



Few weeks ago, my brother and his fiance went to Grand Bazaar area and told me that I would love some of the stores they saw, so I went with them to Spice Bazaar in Eminonu and found some awesome shops there that sell amazing baking supplies.I guess you can say that I got a little excited, ’cause I went there again Saturday and got so many cool stuff, came home and went into a cupcake coma! It’s safe to say they are both happy they said anything (because of the chocolatey goodies) and regret ever mentioning (I can go over boards sometimes…)

Here you go, this is how I spent my Sunday. One thing that must be said it that I did all these with man-power (well woman-power), since I still didn’t get my electric mixer fixed. But you can use hand or stand mixers but they are possible without any of them too. Though it is not good for carpel tunnel, I’m back to wearing my wrist brace now.

I used a few different cakes styles and few frostings, as well as playing with food coloring.

These were just fun attempts, some were successful, some weren’t. Even though I didn’t have an electric mixer, I was able to get a good firm consistency.

I will give more detailed recipes and combinations when I make them again, consider this post as away to show you the possibilities I can come up with.

Sorry about the pictures after a while, I just wanted to finish everything and clean up that the lighting wasn’t good to capture the details of my work.

Bases:

For every recipe, I eyeball baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla extract. You can adjust how much you want in your versions.

I usually use 1 pinch of salt, baking powder and soda for 1 cup of flour and a tiny amount of vanilla extract.

If you don’t have buttermilk you can add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk and leave it for 5 minutes. I usually use White Whine Vinegar, it doesn’t have a strong flour of vinegar. If you like you can use milk too but buttermilk makes cupcakes fluffier.

Vanilla Cupcakes

1/2 cups flour

Baking powder

Baking soda

Salt

3 tbl spoon butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

Vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk

Whisk butter and sugar in a medium bowl, until fluffy. Add the egg (if you’re using double measures add one at a time), whisk and add the vanilla. How much depends on the strength of your vanilla extract. If you think it’s not so intense you can use up to a tablespoon. I usually, just eyeball it.

In another bowl sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the drys to the other mixture alternating with the buttermilk.

[Put the mixture in cupcake tray lined with papers. Bake for 20 mins at 180ºC in the preheated oven.

When you put a toothpick through the cakes and it comes out with small bits stuck to it, you’re just about ready. Leave them for another minute and take them out. If the toothpick comes out completely clean, they are overdone.] *This part is the same for all the cupcake base recipes.

Adapted from: MarthaStewart.com

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup boiling hot water

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

Vanilla extract

2 eggs

1+1/3 cup flour

Baking powder

Baking soda

Salt

Put the cocoa in the boiling hot water and set aside to cool.

Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs with a mixer.

In a smaller bowl sift the flour, soda, baking powder and salt, add to the wet ingredients.

When the cocoa is cooled to room temperature, add to the mixture, mix by hand.

[Put the mixture in cupcake tray lined with papers. Bake for 20 mins at 180ºC in the preheated oven.

When you put a toothpick through the cakes and it comes out with small bits stuck to it, you’re just about ready. Leave them for another minute and take them out. If the toothpick comes out completely clean, they are overdone.] *This part is the same for all the cupcake base recipes.

(Red/Blue/Purple) Velvet Cupcakes

1 large egg 1 cup sugar 2/3 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 table spoon yogurt or coconut milk Vanilla extract 1+1/2 cups of flour 3 tablespoon cocoa powder Baking soda Baking powder Salt Food coloring

Add the first 6 ingredients together and whisk. In a smaller bowl sift flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and powder and add to the other mixture.

Finally you can add the food coloring. Be very careful how much you use and with the tools you touch with the coloring.

Also some of the recipes I found recommend to mix the food coloring with the cocoa before adding to the batter. Mixing gel coloring with the cocoa seems to be the most popular opinion.

I love the classic red velvet but I actually prefer blue velvet cupcakes. You can have whatever color velvet you want.

[Put the mixture in cupcake tray lined with papers. Bake for 20 mins at 180ºC in the preheated oven.

When you put a toothpick through the cakes and it comes out with small bits stuck to it, you’re just about ready. Leave them for another minute and take them out. If the toothpick comes out completely clean, they are overdone.] *This part is the same for all the cupcake base recipes.

Adapted from: AverieCooks.com

Almond flour Cupcakes

1 cups blanched almond flour

Baking soda

Salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon honey

1 large egg

Vanilla extract

3 teaspoon lemon zest

A pinch of crumbled lavender

This is pretty basic mix the drys and wets and add the drys to the wets recipe. The most important part is since you are using almond flour and honey you need to monitor the baking process.

[Put the mixture in cupcake tray lined with papers. Bake for 10-15 mins at 180ºC in the preheated oven.

When you put a toothpick through the cakes and it comes out with small bits stuck to it, you’re just about ready. Leave them for another minute and take them out. If the toothpick comes out completely clean, they are overdone.] *This part is the same for all the cupcake base recipes.

!!!!! A tip about both of the almond flour recipes would be, be sure to buy sweet almond flour. Bitter almond flour has a very intense taste that it will overpower any other flavor you have. And using just almond flour then, can be a mistake.

If you have bitter almond flour just add to taste, other times you can use instead of white flour.

Modified from CookieMonsterCooking.com

Macha Green Tea Cupcakes with Almond Flour

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg whites

Vanilla extract

3/4 cup cake flour

Baking powder

1 tablespoon matcha powder

1/4 cup milk

Again this is the same as almond flour cupcakes but this time mix the matcha powder into the milk and then add the milk to the mixture.

[Put the mixture in cupcake tray lined with papers. Bake for 10-15 mins at 180ºC in the preheated oven.

When you put a toothpick through the cakes and it comes out with small bits stuck to it, you’re just about ready. Leave them for another minute and take them out. If the toothpick comes out completely clean, they are overdone.] *This part is the same for all the cupcake base recipes.

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Frostings:

Vanilla Buttercream

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powder sugar (may need more)

Vanilla extract

1 table spoon milk or cream(optional)

Food coloring (optional)

Whisk butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and continue whisking. If you want a thicker frosting add more sugar. If at any point you have a too thick mixture, add milk or cream as much as needed. Finally add vanilla and whisk until fluffy and airy.

If you want, you can add a little food coloring

Cream cheese frosting

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened (or 1 cup labneh)

2 tablespoons butter, softened

Vanilla extract

2 +1/2 cups powdered sugar,

1 tablespoon cream or milk

Mix butter and cream cheese and whisk until fluffy. Add as much sugar as it needs to get thicker. Add vanilla extract and if it gets too thick you can add a little milk or cream and whisk until fluffy again.

For Turkish users, I recommend labneh instead of cream cheese because it is fluffier and local cream cheeses are too salty to be honest. And funny thing about labneh is instead of getting firmer with sugar, it gets even more liquid, so use only as sweet as you want and try to keep the consistency at a frosting level.

Adapted from AverieCooks.com

Peanut-butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter

3 tablespoon milk (or as much as needed)

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the butter and peanut butter until fluffy. Add as much sugar as it needs to make it thick but fluffy. If it gets too fluffy add some milk.

I added the milk and then adjusted more sugar, that way the milk eases the intensity of the peanut butter.

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Rich Chocolate Buttercream (No powdered sugar)

1 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup melted chocolate, cooled down

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Vanilla extract

Whisk butter with cocoa until fluffy, add the chocolate and vanilla. Keep in the fridge forb 5-10 minutes for the frosting to thicken.

Modified from SimpleFoody.org

Whipped Cream Frosting

2 cups whipping cream (or heavy cream)

1 cup powdered sugar

Vanilla extract

Using a chilled bowl and whisker, whip the cream until it forms peaks. Add the sugar as much as it needs to get thicker. Add the vanilla. Serve quickly, in time it can lose it’s thickness.

Strawberry Whipped Cream

2 cups whipping cream (or heavy cream)

1 cup powdered sugar

Vanilla extract

5-6 fresh strawberries

Same as whipped cream frosting but this time add less sugar. When it’s done, chopped the strawberries very finely. Almost a puree but do not use a processor. This frosting is all about freshness.

The good thing is since I had the house to my self this weekend I was able to get in the groove to make the cupcakes and since I was fully in the zone all Sunday, after the second cupcake (it may have been the third, maybe fourth…. Ok it was five) I was fed up with sweets so I just baked and refrained from the calories! Everyone needs a day like this to see what they actually can do, I honestly thought I would never be able to produce cute looking cupcakes but some of them turned out pretty good-looking. Enjoy