Who You Callin' Cupcake - Michelle Garcia [6]
4 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon fleur de sel or sea salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups heavy cream
HOW TO MAKE IT
1 Put the sugar in a very clean, hard-bottomed soup pot (if your pot isn’t clean, the sugar will crystallize and you’ll have chunky caramel) over medium heat. It’s human nature to want to touch and play with things, but try really hard to restrain yourself. Only stir this sugar once, with a wooden spoon, to make sure it’s browning evenly. Then leave it alone. 2 Allow the caramel to cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, until it reaches your desired color—the longer you cook it, the darker and more bitter it’ll get. 3 Once the sugar is colored evenly and completely melted, take it off the heat and stir in the salt and butter until melted. 4 Microwave the cream to a warm room temperature for about 2 minutes on high power and slowly pour it into the sugar while whisking. BE CAREFUL! Caramel bites back. It’ll heat the cream very fast and a very hot steam will come off the top. Wear oven mitts or have superfast reflexes. 5 Cool the caramel in the pot—it will melt anything else.
NOTE: If you refrigerate the caramel, just microwave it on high power in 1-minute intervals, stirring between each heating, to bring it back to a workable consistency.
YIELD: 4 cups
KEEPS: In an airtight container for 24 hours at room temperature, or a week in the fridge
CHOCOLATE CIGARETTES
Chocolate work always seems scary to people, but it doesn’t have to. These decorations are quick and fun and can accent any cupcake or cake. Just remember that temperature is everything.
2 pounds dark chocolate with a high cocoa
content (72% is perfect), divided
HOW TO MAKE IT
1 To temper the chocolate, ensuring that it’ll be shiny and hold its shape, slowly melt 1 pound of the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time. 2 Once it’s all melted, start stirring in cool chocolate pieces to slowly bring the temperature down so the chocolate is in a cool liquid state. This is called seeding. The easiest way to see if your chocolate is tempered is to put a little bit on the middle of your bottom lip. Once it feels cool, it’s ready. 3 On a marble slab, drizzle several lines of chocolate about 12 inches long and spread them thinly with an offset spatula so they’re about 3 inches wide. Wait for the chocolate to cool, but don’t wait until it’s so cool that it has completely hardened to the marble. 4 Using a metal bench scraper or a palette knife, start quickly making your cigarettes. Place the scraper about an inch from the edge of the chocolate and quickly push sideways so the chocolate rolls into cigarette shapes. 5 Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have enough cigarettes for your cupcakes.
HOW TO MAKE IT CHOCOLATE CURLS
1 Temper the chocolate like you would to make Chocolate Cigarettes, according to steps 1 and 2, above. 2 Instead of drizzling the tempered chocolate on a marble slab, as above, pour the chocolate onto the back of a clean cookie sheet and spread it in a thin layer with an offset spatula. 3 When the chocolate starts to cool, but is still a bit malleable, hold a circular cookie cutter at a 45-degree angle and drag it along the cookie sheet to make big curls, about 1½ inches wide. You’ll need to do this fast or you’ll have to re-seed your chocolate. YIELD: 12 cigarettes
KEEPS: Uncovered at room temperature, or in a plastic container in the freezer, but not in the fridge, or they’ll condensate
CHOCOLATE SAUCE
Like most basic recipes, this chocolate sauce is multipurpose. Not only can you use it in some pretty amazing cupcakes, you can also use it in mochas and hot chocolates.
2 cups cocoa powder, extra brute (no sugar
added, please)
1¼ cups water
2 tablespoons agave syrup
HOW TO MAKE IT
1 Place the cocoa powder,