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25 November 2009

This thread is about cupcakes and advice about making cupcakes. [More:]

I would like to make cupcakes tomorrow to bring to the office, a sort of Yank-in-Britain-bringing-you-a-Thanksgiving-nom thing.

Got any recipes for, say, pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting? Got any tips on how to make your cupcakes luscious and delicious? I have a muffin tin with rather shallow indentations, will that work anyway? Should I just make a cake?

In England they call them fairy cakes and they tend to be decorated with pieces of candy. Weirdos.
Oh, and also, what kinds of flavours and icings do y'all like? Got any pictures of cupcakes you've made?

CUPCAKES CUPCAKES CUPCAKES!
posted by Specklet 25 November | 04:49
aargh! Greece does not love cupcakes, but taz does! I can't even find cupcake tins. Cupcakes are the cradle of civilization, silly Greeks!!!
posted by taz 25 November | 04:51
Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I know the kind of tin you're thinking of, probably a tart tray? That's probably not going to be great for muffins.

Here's a cake recipe.

Or how about a pumpkin pie? It's something I'd never eaten until I went to the States so that might be the first taste of Thanksgiving your co-workers have ever had.
posted by essexjan 25 November | 04:54
Taz, that's tragic! Dessert foods are big here, as is *drool* a cheese course at the end of a meal.

Thanks, Jan. I don't really like pumpkin pie all that much, and have little-to-no faith in my pie crust skills, so I'll prolly just do a cake.

But I still wanna hear about cupcakes!
posted by Specklet 25 November | 05:15
desserts are big here, but some things they just don't get _at all_. You would weep if you could taste what passes for cheesecake here. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of the very, very sweet sticky honey pastries that are traditional, and not blown away by the more (relatively) nouvelle stuff. I like homey things like cookies and cupcakes, carrot cake... and these are exactly the things that aren't really grokked here.
posted by taz 25 November | 05:26
You can get deep muffin tins here - I think I got mine at Debenhams (not sure, but I get most of my cooking stuff at D. or John Lewis so chances are it's one or the other). Your average jam tart tin probably won't do a very good job though it might work if you have the deep paper muffin cases.

For me "fairy cakes" are something specific from childhood, and are quite different from cupcakes (the main difference being that cupcakes are likely to have the really thick creamy American icing/frosting whereas fairy cakes don't), but that might be just me :).
posted by altolinguistic 25 November | 05:28
Oh, and Greece does fabulous layers of fabulously flaky fabulous phyllo with fabulous stuff, of course... but sadly, that really not my thing.
posted by taz 25 November | 05:29
The rise and fall of the cupcake class.
posted by octothorpe 25 November | 07:08
alto, I'm just going by the fairy cakes my sister-in-law makes, which are smothered with icing and coated with candy. This could be a regional thing... but more likely the influence of an assisting four-year-old.

taz, I know what you mean about not getting some dessert foods. I'm not huge on sweets, but I do enjoy a nice slice of carrot cake now and then. Here dessert is *always* served, and heavy whipping cream is poured over *everything*. Nice ripe mango and strawberry salad? Cream. Chocolate cake? Cream. German pancake with apple topping? Cream. UGH!
posted by Specklet 25 November | 07:35
Well, I'll link here to my song at MeFiMu...

Cupcake, When You Have a Chance
posted by flapjax at midnite 25 November | 08:15
Specklet, can you buy cupcake papers? If you can find the heavy foil-coated cupcake liners, you don't even need the cupcake tin.

I know it sounds crazy, but in their quest for the perfect cupcake recipe, Cooks Illustrated discovered that the heavy foil-coated cupcake papers can stand on their own on a baking sheet. You just line them up an inch or so apart(spacing them as if they were in a cupcake tin), fill them with cake batter, and bake 'em. You do have to handle the baking sheet a bit carefully so the cupcake liners don't go tumbling all over, but that's just an extra moment of attention getting them in and out of the oven. I have never tried this, but I trust CI. Now you have to ask yourself: do you trust them?

Mmmm, cupcakes.

I'm making cupcakes this weekend for a friend's birthday, and again next weekend for another friend's birthday. And because I will use any excuse to make cake.
posted by Elsa 25 November | 09:16
You can also use the little cupcake liners in a tart pan and they'll work fine. (I always use cupcake liners because I hate having to scrub out each little indent in the pan.) I haven't made any pumpkin cupcakes this year. (I plan on checking out the pumpkin section at the grocery store on Friday since I don't feel like getting stabbed for taking my time to look at stuff before Thanksgiving.)
I've got some self-links of other cupcake recipes that I've made that came out quite tasty though: rainbow cupcakes, honey cashew cupcakes, french toast and bacon cupcakes, and sugar donut cupcakes/muffins.
posted by sperose 25 November | 10:01
speroseOMGgivemebaconcupcakenowplease!
posted by Specklet 25 November | 10:09
I had the most amazing cupcake last week- the White Hot Chocolate cupcake at Crumbs. I'm not generally a big sweets fan, but holy cow, it was so good. I liked that it wasn't too much rich. Will definitely take my sister there this weekend.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 25 November | 10:51
There is a Crumbs 3 blocks from our apartment, TPS....

(I too have had the white hot chocolate cupcake. Nom. I still like the lemon meringue the best, a little tangy, no frosting making it all sweet)
posted by gaspode 25 November | 11:06
If I could shove computers through the tubes, I totes would.
posted by sperose 25 November | 11:24
I live half a block from a cupcake shop.
posted by aniola 25 November | 11:46
I only make one kind of cupcake (the Magnolia Bakery vanilla/vanilla) but I make it very well. Photo.
posted by pinky.p 25 November | 13:40
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit came back online. I've never had a vanilla cupcake that I like better than her recipe. She often uses exotic ingredients and the recipes are usually fidly. But even if you pare them down to the cake and a frosting, so yummy
posted by crush-onastick 25 November | 15:25
crush-onastick, I could kiss you for pointing out that Chockylit's back. KISS you.
posted by wimpdork 25 November | 17:49
Bunny! OMG! || They're building a Louvre in Abu Dhbai.

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