How to Make Cute Holiday Cupcakes

If you're baking this holiday season, perhaps you'll enjoy making some of my cupcake designs that I've made over the years. 

In the past, after I posted a few photos via Facebook and Instagram, several readers requested directions and my cupcake recipe, so here you go! 

I'm currently travelling for the holidays, so this post will serve as a rough draft for the time being.

Happy baking!

Snowflake Cupcakes

Roll out white fondant thinly and cut out snowflake shapes using small cookie cutters. Then, make a white Royal Icing and decorate the snowflakes with various dots and lines. Let the snowflakes dry at least 24 hours before using on your cupcakes.

I thought these cupcakes looked extra cute with a pale blue buttercream!

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Roll out yellow fondant thinly and cut out star shapes using small cookie cutters. Then, pipe your green buttercream with a large star nozzle.

Polar Bear Cupcakes

Use white icing, marshmallows and desiccated coconut to create your own polar bear. 

Snowmen Cupcakes

Use buttercream and large white marshmallows to carefully construct your own snowmen.

Easy Yellow Cake Cupcakes

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Sift together:

425      g.                     plain all-purpose flour  
400      g.                     granulated sugar
1          Tablespoon      baking powder
1          teaspoon          salt

Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, place these ingredients in mixing bowl and blend together.

230      g.                    butter, room temperature
230      g.                     sour cream
3          ea.                    large eggs at room temperature
2          ea.                    egg yolks (from large eggs)
1          T.                     vanilla extract

1.      Then, add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Beat all ingredients together for a 1 minute or so until smooth and satiny looking. 

2.      Line a cupcake baking tray with paper baking cups. Fill the paper cups about 2/3 full (Use a no.16 cookie scoop or a large spoon).

3.      Bake in a preheated 350 F/175 C oven with the fan on for 15 minutes until lightly golden on top and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a cooling rack.

Italian Buttercream

16        oz.       (455 g.)            butter, room temp.

4.5       oz.       (125 g.)            egg whites (from approx. 4 large eggs)

pinch                                       cream of tartar

1 ¼      c.         (285 g.)            sugar

½         c.         (120 ml)           water

Prepare Italian Meringue, cooking sugar to 120 C (softball stage).

Place sugar in pot with water, stirring to moisten sugar evenly. Wash sugar off sides of pot with damp pastry brush. Cook to softball stage while whipping whites to soft peaks.

Time this properly so that the whites don’t get overwhipped.

When the sugar syrup is ready, turn the whites to high and carefully pour the sugar down the side of the mixing bowl.

Continue whipping the whites until they have cooled somewhat, about 10 minutes.

Slowly, add the butter a bit at a time. Continue whipping until the buttercream is smooth and fluffy and completely cool.

Buttercream can be flavored with melted chocolate, lemon zest, lemon juice, other flavor extracts.

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Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes

Move over pączki, now it’s time for another sweet-based holiday – Valentine’s Day!

I couldn’t let this holiday slip without baking something sweet for my husband to share with his colleagues. So earlier this week, I baked some mini cupcakes and decorated them with pale pink and red fondant, colorful sprinkles and a white chocolate buttercream. A traditional Red Velvet Cake seemed appropriate for this lovely holiday!

Baking cupcakes for colleagues is a far better way to spend Valentine’s Day versus the hundreds of chocolate boxes and tiny petit fours I used to make when I worked as a pastry chef in U.S fine dining restaurants. One year, I even recruited my husband to help finish and assemble the chocolate boxes or I would have ended up sleeping at the restaurant!

If you’re looking for a recipe to bake for your sweetheart this weekend, these cute red cupcakes are sure to please!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Joy

The original recipe for Red Velvet Cake is associated with the restaurant in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the 1920s. The cake is a dark red or red-brown color achieved by adding cooked beets/beet juice or red food coloring, and topped with a cream cheese frosting. The cake is very popular in the southern states of the U.S.

Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Yields: 24 normal-sized cupcakes or 60 mini cupcakes

Or two 9 or 10-inch (22-24 cm.) round cake pans

Ingredients:
425      g.                     480 typ Szymanowska Polish flour or All-purpose flour
350      g.                     granulated sugar
1          teaspoon          baking soda
3          Tablespoons    cocoa powder

330      ml.                  sunflower or vegetable oil
2          ea.                    large eggs, room temperature
230      ml.                   buttermilk (maslanka in Polish)
1          teaspoon          vanilla extract
1          teaspoon          white vinegar
1          Tablespoon      red food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda and cocoa powder.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, on medium speed, mix together the oil, eggs, buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients above. Mix until smooth and thoroughly combined, about 1 minute.

Bake mini cupcakes for about 10 minutes, normal cupcakes for 20 minutes and 9-inch cakes for about 25-30 minutes until the cake springs back on top. Test the cake with a toothpick or metal skewer for doneness. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before frosting.

To decorate the cupcakes, use a large star tip or a French tip in your pastry bag. Fill the bag with the buttercream and make swirls on top of the cupcakes. Garnish with fondant cut-outs and colorful sprinkles.

White Chocolate Buttercream

180      g.                     egg whites (from approx. 6 large eggs)

300      g.                     Drobny granulated sugar

340      g.                     butter, room temp.

215      g.                     white chocolate, melted

Optional                      2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Make a Swiss meringue. Place the egg whites and sugar into the mixing bowl and place over a pot of simmering water. Heat the mixture and whisk continuously until the temperature reaches 60C.

Remove from the pot. Place the bowl on the mixer and whip on high speed until the mixture reaches stiff peaks and feels lukewarm.

Then, lower the speed on the mixer and gradually add in the butter. If the butter is cold, the mixture may break and separate.

Lastly, add in the melted white chocolate, a little bit at a time. Add vanilla for flavoring.

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Festive Baking Frenzy in Istanbul

This week, I’ve spent many hours in my kitchen whipping up a holiday storm.

The long hours on my feet remind me of the days/nights I spent working in restaurants professionally back in the U.S. Then, I at least had a dishwasher to wash all the countless bowls, spatulas and whisks I used.

My dining room table was filled with my decorated cakes, cupcakes and cookies.
This wasn't even everything that I baked for three days!

Today, I spent the entire day at the Hilton Convention Center in Istanbul since I was the main organizer of the Bakery table at the IWI Christmas Bazaar. My team had three full tables full of cookies, cupcakes, bars, cakes and other baked goods. It was a busy, hectic, but fun day - talking with many women I’ve met before and meeting new faces.

At the end of the day, the Bakery raised nearly 2,200 TL in ticket sales! I was thrilled! I must admit my table had the second highest sales in the Food Court. Yeah! (Thanks to everyone’s donation of time, money and baked goods!!)

Last year, the money from the entire bazaar was donated to the Bomonti Little Sisters of the Poor and a women’s and children’s group in Istanbul. These are both great causes and I’m happy to do my part.

Now, I’m exhausted. I just finished packing and I’m ready to call it a day. Tomorrow, I head to Bodrum, Turkey, for my 3-day pastry class at the Erenler Sofrasi. Wish you could join me!

Afiyet olsun!

Baking in Istanbul - this is where it all started at home!

Hilton Hotel Istanbul - this is what the Bakery table looked like at the IWI bazaar.
Thanks to the many donations, especially the 60 cupcakes from the Istanbul Cupcake Factory!

Well, I got to have a little fun cutting a large cake with a giant sword!
Watch out, I can handle a knife!

My friend, Ayse, and I decorated two of these cute Christmas tree cakes together.

Chocolate ganache tart with caramel sauce.

Vişne and pistachio bundt cake with a pretty-in-pink nar glaze.
I adored this cake and must share the recipe with you down the road!

I also made two dozen holiday decorated cupcakes with  my infamous lemon curd in the center.

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Cupcake Fun in Istanbul

Today, I kicked up the holiday spirit here in Istanbul with a festive cupcake decorating class at my home.

One of my expat friends recently asked if I could teach a cupcake class. Tabii!

So I put together some of my favorite cake and frosting recipes for a group of friends. Today, seven gals joined me at my apartment for a fun-filled day of cupcakes. The tables got a little messy filled with colored frostings and sprinkles, but we had fun.

Earlier this week, I explored the backstreets of Eminonu and found a ton of cake decorating supplies. I love this neighborhood! Even Christmas decor is out in full force right now. I found some incredibly cute plastic  snowman toppers and edible green Christmas trees at one of my favorite pastry supply stores.

So I just had to share two of the kinds of cupcakes we made today - a fuzzy, coconut polar bear face and a green "ho, ho, ho" ornament.

BTW, cupcakes taste great with a glass of rose wine too!

Afiyet olsun!

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Baby Showers in Istanbul

Several of my expat friends here in Istanbul are pregnant.

Of course that means baby showers are happening in all their pink, blue, yellow and green glory!

And that’s what I’ve been up to this week in the kitchen as well - the reason for my blog absence. I've been mixing cake batters, baking cakes, whipping up frostings and perfecting the decorations - and then all the dishes!

For two of my girlfriends, I made a large, round cake - vanilla sponge cake with Meyer Lemon curd and vanilla bean buttercream icing.

Pink fondant hearts for the baby girl and blue ones for the baby boy.

Vanilla sponge cake filled with Meyer Lemon curd and vanilla bean buttercream icing.

Then, for my French friends, today I made happy and sleeping baby boys and girls out of vanilla cupcakes filled with the same tangy lemon curd. Aren’t they just the cutest?

Happy and sleepy baby boys and girls cupcakes.

Sleepy baby girl cupcakes

Happy baby boy cupcakes

It’s been fun to celebrate my friends’ happiness, and I can’t wait to meet their new bundle of joys soon!

Congrats to all the moms-to-be out there!

After all this baking, I think I deserve a weekend break. 

Here's my tangy lemon curd recipe I used in the cakes for my friends.

The decorated table at one of the baby showers complete with the cupcakes as the centerpieces.

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How to Celebrate the Fourth Abroad

While I did miss being back in the U.S.A. this past weekend to celebrate Fourth of July, I decided to make the best of it.

For me that involved food - as most holidays do!

My husband’s parents hosted a slew of relatives over the weekend and did all sorts of barbecuing on the grill - pork ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob. We were able to chat via Skype with everyone and at least say hello while I drooled enviously over the slab of ribs.

Here in Istanbul, I made beef hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, deviled eggs and Red Velvet cupcakes. My friend, Sheryl, made the classic American concoction of a gooey, Velveeta cheese dip and chocolate chip cookies.

An American-style hamburger made in Istanbul with a medium red center,
just the way I like it!

While living abroad as an expat, a holiday you’ve grown up with can suddenly be anything you want it to be. For Fourth of July,  that meant I simply wanted to celebrate with familiar foods and friends. We didn’t have fireworks, but that’s okay. We sat around our dining room table, eating, laughing and having a good time.

Homemade potato salad and deviled eggs garnished with paprika and pul biber.

To celebrate a holiday abroad as an expat, here are some of my thoughts:

1. Make the best of your situation. Try to incorporate some of your family traditions into your own celebration no matter where you are.

2. Ignore the holiday if you want. You don’t have to celebrate it.

3. Cook familiar foods. For Americans, Fourth of July is all about hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, potato salad, pie, etc. I thought about using kiraz to make a cherry pie here, but decided against it because of the workload involved. Instead, Red Velvet cupcakes and my friend’s chocolate chip cookies made great substitutes and are perfect representations of American desserts.

4. Celebrate with friends and neighbors. It doesn’t matter if your friends are French, Turkish, Australian or whatever. Invite them over, cook some food and have a great time!

And that’s exactly what we did!

Afiyet Olsun!

"Grilling" hamburgers and hot dogs inside our apartment.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
(Adapted from Paula Deen’s recipe. Click the link to see the American version. The recipe below uses Turkish substitutes.)

Ingredients:
435 g. pasta/borek unu (flour)
350 g. granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
2 T. cocoa powder

330 ml. ayçiçek yağı (sunflower oil)
2 ea. large eggs, room temperature
230 ml. ayran (or homemade buttermilk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. elma sirkesi (apple vinegar)
1 T. red food coloring (I used a spoonful of Wilton red food coloring paste I found at a bake shop behind the Spice Bazaar in Eminönü.)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C.
2. Use whatever muffin pan you have. I made small and large cupcakes. Line the muffin pans with cupcake papers.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda and cocoa powder.
4. In a large bowl, gently mix together the oil, ayran, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients above. Mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Red Velvet cake is very red!

6. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake papers, about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 18-20 minutes for larger ones and 10-12 minutes for smaller cupcakes. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick or metal skewer for doneness.

7. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
400 g. krem peynir (cream cheese), room temperature
200 g. Dr. Oetker pudra şekeri (powdered sugar)
3-6 T. unsalted butter, room temperature

1. In a medium bowl, cream the krem peynir (cream cheese), using an electric mixer, until smooth.
2. Add the powdered sugar and blend well.
3. Add the unsalted butter. The more you add the richer the frosting will taste.
Tip: I find the frosting to be a bit runnier than what I’m used to in the U.S., so it would not hold its shape. However, it tastes great and works well enough.

My Turklish Red Velvet cupcakes with white and blue frosting.

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Fourth of July in Istanbul

Today, back in the U.S., many friends and family members have the day off to celebrate this American holiday. I can't but help missing all this - the get-togethers, the food and the fireworks - a little bit!

However, I plan to make the best of this day in Istanbul anyway. Hubby is still at work but has asked that I make deviled eggs and grilled hamburgers. The eggs are cooling now. Why celebrate alone? So I've invited another American couple over for dinner.

Dessert will be these red, white and blue Red Velvet cupcakes I baked yesterday. To me, this is definitely an American invention. A little tacky, but oh so tasty!

Happy July 4th to my friends back home and abroad!

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London: Exploring Notting Hill

I started my first day in London with a bacon and egg sandwich and an hour long visit in a bookstore filled with cookbooks.

Basically, that was my idea of heaven!

Enjoy breakfast and a latte at Mike's Cafe in Notting Hill.

On Thursday, I met a friend and her mom in Notting Hill (while hubby was working in the London office). We chatted over a leisurely breakfast and then strolled over nearby to the bookstore, Books for Cooks. The shelves of this darling store, which was recommended by a U.K. friend in Istanbul, are lined with thousands of cookbooks.

Although I could easily have spent hours here, I had a mission of sorts. I had a list of several English cookbooks I wanted to find. The staff assisted me in my mission and provided other recommendations as well. (Tip: The store can ship to anywhere in the world.) In the end, I settled on only 3 books: Jane Grigson’s English Food, British Food by Mark Hix and The Eagle Cookbook by David Eyre and the Eagle chefs.

Running through the center of Notting Hill is Portobello Road. The restored buildings here are reminscent of a Caribbean village with bright hues of turquoise, coral, peach and banana yellow. On Saturdays, the street turns into an outdoor market and is quite crowded, my friend told me.

This lively neighborhood is filled with several antique shops; an Indian fabric and pashmina store; a Spanish grocery store filled with chorizo, cheese and other food items; quaint cafes and coffee shops; and jewelry and trinket stores.

One of the clothing stores was filled with hundreds of antique sewing machines.

One of the antique shops on Portobello Road.

There's also a wonderful cupcake bakery called the hummingbird bakery.

As we passed by the bakery’s window filled with cupcakes, I knew I had to stop in and check it out. To me, cupcakes are very American, and something I rarely see in Istanbul except at Starbucks. The display of cupcakes looked very Easter-like in a range of pastel colors. I bought a chocolate sponge cupcake with buttercream frosting and a red velvet cupcake with a cream cheese frosting. (One cupcake actually made it back for my husband to try!) They were delicious!

For lunch, we had a prix fixe Italian meal at Mediterraneo, located just off Portobello Road. For £14.50 for 2 courses, we each selected the mozzarella, tomato and basil salad and penne pasta with Arrabiata sauce. For dessert, we shared a simple, but well-made panna cotta with fresh berries. These dishes may be Italian classics, but the restaurant prepared them perfectly.

Later in the afternoon, my friend had to leave to pick up her children at school. I continued to wander around the neighborhood and strolled down Kensington Church Street toward Kensington Gardens. Trees were filled with spring blossoms, and many buildings had colorful potted plants hanging outside.

Since my bags were a bit heavy, I decided to return to the hotel and drop them off. Then, I took a 10-minute walk to see the impressive Westminster Abbey and Big Ben for the first time in my life. 

These are two of the city’s iconic landmarks when I think of London. I didn’t go inside the church because I didn’t feel like dealing with all the tourists in the area. I was content just to walk around, gaze at the buildings and enjoy the cool spring breeze.

Another view of the impressive Westminster Abbey.

To see my map of the shops mentioned in the Notting Hill area, please click here.

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