An eclectic weekend of cupcake flavors!

This weekend's flavours is a little of bit of this and that. There is no real overall theme. But I must say that the process was a lot more complicated than the previous flavours. I was originally going with Smores and Lamington but I wanted an easier weekend so I went with the following:

• Chocolate Cinnamon
• Princess
• Boston Cream

The first one was easy enough. But the next two kind of drove me a little nuts. For Princess cupcakes, I had to find marzipan. It is basically almond paste and moldable. People can use marzipan to make little figures. Kind of like what you can use hard fondant for. Grocery stores do not sell this. Suffice to say you can only find it at specialty cooking stores. Good thing there is one right in my neighbourhood. But it took a trip to Wal-mart, Safeway, a local organic store and a 24 hours store before I realize it's a specialty item and finally went to Gourmet Warehouse.

I'm not a fan of putting things inside cupcakes. I find the whole process a bit cumbersome. It's okay if I drill a whole down the middle and pipe some cream of jelly inside, but when I have a slice it in half and put jam then a piece of marzipan or put custard in it, it gets a little tricky. This also means I can't use a cupcake liner :( And I love cupcake liners!

 The baking process is simple enough.

 The assembly is a bit of a pain. But this is when the apricot jelly was added.

 You'll see a thin slice of white between the cupcake halves - it looks like cheese but it's just sliced up marzipan.

On the other hand, although I didn't enjoy the process of making the Boston Cream cupcakes, I thought it was delicious! It kind of reminds me of a eclairs and I love eclairs! I also really liked the custard recipe - it tastes really good. And I guess after assembling it and putting the chocolate glaze on top, it doesn't look too bad. Of all the cupcake flavours this week, this is my favourite.

 I admit, I was more interested in taking pictures of the process of making the custard then the cupcake :P

No egg whites were used in this process. The mixture thickens up as you heat it over medium heat. 

 

 Then I add in the vanilla extract. It must be cooled over ice, while still stirring. And finally add a bit more whipping cream. 

  Boston Cream Cupcakes - looks like eclair cupcakes!

Chocolate Cinnamon was very simple. It doesn't use butter so the top is hard when it came out. I guess it's the sugar that makes it hard without the butter to soften it. There's coffee in it as well. I like it. It's simple and cute (and I can use cupcake liners!).

 

I love the colours of the powder - cinnamon, cocoa, baking soda, flour. Second picture is after adding the coffee. 

  The difference in the pictures is not only the distance but the second picture has semi-sweet chocolate chips as well!

I love this colour icing on the chocolate cupcake. It's very pretty!