Cotton Candy Cupcakes

The Foodies' Kitchenabril 30, 2011

This post is also available in ENGLISH (INGLÉS)

This is one of the few recipes that Kitty and I have gotten to work on together, we wanted to make cotton candy cupcakes for Kristen’s 2nd birthday. The theme of the party was «Under the Sea», she was (and still is) absolutely in love with her Baby Beluga, so what better to go with all the sea shells and fish than blue Cotton Candy Cupcakes! The Cotton Candy would represent the sea! It was perfect!

Since Kitty is especially good at baking, she made the cupcakes and we worked on the buttercream and decorating together at my place. We were so pleased with our creation! We took our pictures, and after about 5 minutes. We looked at our cupcakes, and all the cotton candy had melted! Instead of a wonderful cloud of whimsical cotton candy on top, our buttercream had an aqua «splat» on top. What in the hell is this?! We re-read our recipe, what had gone wrong?! Of course it was going to melt! The moisture from the buttercream dissolved the candy. And at the very end of our recipe… you know, the part you never read, it said that the cotton candy had to be placed on top of the buttercream at the very moment the cupcakes were going to be served and eaten, otherwise, it melts. So, take note my friends! It will only take a moment to put the cotton candy on top, but the presentation of these cupcakes is worth it!

We will be trying out some pink cotton candy cupcakes for a girly party. These are great for baby showers too! We hope you try them on your next party.

Kitty & Helga

Vanilla Yogurt Cupcakes

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 egg whites
½ cup milk
¼ cup vanilla yogurt*
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350ºF. Line standard muffins tins with paper liners.
Sift together the flour, kosher salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
Whisk together the milk, vanilla extract and yogurt. Set aside.
Cream the butter and the sugar on medium speed. Add the egg and beat just until they become together nicely (careful not to over beat). Add the egg whites, one by one beating for 25-30 seconds each.
Using the Dry-Wet-Dry method, add both the dry and wet mixes: Add one third of the dry ingredients, mix, add half of the wet ingredients, mix. Then the second part of the dry ingredients, the remaining half of the wet ingredients and end up with the remaining flour mix. As before, just mix until combined.
Divide the batter into the 12 muffin tin, and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Make sure to keep an eye on these cupcakes, since they can be over-baked quickly. A good tip is to time them exactly for 18 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean. If it comes clean. it’s ready!
Allow the cupcakes to cool completely to frost.

*Notes: If you can’t find vanilla yogurt at your local store, you can use regular yogurt and increase the vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon.

Simple Buttercream Frosting

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yield: Enough for heavily frosted 12 cupcakes

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
One bag of cotton candy (Blue)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth.
While the butter is getting creamed, sift the confectioner’s sugar. This will get rid of the lumps and will allow to
Gradually add confectioners’ sugar; beat until smooth.
If too thick to spread, beat in one by one the milk tablespoons, checking the consistency after adding each one.
After that, remove the bowl from your mixer and add bits and pieces of the cotton candy, we used a third of the bag. Mix with a spatula until combined.
Frost the cupcakes when they are completely cooled.
For the piping, we used No. 1A Round Decorating Tip from Wilton so it was a clean and simple piping, since the cotton candy on top would be enough decoration!
Grab a bit of cotton candy and place it on top of the cupcake just before serving.