Vanilla Kirsch Cupcakes and Vanilla Galliano Cupcakes

So, I did not include a picture of these. There is a reason.....They were not particularly aesthetically pleasing. The visual was not indicative of the taste, however.

I adapted a vanilla cupcake recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly cupcake book. Initially I combined all of the ingredients in the recipe, then split it in two, and finally folded in the extras afterwards.

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
125g butter, softened and chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract (I actually split half a vanilla pod.)
2/3 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 cup milk

Combine butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, sifted flour, and milk in a bowl. Beat on low speed until all ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium and beat about 3 minutes. Place in cupcake cases and bake about 20 minutes at 180 degrees C.

The lowdown:
1. I followed a different method for mixing the ingredients. I creamed the butter and sugar until really pale. I then beat the eggs slightly with a fork in a separate bowl and added them to the sugar mixture very slowly while beating. I added half the flour, then the milk, and then the rest of the flour.
2. After splitting the base recipe, I added about 1/2 cup of Kirsch liqueur and about 1/4 cup of cherry juice to one half and about 1/2 cup of Galliano liqueur to the other half. The cherry cupcakes turned kind of a grayish color which was not appealing. I would leave the cherry juice out next time, but they tasted nice. The Galliano cupcakes were perfect. I would actually even add a little more Galliano to these and maybe a little more vanilla.
3. My oven cooked both in about 18 minutes.
4. I made some chocolate ganache for the Galliano cupcakes and added a little Kirsch and cherry juice into some previously-made cream cheese frosting for the Kirsch cupcakes. I stuffed up the ganache as the boiling water touched the bottom of bowl, but it ended up setting a lot nicer than I thought it would. What they say is true about chocolate hating water!!

Harvey Wallbanger Cake/Cupcakes with Galliano Cream

I gotta have a little fun (or a little drink sometimes) when in the kitchen, so why not put the drink in the cake??? Everyone that I have talked to about this cake has said, "I think my grandmother used to make that cake or drink that drink." I also have to admit that I cheated a bit on this recipe - it starts with a boxed, cake mix!

The recipe uses Galliano liqueur, which is a vanilla liqueur and comes in a tall, skinny bottle. If you don't like the cake, you will surely like Galliano with a little o.j. or maybe in some coffee.

Found this recipe on the Chowhound.com boards:

1 package yellow cake mix

1 small package instant vanilla pudding

¼ cup Galliano liqueur

¼ cup vodka

2/3 cup orange juice

½ cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in a greased bundt cake pan, sheet cake pan, or cupcake molds and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until done.

Galliano Cream Frosting (Made this recipe up using bits from various cream cheese frosting recipes):

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

4 tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature

Seeds from 1/2 a vanilla pod

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 to 1/2 cup Galliano liqueur, depending on your taste

Cream the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the powdered sugar. Add the Galliano and mix one more time. Put in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes to allow it to firm up.

The lowdown:

1. I used a bundt cake pan when baking this cake. I reserved a little batter and baked 6 cupcakes also. This is my new favorite way of testing the finished product and not putting on 15 pounds every weekend!

2. The bundt cake took about 34 minutes, and the cupcakes took about 22 minutes.

3. I used a rather big bag of pudding, so I would actually use more Galliano and vodka next time. I could only detect a trace of both in the finished product.

4. The frosting was a bit cream cheesy, so I would add more Galliano there and maybe a smidgen more powdered sugar.

5. This turned out beautifully, and I would suggest it for its level of ease!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

The recipe comes from the "Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit" Blog that I have listed over to the right. There are some extremely complicated concoctions on this blog, so I decided to start with something from the amateur level.

One day I will gain the courage to try the Smores cupcakes from Chockylit's blog and make my own marshmallows!

Chocolate Cupcakes:
3/4 cup (1 - 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powdered
2 tbsps instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsps vanilla

1. Beat butter until softened, and then add the sugar. Beat until light and fluffy or about 3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and espresso powder together in a separate bowl.
4. Combine milk and vanilla in a separate container.
5. Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar, and beat to combine. Add about half of the milk/vanilla, and beat to combine. Continue alternating between dry and wet and finish with the dry.
6. After placing in cupcake cups, bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting:
1 1/2 sticks of softened butter
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups coconut, sweetened flaked
1. Beat butter.
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar and milk. Beat until smooth
3. Add coconut and mix until combined.

The lowdown:

1. The cupcakes turned out nice. I baked them in the large, "Texas", 6-hole cupcake pan and then the smaller patty pan cases. The larger ones turned out much moister, probably due to a more even cook time. The large cupcakes took about 22 minutes, and the smaller about 18 minutes.

2. I highly suggest investing in an oven thermometer if you are going to do a lot of baking. I have become obsessive about monitoring how much heat gets out of the oven when you open the door. You would be surprised by this and by how hot some ovens get without you knowing it!

3. For the icing, I used shredded coconut. Definitely not an acceptable substitute! The icing turned out chunky. As with the cocoa powder, you need to use top-of-line ingredients. I have to work with what I can find here in Geelong!

4. These cupcakes could have even used a little more sugar. The cocoa really balances the sweetness out, and I might increase the sugar to even 2 1/2 cups next time.

Mocha Macaroons

Pictured with Pistachio Cupcakes (recipe below)

This recipe was taken from the winter edition of Donna Hay Magazine. Donna Hay is an Australian equivalent of our Martha Stewart. Maybe not as bling or as bitchy, but creates a similar magazine and makes similar T.V. appearances. I purchased this magazine at the Melbourne Food Show back in June after seeing Donna Hay demonstrate some of the recipes live.

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 cup almond meal

3 egg whites

2 tbsps caster sugar (super fine sugar)

cocoa powder for dusting the final product

Mocha Filling:

200g white chocolate

1 tbsp instant coffee

1/4 cup pouring cream

For the cream, heat the chocolate, coffee, and cream over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F. Place the icing sugar and almond meal in a bowl to mix thoroughly.

Whisk egg whites with a hand mixer, and gradually add the caster sugar until soft peaks form. Gently stir in the icing sugar mixture until smooth. Best done with a medal spoon they say. Drop mixture onto tray with baking paper, and stand for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until crisp on the outside and moist in the centre.

To assemble, spread the base of a macaroon with the mocha filling and sandwich together with another macaroon.

The lowdown:

1. The recipe says 10 to 12 minutes of baking time, but they needed at least 20 minutes and still didn't seem to be done. They may have lost a lot of height when I folded the mixture into the egg whites. Maybe too much folding? Not really good at this yet.

2. The middle stuck to the baking paper on the pan. I was still able to salvage them by just shoving the mocha cream into the crater created by the sticking macaroon. Not pretty but really did not affect the taste.

3. I have confirmed what I always knew......I do not like mocha-flavored anything. Not a mocha frapuccino and not a mocha cookie.

Warm Pistachio Cupcakes

There is an Australian-renowned restaurant named Vue de monde in Melbourne, and the restaurant's chef, Shannon Bennett, is very well-respected for his innovative culinary techniques. Recently Vue has opened up a more modestly-priced cafe next door, and the supposed hit of the cafe is these little, pistachio cupcakes.

I read this recipe in Delicious magazine, an Australian culinary magazine (one of the best I have ever seen).

130 g shelled unsalted pistachios, remove skins
100 g unsalted butter, softened
85g caster sugar (super fine sugar)
75g good-quality marzipan (The magazine says that the cafe uses 55g marzipan and 20g sweet pistachio paste.)
2 eggs
1 tbsp kirsch (Kirschwasser, from German "Kirsche" for "cherry", is a clear brandy made from double distillation of the juice of a small, black cherry)

2 drops vanilla extract

30g semolina

250g ready-made icing

2-3 drops of green food colouring

Preheat oven to 338 F or 170 C.

Place 100g of the pistachios in a blender and blend until ground. Reserve 1 tbsp ground pistachios and set aside. Transfer the remainder of the ground mixture to a bowl with the butter, sugar, chopped marzipan and a pinch of salt. Beat until lumps are removed and the paste is smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating continuously. Roughly chop the remaining 30g of pistachios and beat into the mixture. Beat in the kirsch, vanilla, and semolina until combined. Divide cake among muffin cases. Bake for 25 minutes.

Warm icing if solid and mix in the food colouring. Spread a little on each cake, along with a little of the reserved ground pistachio and one whole pistachio.

The lowdown:
1. The recipe says to only roughly chop the pistachios that you add to the mix in the final stages. They need to be chopped a bit more than rough, but not to a fine pulp. Mine had a little too much of a chunky texture.
2. I just mixed a few drops of green food coloring with a half of a tub of Betty Crocker Vanilla icing. That stuff is SO sweet and really too sweet. I would suggest making your own butter cream frosting and adding the green food coloring to that.
3. The texture of the cupcakes is similar to that of a carrot cake or italian cream cake. If you don't like that nutty texture, you won't like these.
4. All in all I did like the way they turned out. Much more of a savory base than I had expected.

5. I used one 12-hole mini muffin pan and a six-hole large muffin pan. My cupcakes only took 21 minutes to bake.

6. Don't forget the salt! I did. Also make sure the quality of the marzipan is good. Mine was not.

Raspberry, White Chocolate, and Macadamia Nut Muffins

Ingredients: 300g/11oz plain flour; 2tsp baking powder; 150g/5oz golden caster sugar; 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 225ml/7½fl oz milk; 50g/2oz butter, melted; 100g/4oz fresh (or thawed frozen) raspberries; 75g/3oz chopped white chocolate; handful of chopped macadamia nuts

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Cut parchment or greaseproof paper a bit larger than the muffin pan circles and push into a muffin tin. 2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter. 3. Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients with the raspberries and chocolate, taking care not to over-mix. Spoon the mixture into the parchment cases and bake for 30 minutes or so until well risen and just firm.

The lowdown: Muffins turned out nicely, but they were a bit cakey and bland. I would increase the amount of raspberries to about 6 - 8 oz. and increase the white chocolate input to about 150g. I chopped the nuts too finely, so I would keep them chunkier to add a bit of texture. Baking for about 25 minutes would probably suffice. I also warmed a little apricot preserves and brushed the top of the muffins.