Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
'Key To My Heart' Pear and Walnut Cupcakes
Heart and Keys
Tape waxed paper over the drawings so that you can pipe chocolate directly, using the drawings as a template.
melt semisweet chocolate and red Wilton decorating candy in the microwave and loaded them into disposable pastry bags.
Outlining from the inside out, first carefully outline the outer edge of the lock hole, then the inside of the two outer lines. Next fill in between with the melted chocolate. place the lollipop stick into the base of the heart to stabilize it onto the finished cupcake, and then filled in the outer edge with a bigger decorating tip, creating a smooth outer line and covering over the heart end of the stick for stability.
Letting the chocolate in the pastry bag cool slightly, pipe a shell border around the heart and set it aside to cool before adding the red accents.
After the heart cools, add the small heart accents using a leaf tip and then set the whole thing aside to dry.
To make the keys follow roughly the same process with one exception. Rather than trying to keep a fragile line of chocolate unbroken, dip a lollipop stick in the chocolate by literally running the stick through a large round border tip down inside the pastry bag.
Then fill in the heart top with chocolate in the same manner as the lock, using the drawing as template, and added the teeth to the key with a writing tip. After the chocoloate had cooled, add the red accents, also using a writing tip.
The frosting is piped onto the cupcake tops using an oversized shell border tip and pastry bag.
Pear & Walnut Cupcakes:
Cream together:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
Add and continue to cream:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Continue mixing and add in:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground allspice
3 cups fresh pears, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp lemon juice (tossed with fresh pears)
1/2 cup English or black walnuts, chopped
Pour into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers, about 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes until browned nicely but not overbaked. Watch carefully. Makes 20-24 regular sized cupcakes
Cardamom Buttercream Frosting:
2 sticks (8 oz total) butter, room temp
1 Tbsp real vanilla
2 tsp ground cardamom
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted for any lumps
1/4 cup milk (or water if cupcakes will be sitting out in a fairly hot room for more than a day)
1. Cream butter until fluffy and very pale in color.
2. Add vanilla and cardamom and mix thoroughly.
3. Continue beating while adding in sugar one cup at a time alternating with a splash of milk, beating until smooth in between each addition.
4. When all of the ingredients are blended, continue to whip for an additional minute or two for extra creaminess.
Makes approximately 5 cups of frosting.
Heart and Keys
Tape waxed paper over the drawings so that you can pipe chocolate directly, using the drawings as a template.
melt semisweet chocolate and red Wilton decorating candy in the microwave and loaded them into disposable pastry bags.
Outlining from the inside out, first carefully outline the outer edge of the lock hole, then the inside of the two outer lines. Next fill in between with the melted chocolate. place the lollipop stick into the base of the heart to stabilize it onto the finished cupcake, and then filled in the outer edge with a bigger decorating tip, creating a smooth outer line and covering over the heart end of the stick for stability.
Letting the chocolate in the pastry bag cool slightly, pipe a shell border around the heart and set it aside to cool before adding the red accents.
After the heart cools, add the small heart accents using a leaf tip and then set the whole thing aside to dry.
To make the keys follow roughly the same process with one exception. Rather than trying to keep a fragile line of chocolate unbroken, dip a lollipop stick in the chocolate by literally running the stick through a large round border tip down inside the pastry bag.
Then fill in the heart top with chocolate in the same manner as the lock, using the drawing as template, and added the teeth to the key with a writing tip. After the chocoloate had cooled, add the red accents, also using a writing tip.
The frosting is piped onto the cupcake tops using an oversized shell border tip and pastry bag.
Pear & Walnut Cupcakes:
Cream together:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
Add and continue to cream:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Continue mixing and add in:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground allspice
3 cups fresh pears, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp lemon juice (tossed with fresh pears)
1/2 cup English or black walnuts, chopped
Pour into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers, about 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes until browned nicely but not overbaked. Watch carefully. Makes 20-24 regular sized cupcakes
Cardamom Buttercream Frosting:
2 sticks (8 oz total) butter, room temp
1 Tbsp real vanilla
2 tsp ground cardamom
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted for any lumps
1/4 cup milk (or water if cupcakes will be sitting out in a fairly hot room for more than a day)
1. Cream butter until fluffy and very pale in color.
2. Add vanilla and cardamom and mix thoroughly.
3. Continue beating while adding in sugar one cup at a time alternating with a splash of milk, beating until smooth in between each addition.
4. When all of the ingredients are blended, continue to whip for an additional minute or two for extra creaminess.
Makes approximately 5 cups of frosting.
