This Can Happen When You Have a Toddler Who Loves Dumplings

My three year old, Myles, doesn't just request dumplings.  After reading "Yum Yum Dim Sum", he now requests them by name. 

Ginger Pear Cupcakes with Miso Salted Caramel

The crystallized ginger on top of these cupcakes was a last minute addition.  However, it rounded out the flavor of these ginger pear cupcakes with miso caramel glaze so well that I'm listing it as a required ingredient - not an optional topping.  My food stylist/photographer husband put the candied ginger in a little nest for aesthetics, but I'd recommend spreading it out so that you get a little piece of it in each bite for the optimal eating experience.  That way, each mouthful will fill you with buttery yellow cake, fragrant and juicy pear, oozey sweet and salty caramel, and sharp, spicy ginger - cupcake nirvana.

Black Thai Cupcakes

Each year, Scharffen Berger chocolate sponsors The Chocolate Adventure Contest where, for a chance at $10,000, entrants are challenged to come up with a recipe featuring Scharffen Berger chocolate and any number of items from a list of "adventure ingredients."  It's like a chocolate Iron Chef!

Previous years' contests have allowed participants to make any kind of dish (I, of course, entered a cupcake last year anyway), but this year's contest is all about cupcakes!  The entry period ends on Jan. 2 and you know that I'll be playing - I hope you do, too!

Be sure that you are a Cupcake Project Facebook fan because I've got a giveaway coming up there exclusively that may inspire your entry.

My Chocolate Adventure Contest entry last year was Black Thai cupcakes - black bottom cupcakes with Thai spices like coconut and pandan (the Asian vanilla) and a little kick from smoked paprika and smoked sea salt.  The cupcakes also contain black-eyed peas, but the peas don't affect the flavor; they just provide a moist texture (like baking with applesauce).

As you can see from the photo above, instead of baking the cupcakes in a cupcake liner, I baked them in a banana leaf!  Whether or not you try my exact recipe (I recognize that gathering all of these ingredients might be difficult), I highly recommend trying out baking in banana leaves. Banana leaves make for a striking, exotic presentation.  If you can't find them at a grocer near you, you can buy banana leaves online. 

Chinese New Year Cupcakes - Nian Gao

Sure, Chinese New Year Cupcakes are not the traditional dessert to celebrate the Chinese New Year, but the cake that I turned into cupcakes, nian gao, is. It's a sticky, glutinous cake that is filled with red bean paste. To make it more cupcake-like, I frosted the cupcakes with a red bean buttercream frosting.

Chinese New Year Cupcake Tasting Notes

You have to be a fan of Chinese cakes to like these Chinese New Year Cupcakes. Jonathan felt that these cupcakes tasted just like the sticky buns filled with red bean paste that you can get at dim sum. Since he loves those, he loved these cupcakes. If you are expecting anything with any kind of a crumb, this is not the cake for you.

Because the Chinese New Year cupcakes are so sticky, I would make one change if I were to make them again. Although I don't typically bake in silicone cupcake wrappers, I think I would opt for silicone for these cupcakes - way too much of the cupcake stuck to the wrapper. If you don't have silicone wrappers, you might also try spraying the inside of paper wrappers with a non-stick spray before pouring the batter in.

The Chinese New Year Cupcake (Nian Gao) Recipe

I got the recipe for the Nian Gao from Asian Eats. The traditional recipe is steamed, but the recipe on Asian Eats has been modified to a baked version. Below is that recipe from Asian Eats modified to cupcake form. After the recipe text, I have some step-by-step photos.

Makes about 24 cupcakes

• 1 lb (500 g) glutinous rice flour (I found this at an international supermarket. The flour came in a 1 lb bag, which made it easy.)
• 2 1/2 C milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 C vegetable oil
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1/2 C (15 oz) red bean paste (I also found this at an international supermarket. They were out of the can, though, so I bought a bag of it from the refrigerated section. The clerk told me that it was the Japanese version of red bean paste, but that it would work just as well.)

1. Combine all ingredients except red bean paste.
2. Beat with beater, mixing well.
3. Fill cupcake liners 1/3 full. (As noted above, I would recommend silicone liners or paper liners sprayed with a non-stick spray.)
   
4. Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes or until just set.
5. Remove pan from the oven and put spoonfuls of red bean paste all over the baked batter. This doesn't need to look pretty, as you'll see when you get to my step-by-step photos below.
   
6. Pour the remaining batter on top of the red bean paste, filling cupcake liners to the very top.
7. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until top bounces back when touched.
   

Here I am filling the cupcake liners.
Note that the batter is much runnier than typical American cake batter.

Here, I have globbed on the red bean paste.
You can see that I made no effort to make it look like anything other than a paste turd.

When I said to fill the batter to the very top, I meant it.

The Red Bean Buttercream Frosting

The red bean buttercream frosting is a Cupcake Project original recipe. I wanted something that used the flavor of the red beans, but also had a buttercream feel to it. This did the trick!

• 1/2 C butter, room temperature
• 1 C red bean paste, room temperature
• 1 C powdered sugar, sifted

1. Beat all ingredients. (That's it!)
   

About the Ox

Astute readers, such as my Seattle friend who was there when the stuffed animal was purchased, may recognize that the "ox" in the photo at the top of the post is actually a Texas longhorn bull.

As it turns out, oxen are simply castrated bulls so I figured that the stuffed animal would do the trick. I think that my stuffed Longhorn is, in fact, an ox because I could find no male body parts whatsoever on it.

But, for the purists out there, I leave you with some real oxen to bring in the new year.

Steamed Salted Caramel Cupcakes, or Salted Apam Gula Hangus, or Werther's Original Cupcakes: How to Make Cupcakes in a Steamer

Q: What do you do if your oven is broken and you need to make cupcakes?

A: Steam cupcakes, of course.

My oven was not broken, however I decided that it would be fun to try to make cupcakes in the steamer. For those who might be interested in trying alternative ways of making cupcakes, I present to you my report on reasons to and reasons not to make cupcakes in the steamer:

Advantages of Making Cupcakes in the Steamer

1. Steamed cupcakes have a nice, spongy texture.

2. If your entire oven is in use (or you don't have a working oven), you can still make cupcakes.

Disadvantages of Making Cupcakes in the Steamer

1. Unless you have a giant commercial steamer, you can only make four cupcakes at a time. Note: I told Bride and Groom 2.0 that I will not be making steamed cupcakes for their wedding. It would take forever!

2. Because the cupcakes are not in a cupcake tin, they spread out and don't have as nice of a shape.

Verdict: To Steam or Not To Steam, That is the Question

I do not plan on steaming cupcakes again. It could happen, but it just doesn't seem worth the effort. If you have steamed cupcakes or have any good reasons why you would steam cupcakes, please let me know in the comments.

It All Started With Fleur de Sel

The steamed cupcake began its life with a comment by Food Vagabond on my post about dulce de leche. The Vagabond suggested an alternate way of making dulce de leche that involved fleur de sel. I had actually never heard of fleur de sel. It turns out that it's a very expensive kind of salt ($15 for a tiny bag at the two stores I found it in). The Vagabond's email review of it, however, had me sold:

"I prefer fleur de sel for almost any use (other than salting the pasta water maybe!) since I discovered it, because I love the taste and the 'crunch' - doesn't dissolve immediately like normal salt but doesn't remain rock hard like, well, rock salt. "

I had to buy some! Since I had just made dulce de leche, I wanted to use it for something else. I decided to opt for salted caramel.

Steamed Caramel Cupcakes - Apam Gula Hangus

In doing my research on caramel cupcakes, I found that steamed caramel cupcakes are popular on the streets on Malaysia. According to Inside Nyanya's Kitchen, the actual name is apam gula hangus - literally translated: burnt sugar steamed cupcake. I added the fleur de sel to mine to make it a salted steamed caramel cupcake or a salted apam gula hangus. Cultural insensitivities aside, saying that name out loud makes me laugh. Go ahead, say it.

Where's the Frosting?

None of the recipes I found for apam gula hangus called for frosting. This simply would not do. There has been much debate about what makes something a cupcake. I posted about the difference between a cupcake and a muffin very early on in the project. More recently, I Heart Cuppycakes and Quirky Cupcakes posted something about the difference. Even more recently, Tempered Woman's husband called my beer cheese cupcakes into question as not being cupcakes (this post is
definitely worth a read, btw, as it's hilarious.) I did not want these cupcakes debated.

The short of it is, I thought these cupcakes had better have some frosting or I was going to get lots of crap.

I opted for a salted caramel frosting. I used it in two ways. I poked holes in the cupcakes and drizzled lots of caramel inside of them. Then, I put the caramel in the fridge until it hardened more and spread it on top. It still ended up looking more like a glaze. Whether glaze counts as frosting is up for additional debate. I say, "Yes!"

The Steamed Salted Caramel Cupcake (Salted Apam Gula Hangus) Review

These cupcakes tasted exactly like Werther's Originals.


I had to go for the Asian commercial since these are Asian-inspired cupcakes. I have no idea what these people are saying, but if the candy makes you smile like it does this child, you would surely love these cupcakes. Bride 2.0 even said it was like the candy in cake format and I didn't even prompt her for the quote.

The Steamed Salted Caramel Cupcake (Salted Apam Gula Hangus) Recipe

I got the recipe for this cupcake from Pusiva's Culinary Studio. I have reprinted the recipe below. The only change from the original was to add the fleur de sel. A VERY important point about this recipe is that it did not state how many cupcakes it would make. As it turns out it, it only made 6 cupcakes. Definitely double it if you would like more than 6.

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 1/2 t fleur de sel or any salt of your choice
• 1 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/3 cup milk

Melt the sugar on very low heat. When the color turns golden brown, immediately remove from heat and pour in the boiling water. (Note: This takes 10-15 minutes) Return to the heat and stir until the caramelized sugar dissolves in the water. Stir in fleur de sel. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Mix cooled caramel syrup, egg, sugar, melted butter and milk. Stir well until sugar dissolves. Combine the wet ingredients to the sifted flour mixture. Whisk gently until it is lump free. Pour the batter into cupcake liners until 3/4 full. Steam on high for 15 minutes. (Note: Be careful not to burn yourself when removing the cupcakes from the steamer. I used tongs.) Let the cupcakes cool.

Salted Caramel Frosting Recipe

I got this recipe from Vanilla Garlic. He used it on Apple Cardamom cupcakes which make me drool just looking at them.

• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 cup of sugar or vanilla sugar
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (I used fleur de sel)

1) Melt the butter in a large, deep heavy-duty saucepan. Stir in the sugar and and stir until golden brown. (Note: Do this on low to medium heat. The first time I did it, I did it on high and everything burnt. This should take about 10 minutes.)

2) Take off the heat and pour in half the cream and whisk like a crazy person until the caramel is smooth. Whisk in the rest of the cream and the salt.

Cupcake Assembly

As noted above, I poked holes in the cupcakes and drizzled copious amounts of the caramel into them. I then chilled the rest of the caramel in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Once it was thicker, I spread the caramel over the cupcakes.

Another Way to Bake Cupcakes Without an Oven

For another way to bake cupcakes without an oven, check out the crockpot cupcake experiment.