mocha cupcakes, martha's

i actually baked these cupcakes couple weeks ago and somehow forgot to post these to this blog.
i remember i read somewhere that the quality of your ingredients plays the biggest part on how good the bake goods will come out. and sadly, i havent find the 'it' dutch-processed cocoa.. oh okay, maybe i have, but its not BEST! its just..err.. fine? okay?
and for the usual cocoa powder? A.K.A hershey's?? good god, its sooooo expensive well, if you can find it actually.. hershey's cocoa powder is a really scarce stuff in indonesia.

so to be honest.. about these cupcakes? the cake tasted nice though the taste of the cocoa powder is not really for my liking. i should just frosted these with mocha ganache actually and maybe they would come out better.
because the seven minute frosting tasted horrible! again, not because the recipe..but only because the mocha extract i used.. they tasted BLEH!
so seriously, if my baked goods taste nasty, its all would be because the sick-ass ingredients!

Martha Stewart's Mocha Cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
3/4 cup freshly brewed espresso
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (not instant coffee)

Seven-Minute Frosting (coffee variation)

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tablespoons pure coffee extract

CUPCAKE DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C). Line standard muffin tins with paper line
Whisk together cake flour and cocoa. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth and light. Add the brown sugar and eggs; beat until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add the vanilla, baking soda, and salt; beat to combine thoroughly.
Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of sour cream, and beating until just combined after each. Mix together brewed espresso and espresso powder; add to batter, and beat until smooth.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely be¬fore removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
To finish, use a small spoon to dollop cupcakes generously with frosting and make decorative peaks. Garnish each cupcake with a coffee bean before serving.

FROSTING DIRECTIONS (MARTHA STEWART)

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230°F (110°C).
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.
As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230°F (110°C), remove from the heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons coffee extract, whisking to combine. Use immediately.

chewy marshmallow-y blondies

as an indonesian, blondies isnt a famous dessert but it sister brownies in the other hand, are veeeery famous, we the indonesian even invented steamed brownies which tastes good and light but not as chewy and rich as the regular brownies.. no ma'am, indonesian brownies are much lighter and cakey.
so talkin about blondies, i myself never tried it until i bake my very own.. in my opinion, the blondies would taste butterscotch-y, caramel-y and cookies-y.. add chocolate chip and TADA! a chocolate chip cookies bars..

so, i headed to my favorite kitchen, smitten.. and found the recipe..
i added walnut and 1/2 cup of marshmallow creme other than the chocolate chip.
it tastes good and different for my tongue, but frankly.. it tastes even better the next day.

BLONDIES
adapted from smitten kitchen

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon rum (all because i ran out of vanilla)
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts
1/2 cup marshmallow creme

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (below).
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. I always err on the side of caution with baking times — nobody ever complained about a gooey-middled cookie. Cool on rack before cutting them.

Further additions, use one or a combination of:

* 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts, toasting them first for even better flavor
* 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
* 1/2 teaspoon mint extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla
* 1/2 cup mashed bananas
* 1/4 cup bourbon, scotch or other whiskey; increase the flour by one tablespoon
* 2 tablespoons of espresso powder with the vanilla
* Stir 1/2 cup dried fruit, especially dried cherries, into the prepared batter
* Top with a vanilla butter cream or chocolate peanut butter cream frosting

martha's tiramisu cupcakes

as a rookie baker, Martha stewart’s cupcakes book is my first Martha book and boy, I love it! I first got into baking is when I saw tower of colorful cute mini cakes in seventeen magazine, few years ago. There was the recipe for those mini cakes which apparently named cupcakes but juggling with teenage hormonal, high school and jerk boyfriends left me no time to bake cupcakes. Time flew and two years ago I asked, well, forced my mom who isn’t a baking person at all (well, she bakes actually, only some traditional cakes with no exact measuring, duhh!) to buy a tiny weeny electric oven (yesss! There wasn’t a real oven in my mom’s kitchen until that time) and take me to supermarket to buy the ingredients. I got the recipe for classic vanilla cupcakes from cupcakes.net by the way.
Okay, so it was time for my first cupcakes, I followed the recipe from a to t and the result was MEH! Super MEH! I threw them to garbage immediately. But I didn’t give up, I tried and tried again, I started to buy baking books and browsed more about baking and cupcakes.
So here I am, still a rookie even after two years ☺ but with real gas oven.

On to martha’s tiramisu cupcakes which is reeeeaaally good! The cake is one of the best cakes I ever bake, so spongy and lady fingers-alike.. though I tweaked the recipe by omitting the vanilla bean and used rum instead. Oh sigh, I do lot of tweaking in my baking experiences, I rarely following the exact recipe (is it bad?) sometimes I even just throw the ingredients according to my insting (I don’t have recipe for my buttercream frosting) maybe that’s why I always a rookie in baking.

Anyway, the frosting isn’t really a mascarpone frosting because the mascarpone I have is ruined already, I don’t know why, it didn’t pass the expire date also.
So I just whipped the whipping cream and frosted the cupcakes. i topped them with chocolate shaved, generous amount of chocolate shaved.
Well, its still a good tiramisu cupcakes! really good! I certainly will make them again.

Martha stewart’s tiramisu cupcakes
From Martha stewart’s cupcakes book
Makes 18

1 ¼ cups cake flour (not self-rising) sifted there is no cake flour here so I made my own following
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon coarse salt
¼ cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved length-wise, seeds scraped and reserved I omit this and used rum instead
½ stick unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
coffee marsala syrup (recipe follows)
mascarpone frosting (recipe follows)
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting I used chocolate shavings
1.preheat oven to 325 F. line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat, whisk in butter until melted and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk misture through a fine sleve into a bowl and discard vanilla-bean pod.

2.with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

3.Gently but thouroughly fold the flour mixture into the eggs mixture in three batches, stir ½ cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

4.Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full, bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks and cool completely before removing cupcakes.

5.To finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup, repeat until all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes, refrigerate up to overnight in air-tight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

Coffee-marsala syrup rum in my case
Makes enough for 18 cupcakes

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)
1 ounce marsala
¼ cup sugar

stir together coffee, marsala and sugar until sugar is dissolved, let cool.


Mascarpone frosting
Makes about 2 cups

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces mascarpone cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup confectioners sugar, sifted

with an electric mixer on the medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately