Week 2 of 52: Golden Globe Cupcakes

In honor of the Golden Globes on television tonight, I decided to create a recipe that would somehow relate to this. Growing up, I remember watching awards shows with great interest. Keep in mind, I grew up before the internet was pervasive and the news came on three times a day, not 24/7. Seeing the stars was not a daily, nay hourly, thing, and these awards shows really drew a crowd in front of the tv.  So for me...honoring the Golden Globes is just the start of the season...there will be more (think Academy Awards).

This year is the 70th awards show. It will be hosted by two of my favorites - Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  Both women are SNL alums, another television show that had a big impact on my life. I have that similar dark comedy streak and find the strangest things funny!

Thinking about golden, I immediately went to a golden poundcake. And thinking comedy...well, Twinkies can't be funnier.  They are long-lasting, and unfortunately, they went away this past year. So what better way to honor both in this week's dessert.

I went in search for golden poundcake recipes, and fake Twinkie recipes, and this led to a lot of research.

Traditionally, a pound cake was named for its weighted ingredients: a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour.  Many of the recipes I found had some variation of this ratio, but some included baking powder, milk, evaporated milk, and powdered sugar. 

I found a posting on baking powder versus baking soda on About.com (http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm). Very insightful to understand that both of these leavening agents are key to not having a flat cake.  Makes sense, as many pound cakes I have had were very dense, thus assuming they were following the traditional recipe. In addition, I learned that baking soda needs something like buttermilk and baking powder needs something like milk to activate it.  Baking powder in cake recipes is used to make more light and raised and does not add any particular taste, whereas baking soda is used in more cookie recipes and tends to be more acidic, thus the buttermilk. Knowing this, and wanting something more fluffy, I chose to include the baking powder in my recipe.

In searching for exactly what evaporated milk was, I found the definition, "...more calorie-laden... (http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqcannedmilk.htm). Well that sold me right there!  That and that it is more nutritious and has a caramelized taste. So in goes evaporated milk to the recipe.

As for the addition of powdered sugar in some recipes, powdered sugar is just that - sugar that has been crushed into a powder (with some corn starch added to reduce clumping). Commonly, powdered sugar is used in icings and gives recipes a lighter, flakier texture. While I can understand using this in a recipe that I want to more on the fluffy side, I felt that it would be too spongy. I want the taste of the Twinkie, but not so much of the sponginess like a sponge cake, rather than a pound cake.  If you want to make your cake more spongy, you can substitute powdered sugar for sugar 1:1.75, that is, 1 cup of sugar to 1.75 cups of powdered sugar. However, note that the crispiness you get with sugar will be lost on powdered sugar, so a complete replacement would result in losing the crunchy outside of your cakes.

On the creme filling front, I found recipes that called for both shortening and butter, sugar and powdered sugar, and milk with flour and evaporated milk.  I remember making a similar filling years ago and felt comfortable with using both shortening and butter. While shortening is 100% fat, it generally has no taste but traps air more than butter, thus resulting in fluffier fillings. The butter is needed for the flavor. As for the all granulated versus powdered recipes, I used the powdered sugar due to the notes made above...more fluffy. And since the recipes that called for a rue, reminiscent of gravy, I chose the evaporated milk versions to base my recipe on.  Some recipes state that if you sub evaporated milk for regular milk that you should mix with water. That is, 1 cup of regular milk would be replaced by 1/2 cup of evaporated milk and 1/2 cup of water. Other recipes did not make this note, but rather just sub 1 for 1. So I went with direct subbing.

Good luck in trying this one out. I hope you enjoy!

Creme-filled Golden Globe Cupcakes

Ingredients for cupcake

4 sticks butter, salted (1 pound) - add 1/4 t salt if using unsalted butter
1 2/3 + 1/4 c sugar (1 pound)
8 eggs (1 pound)
3 1/2 c + 2 T flour (1 pound)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 c evaporated milk
2 t vanilla extract
1 t lemon extract

Ingredients for filling

1/4 c shortening
1/4 c butter, softened
2 c marshmallow creme, one 7 oz jar
1 t vanilla extract
1 c powdered sugar
3 t evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and lightly flour muffin tins.

In your stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add in extracts. Alternating between flour/baking powder and the milk, mix in slowly and then beat until very fluffy.

Pour into prepped muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes, until golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan to cool completely on a rack.

While cupcakes are baking, prepare the filling.

Cream all ingredients in stand mixer until very fluffy. Incorporate the milk in the end. Fill a resealable baggie or pastry bag or pastry fill tube with cream filling. Using the pastry filling tube tip, gently press into the bottom of each cooled cupcake and insert one squeeze of filling (this is an exact science...lol). 

Keep filled cupcakes in a sealed container in the fridge.