Yay! I got my first cupcakes baked and decorated!! This particular recipe was a request from
That One Mom, who had requested a pumpkin cupcake. After much research, I've found that, in most cases,
it's generally safe to share recipes on blogs, within reason, but to cover my own self -- legally, I suppose -- I won't generally share recipes on here. If you'd like a recipe,
shoot me an email, and I'll try my best to email it to you! OR, you could check out the
Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook to get it as well!!
Also, I think I'll try out other cookbooks for cupcakes once in a while, but for the most part, the bulk of my cupcakes will come from the Martha Stewart book. That
is the point of the blog, after all!!
Without further ado, I introduce you all to my very first cupcake for this blog! In fact, it's my very first ever made-from-scratch cupcake! Even down to the cream cheese icing!!
I'll admit, I was a little nervous about making a cupcake from scratch, but surprisingly, this was such an easy and simple recipe!! Martha Stewart is a freakin' genius, seriously. Even the batter smelled amazing!!
There was one part of the recipe that I made a little more difficult than was necessary. I had totally forgotten that I was out of salt, but I do have a salt grinder. So I stood with the salt grinder, grinding salt onto a coffee filter, trying to make a teaspoon worth. Unfortunately, part way through, the top fell off the grinder, and chunks of salt flew everywhere. (Yeah, that was all kinds of awesome.) I did, though, find that my empty salt shaker was sitting right there. So I grabbed it, opened it up, and poured the coffee filter full of ground salt and salt chunks into the shaker, and shook out the ground up salt back onto the filter, and found that I had just over a teaspoon worth! Yay!
Beyond that, I did learn that perhaps you should read a recipe
all the way through before starting up, just in case you miss something important that would really make the whole process easier, but in the end, the cupcakes turned out great, despite the fact that I did it the hard way.
The little pumpkin garnishes were probably the most difficult part. I had found a recipe for marzipan online, but no matter how many recipes I found, I was pretty sure that I didn't have the tools that I would need to make it correctly. (Something about crushing almonds into a paste.) On Thursday, I was working at a store that I don't usually work at, and I found a card on the register for a confectioners in town! After I got off work, I gave them a call and went over there. The charming store is called
Hermine's Old World Confections (and you can even order their stuff online!), run by Kevin and Hermine, a very nice couple who were SO helpful! Hermine is from Germany, and their product is the real authentic German recipe. She sold me a pound of marzipan -- and let me tell you, a little bit of marzipan goes a long way! I still have a lot left over! -- for cheaper than it would have cost me to buy all the ingredients and tools to make it myself! I will definitely be back when I need more!! It's so soft and delicious!
Once I went to make the little pumpkins, I did find that the reason that you see them using rubber gloves to work with it is not because it could dye your hands. It's because marzipan is sticky! I ended up going back and forth to my sink to get my hands wet several times to keep it from sticking to me too much. But in the end, it was worth it! They look great! I wasn't able to make the little pumpkin leaves like the cupcakes in the cookbook have, but that's okay. I like them even more this way. It gives them a little more charm.
The cupcakes are so soft, light, and delicious, I'm definitely thinking that this is going to be a recipe that we bring out at least two or three times a year for the holiday season! I know my son loves them! The cookbook calls them an alternative to pumpkin pie, and I believe it!
