Friday, October 23, 2009

ICM-Earth: Music...There's an Englishman in my Cupcake

So, I did it...I actually have an IronCupcake recipe/entry this month - woo-hoo!!! I even did 2 taste tests!!!! Yay!!! This month's ICM-Earth theme is MUSIC!!!! The challenge was to make a cupcake inspired by a song. So I scanned the ol' iPod and found one of my favorite Sting songs and it just clicked for me...


My friends couldn't figure out how that becomes a cuppy. But for me, that was easy...
Englishman = an Earl Grey cupcake
New York = with Black and White cookie icing...you know the Black and White cookie made famous by Seinfeld.

But before you read on about my cupcake adventure, you need to check out the great IC-Earth Sponsors!!! I'm competing to win some fab cupcake prizes with this entry. Check them out:
And starting around October 30th, visit www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com to vote for me!!!

Now back to the cupcake making excitement.
I started with the tea...
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I brewed 1 cup of really strong Earl Grey tea. You can really get the Bergamont and citrus notes when you bite into the cupcake...but I'm getting ahead of myself!

First you need the cupcake! I creamed butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla until fluffy. I combined with flour, baking power, baking soda, some sour cream, lemon zest and the tea...

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The Batter!!!!

I lined a regular sized cupcake tin and filled each using an ice cream scoop about 1/2 way. The batter makes about 18 cupcakes.

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Bake well little cupcakes, bake well!

After about 18 minutes at 350°, I got some cupcakes! Do you know how hard it was to wait for these little guys to cool??? They smelled amazing!!!

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The batter did rise a bit more than I originally expected, but rather than adjust the recipe, I like the tops that way because they remind me so much more of a Black and White cookie!

After the cupcakes cooled about 45minutes, I started icing them. I chose to do icing, rather than frosting because it is more true to the B&W cookie. For the icing, I used confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, water, vanilla and a little light corn syrup for that glossy look! I mixed up the ingredients and iced half of each cupcake and let that set.

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For the 'black' side, I followed the same basic recipe, I just omitted the lemon juice for just water. Also, I used about 1/4c less of the confectioner's sugar and in it's place, used unsweetened cocoa powder. Ice the other half of the cupcakes and let set and here's what you get...

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The cupcake is moist and aromatic and the icing is such a nice compliment...not too overwhelming. It was music to my ears and mouth!!! Click here for the full recipe! And don't forget to VOTE for me next week!

3 comments:

Lois Stankowski said...

Good luck, can I vote every day? I am waiting for my cupcakes to be delivered by overnite, either UPS or Fed ex.

Love
Mom

Mack said...

Of course mom voted for ya!

And would you please give my Ruby some sugars?

PS> We will see if it will let us vote everyday!

Good luck,
Macky

Gus said...

Voted. Muzzer will see if it will let her do it again tomorrow.

gyssue