The first part of my big weekend...

So I had a huge weekend last weekend as I had 100 cupcakes to get finished and a trip to Atlanta with Jesco and Mamie.  For this first blog (as I'm sure there will be several involving the weekend), I'm gonna stick with the easiest to explain and discuss, the cupcakes.

First off, I was off on Friday since it was West Virginia Day (woo hoo!) and my parents were on vacation with my kids so Not-So-Ex and I invaded their house Thursday after work to finish my baking.  I was a paranoid wreck since the carefully paced schedule of cupcake baking had completely gone to hell so I had a LOT to do.

I had already made Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes, which were inspired by a recipe on the blog I Heart Cuppycakes.  Instead of that recipe, I used one from Martha Stewart!  And I frosted them with my standard cream cheese frosting (recipe here).  So here's the cupcake recipe (with my oh so incredibly slight modification)!

RED, WHITE, AND BLUE CUPCAKES

• 4 1/2 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 7 large egg whites
• red and blue food coloring

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake or muffin tins with papers; set aside. Into a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and vanilla in a glass measuring cup.
2. Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat until pale and creamy. With mixer on medium speed, gradually add sugar in a steady stream; continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk mixture and starting and ending with the flour. Do not overbeat.
4. In a clean bowl of electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of the whites into flour mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining egg whites in two batches, being careful not to deflate the whites.
5. Split batter into 3 equal portions and add blue food coloring to one and red food coloring to the other, leaving one without any coloring.
6. Scoop equal amounts of the three colors into the muffin cups, filling cups to about 1/2 inch from the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted near the centers comes out clean and the tops spring back when pressed lightly in the center, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool completely before icing or storing.

Another new recipe was the Key Lime Pie Cupcakes, which came from the blog Cupcake Project.  I tried to make these early but left them in the oven just a bit too long so the bottoms got just a bit burnt.  Since this just would not do for Steph's party, I gave them to the fam and some work friends who all agreed they were wonderful.  I think, once they were frosted, they were probably my favorite because they were both incredibly cute and yummy.  So here's that recipe too!

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

• 1/2 C butter (room temperature)
• 1 C sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 C milk
• 1 C flour
• 1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs (I used my homemade graham crackers.)
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/8 t salt
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 C lime or key lime juice

1. Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until creamed.
2. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg.
4. Use food processor or a potato masher or whatever you have on hand to grind the graham crackers into tiny crumbs and powder.
5. Sift the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. (I didn't actually sift the graham cracker crumbs. While mine were small, I don't think they would have fit through the sifter.)
6. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture.
7. Add some of the milk.
8. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry - wet - dry method, ending with the dry.
9. Mix until just combined.
10. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. (FYI - If you want to make an amazing key lime pie, just mix the ingredients in this step, dump it into a pie shell and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. It's the easiest recipe ever! The pie won't be green and it shouldn't be. Lime juice isn't green.)
11. Dump the key lime mixture into the graham batter and lightly stir. Do NOT fully integrate the key lime and graham batter. You should have clumps of batter in a key lime soup.
12. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Make sure each liner has a nice distribution of key lime liquid and graham clumps.
13. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until top bounces back when touched.

I frosted the cupcakes with a cream cheese based Key Lime frosting (just like this cherry frosting recipe but replace the cherry syrup with Key Lime juice) which I tinted just the right shade of light green.

I also made German Chocolate Cupcakes, which I had made before but the recipe was posted on my old blog so here it is again.

And, last but not least, I made one other recipe from the old blog.  It's actually the recipe that started my obsession with cupcakes.  So, if you like PB&J, give this recipe a try.

Anyway, I got the cupcakes done just in the nick of time and was on the road (with quite a few left over cupcakes for the crew guys) with Jesco soon after!