February 27, 2010

Maple Cupcakes, eh?

Have you been watching the Olympics?  The closing ceremonies are tomorrow, and then we'll be done with winter sports for a while.  It's been fun having the Games so close to home, although I will never understand why on earth we can't watch events without such a heinous tape delay.  Especially when they're happening just a half-day's drive from here.  Honestly, NBC, what gives?  Figure skating at midnight??  How am I supposed to get up and bake in the morning when I'm staying up late to watch the Soap Opera on Ice?



Bad TV scheduling aside, this has been a fun Olympics.  I don't remember pulling for Canada before, but I've been finding myself just as happy when a Canadian wins a medal as I am when an American does.  O, Canada has been going through my head for two weeks now, and I'm getting less annoyed at people with French accents......they might be Canadian, after all!  So in honor of the Vancouver Olympics, I give you these fabulous Semi-Canadian Maple Leaf Cupcakes!






These cupcakes turned out to be really lovely, although I opted to improvise a little on the frosting after I tasted one of the cakes by itself.  The original frosting was a maple buttercream that called for 6 egg yolks, 2 cups of maple syrup, and a pound of butter. 

Gag.  

I mean, I'm all about a sweet frosting, but the cake had such a delicate maple flavor that I kind of didn't want to slather it in a frosting that was so ultra-buttery.  Not to mention the fact that I had already used 2 cups of maple syrup in the cake, and if I had made the frosting as well, I would have burned through an ENTIRE QUART of the good stuff.  For real, Martha?  Have you seen the price of maple syrup these days?  Have you been to the grocery store lately?  Hmmm....probably not.  Thank god for Costco, where you can find real maple for about $13.  It's not the good dark Grade B stuff that you really should use for something like this, but still.  It'll work in a pinch.   




Anyway, after tasting the cake, I thought that it tasted more like a delicate, tight-crumbed pancake, and I wanted frosting that went in more of a breakfast-y direction.  What I made was a basic powdered sugar/butter/cream cheese frosting (with admittedly questionable ratios of butter and cream cheese), but I whisked in a mixture of orange juice concentrate and maple syrup and it was major yum.  

But here's where it gets good.

When the cupcakes were fresh out of the oven, I poked 6 or 7 holes in each one with a toothpick and brushed a little Maker's Mark bourbon on top of them.  After that soaked in, they got a brush of the OJ & syrup and a dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg.  What started out as a big maple-fest sort of morphed into breakfast with frosting.  And booze.  Oh, and sorry, Canada, but if I hadn't already made the big red maple leaves for the top, I think I would have cooked some bacon and sprinkled it on top instead.  In fact, I think I'll have another go at these cupcakes and do just that.   

Cake with bacon and bourbon.  Sounds like breakfast to me!



The maple cake recipe is one of the nicest ones I've ever made.  It had a fabulous maple perfume, and the texture was fine, moist, and tender with great structure.  Sometimes a very tender cake will fall apart in your hand under the weight of the frosting, but these didn't at all.....and I really piled the frosting on this time.

If you make these, and I totally think you should, you should know that the recipe that I'm posting here is the version from Martha's Cupcake book which is slightly different from the version on her website.  I actually think that there might be a typo in the online recipe, since the two are exactly the same except that one has twice as much butter.  I'm posting the version I made, since I really think it was perfect and can't imagine it with another stick of butter.  

Oh, and if you're Canadian, I'm sorry, but my current affinity for all things Northern stops when it comes to the Metric System.  I'll be posting the recipe in plain ol' cup and spoon measurements.  



Maple Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350º
Makes 24 cupcakes

In a medium bowl, whisk together:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

With an electric mixer, cream until smooth:
1 stick butter

Add, and beat until combined (this will take a while. Just keep scraping the sides and keep beating):
2 cups maple syrup, preferably Grade B

Add, 1 at a time, beating well between each:
3 eggs

Add flour mixture and beat well to combine

Beat in until combined:
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Divide equally among paper-lined cups, filling each 3/4 full.  Bake about 20 minutes, until tester inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely on wire racks before frosting.  

Maple Orange Frosting

In an electric mixer, cream until fluffy:
2 sticks butter
8 oz cream cheese

Whisk together and beat in:
2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate
2 Tbsp maple syrup

Add, 1 cup at a time:
5-6 cups sifted powdered sugar

Beat until smooth, fluffy, and stiff enough to pipe.








3 comments:

  1. OH MY GOSH these sound amazing. And I know what you mean about being just as happy with a Canadian win. We were up in BC for the first few days and their hilarious commentators and general awesomeness made me want to be Canadian. But anyways, I'm thinking I need to try out this recipe sometime. - Hannah

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum-O! Those look delicious! I think the bacon on the top would be awesome. I also know what you mean about being just as happy when Canada won a medal. I thought the Olympics were great and I'm going through withdrawals now, especially with the curling. I think I need a cupcake.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your mom brought a maple cupcake to me at our orchestra concert recently. Oh my goodness! It was delicious! I thank her for sharing!

    ReplyDelete