Cupcake crazy

It’s that time of year again. Christmas is over but my love of baking is ever present – what better time to give my ovens a work-out than Valentine’s Day? Every year my company hosts a charity store – either Valentines or Easter, and we sell anything from homemade jewelry to sweets and goodies. It’s a chance to put my baking skills to the test.

To say I go overboard is an understatement. This year I’m trying to limit myself to keep my sanity. It’s down to 3 flavors – Chocolate cake with an Irish cream frosting, vanilla cake with raspberry frosting and vanilla cake with lemon curd topping and a toasted Italian meringue frosting.



The goal was 200 cupcakes and I made just nearly that. One of the hits every year was the chocolate cake filled with a Baily’s Irish cream frosting then dipped in chocolate ganache and topped again with more frosting.



I loved doing it, but back wasn’t so kind. Standing up so long and running around the kitchen just hurts when you’re use to a desk job all day. Luckily we made a bunch of money for charity, so it was all worth it.




Chocolate Cupcakes
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Directions
Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a large bowl. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until top of cake is springy.

Let cool and make Buttercream (below) With a decorators tip and piping bag, pipe about a Tbls worth of frosting into the center of all the cupcakes. Combine the ingredients for the ganache and microwave until melted. Dip the top of each cake into the ganache and let cool. Pipe more frosting on top.

Vanilla/Baileys Buttercream
2 sticks butter (no substitutes), softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk (1 tbls at a time) OR you can substitute a couple TBls of Baileys with more milk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk/Baily's until frosting reaches desired consistency - whip it fast so it's nice and airy.

Chocolate ganache
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Here's some more from the same cupcake-palooza:




...and of course the baking frenzy wouldnt be complete without cookies: