Nothing can top the drama of November's Cupcake of the Month: Marshmallow Turkey Cupcakes. December's Cupcake, while less dramatic, is significant in that it is the last of my Cupcakes of the Month and in some senses we have come full circle. You may recall that this all started when my friend Leah gave me Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat
for Hanukkah/Christmas/Solstice/Kwanzaa/New Year 2009. My goal for 2010 was to post once a month about my experience baking a recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I felt like I needed some sort of structure and deadline to keep me on the blog and in the kitchen while I was otherwise occupied with the wee bairn. Said wee bairn just turned one. Fittingly, I made these cupcakes for her birthday.
Technically, the recipe calls for 24 Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes, but if you recall from October's Cupcake of the Month: Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes, the cupcake recipe says it yields 36, but I only squeaked by with 30. My intention back in November (when I made October's Cupcake of the Month), was to freeze half of the cupcakes for use in this recipe. So instead of 24 cupcakes, I was supposed to have 18 cupcakes, but then it was really 15 cupcakes. Then, you may recall, our dogs ate most of the cupcakes as they were cooling on the dining room table. That left 13 cupcakes. Then due to unexpected visitors . . . I wasn't able to do the fancy frosting presentation until we'd eaten almost all the cupcakes. So in the end, there were 3 cupcakes properly decorated as Cookie Monogram Cupcakes.
Actually I made the Swiss Meringue Buttercream ahead of time as well. I made a double batch when I made the fateful November's Cupcake of the Month: Marshmallow Turkey Cupcakes. Then, as indicated at the end of the recipe, I froze half of it in an airtight container until I needed it. Then I thawed it out and put it in the mixer with a paddle attachment on low for five minutes before scooping into my piping bag. That worked out very well. I used the same tip, Magic Tip 1F, as I used for May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes to apply the Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Why lavender for the royal icing on the cookies? Because it was left over from July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes. I kinda wish I had made the royal icing with water spiked with lavender because the cookies were bland and I really liked the lavender in the Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes. But even vanilla might have been an improvement. I haven't tried it though, so it might go horribly wrong.
For Hanukkah/Christmas/Solstice/Kwanzaa/New Year 2010 my friend Leah gave me Eleni's Taste of New York Holiday cookies.
Eleni's is known for its amazing use of royal icing.
Eleni's makes it look easy. It is not easy. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed. Maybe I shouldn't have worked standing up at the counter. I don't know. But I could not manage to outline each cookie and letter cut out successfully. Either the frosting dripped off the edge or wasn't parallel with the edge. So where Eleni's can use royal icing to make magic, I can barely get one color onto one cookie neatly. I am humbled . . . and totally inspired to play with royal icing in the future . . . maybe even flavored royal icing.
Another problem with icing the cookies, I followed the instructions too literally. The instructions say Pipe icing to outline each cookie and then outline letter cut out. Fill in with a thin layer of icing, using a toothpick to spread evenly.
But if you outline each cookie and each letter cut out on every single cookie before you fill in with a thin layer of icing, the icing looks uneven. You can see it in the cookie hiding in the back of the above picture . . . and that was the third best cookie out of 24. You have to totally finish both outlining and filling on one cookie before moving to the next cookie for the frosting to be smooth. I revised the instructions accordingly. In return for that tip, please post a comment with your suggestions for how to pipe icing outlines more neatly.
Cookie Monogram Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat
Ingredients:
Procedure:
1. Tint royal icing with gel-paste food color. Transfer icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip (#3), pressing out air and sealing top of band with a rubber band to keep icing from drying out. Pipe icing to outline one cookie and then outline its letter cut out. Immediately fill in with a thin layer of icing, using a toothpick to spread evenly. Repeat for each cookie. Let stand until icing is set, at least 3 hours (or overnight).
3. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a Magic Tip 1F with buttercream, and pipe in a spiral pattern onto each cupcake, starting at the edges and ending with a peak in the center. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature, and place one iced letter cookie upright in the buttercream on each cupcake before serving.
Sugar Cookie Cutouts adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat
The recipe in the book says it yields 4 dozen 2-inch cookies, which is twice as many as you'd need if you made 24 cupcakes, so I halved the recipe for you. This makes well over 24 cookies.
Ingredients
- 2 C sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 C sugar
- 1 large eggs
- 1 t pure vanilla extract
Procedure
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until just combined.
2. Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or overnight). Dough can be frozen, wrapped tightly in plastic and placed in a resealable bag, up to 3 months; thaw overnight in refrigerator before using.
3. Let dough stand at room temperature until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to just under 1/4 inch thick, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking. Use 2-inch cookie cutters to cut out 12 rounds and 1 1/2-inch cookies cutters to cut out another 12 rounds. Reroll scraps and cut out more rounds as needed. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Use mini letter-shaped cookie cutters to cut out letters from centers of rounds (if dough begins to soften, chill in freezer 5 minutes). Brush off excess flour. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
5. Bake until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes, firmly tapping down sheets once and rotating them halfway through. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks before decorating. Cookies can be stored up to 1 week at room temperature in an airtight container.
Royal (Pain in My) Icing adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat
Ingredients
- 1 lb. (4 C) confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 1/4 C plus 1 T meringue powder (or powdered egg whites)
- Scant 1/2 C water, plus more as needed
Procedure
1. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat all ingredients until smooth, about 7 minutes. If icing is too thick, add more water, a little at a time, beating until icing holds a ribbon on the surface for a few seconds when beater is lifted. If icing is too thin, continue mixing 2 to 3 minutes more.
Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes
July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes
August's Cupcake of the Month: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
September's Cupcake of the Month: Devil's Food Cupcakes
October's Cupcake of the Month: Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes
November's Cupcake of the Month: Marshmallow Turkey Cupcakes
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. And as a year of baking his cookies has demonstrated, his recipes are well written and yummy, to boot. Now that I've read his bio on Amazon, I like him even more. Ooo . . . and he and Bruce have a book on pizza: 
. . . .
. Having made a version of 
- These were a surprise run away hit. The lime and saffron marinade was amazing. I followed the suggestion in the preamble to the recipe to alternate little pieces of raw bacon with each lamb chunk as a substitute for lamb tail fat . . . a story sure to nauseate your vegan guests.
- This is more of a spread than a dip. If you really want to use chips to scoop this stuff, thin it down with some cream or whatnot.
