Apple Spice Cupcakes

The Art.
   Every fall, Handsome and I go apple picking at a nearby fruit farm. It's one of my favorite traditions, partly because we get to enjoy the crisp fall weather in a beautiful orchard, and partly because it involves things I can eat. While we both love apple picking, the two of us certainly have very disparate approaches to it. Handsome will pick as many apples as he can fit in his paper bag regardless of whether we can eat them all, because he thinks it's a great deal. I, on the other hand, always have a recipe in mind before we go, and I will pick the exact number of apples I need for said recipe, no more, no less. I like to pick Granny Smith apples for baked goods because of their crisp texture and tart flavor. This year, I made apple-filled spice cupcakes, topped with a tangy buttermilk icing. I decorated the cupcakes like little apples themselves, with pretzel stick stems and mint leaves on top.

The Science.
    While I used food coloring to make my apple cupcakes red, the skin of real apples contains a pigment called anthocyanin that gives them their bright red color. The Sangrado apple variant produces anthocyanin in the flesh of its fruit as well, causing it to be red throughout. Researches have recently found that this color pattern is due to a whole genome duplication that occurred in the apples long ago, and created a second copy of the gene that regulates anthocyanin pigmentation [1]. In Sangrados, the extra gene has a slightly different sequence from the original, and this change causes it to be expressed in the apple flesh, and make it a beautiful red. On the other hand, Granny Smith apples have green skin and white flesh, because they do not contain any anthocyanin [2]. I guess you could say that they are the albinos of the apple world.




The Recipe.

Apple filling:
3 tablespoons salted butter
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

    Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add remaining ingredients. Stir occasionally until apples are soft and juices are concentrated and syrupy, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly in pan while making cake batter.


Spice Cake:
Recipe can be found here. Makes approximately 28 cupcakes.

    Preheat oven to 350^oF. With a 1/4 cup measure, spoon batter into cupcake tins with liners. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons apple filling on top of the batter, in the center of each cupcake. Bake for 20 minutes or until tester inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Buttermilk Icing:
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
6 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk

    In a large bowl, beat butter on medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add sugar while beating, then beat in buttermilk. Tint half the icing red and the other half green. I used Wilton Icing Colors Red and Burgundy for the red, and Kelly Green and Lemon Yellow for the green.

Decorating:
1 cup sugar, divided
Red and green food color
14 pretzel sticks
28 mint leaves

    To make the red and green sugar, place 1/2 cup sugar in each of two plastic sandwich bags. Add a few drops of either red or green food color and seal the bags shut. Massage the bags of sugar until the food color is distributed evenly. If needed, add more food color to get the desired color. Pour sugar into two saucers.
    Spread a dollop of icing onto each cupcake, making a high dome in the center and only a thin layer on the edges. Roll the cupcake in the corresponding colored sugar. If the icing has an uneven shape, you can reshape it on the saucer while you roll it. To make an indentation for the top of the apple, coat your finger in sugar and press the center of the icing down.

     For the apple stems and leaves, break the pretzel sticks in half and insert one half into the top of each cupcake. Gently press a mint leaf into the icing next to the pretzel. Store cupcakes in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three days.

  

1. Chagne, D. et al. "An ancient duplication of apple MYB transcription factors is responsible for novel red fruit-flesh phenotypes." Plant Physiology, 2012, 160:2 (October 24).
2. Takos, A. et al. "Light-Induced Expression of a MYB Gene Regulates Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Red Apples." Plant Physiology, 2006, 142:3 (November).

Fall Spice Cake with Bavarian Cream

The Art.
    I once believed this dessert was born out of serendipity, in that I had 6 egg yolks left over from the Blooming Rose Cupcakes the other day, which just so happens to be the number of egg yolks required to make Bavarian Cream. But just when I thought Fate was smiling down upon me, I had to go and make an entire post about troubleshooting the Bavarian cream and thus bought another dozen eggs. C'est la vie I suppose. Since autumn is upon us, I decided to pair the cream with a moist spice cake. Flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove, this cake combines all of my favorite fall spices. I didn't want to interfere with the harmony between the cake and the cream, so I refrained from making an icing for the cake. Instead, I dusted it with powdered sugar in a leaf pattern to celebrate the season.

The Science.
    This Bavarian cream is made by combining a rich custard with light whipped cream. I previously did some troubleshooting on the custard component, so today I'll talk about cream. Whipping up a fluffy, stable whipped cream can be challenging for many bakers, but if you understand the chemistry of whipping cream it can be a cinch. First, you must select the correct type of cream. Heavy whipping cream with 40% fat is ideal, since higher fat content results in stiffer whipped cream. Some manufacturers go the cheaper route, and instead supplement 30% fat with additives such as carageenan and polysorbate to make stiffer peaks [1]. However, additives just can't replace good old milk fat, and these don't perform as well as the 40% heavy cream. Also, be sure that your cream is pasturized, not ultrapasturized. Ultrapasturization degrades the milk proteins, making the whipped cream less stable [1].
    Second, cold temperature is your friend while making whipped cream. Milk fat consists of mostly saturated fatty acids, which have lipid tails that pack tightly together at cold temperatures [2]. Keeping cream as cold as possible while it's whipped causes the fat to have a thicker consistency, and thus the ability to hold more air than if it is warm. This results in a fluffier, more stable whipped cream. To make the best whipped cream, chill your beater blades and bowl in the freezer before you begin. Place your bowl inside an ice bath while you whip your cream, and make sure you are in a cool area of the kitchen, away from the oven.

The Recipe.

One batch of Bavarian cream, recipe found here. You'll have to plan ahead, because the custard needs to set overnight.

Spice Cake:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for dusting)

    Preheat oven to 350^oF. Coat a 9"x13" pan with baking spray. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a medim bowl, beat together vegetable oil, sugars, and eggs on medium speed. Beat in buttermilk. Add to dry mixture, and beat just until smooth. Pour batter into pan and bake on center rack 45 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool in pan.
    For this project, we want a nice, flat surface on top of our cake to dust our powdered sugar on. If your cake turns out "crowned," meaning it has risen more in the center than on the edges, it is simple to fix.

    Right when you take your cake out of the oven, lay a damp paper towel over the hot cake and gently press all over until the center is the same height as the edges. In the future, you can prevent crowning by wrapping strips of wet towel around the edges of your cake pan before you put it in the oven.

Leaf decorations:
    On a piece of cardstock, draw a leaf stencil approximately 3 inches square. Here is the pattern I used, it's a maple leaf that I drew. Of course, you can draw a much simpler leaf shape to make your life easier. Cut this leaf out and use it to trace 12 leaves.

     Cut your leaf patterns out and place them in a 4x3 grid pattern on top of the spice cake. Generously sift powdered sugar over the cake, until you can't see the surface of the cake. Very carefully lift leaves off of the cake, making sure not to drop powdered sugar back onto the surface.

    You now have 12 cake servings, each with a powdered sugar leaf on top. Do not cover the cake before serving, otherwise the collecting moisture will dissolve the powdered sugar decoration. Cut into squares and serve with a dollop of Bavarian cream. Enjoy by the fire with a hot cup of tea.

1. Galvin, Lori et al. Test Kitchen Favorites. Brookline, MA: America's Test Kitchen, 2006.
2. Larsen, M.K. et al. "Short communication: Within-day variation in fatty acid composition of milk from cows in an automatic milking system." Journal of Dairy Science, Available online 15 August 2012, ISSN 0022-0302, 10.3168/jds.2012-5815.