Zucchini with Poached Quail Eggs

While I was at Whole Foods this afternoon, I came across quail eggs.  I have seen quail eggs many times before, but have never tried them.  With my dad's help (who has eaten them many times), we created the recipe below.

1 zucchini
1 1/2 teaspoon  mayonnaise
1 lemon, juiced
Salt and pepper
Quail eggs (I used three, but wish I made more!)

Using a mandolin, slice the zucchini thinly.  Then slice them into thin strips.  Set in a bowl and using about 1 teaspoon of lemon, toss.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

In another small bowl, combine the rest of the lemon, mayonnaise, and a little more salt and pepper (little!). 

Once the zucchini has sat in the lemon juice for about five minutes, arrange on a plate.  Add the poached quail eggs to the middle.  Top with the dressing. 

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcake #2 for the cupcake tasting.  This one is a little more labor intensive than most cupcakes as it requires a few steps. 

Cupcakes:

1 2/3 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cupcake tin with liners.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, combine the sour cream, milk, vanilla, butter, and sugar.  Add in the eggs.  Add the flour mixture to the sour cream mixture.

Filling:
1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter (smooth)
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat all ingredients well in a medium-sized bowl.

Fill each tin with one tablespoon of batter.  The take a small about of the filling and roll into a ball.  Place in each cupcake tin.  Cover with another tablespoon of batter.  Bake for about 18 minutes.

Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons whipping cream (or soy milk)

In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese, peanut butter, and vanilla together.  Add the vanilla, sugar, and milk.  Mix until smooth.  Frost the cooled cupcakes.

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Mocha Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream

Tomorrow is round two of cupcake tasting.  That means that tonight I have been baking away.  First up, Mocha Cupcakes.

Cupcakes:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup brewed bold coffee, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cupcake tin with liners.

In a large bowl, combine the vanilla, butter, and sugars.  Mix well until fluffy.  Add the egg and beat well. 

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, and salt.  In a small bowl, combine the coffee, milk, and vanilla.  Add the coffee mixture and flour mixture to the sugar mixture.

Fill the cupcake tins 3/4 of the way and bake for 16 minutes. 

Frosting:
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon ground coffee

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, and coffee.  Mix well until smooth.  Frost the cooled cupcakes.

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Caramel Cupcakes with Salted Carmel Frosting

The cupcake tasting went wonderfully!  No cupcakes were eliminated from the running.  I'll be making three additional types of cupcakes for tasting next week.  This may be an interesting run-off next week since I'd like to not make all six for one event!

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick of unsalted butter, soft
1 cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with papers.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, vanilla, and brown sugar. Add one egg at a time, beating after each one. Then in batches add the flour mixture and buttermilk, mixing well after each addition.

Fill the cupcake pans about halfway with the batter. Bake for about 12 minutes.

Frosting:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoon water
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick salted butter, at room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Continue to cook until the sugar turns a light brown. Pour into a small bowl and add the heavy whipping cream and vanilla. Immediately mix well until combined. The sugar is likely to harden quickly. Set aside to sit to allow the cream to be flavored by the caramel.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, cream the butters and salt using an electric mixer. Add the confectioners’ sugar. Pour in the cream and mix well. Add more sugar as needed to get desired consistency.

After frosting the cupcakes, I found that the sweetness was...quite profound (I can only handle so much sugar), so I lightly (very very lightly) sprinkled a small amount of salt on top.  This helped to put emphasis on the salty/sweet aspect.

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

In a few weeks, my company will be having a large awards celebration.  I'm on the committee to chose the awards.  Somehow that got translated into me also making about 150-200 cupcakes for the event.  Not that I'm complaining (hopefully I can pull off making that many in my small apartment kitchen), I enjoy doing these things.  I put together a list of cupcake ideas and they promptly requested a taste testing.  How else could they properly evaluate?  (My kind of people!)  Last night I made a few different cupcakes as part of the "taste testing".  One of which was the Vegan Lavender Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting.  The others were a Salted Caramel Cupcake (to be posted over the next day or so) and the Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon and Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Cupcakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground all-spice
4 large eggs
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake tin with paper liners.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powders, salt and spices. In another large bowl, combine sugar, eggs, melted butter and pumpkin puree with an electric mixer on med-low until well combined.  (You want the melted butter to be cooled slightly as to not cook the eggs when combined.)

Then in batches add the flour mixture. Beat until well combined and there are no clumps.  The batter will be thick.  Add the batter to the prepared tin.  Fill about halfway.  Bake for 15-17 minutes.


Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoon Vietnamese cinnamon

Using an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter together. Add the vanilla and cinnamon. Then in batches, add the powdered sugar. You may need to add in additional confectioners’ sugar to get the desired consistency (for thicker frosting, add more sugar). At first this doesn’t seem like a lot of frosting, but it will easily frost at least 24 cupcakes.