How to make a Zinger...

So during the snow day yesterday, my in-laws requested some cupcakes. Instead of telling me something I've made a million times, my sister-in-law gave me a sweet she loved and asked me to replicate it in cupcake form.

I gotta say this is one of the toughest, and most fun, ways to come up with a cupcake. But here is my version of a Raspberry Zinger that I made for my dear sis-in-law.

First off, for the cakey part, I figured a Zinger was pretty close to a Twinkie. So I searched for a homemade Twinkie recipe and came up with this:

In the end, the cake didn't really look like the spongy texture I expected in a Twinkie, but it was still really good.

Twinkie Cake

adapted from Gourmet Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

1 cup milk

Put a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

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

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute in between each addition. Beat in vanilla and almond extract. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with the milk in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until just incorporated.

Once mixed, pour the batter into the prepared cupcake pans and bake at 350 for 15-20 min.

The next step was the filling, but I was low on marshmallow cream so I made my own. I don't know if my homemade cream was the reason or not, but the filling was nowhere near as fluffy and light as a Zinger's. I went ahead and piped it in and figured I'd end up tossing them but, the next morning, Not-So-Ex tasted them and said that the cupcake soaked up the filling and the result was a really, really good and moist cupcake.

Twinkie Cream

recipe from Todd Wilbur

2 teaspoons very hot water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups marshmallow cream (one 7-ounce jar)

1/2 cup shortening

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the salt and the how water in a small bowl and mix until the salt is dissolved. Let the mixture cool.

Combine the marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla extract in a medium sized bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.

Add the salt solution to the filling and beat to combine.

Now came the part I was really interested in. The Raspberry Zingers are coated in a thin raspberry substance and rolled in coconut. I looked and looked for guidance on how to achieve this but the only thing I could find was a cupcake coated in raspberry jelly and then topped with coconut, which was NOT what I wanted. So I decided to make a raspberry curd and mix the coconut into the curd, rather than just sprinkling it on top. And it worked like a charm. It reached the consistency of my German Chocolate frosting and I was able to pipe it onto the cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 package defrosted raspberries pureed and strained

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted 2 tsp cornstarch 1/4 cup powdered sugar unsweetened coconut

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In the top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar. Stir in raspberries, butter, cornstarch, and powdered sugar . Cook over simmering water for 15 minutes or until thickened. Once thick, mix in unsweetened coconut to taste.

Anyway, Not-So-Ex is delivering the cupcakes now so hopefully the in-laws will be happy with them!