Friday, June 17, 2011

cupcakes are my middle name!

I love cupcakes. if I could make them all day long I totally would. Unfortunately I cannot. I love trying new things. I think of things I like and then I figure out how to pit them on cupcakes. That's where this recipe comes from. I love plums and I love honeydew. Voila! Don't be scared of this recipe; these are possibly the best cupcakes I have ever made.

I'm not going to lie, this recipe was a little involved and I might have to give you some estimates about quantities of certain ingredients. It's all about trial and error. The first step is roasting some plums. I split them plums in half and threw about 2 tablespoons of butter into a lined pan with cracked pepper. The plums go on top. In a cup I combined about 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and maybe 2 tablespoons of freshly ground ginger. Pour that on top of the plums and sprinkle a generous amount of sugar over all of it and pop it into an oven set to 400 degrees F for about 20 mins. You can kind of tell when they're done. Take them about and let them cool down as in stick them in the fridge for at least an hour. When they're cooled it's time to get messy. Dig in there and pull out the stones and as much skin as you can. It's going to be pureed next so don't worry if there's still some skin left. Once it's pureed put it back in the fridge until it's cupcake time.

The frosting is a beast of a different kind. I used a standard buttercream recipe. The honeydew was pureed with some added sugar. I mixed in some puree instead of milk. It wasn't strong enough so I alternated honeydew with powdered sugar until it was stiff enough but still tasted like melon. Sorry I can't be more specific.

I always use a standard 1,2,3,4 cake for cupcakes. It is so completely versatile and I can substitute so many things for so many other things. It is the perfect base. Here is my roasted plum version.

Roasted Plum, Ginger, Balsamic Vinegar, and Black Pepper Cupcakes
2 sticks room temperature butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
3 tbs baking powder
1 cup pureed plums

 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar. Then add the egg. It should be a very pale color when your done. Air makes fluffy cupcakes!
3. My trick is alternating the flour and the liquid (plums in this case). I add 1 tbs of baking powder to 1 cup of flour and mix it in. Add 1/2 of the plums. Then flour/baking powder, then plums, then the last of the flour/baking powder.
4. Spray the cupcake papers and fill 3/4 of the way.
5. Bake for around 20 mins. These are unusually moist and may require a few more minutes than normal.
6. Frost when cool
7. Eat and enjoy!