Iron cupcake earth: cranberry cupcake petits fours glacés

For my first round of Iron Cupcake, I felt inspired to try something a little different. It seemed like a good idea, but it turned out to be an Iron Cupcake failure. I think, however, with a different recipe and quite a bit more practice, it could be a really good thing.

I based my cupcake recipe off of Shmooed Food's Fluffy White Cupcakes.

I changed a bit of the ingredients and the amount, and I only came up with 18 cupcakes (instead of the original recipe's 22). Here is what I did:

Light Almond Cupcakes:
scant 1 cup vanilla almond milk
6 oz plain soy yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar (evaporated cane juice)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line or spray a cupcake tin for 18 cupcakes.

Pour the lemon juice into the cup measuring cup and then fill the rest of the way with the almond milk. Mix together in a bowl with soy yogurt and set aside.

Mix together all the dry ingredients and stir well to combine.

Add oil, vanilla, and almond extracts to milk/yogurt mixture.

Add wet mixture to dry and stir with a fork. Stir just until everything is well combined, and then divide the batter between the prepared cupcake tins. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I ate one (or two) before trying to turn them into petit fours, and they were delicious. They were really light and fluffy (maybe I've become too accustomed to whole grain baked goods), and although that isn't the best textured cake for a petit four, I decided to continue anyway.

I refrigerated the cooled cucpakes, sliced them in half horizontally, and filled them with my Port Cranberry Sauce.


Port Cranberry Sauce:
about 12 oz cranberries
1/2 cup ruby port
1/2 cup sugar sugar

Put everything in a saucepan on the stove. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and simmer for about 25 minutes, until it reaches your desired consistency. If necessary, add more port or cook for longer to adjust.

I also used the Port Cranberry Sauce to coat the sides of the cupcake.


Finally, I tried this poured fondant recipe to top the cupcakes.

That was the big mistake. I was trying to make things easier for myself by not having to grind massive amounts of my sugar into powered sugar (per all the other poured fondant recipes I'd seen). So, I got out my candy thermometer and got to it.

I should have never tried to blend the mixture. Perhaps I heated it too much (past the soft ball stage), because even though I have a really good blender, it wasn't working well. I added some of the leftover cranberry sauce, and still, the blender was having a difficult time. As you can see from the picture, it isn't a pretty sight.

Things I would change:
-make mini cupcakes instead (or, really, just make cake and cut it the real way)
-use a denser cake recipe
-blend my jam so there are no cranberry chunks
-use a different poured fondant recipe

Despite all these problems, I feel like I've learned a few things, and at least I'm not completely discouraged. Next month I'll start a little early, and hopefully have something that looks a little better.