This past weekend was an old friend of mine's birthday. As per usual, we called in the Calvary and headed over that way for a weekend of geekery. Yes, geekery. We played video games (Arkham City, Lego Star Wars, the new Goldeneye, The Force Unleashed), watched lots of Deadliest Warrior and a bunch of How It Should've Ended, and, of course, we RPG'd Star Wars (yes, tabletop).
We try and do this as often as we can, but it can go from meeting up once a month to once or twice a year, to even many years. These are some of the guys who taught me how to RPG and who got me into Star Wars and many other geeky pursuits. Without these guys, Bake Star Wars and Talk Star Wars wouldn't exist and I would be blogging about.... well... I probably wouldn't be.
The players have changed over the years, but one thing that remains the same is that I always bring baked goods. Usually I bring my famous chocolate chip cookies; or else cupcakes made from a box! *gasp!*
Since we haven't gamed in over a year or two, they haven't been around to experience the challenge.
Knowing that my birthday buddy loves Vanilla cupcakes, I decided to break out The Icing On The Cupcake and try one of the Vanilla recipes in the book. I decided to try making Tex-Mex Vanilla Cupcakes.
Did you just turn up your nose? I'm asking because when I first saw the name of these, I totally did. I thought they were referring to putting taco seasoning in it and I thought that was gross. It's the reason I hadn't made them before now. Since there are only a few Vanilla recipes, I actually decided to read the ingredient list and that totally changed my mind and made me decide to try them out.
1/2 cup (or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup whole milk
2 cups sugar
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp finely ground salt, either sea or iodized
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Yup, it's a pretty standard vanilla cake recipe, but with cinnamon added in.
In this cupcakes-isode, we will be joined by my best friend Eric, whom I forced to wear my apron, so I could take this picture. He was a good sport and an excellent helper.
Preheat oven to 350' F. Place 24 paper liners into cupcake tray. In this case, we used Spiderman. Look at them in all their splendor! These were amazing! none of the colours faded while being baked! I was totally impressed. I got them from the Bulk Barn, but you can also order them here.
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add oil. Mix another 2 minutes. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each egg.
In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Combine milk and vanilla
Alternate between the flour mixture and milk mixture, add them to batter. Start and finish with the flour mixture.
Pour into cupcake liners, about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cupcake comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to baking rack.
Coconut Buttercream
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sweetened coconut milk
2 pounds (or 2 cups) flaked unsweetened coconut *
Beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until pale yellow, about 5 minutes.
Heat sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to full boil without stirring. Cook until mixture reaches soft ball stage(?) or 238' F.
Pour the mixture into a buttered measuring cup to halt the cooking.
Gradually add the corn syrup mixture into the egg yolks, being careful not to cook the yolks. Add vanilla and coconut milk.
In a separate bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the corn syrup mixture to the butter mixture. Blend until smooth and creamy.
Fold in coconut flakes (*or if you don't want coconut flakes, add a cup of sifted icing sugar and a tbsp of coconut extract instead; which is totally what I did.)
Frost cooled cupcakes.
These, as most cupcakes , went really fast. well, after I told everyone that Tex-Mex meant cinnamon.
All and all, it was a fantastic weekend and I can't wait to do it again (and try out another Vanilla recipe)
