I am running late on baking. I had hoped to have these green velvets ready to present on St. Patty's Day, but time was not on my side. I had also hoped to have my Purim hamantaschen ready this weekend, but that didn't work so well either. Hamantaschen, while traditional for Purim can be eaten any time - we eat them ALL the time, albeit pretty decent commercial versions. I still want to make them at home, and when I do, I'll record the event for posterity and the blog.
I was able to bake the Green Velvet Cupcakes today, and I think they are a success, although I am still my own worse critic. Anyway, I used Chuck Hughes' recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes, substituting green food coloring for the red, as suggested by blogger Michelle Buffardi. I am going to follow her lead and use a traditional cream cheese frosting instead of the marscapone cream (have you checked the price of marscapone lately? I have!) and then add one fillip of my own, lemon curd, as a filling. A filling fillip. Ouch.
What I like about the cupcake recipe is that Chuck puts the whole thing together in a food processor. I used to use my food processor quite a bit for baking everything from bread to cheesecake, but for some reason I kind of forgot about it. Michelle decides to stay true to Chuck's vision by using the food processor for the cupcakes, but then chickens out and switches over to her stand mixer for the frosting. Ha! But I know that cream cheese frosting works up like a dream in the food processor, so that's what I'll be using.
Green Velvet Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons green food coloring (the entire contents of a 1 ounce bottle)
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 jar prepared lemon curd (available with jams and jellies)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a food processor, mix the sugar with the eggs, oil, yogurt, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Blend until just incorporated.
Place paper cupcake liners into a muffin pan, and divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, pouring only halfway so the batter doesn't overflow. Bake, rotating halfway through, for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the cupcakes, place them on racks and let cool. When cool, place some of the lemon curd in a piping bag fitted with a tip with a large, rather than small, opening. Or use a plastic freezer bag instead of the piping bag. Insert the tip straight down into the center of the cupcake, about halfway down, and gently pipe in lemon curd as you withdraw the tip.
In a food processor, mix the sugar with the eggs, oil, yogurt, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Blend until just incorporated.
Place paper cupcake liners into a muffin pan, and divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, pouring only halfway so the batter doesn't overflow. Bake, rotating halfway through, for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the cupcakes, place them on racks and let cool. When cool, place some of the lemon curd in a piping bag fitted with a tip with a large, rather than small, opening. Or use a plastic freezer bag instead of the piping bag. Insert the tip straight down into the center of the cupcake, about halfway down, and gently pipe in lemon curd as you withdraw the tip.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
To make the frosting: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade, add the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract and process until completely combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar then blend until thick and creamy.
At this point you can choose to pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the cooled and filled cupcakes, or do the dollop method, just taking care not to smear any lemon curd. I think I did enough piping today, so I'm going to dollop instead.
I think I overbaked the cupcakes just a tad, but because they are so small, a few extra minutes made a difference. To my taste they were a little bit drier than I would have liked, but of course the lemon curd and cream cheese frosting took care of that. Next time I will bake only to the lower end of the time range, 25 minutes, and I think that will correct it.
There's always a story ... the first time I baked green cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day was when I was a freshman in high school, so that would have been March, 1967. Ninth grade was the start of a new school for me, and I made some great new friends at the high school. Junior high school sucked, but in all honesty, despite an occasional bump in the road, I really enjoyed my four years at Lawrence High. One of the best friends I made was a lively, pretty girl named Margarita Hassan, and whom everyone called Peggy. Peggy and I were in freshman algebra together, and our teacher was the ultimate Irishman, Mr. O'Neil.
We were inspired to bake green cupcakes in honor of his big day, and so the day before, we met at Peggy's house and baked cupcakes from a mix, which we then topped with dayglo green frosting, which I vaguely remember as also being made from a mix. I don't remember how many batches we made, but there were plenty to be handed out to all of our favorite teachers as well as our friends. I am pretty certain we repeated this for every St. Patrick's Day until graduation. I am convinced that these baking days were the beginning of my enjoyment in cooking for others.
These are destined for my office, but since none of them read my blog (yet) it will still be a surprise. Happy belated St. Patrick's Day, everyone.
Cook like there's nobody watching, and eat like it's heaven on earth.
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