Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes

I like to make fancy cupcakes. Partly because I have a reputation to uphold, and partly because it's just fun to meld different recipes together to create something even better than the inspiration for the cupcakes in the first place.  The original inspiration for these cupcakes comes from one of my favorite blogs Cookies and Cups.  It might be because she loves peanut butter and chocolate. It might be because everything on there is easy yet so delicious.  And cute, did I mention cute?
 
Anyway, a while ago she posted this awesome recipe for Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes.  You know what made them special?  Citric Acid sprinkled on the top of the frosting. Freaking genius.  I had to try it. Had to.  But they were plain vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  They did have strawberry jam filling, but... there isn't actually a strawberry flavored sour patch kid.  So I had to do some tweaking.  This is what I came up with:
 

I made plain white cupcakes from scratch, but you can easily make it from a boxed mix.  Then I filled them with one of four different curds: lemon, lime, orange, and raspberry. This way they not only looked like each of the different flavors of Sour Patch Kids, but tasted like them, too. I also liked the curd so the filling would be sweet/sour as well.  I reserved some of the curd and mixed that in with a simple buttercream frosting. I chose to stay away from my typical Swiss meringue buttercream because I thought this might hold up a little better when I added in the curd. I think I made the right choice.  Then, I sprinkled them with a combination of citric acid and sugar and topped them with the appropriate color/flavor of sour patch kid.
 
I brought them to a church potluck and they were a huge hit!  One of my husband's friends who is a vegan decided he had to try one three. And my husband STILL raves about these as one of his favorite cupcakes. (Although his other favorite were the banana cupcakes with raspberry filling and mint frosting that I made just to try to prove to him that that flavor combination is disgusting and he should not order a banana raspberry concrete mixer with Andes mints from Culvers. So maybe he doesn't have the most distinguished palate...) I first made these a year and a half ago when the inspiration hit me, but I finally decided to write them up on my neglected blog when Shelley of Cookies and Cups and Kristan of Confessions of a Cookbook Queen announced a contest challenging their readers to tweak one of their recipes. Yes, please!
I had to remake them this week as I have no idea where the pictures I took of the original batch went...they're probably hanging out somewhere with the picture I took of the Spider Cake (also inspired by Cookies and Cups) and the pictures of the half dozen recipes I still have hanging out in limbo on the "drafts" section.  My husband was not disappointed about this consequence of my apparent lack of organization. :) They were just as good as we remembered!
 
I am entering these Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes in the Creative Recipe Contest hosted by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups! Thanks guys!!
 
Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes
 
The first thing you'll want to do is make your four curds.  Whenever I work with curds I like to make them the night before so I know they'll be completely set and ready to go.  You could also buy curd, but it's really easy to make and tastes delicious!!

Orange/Lemon/Lime Curd: Process is the exact same for each of these, only with the corresponding juice (You might be able to do this same recipe for the Raspberry curd. I've never tried, but I do like this recipe better than the raspberry one so one of these days I'll see if it works as well and update this recipe.)

1/3 cup [lemon/lime/orange] juice
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

1. Heat juice in small saucepan over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Whisk eggs and yolk in medium nonreactive bowl; gradually whisk in sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot lemon juice into eggs, then return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until mixture registers 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is thick enough to cling to spoon, about 3 minutes.

1. 2. Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in cold butter until incorporated; stir in cream, vanilla, and salt, then pour curd through fine-mesh strainer into small nonreactive bowl. Cover surface of curd directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until needed.

Raspberry Curd:
1/2 c unsalted butter
1 package frozen raspberries, thawed (12 oz)
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 to 3 tsp fresh lemon juice

1.  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the raspberries, egg yolks, sugar, and salt and cook, mashing the berries and stirring frequently until thickened, about 10 minutes. 

2. Pour the mixture through a coarse strainer set over a bowl, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Cool to room temperature; the curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in lemon juice to taste. Cover surface of curd directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until needed.

Cupcakes:

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup milk, room temperature

6 egg whites, room temperature

2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
2. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer. Add butter; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
4. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
5. Divide batter evenly between cupcake pans. Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18-23 minutes. 
6. Cool completely before filling/frosting. 

Frosting: I used a double batch of simple buttercream frosting as the base, omitting the extract and milk to help compensate for the added curd.   You will end up with four different flavors and colors of frosting.

4 sticks (1 lb) unsalted butter, softened
8 cups powdered sugar
Approximately 1/3-1/2 cup of each flavor of prepared curd
Food Coloring (optional)

1. Beat butter and powdered sugar until blended.
2. Divide frosting into 4 equal sections. In each portion, slowly add one of the flavors of curd until you get the desired consistency. Mix until combined. Do not overbeat.
*This is not an exact process. I didn't have any problems with adding too much, but make sure you are slowly adding it in and remember you can always add a little extra powdered sugar if yours ends up too soupy. 
3. You can add food coloring to make the colors a little brighter

 Citric Acid topping:

1/4 cup citric acid
1/4 cup sugar

1. Mix together. Set aside until needed. 

 

Assembly:

1. Take the remaining amount of whichever curd you'd like to start with and put it in a pastry bag fitted with a Bismarck tip. (Remember to reserve about 1/2 cup of each for the frosting if you haven't already)
2. Fill 6 cupcakes with said curd. Don't worry if the cupcake splits a little on top or if a little curd leaks out--it will be covered with frosting anyway.
3. Top with corresponding flavor of buttercream.
4. Sprinkle citric acid/sugar mixture on top and garnish with corresponding color/flavor of Sour Patch Kid.
5. Repeat with each of the three remaining flavors.

 

Credit:

Cupcakes adapted from Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes from Cookies and Cups

Cupcakes and citrus curds: from/adapted from Cooks Illustrated

 

 

Oreo Cupcakes

The first time I really pieced together a recipe to create my own was when I was trying to find a use for the plethora of mint in my garden.  Incidentally, if you are ever to grow mint--never, ever, ever plant it in your garden--use pots.  Trust me. 
I ended up creating a mint oreo cupcake recipe that was pretty darn awesome.  When mint was (finally!) no longer in season, I adapted them for a plain Oreo cupcake instead.  I made these for my physics kids last year and they were a huge hit!  The only pictures I can find are of the mint ones I made, but they look the same minus the mint sprigs and mint Oreos.  If  you're interested in how I made the mint ones, I do have the modifications listed after the recipe


Essentially, they are chocolate cupcakes filled with whipped cream and topped with a cookies and cream whipped cream.  You could do a buttercream instead, but I think the light topping works better than an overly sweet one.  Garnish with half an Oreo and you're set!  Tasters will also be surprised by not only the filling, but the Oreo half on the bottom. 


Oreo Cupcakes and Mint Oreo Cupcakes

Yield: About 30 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cake

• 30 oreos, split
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), very soft
• 1 3/4cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
• 4ounces unsweetened chocolate , coarsely chopped
• 1/4cup cocoa (3/4 ounce)
• 1/2cup hot water
• 1 3/4cups sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
• 1 1/2teaspoons baking soda
• 1teaspoon table salt
• 1cup buttermilk
• 2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks

Frosting and filling

•  3 cups heavy cream (cold)
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup Oreo crumbs (perfect use for those extra oreo halves!)

Garnish: 15 Oreos, halved


Instructions

1.  Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake tins with paper liners. 
   If desired, place an oreo half with the cream side up in the bottom of the liners before you fill with batter. (See right.)
    Combine chocolate, cocoa powder, and hot water in medium heatproof bowl; set bowl over saucepan containing 1 inch of simmering water and stir with rubber spatula until chocolate is melted, about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup sugar to chocolate mixture and stir until thick and glossy, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. Combine buttermilk and vanilla in small bowl. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whisk eggs and yolks on medium-low speed until combined, about 10 seconds. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar, increase speed to high, and whisk until fluffy and lightened in color, 2 to 3 minutes. Replace whisk with paddle attachment. Add cooled chocolate mixture to egg/sugar mixture and mix on medium speed until thoroughly incorporated, 30 to 45 seconds, pausing to scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add softened butter one tablespoon at a time, mixing about 10 seconds after each addition. Add about one-third of flour mixture followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until incorporated after each addition (about 15 seconds). Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture (batter may appear separated). Scrape down sides of bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at medium-low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
3. Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature before frosting, 30 minutes.
   
   
4. FROSTING: With an electric mixer, whisk cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.  With a Bismarck or large star tip, pipe whipped cream into the centers of the cooled cupcakes. Fold the Oreo crumbs into the remaining whipped cream and frost. Garnish with half of an Oreo.
   
   Note: Make sure your Oreo crumbs are finely, finely, finely ground (I've learned to use a wire strainer) or else it will clog up your star tip terribly!

Chocolate Cake Recipe from Cooks Illustrated


If you want to make them Mint Oreo cupcakes, infuse the cooled cupcakes with a mint simple syrup.  Add mint simple syrup to taste to the frosting as well and use mint oreos instead of regular.  (If I had to guess, I'd say I used maybe a 1/2 cup total simple syrup.  I made these a couple of years ago and didn't measure it out to begin with, so I'm not entirely sure how much you'll need. ) You can also add a sprig of fresh mint to the garnish.  Yum!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spider Cake

Cookies and Cups had the cutest little spider cake you've ever seen, so for Halloween I decided to replicate her design on a full size cake.  I brought it to a Halloween/birthday party and my friend Chris was super excited to have gotten a spider cake for his birthday.  Apparently he had gotten one once before and an old roommate would ask him every year if he had gotten a spider cake.  The answer was always no...until this year!  Clearly that's why I made it.

I'm not sure what happened to the pictures I took of it... so I had to steal this one off of facebook. And this is why I will never be a professional food blogger :)

 Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spider Cake


For the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups Pumpkin
1/2 cup Evaporated Milk
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


1. Combine flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in small bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs; beat for 2 minutes. Beat in pumpkin, evaporated milk, water and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread evenly into two greased and floured 9-inch cake pans.


2. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 15 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.


For the filling:
1 pkg.(8 oz.)Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar 
1/2 c pumpkin
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 
1 tub (8 oz.) cool whip, thawed 


Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, pumpkin, and spice; mix well.  Gently fold in Cool whip.
For the frosting:
12 oz. cream cheese
7½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3¾ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted


Once cake is cooled, split each layer in half horizontally.  Fill with filling. Frost with frosting.  Easy peasy. 


Use some black food coloring to color some remaining frosting.  Pipe a spider web on the top of the cake, with some strands coming down on the sides of the cake.  Make a cute little spider out of mini oreos, using icing for the eyes and legs.   I also made a couple spiders on the top of the cake in the same manner, only using regular sized oreos.


Credits:
Spider decoration: Cookies and Cups
Cake: Very Best Baking
Filling: Kraft recipes

Patriotic Lemon Raspberry Cake

I while ago I stumbled across this little bit of awesomeness.  You know, one of those cakes where every slice looks like an American flag. Unfortunately, I stumbled across this after the 4th...but decided Labor Day was as good of a day as any.  Although visually this cake is fantastic, I wanted the taste to be phenomenal as well.  Instead of a plain ol' vanilla cake, I opted for lemon as the color would still be light enough for the white layers and wouldn't mess with the coloring of the blue and reds as well.  I wanted some sort of curd for the filling, but thought the yellow of the lemon would clash with the colors of the flag, so I decided to go with raspberry instead, hoping the color would meld well enough with the red of the adjoining layer that we would be ok.  I was super excited about how the cake was coming together and thought it looked nice after it was frosted and garnished with fresh raspberries.  Unfortunately, due to an absolutely stupid mistake on my part, it didn't survive the car ride.  Good thing I opted for a divinely tasting cake recipe.  People essentially had to scoop out the cake, but considering the plethora of other (much more attractive by this point) desserts available, a surprising amount of the cake was consumed.  Oh man, it looked so sad!  We had to piece it together to get one pathetic picture of what (if you squint) kind of looks like a flag. But I'd definitely make it again! Just without putting it on a cake circle that was supposed to help make serving it easier...which I then forgot to attach with frosting  to the bottom of the cake caddy.  Oh inertia, how I loathe thee at times...



Luckily I made this again and was able to get a better picture :)

You can obviously make this without making it patriotic, but I'll post what I did.


Note: I thought it would be cool to put white sprinkles in the blue cake layer to look like stars--sort of a funfetti effect, but Vanilla Bean was closed by the time I started this and JoAnns, Target, Walmart, and various grocery stores were of no help in finding white jimmies (or even white stars).  The best I could find were some sugar pearls, but they ended up making the layer a little too gooey from the added sugar and (worst of all) you could really taste the cornstarch so I had to start over.  Next time I make this I'll make sure to stop at Vanilla Bean beforehand and try it again with better ingredients.


Patriotic Lemon Raspberry Cake

First make your lemon and raspberry curds.  I made these the night before to make sure they were completely set, but you can also make them the day of.


Raspberry Curd:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• Two 1/2-pints ripe raspberries or one 12-ounce package frozen raspberries, thawed
• 5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 to 3 tsp fresh lemon juice

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the raspberries, egg yolks, sugar, and salt and cook, mashing the berries and stirring frequently until thickened, about 10 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a coarse strainer set over a bowl, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Cool to room temperature; the curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in lemon juice to taste. Refrigerate, covere, until ready to serve, or for up to 1 month.

Lemon Curd: (You can use store-bought, but it's really quite easy to make and soo tasty!)

• 1/3cup lemon juice , from 2 lemons
• 2large eggs
• 1egg yolk
• 1/2cup sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 2tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
• 1tablespoon heavy cream
• 1/4teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

1. 1. Heat lemon juice in small nonreactive saucepan over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Whisk eggs and yolk in medium nonreactive bowl; gradually whisk in sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot lemon juice into eggs, then return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until mixture registers 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is thick enough to cling to spoon, about 3 minutes.
2. 2. Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in cold butter until incorporated; stir in cream, vanilla, and salt, then pour curd through fine-mesh strainer into small nonreactive bowl. Cover surface of curd directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until needed.

Next make your lemon cake.
You'll have to make two batches of this as you'll need to end up with one white, one blue, and two red layers.  I made the first batch red, and then split the second batch in half, leaving one half white and dying the second half blue.

• 2 1/4cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus extra for pans
• 1cup whole milk , room temperature
• 6large egg whites , room temperature
• 2teaspoons lemon extract
• 1 3/4cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
• 4teaspoons baking powder
•  3  tablespoons lemon zest
• 1teaspoon salt
• 12tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 12 pieces, softened but still cool

1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch-wide by 2-inch-high round cake pans and line with parchment paper. In 2-cup liquid measure or medium bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites, and lemon extract.
2. 2. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt at low speed. With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs with no visible butter chunks. Add all but 1/2 cup milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed until mixture is pale and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. With mixer running at low speed, add remaining 1/2 cup milk mixture; increase speed to medium and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium speed and beat 20 seconds longer. Color as needed, then divide batter evenly between cake pans; using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops.
3. 4. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes. Loosen cakes from sides of pans with small knife, cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert onto greased wire rack; peel off parchment. Invert cakes again; cool completely on rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Now for the frosting:


Note: I think next time I will make 1.5 times the recipe for frosting.  I didn't have enough to do a proper crumb coat and had to skimp on the amount I put on the sides a little.  I also didn't have enough to finish decorating. If you're not planning on decoration/doing a crumb coat, this will be just enough.  If you want to be on the safe side, I'd make extra.

• 3 large egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into tablespoons
• 3/4 cup lemon curd

Set a heatproof bowl of an electric mixer over a saucepan of simmering water. Combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl. Cook, whisking constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch.

Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and cooled.

Switch to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add the butter, beating well after each addition. If the frosting appears to separate after all the butter has been added, beat on medium-high speed until smooth again. Beat in lemon curd. Beat on lowest speed to eliminate any air bubbles, about 2 minutes. Stir with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.

Place in the fridge and allow to cool slightly before icing the cake.

Assembly:
To recap, you should have two layers of red cake, one of blue, and one of white.  You should also have a quantity of raspberry curd as well as your lemon curd frosting. Before you start, level the cakes as needed so they will play nice when you need to layer them.


1. Cut each of the red cake in half horizontally.  (I prefer the floss method.)  This will give you 4 layers of red cake. You only need three, so do what you want with the 4th layer as well as the other scraps you will accumulate.  I used them to made a trifle with my remaining lemon curd and raspberries.
2. In one of the red layers, cut out a 4-inch circle.  Set aside the scraps from the extra doughnut shape around this circle.
3. Cut the white cake in half horizontally.
4. In one of the white layers, cut out a 4-inch circle.  Set aside the scraps from the extra doughnut shape around this circle.
5. Do NOT split your blue layer in half, but bore out a four inch circle in the middle. This time you'll need to keep the outside ring, but won't need the inside circle.
6. Ok, so now you have 2 8 inch layers of red, 1 8 inch layer of white, 1 4 inch layer of red, 1 4 inch layer of white, and one 8-inch doughnut of blue cake.  Start with a red layer, pipe frosting around the edge of the top to fence in the raspberry curd and fill with a little more 1/4 (but not quite 1/3) of the raspberry curd.
7. Top with a while layer, repeat.  (If you are worried about the curd discoloring your white layer, you can apply a thin layer of frosting to the white layers first.)
8. Top with red layer, repeat.
9. Top with blue cake.
10 Fit the 4-inch white layer in the middle of the blue layer. Top with remaining raspberry curd.
11. Fit the 4-inch red layer in the middle of the blue layer.  
12. Frost top and sides of cake.  Decorate as desired. I swirled frosting along the top edge and garnished with fresh raspberries. I would have liked to make some swirls on the bottom, but I ran out of frosting.



Credits:
Flag Cake Idea: I've seen many variations, but like this one best: Glorious Treats She does a fantastic job at explaining the assembly process.
Lemon Cake: adapted from Cooks Illustrated
Lemon Curd: Cooks Illustrated
Raspberry Curd: The Way to His Heart
Lemon Frosting: Martha Stewart