This is personal: cupcake craze

At Bemz we are all about personalization - putting your mark on your home, your surroundings; giving you the chance to have things the way you want them. Recently Bemzies decided to put their money where their mouth is and had a cupcake competition. Cupcakes were judged (by an outside, independent adjudicator of course!) on taste and looks. Here are the entries:

And the winner? Annica, the lady in charge of the money (coincidence?)...

Annica, newly crowned Cupcake Queen. Our local tea house, Java, kindly donated the prize: one bag of "lunda" and one of "Lidingö" loose tea mixes. Thank you! And let's not forget the winning recipe:

Hi-hat cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2.5 dl/1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar (can substitute with vanilla extract)
50 g/2 oz butter
1 dl/3.5 fl oz cream
2 tbsp cold coffee
3.5 dl/1.5 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp cocoa
1 pinch salt
100 g/3.5 oz 70% dark chocolate

Frosting / Meringue:
6 egg whites
8.5 dl/3.5 cups sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp vanilla sugar (can be substituted with vanilla extract)

Chocolate Coating:
350 g/12 oz 70% dark chocolate
3 tbsp cooking oil

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF.
Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until pale and fluffy. Melt butter. Add cream and coffee to butter and pour into egg mixture. Mix. Mix flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt and fold gently into the batter. Chop the dark chocolate roughly and melt it in a double boiler. Line muffin tin with cupcake paper and fill to 2/3.
Bake in middle of oven for about 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

For the Frosting / Meringue:
Mix egg whites, sugar and juice of lemon into a stainless steel bowl. Whisk until frothy by hand, about 1 min. Place bowl over a pot of hot water (like double boiler) and whisk until sugar crystals melt and the mixture has reached a meringue-like consistency. Remove bowl and whisk in the vanilla sugar. Beat with electric mixer for a few minutes until the meringue has thickened and cooled. Pipe the meringue onto the cupcakes in the peak-shaped spirals, leaving about 1 cm around the edge free. Leave to harden in the refrigerator.

Chocolate coating:
Chop the chocolate and melt in the microwave with cooking oil. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool. Dip the top of the meringue into melted chocolate and leave it to harden on a platter in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Do you have a winning recipe? Share it with us!

Everyone really enjoyed the experience and we hope to make it a regular feature. Any ideas for our next competition?

Comments

[Sara]

I have to share the link to my (not winning, but in the top two!) recipe of lovely Red Velvet cupcakes. Mine didn't turn out as lovely (photoshop:ed??) red as Evan's Kitchen Rambling's, but it was my first try:

http://bossacafez.blogspot.com/2009/10/magnolia-bakerys-red-velvet-cupcakes.html

Sara from Bemz