HF Home Blog: December 2008

Holiday

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like...

7:17 AM

Cool_Product , Gifts , Holiday , Trends

The Year of the 'Stache

12:43 PM

Cool_Product , HF_Weekly_Obsession , High_Fashion_Product

Weekly Obsession: Leave the Light On

12:05 PM

Art

Budget Cuts

4:31 AM

Cool_Product , Random_Stuff , Trends

Cupcake Madness: What Some People Can Do With Icing...

7:55 AM

Cool_Product , Gifts , Green , High_Fashion_Product , Holiday

Stuff Your Stocking! Part Two

7:41 AM

As_Seen_In , Cool_Product , Gifts , Home_Decor , Ikea

NY Times: 25 Holiday Gifts for Under $25

4:50 AM

Cool_Product , Gifts , High_Fashion_Product , Holiday

Stuff Your Stocking! Part One

7:10 AM

High_Fashion_Product , Interior_Design , Sofas

Chester Goes to the Eye Doctor!

5:12 AM

Food , Random_Stuff

Gingerbread Cupcakes, As Promised

4:52 AM

So, this picture belongs to another recipe, found here, but it was the best picture I could find!

I got this recipe from Chocolate Obsession: Confections and Treats to Create and Savor, by Michael Recchiuti, Fran Gage, and Maren Caruso. It is absolute pure heaven. My mouth is watering just thinking about them! Enjoy, but don't blame me when you get addicted!

Gingerbread Cupcakes with White Chocolate- Lemon Topping:

Makes 12 cupcakes

The cupcakes:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 extra large egg
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup granulated cane sugar
1/2 cup flavorless vegetable oil
1/2 cup boiling water
Lemon glaze: 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice + 3/4 cup powdered cane sugar

The Topping:
Lemon syrup: 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon granulated cane sugar; 1/2 Tahitian vanilla bean, split horizontally; 1/2 lemon.
3 3/4 ounces white chocolate, very finely chopped
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
8 tablespoons unsalted butter with 82% butterfat, at room temperature
1 lemon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Combine the egg, molasses, granulated sugar, and oil in a medium bowl and whisk by hand until well mixed. Whisk in the boiling water. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.

Using a tablespoon, divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling them about half full.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the cupcakes are puffed and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the lemon glaze; Whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together until smooth.

When the cupcakes are ready, remove them from the oven and immediately poke four evenly spaced holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer. Spoon the lemon glaze evenly over the cupcakes waiting until the glaze is absorbed before adding more. It will seem like too much, but use it all.

Let the cupcakes cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. When cool, remove the cupcakes, still in their paper liners from the muffin cups.

Make the lemon syrup: Put the lemon juice and granulated sugar in a small saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil until the syrup is reduced by half- 3 tablespoons- about 3 minutes. Pour the syrup into a small bowl and refrigerate it until it cools to 70 degrees.

Put the chocolate in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Put the cream into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and beat on high speed until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the butter in 3 equal additions on medium speed until blended. Switch the mixer to high speed and beat until the topping is pale, fluffy, and doubled in volume, about 4 minutes.

Reduce the speed to medium and beat in the cooled lemon syrup. If the topping is too runny to pipe, cover and chill in the refrigerator to make it firmer.

Put the topping into a pastry bag fitted with a 3/8" star tip. Pipe a swirl on the top center of each cupcake, distributing the topping evenly among them. Garnish each cupcake with lemon zest, grating the zest with a Microplane grater from the lemon directly onto the cupcakes.

Store in a cool place until serving, and serve them the day they are made!