Red Beans and Whipped Cream

First off, I want to mention the amount of pressure I suddenly feel about this blog! I found out that a fried actually COOKED something from here, and had plans to cook something else! Whoa. I am so very super glad about that, so super glad that I’m using terms like, “super glad.” But… the pressure! I hope both types of BBQ turned out well!!!!

Speaking of BBQ, for the past week or two I’ve been churning out some summery recipes. Last weekend we went to my sister’s house for belated father’s day. I knew I wanted to make cupcakes, and I knew that my dad loves custard and loves blueberries. Luckily, that was easy enough to work with!!!

Blueberry Custard Cupcakes

In addition to everything below, you’ll need some extra blueberries.

Vanilla cupcakes

1 recipe yellow cupcakes

Replace the sour cream with vanilla yogurt, and increase the vanilla to 1-2 tablespoons.

Blueberry Sauce

11 ounces blueberries, mashed up
1/2 cup sugar

Heat on low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until syrupy. Then strain through mesh strainer to catch skins.

Custard filling

1/4 c sugar
1 c milk
1 ts flour
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend sugar, flour, and salt in a pot. Stir in the milk. Bring to boiling; stir and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Add a small amount of the hot mixture to egg yolks, stirring constantly (this helps keep the eggs from cooking). Blend into mixture in saucepan. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool immediately by pouring custard into a chilled bowl and setting it in refrigerator or pan of cold water. Add the vanilla. Let chill in the fridge.

Blueberry Swiss Meringue Icing
1 batch swiss meringue icing
half the blueberry sauce

Mix the half of the blueberry sauce in with half of the icing. Keep the other half in a separate bowl.

Putting it all together

After the cupcakes have cooled somewhat, use a small spoon (I used a melon baller) and scoop out a chunk of the inside of the cupcake. Drizzle a bit of blueberry sauce down in there. Fill the rest of the way with custard. The plop a few whole blueberries on top of that.

Fill an icing bag with one side regular frosting, the other side blueberry frosting. Pipe the frosting on. Top with a blueberry and a bit more blueberry sauce drizzle.

I also made some with no blueberries for the blueberry haters.

Eat!

I think I’m done with cupcakes for a while. At least as far as making them just for us at home. There are bound to be some desserts that are better for us, but damn are cupcakes good. And there are endless combinations of cake/filling/frosting to try.

I hate store bought icing. At least the kind you buy from the grocery store that is basically nothing but unflavored crisco and powdered sugar. Ugh. It coats the top of my mouth and makes me want to cry. But I love homemade icings. I’ve tried a few different kinds, and they’re all great.

This weekend, when I went to make my S’mores cupcakes, I realized I didn’t have any marshmallow fluff for the icing. I did have a ton of regular marshmallows, so I googled to try to find something that would work. What I discovered was that a plain ol’ meringue frosting would have a marshmallowy taste, since marshmallows are mostly sugar.

I think I have come close to perfecting the S’mores cupcake!

S’mores cupcakes

Makes 16-18 regular cupcakes

Graham Cracker Cupcakes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1/4 recipe chocolate frosting (or you could use plain chocolate ganache)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix flour, crushed graham crackers, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk and beat until batter is almost smooth.

Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about 2/3 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean Remove from oven and cool.

Use a melon baller, or just a small spoon, and scoop out part of the middle of the cupcakes. Fill with chocolate ganache, or
chocolate frosting.

Don’t forget to let the dog lick the floor.

Meringue Frosting

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
4 egg whites
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine egg whites and sugar in the top of a double boiler (or a glass bowl over but not touching a pan of simmering water). Whisk constantly over medium-high heat until mixtures reaches 160°F, about 5 minutes.

Pour egg white mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high until you get an icing consistancy. This can take a while, I was convinced mine was messed up, but it did eventually come together. Add vanilla extract 1 teaspoon at a time until desired flavor.

Pipe the meringue frosting on top of the cupcakes. At this point you can call it quits, or you can garnish. I used the awesome chocolate sugar grinder that Char gave me, but you could also top with graham crumbs or shaved chcolate.

This is not a perfect recipe. But it’s a great recipe to play with to make better. I’ll tell you what I did, then I’ll give you some untested suggestions.

S’mores Cupcakes

1/4 cup regular cocoa powder
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 cup boiling hot water
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
mini marshmallows
graham crackers, roughly broken

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated.

Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full with batter, then add in a few mini marshmallows and some graham cracker pieces.

Add a bit more batter, and spread to cover the graham crackers and marshmallows.

Bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean (if you insert the toothpick in a marshmallow, it will not come out clean).

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes are cool, frost with chocolate icing. Place a mini marshmallow on top, and run a lighter briefly over the tops to toast (you may have to blow out a few “marshmallow candles” in the process).

Notes: So this is how I did the cupcakes. But when I do them again, here is my plan. I’m going to layer chocolate cupcake batter with big pieces of graham cracker. When they cook, the graham should get soft and meld with the cupcake. Then I’m going to top them with a marshmallow frosting, and sprinkle that with graham cracker crumbs and chocolate shavings. Mmmmmmm.