I was a little late coming to Food Network Canada’s monthly foodie party with these fabulous cupcakes by Ricardo but I did manage to make them! What better way to cheer up on a cold winter’s day than to bake cupcakes?
You begin with creaming together butter and sugar. Then I added vanilla bean paste which I bought here. I love this stuff! I really wanted there to be little vanilla bean specks throughout the cupcakes and this works like a charm without spending a fortune on fresh vanilla beans.
Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating them first before adding the next one.
Take turns alternating between adding the dry and the wet ingredients to finish making the batter:
I found the directions for how to bake the cupcakes confusing: “Place paper or silicone liners in 9 or 12 muffin cups.” What??? The recipe also does not say how many cupcakes this makes so I just winged it. I wish the recipe said how high to fill the liners so I just added one generous ice cream scoop of batter to each one. I ended up making 15 cupcakes altogether.
I baked the cupcakes and made the icing the day before. After all that I was exhausted! Instead of making Ricardo’s butterscotch I just used what I had left of Michael Smith’s sauce. I finally got out my fancy tiered Victorian cakes stand for this photoshoot, so exciting!
I could not believe how easily the cake center came out by using an apple corer. I am definitely using this technique again! I filled the center with the butterscotch sauce.
Turns out making the buttercream icing the day before was not a good idea. It got this weird grainy look. I did not bother with a pastry bag, just used a spatula to frost the tops. Despite its appearance, this icing tasted great and did not feel as grainy as it looks.
So pretty! Even with the weird grainy texture! I had just enough cupcakes to cover all three tiers with treats. My intention was to bring the cupcakes to a party on our street but due to illness, I had to stay home. The majority of these sweethearts are waiting for a special occasion in the freezer.
Look at the butterscotch oozing out! Is that not the perfect sweet treat for tea or what? And you can see little flecks of vanilla bean throughout the cupcakes.
I brought a couple of these over for tea with Lorraine, my mother-in-law, and she LOVED them! They are sweet, light and heavenly. I even tried one that I defrosted and they were still fabulous. I recommend nuking them for just five seconds to help the centers ooze. You got to have the oozing!
Want to join in on March’s challenging? Go here to vote for the dish you want to make! March is going to be about pasta… my favourite comfort food…
Your new uses for ice cream scoops and apple corers are inspired! The cupcakes look so great on your 3-tiered dessert plate!
Thanks Debra! Love useful tools, learning and using my pretty plates! This was a great overall foodie challenge.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to make these…but they look pretty tempting sitting all pretty on the dessert tray and oozing! Love the apple corer technique, going to have to get me one of those. Scrumptious looking, love the little flecks of vanilla, the cupcakes look so sweet and yummy, good to know they freeze well too, that many cupcakes in my presence is just too dangerous.
Oh these look really yummy! I never bake this kind of treat, but these are pretty tempting 🙂
I’m making them on sunday – totally at the last minute. I LOVE the apple corer although I don’t think i have one but I want one just for this purpose lol
they look really tasty!
Susie, I’m so behind and just catching up on my visits. Boy you sure have been busy in the kitchen. Great job on Ricardo’s cupcake challenge. I had intended to give it a try but didn’t get around to making them. Love all that caramel oozing out….yummy!
These look fantastic! Can’t wait to try. I do have a question though, if you can help! Every time I make cupcakes with a filling it seems like the filling soaks into the cake, just leaving a hole in the middle. Is this just what happens by day 2? Or am I doing something wrong. Thoughts? Thanks!
RT, my filling did eventually leak into the cake after some time too. If you want to avoid that, try and freeze the cupcakes after they have cooled and you put the filling in. I did this, had them in the freezer for a month and shared with a friend and they rocked. Hope that helps!