Marshmallow Filled Cupcakes!
I'm having a kind of birthday thing soon, so I tested out my idea of marshmallow filled cupcakes!
So ta-dah! Vanilla cupcakes, with marshmallow cream centres, topped with vanilla ruffled icing, and half a strawberry. i will be testing them out on my friends soon, to see how they go! But anyway, some tips and tricks when making cupcakes.
Before you stick your tray of cupcakes into the oven, preheat it to the highest temperature it will go, and put it on fan force if you have it. Make sure it's on this high heat for about 5 to 10 minutes. Once you slide in your tray of cupcakes, turn it back down to the temperature suggested by the recipe for the cupcakes to cook. Why should you do this?
It's so that you have beautiful domes on your cupcakes, no cracks, no funny shapes made by batter going in weird ways when it's cooking, and a smooth surface is achieved. Oh, and, before you stick the cupcakes in, use a toothpick, to give the batter a couple of swirls. It makes the batter stick to edges of the cupcake liner, and it forces the surface of the cupcake to be more even, and will help you have a nice dome on the cupcakes!
If you want filled cupcakes, use an apple corer. Twist it into the cupcake, but don't push it down all the way (you'll either rip the liner, or the filling will soak through the liner), and twist it to pull out the little plug of cupcake. You can either choose to keep it, and trim it to use to cover the hole once the filling is in, or use it to make cake pops, or just have it as a chef treat ^_^ I've chosen not to cover it, since icing will cover it, and I wanted to have as much filling as possible.
You can put anything you like in the centre. Raspberry coulis, chocolate ganache, a strawberry, diced peaches - or in my case, marshmallow cream. I tend to gravitate towards the liquid fillings nowadays, I think maybe because it gives it a way to redeem dry cupcakes? If you have dry ones that is. And I find that liquid fillings have a more luscious mouth feel.
And then ice your cupcakes and decorate! I went for the ruffles again, as I wanted to make a video tutorial of how I do it. The ruffles were not as consistent as I would have preferred them to be, but it was mainly because of how cold it was tonight! It made the icing in the piping bag too stiff to pipe properly, and then once warmed by my hands, it got too easy to pipe -_-" ah well, they all look pretty! And the video has been made, but I have yet to post it up. Once I do, I'll embed it here!
Oh, a few other tips. When you're making the cupcake batter, it's best to put all your dry (sifted) ingredients into the bowl, make a well in the middle, crack the eggs into it and add in the milk. And then if you're using a hand held electric mixer, start mixing in the middle of the well, and move in small circles in snag in the dry ingredients, until the whole thing is mixed.
Then for the butter, add it in melted - I find that since the batter is cold, if you put room temperature butter into it, it just clumps. Ugh, so used melted butter! Pour it in as a stream as you mix, and it will incorporate really well, and give you a smooth batter to work with.
And a tip with the icing, I use the Wilton site's buttercream icing recipe, and I find that it's easier to cream the butter first, then add in gently melted copha, or vegetable shortening (melt it by either putting it into a bowl, and float it in another bigger bowl filled with hot water, or a double boiler), and then sprinkle in tablespoons of icing sugar. Once all the icing sugar is mixed, and the icing seems a bit dry to you, and not the smooth texture you want, add a dash of milk, and it will be perfect.
I hope these tips help! There's many, but not enough pictures . . .or videos!
^_^
So ta-dah! Vanilla cupcakes, with marshmallow cream centres, topped with vanilla ruffled icing, and half a strawberry. i will be testing them out on my friends soon, to see how they go! But anyway, some tips and tricks when making cupcakes.
Before you stick your tray of cupcakes into the oven, preheat it to the highest temperature it will go, and put it on fan force if you have it. Make sure it's on this high heat for about 5 to 10 minutes. Once you slide in your tray of cupcakes, turn it back down to the temperature suggested by the recipe for the cupcakes to cook. Why should you do this?
It's so that you have beautiful domes on your cupcakes, no cracks, no funny shapes made by batter going in weird ways when it's cooking, and a smooth surface is achieved. Oh, and, before you stick the cupcakes in, use a toothpick, to give the batter a couple of swirls. It makes the batter stick to edges of the cupcake liner, and it forces the surface of the cupcake to be more even, and will help you have a nice dome on the cupcakes!
If you want filled cupcakes, use an apple corer. Twist it into the cupcake, but don't push it down all the way (you'll either rip the liner, or the filling will soak through the liner), and twist it to pull out the little plug of cupcake. You can either choose to keep it, and trim it to use to cover the hole once the filling is in, or use it to make cake pops, or just have it as a chef treat ^_^ I've chosen not to cover it, since icing will cover it, and I wanted to have as much filling as possible.
You can put anything you like in the centre. Raspberry coulis, chocolate ganache, a strawberry, diced peaches - or in my case, marshmallow cream. I tend to gravitate towards the liquid fillings nowadays, I think maybe because it gives it a way to redeem dry cupcakes? If you have dry ones that is. And I find that liquid fillings have a more luscious mouth feel.
And then ice your cupcakes and decorate! I went for the ruffles again, as I wanted to make a video tutorial of how I do it. The ruffles were not as consistent as I would have preferred them to be, but it was mainly because of how cold it was tonight! It made the icing in the piping bag too stiff to pipe properly, and then once warmed by my hands, it got too easy to pipe -_-" ah well, they all look pretty! And the video has been made, but I have yet to post it up. Once I do, I'll embed it here!
Oh, a few other tips. When you're making the cupcake batter, it's best to put all your dry (sifted) ingredients into the bowl, make a well in the middle, crack the eggs into it and add in the milk. And then if you're using a hand held electric mixer, start mixing in the middle of the well, and move in small circles in snag in the dry ingredients, until the whole thing is mixed.
Then for the butter, add it in melted - I find that since the batter is cold, if you put room temperature butter into it, it just clumps. Ugh, so used melted butter! Pour it in as a stream as you mix, and it will incorporate really well, and give you a smooth batter to work with.
And a tip with the icing, I use the Wilton site's buttercream icing recipe, and I find that it's easier to cream the butter first, then add in gently melted copha, or vegetable shortening (melt it by either putting it into a bowl, and float it in another bigger bowl filled with hot water, or a double boiler), and then sprinkle in tablespoons of icing sugar. Once all the icing sugar is mixed, and the icing seems a bit dry to you, and not the smooth texture you want, add a dash of milk, and it will be perfect.
I hope these tips help! There's many, but not enough pictures . . .or videos!
^_^