Aren't cupcakes fantastic? I mean really, a little piece of cake just for you with the perfect cake to frosting ratio. I quite, quite love them, mostly because the flavour combinations are endless, more so than actual cake! They are also so much easier to share. I mean, who really wants a half eaten cake or even just one slice of cake? Instead cupcakes are all like 'hey I made these just for you... look, tiny little whole cakes just for you!' (it also means you eat less cake, which is good and also bad because, cake!).
Anyway, cupcakes. I like baking, alot, but I am also conscious of my health so sometimes I have to really reign in my cupcake baking (and general baking) desires otherwise we'd have a house overrun with tiny little cakes. It's a problem when I suddenly have an idea like, 'hey! I wonder how Mojito cupcakes would taste?' and then my brain is like 'you need to go make them... now!!' for like the next week or month until I have an opportunity to indulge my experimentation and share the results. However, now that Mr. Grad has a job my problems have been solved! yay! I can bake/experiment all I want and the results are always very gratefully recieved by his colleagues who all seem to have very sweet tooths. Everybody wins!
Recently, Mr. Grad passed his 6 month probation with his company so to celebrate I made cupcakes for him to share with his colleagues. My brain had been nagging me to make these mojito cupcakes for a few weeks and I'd been obsessively searching through google and pinterest for ideas and drooling over the images so it seemed totally fitting to make these cupcakes to celebrate. Everyone like Mojito's right? and cupcakes? so combined? One word... divine! All his colleagues declared them to be the best cupcakes ever which was nice to hear! Even Mr. Grad who doesn't particularly have a sweet tooth went back for seconds!
So, you totally need to make these for your next 'grown up' party or celebration or just because you need mojito cupcakes in your life, which you do, you always do!
Browsing around the supermarket yesterday I came across this:
Oh my, I adore salted caramel there is just something about that salty sweet goodness that hits just the right spot! I mean look at it! Golden and thick and gooey, mmh... (yes, that spoon did go in my mouth right after that photo was taken)
So, as you can guess, I bought this wonderful pot of deliciousness and decided that the only decent thing to do with it, besides spooning it directly into my mouth, was to make cupcakes with it. I mean cupcakes are awesome, salted caramel is awesome so put them together and you have something extra awesome right? Right!
I searched for some salted caramel cupcake recipes and boy were there many to choose from, should I go with Vanilla or Chocolate? How about double salted caramel? I actually tried out a few cupcake recipes but none seemed to hit the spot. One was a chocolate cupcake made with oil, I learned that I do not like oil in cupcakes they taste weird and have a funny texture, the other was a vanilla cupcake that just seemed to lack that wow factor I was after. Then I remembered these cupcakes from my first post that I adored. They were so chocolatey and rich and fudgy, perfect! They are quickly becoming my go-to chocolate cupcake.
Then onto the frosting, since I was using caramel I didn't really want to use plain old buttercream as it is so very sweet. I noticed that many of the recipes I was browsing used Swiss Meringue Buttercream but that had a heck of a lot of butter, but then I noticed once that had Italian Meringue Buttercream, it seemed much simpler than the Swiss kind, no whipping egg whites over a pan of simmering water.. yay! So I went with Italian.
I am so glad Mr. Grad bought me a Kenwood Stand mixer for my birthday this year, oh boy do I love that machine and that man! I don't think you can really make this kind of frosting without one. It was my first time making this kind of frosting and it is a bit more involved than just whacking sugar and butter in a mixer but I followed this recipe by Annalise and it turned out perfectly. If you are struggling I totally suggest you to check out her step-by-step tutorial. Incidentally today I also learned how to make Marshmallow Fluff, now that is dangerous knowledge to have!
So anyway back on track, cupcakes... chocolatey, fudgy cupcakes topped with a billowing cloud of caramel flavoured Italian meringue buttercream, drizzled with more salted caramel and finished off with a little chocolate shard! Heaven! These quickly got sent with Mr. Grad to work because, you know, its not a good idea to leave me alone with 12 of these babies! Everyone LOVED them. I tell ya I'm making that man look good! I mean... just look at them... who could resist?**
So without further ado, I present to you...
I guess this is Hello!
This is, obviously, my first post here so perhaps introductions are in order no?
I'll keep it brief don't worry because I have a delicious cupcake recipe to share with you guys as a welcome.
So, I am Shen. I am 27 and a PhD student studying early modern History, so 1500-1700 (give or take a few years!). So I guess that makes me a hard up grad student as unfortunately studying does not bring in the money, at least not during your studies, in fact it tends to take it away from you in vast quantities! So whilst there are vast numbers of bloggers out there writing for students I think most of them focus on undergraduates, people who are just starting out their education career and perhaps need more help learning how to cook. Once you are further along in you studies (and life) a whole new set of challenges comes along. My days as a young, fresh-faced teenager entering into the wide world without a care in the world are far behind me (:() and now I live with my partner (who shall henceforth be known as Mr. Grad) and juggle studying full time with running a household on a limited budget whilst trying to keep things interesting, healthy and fun as well as cheap.
So, yes, that's me! I am totally new to this whole thing so hopefully I won't bore you too much and we'll have some laughs and good food along the way!
Now, down to the real business... cupcakes!! Who doesn't like a good cupcake (or 5) now and then? I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't go gooey-eyed over cupcakes and I don't think I want to meet them if they exist! Seriously... you don't like cupcakes? What kind of monster are you??
Personally I prefer cupcakes over cake! There's something about those delicious bites of cakey goodness with the perfect ratio of mouthwatering icing with endless combination possibilities! They are just so much more versatile than cake!
I recently made these cupcakes for Mr. Grad to take to work, they got massive thumbs up from his colleagues who devoured them in minutes. I do hope that you enjoy them! Scratch that, I know you will!! I mean... just look at them!! Imagine them with a nice cup of coffee (or tea) with your feet up!
