Sunday, February 17, 2008

Scraping the Bean


The lure of baking products is always high for me, from intricate cake pans to gadgets and extracts. I generally manage to control my spending and buy just a few things at a time. This weekend I picked up a "vial" of bourbon vanilla beans and decided to make some vanilla bean cupcakes, topped off with cherry blossoms I made out of gum paste.

I've admired Cake Journal's cupcakes covered with poured fondant, and since she gives such a great tutorial on the process, I decided to give it a try. I used Chockylit's basic vanilla cupcake recipe, with the addition of my vanilla bean and a little extra vanilla extract to give them a little more vanilla-y oomph, and used the following pour fondant recipe (although there are a lot of variations out there):

Pour Fondant
1/4 c water
1/8 c light corn syrup
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
Combine the water and corn syrup in a sauce pan and heat over medium/medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Whisk in powdered sugar, cup by cup, until mixture is smooth. Add food coloring if desired.

If making a large batch of cupcakes I would double or triple the recipe (I made a small batch because I only baked up a dozen cupcakes).


These were an amazing sugary treat for a Sunday afternoon, and I would definitely give this a try again. I think the trick to the fondant is getting the right temperature and consistency. Amazingly, one kitchen gadget I haven't purchased (but is next on the list) is a candy thermometer, which will help me pinpoint correct temperature. At the right temperature I think it will be easier to cover the cupcakes more evenly.

Oh, if only I weren't on a diet...
Check out my review of bourbon vanilla beans on Sazze.com!

7 comments:

Ginny said...

You made it on tastespotting again! I understand...you should be very proud of yourself. The cupcakes are adorable and yummy!

skoraq cooks said...

They look sooooo cute. And they look sooooo tastespotting ;-)I guess they are also delicious!

Tracy said...

Those look awesome! I'll have to try that.

Oh yeah, I tagged you for a meme. Do it if you wish...

Emily said...

Tastespotting. Yay!

Those are so cute and purty with the cherry blossomes. For President's Day! I get it.

I'm going to try that fondant. I'm not sure how long you let it cook, but I'll just guess.

Laura said...

Thanks all! Thankfullly the boyfriend took the remaining cupcakes to some friends so I'm not tempted anymore :)

Tracy - I had never heard of a "meme" (I'm new to this whole thing!)...definitely will check it out.

Emiline - If you google around you can find recipes where they give you more specifics on temperatures. I, however, decided to wing it and it turned out fine - as soon as it started to boil I just pulled it off the heat.

Karen said...

Beautiful little cupcakes! I love the look of the poured fondant.
http://www.dobetter.wordpress.com

Gretchen Noelle said...

Super cute cupcakes!d