Farewell Asia Cupcakes

A few weeks back I found a recipe that included an interesting combination of ingredients to say the least: chocolate and wasabi, and since I am departing from a four and a half year stay in Asia, I figured now is a perfect time to give this recipe a whirl as it combines flavors that allow me to reminisce of my stay here. Being that I am a pretty daring eater and will try just about anything at least once, I became very intrigued. The best part was that the combination of ingredients took place in the form of a cupcake. These might actually be my last batch of cupcakes for quite some time, so I took an extra long time to make them. I had a feeling these cupcakes were going to turn out really good or really bad.

I started off by following the recipe exactly as posted since I am still learning the science involved in creating a fantastic cupcake. When I got to the adding wasabi part, I added the one tablespoon like mentioned and tasted nothing. I added one more and still no hint of wasabi. I mean if I was going to experiment with these flavors I wanted it to be known. So I continued to add tablespoon by tablespoon until I looked into my packet of wasabi powder and realized that there was only a little left so I just dumped it all in. Since I made it into a paste first, as a means to kick up the heat, before adding it to the batter, it became a little difficult to mix it all into the batter evenly. So basically all I am saying is watch out when you bite into one of these babies because you might get a mini wasabi ball!

Usually I can’t wait for the smell of a batch of cupcakes to fill up my house, but there is something about the smell of cooking wasabi that is not very desirable. But it could just be that I had my fair share of wasabi as I tasted for heat while preparing the batter… who knows. While they were cooling I prepared the ginger butter cream icing which turned out to be amazing! I couldn’t wait any longer and had to break into one. As they cooled I noticed that all of the cupcakes sunk in the middle and appeared as if someone had put their fist in the center of them. I have never had that happen following any of the recipes from love and olive oil, but I am going to give the credit to the excessive amount of wasabi and the slight level of intoxication that existed while making these. I had plans to bring these to work to share but I am not sure if I can due to their utterly unappetizing appearance. As far as the taste, the first bite was delicious but as I continued to try more of the cupcake the amount of wasabi became a little too much. I agreed to stay away until the morning and try again before sharing with others. When I tried them again in the morning I was pleasantly surprised, I think all of the flavors had time to cool properly and blend together as they tasted delicious with only a trace hint of wasabi. But I do know that somewhere in the middle of my cake, (as I ran out of cupcake liners midway so I put the rest in an 8x8 pan) someone will get a nice little surprise of fire. Happy eating!

Black Pearl Cupcakes
Recipe from: www.loveandoliveoil.com
Makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1-2 tablespoons wasabi powder (to taste)

For Frosting:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons soy creamer or heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste
Black sesame seeds, for topping

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the coconut milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, and wasabi. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in coconut milk mixture. Stir until just smooth (do not overmix). Take a quick taste of the batter, and add more wasabi if you feel it is needed.

3. Pour into liners, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter (cups should be no more than 2/3 full). Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

4. For frosting, cream butter until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and beat until combined. Mix in vanilla, ginger, and cream. Continue adding sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition (depending on the temperature of your butter, you may need more or less sugar/cream to achieve the proper consistency). Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds and enjoy!

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Muffins with Streusel Topping

This morning I had to start the day by being the one to “call a meeting” at the beginning of a Thursday morning. Everyone hates starting the day off with a meeting including me. So I thought the least I could do was make everyone feel a little better about being there by baking something sweet. Since it was breakfast time, I decided upon a version of a cupcake meets a muffin. A few weeks ago I had tried a wicked recipe for Sweet Potato cupcakes, but I wanted to make something a little less sweet without the icing. So I invented. I took the base from the cupcake recipe and changed a few things around to get what I called “Pumpkin Sweet Potato Muffins with Streusel Topping.” I added a few raisins and nuts to add a little protein to start off the day on a good note. They turned out pretty darn good, leaving only one complaint: that some of the butter from the topping dripped over the side during the baking process and left the paper wrappers a bit greasy feeling.

“Pumpkin Sweet Potato” Muffins with Streusel Topping

Ingredients for Muffins:

1 cup sweet potato puree (I only use fresh and I used the variety Pumpkin Sweet Potato)

1/4 cup soymilk

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup finely crushed walnuts
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

Streusel Topping:
4 1/2 TBS flour
5 TBS sugar
3 TBS butter
1 tsp cinnamon
3-4 TBS finely chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree, soymilk, oil, sugars, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, walnuts, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in raisins.
3. Fill liners with 3 tablespoons batter (cups should be approximately 2/3 full).
4. To make topping: Mix the dry ingredients. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle on the top of the muffin batter.
5. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack.

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes with a hint of Coffee

As I am sitting here writing this blog post, I am dwelling on the fact that I have failed at my goal for the new year of baking a new kind of bread each week. But I am going to very quickly justify it with cupcakes and pizza dough. Today I made cupcakes and on Tuesday I made pizza dough ... so there to my challenge! I had plans this afternoon to attend a friend's afternoon wine soiree and my mother taught me well never to go to someone's house empty handed so I thought why not try another batch of deliciously incredible Vegan cupcakes. Today's choice was based on the Double Chocolate Shot Mocha Cupcake recipe from loveandoliveoil.com.

Yesterday I looked over the recipe and I thought I picked up everything I needed but realized that I forgot an essential ingredient coconut milk, so I needed to improvise since the store that sells it is far away for a Sunday morning. Since I have tried the Chocolate Balsamic recipe on this site, I decided that I would combine the technique involved in the Chai Latte cupcakes by steeping warm soy milk through a coffee filter with fresh coffee grounds and whisking the coffee infused liquid with balsamic vinegar until it curdled. Then I mixed the curdled mixture into the dry ingredients and baked as normal. My oven didn't cooperate and cook the cupcakes evenly but it was almost as if I was expecting this since it has been cooking things pretty perfectly the past few days, I knew it was time for it to be temperamental. As they were cooking they smelled wonderful so I wasn't worried about the taste! While they were baking I prepared the icing, which once again turned out grainy. I am not sure what causes this because it only occurs when I make chocolate varieties of icing. I am convinced that it has something to do with the odd consistency of Korean powdered sugar which is a cross between granulated sugar and what I think of as powdered sugar. All in all it tasted good, but definitely not as coffee like as I thought it would. Next time I will have to add more coffee from a stronger brew to the icing. I drizzled each cupcake with chocolate syrup and garnished it with a dark chocolate square. Of course I needed to taste test before I brought them to a gathering. They were delicious but a little fragile as they fell apart easily, but luckily not in the dry category! Next time I will try these bad boys following the original recipe and hope to have a better turn out, although I am not disappointed with how they tasted. I am just imagining something even more delicious!

Double Shot Mocha Cupcakes

Recipe from http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or 1 / 2 ground coffee

1 / 3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 / 4 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 / 3 cup cocoa powder

3 / 4 teaspoon baking soda

1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder

1 / 4 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

1 / 4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups powdered sugar

1 / 2 cup butter

1 / 8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons brewed coffee (cooled)

1 / 2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, heat coconut milk until hot (but not boiling). Stir in espresso powder. If you don't have espresso powder, put coffee grounds into a fine sieve. Pour coconut milk over grounds and allow to seep through. You will end up with a few grounds in your milk this way, but it won't affect the final product.
3. Whisk sugar, oil, and vanilla extract in to coffee mixture. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to wet ingredients and beat until no lumps remain (or very few remain).
4. Pour into liners, filling each with a scant 1 / 4 cup of batter. Bake 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
5. For frosting, sift together powdered sugar, cocoa. Cream butter and add to sugar mixture slowly. Add salt, and coffee. Beat 2 minutes. Add vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.