Well, time flies and so do posts! I can’t believe this is my hundredth post, and squashing 100 posts into a year filled with grad school, internships, and family devastation has been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve loved almost every post, and am looking forward to 100 more! I was going to do a giveaway for this occasion but have to amass things to give away first, though I have some book-like ideas, but also I have NO activity in the comments, for all the lovely readers I have. Hmm. I must need to be more provocative in my posts, thought provoking rather. Still figuring out the engagement bit of all of this.
Category Archives: Icing
Guinness Cupcakes with a fluffy Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting “Head”
Oh my. OH MY. These are so frigging tasty. I already loved the Guinness chocolate cake recipe, as evidenced in this really early post, but this light, fluffy, erethreal frosting brings them to a new level. They are not weighed down by sweetness. Oh man, so delicious. Guinness brings a deep, dark, stouty note to the chocolate cake, and the whipped cream and mascarpone frosting is rich and lightly sweet, avoiding the too-tangy zip of cream cheese frostings. The fluffy, cloud of frosting becomes on the rich Guinness cupcake.
These cupcakes are part in honour of the Olympics in London… but truly they are in honour of my wonderful friend, Caelin who horribly left me to live in London, yesterday. She loves her a pint of Guinness, and I love me some Caelin. I think these would’ve been more appropriate an honour had I baked them in time for her to have one, but she can eyeball them from across the pond and weep at all the mistakes she’s made (ie. leaving me). Anyway, the cupcakes are the same that I used before, just halved, though it still made 22 (I made them smaller this time).
Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/5 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup room-temperature Guinness
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Place the rack in the middle, and prepare muffin tins by lining with papers.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Beat together butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one and at time, beating well. Beat in vanilla.
- Add flour mixture and beer alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and mixing until just combined.
- Fill cups 2/3rds full and bake until the tops of the cupcakes are spongy to the touch, 18-20 minutes.
- Cool on a rack for at least 30 mins until cool before frosting.
- Feel free to eat one while still hot, sans frosting, these are DELICIOUS.
Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting
From justJENN.
INGREDIENTS
- 8 ounces mascarpone cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
DIRECTIONS
- In a medium bowl, combine mascarpone cheese, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Stir together until smooth, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks. Fold the mascarpone mixture into the whipped cream until combined.
- Keep refrigerated, this isn’t a frosting to stay out overnight. That said, it keeps on the counter for a few hours if you are setting them out for people to munch on. Also, fold in some nuts and/or coconut for a funky, fun fruit/cookie dip!
Guinness, cocoa powder, and flour. Ready to go!
Poured and ready to bake!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream (easier than it sounds, don’t be afraid of the curdle!)
So, I have my favourite regular buttercream recipe, Dreamy Buttercream, but I’ve wanted to try swiss meringue buttercream ever since I saw Sweetapolita‘s (ugh even the name is great!) tutorial. Her tutorial makes this fluffy, cloud of an icing seem simple and less scary. And it was only with her encouragement that I managed to pull this off. So here is the recipe, my additions, my experience, and my mini-tutorial. The results can be seen in the next post, as the topping for my Brown Butter Cupcakes.
Satiny, glorious swiss meringue buttercream!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
See Sweetapolita’s recipe and tutorial here!
Ingredients (this makes 15 cups, my measurements for 1/4 of the recipe follow each ingredient)
- 16 large egg whites (4 large egg whites)
- 4 cups white sugar (1 cup white sugar)
- 5 cups of unsalted butter, softened but cool, cut into cubes (1 1/4 cups unsalted butter)
- 2 tbsps pure vanilla extract (1 1/2 tsp vanilla)
- 1/4 tsp salt (tiny pinch o’salt)
optional extra
- 200gr dark chocolate (I used 70%)
Directions
- Wipe the bowl of an electric mixer (or just a metal bowl if you are mixerless, though this is WAY easier with a mixer), whisk attachment, and whisk with paper towel and lemon juice (or vinegar), to remove any trace of grease.
- Add egg whites and sugar to the metal bowl, and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly but gently, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot (smoosh some between your fingers, if it is smooth, no granules, you are good).
- Take off of stove, and begin to whip (with the mixer or by hand)until the mixture is thick, glossy, and neutral (you can feel outside of the bowl to test temperature, this takes some time).
- Switch over to paddle attachement, or a good spoon, and, while mixing continuously on low speed, add butter one cube at a time until incorporated.
- Mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.
- Add vanilla and salt, mix well. You can also add a wide variety of flavourings, extracts, and more. If buttercream is too runny, the butter was possibly too soft–place into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes, then beat again. If still too runny, add a few more cubes of butter and keep beating until it reaches Use immediately, or refrigerate/freeze.
Picture tutorial time!
Whipping the meringue. Dig in, this stuff is glorious!
- Wipe the bowl of an electric mixer (or just a metal bowl if you are mixerless, though this is WAY easier with a mixer), whisk attachment, and whisk with paper towel and lemon juice (or vinegar), to remove any trace of grease.
- Add egg whites and sugar to the metal bowl, and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly but gently, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot (smoosh some between your fingers, if it is smooth, no granules, you are good).
- Take off of stove, and begin to whip (with the mixer or by hand)until the mixture is thick, glossy, and neutral (you can feel outside of the bowl to test temperature, this takes some time).
Adding butter.
- Switch over to paddle attachement, or a good spoon, and, while mixing continuously on low speed, add butter one cube at a time until incorporated.
AHH curdling! It’s alright, now is the time to save it! It’s easy!
Just put the bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes, pop it back in the mixer and get to work. It took about 10 minutes of low, slow mixing for it to come together but it was totally worth it! - Mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture.
It’s hard to tell, but it is finally coming together here, everything is fluffing up, smoothing out, and making heaven.
- Add vanilla and salt, mix well. Use immediately.
- If you are adding flavourings, do it at the end. Replace the vanilla with another extract. OR, do as I did, melt 200gr of dark chocolate and allow to cool. Drizzle the chocolate into the buttercream while it is on low. Top your mini cupcakes and then drizzle with an additional bit of melted dark chocolate that has been thinned slightly with some shortening.
Vegan Peanut Butter “Buttercream”
So I made vegan cupcakes and wanted to make vegan “buttercream” so my friend could eat the whole thing. The problem here is that Earth Balance Buttery is not my friend. I love butter, and Earth Balance is not butter. It has a distinctly gross flavour. My friend loves it but I wanted it to taste good for me as well. No luck. I ended up making some “buttercream” from my leftover peanutbutter filling, veggie shortening, Earth Balance, icing sugar, and Dark Chocolate Almond milk. It was ok, Gen liked it enough but it was no buttercream.
I only made enough to frost six cupcakes (I made real buttercream for the rest). I will increase the recipe’s amounts 1. if there is interest 2. if I make it again later in a larger batch.
Vegan Peanut Butter “Buttercream” Icing
- 1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery
- 1/4 cup shortening (make sure it is all veg)
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 1.5 cups of icing sugar (more to taste)
- 2 tbsp Dark Chocolate Almond milk
Combine the ingredients, mix until well blended and add more icing sugar to taste. I added food colouring to make them purple in honour of World Epilepsy Day.
Dreamy Buttercream
This buttercream icing is my absolute standby. It is creamy, delicious, fluffy, and not sickeningly sweet. It stands up well at room temperature and you can refrigerate it and stir it up to use again later. It can be flavoured, coloured, and veganized (though not to my liking) with little effort. It is awesome.
Irish Cream, White, Vegan, Purpled
Buttercream Icing
- 1 cup unsalted butter – room temperature (you can use 1/2 salted 1/2 unsalted as well. Truthfully I’ve used 1 cup of salted too, I am not too picky about this, myself)
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 tbsp vanilla (use clear vanilla extract if you want a pure white buttercream. Again, I am not too picky about this)
- 1 1kg bag of icing sugar (2.2lbs), about 4 cups
- 4-6 tbsp very cold milk
Directions
Cream the butter and shortening in a large bowl. Add the vanilla extract and combine well. The mixture may not be totally smooth, but this will be resolved. Add the sugar about 1 cup at a time and mix thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, add three tablespoons of the milk, combine very well. Add additional tablespoons of milk until you’ve reached your desired consistency. I find that four tablespoons is good for cakes and the full six is nice and fluffy for cupcakes.
Alternatives:
- Drunken Buttercream: Replace 3-6 tbsp of the milk with Irish Cream, Amaretto, Kahlua, whatever liquor you are trying to work into your icing.
- Peanut Butter Buttercream: Replace the shortening with equal amount of peanut butter.
- Vegan “Buttercream”: Replace the butter with vegan butter and make sure the shortening you are using is all veg.
- Chocolate Buttercream: Add 4 tbsp to the finished butter cream. Add more as needed until a rich chocolate buttercream is reached. This does not make a really brown chocolate colour, it is a little grey-brown but tastes amazing.
- I am going to try out a brown butter version and report back the results.