I know I don’t talk about myself all that much here. I’m more interested in telling you about food. But as this is food related, I figured I should mention it here.

I left my job.

I know. I really liked my job. And I still really like the restaurant. But sometimes, you have to move on to something else. So I decided to go in search of that something else. And I considered all sorts of things in my search…switching over to bakery work, learning a totally new cuisine, even raw desserts. Then I got lucky.

I’m not going to say too much now since it’s not open yet. Let’s just say I’m getting my very own pastry station. Dessert concepts have been submitted and approved. I can get in there and start testing in a matter of days. There’s a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s incredible that I’ve come this far, this fast.

Watch this space for more details (including, you know, name and address and opening date).

That’s enough of that for now. Let’s move on to the cupcakes I made for this month’s Mystery Box Challenge.

Is it really spring?

This month’s theme, luckily for me, was to make a pretty pretty birthday cupcake for someone special. My mom has a March birthday and what could be more special than that?

It blooms!

When I think of my mom, I think of plants and flowers and growing up in a house with a yard full of wild strawberries. So I made Spring Lawn Cupcakes with Strawberry Marshmallow Blossoms, Fresh Mint Custard and Chocolate Ganache Frosting.

Roots? Roots!

Since I’m generally all about flavors over really fancy presentation, I had to think hard to come up with something clever to make these as pretty as possible, so I filled the cupcakes with the pretty green custard to give the cross-section an illusion of roots growing from the soil.

Wishing for real flowers...

A few notes, if you make these. The recipe as I’ve written it only make 8 cupcakes, but you can’t very well just make a few small flowers’ worth of marshmallow, so you’ll have a lot of strawberry marshmallows left over. However, I’m not really minding…

Spring Lawn Cupcakes

First, Make the Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart):

1. 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
2. 3 Tbsp hot water
3. 1 cup AP flour
4. 1/4 tsp baking soda
5. 1/4 tsp baking powder
6. 1/2 tsp salt
7. 3 oz. butter
8. 1/2 cup +1 Tbsp sugar
9. 1 egg
10. 1 tsp vanilla
11. 1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350F. Whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water, set aside. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and sugar, then transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on medium-high speed until cool (4-5 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time, thoroughly scraping down the bowl in between additions, then beat in the vanilla. Thoroughly incorporate the cocoa mixture, then alternately add the dry mixture and the sour cream in three additions each. Mix the batter until homogenous but don’t overwork it. Scoop into lined muffin tins, bake 10 minutes, rotate the pans and bake for another 10 minutes. Test the cakes with a toothpick to make sure they’re not wet on the inside before removing from the oven and cooling in the pans for 15 minutes. Remove to racks to finish cooling, then chill overnight, loosely wrapped in plastic.

Fresh Mint Custard:

1. 1 cup milk
2. About 30 medium-large fresh mint leaves, washed, dried and roughly torn
3. 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
4. 2 egg yolks
5. 2 Tbsp cornstarch
6. Green gel food coloring

Place the milk and mint in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil, then remove from heat and cover. Steep at least an hour, until the milk tastes “leafy” but not too minty. Once you’re happy with the flavor, return it to the heat. While you wait for it to get hot again, whisk together the sugar, yolks and cornstarch (beat them really hard and don’t let them get too gloppy) and continue whisking until the milk steams. Pour the milk into the yolk mixture through a strainer, whisking constantly. Whisk in the food coloring a little at a time, until it’s a light yellowish spring green color. Once it’s all mixed together return it to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. Once it becomes thick, taste it, but continue whisking. If it tastes at all starchy, keep cooking it, repeating the process until it no longer tastes like starch. Force through a chinois or strainer into a bowl, then press plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard and cut a few thin slits in it to let steam escape. Let cool in the refrigerator overnight.

Strawberry Marshmallows:

1. 1/4 oz. powdered gelatin (1 packet Knox)
2. 6 Tbsp cold water
3. 1 cup sugar
4. 1/3 cup corn syrup
5. Pinch salt
6. 1-2 Tbsp strawberry juice
7. Red gel food coloring
8. Powdered sugar

Pour 1/4 cup of the cold water into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle with the gelatin. Bloom for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 2Tbsp water with the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and pour into the bloomed gelatin, then beat on the highest speed with the whip attachment for about 8 minutes, until the marshmallow is airy and fluffy. While it’s whipping, prepare a rectangular pan (a loaf pan would be fine, or a small sheet pan) with a generous amount of nonstick spray, then a piece of parchment paper and another layer of spray. Also apply the spray to a rubber spatula. Once the marshmallow is fluffy, beat in the strawberry juice and just enough food coloring to make it light pink. Once fully incorporated, quickly scrape the marshmallow into the prepared pan, spreading it flat if necessary. Top with another piece of greased parchment and let set for at least 3 hours.

Once set, cut out flowers with a small oiled cutter. If the pan you used for the marshmallows is small and your marshmallows are very thick, just cut thin slices and stamp out the flowers from there. Toss cut marshmallows in powdered sugar and store in an airtight container.

Ganache Frosting:

1. 6 oz. heavy cream
2. 6 oz. dark/bittersweet chocolate, chopped small

Heat the cream to a low boil and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then mix with a rubber spatula, stirring in small circles as you go around the bowl. If there are still chunks of chocolate after you’ve fully incorporated the mixture, heat over simmering water, stirring frequently until smooth. Chill, stirring occasionally, until it is thick and spreadable.

Assembly:

1. Chilled cupcakes
2. Fresh mint custard
3. Ganache frosting
4. Strawberry marshmallow flowers
5. Small fresh mint leaves, washed and dried

Using a small circle cutter, remove the center of each cupcake. Reserve the “stumps.” Beat the custard with a spatula or a handheld or stand mixer until it is smooth and pipeable and load into a pastry bag fitted with a very small round tip. Fill the cupcakes with the custard, reserving the leftover custard in the piping bag for a later stage of decoration.

Put the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a very large round tip and pipe blobs of frosting onto the cupcakes, fully covering the “root” of the cupcake. Crumble up the reserved bits of removed cake and press the crumbs into the frosting. Pipe a small circle of custard onto the top of the cupcake and arrange two or three mint leaves on it, then press in a marshmallow flower.

Makes 8

The winner of March’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela’s Images; a selection of handmade crafts
• Bake It Pretty; a $5 online gift card
• Beanilla; a $7 online gift card
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a $5 online gift card
• Tundra Books; a selection of 3 very sweet children’s books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

A healthy-looking heart.

Well, in the past it would’ve meant I’d be looking forward to a day (or at least an evening) off, spent snuggling and probably having a nice dinner or something with Z. But now? Now it means I’m gearing up for a long weekend of busy dinner service with a special holiday menu at work. Ah, restaurant life.

So pretty!

Since I’d already been contacted by POM Wonderful and offered a bottle of their new POM concentrate with which to experiment and ultimately create a cupcake for their Valentine’s Day contest, I figured I should tackle that during my pre-holiday “weekend.” And so I did.

Kind of elegant.

It wasn’t easy, you know. Deciding what kind of cupcake to make. Pomegranate is pretty much my favorite fruit. I didn’t want to use chocolate, so cliche…but what else was I to do? The Flavor Bible to the rescue – pomegranate goes awesome with olive oil and lemon! And I totally had a bangin’ recipe for olive oil lemon cake. Once I had the idea for the decoration I considered myself set and gathered my ingredients.

I love these liners!

Pause for a second here…check out those adorable cupcake liners! I had recently placed an order with Fancy Flours for a bunch of supplies (partly to restock on little gift boxes after Christmas’s Bakestravaganza and partly to set myself up with cupcake wrappers for the year…and partly because I can’t refuse cookie cutters in very stupid shapes, like giant armadillos and tiny fruits) and noticed these sweet new harlequin print liners. Not until I actually went to use them did I notice that they are from Sutton Gourmet, whose liners are extra-thick and stay white and more or less opaque even after you bake chocolate cakes in them. Awwwwwesome.

Oh my!

The original idea with these cupcakes was that the pomegranate concentrate (which I used to replace the amaretto in the olive oil cake recipe) would turn the cakes pink and I’d have perfectly Valentine’s colored cupcakes. Dork that I am, I forgot that eggs and extra virgin olive oil are very yellow and that they wouldn’t play nice with the pretty purpley concentrate. Ultimately I added a bunch of red food coloring to at least tint the batter…the end result being kind of a natural-looking pink velvet type of thing. The food coloring is totally unnecessary, IMO, and if you really DO want a pinkish cake you’d have to use a lot of it, or at least a more concentrated form than I did (gel is apparently not enough).

Kind of craving one now.

Despite the coloring mishap (if you can call it that), I’m really happy with the cakes. This recipe bakes up so cute as cupcakes, all perfectly domed and shiny. They’re very sturdy and perfect for filling,* but I chose to keep it simple this time and just topped them each with a round blob of lemon cream cheese frosting (which is the only type of frosting that I believe powdered sugar is acceptable in, and then only in the barest minimum amounts).

*Pomegranate jelly, curd or mousse would all be neat fillings.

Just a nibble...

I’m exceptionally pleased with the heart design on the top. I tried drawing it out on paper beforehand when I was conceptualizing (yes I draw a lot of my cupcakes, and other desserts that are only concepts for now…sometimes just so I can outline and color them when I’m bored) but couldn’t get the placement right until I actually put the arils on. The only drawback is that you can’t appreciate the cupcakes fully from the top and side at the same time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

No recipe here, since it is in the contest you’ll have to go over to POM Wonderful’s site to see it. I actually made half the recipe that’s posted.

Bubble, sparkle and pop.

What’s another name for sparkling wine? Champagne! And according to the book, champagne + popcorn = awesome. I was thinking candied popcorn…but I’ve been busy with other things and all but forgot to play with the idea when the time of year came around.

Crunchy, boozy, popcorny!

Then! I remembered to check on the theme for this month’s Mystery Box Challenge. *GASP!* It’s popcorn! And if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s put wine and other weird things in cupcakes!

See that shine!

So how do you make a popcorn-champagne cupcakes? I used my regular white cake recipe, replacing the milk with champagne (like ya do) and replacing one sixth of the flour with popcorn flour.

Popcorn flour?

Yeah, popcorn flour. You can buy it commercially or you can make your own by air-popping popcorn and grinding it with a food processor, high-powered blender or spice grinder (for small batches only), then sifting out the larger and kernelly pieces. It’s a lot like powdered styrofoam, in that it sticks to EVERYTHING and is super lightweight, so don’t sneeze!

Pop it in your mouth!

I think they turned out AWESOME, especially in bite-size. The cake is fruity, and the popcorn flour brings out the flavor of the butter. Speaking of butter, the frosting is a smooth and tasty champagne Swiss meringue buttercream. For textural contrast and extra sparkle, I added sugar in the raw on the frosting and topped them with crackly candied popcorn.*

If I were the type to host fancy New Year’s Eve parties, I’d absolutely serve these as an alternative to a toast at midnight. The champagne hits you first, then the crunchy popcorn and sweet sugar crystals. Buttery, boozy, snacky and sweet…sounds like all you could hope for in the new year.

The winner of January’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; 3 Madagascar, 3 Mexican & 3 Indian vanilla beans
• ExoDesign; a wire whisk charm necklace
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children’s books

Sparkly Popcorn-Champagne Cupcakes

First, Make the Cakes:

1. 1/4 cup butter
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 1/2 cup champagne (pour early so the bubbles dissipate, you want this for flavor not leavening)
4. 1/2 tsp vanilla
5. 1/2 + 1/3 cup AP flour (usually I’d use cake flour, but I wanted to make up for the lost gluten from the popcorn flour)
6. 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp popcorn flour
7. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
8. 1/4 tsp salt
9. 2 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Combine the champagne and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup, set aside. Combine the flours, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk or sift together. Alternately add the liquid and dry mixtures in thirds to the creamed butter, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Once everything is fully combined, add the egg whites and beat on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until the batter is light and airy. Spoon into lined muffin tins, filling the liners 2/3 full. Bake 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes, 15-20 for regular sized cupcakes. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the middle of one comes out dry (a couple clinging crumbs are ok, it’s a very fluffy sticky cake). Allow to cool fully before frosting.

Makes 50-60 miniature cupcakes, about 12 regular sized cupcakes.

Then, Make the Frosting:

1. 2 egg whites
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
4. 8 oz (1 cup/2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft and cut into 1 Tbsp chunks
5. 3 Tbsp champagne
6. 2 drops red gel food coloring
7. 1 drop yellow gel food coloring

Place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in the metal bowl of a stand mixer and place over a tall saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). Using the whisk attachment, whisk regularly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch. Move to the mixer and whip to glossy stiff peaks, then switch to the paddle attachment and turn on medium-high. Add the butter gradually. If at any time the buttercream breaks, becoming soupy- or curdled-looking, turn up the mixer a little and let it go for a while until it comes back together, then turn it back down and keep adding butter until it is fully emulsified in and fluffy. Beat in the champagne gradually, then the food coloring.

Finally, Make the Popcorn:

1. 3-4 cups unseasoned air-popped popcorn
2. 1/3 cup sugar
3. 1/4 cup water
4. 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp corn syrup
5. Pinch salt
6. 1/4 tsp white vinegar

Spread the popcorn in an even layer on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Place the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, covering for a minute or two until the steam builds up on the sides of the pot and washes any crystals down the sides. Uncover and continue cooking to 290F. Once it reaches about 285F remove from heat and pour over the popcorn, then stir to cover until the popcorn is fairly evenly coated. Allow to cool and harden completely before attempting to break up.

On To Assembly!

1. Cupcakes
2. Buttercream
3. Sugar in the raw/Turbinado
4. Candied popcorn

Pipe the buttercream into “kisses” on top of each cupcake with a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Sprinkle each kiss of frosting with raw sugar and place the candied popcorn on top (one piece for miniature cupcakes, three for regular-sized).

Serve immediately, or store the popcorn separately and add to the cupcakes shortly before serving – if you refrigerate the popcorn the sugar coating could get sticky.

*Usually I try to avoid threads from developing on candied popcorn when I make it, but in this case I think it looks great, like bubbles floating in a glass. To achieve the threads, keep stirring the popcorn for as long as you can after coating with the hot sugar.

Oh, and by the way, the above mentioned special book (What to Drink with What You Eat, if you didn’t click) is now available as an app!

Looking a little seedy.

This burst of frugality was inspired by the theme ingredient: honey. I really love honey meringue frosting and since it would give me an opportunity to use up some extra egg whites, I figured I’d see how far I could take the concept of using only things I already had.

Seedy indeedy.

I thought about some things that go well with honey that I also happened to have. Lots of teas and flowers, obviously, but I wanted something different. Something special. Something that was just languishing in my kitchen cabinet.

It looks kind of fanciful.

A lone jar of tahini was my answer. Sesame and honey are awesome together! I boosted the intensely nutty sesame cake experience with a crunchy chewiness via some of the toasted sesame seeds that I always keep around.

A little monochromatic but look at that crumb!

Since the meringue frosting is so insanely sticky-sweet, I figured I’d tone it down by torching it a bit, but I wanted something else to cut through both the sweetness of the honey and the tender fatty richness of the cake itself.

Sunshiney!

I decided to go with  a nice sour lemon marmalade, with a little honey cooked into it to give it a nice floral note and tie the flavors together a bit. I think it does the trick quite nicely – though lemons were the only thing I didn’t have. Luckily they can be had cheaply in the store downstairs from my apartment, so it didn’t really matter.

Anyway, these cupcake are pretty crazy. The frosting is so light and billowy yet marshmallow-like in stickiness, and it completely collapses when you take a bite. The cake is just as insubstantial, due in part to the extreme fattiness of sesame seeds (also this recipe just makes crazy soft and tender nut or seed butter cake). This is why the directions call for repeatedly freezing the cupcakes during the decorating process. Altogether they’re a bit exotic and unusual, but definitely tasty. Don’t skip the torching step – even if you have to do it with a Bic lighter the toastedness is essential.

On a pedestal.

Burnt Honey Sesame Cupcakes with Sour Lemon Marmalade

First Make the Marmalade:

1. 1 lemon (weighing about 125g)
2. 250g water
3. 200g sugar (superfine if available)
4. 50g honey

Thoroughly wash the lemon. On a plate with a substantial rim (so you don’t lose any juice), use a sharp knife to slice the lemon very thinly, reserving the seeds. Chop the slices up further until you have very small pieces of outer skin attached to the flesh. Dump the lemon and juice into a small saucepan and cover with the water. Tie the seeds into a cheesecloth pouch and add to the pan. Bring to a simmer and cover, cooking gently until the rind is soft. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and honey until the sugar is dissolved. Return to heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook on a low boil for about ten minutes, testing on chilled white plates to see if it’s set. Once it is, remove from heat and squeeze all the pectin you can out of the cheesecloth bag. Allow to cool fully before attempting to use.

Then Bake the Cakes:

1. 5 oz. (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) butter
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 1 egg
4. 2 tsp vanilla
5. 1 cup AP flour
6. 1/2 tsp baking soda
7. 1/4 tsp salt
8. 1/4 cup buttermilk (regular milk with a couple drops of lemon juice or white vinegar is fine)
9. 5 oz. (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) hot water
10. 1/2 cup tahini
11. 2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, scraping down the bowl and making sure it is fully emulsified into the creamed mixture. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add it to the batter alternately with the buttermilk and hot water, scraping down the bowl often. Add the tahini and sesame seeds and beat on medium-high for a couple of minutes, until light and fluffy. Spoon into a lined muffin tin and bake 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool fully before assembling.

Finally, Make the Frosting:

1. 1 cup honey
2. 2 egg whites, room temperature
3. Pinch salt

Place the honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. In the meantime, whip the egg whites and salt to medium-stiff but not dry peaks. Reduce the whipping speed to medium and pour in the boiling honey in one continuous stream. Return the speed to high and whip until stiff, glossy peaks form and the meringue is about room temperature or a little warmer.

To Assemble:

Freeze the cupcakes solid and trim any excess cake overhang with kitchen shears. Using a small circle cutter, cut the center out of each cupcake, reserving the plugs of cake and trimming them down to 1/4″ thick lids. Fill each cupcake with marmalade and top with lids. Freeze again until solid. Using a small spatula or a butter knife, spread the frosting on the cupcakes, leaving the sides thick and the top fairly flat. Using a kitchen torch or just a high powered gas burner, brulee the outer edge of the frosting on each cupcake, then sprinkle more toasted sesame seeds in the middle. Makes 12.

Spooooky!

Though I do fully intend to get my spiced-pumpkin-and-chocolate fix (in the form of cookies, I think), I decided to go a little more savory and used sage and brown butter. Both excellent friends of the pumpkin. Both among my most favoritest of flavors. It is a trifecta of awesome.

The sprinkles just make them.

I was originally thinking of utilizing fresh sage and frying it, which I’ve utilized in both savory and sweet concoctions before. But I was planning on buying a plant at the Greenmarket, which was closing down for the day as I rushed through, and the potted herbs were nearly all packed up. No matter – I was hurrying on the way to Kalustyan’s (for teas and cocoa nibs and fun things to grind in my brand new spice grinder!) and ended up buying some beautiful dried sage there…which I promptly ground in the spice grinder once I got home. Hooray!

Oh pumpkin!

Dried sage really was the way to go, since it stands up to heat and makes for a stronger flavor in the finished cakes.

Since the cakes themselves would be plenty sagey, I figured I’d focus on making the frosting as brown-buttery as possible. I think I succeeded. The frosting is a French (or pate a bombe) buttercream, made with all solidified brown butter, and half brown and half white sugar, inspiring me to name it “Double Brown Buttercream.”

Oh brown butter speckles!

The thing about brown butter, though, as awesome as it is, is that it’s very unstable, having had its fatty solids all browned up. It liquefies really quickly at room temperature. That’s why I chose to use a yolk-based buttercream – to hopefully return a little fatty stability. It still needs to be kept relatively cool, but firms up fast once refrigerated. It is also unapologetically buttery, and not even pleasant to eat on its own. However, in small amounts on impossibly moist and flavorful cupcakes that just scream of fall, topped off with crunchy sprinkles (which are not optional for both aesthetic and textural reasons)…it is absolutely perfect.

March into my mouth!

One thing to note is that I made my cupcakes in one-bite size, which is probably the best way to consume these particular morsels. Because I didn’t want to deal with nearly a hundred cupcakes, I halved the recipe, which I do not recommend doing with an egg-foam based buttercream, because it is nearly impossible to make that in tiny amounts. I had to try twice but luckily noticed that it wasn’t going to work before I added the precious butter. So do this however you like, though I think it would be hard to get through all that butteryness on a full-sized cupcake. You can always just freeze the frosting and cake batter or baked cakes, though.

Pumpkin-Sage Cupcakes with Double Brown Buttercream

First, Make Those Cakes!

1. 1 1/4 cup butter
2. 1 cup brown sugar
3. 1 1/4 cup white sugar
4. 1 1/2 Tbsp ground dried sage (freshly ground, if possible)
5. 2 eggs
6. 1 tsp vanilla
7. 15 oz. pumpkin puree (1 can)
8. 3 cups AP flour
9. 2 tsp baking soda
10. 1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugars with the sage until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions and incorporating thoroughly. Add the vanilla and the pumpkin and beat until incorporated. If it looks a little grainy don’t worry; the dry ingredients will bring it back together. Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine and aerate (sift if you have clumps of anything). Add the dry mixture to the rest of the batter and incorporate on a low speed, stopping to scrape down the bowl a couple of times. Don’t overmix. Scoop into lined muffin tins and bake 20-25 minutes for full-sized cupcakes, 10-15 for minis. Cool completely before frosting.

Now Make That Frosting!

1. 4 eggs yolks, room temperature
2. 1 pinch salt
3. 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp water
4. 1/3 cup brown sugar
5. 1/3 cup white sugar
6. 1 1/3 cup brown butter (start with at least 1 1/2 cups of butter before browning, as you’ll lose some volume in cooking it), solidified and softened

Place the yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer and start beating them on a low speed with the whisk attachment. Add the salt and turn up the speed to high. Whip until pale, thick and noticeably increased in volume. Place the sugars and water in a saucepan and cook over high heat until it reaches the soft ball stage (248F). Pour the sugar down the side of the mixing bowl into the eggs and continue whipping until only slightly warm. Switch to the paddle attachment and turn it on to a medium-low speed. Add the brown butter gradually in small chunks. If the buttercream begins to get soupy or break in some way, stop adding the butter and turn up the mixer until it comes back together, then turn down the mixer and resume adding the butter until it is all incorporated. It will probably be fairly soft, so refrigerate it to firm it up a bit before piping.

And Now to Put It All Together!

1. Cupcakes, cooled completely
2. Buttercream, in a piping bag fitted with a large round tip
3. Large green confetti sprinkles (also known as quins)
4. Orange sanding sugar

Pipe blobs that look like slightly flattened spheres onto each cupcake, directly in the center. Don’t cover the whole surface of the cupcake – about half the diameter is all you need. Once they’re all frosted, apply the green sprinkles to the dead center of each frosting blob, using tweezers if necessary (I wish I’d had some but my almost freakishly tiny fingers did the trick just fine). Carefully sprinkle the frosting on each cupcake with the orange sugar, being careful to not spill too many on the cake itself (they’ll stick). Keep refrigerated and serve slightly cool (or else the frosting will be too melty and buttery).

Makes about 90-96 mini cupcakes or 24-30 regular cupcakes.

The winner of October’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela’s Images; a selection of handmade crafts
• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; 2-fold Madagascar vanilla extract & 3 Tongan vanilla beans
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Lisa Orgler; an 8.5″x11″ original art print of your choice
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children’s books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!