A friend of mine is having a going away party tonight. She got a great job in NYC, and they want her there immediately! Good news for her, but bad news for us here in Boston!
The party is also a Knit Night, so I thought I’d bring some appropriately decorated cupcakes. This was my first time working with marzipan, and what fun it is! Like, four hours of fun.
Speaking of the party, I gotta go! Forgive my lack of words; I hope I can make up for it with the ridiculous amount of photos!
On February 25th, 2008 I was on the Martha Stewart Show showing Martha how to make these. Here’s the clip!
I hope my US readers had a wonderful long weekend! Summer seems just around the corner, so I’ve been thinking about ice cream. And cupcakes. And cupcake versions of ice cream. These are more recognizable as cupcakes than my last attempt at ice cream look alike cupcakes, and easier to eat to boot.
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World has a recipe for banana split cupcakes, but I wanted something simpler (read: I was already half-way through making my own version when I realized Isa and Terry had probably already thought of it, and lo and behold, it’s on page 81). These here are the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes. It’s my default yellow cake recipe, if you haven’t noticed.
The frosting is banana buttercream, but don’t worry, it doesn’t have any icky banana extracts in it. I hate banana-flavored things - only the real deal with suit me! If you blend a banana into your frosting you get a light but yummy banana flavor that doesn’t taste like chemical bananas. So that’s good, right?
Simple Banana Split Cupcakes Makes 12 Cupcakes
1 Batch Golden Vanilla Cupcakes, cooled (air conditioners cool more than people)
12 Maraschino Cherries
1/2 Cup Chococlate Chips, melted (or pre-made chocolate sauce)
2 Tbs Soymilk
Chopped Nuts, optional (peanuts are classic) Sprinkles
Banana Buttecream
Bake and cool cupcakes. Place chocolate chips and soymilk in a double boiler and melt slowly, whisking until smooth. Set aside. Whip frosting ingredients together until smooth and airy; use a stand mixer if available.
Frost cupcakes, add cherries. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and sprinkle with nuts, if using. Use extra banana slices or dried banana chips for an extra garnish.
Happy birthday Dennis. I hope you don’t check my blog before I get to your house, because this is one of the 26 miniature birthday presents I’m bringing you. I bet you can’t guess what the other 25 are.
I have to confess. I had cupcakes and kettle corn for dinner.
I originally wanted to make caramel corn, but a quick google revealed that all caramel corn recipes require corn syurp (which I don’t have) and over an hour in preparation and baking (which I don’t want to give!).
Kettle corn, on the other hand, only requires popcorn, sugar, salt, and oil. And it’s done when the corn is done popping.
Kettle Corn Makes one big bowl
1/2 Cup Popcorn Kernels
1/4 Cup Oil (I used canola)
1/4 Cup Sugar
Salt
Heat oil in a large pan with a lid. Add corn, and when you see the kernels are about to pop, add sugar and shake pan. Remove from heat when you’re only hearing a pop every five seconds ago - I’m serious about this! The sugar makes it even easier to scorch than plain popcorn, so take it off the heat already!
Sprinkle on some salt (about 1/2 tsp) and serve.
The cupcakes I made were pretty but standard:
I made them to bribe my landlord to put up my new pot rack. Mission accomplished!
I think everyone knows my inspiration here. Oh man. So satisfying.
I baked the vanilla cupcakes right in the cones. They took an extra two minutes to bake, but other than that it was easy. I piped on vanilla vegan buttercream to resemble softserve, then hand-dipped them in some melted chocolate and let them sit in the freezer for a moment to cure.
The result? Stewart complains that I tricked him. They look so much like ice cream, but are most definitely not, making them a most confusing confection. I think the dark chocolate and the sweet frosting nearly recreates the real thing - who cares if they’re hard to eat when they’re so fun to look at!
