O Christmas Tree...Cake

Perhaps because I was so disappointed on Thanksgiving, I found myself in the Christmas spirit more than usual this year. One of the first things that I did, in honor of Iron Cupcake Challenge's year end Bakeoff, was tackle the Giant Cupcake Cake. I had made one once before to less than impressive results, and I was bound and determined to make something with some "wow" factor to it. The problem before was trying to frost the enormous top. I saw some photos online where people had created a mini-tree out of the shape, and I knew this would be easy enough to do using my star-tip and some decorations. It was so much fun to do, and turned out great. And because the bottom of the cupcake serves as the trunk, there is no need to frost or decorate it.

I made some mini cupcake "presents" for the bottom of the tree as well.

It was a huge hit at Iron Cupcake, and one of the most photographed items there. I can't wait to try another one!

Breakfast of Champions

By far and away, my favorite new cupcake that I made this month were the Donuts & Coffee cupcakes that I made for Jen's birthday.

I had sent away for the mini donut pan after seeing this post from Just Jenn.

As soon as it arrived, I knew I was going to like it. It makes mini baked donuts (so really, cakes shaped like donuts), in about 8 minutes, and they are so easy and fun to decorate. I had a blast getting out all of my gel dyes and toppings.

The first time I made the icing, it looked great but after a day kind of melted into the donuts. This is probably as a result of being baked and not fried as well, and it was only powdered sugar and water (as per the instructions that came with the baking pan) so there was not much substance to it. The day that I made a new batch to put on the cupcakes, I used this recipe from Alton Brown and the consistency was much better, although I had to add about twice as much powdered sugar as it called for.

For the cake, I just used a basic chocolate cake recipe with some espresso added, and I also added some brewed instant espresso to a classic buttercream frosting recipe.

It was fun to make something that was 2 desserts in one, and watch people have fun eating them and choosing their favorite design - definitely a keeper.

The Earl of Tea

I've always wanted to add an Earl Grey cupcake to my arsenal, and when we did TEA as the featured ingredient in this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge, it was the perfect opportunity to try one out.

I found this one online and it was pretty good. The only thing is, I am not a fan of self-rising flour. It has a weird, salty taste to me and I could definitely taste it in the cake.

I used double the amount of tea leaves called for, and that was definitely the right choice.

For the lemon frosting, I added both limoncello and lemon juice, as well as lemon zest. And the result was, well, lemony. So much so that it tasted good, but the subtle tea taste in the cupcake was lost.

I think I might brew some tea next time and experiment with that, and also try to find a bergamot to zest instead of lemon.

Oh and on top I added a candied violet, from a package that a friend brought me from France - love the color and taste.

So all in all, a good start, but needs tweaking. Tea-king? Never mind.

Swiss Miss

This month's book for Book Club was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson.

In honor of the Swedish author and setting, I decided to make Swedish Pancake Cupcakes. Basically, I made a Sour Cream Vanilla cupcake, filled it with Lingonberry Jam, and topped it with Buttercream Frosting with a bit of the Lingonberry mixed in.

The difficult thing was finding the Lingonberry Jam, which I finally found in an odd little German store called Lehr's in Noe Valley. It wasn't even jam, it was sauce, but it worked fine and provided that wonderful sweet-tart flavor.

The cupcakes themselves turned out well. The particular recipe that I used had a lot of butter in it, which made for a nice, slightly caramelized top to the cupcakes. I added a piece of German berry candy to each one, found at the same store as the Lingonberry Sauce.

They tasted great after a couple of healthy servings of Swedish Meatballs, made by my friend and the hostess, Nysa.

American Dream

For the 4th of July this year, I decided to take a completely different direction in cupcakes and go the junk-food route. I found 2 recipes for cupcakes using Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, and I thought, how perfect for our truly American holiday.

The Dr. Pepper one was great. I used Marbello cherries, which are sour cherries packed in light syrup, which made it a little more of an adult dessert than a kids one. The frosting was really dark and gingery delicious, and held up well the next day. The recipe calls for using a half cherry on each cupcake, but a whole cherry tasted and looked much better.

The Mountain Dew one was good - surprisingly homemade-tasting since it called for a cake mix which I never use if I can avoid it. But the frosting was a problem. As written, the frosting would have made more of a glaze, which I do not like on cupcakes (misleading photo on the recipe page - grrr). So I had to fool around with it a bit and ended up adding the pineapple/coconut mixture to a buttercream, which made a tasty but runny buttercream. I'll work on it more and see if I can't get it just right.

It's hard to see in the photo, but the baking cups are electric yellow, like Mountain Dew. So in order to have a connection to the Mountain Dew bottle, I sprinkled green edible glitter on top.

All in all, two successful recipes that I would make again, and people really liked the fun, almost white-trash theme. I mean, what red-blooded American wouldn't?

Berry Season

I get way too excited when fruit is on sale. That's how I ended up with 4 containers of blackberries ($1.69 each!), sitting in my fridge and mocking me as I barely made a dent in them each morning by putting them on my cereal.

The original reason I bought them was to use on cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake Challenge - Herbs (Lemon Thyme Cake with Vanilla Lemon Zest Buttercream and topped with a blackberry). Those came out very well, and looked so pretty, too - in fact, my favorite cupcakes have been my berry-topped ones. This is good to remember for next month's challenge which is, you guessed it, Berries.

After 3 days and with 2 full containers left, I knew I needed to make something quickly or they would start to go bad. I looked around on the internet and found this recipe on Confections of a Foodie Bride, and it could not have been more perfect.

I didn't have any buttermilk, so I tried a buttermilk substitute method that has been on my list to try. You take 1/2 C. of regular milk (I used 1%) and add 1/2 T. of white vinegar. Let that sit for 5 minutes, and you have buttermilk! It worked great - no more running out to the store for buttermilk at the last minute, or throwing out old curdled buttermilk 2 weeks later. Hooray!

Just like Foodie Bride, I was skeptical of such a simple recipe - I think I expected it to be ok at best, but it was so good and moist, with a nice subtle lemon flavor and a nice strong fruit taste. Having a slice warm out of the oven was heavenly. You sprinkle sugar on the top before baking, and when you invert it to cool, the "top" becomes the bottom and you get this nice surprise crunch with every bite.

The best part was, it was very easy (just like the recipe says, but has a nice uniform appearance so that it is pretty enough to serve to guests.

I am definitely keeping this one in my "tried and true" file, and can't wait to try it with other berries this season. Great for brunch, tea, or a light dessert. Easy enough to make on a whim on any given night or when people drop by.

Happy Accident

We had our April Iron Cupcake event last night, and the ingredient was Chocolate. Yum, who does not want to eat 10-20 chocolate cupcakes, right? The RSVP list filled up almost immediately after it was posted, and there were 200 people on the waiting list!

I wanted to bake for this one (even though I am not eligible to win, since I am one of the organizers), and I had this great idea to make a Black Forest Cake cupcake. I followed Martha Stewart's recipe for Brownie Cupcakes, and to my dismay, they turned out nothing like the picture! Instead of being dark brown, they turned out kind of mocha colored, and not all that chocolatey. And really tasting of salt. I tested one with a smidge of tart cherry jam on it (my idea was to fill them with tart cherry jam, top with another brownie piece, and then top the whole thing with whipped cream frosting and a cherry), and the jam totally overpowered the taste of the cake. ARGH.

I made some cream cheese frosting instead, and again, when I frosted one test cupcake, the chocolate flavor was totally lost. Curses! So I decided to make the frosting chocolate as well, adding in cocoa powder until it tasted sufficiently like chocolate. And in fact, I liked it a lot.

I frosted one test cupcake, and topped it with some dark chocolate curls I had bought a few weeks ago at Sugar & Spice. And what do you know, it was pretty good! The salt crystals in the brownies now added an interesting dimension to the taste, so I christened them "Salted Milk Chocolate" cupcakes and off I went. I kind of wanted to call them "Black Forest Cake Fail", but I didn't think anyone would get it.

They did very well against the other entries - surprising, since I had been ready to throw them away. By count, I got either 3rd or 4th place out of 15 - not bad, especially given that these were some of the best cupcakes that I have had in the 8 months that I have been doing Iron Cupcake.

I have no idea if I can duplicate them again, but I think that even if the brownie recipe turns out right, they would be delicious. Here is my recipe for the frosting:

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1 16 oz. box powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/2 C. or so cocoa powder, sifted into powdered sugar

In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.

Add the vanilla and stir until incorporated.

Add the powdered sugar/cocoa mixture 1/2 C. at a time. Turn mixer to high for 30 seconds following each addition. Scrape down the sides as necessary.

Add more cocoa if necessary.

Frost cooled cupakes, topping with chocolate curls or mini chocolate chips.

More Fun with Fondant

Yesterday we attended the relaunch of a live radio broadcast of our Burning Man Camp, Camp Want It! It will be a weekly event on Sunday afternoons, and then the set will be played on a continuous loop throughout the week. You can check it out here.

http://www.live365.com/stations/campwantit

I wanted to make some commemorative cupcakes for the day, so I got out my gum paste and metal cookie cutters and had so much fun cutting out the letters and sticking them on the cupcakes. I made chocolate cupcakes with a simple buttercream frosting that I colored red with gel food coloring. This time, instead of piping the frosting, I just spread it on, which created a nice, flat surface and great background for the letters. I also liked the way the letters looked on a full sized cupcake rather than a mini.

This opens up so many decorating possibilities, especially if I figure out how to color the gum paste - all sorts of cute cut-outs could be placed on colored backgrounds. Let the fun begin!

Summer Refresher

It's no secret that I love lemons, and one of my favorite summer drinks is Strawberry Lemonade. It has just the right amount of sweet, and just the right amount of tart - I could drink it by the gallon.

Earlier this week, I attended a viewing party for the show Glee - an instant classic episode which featured songs by Madonna. Tasked with bringing something fun and festive for dessert, I came up with a recipe for Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes.

Lemon Cupcakes

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 C. sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 C. milk
• 2 T. lemon zest
• 2 T. lemon juice
• Few drops yellow food color gel, if desired

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Line 2 24-cup mini cupcake pans with liners.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 4 min.

Add the eggs, one at a time until the mixture becomes creamy.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Whisk to combine.

Alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk until completely incorporated.

Add the lemon zest and juice. Mix batter for an additional minute. Add food color gel and mix just until blended.

Divide the batter among the cupcake liners and bake for 17-23 minutes.

Cool before frosting.

Strawberry Lemon Frosting

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 pkg (16 oz) powdered sugar, sifted
• 2-3 T. strawberry jelly, heated in a pan until melted, and cooled.
• 1 T. lemon zest
• 2 T. lemon juice
• Few drops pink food color gel
• Fresh strawberries, for garnish

Cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.

Add the powdered sugar about 1/2 C. at a time, turning to high speed for a few seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed.

Add the strawberry jelly lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat until combined.

Add the pink food color gel until the desired color is reached.

Frost cooled cupcakes, adding a small piece of chopped strawberry for garnish.

Peep Peep

I love Peeps, so this year it was time to create a Peep-themed cupcake.

I kept it simple - basic chocolate cake recipe with marshmallow fluff frosting (softened cream cheese mixed with a jar of marshmallow fluff and powdered sugar, colored with green food gel). The Peeps are held up by toothpicks, so you just have to remember to warn kids to take them out carefully and remove the toothpick before digging in. You don't need much to make these look festive - the Peeps do it for you!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Stawberry Fields Forever

Spring is in the air, and with it have come the first strawberries of the season. The ones at the Farmers Market this weekend were so lush and beautiful that I bought 3 pints! That day I had a party to go to, so I made cupcakes inspired by one of my favorite desserts, Strawberry Shortcake. The recipe comes from Food & Wine magazine, with the only change being that I used strawberry jelly as opposed to strawberry jam, for a smoother textured frosting.

The cupcakes were delicious, but a few days later I was craving the real thing - traditional strawberry shortcake. It's been years since I have made it. So when I invited my friend Andrea over for lunch today, I baked some sweet biscuits and whipped some cream, and voila, one of the best desserts of summer.

Normally when you make strawberry shortcake, you sweeten the strawberries with sugar until they get very juicy and pulpy. I didn't do that this time because the strawberries were already so naturally sweet, and I put a little bergamot mint on top which added a little bit of brightness. The biscuit recipe is from my old standby, the Silver Palate New Basics cookbook. It has an English feeling to it, which made it perfect after a round of Wii Tennis!

A couple of notes about making biscuits. You don't want to overwork them. They are easier to make than pie crust, but the principle is the same: you work butter into flour and pat out the dough to a uniform size (no rolling involved though, thank God) before cutting it. I use my hands, never a pastry blender or two knives. Also, every time I have made this recipe, the bottoms of the biscuits have burned. I just cut the burned part off and the tops are perfect.

Sweet Biscuits

• 1 3/4 C. all purpose flour
• 1 T. baking powder
• 2 T. sugar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 5 T. unsalted butter, cold
• 3/4 C. half and half
• 1 T. butter, melted, and 1/2. T. sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

Cut the butter into small pieces, and cut it into the flour using two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the half and half, and stif gently until the mixture forms a mass. Gather it into a ball.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, knead it for about 30 seconds, and then pat it out to form a 3/4 in thick rectangle.

Using a 2 3/4 inch cookie cutter, cut out 8 circles.

Arrange the biscuits about 1 in apart on a baking sheet. Baked until puffed and golden, about 14 minutes.

Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and allow them to cool.

Mini-Me!

What a treat - my friend Jude visited the new cupcake shop Mission Minis and brought me 2 of them to sample. Delicious!

Mission Minis is so smart - offering a variety of unusual and traditional flavors...Ruby Red Velvet to Cinnamon Horchata...and all minis for $1 apiece! Everyone else seems to have cornered the market on the $3 cupcake, which in this economy feels like a once-in-awhile luxury. But $1? That's an everyday price in the size of a guiltless treat.

Bravo to Mission Minis to finding a new niche in a cupcake-saturated city.

'Tis the Season, of Mincemeat

Main Entry: mince·meat

Pronunciation: \ˈmin(t)s-ˌmēt\

Function: noun

Date: 1630

1 : minced meat
2 : a finely chopped mixture (as of raisins, apples, and spices) sometimes with meat that is often used as pie filling
3 : a state of destruction or annihilation —used in the phrase make mincemeat of

Mincemeat is one of those things, like fruitcake, that people either love or dread around the holiday season. Me, I love it. I also like fruitcake, and I feel that it has gotten an unwarranted bad rap.

Mincemeat does refer to the fruit meats that make up its composition, but it was originally made with beef suet, so the "meat" part is not as much of a misnomer as people think. Hey, back then, you used the fats that you had - these were not the days of EVOO and imported butter.

I wanted to make something with UK origins for our Book Club last week, since the chosen book was The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies. This month's Delicious magazine featured Mincemeat Pie Cupcakes on the cover, a recipe from The Primrose Bakery in London. I happened to have some sugar wreaths in my stash, so Mincemeat cupcakes it was! For the brandy buttercream frosting, I used a tablespoon of our precious Christmas cognac - it was divine. The cakes were good but needed to be darker and more mincemeaty - I was picturing more of a Christmas pudding, and what I got was similar to a sweet muffin. Nice enough, and as my friend Nicki said, reminiscent of rum raisin ice cream, but I will revisit it and make it even better.

A few days later, I wanted to use up the rest of the mincemeat, so I made mincemeat shortbread (mincemeat + shortbread = two of my favorite Chrismas things!). Although crumbly, this one is a keeper - I will tweak the recipe somewhat and publish it when I do.

There are a lot of recipes out there for how to make your own mincemeat (some of which suggest to buy suet from your butcher), and I have debated making it myself, but honestly, I don't think it's worth the time, cost, and effort. For about $5.99 I can buy a jar of imported mincemeat from Britain, made with vegetable suet, that tastes great and is ready to go.

Pirates and Beer

Happy Halloween, Scallywags!

I won the wrappers and skull & crossbones decorations at the Iron Cupcake Challenge on Monday, so yesterday I made my Pumpkin Latte cupcakes and brought them to share with my Craft friends. Everyone was too full to swab the decks or walk the plank!

Iron Cupcake Challenge is an event that I started attending in August, when two friends sent me an article from Daily Candy, and suggested that I compete. Every month, there is a new ingredient that you have to incorporate, and August was Pepper. With over 25 entries, I was shocked to get third place for my Ginger Lemon Cupcakes with White Pepper Frosting. That encouraged me to compete again, and in September (Squash) I made Apple Butternut Squash Cupcakes with Curry Frosting. That time I did not place, but Chelsea, the founder of the contest and business owner of Kingdom Cake, asked four of us if we would consider running the future contests. We agreed and this month it was our turn to host.

Since it was the 1-year anniversary of the monthly contest, we decided to do something celebratory and seasonally appropriate: BEER/Oktoberfest. It was a lot of fun, and we had about 21 bakers show up, as well as a slew of tasters (Bakers get in for free, Tasters pay $5 and get a free tea from our hosts, Leland Tea Company). Since everyone tries every cupcake and is required to rate every cupcake, it's fair game as to who wins.

Jude gave me her recipe for Guinness Gingerbread, which everyone loves. I used it to make 48 mini cupcakes, which I topped with Cream Cheese Guinness Frosting.

I came in 4th place, but since the 2nd place winner didn't stick around for the results, I ended up getting 3rd. It was nice to get the recognition, but we decided that going forward no committee member would be able to win anything but "Most Creative", which is just a certificate, not a prize. It is amazing what stuff people come up with, and very inspirational.

It was nice to have some friends show up, too - my friend Lisa's neighbor Lisa won 2nd Place AND Most Creative with her delicious Root Beer Float cupcakes.

Anyway, it was great fun and I am looking forward to next month, in which the theme will be "Thanksgiving".

Until next time, I'll catch ye landlubbers later - I am off to celebrate this day in proper pirate fashion! Aaaaaargh!

Fondant Follies

Our friends at Walzwerk, a wonderful East German restaurant, recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary, and I was asked to make 100 cupcakes to commemorate the occasion. An exciting challenge!

I wanted to make something very special with the "W" logo, which as you can see from the awning is a very industrial, straight-sided logo that also looks like smokestacks. I went to the store and bought a tub of fondant (also known as gum paste), and had fun playing with it. It's so easy - you just roll it out like cookie dough, cut it, and stick it on. It has the consistency of play dough, so it's easy to use but will dry out if you leave it out too long.

I bought a set of mini cookie cutters in the alphabet, so that all of the letters would look uniform. The "W" didn't look right though, but I found that when I used the "M" upside down, it had more of that straight-sided look.

To emulate the look of the smoke stacks, I used a toothpick dipped in vanilla bean paste and made pinpricks and lines at the top of each one (hopefully this helped them not look so much like upside down M's as well). It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed figuring out the process. The cupcakes were dark chocolate, with chocolate fudge frosting - next time I might not use the star tip, but something that would give them a little bit less height - that frosting is so thick it will not lay down for anything. Nevertheless, I was pleased with them.

It's great to be able to participate in your friends' milestone events, and contribute to the celebration in a personal way.

Pumpkin Cakes Two Ways

'Tis the season for all things pumpkin. I have been at work in my kitchen baking all kinds of things, and I thought I would share a great pumpkin cake recipe with you.

First of all, I saw a recipe in the More From Magnolia cookbook (from the legendary Magnolia Bakery in NYC) for Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese icing. I thought that this sounded like a perfect kickoff to the fall season, so I made them - see photo above. Delicious, super-moist, easy to make - although more of a cake than a bar. It gave me the idea to make Pumpkin Cupcakes using this recipe and modifying it slightly, and then tweaking the frosting. They came out great and are my new favorite Pumpkin Cupcake recipe.

If you want to make the bars exactly as is, eliminate the chocolate chips and add 1/2 C. toasted pecans to the batter. Bake in a greased and floured 13" X 9" baking pan for 25-30 minutes. Use a basic cream cheese frosting recipe, and sprinkle another 1/2 C. of toasted pecans on top.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Cupcakes with Mocha Frosting

• 1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 1/4 C. canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• 1 1/4 C. sugar
• 3/4 C. vegetable oil (preferably canola)
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 3/4 C. mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 C. regular chocolate chips, for decorating (or you can use a few minis)

Preheat oven to 350.

Line mini muffin pans with paper liners (makes about 48).

In a small bowl, sift the dry ingredients and set aside.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the pumpkin, sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Fold in the mini chocolate chips.

Fill paper liners about 1/2 way and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Cool on wire racks.

Mocha Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick (1/2 C.) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 box confectioners sugar
• 1/2 C. Chocolate Mocha Hot Cocoa Mix (I used Ghirardelli)

Cream together cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer fitted with the panel attachment.

Slowly add confectioners sugar and beat until smooth.

Slowly add Chocolate Mocha Mix until the color is a very light tan (to taste)

Frost cupcakes, topping with a chocolate chip.

Special Event Cupcakes

I get so nervous when I have to bake for an event. When my friend Denise asked me to make cupcakes for her wedding rehearsal dinner, I was excited, and then as the day grew closer, I started to worry. That old nag "expectation" was threatening to make me sabotage my own work. Ugh! "Why did I take this on?" I asked myself the night before, forgetting the dozens and dozens of successful cupcakes I have made over the years.

We had done a test batch a few weeks ago, to determine the flavor and decoration. Her fiance's family loves chocolate, whereas hers loves fruit, so we decided on a chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting. Her colors are grey, purple and white - so I did a silver foil wrapper and dragees (illegal now, but still available at my favorite baking supply store, Sugar & Spice in Daly City).

About a week ago, she decided that since the dinner was going to be a big, filling Italian meal, minis would be better than full-size cupcakes. Minis are something I have only recently started getting into. They are more work in one sense, because there are twice as many to prepare and decorate, but the decorating is much easier - only one dollop of frosting on top of each cake. It's much easier to make them look uniform, which is something I definitely wanted for this project.

The frosting is always challenging for me when using fruit. I used the same method for these as with my strawberry cupcakes - cook some jam and fruit with lemon juice until it melts, and stir this into a classic cream cheese recipe. The problem is, the taste is great but the frosting gets runny, which you don't want when decorating. The solution is to add more powdered sugar, which can make the taste too sweet. It's a delicate balance, but it turned out just right. I added a couple of drops of hot pink food gel to achieve a pretty, natural-looking raspberry color.

I made the cakes the night before, just in case something went wrong. Again, it's a delicate balance between undercooking and overcooking them and I wanted to make sure they were just right. The recipe on the back of the Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa is amazing and has never failed me.

All in all, they turned out great. I was able to deliver about 48 cupcakes for the party of 36 people, and they were thrilled with them. If only I could learn not to worry so much along the way! After all, cupcakes are supposed to be fun, right?

Red (Velvet), White and Blue(berry) Cupcakes

Searching online for Independence Day cupcake ideas was an exercise in frustration. Most of them are regular cupcakes with some dumb candy decoration on top made to look like a flag - they look like they are for schoolchildren, and who wants a mouthful of red licorice with buttercream frosting? Blech. So I was forced to make up my own, which always comes out better anyway.

We were going to a BBQ with an undetermined amount of people and the promise of way too much food, so I decided to make minis. That way everyone would get at least one, and probably several if they so desired. I was reminded of one of the beauties of making minis - the perfect ratio of cake to frosting, and the efficiency of the one-bite dessert.

I made my standard Red Velvet recipe, using dark chocolate cocoa this time, which yielded a very dark red/brown color that I liked very much. I topped them with cream cheese frosting, and fresh blueberries, and I had a red, white, and blue dessert that was fit for both kids and adults. The combination of the sweet cakes and frosting with the tart blueberries was excellent, and my husband, who is not always a cupcake fan, said that these were the best that I had ever made. Now that's a happy 4th!

The Best Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

This week I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend the SRMC Book Club meeting at my friend Nysa's house in San Rafael. This month's selection featured our friend Nicki's book "Because I Love Her", an anthology of essays by women writers about the complex relationships mothers and daughters. Mothers, daughters, a room full of smart women dishing about their families - this called for chocolate, and a lot of it.

I've been looking for the perfect chocolate frosting recipe for awhile. I found it yesterday, and in fact everything was so perfect about this recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes, I am not even going to print it here, as I did not change a thing. Find it here it is in all of its original glory. Also note the beautiful piping job that Stephanie does on her cupakes - sigh.

I will say this: the recipe makes a very moist, not too heavy cake with a good chocolate flavor. The frosting - oh, yum. Mine came out very thick, so it was like piping actual fudge onto the cakes (i.e. I worked those arm muscles), but boy was it tasty. I confess that I ate a lot of it under the guise of "testing" the flavor. Oh yes, I "tested" it many, many times. And I'll "test" it again!