Three Wonderful Cupcake Fillings

Filled Cupcakes.
Aren't those just two of the best words when they're put together?

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, I LOVE filled cupcakes. I think they are beyond awesome, not to mention pretty genius. Someone definitely had their thinking cap on that night, let me just tell you.
Along with a recent cake I made, for my niece's first birthday, I also made some filled vanilla cupcakes.  I used the Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from my five layer pink ombre cake, that I also made for my niece's first birthday. It's a delicious cupcake recipe so you should check it out.
As I said in that post, the theme was pretty and simple. I decided to make three different kinds of fillings for my cupcakes.
Strawberry, Lemon and Chocolate Ganache.
I know what you're thinking. "Chocolate Ganache again? This girl is addicted!" And I would have to respond with a resounding "YES. Chocolate Ganache just happens to almost make my entire life. Almost. And with that, a slight addiction may occur."

I have made a couple different kinds of filled cupcakes before and so far I have used the method of cutting a small hole in the top of the cupcake, filling and replacing the piece of cake, but this time I decided to try a new method. I decided to try 'injecting' the cupcakes with the filling to see which method I liked best. I placed the filling in a piping bag with my wilton tip #230. It's a great tip, made for fillings and such. Once all the cupcakes were cooled, I simply pushed the tip into the cupcake at about a  80-85 degree angle, squeezed for about 2-4 seconds, let go and then pulled out. The tricky part about this method is that I was unsure about how much filling was actually going into the cupcake. With the other method you have complete control over that, which I like, because you always want to ensure you have a good cake to filling ratio. However, the GOOD thing about using the 'injecting' method, is that it is MUCH MUCH faster and easier. It only took me a minute or two to fill all the cupcakes. I guess both have good and bad things about them. I think I will have to experiment more before I choose sides. Sorry, I'm not coming to the dark side today!

Anyways, let's get to the good stuff. The recipes!

Chocolate Ganache Filling
This is so easy it's really not even funny. Is there any wonder why I'm addicted? You really can't blame me. I have made this before in my Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies but I will post it here too.

1/2 cup whipping cream
3/4 semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

Heat the cream in a saucepan until just boiling (careful not to let it boil over!). Once it's boiling, pour over the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Whisk together until chocolate is completely melted.
Cover and place in fridge to completely cool.

Strawberry Fruit Filling
Referenced from Wilton's Strawberry Filling

2 cups frozen strawberries, thawed in 2 tbsp of sugar
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice

1. Drain strawberries over bowl, reserving all liquid. Take strawberry liquid and add water to equal about 1 1/4 cup. In saucepan, combine strawberry/water liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Mix well over heat until mixture boils. (It will thicken up quite a bit). Cool completely.
2. In food processor, blender or magic bullet, puree strawberries until well blended.
3. Combine strawberries and cooled mixture. Cover and refrigerate.

This is very similar to the wilton filling, but I thought for cupcakes, especially when injecting them, it might be impossible to pipe a filling that has chunks of strawberries in it. That's why I thought it might be easier to blend them. I just used my magic bullet for about 10 seconds and they were a great consistency. The filling was a little thin so it was a little hard to control when injecting the cupcakes but it tasted great. It had a very similar taste to home-made jam.

Lemon Curd Filling

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp lemon zest 

1/3 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

3 tbsp butter

1. Combine all ingredients in double boiler ( I used a metal bowl over a boiling pot of water). Heat while constantly whisking until thick. Remove from heat, cover and refrigerate. 

This is not only a great filling, it is also great on toast, or other breakfasty-type foods. Like the strawberry filling, it was a little thin, so it was harder to control when piping into the cupcake, but it had a very fresh and strong lemon taste which was really delicious. 

I know you can't really tell that the filling is there, but trust me, it is. Some of the best things in life are unseen. Someone smart had to have said that before, and if not, I just did, so it must be true.

I really liked how these cupcakes turned out. Next time, I think I will put a bit more filling, but overall, I think they were great. I used a great buttercream icing recipe, which I will share with you at a later date, but I really hope you try one of the fillings. They won't disappoint you. 

-Always love.

Five Layer Pink Ombre Cake

It's been a while.
Longer than I thought, to be honest.
But after getting a job and preparing for school, I have been pretty busy, or just too tired. No excuses, I know.
On the positive side, Scott and I have taken up running. He's training for a marathon, while I on the other hand, am just trying to survive. I'm actually enjoying it. I have never been a runner or any kind of athlete, unless you count my 9 year old tom boy day dreams and hopes. This kind of perseverance and dedication is new for me, not to mention the physical demands. However, I love the rush and I love how good it makes me feel. Right now, my goal is 5k, which I think is pretty reasonable since I haven't really done this before. I'm hoping to reach my goal by the end of October. Scott assures me that it's a reasonable amount of time, but I secretly wonder if he's trying to kill me. Just kidding. This is going to be fun. Right?
But regarding my new hobby, work and school, I am still trying to find the time to fit everything in, and obviously my blogging has suffered from the changes.
But alas, do not despair, I started my Chef Training program this week at college so I'm sure I will have a bundle to blog about in the upcoming weeks.

This post however, is not just a reminder that I am alive, and it's not just to let you know that I haven't abandoned you. This post is about my wonderfully adorable niece and her 1st birthday, more specifically, her birthday cake.
I had so much fun making this cake. Hailey is my first and only niece and she has this way of just stealing your heart with just one sly smile or mischievous giggle. Not to mention, she is just a bundle of fun. A while ago, her parents asked me if I wanted to make the cake for her first birthday and I quickly agreed. They mentioned that they didn't want anything too elaborate and that it was basically up to me what I wanted to do. So I set to work on planning a pretty, but simple cake. (Pretty AND simple, not pretty simple!)
In the end, I decided to make a 5 layer pink ombre cake with pink ombre buttercream icing. For those of you who do not know, ombre cake, is just another way of saying gradient or shaded. Basically you are going from light to dark or vise versa.

I also decided to make some vanilla cupcakes with three different types of filling, which I will discuss in a different post.

I used the same vanilla cake recipe for the cake layers and the cupcakes, which was very easy to make and tasted pretty good to me. I am still searching for that perfect vanilla cake recipe, but this was a nice AND easy recipe.

Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes about 15-18 cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 1/4 cup cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1/2 cup of milk mixed with 1/2 tsp of white vinegar or lemon juice and set aside for about 5 minutes.)

Directions:
-In medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix.
-In bowl of stand mixer, add eggs and beat well for about 20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
-Reduce mixer speed to low, and alternately add half of the flour mixture. Next, add half the buttermilk (or milk mixture). Then add the rest of the flour and rest of milk. Beat until just combined. (NOTE: The batter will be pretty thin. Don't worry.)
-Pour batter into muffin tin with paper liners. Fill the liners about 2/3 of the way full.
-Bake for 12-15 minutes.
-Cool in pan for about 1-2 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.


Like I said, pretty easy. For the 5-layer cake, I doubled the above recipe and it was the perfect amount.
In order to make the 5 layer pink ombre cake, I scooped the cake batter evenly into 5 bowls. Then I added the pink gel color to the batter. I started with the lightest and then did the darkest and then the 3 middles shades. Doing it that way, just gave me a little perspective on what the 3 middle shades should look like comparatively. After the colours were all mixed in, I poured one shade into a 6 inch round baking pan and baked it for about 17-20 minutes. Allowed the cake to cool completely, removed it from the pan, wrapped in plastic wrap and placed the cake in the fridge. I repeated this process with all 5 layers.
After all the layers were made and cooled, I levelled the cakes. Luckily, I used Wilton's bake-even stripes, so my cakes didn't need much levelling, just made sure the tops were even. After all the layers were level, I made my filling, which was chocolate ganache and whipped up a double batch of American Style Buttercream icing.
To fill each layer, starting at the bottom layer (the brightest pink) I piped a ridge of buttercream icing around the layer (to hold the filling it and stop it from squishing out) and then filled it with the chocolate ganache. I repeated this process on all the layers.

I then added a crumbcoat of buttercream icing to the whole cake. Which is basically just a coat of icing, trapping all the crumbs before the final coat of icing or application of fondant. After the crumbcoat, I put the cake in the fridge to cool. I find it a lot easier to work with when cold.
While it was cooling, I split my icing into 5 different bowls and again added the gel colours to produce a pink gradient effect. I repeated the same concept of starting with the lightest pink, then the darkest and then the 3 middle shades.
After the cake was cold and the icing was all ready and coloured, I grabbed a piping bag and tip and started piping 2 rows of each color in a ribbon format around the cake.

 After I finished going all the way around with the different shades, I added a layer of the lightest pink on the top and smoothed it out. Finally to finish the cake, I made some simple pink gum-paste flowers and attached them on the top with a dab of icing.

 I added a little shimmer of edible glitter dust to the flowers, just to brighten them up and add a little extra oomph.
Overall, I had a great time making the cake. I learned a lot while making it but it was a great experience. Next time, I think I will opt for a different cake filling instead of the chocolate ganache, if I am using a lighter cake color. I think if I did it again, I would use a fruit filling or just some buttercream icing. I think I just have a weakness for chocolate ganache. But really, who doesn't? I think I would switch next time though, first to trying something new, and second because when the cake was cut, if the chocolate got spread onto the cake layers by accident, it was really noticeable. The flavours were great together though. I would also probably try and use a white vanilla cake recipe because some of the lighter cake layers turned out a little more peach coloured from the egg yolks in the batter.
I always love making new cakes and cupcakes because each time, I learn something new and I learn from my mistakes.
I'm glad that I have this opportunity to share them with you so that maybe you can learn from them too. I didn't want the cake to be perfect, it's meant for a one-year old, but I personally like that some of the iced ribbons aren't perfect. I had a lot of fun learning and I really enjoyed how it turned out. Plus, I can only get better and I can't wait to continue this journey.

But here is the finished product: Hailey's 1st Birthday Cake!

-Always love.