Cooking with Us: e28: Ness's Chardonnay Cupcakes

Hi Gang!

Guess what?

If the title didn't tell you how awesome this is already,

you're in for a super-delicious treat!

My twin sister visited and we made her exceptionally awesome 

jam-filled chardonnay cupcakes with powdered sugar frosting!

Twinkies! And Cupcakes! ;D

Now, I know I am always telling you to watch the video high rez and full screen,

 but this time you really do have to! 

Why?

How could you miss out on our awesome opening song and dance number?

Or our cracking up in the middle?

Or Brigly in a top hat?

Need I say more?

I left the original image thumbnail youtube chose (I was planning to use the image above) because it was so darn cute!

After the break, the photo-recipe, recipe, and transcript.

As always, share and subscribe!

 

Seriously guys, how could you not watch the video? 

This still is from our opening number!

Vanessa's got talent!

 Nudge nudge, another still from the opening!

Ok, now onto the cupcakes!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 And buy a good vanilla cake mix.

This is a good look for me, don't you think?

 Gather your materials!

 (The back of the box will tell you what you need - but will be wrong about one thing!)

In Ness's super-special cupcakes, we substitute chardonnay for water.

As you can see, I was not pleased with that at all!

Mix all your ingredients together.

Doesn't our three-egg-crackin-action impress you?

While the kitchen-aid blends, line your cupcake tins with liners.

As you can see from my tongue, this requires much concentration.

When your batter is ready, spoon in three tablespoons of batter per cupcake wrapper.

Then put your lovely cupcakes into the oven for about seventeen minutes!

Now it's time to work on your frosting.

For this, start with three cups and three quarters of a cup of powdered sugar!

 Then add in one-third cup of room temperature butter.

 Now it's time to add your orange and vanilla extracts!

Ooopsie!

Added a little too much (a bit over half a teaspoon) orange extract, but they still turned out great!

Then we added a bit more than half a teaspoon vanilla extract as well.

Don't forget to check your cupcakes - and place them on a cooling rack when done!

At this point we realized that, even though we'd added in 

a tablespoon of chardonnay to our frosting...

That was the incorrect amount.

If this happens, just laugh it off.

"Our icing is a little on the dry side."

So go ahead and add in a third of a cup... you know... which you meant to do in the first place ;)

That's more like it!

Then let it mix for quite a while, and your frosting will look exactly like: Frosting!

What is Ness doing back there?

Now it's time to fill the cupcakes!

This is what the top of a cupcake looks like ;D

We used Bonne Maman blueberry preserves and four fruit preserves.

Wink at the camera while Ness teaches you how to cut a circle out of your cupcake.

Like so!

Then fill half your cupcakes with one preserve, and half with another.

Time for the icing!

Fill a ziplock bag with icing unless you're fancy and have a pastry bag!

Also, be sure to get icing on both your sister's hands!

Now, add that icing!

But only if you exclaim, "Ow!! I'm frostin'!"

I frosted some like this because I've never been a huge fan of frosting.

All in all, they were good both ways!

Finally - top with any decorations you want!

Then, you know, sing spontaneously about eating.

I chose to sample the four fruit cupcake first with minimal frosting.

I loved the tartness this particular preserve added to the sweetness of the cupcake.

One, two, three, go!

Eat with as much craziness as you feel is suitable.

Cheers with Wisconsin's own 'Organic Valley' milk!

Delicious!

I think Vanessa could easily be their spokes-model :)

Also, it's important to see the bisection of the cupcake...

As Theron swallows another one whole.

Then you know, randomness b/c we also made a cake with leftover batter ;D

Remember - always dance in the kitchen...

Always see your name in lights...

And be grateful when you have a dog that lets you put him in a top hat ;D

As always,
Enjoy! & Adios! :D
-Val!

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350

Cake Mix - We used Betty Crocker Super Moist Vanilla
(The cake mix will tell you what you need - basically 3 eggs, vegetable oil...)
and we used Chardonnay in place of the water.
I would recommend a chardonnay with a strong oaky flavor, or one you know that is super complex and not too light.
Blend together, put into cupcake tray lined with wrappers (three tablespoon fulls per cupcake) and put in oven for ~17 minutes.


Frosting
3 & 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp orange extract
a bit more than 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chardonnay

Blend till velvety

Fill not-yet-frosted cupcakes with jam (we love Bonne Maman! I preferred the Four Fruit Preserve but my sis loves the Blueberry Preserve in these!)

Frost your cupcakes, decorate as desired, and devour!

Transcript:
 
When I think about my life,
I see my name in flashing lights,
I don't know why no one else sees me that way.

Instead I sit at a PC,
and respond to emails infinitely,
but inside my head I'm dancing away!

Well don't you worry, that's not the case!
Definitely not today!

Let the crowds make a fuss!
Bienvenue, welcome to,

Kumocafe's
Cooking with Us!

Well as you might have guessed, you're in for a very special episode of Cooking with Us, because my twin sister's here!

Hi!

And she's gonna make for us, today...
Cupcakes!

So, we have all of our ingredients laid out here.

We have our cupcake mix, as you can see we're making this from scratch...
just kidding!

So this should be a very easy recipe to follow along with.

We're gonna be making our own frosting, so that's a slight twist as well. And then we're gonna be decorating it.

Preheating.
Can you tell me what temperature?

Hey Val, what does the recipe call for?

It calls for three eggs...
Ah...

It calls for half cup vegetable oil.
Oooh.

It calls for one cup water.
Oh.

Instead! We're gonna use chardonnay!

Val, what kind of chardonnay are we using?

Cupcake!
Oh, how appropriate!

Don't forget to add your wine...
Oh.

Voila.

Be comfortable with the fact that you're gonna make a mess...
and just start spooning it in.

Three tablespoons into each little cupcake.

Our messy cupcakes are going into the oven now.

So we're making powdered sugar frosting, it's really simple.

Uh, it's gonna be powdered sugar, butter, and some flavoring in the form of vanilla and orange extract.

So let's start by getting the powdered sugar opened and measured out.

We need three cups and then three quarters of a cup.

One third cup butter...
Yeah one third cup.

I believe in precision in the kitchen.
This looks like just about the right amount of butter.

So we're just gonna go ahead and squeeze it there, and knock it in.

Woo that's beautiful!

Oooh domesticated animal.

Yup.
Perfect.

Bam, Martha Stewart, what?!

This is our orange extract, we are gonna use just half a teaspoon of it, so it doesn't overpower the delicious, subtle vanilla flavor.

So there we go.
oops.
woo
ooops.

Now the vanilla...
I'll be a little bit more gentle.

Ok, so just a little bit over a tablespoon of the chardonnay...

It's not imparting a strong oaky chardonnay characteristic into the cupcakes that we just made...

Maybe we should have looked for oaky chardonnay when we were shopping...

Well we...
eh...
Live and learn.

A third cup.
Oh my God.
A third cup!

What!  You told me one tablespoon and I just listened!

No, because I didn't see it on here!
Here's our recipe - Ha!
The jig is up!

That didn't seem-
OK!
That didn't seem right.
That didn't seem right.

Our...

I remember thinking that there was a lot more chardonnay than that...

Our icing is on the...
No I need a hug!

Our icing's on the dry side.

Just a little!

Yeah...
So...
Let's go ahead and pour in a third of the cup...

And it looks like icing now!

Very yummy.

Alright, so now we're ready to fill our cupcakes.

Uh, we have a couple of preserves that we're gonna be using.

Val, how do you pronounce this?

Bonne Momma!

One is wild blueberry, and the other one is four fruit.

So we are just gonna slice a little circle, little cylinder essentially, in the cupcake...

And then, just pull it right out.

And you can throw those away or
You can eat them
you can eat them, like a smart person.

They're very fluffy.

Well, the cake mix also said super moist.

mm mm mm

So, take six and fill them with that, and I'll fill six with this.

This is where it all falls apart.

It's not literally gonna fall apart, right?

No, no, not literally.

We're gonna put our frosting in this bag, cut off a tiny tip here, and then try that...

Gonna get it on your hand...
Ah! I got it on the other hand!

All for the money...

Ahaha! Both hands!

Clearly... perfection.

Clearly we've done this before.
Clearly.

Ow!
I'm frostin'!

It's really runny.
You're putting too much.

Maybe just drizzle the frosting...
As if it were a strudel...

Hm?

That's kinda cool.
Kinda neat looking.

How nice do you want them to look?

I want tweezers!

Look it's a little kid's birthday party!

Pop.

Now for the best part of KumoCafe,
we get to eat the food we made!

This is the one I'm gonna try...
Four berry preserve, with just a little but of the um...
frosting...
cause it has a lot of oranges... stuff in it.

And I'm gonna try the blueberry one, even though I've tried that... before at home.

But not here.
But not here.

Not at KumoCafe headquarters!
That's true.

One, two, three, go!

I really really feel like the orange flavoring goes perfectly with the combo...
I will admit I did not like the orange frosting... previously.

But that's before it was whipped.

I think it's good.

It's good.

Hom...
You didn't...
Oh my God!

Hom...

Yayyy!

I like the raspberry more because it's tart.
It's like sweet-tart.
You know?

I haven't tried it yet.

We're having Wisconsin milk because we are in Sheboygan, Wisconsin today...

We are!

As, you know, the show usually is.

Ah...
So good.
Good.

Do you like the milk?
It's so good.
Isn't it like the best milk in the world?
It is. Yep.

Perfect to go with some of the best cupcakes in the world!

Thank you very much for joining us on this very special twin edition of Cooking with Us.

Where Nessy and I and Theron made really yummy cupcakes!

Cupcakes!

Bye!!

Or as you say in Texas...

Adios!

Exactly.

Huh!

KumoCafe's...
Cooking with Us!