Cupcake Wars Theme: Harry Potter
So… Cupcake Wars…. When we decided to do this, I started looking up anything and everything about the show. I then came to realize that more than likely they knew the theme and mystery ingredients ahead of the show. Practice was happening. We decided if they get to practice, we get to practice.
Also like the show, we will have a theme to go with our “show day”. We also plan on having 3 – 4 judges (family and friends) to give us feedback on our cupcakes and finishing everything in those crazy time limits!
Our theme for our cupcake wars this time is… Harry Potter. I love Harry Potter and she likes Harry Potter, so we are going for it. In case anyone is wondering I’m a Gryffindor and she is a Hufflepuff.
Since we are doing Harry Potter we are going with a fall feel. Apples work great for that and decided to try an Apple Streusel Cupcake. I realize now, I probably should have taken more pictures… but hindsight is 20/20. I will in the future, but probably not for a few posts.
We started out thinking we had everything. Started our time and came to realize… we didn’t… we didn’t have a lot of the stuff we needed, including cupcake pans. So off to the store we went. 20 minutes later… we were back and decided we were going to start the time over again.
In my defense on the cupcake pans… I have jumbo, I have muffin top, I have mini, I have Easter and Halloween, who would have thought I lost my regular pans.
Now, the recipe we used is adapted from the Joy of Baking Website and can be found here. We also thought, psh… 45 minutes is plenty of time to make a batch of cupcakes. We took our time, we chatted, we worked on the batter together and finally looked at the clock and realized… OMG it’s been 40 minutes and we haven’t even gotten the cupcakes in the oven. These things need to bake for at least 20 minutes. Yup, we failed in time and realized next time one has to do the topping and the other has to do the batter.
The results:
The cupcake itself was delicious. Moist and full of apples. The streusel topping however tasted of gluten free flour, as what happens so much in gluten free baking. You had to spit it out, it was so gross. We do not have that perfected yet, so I’m leaving that off the recipe below. But if you are looking for a great apple cupcake, this is wonderful.
Apple Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
- 1 teaspoon Gluten-Free baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup Stevia (this is the sugar substitute I like, it seems to work the best in baking)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup soy milk (can use regular, I am lactose intolerant and like soy as my substitute)
- 2 large firm apples (I use Gala, but any work)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners (makes about 15 – 18 cupcakes)
- In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Cut apples into tiny bite size cubes. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer (using paddle attachment) or a large bowl and hand mixer, beat butter until creamy smooth (about 2 minutes).
- Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated
- Take the flour mixture and the milk and alternate between the to starting and ending with the flour mixture. (3 flour and 2 milk), beat after each addition until just incorporated
- Fold in apples until they are all mixed into the batter.
- Take batter and fill cupcake liners until they are 2/3rds full.
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Due to the apples inside the batter, this does take longer than normal cupcakes.
- Enjoy.
Tune in next week… as we plan on doing Bacon Maple.
