EARL GREY CUPCAKES WITH HONEY BUTTERCREAM

These cupcakes were my second and final attempt to get them right for my friend, Olivia's bridal shower. The first attempt I made didn't turn out the way I wanted them too, so I knew I needed to find a new recipe. I love my Miette cookbook so I tried one out of there and IT WAS AMAZING!

It's my new favorite go-to recipe for cakes and cupcakes. It was super moist while still being crumbly in all the right ways. And it took on the flavor of earl grey tea beautifully!

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Honey buttercream, makes 24 standard size cupcakes
Recipe slightly adapted from Miette

For the cupcakes:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk
4 bags earl grey tea
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, heat the milk until little bubbles start forming around the edges. Take off the heat and steep the earl grey tea in the hot milk for 15-20 minutes. You really want the tea to be strong so that the tea flavor doesn't get lost in the cupcake. If the milk starts to cool down while the tea is steeping, you can transfer it to a measuring cup and microwave it for 30 seconds, just to keep it hot.

With the milk in the saucepan, add the butter and heat until the butter is melted. Pour the milk and butter mixture into a bowl, set aside, and let cool to 80-85 degrees F, using an instant read thermometer. While the mixture is cooling, be sure to stir it once in a while, vigorously with a whisk to keep it incorporated.

In the top part of a double boiler, or in a bowl large enough to sit on a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Fit the pan or bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in the bottom pan or a saucepan and gently warm the mixture, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the thermometer registers 110 degrees F. Pour the egg mixture through a medium- mesh sieve into the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and whisk on high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy and has cooled to slightly above room temperature. Stop the mixer.

Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated. The batter should be smooth. Check the milk mixture to make sure it is fully cooled, then slowly pour it into the batter, whisking on low speed. Stop mixing as soon as the batter is well blended and smooth. Remove the bowl from the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl again, and fold by hand a few times with the spatula. Divide the batter between the cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes until the tops spring back when pressed with your finger and a tester comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in pans. Clean the bowl to your stand mixer and let's make some honey buttercream!

For the frosting:
2 cups honey
5 large egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 cups (1 1/2 pounds) unsalted butter, room temperature

Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Put the honey in a small saucepan over medium heat. Using a candy thermometer, heat the honey until it reaches 248 degrees F.

As soon as the honey reaches 248 degrees F, immediately pour it into a heat-proof measurer. Pour a few tablespoons into the whites, away from the whisk, so the hot syrup doesn't splash, and whisk on medium speed for a few seconds. The honey is very hot, so be careful. Pour the honey in a very thin, steady stream aiming for the side of the bowl towards the bottom, but not the whisk as it will whip it back up at you. When all of the syrup has been added raise the speed to high and continue to whisk until the mixture becomes a meringue with a stiff peak. You can check the stiffness by stopping the mixer, taking both the bowl and the whisk off and pulling the whisk straight out of the meringue. If the meringue on the end of the whisk hold its shape in a "peak" when flipped upside down with the peak pointed towards the ceiling, you know your meringue is done.

Put the bowl back on the mixer and set the speed to medium. With the mixer running, drop in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding another. The mixture may deflate and begin to look curdled, but that is ok. Keep adding the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until it is fully incorporated. The frosting should be smooth and thick.

If the frosting still looks curdled after the butter is all added, raise the speed to high and beat the frosting until it comes back together. Do not fret, because it will come back together, I promise. You could also hold a torch to the bottom of the bowl to warm it up a little, but I've never tried this method so I don't know how well it works.

Using a piping bag fitted with a large star tip, pipe the honey buttercream on top of the cupcakes in rosettes, or however you want to decorate them, they're your cupcakes after all.

Use the buttercream immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 1 week. Or freeze for up to 2 months. To use a chilled buttercream, remove from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, about 1 hour.

These cupcakes were a hit at the bridal shower! I kept getting questions about how I got the tea and honey flavors into the cupcakes. They were like, "You can do that?" "That's a thing?" Yah, it's a thing! And now you can do it too!

If you try these cupcakes, leave me a comment down below letting me know what you thought of them? Were they too sweet? Not enough tea flavor? Too much tea flavor? What about the frosting, was it too overwhelmingly honey-y? I want to know what you thought so I can learn!

xo Morgan

TEABAG SHORTBREAD COOKIES

What is more perfect for a tea party themed bridal shower than teabag shaped cookies! I'll tell you what, nothing! They are the perfect extra touch that just makes you want to swoon.

I had been searching Pinterest for inspiration for desserts for my friend Olivia's bridal shower and I came across this pin. I thought, "that's perfect!" But when I clicked on the link, however, I discovered the site to be in a different language. I find it very frustrating sometimes to be an American, where English is practically the only language we're taught. I mean, yes I learned Spanish some in elementary school and then again in high school, and I also tried to teach myself Irish/Gaelic, but the only thing I have retained from that is "Puedo ir al baño?", which could be useful if I ever need to find a bathroom when I'm in a Spanish speaking country... Or does that mean "can I go?" Uhhh, yah, never mind, I know nothing actually. But most non-English speaking countries learn their native language as well as English, or another language. So frustrating!

Ok, I'm over it. For now. Although I plan on teaching myself French sometime. I can say "This apple is red," "La pomme est rouge." However, that's not a very useful phrase... And it's probably not right either. I try!

Aaannywaay. What does this have to do with teabag shaped cookies? Everything! Nothing, actually. I got on a rabbit trail, but we're back people! And it's great to be back! Because we are going to make cookies. Really really cute cookies.

Teabag Shortbread Cookies, makes 30 cookies (depending on how big or small you cut the shapes)
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewarts Baking Handbook (one of my favorite cookbooks ever!!)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons confectioner's sugar*
1 bar of your favorite chocolate, melted (Dark, milk, white, flavored, whatever you want! Be creative!)
bakers twine
teabag tag template (I found this one on Pinterest, but if you're creative you could always make one!)

*I know that's a weird amount, but I halved the recipe because it would make waaaaay too many cookies ;) )

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a couple sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.

Whisk together flour and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until fluffy on medium speed, 3 to 4 minutes. Add confectioners' sugar; continue to beat until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add flour mixture, and beat on low speed, scraping down sides occasionally, until just incorporated. (It should have the consistency of soft cookie dough.)

Flour a clean surface of your counter and place the dough on it. Put more flour on the dough to keep it from sticking and also make sure to flour your hands and your rolling pin. Start to roll out the dough into a rectangle shape about 1/4 inch thick. If the dough starts to stick to the pin or pull up or tear, put more flour on both the dough and the rolling pin.

Once the dough is all rolled out take a ruler and use it to cut straight lines the same size as a teabag. (Or you could just do what I did and eye ball it, but you will most likely end up with teabag cookies of varying sizes...) When it comes to cutting the angles at the top of the cookie, I just laid a teabag on the cookie and cut along the lines to keep them all relatively the same shape.

Transfer the cookies onto the baking sheets with a 1/2 inch space between each one. To get the holes in the cookies use an object that has a small opening such as a pastry bag tip with a round opening. Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown, rotating the pans half way through for even baking. As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven, take a toothpick and wiggle it around in the holes to open them up again since they probably will have closed up or almost closed up in the oven.

Cut your twine to the desired length and gently tie them to the cookies. Print off the tag template you are using and cut them out. I stapled them to the ends of the string, but you could glue them if you don't like the look of the staples showing.

Serve them with tea for friends or a party and be prepared for all the praise your going to get for being so cute and creative! (Obviously this isn't your main reason for making the cookies, but I would be lying if I said I didn't like it :) )

These cookies are best eaten the day they are made, but they can last anywhere from 3-5 days, however none of them lasted that long for me, and I doubt they will for you either. Enjoy!!!!

xo Morgan

BIRTHDAYS FOR 2 YEAR OLD'S

A couple week I got to make a birthday cake for an adorable little 2 year old boy. His parents had asked me if I could make him a Toy Story themed cake a couple months ago, and of course I said yes. Making cakes is my passion. Plus he is super cute, so how could I say no?

So I spent a good couple weeks researching different Toy Story themed birthday cakes, and coming up with ideas, and I even purchased some little toy action figures of the heroes of the movies (they double as cake toppers, and a birthday present! Bonus!) I had a pretty solid plan of attack.

Well, at the beginning of the week last week I texted the mom just to get the final details set in stone and I asked if it was still going to be a Toy Story cake, just to be sure. She texted back and said that the little boy had in fact changed his mind and wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake instead. After a brief moment of panic and slight frustration and scrapped all of Toy Story ideas and immediately started googling and pinteresting (Real word? Probably not. Morgan word? Most definitely) the heck out of Thomas the Tank Engine cakes. I ordered a toy Thomas train from Amazon with next day delivery and drew up a second plan of attack. And with such short notice I'm pretty pleased with the end result!

The cake recipe I used was the chocolate cupcake recipe I shared a couple days ago, I just poured the batter into a greased and floured (I used cocoa powder instead of flour since it was a chocolate cake)  9x13 inch pan. I also used the same buttercream frosting recipe, I just colored it with Wilton food coloring gel. I don't usually use food coloring, but I will when I'm specifically asked to as with this cake. I like to try to use natural food colors (hello beets!) or just plain ole white which I think is rather beautiful if I'm being honest. I love the whimsical, minimalistic quality of the decorations. They asked for no fondant, and so I gave them no fondant. I personally have mixed feeling for fondant, but that's another story.

Well there you have it. My very first Thomas the Tank Engine cake. It was a grand adventure.

xo Morgan

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

I have a confession to make. I don't actually like chocolate cake. I know, I know, I feel like I'm sinning or something. I absolutely looove chocolate. The darker the better. Chocolate ice cream? Give me all of it. But chocolate cake is not my favorite. I think it might have to do with the fact that all of the chocolate cakes I had when I was younger were box mix cakes, covered with chocolate frosting from a tub. I can feel the fuzzy sweaters on my teeth just thinking about it.

This chocolate cake has turned me though! My finger "accidentally" slipped into the batter while I was making it and the only logical way to clean it was to lick it off, and O. M. G. I was seriously tempted to just clean out the whole bowl and not even make the cupcakes... It's that good! Unfortunately that didn't really seem like the smartest idea, so I did go ahead and make the cupcakes. (Although a teeny tiny, eggless batch of chocolate cake batter? Hmmm, might just have to be something I try out some day when I'm home alone and I get a craving for chocolate cake batter. Does that ever happen to any one else? No? Just me? Dang it.)

And this frosting is amazing. I only ever use meringue based buttercream frostings, usually Swiss, but this time I tried an Italian meringue buttercream and I think it is my new favorite. I kinda want to try and make all the buttercream recipes there are and determine my absolute favorite, just so I know, you know? Maybe it's something that you would like to know to?

Anyway. Try this cake recipe. It's good. You'll like it. It's a little more complicated than a normal cake recipe. (You know, cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, then add the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients in steps, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.) It's not as straight-forward, but if you pay attention to the recipe, you should do just fine.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream, makes 24 standard size cupcakes
Recipe lightly adapted from Miette cookbook

For the cake:
1 1/2 cup All-Purpose flour
1 1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 oz dark chocolate of your liking (65-70%), coarsely chopped
1 cup boiling water
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cup (15 oz) sugar
cupcake liners

The first thing I do when I know I'm making a cake or frosting is to set out the eggs and butter I will be using as soon as I get up in the morning. It allows the eggs to do their thing while I do my thing, and it's one less thing I have to remember to do. It's a win-win!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line your cupcake pans with the liners.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl by pouring the boiling water over it, whisking until the chocolate is melted. Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes. To speed up this process you can place the bowl in the refrigerator.

In a separate bowl or large measuring cup whisk together the buttermilk and vanilla. Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, which the eggs on high speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour in the oil, whisking until combined, about 30 seconds. Raise the speed to medium and whisk until fully incorporated, about another 30 seconds.

Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Slowly pour in the buttermilk and vanilla mixture. Add the sugar and whisk until the batter is smooth and liquid. Stop the mixer at this point.

Remove the bowl and add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. I did this by hand, using a whisk, folding the dry ingredients into the wet. Mix only until just incorporated, the mixture will look lumpy still.

Pour the batter through a mesh sieve  into a large bowl to remove the lumps. Use a spatula to press against the solids to push as much batter through as possible. You should be able to push everything through, but if you have any lumps left over, just discard them, they may be bits of salt or baking soda that didn't get incorporated all the way and you don't want anyone to end up biting down on that.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners, filling each one two-thirds full with batter. Bake until the tops spring back and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool completely in the pan.

For the frosting:
2 cups (14 oz) sugar
1/3 cup water
5 large egg whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 cups (1 1/2 pounds) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar and the water. Using a candy or deep frying thermometer, cook the mixture until it reaches 248 degrees F. This took me about 20 minutes, but you need to keep an eye on it. The mixture reached 228 degrees rather quickly, but the last 20 degrees went by very slowly, but trust me, you need to keep an eye on this.

As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 248 degrees F, immediately pour it into a heat-proof measurer. Pour a few tablespoons into the whites, away from the whisk, so the hot syrup doesn't splash, and whisk on medium speed for a few seconds. The syrup is very hot, so be careful. Pour the syrup in a very thin, steady stream aiming for the side of the bowl towards the bottom, but not the whisk as it will whip it back up at you. When all of the syrup has been added raise the speed to high and continue to whisk until the mixture become a meringue with a stiff peak. You can check the stiffness by stopping the mixer, taking both the bowl and the whisk off and pulling the whisk straight out of the meringue. If the meringue on the end of the whisk hold its shape in a "peak" when flipped upside down with the peak pointed towards the ceiling, you know your meringue is done.

Put the bowl back on the mixer and set the speed to medium. With the mixer running, drop in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding another. The mixture may deflate and begin to look curdled, but that is ok. Keep adding the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until it is fully incorporated. The frosting should be smooth and thick. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.

If the frosting still looks curdled after the butter is all added, raise the speed to high and beat the frosting until it comes back together. Do not fret, because it will come back together, I promise. You could also hold a torch to the bottom of the bowl to warm it up a little, but I've never tried this method so I don't know how well it works.

Put the buttercream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe beautiful mounds of frosting on each cupcake. You're a baker!

Use the buttercream immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 1 week. Or freeze for up to 2 months. To use a chilled buttercream, remove from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, about 1 hour.

If you love chocolate cupcakes, try these. If you don't love chocolate cupcakes (like me!) you too should try these. They may convert you!

xo Morgan