4 Levels of Cupcakes: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi I'm Stephen and I'm a level 1 chef I'm Gabrielle and I'm a level 2 chef my name is penny and I've been a professional chef for 15 years I hate traditional frosting so I went with a cream cheese frosting and this makes cupcakes very bearable for me I love cupcakes because I think you're a blank canvas today I'm gonna be adding a spresso to mine I chose to make a cupcake inspired by a pina colada because every time I have a pina colada it makes me feel like I'm on vacation we're gonna jump right in and start the batter grab your butter and we're gonna just plop that into the bowl and we're gonna put our mixer on to about medium and we're gonna start moving that around like so all right so I'm gonna start with my dry they're all gonna go into my mixer right now in the sifter I have all-purpose flour salt and baking powder powder baking soda your essentials and I'm gonna sift that together Dutch cocoa powder gonna give our cupcake a really nice chocolaty velvet flavor and then we're gonna add our sugar to the mix brown sugar add all of my sugar now sugar we're gonna go to our wet ingredients this is where the magic starts to happen I love using recipes with buttermilk because they kind of counterbalance all the sugar that you're using I like to zest my citrus directly into the bowl then I'm gonna cream my butter and sugar in the abrasiveness from the sugar will beat out the oils from the lime zest and I'm gonna get more flavor out of it that way or in our vegetable oil vanilla and crack some eggs that's not gonna be good huh yeah I'm going to separate the egg yolk from the egg white next we're gonna add our flour to the mix vanilla extract baking powder a little bit of salt and then we're gonna do the milk I'm gonna go ahead and pour this little by little into our dry ingredients okay so now we're gonna start the creaming process and I'm gonna do this for a while much longer than most people generally thank you cream things see this is why machines can't take the jobs of humans sometimes you just need that human touch that human element it's one of the secrets to this recipe it's a coconut cake I really overemphasize the coconut flavor so we start with a really high-quality canned coconut milk that's gonna give us a lot of coconut fat and a lot of richness and just for a little extra added bump we add about 3/4 of a teaspoon of coconut extract the most important ingredient in our espresso I like to incorporate all these ingredients first and then add in my espresso which is so adorably in this mocha pot so I'm gonna start to add my eggs and I'm gonna add them as much as possibly one at a time and the last thing that I'm gonna add is the shredded sweetened coconut the milk is going everywhere which is why I think it's so fun I was completely ill-prepared for this kind of is like a chocolate mocha bomb which it definitely looks like that's what happened here so just like the Italians do it all done I like to use plain white cupcake liners because I like to let the cupcake itself shine through I really like using recycled material liners I think they give them a really pretty natural look plus they're great for the environment if you can find the yellow handed scoop it's the perfect amount for a standard sized cupcake tin basically gonna fill them up 2/3 of the way because the batter is definitely gonna rise a lot when it's in the oven you're gonna do something like use a spoon you're gonna end up with different amounts of batter some of them might be more Brown and burnt by the time the other ones are completely baked so you can eyeball it just like a caterpillar this batter will turn it to something new all right so we're gonna put these in the oven at 350 degrees for a little over 15 minutes at about 375 for 20 minutes we're gonna bake them at about 350 degrees for somewhere between 19 and 25 minutes let's go I hate traditional frosting so I went with a cream cheese frosting in lieu of the traditional conventional I don't know what they use in but I ate it so from my Pina Colada cupcakes key ingredients are obviously wrong but aside from that pineapple so I'm gonna start by chopping off the head of this then the tail into strips its you a fine dice the split vanilla bean we're gonna dot it with some butter and I'm gonna sprinkle some sugar over the top and this is ready for the oven all right so to keep the chocolate espresso train rolling a chocolate espresso buttercream very fitting I'm gonna go ahead and get started by just basically putting these giant two sticks of butter into your mixer again we're gonna use our Dutch cocoa powder sifting it is gonna take out any clumps or lumps and then I'm gonna do the same thing with my confectioner sugar so you can see how the chunky this what about it if I didn't sift it that's our roasted pineapple and I'm going to turn it into a puree that I can use later to add to my frosting and now I'm gonna add even more pineapple flavor by using dehydrated fruit they really concentrate doubt the flavor the pure essence of the fruit beautiful this is an Italian meringue buttercream so we're gonna cook our sugar and then we're gonna drizzle it into the mixer while our egg whites are whipping I'm gonna start with some sugar some water that I'm gonna pour around the sides pop I'm not gonna go pretty high I'm gonna whip these now over medium speed it comes up to a boil and I start whipping as this starts to get a little bit foamy I'm gonna sprinkle in my second amount of sugar by adding some of the granulated sugar directly to the egg whites you get a more stable meringue we're gonna get started with the cream cheese which we will place in the bowl first and then we will put this on a medium to spin and whip it like so put the butter in salt this seems more manageable at low so I'm just gonna keep it low for now low-key no profile now I'm gonna make a dulce de leche which we're gonna use later on to fill the inside of the cupcake I'm gonna use the sous-vide this is a great way to do it because it keeps the water at a constant temperature and I can just put this in here and walk away and forget it for a really long time and it has no risk of burning so you give it a little extra flavor I'm gonna add yet one more vanilla bean so in the bag I placed one can of sweetened condensed milk my vanilla bean that's been scraped I'm gonna place this into the vacuum sealer I'm gonna drop my bag of sweetened condensed milk and vanilla into here so we're gonna cook this for between 9 to 12 hours until we get the dark caramel color that I'm looking for okay so I'm gonna add in my heavy cream now espresso vanilla a little bit of an instant espresso powder we want to basically give you a giant caffeine kick when you're eating these cupcakes we're gonna add our powdered sugar patient so our meringue is cool enough and I'm gonna start to add the butter while the butter is still beating in I'm gonna add a little pinch of salt scrape vanilla bean pineapple puree that I made earlier as well as most of that pineapple powder and because this is a boozy cupcake it needs some booze in the buttercream and this is rum we're gonna add the vanilla extract so you want to add each ingredient in stages it's all about balance I think it is ready so this is the piece of pineapple that I had reserved from before we're gonna cut out the core sprinkle the top with sugar and I'm gonna torch these these are gonna become the final piece of garnish for the top of our cake similar to the way you'd find a piece of pineapple on the side of the glass for your pina colada the texture is already changed quite a bit since adding in the rest of the ingredients it's now a lot fluffier it's a lot creamier I think it's about ready to go on top of our cupcakes we're ready to decorate our cupcakes we're gonna fill our piping bags with our pineapple buttercream this is our completed dulce de leche that was in the immersion circulator for 12 hours I am NOT a fancy schmancy gal but I do like to put a little bit of pizzazz on my cupcake so I'm just gonna put some of this to your buttercream into this bag I think we all see where I'm going with this so now I will use my trusty spoon to get the icing on my cupcake and you want to really lather it on it looks professionally done into the center I'm gonna pipe my delicious dulce de leche and then on top of that buttercream I made these cherries in advance they're soaked in rum and Aperol and some sugar some vanilla bean yet more of an ala Bean and I soaked them for four days to make them super super boozy and complete our rummy cocktail cupcake I'm gonna cut this corner and I like to do kind of a swirl so I'm gonna just go around the outer corners there's my icing and then I'd love to garnish these with a couple of chocolate-covered espresso beans now I want to cut up one strawberry you want to cut it into fours will create a little fort and add a little bit of toasted coconut so that everybody knows there's a coconut cupcake in there and this is my cupcake and here is my level 2 cupcake and this is my FINA colada cupcake [Music] remember that the papers in there you don't want to eat that covered in it delicious oh my god that was so good the lime zest really brightens up that coconut cake it's light its Airy the cake is really moist and get a nice little tiny hint of the espresso in the cake the only thing I would do different is put more frosting on it I will probably put frosting inside of it that would have been good we had three different chefs make three very different cupcakes let's start with Stephens batter he made a shortened cake shortened cakes are high in solid fat like butter the fat coats the gluten proteins limiting gluten development and results in a tender cake instead of a chewy bread like cake this is why fats are referred to as shortening in baking shortened cakes use a basic creaming method which is the incorporation of air into the batter by mixing crystalline sugar with room-temperature butter just like cavities are a myth of something and adding eggs to make a light and airy mixture this is an important step if you want a light cake he added the rest of his ingredients all at once and mixed well this makes a moist and light cupcake with an even texture and smooth relatively flat top Gabrielle's chocolate cupcake batter had more sugar than flour we call this a high ratio cake Dutch processed cocoa is an alkalized cocoa that gives more mild chocolatey taste and darker color she used liquid oil instead of butter and a hot cup of coffee to make a uniformly thin batter there's nothing wrong with being a little bit messy in a kitchen these cupcakes have a high rise rounded top and a moist crumb like Steven penny made a shortened cake but added many more layers of ingredients and flavors to give a fruity tropical spin to her cupcakes she weighed her ingredients and sifted her dry ingredients which gives consistency to this recipe baking the cupcakes includes expansion setting and browning of the batter Stephen baked his cupcakes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit which can cause excessive browning and a bump to form on top of the cupcake from quick release of steam from the batter so I would take the Browning is from the carmelization and meillard reactions from the sugar in the hot oven Gabriele and Penny baked their cupcakes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit which is a more typical temperature allowing the batter to expand set and crisp on top without the excessive browning that can occur at higher temperatures we have three very different frostings all three of our chef's made a version of buttercream which is a light smooth and fluffy mixture of sugar and fat sometimes including whipped egg whites buttercream should be sweet but not overly cloying rich and buttery but not greasy Stephen blended cream cheese and butter with powdered sugar for a simple frosting the cream cheese cuts the extreme sweetness of this frosting and mixes easily with the butter there's enough liquid in the butter and the cream cheese that he only needed a tablespoon of vanilla to make this smooth and quick version of frosting I love making buttercream because it's just so light and fluffy and sweet Gabriele made an american-style buttercream which is an uncooked mixture of butter and sugar she flavored her buttercream with cocoa powder and instant espresso grounds to help her cut the sweetness of this frosting Penny's frosting is complex because it's cooked and has additional flavoring components she made an Italian buttercream flavored with rum and roasted caramelized pineapple I'd say added to taste I love that Italian buttercream is a meringue style frosting based on foamed egg whites cooked with hot sugar syrup softened butter is added in the final product is very smooth silky and it's so light it's hard to believe there's so much butter in it Steven topped his plain cupcakes with store-bought chocolate truffles and strawberries which are nestled nicely in his rather stiff cream cheese frosting this added color and visual appeal too is tasty but otherwise monochrome cupcakes Gabrielle added chocolate-covered espresso beans which while simple give you a hint that there's coffee and chocolate in the cupcake they also provide a nice crunch to compliment the espresso powder in the frosting Penny's cupcakes have a tropical theme running through each step from the coconut and lime in the batter dulce de leche filling and topping of pineapple powder the pineapple is freeze-dried so that the flavor is extremely concentrated the powder hits your taste buds and quickly dissolves into a sweet and slightly tangy hint of pineapple and it's pretty yellow color reminds me of the tropical sunshine I really feel like I'm sitting on the beach right now in the tropics enjoying a pina colada these cupcakes are sweet rich tender and full of flavor next time you're making cupcakes we hope you'll consider these tips on ingredients mixing and baking to make your cupcakes a real treat

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 3,158,354

Keywords: 4 levels, amateur chef, cupcake, cupcakes, food science, food scientist, cupcake recipe, 4 levels of cupcakes, cupcake epicurious, cupcakes epicurious, cupcakes recipe, easy cupcakes, easy cupcake recipe, expert cupcake, home cupcakes, how to make cupcakes, best cupcake, best cupcakes, professional cupcakes, science of cupcakes, homemade cupcakes, make cupcakes, cupcake tips, cupcake tutorial, expert cupcakes, pineapple cupcakes, cupcake artist, epicurious

Id: TZsk-PoQSvg

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019