Thursday, July 29, 2010

I heart Martha!




I love to hate Martha, I cannot lie. In fact my BFF and I went to her show. That's how much I love to hate her. And when I heard she was releasing a book about my favorite thing to bake...cupcakes, I about swooned. Okay I did.. a full on should be from the south swoon. What's next, I'll be eating grits. Oh but wait, I did that...
Anyhow, I got the book from my wonderful local library and I read it front to back in one night. Yes, I also love to read cookbooks. They are fascinating. In honor of zucchini season I picked out the Zucchini Spiced Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting to make for a friends BBQ.

What followed was almost euphoric. They were so simple, so delicious and I think I could probably have eaten the entire batch.

I also experimented with my mini muffin pan and that also turned out to be a really great experiment. I used my melon baller sized scooper from Pampered Chef!



Here is the recipe for the cupcakes and the frosting:

Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes
(Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes pg. 44)

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 cups packed grated zucchini
1 cup walnuts (about 3 ounces), toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In another bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, vanilla and zest until well blended; whisk in brown sugar until smooth. Stir in zucchini, then add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

CHANGES I MADE: I did not toast my walnuts and used finely chopped and I used 4 cups of zucchini. I also omitted the lemon zest. Did not use freshly grated nutmeg, mine was from a jar. Next time I will cut the oil and use EVOO and applesauce instead.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(Martha Stewart Cupcakes)

Ingredients
Makes about 2 cups
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.

1 comment:

ErinsFoodFiles said...

I made these last summer! Aren't they divine?