Sweet Corn Cupcakes w/ Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Monday, June 23, 2008

For today's adventure in baking, I chose the Sweet Corn & Maple Cupcakes. I skipped any and all references to bacon.

I chose this recipe as my first adventure for two reasons:

1.) We had ONE small ear of corn left in the fridge. It definitely wasn't big enough to make any sort of dinner for the two of us, but we left it hanging in food limbo because we didn't want to waste it.

2.) David is a big fan of bartering; in the spring he did some computer work for a family of farmers & maple syrup producers (love living in Western Massachusetts!) and they gave him a GIANT jug of 100% natural maple syrup as payment. We've been trying to use it as often as possible, but neither of us is big on "heavy" breakfasts with pancakes or waffles, you know? (Cake for breakfast?)

Ingreeds, in general.

I deviated from the recipe a little, mostly for the sake of convenience. Sugar is listed twice in the recipe, once for 3/4 of a cup and then again towards the end for another 1/4 of a cup (??). I cut out that last 1/4, and when I tasted the batter it was DEFINITELY sweet enough without it. Holy cow, trust me.

Also, there was less than a cup of corn after I got done shaving the ear that we had- it was more like half a cup. Other than that, though, I stuck to the recipe's guns. Well. Sort of.

Now look, I like to bake, alright? But no one ever said I was this expert who knew all the tricks. I get that you mix the dry and wet ingredients separately and I get that you pour the wet in to the dry SLOWLY while mixing the two together. That's basically the extent of my "technique." Accordingly, I had a few fumbles with this recipe, all having to do with the egg yolks and the egg whites.

Eggs creep me out, I'm going to be honest. I wanted the "egg" portion of this recipe to be as quick and painless as possible and didn't even read that part of the recipe very closely. I saw that it called for 4 egg yolks and 5 egg whites, and that was enough for me. Apparently I was supposed to separate all whites from all yolks, and then "whip" the egg whites on their own before adding them to the batter. What I actually did, though, was dump them all in at once and not whip shit.


Me, not whipping shit.

Adding the corn felt *wrong* somehow, which was awesome. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of how the corn would adapt to everything else (namely all the sugar and cream cheese), but went forth faithfully and with trust. Once it was all mixed, I used a soup ladle to get it from the bowl into the baking cups. It just seemed more logical to me somehow, since I was spooning out all this corn and stuff. Wooden spoons be damned, I am not ashamed.


Ladle, ladle, ladle

After I stuck the cupcake pan in the oven, I did the dishes and started on the frosting. Oh, the frosting.

Yes, it's delicious, but dudes- frosting is GROSS. I don't think I've ever made frosting from scratch before (just canned, or the "add water only" kind) and I honestly had no idea that frosting is essentially just butter and sugar. Lots and lots and LOTS of butter and sugar. Nevermind that I picked the recipe with the CREAM CHEESE frosting, right? I swear every step of the way I felt like I was sinning- hands down, good old fashioned, raised catholic SINNING. Just when I thought I might lose my mind entirely, the timer went off letting me know the cupcakes were done.


My surprisingly well adjusted domes

I'm really disappointed that technology has not yet been invented which would have allowed me to share the AMAZING SMELL of these cupcakes coming out of the oven with you all. Considering I only used half a cup of corn instead of a whole one, I was surprised at how distinct the corn smell was. And it smelled GOOD, holy-cow-good. It was exactly what I needed after the shell shock of the frosting.

After cooling and whatnot, I frosted them and tried one. !!!!! Success! Success! Sweet, sweet success. As you can imagine they're a little on the heavy side with the frosting and all, but they're delicious and I can't wait to share them! Anyone wanna come over and have one?



Click for full-sized goodness!