Four Cupcake Frosting Recipes

Yesterday, I wrote about the cupcake recipes. Today, it’s all about the frosting…

VANILLA FROSTING
Yields frosting for 36 cupcakes or a three-layer cake

Ingredients:
1 lb of butter
4 oz cream cheese
7 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 splash of vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Combine butter and cream cheese in mixing bowl and mix on a medium speed for 5 min.

*Cream cheese works as a thickening agent. It allows you to use less sugar and the fat in the cream cheese causes the frosting to be fluffy and creamy (rather than a more candy textured frosting).

*We used the mixer setting “6”.

2. Add vanilla bean and mix for one more minute. While mixing in at low speed, add sugar. Once combined, add a splash of vanilla extract and mix on a medium to high speed for 3 min.

*We turned the mixer to “2” for this section

*You actually add the seeds of one vanilla bean. (You can usually find them at Whole Foods markets.) It gives a nice look to the frosting by adding little flecks that you can see. The vanilla extract is also used for its strong flavor.

3. Then, mix everything on a high speed for 1 min. until smooth and fully combined.

*We turned the mixer to “8” for one minute to complete the frosting.

4. Frost and enjoy!

After the various class groups split and made the basic frostings (vanilla, chocolate and cream cheese), we all learned how to make three specialty frostings together. They were Raspberry Vanilla Bean, Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Peanut Butter Chocolate. Please refer, to the frosting recipes in the booklet below for the cream cheese and chocolate frosting “batch” recipes before making the specialty mixtures.

owner

Raspberry Vanilla Bean Frosting
-Add 1 ½ tablespoon of raspberry preserves to half of the vanilla frosting batch and stir until the preserves and frosting are thoroughly mixed. That’s it!

*Be sure to buy high end preserves, because they contain less sugar than mass market preserves.

*Since the raspberries are pigment rich, they give the frosting a pretty pink coloring.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
-Add 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon to half of the cream cheese frosting batch and stir until the cinnamon and frosting are thoroughly mixed. (Are you starting to see a trend?)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting
-Add ¼ cup of creamy peanut butter to half of the chocolate frosting batch and stir until the peanut butter and frosting are thoroughly mixed.

*If you crumble up a few peanuts and sprinkle them on top of the peanut butter and chocolate frosting, it will make it easier to mix the two together.

Of these four frostings, my favorites were the vanilla and the raspberry vanilla. They tasted great on all three different cupcakes – vanilla, chocolate and banana. Do any of them appeal to you?

Anyway, there was this little frosting technique that our teacher Joe used that I really wish was captured on video. (After a bit more practice, I might add one of my own!) Basically, this is how it goes…

Hold the cupcake in your non-dominant hand. With your dominant hand, use a cake icing spatula to smooth out the frosting. Clean off the spatula. Form a mound of frosting on the top of the spatula.
Tap the frosting on the cupcake as you turn it into a circle. It will form a slight mound in the center. Clean off the spatula. Place the icing spatula on the top of the frosting mound and turn the cupcake around 360 degrees. That will make a nice circular pattern at the top of the cupcake.

(There were also a variety of sprinkles and other toppings for us to use to decorate our cupcakes after we frosted them.)

Now, I’m hungry for more cupcakes!