Atlantic Beach Cupcake

I'm just going to come out and say it. I love NPR. I have loved NPR my entire life. My parents were always listening to public radio, and I found myself doing the same, even as a teenager (that's right, rebelling even then, and in the dorkiest way possible). Now that I am more than qualified, age-wise (sigh), to be an NPR listener, it's time to admit it publicly.

You never know what you're going to hear on the radio, but anytime food is mentioned my ears prick right up. I was driving home from work one evening and heard a story about a particular kind of pie that was news to me. It hails from the North Carolina coast, and the story is that this lemon pie is served at seafood restaurants everywhere. There's an old wives' tale that you will get sick eating any kind of dessert after having seafood, but not, apparently, this pie.

I don't know anything about that, because I'm allergic to shellfish anyhow and I've never been to North Carolina (seems to me people on the Alabama coast have dessert after seafood all the time, but perhaps our stomachs are tougher). I did think that a lemon pie with a saltine crust topped with whipped cream sounded lovely, so I went straight home and made it. And it was, too! Then I forgot all about it.

Until, just recently, NPR decided to re-air the story (really, NPR?), and this time my mother was listening and mentioned it to me. I remembered making the pie and how much I'd liked it, but now...what if I turned it into a cupcake? What if I took the very simplicity of the pie and overcomplicated it? Fantastic!

Actually, it is. The components of the Atlantic Beach Pie work just swimmingly (heh) in a cupcake. Tart, sweet, creamy, salty, crunchy - it's all there, but it also manages not to be too heavy. So I think it would go well after a seafood dinner (not that I'd know. Do you know what a bummer it is being allergic to seafood, growing up on the Gulf Coast?), or a nice summer cookout, or heck, my kids had these for breakfast this morning.

And if you want to hear the original story on the pie, go ahead and click here

Atlantic Beach Cupcake

~For saltine crust~
1 sleeve saltine crackers
1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. 

Pulse the crackers in a food processor until they are mostly broken up (but not finely so). Add in the sugar and butter and pulse until the mixture is starting to resemble a dough (you can do this with your hands, too; it will just take longer).

Divide the mixture evenly among the cupcake liners and press down to form a bottom crust in each. Bake the crusts for 13 - 15 minutes or until they are decidedly golden (don't be a chicken about the coloring here). Let the crusts cool completely before filling with the batter.

See how dark that crust is? Totally fine.

~ For lemon cupcakes ~
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the lemon juice and water on medium high heat. When the butter is melted remove from heat. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the sour cream (or yogurt), eggs, vanilla extract and lemon zest and whisk together. Let this mixture cool completely. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt and baking soda together, then whisk the dry ingredients into the batter. It will foam up - don't panic. Once you've got the dry ingredients mixed in, the batter will be on the thin side. Again, don't panic.

Fill the prepared cupcake tins 3/4 full with the batter (this is an important step - I know this is more full than usually you'd go but please just listen to me). Bake, one pan at a time, at 350 for 15 - 18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Do not open the oven door while the cupcakes are baking.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for five minutes, then remove to a wire rack to let them cool completely before filling and frosting.

~For the lemon filling~
1 can sweetened, condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil. Be careful to keep stirring because this will scorch in a heartbeat! Continue cooking until the mixture is starting to thicken, about five minutes. Remove from heat and let cool before filling the cupcakes.

To fill the cupcakes, using a sharp knife (honestly, I use a steak knife for this), cut a cone-shaped section from the top of each cupcake. Trim off the extra cake from each cone, just leaving a flat cap to cover the cavity you've made in the cupcake. Fill each cupcake with about a tablespoon or so of the lemon filling (this all depends on how big a hollow you've carved into the cupcake, and really, that is entirely up to you) and replace the cap on each one. There. All you've left is the frosting, and that's easy.

~Whipped Cream Frosting (stabilized)~
1 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream
1 packet dry gelatin powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Whisk the gelatin into 1/4 cup of the cream and let stand for about 10 minutes. Then add in the rest of the cream and the vanilla, with your electric mixer on low, beat until the cream is starting to thicken. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, and continue mixing, increasing the speed as you go, until the cream is forming stiff peaks (but don't overbeat because you'll end up with sweetened, gelatinized butter).

To frost the cupcakes, use a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe the whipped cream on top of each one. I finished mine with a grind of pink sea salt and edible yellow glitter. I like the crunch of the salt contrasting with the creamy sweetness of the frosting.

The gelatin will keep the whipped cream from weeping but these cupcakes still have to be stored in the refrigerator. Makes 24 cupcakes - enjoy!

Cupcake Army of Darkness!

Cupcake on a brick!

Red velvet cupcakes with dark ganache filling and chocolate cookie crust

You know, I'm just going to say it. I have fought against this particular kind of cupcake, nay, this cake in general, for as long as I've been baking. I don't care about its Southern heritage (I first met it in Atlanta, as far as I can remember, and I thought it was weird then). I don't care about Steel Magnolias. 

(Ok, that's a total lie. I care deeply about Steel Magnolias. Not, however, in reference to this cake.)

I don't care that everyone and their brother started making red velvet cake (not to mention white velvet! Green velvet! Blue velvet! Oh, we're all so cute that I'm going to beat my own head in with my cast iron skillet). I don't usually like to eat anything with an entire bottle of dye in it (unless it's a Dorito. So sue me. I said "usually"). I wasn't really being fair about all this, either, because I'd never actually tasted a red velvet cake. I just was objecting to it on principle. Loudly.

And then, enter one of the sweetest people I've ever met, a girl who hasn't said an ugly thing about anyone, ever, to my knowledge. A girl who never asks for anything. A girl with really big brown eyes that peep up at you from under her long brown bangs. And this girl was having a birthday. And this girl...well, you can probably guess what she asked for.

So, Micah, dear, I have thrown my principles right out the window in honor of your being born. And you know what? Those principles were darn tasty. 

The cake is cocoa-y without being too chocolatey (the dark crust and the ganache jump right into that role, don't you worry) and it's not too sweet. The cream cheese frosting provides the sweetness and a nice tang and contrast. Really, y'all, this is good. I would make it again. With a lot less hand-wringing. Now I just have to figure out how to shape an armadillo.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

~ Chocolate Cookie Bottoms ~

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (about one package of chocolate cookies)
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Very carefully so as not to scorch the chocolate, over low heat in a medium pot, melt together the butter and chocolate. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the chocolate crumbs until all are moistened. 

Divide the crumb mixture evenly among the muffin cups. Using your clean fingers, press the mixture down into an even layer in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes (you will be able to smell them - do not let them burn). Let cool for about 10 minutes before filling with the cake batter.

~ Red Velvet Cake Batter ~

• 1/4 cup red food coloring
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 

In a small bowl, gradually stir the food coloring into the cocoa until smooth. Add the vanilla. 

In a large bowl, beat the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the cocoa mixture as well as the salt. Add in the flour alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir the vinegar into the baking soda (it will foam). Quickly fold it - do not beat - into the batter.

Immediately divide the batter among the cookie-lined cupcake cups and place your first pan into the oven (unless you have a big oven with a lot of air circulation which I do not, but if you do go ahead and bake both pans at once). Bake the cupcakes for about 15 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean. Repeat the process with your other pan of cupcakes. Let the cupcakes cool completely before attempting to fill with the ganache. 

~Ganache filling ~

• 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped 
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• pinch instant espresso powder

In the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water, combine all ingredients until smooth. Let cool until room temperature and then, with a hand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the stuffing out of it until it is nice and fluffy, then set aside until you are ready to fill the cupcakes.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, cut out a cone-shaped portion out of the top of each cake. Slice off the excess cake from the cone (leaving the flat cap) and reserve the top. Fill the resulting hole with about a tablespoon of the whipped ganache, then replace the cap. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.

~ Cream Cheese Frosting ~

• 1 cup cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add in the vanilla and salt and mix in well. Add in the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until the sugar is blended in well and the frosting is stiff enough to hold its shape when piped.

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. If desired, sprinkle the cupcakes with grated chocolate and edible red glitter for a garnish. 

Makes about 20 cupcakes.