MangiaMore: TRICK or TREAT cupcakes

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RER 11.1.13

The final cupcake in the Halloween Cupcake Wars, was crunchy, chocolaty, salty and caramelly, the Trick or Treat Cupcakes. Refined caramel cake, with smooth chocolate buttercream frosting and a fun topping of crunchy homemade caramel corn with savory surprises. Trick or treat, sweet or salty.

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The moment I saw this recipe on The Cake Blog, I knew I needed to make it. It wasn't for the caramel cupcake, or the caramel batter, or the caramel frosting, it was definitely because of the caramel corn. And in the blog post featuring these cupcakes, the caramel corn was littered with another one of my most favorite things, candy corn. I HAD to have it.

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See, the thing with me is, anything with popcorn is simply irresistible. My sister and I went to the Izod Center this weekend to see Mr. JT (!), but once I saw the concession stands offered popcorn, that was my focus. I found myself more fixated on my box of popcorn than his smooth moves. When I'm bored I eat popcorn, when I'm sad I eat popcorn, when I'm happy I eat popcorn. Sweet, spicy, salty, buttery, it doesn't matter. It is literally one of the only things I crave. So when I saw this recipe, and sweet, delicious, salty caramel popcorn parading in the images, I knew it was going to be a contender.

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There was nothing particularly difficult about the recipe, though preparing the popcorn (melting down the butter, sugar and corn syrup until it was that amber color) was the most intimidating. Tossing some sunflower (salty) seeds and candy corn (sweet) on the hot caramel corn right after the oven seemed delicious and intriguing in theory, but in practice the extra toppings did not stick. But no worries, the popcorn won’t last long. 

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 note: I would highly recommend making a full batch of the popcorn, even for half a batch of the cupcakes. It is super addictive.

Instead of making another layer of caramel, caramel frosting, I decided to whip up a quick batch of chocolate frosting to counter the salty sweetness of the popcorn. The chocolate frosting broke up the monotony of caramel, and added another adult flavor to the cupcake’s profile. As it turns out, it was pretty tasty. The caramel cake was not very sweet, and it almost tasted like plain cake with a hint of browned sugar and caramel. The popcorn added a fun texture and a pretty decorative element. All the pieces came together nicely, for a festive treat that can be adapted for any holiday.

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note: do not put popcorn in the freezer or fridge, it turns into a soggy mess (learn from my mistake).

And that wraps up this year’s Halloween Cupcake Wars! Stay tuned for more food fun and check out our facebook and twitter!

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11.8.13

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MangiaMore: S'moreScary cupcakes

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The second cupcake contender in the Halloween Cupcake Wars is s’more scary than the first. This spooky cupcake starts with a graham cracker crust, filled with devilishly decadent chocolate cake and topped with a pillow of ghostly white marshmallow buttercream. You know, S’moreScary.

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I knew I wanted to make a s’mores cupcake, and I was creating my own until my little sister found this one on marthastewart.com. Initially, this most definitely dashed my creativity, but in the end, I hardly used her recipe at all. My sister made a basic graham cracker crust by Martha’s standards, and from there, improvisation. I used my all time favorite chocolate cake recipe, as seen on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa powder container. Boom.

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 Even though I desperately wanted to go Martha on these cupcakes and do the fancy meringue marshmallow top and toast it with our non-existent kitchen torch, it just didn’t happen. The recipe was about 8 too many egg whites for my liking  (I tend to mess fluffy things up) and we were out of cream of tartar so I said “bump it!” Found a far less labor intensive (but still love intensive) marshmallow frosting, including one of my favorite things, fluff.*

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*note: In my youth (pronounced yoot), I was that girl that bought a tub of fluff from the local convenience store on my lunch break, and brought it back to school, straight up to the physics classroom. I would grab a few plastic spoons and we would pass around the container as our Finnish teacher would lecture and look at us with disgust (literal sticky notes). Shoot, looking back, I too am looking at ninth grade me with disgust.

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These cupcakes were pretty good; a fun play on childhood memories like my messy shared fluff and making s’mores in our solar oven in like the second or third grade on the roof of my school, and campfires (though, that is probably not real life, because I don’t like camping or fires, but they look nice in the movies). I love that the tasty cake and kind of crispy crust and sweet sweet frosting bring on those kinds of moments, while creating new ones. The different textures are nice, from the crunch of the graham crackers, to the spongy cake and the springy stretchy frosting, but something brings it all together. Probably it is because the flavor combination is classic, and not so easily forgotten. This is my boyfriend’s favorite of the bunch, but…

There is a third. So check back to see what the last contender has to offer!

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11.5.13

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MangiaMore: WORMHOLE cupcakes

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First up, contender numeroooo unoooo in the 2013 Annual Halloween Cupcake Wars, the WORMHOOOOLLLEEEE (wormhole, for short) cupcake featuring a deliciously moist apple cinnamon cake and a mature* maple syrup buttercream frosting, topped with mildly creepy gummy worms.

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*note: I used “mature” as the qualifier because I used the real stuff, not Mrs. Butterworths or Aunt Jemima, the syrups of my youth. The grown up stuff. I also used “mature” because I am not entirely fond of the flavor of legit maple syrup, however, the buttercream was the bomb.com.

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This spiced apple cupcakes recipe from chow.com was easy and scrumptious (shredding the apples was probably the most labor intensive part, and waiting for them to be cooked was the most challenging). The maple buttercream frosting, however, was more of the issue. It just would not stop separating, so refrigeration was the solution, even though there are other options out there (i.e. melting a little bit of the frosting in the microwave and then pouring it back into the bowl, or scrapping it and starting over).

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In the end, these are (Believe it or not there are some left, warranting the present tense, but in the freezer to prevent that nasty thing called instant gratification. Patience is a virtue and waiting deserves a reward, a cupcake, obviously.) some mighty tasty cupcakes, verging toward the moist muffin territory. The apple, cinnamon, and maple flavors scream fall, and feel like being wrapped in a furry blanket on a damp cold day. I opted out of the ginger, and went light on the cinnamon, because I really wanted the pretty red gala apples to be the stars of these autumnal cupcakes. Shredded apples made for a fun play of texture, creating a barely there confetti of fruit floating through the dense warm batter. Despite the maple frosting being not so visually pleasing, the taste of the syrup was initially quite strong for the cupcake, but subsided with each bite (all three of them), blending with the cool weather favorite flavors.

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The gummy worm, however, was superfluous (but important in my naming them… wormhole, get it?). Stay tuned for more Cupcake War adventures (in the mean time check out goodies on instagram, facebook and twitter)! 

PS. I would like to shout out my superstar sister, who helped with the cupcake battle, by helping me come up with ideas, cheering me on, shouting out baking directions, and messing with messy maple frosting! Thanks sis!

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10.31.13

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Halloween: CUPCAKE wars 2013

Halloween has passed, but my sweetbelly lingers. Not only did I indulge in my favorite candies (note: candy corn), I also got to stuff my face with some creative cupcakes participating in the annual Halloween Cupcake Wars. These spooky Halloween cupcakes involved candy (note: candy corn), caramel popcorn, maple syrup and marshmallow fluff, so there were plenty of sweet additions to sample, let alone the delicious culmination of the cupcakes. Check out the competition...

 

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I waged a Halloween Cupcake War and the results....Well, stay tuned for recipes, baking adventures, photos and tastes for each of the contenders, the tricks and the treats! It will make you salivate!

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11.4.13 

pre. HEAT: HALLOWEEN cupcake wars 2013

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Happy Halloween my foodie friends! So, yesterday was filled with tricks and treats, and three different kinds of cupcakes for foodie venture's annual Halloween Cupcake Wars. Check out a sneak peek of all the ghoulishly tasty treats in the competition. There was some shredding of apples, popping of popcorn and burning of sugar, and a lot of tasting of delicious batter(s). Can you guess what kinds of cupcakes were in the running?

 

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Happy Halloween again and be safe and stay tuned for the full coverage on the Halloween Cupcake Wars!

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10.31.13

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pre. HEAT: HALLOWEEN cupcake wars

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foodie ventures desperately needs your help! Halloween is creeping up on us super fast, like any spooky ghost would. That means, Halloween Cupcake Wars is around the corner and it is coming fast! Do you remember the eerie creations from last year: candy corn cupcakes, sweet and salty frosting with spicy pumpkin cake; dead velvet, dark dark red red velvet cake, with undead grey cream cheese frosting; and graveyard cupcakes, with super moist white cake with a bloody pudding center, and a decorated top. 

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 How can you top that? foodie ventures wants your cupcake contender recommendations and recipes. Any scarily delicious cupcake ideas that you have been brewing and want to see? Share, and maybe they will make the cut! The more creative and deadly, the better! Bring 'em on!

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10.23.13

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MangiaMore: BANANA cupcakes with brown butter and chocolate frosting

RER 8.30.13

It is about that time to wish foodie ventures a very happy birthday! foodie ventures is one year old (well one year and a few days) and very happy to celebrate a successful and fulfilling first year (see what I did there?). Thank you for all the support here and on twitter, facebook, and tumblr and I hope foodie ventures will keep going strong and grow with every birthday! Maybe this MangiaMore is perfect for celebrating... birthdays mean cake!

 

RER 8.29.13

I am seriously beginning to think that my family has a problem. And it’s bananas… no but really, it’s  bananas, literally. Honestly, we eat bananas here, whether it is on our cereal or yogurt, solo as a snack, frozen in a smoothie or a milkshake, we use them.

 

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But for some reason, I feel like we have been losing them more than using them, perhaps. We lose them to the freezer or to pancakes or to chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies or jacked- up banana bread or even banana cake with chocolate frosting. These “lost” bananas are not entirely lost, obviously, because these mushy brown overripe eyesores transform into delightful treats— a use when they seem unusable and all hope is lost.

 

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Once again, it was time to use decaying bananas that were purchased in not the most stellar condition. We were hoodwinked and bamboozled into buying these less than quality bananas. We had to buy by the bag, and each bag contained various stages of disappointment, some more ripe and less manageable than others and sometimes, an oddball of absolute despair. Faster than usual, this bag of not quite happy bananas was jammed into the fridge and written off as “unusable.” Which meant... banana cupcakes with browned butter and chocolate frosting.

 

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We did not rely on the recipe we had already used for many brown bananas past for the cake part. A little search and discussion later we landed on this recipe from everydaycook.com. Instead of lemon juice we opted for a little dark rum, taking a cue from the jacked-up banana bread we have made before. 

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And as much as I wanted to try the delicious browned butter  frosting, my sister really wanted classic chocolate. So we went half and half. In the The browned butter frosting was a little salty, very sweet and almost butterscotchy and caramelly. It went well with the moist banana cupcake, but in the end, the chocolate and banana combination might have been my favorite. Less sweet, with stronger flavors.

 

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Next on the agenda is how to learn how to pipe frosting onto cupcakes for a more finished and pretty cupcake. This is also to prepare for the upcoming Halloween CupcakeWars! Remember last year’s cupcake feud with the candy corn cupcake with pumpkin cake and salted caramel frosting, the dead velvet topped with a slate grey cream cheese frosting, and the blood red pudding filled graveyard cupcakes?! Any suggestions for this year’s competition? Let me know your ideas and stay tuned to see what cupcakes are in the running! There may even be a vote, so make them good!

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8.30.13

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