Hello Cupcake! Featuring pastry chef Tina Bacon!

On June 22nd my sister and I attended the Hello Cupcake! class at Well Seasoned Gourmet Food Store in Langley, BC. This awesome class was hosted by Tina Bacon of the Pink Spatula. I had only heard of the Pink Spatula when I purchased some marshmallows from Well Seasoned around Christmas time. If you haven't tried these marshmallows, you are missing out!! They are so good and they come in all different flavours.

Any way, back on topic- we soon discovered how creative and talented Tina Bacon really is. You can check her out on Facebook too under The Pink Spatula. This class was great! Can you believe that in a two and a half hour class we had six different kinds of cupcakes to take home? With no pre-baking or pre-making icing!! Now that shows some mad skills!

Here are some of the lovely flavour combinations we tried:

• Chocolate cupcakes brushed with Baileys, topped with an espresso swiss buttercream icing and garnished with a chocolate covered coffee bean.


• Chiffon cupcakes brushed with a rum simple syrup, topped with a lime swiss meringue buttercream, sprinkled with shredded coconut.


• Vanilla cupcake filled with caramel, topped with very vanilla easy buttercream, drizzled with caramel, and finished with a sprinkle of fleur de sel & toasted pecans.


• Chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter filling, topped with cocoa easy buttercream and rolled in toasted peanuts.


• Vanilla cupcakes topped with espresso vanilla easy buttercream icing and sprinkled with sliced toasted almonds.

Can you say delicious?! I think so! Needless to say, I left the class so inspired with all these amazing flavour combinations running through my brain.

I'm going to share Tina's Chocolate Cupcake recipe with you along with her swiss meringue buttercream icing recipe. You can flavour the buttercream however you want! We added espresso so some of it and lime zest to some of it so we had two flavours from one batch of buttercream. You can also freeze the buttercream - which is super handy because this recipe makes a huge batch of icing!!!

Tina Bacon's Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients:

• 1 cup cake flour


• 1 cup plus 2tbsp granulated sugar


• 2/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (or 1/4 butter and 1/4 oil)


• 1/2 cup freshly brewed coffee


• 1/2 cup buttermilk


• 1 large egg


• 1 large egg yolk

Method:

1. Preheat over to 325. Fill 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners.


2. Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Heat butter and coffee in a small pot over medium heat until the butter has melted. Pour into a medium bowl. Whisk in buttermilk, egg and yolk. Then add sifted dry ingredients and whisk until incorporated.


3. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs, 20-25 minutes. Cool for a few minutes in pan. Transfer to rack to cool completely.

Tina Bacon's Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 10 large egg whites


• 2 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp sugar


• 2 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

Method:

1. Place egg whites and sugar into a metal bowl that will fit over a saucepan. Fill saucepan with an inch or two of water and bring to a low simmer. Place bowl over pot and whisk constantly until mixture is hot to the touch, around 130F. Pour into a stand mixer fitted with whisks and beat on high until it is thick and glossy and feels room temperature. It will probably be close to 90F. This can take up to ten minutes.


2. Meanwhile, chop butter into walnut-sized chunks. When egg mixture has cooled, remove the whisks and use paddles with your machine set on low. Add butter a couple chunks at a time while beating continuously. As you continue to add butter it may look quite liquid. Nows' the time for the magic!! Turn your mixer on high and keep beating until it breaks and then becomes thick and fluffy. At this point, reduce the speed to low and add whatever flavour you like (i.e. up to 1/4 cup vanilla or liqueur, 2/3 cup dark chocolate melted and cooled, a paste of 2 tbsp instand expresso powder and 2 tsp vanilla).

Tina shared so many great recipes and tips with us that I can't fit them all into one post! I'm sure you'll see tidbits pop up over the next couple of months as I get the chance to try out some of her techniques in my own kitchen.

Thanks Tina for such a wonderful class and for so kindly providing me permission to blog about and your class and share your recipes. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and I hope to take some more of your classes in the future!

Happy Baking my Friends!