I mean, seriously, who in their right mind would put banana peppers and brandy into a cupcake mix??? It's incredible!
It leads me to always contemplate the proffered ingredients from the contests compared to what's in my own kitchen. I don't have brandy. Perhaps I could use the Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat in the fridge?
However, there is something powerful to be said for the simple flavors. This week a friend of ours had a housewarming party. Of course I decided to make cupcakes but I wasn't familiar with the crowd that would be at the little backyard BBQ so I chose a simple concept.
Vanilla cupcakes, apricot jam filling, and.... brown sugar dusting instead of frosting! Sounds perfect.
While the cupcakes rested in the pan prior to removing them to cool, I sifted the lumps out of the brown sugar. The little rock solid bits just had no place here. As I snapped the picture for the blog, I was inspired to allow the natural heat of the cupcake to meld the cake and brown sugar. My concern with a dusting technique was that the brown sugar wouldn't stick. But if the cake were still warm....
A couple cakes in and I realized the true power behind this technique: the scent of caramel caressed me as I swirled a warm cupcake in the brown sugar. That scent and flavor should be infusing the vanilla cake. This was going to be fabulous with the apricot jam!
I decided the jam would add to my styling of the cakes so I made three entry points for the filling and left dollops visible. Perfect and lovely!
Imagine my surprise to make it through an entire session in the kitchen without incident. My boys (yes, the cats) were a bit disappointed and had wandered off to find a window and do some bird watching. I had no idea the catastrophe was yet to come...
Twenty minutes into the housewarming BBQ, I wandered into the kitchen to enjoy another peek at the granite counter tops while I got a glass of wine. I turned to notice that my cupcake tupperware had become a display; not for my cupcakes but for chips and dip. Hmm, quinoa and corn dip with flax crackers.
I shrugged it off until, just before bratwursts were done, I overheard a conversation near the table of cupcake-displayed quinoa dip now accompanied by homemade spicy hummus. The topic was the guests discussing how long each of them had been gluten-free. I glanced out towards the yard and then back to the kitchen. Most of the BBQ guests were in this conversation.
I had brought cupcakes to a party of gluten-free, new-age hippies.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu---dge.
The cupcakes were fantastic, by the way... Trust me, my family has eaten the whole batch in the last two days. The brown sugar had caramelized the tops of the cakes wonderfully and helped keep the cake very moist.
TIP: Be careful when handling hot cupcakes as the cake is still pliable. You can end up with compressions and indentations in the cake where you may have held too firmly.
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