Neapolitan Cupcakes

When I was a child, Mum would buy Neapolitan ice cream and being the chocolate lover that I am, even back then, I would eat the chocolate part and leave the vanilla and strawberry in the box. Yes I did get yelled at a lot for that but I never stopped.

Well on these cupcakes, I didn't leave anything behind! (Even the leftover pudding didn't last long!)

Neapolitan Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes:

3 eggs
1 cup of softened butter
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of milk
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven at 325.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, add the butter and sugar then mix until a light and smooth texture. Add the milk, flour, baking powder and the vanilla. Mix for about 2 minutes until it's creamy.

Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Let it cool down completely.

In the meantime, prepare filling and icing.


Filling:

For the filling I used Jell-o chocolate pudding. After following the instruction on the box, I poured it in a pastry bag and put it in the fridge to cool.

Strawberry Icing:

1 Cup of softened butter
1 Cup of powder sugar
1 Shirriff Strawberry Mousse

Cream everything together.


Cut a a hole in the middle of the cupcake and fill it with Pudding and then cover with icing and decorate as you wish.








As my hubby said, mine looks like boobies...




I also melted a bit of chocolate in a small plastic bag, cut a tiny hole and drew hearts on a wax paper. Once the chocolate was hard I was able to remove it from the paper and put it on the cupcakes.

Bon appetit!

Champagne cupcakes

Thanks to Sprinkle Bakes For this delicious recipe!


We have a monthly poker tournament at our place and while we took a few months off, we celebrated the return and the first tournament of 2011 with Champagne cupcakes! Not only did my guest loved it, they also left with some for their spouses (so they said...).

Champagne Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup champagne

While preparing the cupcakes, preheat oven at 350 degrees.

In the bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating between each eggs. Add vanilla. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set this mix aside. In another bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup champagne and 1/2 cup sour cream until smooth. Add flour and champagne mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour.

Now as it was indicated by Sparkle Bakes, it will be very thick. I used a ice cream scooper to fill my cupcake papers halfway and it works wonders! I usually makes a mess but this technique helped a lot!

I baked the cupcakes for about 20 minutes. Once it cooled down, I cut a hole in the middle and filled it with a custard/party filling:


Custard:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup champagne
2 tbsp cornstarch
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl I whisked the cornstarch in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Then beat the egg and yolks in.
I then used the remaining heavy cream with sugar and 1/2 cup champagne in a small saucepan and brought to a boil. Once it boil, I removed from the heat.

Slowly pour 1/3 of boiling champagne mixture into the egg/cream mixture, whisking non stop so the eggs do not cook. Return the remaining champagne/heavy cream mixture to a boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

This was quite the workout lol

I let it cool down before putting the mix in a pastry bag and filling in the cupcakes. I am eating the leftover custard as we speak... I mean write this...YUM!

Champagne Frosting:

1 cup plus 1 tbsp. champagne
1/2 cup of soft butter
2 cups powder sugar

Pour 1 cup of champagne in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 3 tablespoons. Let it cool down. I put mine in a glass bowl so it would cool down faster.

I creamed the butter and powdered sugar together and then added the reduced champagne while beating it until smooth.

I separated the frosting in 2 equal parts (or at least tried) and colored one in pink with 2 drops of red food coloring. I placed a big scoop of the white frosting in a pastry bag then a pink one. When you frost the cakes, it gives a pink and white frosting. (not shown in the picture because I took a picture once all the good one were gone but do have a few friends that can testified I did such an exploit lol)




Bon appetit!