Assignment #1

Rainbow Cupcakes with Coconut Whipped Cream Topping

Rainbow Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients  --Only made about 10 cupcakes, I would double the recipe next time for about 2 dozen.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup room temperature butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350* F. 
2. "Cream" the sugar and butter by mixing them together first until they are fully incorporated.  
3. Beat in 1 egg at a time, then stir in vanilla.
4. Whisk together the flour and baking powder. 
5. Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk into the butter mixture until all is mixed well.  Turn the mixer on high until batter is smooth.
6. Divide cake mix into 6 bowls equally. 
7. Add food coloring to the bowls so you have a red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple batter bowl.
8. In each papered-cup in the cupcake tin, put 1 Tbsp of red.  Then orange, then yellow, and so on until you have a Tbsp of each color in each cup.  Note: Reverse the order next time so purple is on bottom.
9. Bake 20-25 minutes in the oven or until you can insert a toothpick and it has no batter on it.  This is called the toothpick test!

Results:    I didn't put enough food coloring in the batter bowls, so they turned out paler than I wanted them.  More like a pastel rainbow... Other than that, they tasted good and they were moist!  Partial success.

Coconut Whipped Cream

Ingredients

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Leave the can in the refrigerator overnight so the cream has a chance to solidify and separate from the watery milk.  Note: I left the can in the fridge overnight, but there was not really a division of cream and coconut water the next day.  I tried to use the liquidy stuff that it did result in, but was very unsuccessful.  I later found out I needed to buy the "full-fat" coconut milk for this recipe to work, but I couldn't find any at the supermarket.  
2. Put beaters in the freezer for a few minutes before mixing.
3. After opening the can, remove all solid coconut cream, leaving about 1/4 can of coconut water.  
4. Mix the cream in a bowl with beaters until it turns fluffy (about 3 minutes)
5. Mix in sugar and vanilla, beat until all is mixed and smooth.
6. Use right away or keep in fridge for up to 3 days.

Results:   As you can imagine, without the full-fat milk I was supposed to use, I scratched this idea. I went on the make my Nana's recipe for white fluffy frosting.

Nana's Recipe for White Fluffy Frosting

Notes: I had no idea that Crisco and Oleo were two different things.  I thought they were both vegetable shortening... This cookbook, though endearing, is a tad out-dated.  So I just used 1 cup vegetable shortening instead.. Big mistake!

Results: Not great.. Not even good.  I'm not sure why (could be any number of things, including the substitution of shortening for Crisco and Oleo), but it turned out very liquidy indeed.  It would not mix smooth, it stayed liquidy with lumps of stuff that didn't taste like frosting.  It sort of reflected frosting in taste, but not in texture or appearance.  

I wish I had taken pictures during the process or the results, but alas, that was my first mistake.  I've tried 2 more recipes since my first, so I will update OMCupcakes as soon as I can!  <3