This week's cupcake makes for a very interesting combination of ingredients. Deep blue is a vanilla cake drizzled with blue raspberry jello (yes, jello) topped with a vanilla frosting and a gummy shark whose swedish fish lunch is hiding somewhere in the blue batter below.
Vanilla Cupcakes
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
blue food dye
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
swedish fish gummies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add liners to pans.
In a large bowl combine butter and sugar until fluffy (~3 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time adding blue dye until a rich hue is obtained. 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 liners. Add a single swedish fish to each cake. This batch yielded 12 regular sized and 18 mini cupcakes baked for 12 and 10 minutes respectively. Allow to cool.
Jello Topping
1-3oz. pkg blue raspberry Jello
1 cup boiling water
Combine the Jello and water in a bowl and stir until the powder is completely dissolved.
Carefully pour a couple teaspoons of the mixture over each cupcake and place them in the refrigerator to allow the gelatin to firm up.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
blue food dye
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
swedish fish gummies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add liners to pans.
In a large bowl combine butter and sugar until fluffy (~3 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time adding blue dye until a rich hue is obtained. 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 liners. Add a single swedish fish to each cake. This batch yielded 12 regular sized and 18 mini cupcakes baked for 12 and 10 minutes respectively. Allow to cool.
Jello Topping
1-3oz. pkg blue raspberry Jello
1 cup boiling water
Combine the Jello and water in a bowl and stir until the powder is completely dissolved.
Carefully pour a couple teaspoons of the mixture over each cupcake and place them in the refrigerator to allow the gelatin to firm up.
Buttercream Icing
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
7 tbsp whip cream
In medium bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add whipping cream and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
I dropped a dollop of frosting onto the top of each cake along with a drop of blue food dye, fluffing the icing to give it a wave appearance and finished the cakes off with a gummy shark atop each.
The Panel:
Presentation and concept appreciated by all; great idea for kids. Some were able to savor the blue raspberry flavour introduced by the Jello while it went undetected for others. The swedish fish baked into the cakes was also a point of contention as the baking process altered the texture slightly leaving some to enjoy it while others found it to be less desirable. Mixed comments, as always, regarding moisture levels, although this may have somehow been affected by the introduction of gelatin. JRock and Eat Freak found the cake to be quite sweet for their liking, while most others seemed to enjoy the cupcake as a whole.
Cupcake Canine: "A masterpiece! It's like a diorama science project in cake form!"
Sweets: "Very good take on classic vanilla."
Eat Freak: "Definitely seemed less 'gourmet' with the cupcake wrapper."
My comments:
This cupcake was fun to create and would definitely be a hit for a kids party. The only thing that made me nervous about this week's treat was the addition of the Jello, and in the end, I don't really feel that it came through. Perhaps more Jello poured over the cakes in the future would provide a more pronounced flavour. I think I added a little too much whipping cream to the frosting as it didn't quite keep the peaks I tried to maintain for the watery/wave effect. I also can't quite seem to figure out why the addition of blue frosting seems to really bring out a visual separation of the frosting. The Swedish fish almost came out soggy after being baked which seemed to be hit or miss with the panel.
Presentation and concept appreciated by all; great idea for kids. Some were able to savor the blue raspberry flavour introduced by the Jello while it went undetected for others. The swedish fish baked into the cakes was also a point of contention as the baking process altered the texture slightly leaving some to enjoy it while others found it to be less desirable. Mixed comments, as always, regarding moisture levels, although this may have somehow been affected by the introduction of gelatin. JRock and Eat Freak found the cake to be quite sweet for their liking, while most others seemed to enjoy the cupcake as a whole.
Cupcake Canine: "A masterpiece! It's like a diorama science project in cake form!"
Sweets: "Very good take on classic vanilla."
Eat Freak: "Definitely seemed less 'gourmet' with the cupcake wrapper."
My comments:
This cupcake was fun to create and would definitely be a hit for a kids party. The only thing that made me nervous about this week's treat was the addition of the Jello, and in the end, I don't really feel that it came through. Perhaps more Jello poured over the cakes in the future would provide a more pronounced flavour. I think I added a little too much whipping cream to the frosting as it didn't quite keep the peaks I tried to maintain for the watery/wave effect. I also can't quite seem to figure out why the addition of blue frosting seems to really bring out a visual separation of the frosting. The Swedish fish almost came out soggy after being baked which seemed to be hit or miss with the panel.