I am not even going to eat these. They are not my type of thing. These will go to some ladies I know who work together. I taste-tested the raw batter as well as the frosting, and that was enough for me to last another year.
I hear the axiom over and over again stated flatly as received wisdom, "It's baking, so you have to be precise."
That's nonsense I just proved it with the most careless batch of cupcakes you're ever likely to see. I will admit, along the way one does face a series of decisions. These were mine: D. = decision
Canned peaches or frozen or fresh? D. Canned
What type of flour? D. Low protein for cakes
Puree the peaches or leave chunky? D. Puree
Use the syrup? D. Yes
Butter or oil? D. Butter and oil
Full cup of sugar? D. No, half cup, the syrup has sugar.
Egg? D. Yes, one.
Vanilla? D. Yes, 3X more than normal because I'm a vanilla fiend.
Salt? D. Yes, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Spices? D. Yes, 1/2 teaspoon
Food coloring? D. No.
Baking soda and baking powder? Test a portion to see how it reacts. D. Baking powder.
Temperature? D. 350℉ 175℃
Commercial frosting? D. No, homemade frosting.
Type? D. Butter and confectioner sugar. + the remaining Neufchâtel cheese
Water or milk? D. No, lemon juice
Technique. For both the batter and the frosting, cream room temperature butter with sugar. For the batter, continue beating in the egg, then the remainder of the wet ingredients. In this case, the peach puree took up one cup of sifted cake flour. So, the remaining peach syrup from the can was added which took up another cup of sifted flour, so two cups of sifted flour. In that manner, the liquid portion and the dry portion were added in increments. These two cupcake pans could have taken two and 1/2 cups sifted flour and however much liquid for that to form a batter.
The batter was taste-tested. It seemed perfectly fine to me, delicious, actually. At that point it had no leavening. A tablespoon of the batter was mixed with water and tested with baking soda. It did not react so that showed me the mixture was not acidic. I could have added an acid to the batter to force it to react but decided against that. I added two level teaspoons of baking powder. If the cupcakes would form domes, then I would consider slicing them off after the cupcakes were baked in order to have a flat surface to glue to another peach half. If I wanted the cupcakes to have domes, then I would add an acid and use both baking soda and baking powder.
When two cupcakes are frosted together, a rounded knife edge is run across 1/3 or so of the sealed edge to form an indention in imitation of a real peach.
Granulated sugar is colored in a plastic bag and then dumped into a bowl. The peach halves glued together are rolled around yellow-orange colored sugar, then red color is added to the orange sugar to darken it. The red sugar is spooned over a single area of each peach to imitate a peach blush.
The stems are pinches of mint.
Cake might not be your thing,but it's definitely mine. Love the idea & pics. I'm going to try it out.
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ReplyDeleteYou say "Food coloring? D. N" - how do you color the sugar and Add red for the blush?
Thanks!
The instructions I read used liquid food coloring. This time, I used powdered food coloring. Either one works.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I shook a few drops of food coloring with a cup of granulated sugar in a plastic storage container. One container for orange, another container for red. But that was ridiculous. This time I used powdered food coloring with a cup of sugar in a plastic bag. Then dumped it into a bowl. I kept adding until I achieved orange.
Rolled the cupcakes around to coat with orange and set them on a rack. Added red food coloring to the the sugar to create a darker color red them dipped the cupcakes in it to color just one little portion.
Actually, this time for the red I dumped a small amount of red powder coloring into the orange-colored sugar in the and mixed it with a spoon, then used the spoon to drizzle the red colored sugar over the peach cupcakes on the top only. The excess spilled into the tray holding the rack. It's sort of amazing how it blends so perfectly.
Then you end up with a cup of colored sugar. I am now using it in my coffee.
Check out the first time I made these here. You can see I did thing a little differently.
You also might like the kitty cat cupcakes. I gave those away too. They were a big hit.
Ah. I just read that earlier one. Used powdered coloring for both. But still, the instructions I read used liquid food coloring. The instructions said, "shake it in a food container to thoroughly mix it." One for orange, one for red. But I did not do that.
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