Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Cathy's Cream Filled Cupcakes

The BakeSpace Challenge for September was to cook something from someone else's kitchen.

Everyone who wanted to participate signed up and Shane picked names for everyone.

I ended up with Cathy (The Dutch Baker's Daughter).

On my first browse through Cathy's recipes, I thought I wanted to make her Worstebroodjes. Dutch food. Definitely a challenge for me.

But time got away from me and I didn't think I'd have a good chance to do it. I didn't want to try working with dough on a week night and didn't have much weekend time left.

So after another browse through, I decided to go with her Cream Filled Cupcakes.

These are Cathy's.

They look like Hostess Cupcakes!
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Yeah... mine don't look anything like that!

Cathy's Cream Filled Cupcakes
Filling Ingredients:
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla

Cupcake Ingredients:
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line (2) 12 cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In large bowl, combine all of the cupcake ingredients and mix until well-blended. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until cupcakes spring back to touch. Remove cupcakes from pans and allow to cool on wire racks.

In small pan, whisk 3 tablespoons flour with 3/4 cup milk. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Combine 3/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar in large mixing bowl. Fit mixer with paddle and beat butter and sugar several minutes until fluffy. Add cooled flour/milk mixture and continue to beat until mixture is creamy. Add vanilla and mix until just combined.

Fit a pastry bag with a #5 tip and fill with buttercream filling. Insert tip about 1/2 inch deep into the top of each cupcake and fill cupcake with buttercream. Set aside any unused filling.

In small saucepan, combine chocolate chips and 1/4 cup butter. Over low heat, melt chocolate and butter, mixing together until melted and smooth.

Swirl the top of each cupcake into chocolate glaze, coating the top of each cake. Then, using leftover filling, pipe a swirl of buttercream on top of each cupcake.

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Ok, so cake from scratch... I don't have much experience with it.

This is the only cake I can remember making from scratch.
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It turned out fine (if you like chocolate), but I didn't have to 'fill' it! Just a layer of frosting in the middle, which I can totally do.

So anyway....

I followed Cathy's directions and mixed the cupcake ingredients well.
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(those are bubbles, not lumps)

The thing I'm noticing about cake from scratch, well, chocolate cake from scratch anyway, is that the batter is wicked thin.

I made a huge mess!
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I don't think it had anything to do with the margarita. I'm pretty experienced with those! Just not thin cake batter from scratch!

I won't show what a mess I made on the floor! But somehow there were lots of little drips there too!

Ok... so baked those for about 18 minutes.
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So far so good!

Now on to the filling.

Perhaps I didn't get it thick enough.
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Combined the butter and sugar.
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Added the thickened (not thick enough??) milk and flour.
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Hmmm... I guess it's not looking very thick, is it?

So that seemed way too thin.

It was a gazillion degrees in my kitchen, so that didn't help matters I'm sure!

I kept adding powdered sugar to try to thicken up.
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Still didn't seem thick enough, but I had already added a ton of powdered sugar, so I decided to just go with what I had.

Melted the chocolate chips with butter in my double boiler.
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Then dug out my cake decorating kit.
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Pretty cool kit for someone who doesn't decorate cakes huh?

When my Uncle Joe passed away, my mom was cleaning out his apartment and gave me a lot of his kitchen stuff.

I have to say, even though I don't use it often, I really love this!

Now to find the #5 tip.

Hmmm... there doesn't seem to be one. There's a #4 and a #6, but no #5.

Maybe it ended up in here.
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I dunno. But I used the #6.

And I made a HUGE mess.

My filling was too thin. I don't know if it was the heat in my kitchen or just an error on my part (probably the latter!), but it was thin.

Then I filled the bag too full and ended up like this.
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That pic compliments of my little sous chef, Bob. He was a huge help!

Stuff was oozing everywhere... Bob kept running for bowls and towels to try to contain my mess. He can be such a great help when he wants to be!

Anyway... no 'action' filling shots.

But I pushed the tip into the top of the cupcakes and squeezed.

How long? How much? So soupy! So messy!

But I got it done.
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Then to dip them in the chocolate.

I can totally do that!
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A coating of chocolate hides a mess nicely!
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But my filling was WAY too thin for the cute decorative design.

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Look! I actually got some filling in there!

Anyway... everyone really liked these!

And they weren't hard to make, at least I don't think they would have been if I hadn't messed up the frosting!

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ETA!

I totally forgot!!!

Cathy this is for you!!
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I know this recipe isn't on your blog. And even though I had a hard time filling these... everyone really loved them!!

15 comments:

Michele said...

This is freakin awesome and I really want to try it but first I want to know from cathy what went wrong with the filling. I need to be prepared! lol

Unknown said...

LMAO!!! Love the marg! hee hee...and btw, I think I have that same red heart cookie cutter in my messy drawer too! The cupcakes came out great. i wonder what would happen if you added come cream cheese to the filling?

Unknown said...

oh crap...I meant...SOME cream cheese to the filling!

Spryte said...

I don't know how cream cheese might have changed it. It would have been tasty though!

Cookie cutters aren't supposed to live in that drawer... but I bet there are at least half a dozen in there!

Unknown said...

I was thinking the cream cheese would make it thicker? (and be way awesome good).

I don't keep cookie cutters in my drawer either (plastic baggy in the cupboard) but when "others" do the dishes, they end up where ever LOL

Cathy said...

lol - I would've given up after one, ate the filling with a spoon and just given everyone plain cupcakes ;) Good for you for sticking with it!

Bob said...

Messy, sure, but they do look tasty. I would totally eat them. Heh. I've never been brave enough to make filled cupcakes.

Debbie said...

You have a lot more patience than I do.....good for you...you stuck it!

DutchBakerGirl said...

Ok--I see the problem. You are correct-the flour mixture was too thin. It needs to be almost solid in thickness. It's my fault. I'm going to revamp the recipe and repost to make it more clear. You did recover quite well, though. Your cupcakes look awesome! And thank you so much for the badge!

Shane T. Wingerd said...

They look really insanely tasty... I will take 2... :)

NKP said...

I bet they were delish anyway. You got great shape on the cupcakes.
I use an ice cream style disher to fill my muffin tins, makes it a little easier.

teresa said...

mmmm, what a fun cupcake, my kids would go bonkers for this!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Oh, boy sometimes (often) that's how things go for me too! Kudos for sticking it out!
~ingrid

Joanna said...

These look fab, despite all of the issues! I didn't even know there was a challenge! Must. spend. more. time. on. the.board!
Is there an October challenge yet?

Sharon said...

I was so excited as I had tried Martha's and was not overly impressed. My milk/flour mixture was solid when cooled but maybe I didn't cream sugar and butter long enough and it came out sort of curdled looking??
Also, it is a Bismark tip number 230 from Wilton that is for cupcake filling.