wet) Cool slightly in tin. Cut into slices. Serve warm or cold.

Makes 16 slices.

 

Cream Cheese Frosting
From: Modern Classics, Book 2 by Donna Hay

250 g/8 oz softened cream cheese
1/3 cup icing/confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Process softened cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. (I use electric beaters)

Add icing sugar and lemon juice and process until smooth. (The lemon juice is optional, add it if you like a tart taste)