This week's cupcake was inspired by a recent trip to the ol' picture show. I hate to say that it had anything to do with what I was stepping over as I approached my seat but I would be a fibber. The popcorn, pretzel and M&M topper on these treats is adhered to the cake (not the bottom of your shoe) by a marshmallow glue, kinda like a rice crispie square, and some chocolate frosting sitting atop a peanut butter cake the best flavour pairing in my mind.
Peanut Butter Cupcakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temp
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add liners to pans.
In a large bowl combine peanut butter, butter and sugar until fluffy (~3 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. In a small bowl combine the milk and vanilla extract, set aside. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the butter/sugar mixture in thirds alternating with the milk mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients, until combined. Pour the batter into the pans. This batch yielded 12 regular sized and 9 mini cupcakes baked for 12 and 10 minutes respectively. Allow to cool.
Popcorn Topper
10 cups popped popcorn
1/4 cup butter
8 oz marshmallows
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup M&M minis
1/2 cup broken pretzels
Remove unpopped kernels from bags. Heat the butter, marshmallows and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring as a syrup is created. In a large bowl, coat the popcorn with the syrup. Add the M&Ms and pretzels pieces. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before pulling pieces to top the cakes.Once the cakes have cooled, frost each with chocolate frosting and top each with a chunk of the popcorn square.
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temp
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add liners to pans.
In a large bowl combine peanut butter, butter and sugar until fluffy (~3 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. In a small bowl combine the milk and vanilla extract, set aside. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the butter/sugar mixture in thirds alternating with the milk mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients, until combined. Pour the batter into the pans. This batch yielded 12 regular sized and 9 mini cupcakes baked for 12 and 10 minutes respectively. Allow to cool.
Popcorn Topper
10 cups popped popcorn
1/4 cup butter
8 oz marshmallows
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup M&M minis
1/2 cup broken pretzels
Remove unpopped kernels from bags. Heat the butter, marshmallows and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring as a syrup is created. In a large bowl, coat the popcorn with the syrup. Add the M&Ms and pretzels pieces. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before pulling pieces to top the cakes.Once the cakes have cooled, frost each with chocolate frosting and top each with a chunk of the popcorn square.
The Panel:
Positive comments on concept and presentation. Medley of peanut butter, chocolate, pretzel, popcorn and marshmallow flavours were appreciated by most; Sweets commented that for some reason the different components just didn't combine well, in addition to the fact that the popcorn had a stale tone to it, a characteristic noted by several. Though "satisfied" Cupcake Canine suggested more chocolate frosting and more crunch. A few comments were made that the cake was dry and that the topping made the overall cake a little hard to approach.
Shannah: " I would eat this movie explosion of yummyness again & again."
Sweet Pea: "Ah-mazing! The balance of sweet and salty was tantalizing."
Eat Freak: "I'm pretty sure if I stepped on this @ the movie theater I'd still eat it!"
My comments:
I was a little disappointed in the end result of the popcorn topper as it failed to maintain it's crunchy integrity; I would try using pre-made caramel corn in the future. Otherwise I felt that the combination of flavours was out of this world, definitely one of my best creations. Though the cake was soft to touch, it was indeed dry which was likely a result of cutting back on the butter in the recipe. Though I agree that biting into the treat as a whole is rather intimidating, I think it was a fun change of form that was surprisingly not too sweet. I would also suggest refraining from adding the M&Ms immediately after pouring the syrup over the popcorn as the heat caused for the shells to crack and lessened the intended colourful presentation.
Positive comments on concept and presentation. Medley of peanut butter, chocolate, pretzel, popcorn and marshmallow flavours were appreciated by most; Sweets commented that for some reason the different components just didn't combine well, in addition to the fact that the popcorn had a stale tone to it, a characteristic noted by several. Though "satisfied" Cupcake Canine suggested more chocolate frosting and more crunch. A few comments were made that the cake was dry and that the topping made the overall cake a little hard to approach.
Shannah: " I would eat this movie explosion of yummyness again & again."
Sweet Pea: "Ah-mazing! The balance of sweet and salty was tantalizing."
Eat Freak: "I'm pretty sure if I stepped on this @ the movie theater I'd still eat it!"
My comments:
I was a little disappointed in the end result of the popcorn topper as it failed to maintain it's crunchy integrity; I would try using pre-made caramel corn in the future. Otherwise I felt that the combination of flavours was out of this world, definitely one of my best creations. Though the cake was soft to touch, it was indeed dry which was likely a result of cutting back on the butter in the recipe. Though I agree that biting into the treat as a whole is rather intimidating, I think it was a fun change of form that was surprisingly not too sweet. I would also suggest refraining from adding the M&Ms immediately after pouring the syrup over the popcorn as the heat caused for the shells to crack and lessened the intended colourful presentation.