In general, there won't be two Cook Your Way Through YA blogposts this close together, but this is a special circumstance, because I really only covered one of the stories in Almost Midnight by Rainbow Rowell the other day. And there's ANOTHER ENTIRE STORY in that and it's delightful and deserves to be talked about.
The book Almost Midnight is tiny and sparkly and filled with adorable illustrations.
The first section of the book is the short story "Midnights" which I featured in the post that kicked off the new direcion for my blog. The second section is "Kindred Spirits." In "Kindred Spirits," our adorable main character, Elena, spends a few days hanging out in line in anticipation of the release of The Force Awakens. The line is only three people long, it's cold, and there's a code of conduct they must abide by, so parts of the experience is kind of...miserable...for Elena, and not exactly what she'd been imagining. But, she's resolved. The read is fun and funny and charming.
At one point, a local cupcake shop brings them a batch of Star Wars themed cupcakes in exchange for a social media post. So, for today's "Cook Your Way" I thought we'd make some Star Wars cupcakes.
They're going to be these BA Death Star cupcakes with filling that tells you whether you're good or evil. Jedi or Sith. Resistance or First Order.
Quick aside for nerdy cookbook recommendations!
Nerdy Nummies Cookbook by Rosanna Pasino is full of cool and creative nerd-based baked goods. Some are sciencey, some are mathy, some are videogamesy. The start of the book has a handful of base recipes (chocolate cake, white cake, cookies, etc.) and the rest o the book modifies these recipes, or shows you how to decorate them to get a nerdy result. I used the chocolate cake recipe at the start of the book with some personal modifications for the base of the cupcakes that are featured in this blogpost.
Star Wars Cookbook: Wookie Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes by Robin Davis
This book features all sorts of recipes from breakfast foods to desserts, all Star Wars themed, so if you want to have an all-day Star Wars marathon, you can cater the whole day.
We'll start with a chocolate cupcake base. Here's what you'll need:
- 1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
- 2/3 cups of Dutch Cocoa Powder (and to make it extra good, add in a tablespoon of Black Onyx Cocoa Powder)
- 1 1/2 tsps of baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt (I forgot to take a picture of it, but, like, don't forget it, okay?)
- 1 1/3 cups of sugar
- 2/3s cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 can of pumpkin
- 2 tsps vanilla
- 1/3 cup water
Throw all of your dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix it up and make it pretty.
Stir in your can of pumpkin, water, and vanilla.
Fill your cupcake pan with cupcake liners and your cupcake liners with cupcake batter. I usually fill them about 2/3s full.
Bake those suckers at 325(F) for about 20-23 minutes. Check with a knife or a wooden pick or whatever utensil you have handy to make sure they've baked through.
When they're fresh out of the oven, press a spoon into them to create a little divet. Then, let them cool.
In the meantime, we're going to make some frosting! Here's what you'll need:
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
A couple quick things before we get started. First, I've halved this recipe. When I made the cupcakes, I used he full recipe, but it wound up being way more than I needed.
Second, the cupcake base is vegan. The frosting is not. If you want to make the whole thing vegan, you can substitute coconut oil for butter and almond or coconut milk for the milk. You might need to use more vegetable shortening and less coonut oil. Like, instead of 1/4 cup vegetable shortening and 1/4 cup coconut oil, you could do 1/4 cup + 1-1 1/2 tbsp vegetable shortening and 1 1/2-2 tbsp coconut oil.
Okay! Now let's make some frosting. Start by mixing together your shortening, butter, milk, and vanilla. Then, mix in the powdered sugar slowly.
And that's it. Like, that's literally it. You just mix those four ingredients together and then boom. You've got some frosting.
It works best if you use room temperature butter. But, if you're like me and are constantly forgeting to get your butter out of your fridge before you need it, don't panic.
Cut your butter into chunks, set them on a plate, and then set that on top of your oven as your cupcakes are baking. The top of the oven will heat up enough to soften the butter, but not too hot to melt it.
Okay, now let's get down to decorating.
Okay! So, we'll be using the butter cream frosting we just made, red and blue food coloring, gray fondant, and black food-pens.
Separate your frosting into two bowls. With your food coloring, dye half of the frosting blue and half red.
Fill your cupcake craters with frosting.
Roll out your gray fondant and, with a cookie cutter, cut out circles of fondant that are the size of the top of the cupcakes. With a black food pen, draw death stars!
Once you have drawn your death stars, use them to cover your cupcakes.
Now, they're ready to serve.
Oh, good, I'm a Jedi.
No comments:
Post a Comment