Who You Callin' Cupcake - Michelle Garcia [17]
1 vanilla bean, scraped
Frosting
1 recipe Vanilla American Buttercream
Tres Leches
1 cup whole milk
1 cup condensed milk
1 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
HOW TO MAKE IT
Roasted Pineapple 1 Preheat the oven to 400°F. 2 Skin the pineapple, leaving it in one whole piece. 3 Heat up an oven-safe skillet and add the butter. Let the butter go past sizzling until it almost starts browning. 4 Place one side of the pineapple down on the pan and rotate it every 5 minutes until all sizes have browned a little. 5 Add the brown sugar and the scrapings from the vanilla bean to the pan. Let the sugar melt and the vanilla mingle in. 6 Transfer the whole skillet into the oven. Every few minutes, flip the pineapple and spoon the sugar syrup over the top. Take the pineapple out when it looks like caramel on the outside and is fluorescent yellow on the inside, about 20 minutes. 7 Let the pineapple cool and chop it into ½-inch cubes. Toss out the core in the middle—just cut around it.
Cupcakes 1 Prepare the Vanilla Bean Cupcakes according to the recipe directions.
Frosting 1 Prepare the Vanilla American Buttercream according to the recipe directions.
Tres Leches 1 In a medium bowl, combine the whole milk, condensed milk, and coconut milk, and add the cinnamon.
Put It All Together 1 Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream and place them in a dish with a lid. 2 Pour in the tres leches milk mixture, cover the cupcakes, and put them in the refrigerator. 3 The next day, spoon each cupcake into its own dish and sprinkle them with cubes of the roasted pineapple. NOTE: This recipe will make too much roasted pineapple—way more than you need—but there’s no reason to waste something so delicious. You can use it as a topping for ice cream or pizza, or just eat it by itself (that’s what I do).
FRESH HERB AND LEMON WITH GOAT CHEESE AND MICROGREENS
This cupcake makes me really happy. It’s sort of the culmination of the whole savory cupcake idea. I find that cupcakes like this work better as appetizers or intermezzos than as desserts, but I’d eat them no matter what. The secret to this one is that the goat cheese, the herbs, and the microgreens all need to be super fresh.
Cupcakes
1 cup goat cheese
1 recipe Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
(see note)
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme (see note)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Put It All Together
1 recipe Lemon Curd
1 cup microgreens
Frosting
1 recipe Vanilla American Buttercream
(page 27)
2 cups goat cheese
HOW TO MAKE IT
Cupcakes 1 Preheat the oven to 400°F. 2 Crumble the goat cheese onto a baking sheet and bake it until it’s browned and crunchy, about 10 minutes. Allow the goat cheese to cool. 3 Prepare the Vanilla Bean Cupcake batter according to the recipe directions. 4 Fold the baked goat cheese, rosemary, thyme, and lemon zest into the batter. 5 Bake the cupcakes according to the recipe directions.
Frosting 1 Prepare the Vanilla American Buttercream according to the recipe directions. 2 Soften the goat cheese in the microwave in 30-second intervals, just until it’s spreadable. 3 Mix the goat cheese into the buttercream with a rubber spatula until the frosting is smooth.
Put It All Together 1 Prepare the lemon curd according to the recipe directions. 2 With your index finger, poke holes through the cupcakes and fill them with the lemon curd. 3 Frost the cupcakes with the goat cheese buttercream and top them with the microgreens. NOTE: Instead of rosemary and thyme, you can substitute any seasonal fresh herbs you’d like.
LE MONGRASS
This cupcake sort of speaks for itself. It’s very simple, but when you do it right and extract as much flavor from the lemongrass as you can, it’s a real crowd pleaser.
Cupcakes
1 recipe Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
1½ cups Lemongrass Simple Syrup
(see below)
Lemongrass Simple Syrup
4 stalks lemongrass
6 cups water
4 cups sugar
Frosting
1 recipe extra-thick Vanilla American
Buttercream (page 27)
½ cup Lemongrass Simple Syrup (see below)
HOW TO MAKE IT
Lemongrass Simple Syrup 1 Cut down