Update: Maria let me know about Crabapple Cupcakes and Supplies. It looks like Crabapple Bakery is back in a different form.
It seems I’m behind the news on this one. Crabapple Cupcake Bakery in Melbourne is no more, it went into receivership late last year. I’ve read whispers of stale cupcakes and employees owed money. Shame! Their white chocolate mud cupcake is my fave cupcake recipe.
You can still buy the book.
I have many cupcakes in need of a home in my kitchen at the moment. Anyone want a few?
Lately Katie’s Kitchen hasn’t seen any new recipes – just a few old(ish) faithfuls – banana crumb muffins, sweet potato pie and white chocolate cupcakes. Looking forward to new recipes for 2009!
Seven poor little un-iced white chocolate mud cupcakes sitting in a container feeling unpretty. What to do? Turn them in to koalas of course! The directions are in the current issue of New Idea magazine, but the basics are grey buttercream frosting, coconut, marshmallows, black jelly beans and brown mini M&Ms.
Update: I think the problem of the not-right cupcakes was that I was overfilling the cupcake patties. Dilemma solved!
Yes, sometimes baking goes wrong in Katie’s Kitchen. Sometimes, for reasons unknown! My mission was to make gluten-free cupcakes and regular cupcakes for my cupcake-themed 27th birthday party. In attempt one at these gluten-free vanilla cupcakes, I forgot to add the baking powder. I ended up with an un-risen mess of half-baked cupcakes.
In attempt two, all was going well, or so I thought, until I went to get them from the oven and found the cupcakes again were an un-risen mess! I knew I had added all the ingredients this time so I was baffled. I gave up on making gluten-free cupcakes, my gluten-intolerant friend Leonie would have to have store-bought gluten-free chocolate biscuits instead.
I tried making another batch of the cupcakes, this time with self-raising wheat flour. Still no good! The cupcakes didn’t rise properly and some spilt over the edge of the pan. Off to the store I went to get fresh eggs, baking powder and self-raising flour, with three hours to go until my guests were to arrive.
No more trying to make vanilla cupcakes this time, I went straight to my trusty Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and made white chocolate cupcakes. Success! No disasters this time, they all rose well. I didn’t halve the ingredients this time, I made the full recipe – and ended up with about 40 cupcakes.
Some of the cakes were used in a cupcake decorating contest at my birthday party, some cupcakes were eaten at my good friend Michelle’s baby shower, and some cupcakes are now iced in pink buttercream frosting, ready to be taken to my co-workers tomorrow.
The aftermath of the cupcake decorating contest at my 27th birthday party
(yes it was a cupcake-themed party)
This is Michelle’s niece stealing the Jaffas and M&Ms from the tops of the white chocolate cupcakes at the baby shower
Pink buttercream frosting on top of the white chocolate cakes for my co-workers.
On Saturday night I held my second annual Girls Night In. It involved lots of pink, tacos and a game of trivia. We raised $310 to donate to The Cancer Council. I made white chocolate mud cupcakes, with pink icing of course, and a couple of blue iced ones for my husband.
Again trying not to bake only chocolate-flavoured treats, this weekend I made white chocolate mud cupcakes from The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. This is the second recipe I’ve made from the book and so far so good; however, it does appear that the recipes make very large quantities of cupcakes. This time I halved the recipe, which did not seem to affect the recipe’s success at all. I still made about 30 cupcakes. The silicone cupcake tray I use has moulds with a 5 cm/2 inch base, and they are about 4 cm/1 1/2 inches deep. This is the size of cupcake I prefer, just enough cake to get some cake and some icing with every bite!
These cakes are not like true mud cakes, they are dense but not quite as solid and fudgy as the usual mud cake. They taste like a rich butter cake with a nice, not too heavy texture but they definitely aren’t light and fluffy. They would work well with a plain icing if you were baking them for a white chocolate lover. The recipe would definitely give you a basic vanilla cake to decorate as you please. All up, a very yummy cupcake recipe!
As it was football Grand Final weekend here in Australia, I decorated the cupcakes accordingly. To the basic buttercream icing I added green food colouring and just enough coconut to make the icing look “grassy” without overwhelming the white chocolate/buttery taste of the cake. I painted “laces” onto chocolate covered nuts with icing. This time I used Cake Mate decorating gel, which comes in tubes ready for decorating. This is the US version and this is the Australian version. A pack of four colours retails here for about $4.50 at the usual supermarkets. The gels do contain corn syrup and genetically modified ingredients, which is why I would not use them in large quantities, but that is a personal decision. They are handy and don’t require refrigeration.
Here is the recipe, straight from the book. I used half the following amounts and baked the cupcakes for 26 minutes at 155 degrees Celsius. I have added the conversions for the measurements and temperature. The recipe states it makes 20 darioles or 24 cupcakes, keeps for four days and can be frozen (uniced) for two months. Find out what darioles are here or here.
Lady Tarryn’s wedding cakes
From: The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook by Jennifer Graham
4 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
500 g/1.1 lbs butter, chopped
2 cups milk
4 cups castor sugar
300 g/10 oz white chocolate, chopped
4 eggs, whisked
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 155 c/310 F. Lightly grease 20 dariole moulds.
Sift flour and baking powder together into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Set aside.
Put butter, milk, castor sugar and white chocolate into a metal bowl and place over a large saucepan of simmering water. Stir continuously using a flat-bottomed wooden spoon until chocolate has melted and sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Use a rubber spatula to fold the eggs and vanilla extract into the cooled chocolate mixture. Pour this mixture into the well in the flour and fold together until well combined.
Divide the mixture evenly between the dariole moulds. Bake for 30 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Place moulds on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before turning out. Allow to cool for a further 30 minutes before frosting.
Happy birthday Jess, may this one be a happy one!
