Mini Cupcake Adventures

I had to make about 72 mini cupcakes last Friday for a baby shower.. I decided on making two different types for variety sake, although I haven't really made mini cupcakes so I was trying recipes the weekends before.  Hence the banana one which as I said didn't turn out so well, and then I tried a chocolate mini cupcake recipe from Baking Bites which I found to be too dry for my likes.. SO for the final products I had to go with recipes I never tried... -_- can you foresee disaster?  

The two recipes I decide on are Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and Mini Lemon Cupcakes from lemoncupcakes.net. 

The chocolate cupcakes came out better than my first try, just moist enough!

 

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

 (modified to make mini cupcakes - Yields about 60)

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk (substitute described below)

3 tablespoons safflower oil or canola oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini cupcake tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
2. Divide batter evenly among cupcake cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 10-12 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely

Note:

• I didn't have any buttermilk so the substitute was:  1 teaspoon of white vinegar in a measuring cup and fill the remainder with milk up to 1 cup, then use whatever amount is required by the recipe so here I used 3/4 of this subsitute.
• I didn't have Safflower Oil so I subsituted it with Canola oil, works just as well.
• I also don't like my desserts so sweet so I put only 1 cup of sugar instead of 1.5 cups.. but then you might want to decrease the water a bit because I felt the cupcakes tasted a little bit watered down.. -_-

 

 












Ok, now the mini lemon cupcakes is where the disaster occurred. So I found this recipe: Mini Lemon Cupcakes but had I actually read through it carefully it might've turned out better.  The instructions on that recipe skipped a crucial step that I failed to notice, shamefully.  Read it? Notice it?  AT WHAT POINT DO YOU ADD THE EGGS IN??  hahahaha. Sigh.  I'm someone who likes to follow instructions to the key so when you don't add it in, I will follow.  When I made mine, it turned out like cookie dough. I had to add the eggs in the end to fix it and it still turned out ok but I'm sure it could be better!  SO I will fix the instructions below so you don't make the same mistake I did.

 

Mini Lemon Cupcakes

(Modified.  Yields about 60) 

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup softened butter

1 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

8 oz sour cream (substitute described below)

2 tsp shredded lemon peel

2 tsp lemon juice (optional) 

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Take 2 mini cupcake pans (I had only 1 pan and suffered for it) and line them with small muffin cups. Set them aside while you make the cupcake batter.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the baking powder, flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Take another bowl and mix your butter using electric mixer.  Add the sugar and continue mixing until the butter becomes fluffy. 
4. Beat in one egg at a time. Add the vanilla essence.
5. Continue mixing and add the sour cream. Continue mixing and then add the lemon peel. (if you want it more lemony add the lemon juice)
6. Add the flour mixture to the batter.  Mix until completely blended
7. Scoop about 1 tbsp of the batter into your waiting muffin cups and bake them in your preheated oven for 10 to 18 minutes depending how much batter you put in each cup.  Use a toothpick to check, poke a cupcake and if the toothpick comes out clean then they're ready!
8. Put on wire rack to cool completely
9. Decorate as desired!

Note:

• I substituted the sour cream with 1 cup yogurt mixed with 1 tsp baking soda. (if you do this, I would reduce the amount of baking soda you put in the recipe.  I found my cupcakes had a strong taste of baking soda. Ugh.)

Finally, the frosting! (from allrecipes.com)

Cream Cheese Frosting

(this made enough for about 80 - 90 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz), softened

1/4 cup of butter, softened

1 cup of confectioner's sugar (or icing sugar)

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.