Cupcake

You will likely make these cupcakes again and again, varying the frosting (say, dark chocolate, page 302) and sprinkles (sparkly, multicolored, or otherwise) to suit your whim or fancy. Two types of flour contribute to the cupcakes’ singular texture: Cake flour makes for a delicate crumb, while all-purpose flour keeps them from being too tender.

Fanciful peaks in a spectrum of shades crown cupcakes with a motif inspired by a vintage Russian cookbook. You could also opt to use just one color of frosting, or leave it untinted. White cupcakes, made with egg whites only (instead of whole eggs), are very light and delicate. For a stronger vanilla flavor, scrape the seeds of one vanilla bean (halved lengthwise) into the milk in step one, and omit vanilla extract.

Make your own sweet garden with an array of cupcakes in bloom. One batch of Swiss meringue buttercream (page 304) is enough to decorate two dozen cupcakes, including the piped flower versions. See Sources, page 342, for where to find the tools and candies used below.

A well-loved American layer cake is scaled down to cupcake form. Golden raisins give these cakes added texture, but you can omit them. You can also add one cup walnuts or pecans; toast them as directed on page 323, let cool, then finely chop before stirring into the batter at the end, after the flour mixture. Unfrosted carrot cupcakes make delicious snacks.

Mint-infused milk, along with mint extract, adds flavor (but not color) to pale buttercream; the dark chocolate cupcakes are also flavored with mint. A cluster of chocolate mint leaves on top suggests the primary flavor component of the finished treat. The leaves may admittedly not be an “any day” endeavor, but they can be prepared a day or so in advance. You can, of course, serve the cupcakes without any topping other than the frosting, or garnish them with a few chocolate curls (see page 323) shaved from a mint-flavored bar.

Spell out a birthday wish—or whatever your celebration calls for—with homemade dot letters on a big bunch of cupcakes. The colorful letters (and numbers) are made of tinted royal icing piped onto parchment paper and allowed to harden before they’re placed atop the cupcakes. To save time on the day of the party, pipe the decorations the day before.

Kids of all ages are bound to adore white cupcakes studded with chocolate morsels. Whipped egg whites folded into the batter produce a light and airy crumb. Tossing the chocolate chips with a bit of flour helps ensure they will be distributed throughout, rather than sink to the bottoms as they bake. The chocolate frosting is so rich and satiny, you’ll want to pair it with other cupcakes in this book, especially yellow buttermilk (page 26) and devil’s food (page 34).

These beautiful piped-flower cupcakes seem to have been just been picked from a spring garden. They may look intimidating, but with a bit of practice (on parchment paper), you should be able to produce the piped designs with relative ease. Stems can be trickier than they appear, so be sure to also try out a few of these; pipe too quickly and the stems break, too slowly, and they won’t be straight. (Any breaks may be filled in with more buttercream.) Before piping onto cupcakes, lightly mark the pattern on the frosting with a skewer or toothpick. When piping, use your writing hand to hold and squeeze the bag near the top and your other hand to steady and steer the tip.

This recipe is used to make the brownie hearts on page 213; some of the batter is baked in muffin tins, the rest in an 8-inch pan for cutting into heart-shaped toppers.

Pastel-colored gelato is used to top mini cupcakes, but you can substitute sorbet or ice cream. The one-bowl vanilla cupcakes are baked in paper nut cups, available at craft-supply stores (see Sources, page 342), or you can use mini muffin tins lined with paper liners. For an authentic Italian touch, serve with small plastic ice-cream spoons.

There’s nothing to fear from these stealthy sharks, whose paper fins peek out from waves of blue buttercream. Alongside is a cupcake made to resemble a sandy dune, with graham-cracker crumbs and a paper parasol.

Cheery marzipan ladybugs nestled in a piped buttercream lawn make adorable cupcakes. Once you get the hang of piping the frosting into blades of grass, the work moves very quickly; meanwhile, you can enlist children to help form the bugs.

We serve a lot of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. People love the moist cake with the creamy frosting—and, from our informal polling, our customers prefer their carrot cake without raisins or nuts and with lots of cream cheese frosting!

This Rocky Road Cupcake has a surprising marshmallow center that provides a yin-and-yang contrast to the dense chocolate icing. For a more daring, sweet-and-salty version, try using chopped Smokehouse almonds instead of the traditional toasted ones, or top the cupcakes with chopped salted peanuts. Once you’re comfortable with the technique of filling a cupcake, you can use other fillings, such as chocolate mousse, Nutella, fruit curd, or a favorite custard, to create other flavors.

Mini cupcakes are a chic, modern-day petit four; they have become a favorite for cocktail party desserts. Although they look equally elegant passed on a tray or displayed on a table, they are more whimsical and less stuffy than traditional options, such as mini fruit tarts or truffles. At Tribeca Treats, the flavor combination of s’mores is one of our most popular: The fluffy Marshmallow Icing perfectly balances the dark chocolate cake. You can also substitute sweetened white coconut for the graham cracker crumbs and you have another great classic treat, the “Snowball.”

This is another great example of turning the flavors you like from a raditional dessert into a more modern form. Imagine the elements of tiramisù—ladyfingers, ricotta pastry cream, cinnamon, and coffee liqueur—and figure out the components of a cupcake that will best match up with those flavors. Then, voilà!, you have a new kind of cupcake. We assemble this cupcake without alcohol, but feel free to substitute Kahlúa or another coffee liqueur for the espresso (or in addition to the espresso) to give this dessert an extra punch.

Peanut Butter and Jelly is by far one of our most-asked-for cupcake flavors at the bakery. The Peanut Butter Icing is fairly thick, and it has a rich, intense peanut butter flavor, so a slightly tart jelly, such as raspberry, helps cut the richness. The composition is reminiscent of childhood’s favorite sandwich, but it has a sweeter edge to it. The Peanut Butter Icing also tastes great with Devil’s Food Cake (page 98) or as a filling for Sandwich Cookies (page 58).