Cupcake Cook-Off

PERPETUAL HUNGER! entered the Brooklyn Kitchen's third annual cupcake cook-off, and it all went down last night!

Above: My Rosebud Cupcakes with Apricot Honey Frosting (Recipe follows), and Suzanne's White Chocolate Cupcakes with Chestnut Frosting and a Black Currant Filling. There were about 60 cupcake entries present, and although ours didn't take any prizes home, it was still worth it.

Rosebud Cupcakes with Apricot Honey Frosting

(Yields 24 Frosted Cupcakes)

Rosebud Cupcakes
½ - 1 cups dried rosebuds (commonly sold to be used as herbal tea)
1 ½ cups self rising flour
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened
2 cups sugar
4 room temperature eggs
2 cups milk
½ cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
red food coloring
apricot-honey frosting (recipe follows)
candied rose petals, royal icing buds, etc for decoration!
In a saucepan on the stove, begin to heat the milk and cream on low. Add the dried rosebuds. Bring to a very slight simmer, and brew the rosebuds until the milk has reduced by about half. Be careful to not scald the milk. This may mean that the heat may have to be turned off for periods of time. Drain the rose infused milk, being sure to squeeze the roses to extract any remaining milk. This can be done ahead of time and chilled in the fridge.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, preferably with a hand mixer (producing greatest fluffiness!) cream the butter and sugar for a few minutes until nice and light. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Combine the flours and the salt well. Add this mixture to the butter-sugar-egg mixture very slowly, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla to one cup of rose milk, and altenrate adding this with the flour. Be sure to beat well. The batter should have a silky sheen and possess a very light looking texture. Lastly, incorporate a few drops of red food coloring, until the batter is a rosy pink.
Spoon evenly into two twelve-holed cupcake trays, either well greased or lined with papers. Bake for 20 minutes, or just until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake, or the cupcake will render quite dry and crumbly. Let cool completely before frosting!


Apricot Honey Frosting
2 ¼ sticks room temperature butter, unsalted
5 heaping tablespoons high quality apricot preserves
5 tablespoons whipped honey (a.k.a spread-able honey, creamed honey, etc)
2 tablespoons regular honey
¼ cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Begin to beat the butter in a medium size mixing bowl. Add the confectioner’s sugar and salt first. Then, begin to alternate the whipped honey and apricot preserves. Finally, beat in the regular honey and vanilla extract.
*This is a very thick frosting, and is intended to be so. Do not attempt to thin this frosting out with milk, for the citric acid in most preserves will certainly curdle the frosting! If the frosting is too thick for your taste, you may want to try thinning it out with apricot nectar.
Frost sparingly so as not to mask the delicate floral fragrance of the cupcakes. Try just a small dollop swirl in the center. Decorate further with candied rose petals, royal icing rosettes, or whatever you like! Enjoy!


-R