vegan chocolate cupcakes and frosting

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One would imagine that the whole point of baking vegan would be in the interest of making something healthier. But no, for me, it’s just to ensure that the plant-based eaters among us can also access my baking. It’s also a challenging experiment for me, not unlike the attempts at gluten-free baking I sometimes undertake. Both work well enough, but I don’t eat any of it to be able to say for sure how successful these attempts are.

However, this time I took the vegan goods to a vegan acquaintance who was willing to give me an honest and detailed appraisal. I’d adapted my standard ANZAC biscuit, which looks deceptively healthy but isn’t, to be vegan, but this was simple. It was simply a matter of swapping regular butter for coconut oil, and this apparently worked beautifully. So much so that the vegan ANZAC biscuits were gone quickly with non-vegans praising them, and the vegan acquaintance only getting to enjoy one.

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Not too different from a regular ANZAC biscuit

As for the chocolate cupcakes, it was reported that the cake itself was not unlike any standard vegan cupcake. Maybe a little dry, maybe not inspiring, but passable. This is mostly what I expected, but I also think that these cupcakes probably need to be eaten very soon after being baked (they can’t sit out for days, particularly uncovered, as was happening where I left them). Here is the vegan cupcake recipe I used, minus the pretzel flourishes…

It was however reported, quite against my expectation, that the frosting was superb. And I guessed – and this was confirmed – that vegan frosting is not always an easy thing to achieve. With taste and consistency being a bit fussy without butter or eggs, I gave it a lot of thought because many commercial vegan margarine substitutes just separate and don’t whip up well. And vegetable oils aren’t successful. You could just do a dark chocolate ganache topping, but that was not what I was after.

Finally I remembered the old days and the good old solutions my grandma favored. Her frosting recipe had nothing to do with veganism or healthy choices but had a lot more to do with what she had on hand and what ingredients she was used to working with. And that’s when I realized, ah yes, you can make frosting from solid vegetable shortening (i.e., something like Crisco). No it is not the healthiest solution, and vegetable shortening isn’t the easiest thing to find in Sweden. But find it I did, after doing a bit of reading online about how people use vegetable shortening to make light, fluffy frosting. It’s also a boon if you’re trying to have perfectly white frosting, which is impossible using butter. In my reading I realized that professional bakers often use Crisco to make frosting not only because it is so white but also because it is so stable and less fussy than butter icing.

As it happens, I was going for a chocolate frosting, so I whipped the vegetable shortening vigorously, added a lot of powdered sugar and a whole lot of vanilla extract and then alternated between unsweetened cocoa powder and hot coffee.

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Yeah, I hear you… the sprinkle job/decoration leaves much to be desired.

Vegan chocolate frosting with vegetable shortening recipe
2/3 cup all-vegetable shortening (e.g., Crisco)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (at least 1 teaspoon; I think I used much more)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups powdered sugar (approximate – work with it to get the balance you prefer)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 to 6 tablespoons milk (or hot coffee – I wanted a deeper, richer chocolate flavor, so I opted for coffee)

Beat shortening for several minutes; add vanilla and salt. Continue to beat on high speed until very fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, and begin to beat on low speed until incorporated. Add cocoa powder alternately with the milk or coffee, until you get everything mixed together well. Give it a taste to see if you need to adjust the ingredients for taste (more cocoa? more vanilla?)

Once you’ve got your flavor right, beat on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes (maybe more!). And frost!

Pumpkin cupcakes

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Nothing special to say about these. After I made pumpkin-stuffed snickerdoodles, I was left with some pumpkin and decided to use it up by making pumpkin cupcakes. I frosted these with plain chocolate buttercream to which I added a bit of cinnamon.

Pumpkin cupcakes
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cloves
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree or mashed butternut squash
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix wet ingredients together. Sift dry ingredients together. Mix dry ingredients into wet.

Preheat oven to 175C. Divide batter among cupcake papers lining a cupcake pan. Bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cupcakes comes out clean. Cool on baking racks. Frost/decorate as desired.

Cupcake graveyard

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I used a very basic, and incidentally, vegan chocolate cake recipe to make these cupcakes – although I added in a few teaspoons of instant espresso powder to make them mocha cupcakes.

The cupcake recipe is below. They are frosted with a basic chocolate buttercream and then dipped in Oreo crumbs (Oreos make good dirt/earth). Then the tombstone cookies are added. Various other decorations can be added to suit your tastes.

Chocolate cupcake recipe (vegan)
2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa

(2-3 teaspoons instant espresso if you’re going for a mocha thing, like I did)

Preheat oven to 175C. Mix the wet ingredients. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the wet ingredients. Divide among cupcake pans lined with cupcake papers. Bake 15-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle of cupcakes comes out clean.

Frost/decorate as desired.

 

Happy Halloween

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I will post later with all the recipes and reflections on this, but here are some images of all the baked stuff I made this weekend – my last big bake, I do believe. I set it all up in the office and feel very… free.

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Getting the big Halloween bake all set up in the office

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Very basic Halloween decorations

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How will I organize this??

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Ready for their close-up: Coconut cream bar cookies

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Chocolate chip cashew cookies – same recipe as the white chocolate macadamia cookies, only throw in chocolate chips and cashews instead of white chocolate and macadamia nuts

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Mini pecan pie recipe… also these got some rave reviews

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M&M cookies… same recipe as the white chocolate macadamia cookies

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Chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips – same recipe as the chocolate mint cookies but with peanut butter chips instead of mint

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Table 1 of 2: Getting rid of ingredients cookies rather than the Halloween-themed goods

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The Halloween-themed spread

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Chocolate cupcakes (which happen to be vegan – not by design, just coincidence) with grey vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream

 

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Witch finger shortbread cookie recipe… they freak everyone out

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Chocolate truffles: Very easy to make

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Coconut dark chocolate bites recipe: I toasted the coconut and blitzed it in a food processor, which is not indicated in the recipe. I think it works better this way

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Close-up: Candy corn cupcakes

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The full spread: Halloween baking 2017

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Happy Halloween 2017

 

 

German chocolate cake

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Like a lot of things in America, the so-named German chocolate cake isn’t actually German. But Americans, I guess, decided it is. Or actually the history goes that it was concocted by someone named Samuel German and was originally called German’s chocolate cake. Has nothing at all to do with being German or Germany. But the name has shifted, as so many do, to make people wrongly believe that this cake is a German treat.

I’ve always been fairly disgusted by German chocolate cake. It was the go-to birthday cake for my maternal grandfather, and I, liking neither chocolate nor nuts, could never see the appeal. Recently, while thinking a lot about my grandparents (now both deceased), I wondered if I could make German chocolate cupcakes.

Before you get started, I would suggest toasting your pecans for the filling. Toast about 4 ounces or 113 grams of pecan pieces in an oven at 175C/350F for about 10 minutes, making sure they do not burn. Set aside.

Cake
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup cold, strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 175C/350F. Butter and flour muffin tins (or use paper muffin cups). Sift dry ingredients together in one bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, coffee, buttermilk and vanilla.

Beat the coffee mix into the dry ingredients in two batches with an electric mixer on low. Beat in butter last. Pour into prepared muffin tins (about half full).

Bake 10-14 minutes (done when a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake in the center of the pan comes out clean).

Nut-coconut filling
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cup coconut
3/4 – 1 cup toasted pecan pieces
3 tablespoons butter

In a heavy mid-sized saucepan, combine cream, sugar and yolks. Cook on medium-low until the sugar dissolves (about ten minutes). Remove from heat and add coconut, pecans and butter. Stir until the butter is fully melted. Let stand until at room temperature.

When cool, use the filling to fill/top each cupcake to the capacity you like. I made holes in my cupcakes and filled them and then topped the rest of the cake with some chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream, but you could also use a chocolate ganache as a topper.

Gluten-free cupcake ideas

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Some time ago, I determined that I would expand my gluten-free baking repertoire. I never get very far because I am wrapped up in the regular baking and am paranoid about ensuring that the gluten stuff does not touch gluten-free stuff. I know there are a lot of people who eat gluten-free by preference, so gluten is not going to hurt them. But there are a few with tremendous sensitivity and for their sake, I try to be as careful as I can be in a kitchen in which both gluten and gluten-free baking takes place.

In any case, my bakes, as anyone who knows me knows, are industrial in their size and breadth… meaning that once the regular stuff is done, I don’t have a lot of energy left for expansive gluten-free experiments. Now I always make gluten-free/paleo coconut flour brownies because they are easy and I know they work… and often make stuff like coconut macaroons (also easy and foolproof). But cupcakes are a new area. I’ve been told that these were delicious.

Vanilla gluten-free cupcakes (makes 12)
1/2 cup (125 grams) butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (115 grams) gluten-free all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 175C. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs – sift dry ingredients together and mix into wet ingredients alternately with coconut milk.

Fill cupcake papers just over halfway. Bake. Remove from oven after 12-15 minutes, when toothpick inserted in center of center-placed cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Next up to try in my adventures in gluten-free baking:

Chocolate gluten-free cupcakes (makes 12)
210 grams gluten-free all-purpose flour
70 grams cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup sour cream
3 to 6 tablespoons coffee

Preheat oven to 175C. Bake 15-20 minutes.

Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

Cream eggs and sugar, add coconut oil – sift dry ingredients together and mix into wet ingredients in three rounds, alternately with the sour cream. Add in the coffee last of all, using as much as you need to make the right consistency batter and flavor you like.

Fill cupcake papers just over halfway. Bake. Remove from oven after 15-20 minutes, when toothpick inserted in center of center-placed cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

(I used chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and gluten-free sprinkles.)

Making Do: Condensed milk cupcakes and icing

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I recently “hosted” a cupcake-decorating session with a group of adults – not knowing what other kind of activity to offer up when my turn rolled around to plan an activity for the group. It ended up being fun enough, but the interesting part for me was that, being the baker whose idea it all was, I had to actually bake all the cupcakes for use.

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When baking time rolled around, the weather was dismal – wintry, icy and everything I did not want to brave behind the wheel to go get the one missing ingredient – milk. Luckily, even though baking is a science, meaning that you can’t just throw whatever you want into a recipe and expect it to turn out, you CAN make successful substitutions.

I had a lot of sweetened condensed milk in the cupboard, and I decided to give it a go in cupcakes (and in frosting).

Let me just back up for a moment to mention condensed milk, as I am sure I have done before. I do not any longer take for granted that it is freely/readily available and something of a staple. When I moved from the US to Iceland, long ago, I was stunned to find that condensed milk was nowhere to be found. I asked a lot of Icelanders, who seemed confused or, worse yet, acted like I was stupid for not being able to find and use milk. Yes, they did not know that condensed milk is not just milk. Eventually Iceland got condensed milk, although usually only to be found in Polish and Asian shops.

Moving to Sweden, I found that pretty much every shop has condensed milk (hoorah), which lulled me into the false sense of security that I would be able to find it again upon return (and needing to bake) in Iceland. No such luck.

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Vanilla condensed milk cupcakes (this should make between 20-24 cupcakes)
170 grams butter
500 grams condensed milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 teaspoons baking powder
250 grams flour (if making chocolate cupcakes, replace about half to two-thirds of the flour with unsweetened cocoa – I guessed on this proportion)

Preheat oven to 175C. Bake about 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

Beat butter, condensed milk together. When well-blended, add eggs and vanilla. Then add the dry ingredients.

Line your cupcake pan with cupcake papers and fill each about halfway (or slightly more). Bake.

Let cool in pan for about five minutes after removing from the oven; move the cupcakes to wire racks to cool completely.

Icing
I am trying to remember exactly how I went about making the icing… it was butter, powdered sugar and condensed milk (the 500g called for the cake recipe above is about one and a half standard-sized cans; the leftover half-can should be used here, though you might ultimately need more). Icing is a lot more forgiving than a baked recipe – so you should just mix the stuff you want together until you get the right balance of texture/consistency and flavor.

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Latest bake recipes and feedback

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Although I provided links to the original source and inspiration for the recipes with which I experimented in my latest bake, I decided I ought to post the recipes including modifications as well as the feedback I received.

Pumpkin cupcakes with gingersnap crust, Rolo/Center candy center and spiced apple cider icing

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin

Package of gingersnaps or pepparkakor cookies

24 Rolo, Smil or Center chocolate caramel candies

Directions/cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Line 24 muffin cups.
Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.
Beat 1/2 cup of butter and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to be fully incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the milk and pumpkin. Stir in the dry mixture, mixing until just incorporated.

Place a thin gingersnap or gingerbread (pepparkakor) in the bottom of a cupcake paper. Put cupcake batter over the top of the gingersnaps and fill to about two-thirds full. Press a Rolo into the center of the batter.

Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Spiced apple cider frosting
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Two or three packets spiced apple cider

Mix the egg white and the sugar over a double boiler. The sugar should be completely dissolved when you remove it from heat. Pour the mixture into a large bowl (preferably the mixing bowl of a stand mixer — Swiss meringue is mixing intensive, so a stand mixer works best). Whisk on high speed until stiff but still wet peaks form. Continue to beat for about five or six minutes after these peaks form.

Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the speed to medium low. Add the butter in one or two tablespoons/pieces at a time. The mixture might start to look lumpy and curdled. Don’t worry. Keep mixing. When things start to come together, beat in the flavoring (in this case, the apple cider powder) and keep beating for another two minutes. It might take some time to get to the right texture. You will know when it comes together in a solid, fluffy, frosting-like consistency.

Among the feedback on these – which were giant (I double the recipe and baked them in double-sized cupcake papers) – were statements like, “I have a new favorite. The pumpkin cupcakes are like a meal! And then a caramel surprise in the middle. I loved it!” And, “That pumpkin cake was amazing! The balance with the icing was perfect… and then a toffee middle! Was it ginger and cinnamon in the sponge or just cinnamon? Was it lemon in the icing? I loved it … definitely made my morning.”

(And to answer those questions… yes, ginger and cinnamon in the sponge along with cloves, nutmeg and allspice! That’s a LOAD of spices! And no, no lemon in the icing!)

About the “fauxstess” Hostess cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, you can quickly make some by adding 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice for each cup of milk you’d like to “sour” – or use “súrmjólk” or “filmjölk”)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat sugar and vegetable oil until fluffy. Add eggs, beat well. Add vanilla. Mix. Sift all dry ingredients together and add in thirds alternately with the buttermilk.

Preheat oven to 175C.

Put batter into prepared cupcake papers, fill to about two-thirds full. Bake 20-24 minutes. Let cool in pan for five minutes and then remove to cooling racks. Let completely cool before filling.

Fauxstess vanilla filling
The original, suggested filing recipe was too heavy and thick for me to use but you can find it on the lovely Lemon Sugar blog site.

My filling recipe is the same as I use for Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons vanilla bean powder, a teaspoon or so of liquid vanilla (to taste)

Mix the egg white and the sugar over a double boiler. The sugar should be completely dissolved when you remove it from heat. Pour the mixture into a large bowl (preferably the mixing bowl of a stand mixer — Swiss meringue is mixing intensive, so a stand mixer works best). Whisk on high speed until stiff but still wet peaks form. Continue to beat for about five or six minutes after these peaks form.

Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the speed to medium low. Add the butter in one or two tablespoons/pieces at a time. The mixture might start to look lumpy and curdled. Don’t worry. Keep mixing. When things start to come together, beat in the flavoring (in this case, the vanilla) and keep beating for another two minutes. It might take some time to get to the right texture. You will know when it comes together in a solid, fluffy, frosting-like consistency.

Add to a piping bag and use a piping/frosting tip that can be poked into the tops of the cupcakes to fill them. Gently squeeze piping bag to fill the cupcakes with filling, being careful not to let the cupcake explode. If using the original filling recipe, you are supposed to set aside a cup of the filling to make the white icing curlicue on top of the cupcakes, but because I did not do that I used some store-bought white-writing icing.

Chocolate ganache topping

5 ounces chocolate
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Over a double boiler filled with boiling water, heat cream in the top until steaming. Remove from heat and add chocolate, stir until smooth. Cool completely. When cool, dip the filled cupcakes into the ganache (or spread them with the ganache). Set in fridge at least 30 minutes to let harden/solidify.

Use the icing “pen” to make squiggles on top. Refrigerate the cupcakes so everything sets nicely.

People were truly bowled over by these, no matter how ugly they turned out. I mean, heck yeah, it’s chocolate. But they didn’t turn out looking like their namesake and processed “inspiration”, the Hostess cupcake. I guess they don’t have to look exactly the same to taste even better.

The most effusive feedback came from the only other American person (someone who actually knows the real Hostess cupcakes) to try these out. The exuberance and all-caps are hers (she emailed her feedback): “WHATEVER ON EARTH WAS IN YOUR CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES?!!?!?! IT WAS SO GODDAMN SPANKING GOOD! IT REMINDED ME OF THE JOY OF A DING DONG AS A CHILD – BUT THIS WAS BETTER! IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LIGHT… I’m like….. in heaven… It was AMAZING! PERFECT! You have to make those again!!” When I responded with a thanks, she answered, “IT WAS TOTALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY A HOSTESS!!! TOTALLY! TOTALLY! TOTALLY!! !%&”!%”#@!”

Pumpkin cupcakes stuffed with Rolo candy

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What could be better than stuffing things inside a cupcake? I mean, really. A cupcake is like a dream come true for a lot of people… or at least something that gives them a tiny bit of a joy when they unexpectedly get one on a Monday morning. When I stumbled on the Bake It in a Cake blog a few years ago, it was like a revelation to me, “Wow! I never thought of shoving THAT into a cupcake.” And the creativity stirred all on its own until I was doing all kinds of out-there experiments with stuffed cupcakes and cookies.

All of that has been on the backburner this year, but as Halloween came around, I remembered the recipe for pumpkin cupcakes filled with Rolo candies, frosted with spiced-apple-cider icing.

I had to made a few modifications:

  1. In the original Bake It in a Cake recipe, the pumpkin cake part is just cake with pumpkin in it, and I still wanted it to be pumpkin spice, so I used an entirely different cake recipe.
  2. Also Rolo candy is not that common here. Usually I substitute with Norwegian Smil candy, but this time I had Swedish Center candy, which is actually better than Smil, so I might make the switch entirely (except that Smil is sold in big bulk packages at the crazy border shopping centers).

    Swedish Center candy - like Rolo only better

    Swedish Center candy – like Rolo only better

  3. I don’t like (and don’t like making) normal buttercream frosting, which also seems awfully grainy to me. I made Swiss meringue buttercream (follow the same recipe as in the fauxstess cupcake recipe but instead of vanilla, add two or three packages of powdered instant apple cider mix).
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Gingersnap base of the pumpkin cupcake

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Pumpkin cake batter, Center/Rolo pressed in the middle

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Pumpkin cupcake frosted with spiced apple cider icing and topped with Halloween sprinkles

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Pumpkin cupcake cut in half! See the Rolo in there?

the fauxstess with the mostess?

fauxstess cupcakes with bad squiggles
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After moving beyond the mundane world of plain cupcakes, I was happy to come across inspiration for something different. I stumbled on the Lemon Sugar blog and its take on the Hostess cupcake. No doubt – a homemade version of the original processed feast of Frankenstein ingredients (what IS the peel-off ‘choco-not’ frosting topped with glue-like squiggles?) is superior. You would barely have to try hard to get a better-tasting finished product.

I mostly followed the Lemon Sugar recipe as posted, but when I made the creme filling, it turned out too thick (I could spackle with this stuff!), so I turned to Swiss meringue buttercream* as my filling.

I made a few mistakes. For one, I did not let all the cupcakes bake quite long enough, so they were a bit too soft and collapsed in the middle. For another, I followed the “creme” filling recipe provided in the Lemon Sugar blog BUT did not have quite enough marshmallow filling, and that probably made the difference. Third, because the filling did not work out as planned, I could not use it to make the topping-squiggles, so I turned to a tube of white “writing” glaze/icing, which worked fine except that I just don’t have the patience or dexterity for doing artistic or decorative stuff … so witness my mess.

filled fauxstess cupcakes

filled fauxstess cupcakes

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*Swiss meringue buttercream how-to
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Vanilla powder and liquid vanilla (to taste)

Mix the egg white and the sugar over a double boiler. The sugar should be completely dissolved when you remove it from heat. Pour the mixture into a large bowl (preferably the mixing bowl of a stand mixer — Swiss meringue is mixing intensive, so a stand mixer works best). Whisk on high speed until stiff but still wet peaks form. Continue to beat for about five or six minutes after these peaks form.

Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the speed to medium low. Add the butter in one or two tablespoons/pieces at a time. The mixture might start to look lumpy and curdled. Don’t worry. Keep mixing. When things start to come together, beat in the flavoring (in this case, the vanilla) and keep beating for another two minutes. It might take some time to get to the right texture. You will know when it comes together in a solid, fluffy, frosting-like consistency.