Cupcakes For You.

My husband showed me how to use Excel to pick someone at random for the contest (he's a stats genius). I typed in a formula and wha-la!

The winner is: adrienne

E-mail me your address at:

ilovekitschy@gmail.com

a package of lovely Sprinkles Cupcake Mix will be on the way.

Thank you everyone for commenting and visiting! I hope you tried some recipes and found them as delicious as mine. The Sprinkles Strawberry Frosting might be my favorite find.

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache & Cream Cheese Frosting.

Today I make Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache & Cream Cheese Frosting from Kara's Cupcakes. They were okay, not my favorite of the week. Maybe it's because a banana cupcake is essentially a banana bread cupcake, but I wasn't won over. The cupcake was very soft. The cream cheese frosting is decent, but my chocolate ganache ran a little thin. Piping it in to the cupcake was a little messy, but not too difficult.

I probably won't make this again. My husband, who has been a huge help through out this enitire challenge (he willingly sampled and took my last two pictures) really like the banana cupcakes. The recipe looks more time consuming that it actually is, I found it too be pretty simple. So maybe it's a keeper.

I'm DONE!

I'm Almost Done!

My very last batch of cupcakes are cooling and I want to jump for joy. I can see the finish line and it's lined with cupcakes.

I wish I could have gotten to blog about them sooner in the day, but well. It didn't happen.

Thank you everyone for visiting my blog this week. I've already met so many nice people! Thanks for being my blogging friend.

I really like the idea of weekly challenges for myself, it helps keep me motivated (and knowing other people are checking up on me to see my progress keeps me going too). I think I'll do two challenges a month. Next week will be my next challenge, I'll have details on Monday.

Okay now, back to frosting.

Auntie Em's Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Truthfully, I'm a little burnt out on cupcakes. After tomorrow, it might be a little while before I bake again. While I am reaching my cupcake making limit, I am glad I did this challenge. I've baked lots of goodies for neighbors and friends and given myself a reason to finally try these recipes.

Today I made Auntie Em's Red Velvet Cupcakes. This cupcake was featured on the Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay and after watching that show, this recipe has been in the back of my cupcake-trying mind. Sadly, Auntie Em's lost to Mr. Flay, but I still was curious enough to try them.

The cupcakes baked great. Nice round tops, beautiful red color. Very moist. The chocolate flavor wasn't very strong, but the cupcakes were still tasty.

I also decided to cut the cream cheese frosting recipe in half. In the show, you see Terri (the chef) frost the cupcakes with an ice cream scooper -- she is very generous with her frosting. I love frosting, but not that much. The amount I made was perfect.

Overall, quite good. Maybe after my cupcake hiatus, I might have to try this recipe again.

Kyotofu Cupcakes.

Out of all the recipes this week, the cupcakes at Kyotofu are the only ones I've actually eaten from my famous cupcake list. Since I've never had a cupcake from Magnolia, Sprinkles, Auntie Em's or Kara's, I wanted to get an official recipe from their chefs. Whatever I baked needed to be the real thing.

So far, I've also followed the recipes meticulously. I've sifted. Used ingredients at room temperature. Measured things exactly. Things I sometimes cut out when I am being a lazy baker. I wanted to be absolutely sure I was following the recipe --this way if the cupcakes didn't turn out, I knew who to blame (not me).

Well, the recipe I found for Kyotofu's chocolate cupcakes might not be their exact recipe -- but after tedious searching online, it's the only one that came close. I also think it could be official, it's from the R&I (Restaurants & Institutions) web site which I don't know that much about.

Kyotofu's cupcakes were voted the best cupcakes of 2007 from New York Magazine and seriously. They are so good. These cupcakes are the best I've ever had.

They are made with soy milk and are so tasty they don't even need frosting--really! So tasty, I went there like five times when I was in New York. If you get a chance to go there, don't bother getting a table. Skip the sit down dessert menu altogether and just order the cupcakes up front. 

Okay, back to the challenge...

In this baking experiment I didn't follow the recipe exactly. The recipe I found is for Green-Tea Chocolate Cupcakes. I omitted the Macha tea powder. The recipe doesn't call for very much, but I'm sure my exclusion made some difference. Also, the baking time in the recipe was way off.

I've mentioned before how my oven is hotter than most, so like usual I decreased the time. The cupcakes weren't done, so I added more time. Then a few minutes more. Then another minute more. After 25 minutes, I think they finally turned out.

Sooo...my Kyotofu cupcakes were both a success and a slight let down. A success because they still taste super good. These cupcakes are a cross between a molten chocolate cake and heavenly souffle. Super rich, decadent and delicious. The down side is that I didn't replicate exactly the same cupcake I remember (the middle didn't rise either), but I'm still happy. It's still a keeper.

If you're ever in New York City, you need to go try one for yourself:
Kyotofu
705 Ninth Ave., New York, NY 10019

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake.

First of all, I am so flattered that so many people are visiting my new little blog! Thanks for all your nice comments. If I could, I would give you all cupcakes.

Unfortunately, they just won't be from the batch of Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes I made today ... I just don't think they are good enough to make again.

My first few baked dry. I have a temperamental oven that runs hotter than most, so I usually adjust baking time down by 5 minutes. Even after my initial subtraction, the cupcakes came out with a hard crusty top. I took more time off the suggested baking time and my next set cooked perfectly.

Maybe it's because vanilla has never been my favorite flavor, but I thought the cupcake was just so-so. Okay, it was boring. So you can imagine what I thought of the vanilla frosting. The sprinkles give it a bit of pizzaz, but for Magnolia's most famous flavor, I was disappointed. They sure look pretty though. The cake itself baked well, but flavor wise, it's a pass.

Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcake Recipe.

At first, I was a little hesitant to try Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcake recipe. There were a lot of reviews saying the cupcake was too dense. It was dry. The frosting was runny. It didn't taste like strawberries. I am happy to say my cupcakes did not turn out that way -- they are pretty good actually.

True, there isn't an overwhelming strawberry flavor, but I don't think there needs to be. The cupcake was delicious, not at all dry and crumbly. My frosting is probably a little more chunky because didn't pureed the strawberries super fine. Either way, I absolutely love it.

To make the red and pink dots, I used salt water taffy. I don't have fondant on hand, so I improvised. Overall, I'm quite pleased with my results. I don't consider myself the most expert baker, but I can handle my own in the kitchen. This recipe was easy and I chalk it up as a winner.

Introducing: Weekly Challenges.

I have so many projects left unfinished. It's a bad habit of mine. I like to start something I think is awesome. I then get bored with it and move on to another something awesome. This happens before I finish the first awesome. Needless to say, I have many incomplete awesomes laying around the house.

Well, with the start of this new blog, I decided it would be fun to challenge myself to projects a couple times a month. I'll document my progress and if it sounds interesting to you, invite you to tag along.

This week, I'm making cupcakes:



Not just ordinary cupcakes, but recipes from some of the most well-known cupcake shops. I narrowed my cupcake selection recipe down to 5:

Monday: Sprinkles Cupcakes
recipe here.

Tuesday: Magnolia Bakery
recipe here.

Wednesday: Kyotofu
recipe here.

Thursday: Auntie Em's Kitchen
recipe here.

Friday: Kara's Cupcakes
recipe here.

I based my selection on cupcakes recipes by the accessibility of the famous recipes and how badly I've been wanting to try them (most are official recipes, one is a rendition I found online). If you're in, I would love for you to try out the recipes too. Come bake with me and let me know what you think!

Also to kick off this contest, I'm offering my very first blog giveaway. Leave a comment on this post before Midnight, Friday March 28th and I'll randomly pick someone to receive a Sprinkles cupcake mix:

{image via Williams-Sonoma}
Yay! Let the baking begin!

(as soon as I whip up my first batch, I'll blog about the cupcakes I make later today.)