Have I said how much I love Oregon? Well I do LOVE it! Maybe it's just the fact that I need a total charge from the long winters and endlessly humid summers, or just need a change of lifestyle; but something about it has always appealed to me. So, a couple weeks ago, I finally got to see if it was all true. And boy, was it ever! Granted, I only saw like a fraction of what there is to see, but I could certainly see myself packing up and moving there.
And, well... I came very close to doing that, right now!
But I guess it's good because now, here i am recovering from a stomach bug.
My darn immune system!
Anyway, so I've spent a lot of time in the house during this last week or so, and before I got sick on Friday, I'd been experimenting with my new favorite kind of baked good. Cupcakes. Being on an Oregon high, I wanted to make something with blackberries and hazelnuts. Turns out, we didn't have anything blackberry in the house, except for about 2 tbsp. of Smucker's Jam. Nor did we have any butter. There went all my ideas!
But then, I found this contest at Kitchen Koola (thanks to my friend... in Oregon) which challenged me to create a cupcake highlighting blueberries. An easy enough switch. And quite tasty too!
I must admit that the frosting I made for these cupcakes was a shortening/cream cheese/seven-minute icing mix (due to the lack of ingredients), so I improvised a bit from what the recipe actually says- the Italian Meringue would much better compliment the cupcakes and would look great too!
Cascade Cupcakes
Hazelnut Butter (needed for cake and filling)
Spread 10 oz. whole hazelnuts on a standard sheet pan.
Roast, at 325 to 350℉ for 5-10 minutes, or until fragrant. When sampled, the nuts should have a deep flavor and a slight crunch.
Immediately pour the nuts onto a clean kitchen towel. Gather up like a pouch, then vigorously roll the nuts to remove the skin. If some skin remains, that’s okay, but it’s papery and bitter, so remove as much as possible.
Place the warm nuts into a small food processor and blend until a smooth, liquidy butter forms. You should not need to add any oil; the nuts should smooth themselves out.
Cupcakes
Yields: about 30 cupcakes
2 oz. hazelnut butter
6 oz. oil
19 oz. sugar
4 eggs
8 oz. buttermilk, microwaved until very hot
7.5 oz. sour cream
the juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 lb. flour
2 oz. cornstarch
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2-3 cups blueberries (to taste)
Preheat oven to 350℉ (though it should already be on from toasting the nuts). Line 3 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
Combine the hazelnut butter, oil and sugar and mix until smooth.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix more, as necessary to create a well emulsified mixture.
Slowly stream in the hot buttermilk. It may have separated into thick curds, but that’s okay. Continue beating on medium speed until all the buttermilk is incorporated.
Mix together the lime juice, vanilla and sour cream. Set aside
Toss the blueberries in the corn starch, coating well. If frozen, put back into the freezer until ready to use.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the wet ingredients, in two additions. Mix just until incorporated. After the last addition (which should be flour) goes in, mix only until about half of the flour is incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
Fold in the blueberries, being sure to get all of the cornstarch from the bottom of the bowl. Mix only until berries have been easily dispersed.
Distribute among paper-lined muffin tins, filling only 2/3 of the way towards the top. These cakes puff up a lot.
Bake in preheated oven for 18-25 minutes, or until just beginning to brown.
Cool completely before filling.
White “Nutella” Filling
8 oz. cream
8 oz. white chocolate, finely chopped (or use good quality chips)
8 oz. hazelnut butter
vanilla extract, to taste
Pour the cream into a microwave safe bowl. Heat, on high, until boiling, 2-4 minutes.
Add the chopped white chocolate and mix, just until smooth.
Stir in the hazelnut butter and vanilla extract, to taste.
Cool to room temperature and thickened before using to fill cupcakes.
Cream Cheese Icing
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature.
8 oz. butter, at room temperature
12-16 oz. powdered sugar
vanilla, to taste
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
Add vanilla and beat until smooth.
Add about half of the powdered sugar and blend until smooth.
Continue to add just enough sugar to create a smooth, spreadable, not-too runny frosting. Cream cheese frosting is hard to pipe and will not get as thick as a pure-butter or shortening basic buttercream frosting would.
Fluffy White Italian Meringue (what I should have used as icing)
24 oz. sugar
12 oz. water
1 vanilla ban, slit in half lengthwise and scraped of its seeds
12 oz. egg whites
1½ tsp. cream of tarter
¾ tsp. salt
Combine sugar, water and vanilla bean (both seeds and bean pod itself) in a high-sided pot. Stir until the sugar is the consistency of wet sand.
Bring sugar to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove the vanilla bean pod, then stop stirring. If any sugar crystals appear to have formed along the side of the pot, use a pastry brush dipped in water to wash them down. Otherwise, put a thermometer in the sugar and walk away.
Meanwhile, prepare the egg whites. Put egg whites, cream of tarter and salt in a clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a clean whip attachment (tools must be clean because whites will not whip if there is even a slight amount of fat). Attach the bowl and the whip, but don’t turn on the mixer yet.
When the sugar reaches 235℉, begin beating egg whites on high speed.
When the sugar reaches 240℉, your egg whites should be at stiff peak. If they are not, add a small amount of water to the sugar and continue cooking until stiff peaks form.
Slowly drizzle the hot sugar into the beating egg whites, still on high speed. Aim the stream of sugar down between the beater and the bowl so that it hits the egg whites and cooks them, instead of seeping down the side of the bowl of making a mess.
Once all syrup has been added, continue beating until cooled to room temperature. You can determine this by feeling the bottom of the bowl. It should feel slightly cool, not warm or hot.
Assembly
About 1 cup blueberry jam, jelly or preserves (softened, if necessary) to a pourable consistency)
2 piping bags
1 filler tip (a long tip with a narrow, angled opening that is good for poking into your baked product and filling it; but you could also use a paring knife and a medium-size round tip)
1 large star tip
small offset spatula
Fit one piping bag with the filling tip. If you don’t have a filling tip, fit a bag with a medium-size round tip, and prepare your cooled cupcakes by making a deep insertion into each cake with a paring knife, then opening it with a round object.
Fill the piping bag with a small amount of cooled White “Nutella” filling. Put only as much as you can comfortably squeeze.
Jam the tip into the top, center of one of your cooled cupcakes, going almost to the bottom. Applying gentle, even pressure, squeeze filling into the cavity of the cake as you slowly pull up. Once the filling pokes up through the hole on top, stop applying pressure. Frosting will cover up this hole, so don’t worry about how it looks.
Continue filling all cupcakes, then chill until ready to frost. With the cream cheese frosting, the task is much easier when the cakes are cold.
For Cream Cheese-Iced Cupcakes
Pipe about 2 tbsp. worth of cream cheese onto the tops of each cupcake. Spread using a small offset spatula, smoothing over the top of the cake. If your frosting seems really runny (best if it’s cold too), do not spread it all the way to the edge.
Place a dollop of blueberry preserves in the center of the frosting, swirling if you’d like.
For Italian Buttercream-Iced Cupcakes
Fit the second piping bag with a large star tip. Open the bag up and, holding almost horizontally, spoon some jam along one edge. Spoon in frosting on top. You should have two pretty distinct layers of jam, then frosting.
Pipe frosting in a spiral motion on top of the cupcakes, creating a high peak.
Garnish with chopped hazelnuts, if you wish.
