“Now, in your version of the story did I paint the frosting on?” He drew his frosting covered finger down the center of her torso. “Or did I decorate the cupcake with a little ...” He pressed the top of the cake onto her nipple, making her gasp.
“I—can’t remember. Maybe ... refresh my memory?”
Quinn pushed her all the way back on the table and leaned down over her, so he could retrace his actions ... with his tongue.
“Still not sure,” she managed, and earned a wicked chuckle as he lifted her hips off the table and slid pants and panties off.
“What time are you meeting Chuck to look at final brochure prints tomorrow?” he asked, as he reached for his pants buckle.
“Eight.”
He grinned. “You might make that.” Then he dipped her other nipple in frosting. “Or not.”
She smiled up at him, then reached up and yanked him down on top of her. “I’ll just blame it on the cupcakes.”
In Sweet Stuff, Lani has Quinn and the rest of the Cupcake Club crew taste-test her newest creation, the Reverse Caramel Apple Cupcake. Just like a caramel apple, but with the caramel coating on the inside as filling. Now, this was a fictional cake—I just made it up—but it got me to thinking ... hmmm ... that would be yummy! So, as part of my ongoing research into all things cupcake, I set about figuring out how to make my own.
Naturally, the first step was to call my mom and find out if we had any great apple cake recipes in the family, and sure enough, we did! She sent me her Johnny Applesauce Cake recipe, which I adapted from loaf pans to cupcakes. Next, I had to figure out the caramel filling. I’m envisioning getting caramels and melting them, or using ice cream topping heated up—something like that. Color me surprised when I found out that you can make your own caramel. From scratch. I mean, of course someone had to make the first caramel at some point, but I thought it was kind of like Oreo cookies, i.e., you can’t make them yourself. Wrong! You can. And I did! (And lived to tell!)
Of course, as soon as I saw words like “candy thermometer” and “360 degrees Farenheit,” I immediately put my local hunky EMT on speed dial. Partly because, if you’ve read my cupcake research blog at www.cakesbythecupblog.com, you know that I’ve learned a local hunky EMT can come in really (really) handy at those times when you’re trying not to blow things up or burn things down. And partly because, if you have a hunky EMT in your life for any reason, why not keep him on speed dial?
So, below is my “every baker” version of Lani’s Reverse Caramel Cupcake. You don’t even have to be a big-time fancy pastry chef to make them. Enjoy!
Reverse Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Johnny Applesauce Cake
½ cup butter (1 stick, cut into pieces)
1¾ cups sweetened applesauce (1-pound can or jar)
2 cups flour (not self-rising)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup raisins or chopped nuts (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 20–24 muffin tins with paper liners.
2. In a small sauce pan, melt cut-up pieces of butter over medium heat.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients except raisins and nuts.
4. If you’re making the cake, add in raisins or nuts and stir thoroughly. (For the purposes of caramel-filled cupcakes, I left out the raisins and nuts.)
5. Add in the applesauce and melted butter, and stir until well blended.
6. Spoon the batter into the paper cups until each is two-thirds full.
7. Bake 20–22 minutes until test toothpick comes out clean, or until a cupcake springs back when lightly touched in center.
8. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
9. Use a paring knife or apple corer to remove the centers of each cake. (Reserve the cored pieces.)
Salted Caramel Filling
2½ cups sugar
cup water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
2½ teaspoons sea salt
1.Heat sugar with the water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over high heat, stirring occasionally, until syrup is clear; clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and stop stirring.
2.Cook until syrup comes to a boil.
3.Boil until mixture is caramelized and just reaches 360 degrees F. (You can swirl the caramel in the pan as it boils to keep it from sticking to the sides, but be very careful as this mixture is very hot.)
4.Remove from heat and slowly pour in cream, stirring with a wooden spoon (plastic can melt at this temperature) until smooth.
5.Stir in sea salt.
5.Fill cupcakes immediately. If caramel begins to harden, heat again until soft.
6.Use a spoon to fill each cupcake with the caramel filling. The caramel will seep into the cake, so add a bit more to fill.
7.Plug the top of the cupcake with a piece of the cored filling before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
1 package powdered sugar (approximately 4 cups)
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1. Beat sugar and butter together, then add milk and vanilla with an electric mixer at low speed until well blended and smooth.
2. If the frosting is too thick, add more milk, one teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is smooth enough to frost the cupcakes.
Makes about 2½ cups frosting for 20–24 cupcakes.
As part of my research for the Cupcake Club Romance series, I’ve been learning all about baking cupcakes. Beginning back in January 2011, I started sharing my adventures in baking with everyone via my author blog at www.donnakauffman.com/blog. , as well as my designated research site, www.cakesbythecupblog.com (named after Lani’s bakery, of course!) It’s become a fun cupcake recipe destination for both readers and cupcake bakers alike. So, last summer, my wonderful publisher Kensington decided to amp up the cupcake excitement by launching the Original Cupcake Recipe contest. The prize? One very lucky reader would see his or her recipe published in an upcoming Cupcake Club Romance book. The contest was on!
Word spread quickly, and recipes started coming in from all over the world. Then Amazon.com heard about the contest, and asked if they could be part of the cupcake fun and judge the final round. Of course, we said yes! It was very challenging narrowing the field down to the final three, but we did, then sent off samples of the finalist cupcakes to Seattle for Amazon’s final decision. They were so torn between Chocolate Meringue, Sweet Peach Tea, and the Fluffy Elvis that they asked to have the recipes sent their way for an in-house bake-off! In the end, it was close ... but see the winning recipe below, submitted by Stephanie Gamverona, all the way from South Korea. (And if you’re curious about the other two finalists, see the blogs mentioned above for those recipes.) We were thrilled with Amazon’s choice. Stephanie’s Sweet Peach Tea cupcake recipe truly embodied everything we thought was perfect for Sweet Stuff and the Cupcake Club Romance series, from the wonderful Georgia locale of the books to the complexity of the flavor profiles in the cake itself. This recipe is truly worthy of a cupcake that would be featured at Lani’s Cakes by the Cup bakery. Enjoy! (I certainly did.)
Sweet Peach Tea Cupcakes
Sweet Tea Butter
1 cup unsalted butter
32 grams (about cup) whole-leaf or loose-leaf black1 tea
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter on medium-high heat until just melted.
2. Add tea leaves.
3. Continue heating mixture for about 5 minutes on low heat. Make sure mixture does not reach simmering point.
4. Remove from heat and allow to stand for another 5 minutes.
5. Pour mixture through fine sieve, pressing hard on tea leaves to squeeze out as much butter as possible.
6. Let tea-infused butter cool to room temperature and refrigerate until solid.
7. Use for Tea Cupcakes recipe below.
Tea Cupcakes
1½ cups sugar
Zest of 1 medium-size lemon
cup Sweet Tea Butter
3 eggs
½ teaspoon ground ginger2
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup milk
1 cup finely chopped overripe peaches3
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line muffin tins with paper or foil baking cups, and spray lightly with cooking spray.
3. In a small mixing bowl, mix sugar and lemon zest. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes.
4. In a large mixing bowl, stir Sweet Tea Butter with lemon sugar until mixture is smooth.
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
6. Beat in ginger.
7. Beat in flour, one cup at a time, alternating with tablespoons of milk.
8. Gently fold in peaches.
9. Fill prepared cupcake liners two-thirds full.
10. Bake 18–23 minutes.
11. Frost with Peach Whipped Cream Frosting when completely cooled.
Peach Whipped Cream Frosting
1 cup heavy whipping cream
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup lightly sweetened peach puree or peach preserves
1. In a large mixing bowl, place whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar, and stir with wire whisk to combine.
2. Cover bowl, and chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
3. When chilled, beat the mixture until soft peaks form.
4. Add sweetened peach puree a little at a time, beating just until stiff peaks form when whisk is raised.
5. Taste, and fold in more puree, if required.
6. Frost Tea Cupcakes once cupcakes are completely cooled.
Makes approximately 18 cupcakes.
Did you miss the first book in The Cupcake Club series? Go back and read SUGAR RUSH!
“Take charge,” she said flatly. “With Baxter. How often has anyone been successful doing that? Oh, right. Never.”
“I’m simply saying—”
“Charlotte has a point,” Franco chimed in. “At least you can let him know that you know what’s going on, and set the tone for how you’re going to handle it with him. You don’t work for him anymore, you don’t run his place anymore, you aren’t beholden to him for anything, Leilani. Think about it. He has no hold on you.”
Oh, if only that were true, Lani thought, then paused, hands ready at the squeeze. Franco did have a point, though. She really hadn’t thought about the situation like that. Not in a purely professional sense. She’d been confronting the news like the woman she’d been before leaving New York, the one still pathetically half in love with a clueless man who’d have never even noticed her if it weren’t for her crazy mad baking skills.
But she wasn’t that woman any longer. Not entirely, anyway. It hadn’t been all that long since she’d left New York for good, but so much had happened since she’d come to Sugarberry. Her entire life had changed. She had changed. “You know, maybe you’re right.”
A short cheer went up on the other end of the line.
“I want to hear every detail,” Charlotte said.
“You go, ma chérie amour!” Franco sang out.
A series of buzzers going off came through the speaker. “I’ve got to go, the cakes are coming out,” Charlotte said hurriedly.
“We’ve been making solidarity cakes this morning in support of you, ma chère,” Franco said. “We’re featuring your to-die-for black walnut spice cakes with cream cheese and cardamom frosting as today’s special.”
“Thanks, you guys,” Lani said sincerely.
“Every detail! Call me!” Charlotte ordered before clicking off.
Lani stood there, pastry bag still at the ready, and looked at the racks in front of her. And thought about her friends in New York. Solidarity cakes. Salvation cakes. “Healing the disgruntled, displaced, and just plain dissed,” she said, smiling briefly. “One cake at a time.”
She and Charlotte knew a lot about that. They’d been friends since culinary school. Charlotte had more actual business experience than Lani, as she’d gone straight to work post-graduation as a pastry chef for a small boutique hotel in midtown, while Lani had gone overseas to continue her studies in Belgium and France. Lani’s mom and dad had moved from D.C. to Sugarberry shortly after that.
It had been a time full of transition and change, but also one of promise and excitement. Lani’s best friend had been launching her career in earnest while Lani was grabbing the chance to learn at the hands of Europe’s best. For her dad, it had been retirement from the D.C. police force and taking on a very different challenge in Georgia ... and for her mom, who’d grown up in Savannah, it had been a chance to go back home again, to a place she’d always missed dearly.
Lani and Char had kept in touch throughout that time, their friendship only deepening as their separate experiences widened their respective paths and boosted their dreams. When Lani had come back, Char was still in New York, having already worked her way up to executive pastry chef at the same hotel. Franco was on board by then as her right hand and had quickly become Lani’s other best friend. Lani had gotten an offer in the city, as a staff baker for a well-known restaurant in a five-star, Upper East Side hotel. The same hotel that had just brought on board the hottest import from the U.K. America was the new playground for the young and impetuous, and ridiculously charismatic Baxter Dunne.
He’d risen quickly, and had taken Lani with him, plucking her from the ranks to make her his personal assistant and pro-tégé when he’d opened Gateau a miraculous eighteen months later. His had been a rare, meteoric rise in a very challenging and competitive industry. By the time he’d made his move to the television cooking world three years later, his immediate dominance hadn’t surprised anyone.
Lani blinked away mental images of him, how he’d been then, how totally infatuated she’d been with his charisma and his talent almost from the moment she’d first set foot in that Upper East Side kitchen. Okay, the lust had started before then. She’d known a lot about him, more than most, having heard quite a bit during her time in Europe. He was three years younger than her, and light-years ahead in every way measurable in their field. The baker in her wanted to be him when she grew up. And, the woman in her wanted to be with him as a grown-up. It had been harmless idolatry and fantasy.
Then she’d gotten the opportunity of a lifetime.
She’d been convinced the heavens and fates were sending her a direct message when she’d tried for, and gotten the job working under him.
Under him.
Lani made a face at that unfortunate double entendre and moved to a fresh rack of cupcakes, forcing her thoughts back to the job at hand.
The pathetic irony was that she’d wished she had been under him. In every possible sense. Then everyone else had speculated, quite nastily, that the very same thing was actually happening. When it wasn’t. Lose-lose.
The competition in any kitchen was fierce, but with a rising star like Baxter running the show, the battle to dominate his kitchen was downright apocalyptic, the chance to make a name and launch huge careers the spoils of winning the war. He was the epitome of the golden boy, from his looks to his demeanor, to his unparalleled talent. The speculation regarding their relationship was the hot topic of the day, every day. Fueled by jealousy, fear, and paranoia, the chatter was nasty and vicious. And not particularly quiet.
In order to keep up with the chaotic pace and the insane demands, every kitchen had to work like a well-oiled machine, which meant teamwork in the most basic sense. It was a close, if not close-knit, environment, where you worked all but on top of each other. There was no place to go, no place to hide. And certainly no place to speak privately. Not that the gossips would have bothered to, anyway.
Every chance they got, at least when Baxter didn’t have her working right by his side, they’d done everything they could to undermine her.
As her esteem had risen in his eyes, and he’d given her more and more preferential treatment, the gossip had just gotten uglier and uglier. What could he possibly see in the mousy girl from D.C. who was too nice to know better? What made her so special? That Lani was certain she’d looked at Baxter like the pathetic little smitten kitten she’d been only made the whole ordeal even more painful to recall. She’d tried to rein that part in when she’d realized what was happening, heard what was being said. She knew she was only hurting herself further with her stupid crush, personally and professionally.
Of course, at some point, as it all escalated, she’d privately thought—hoped—that Baxter would ride to her rescue. He was the white knight, after all, wasn’t he?
So many illusions had been shattered, so rapidly. She was tougher than any of them had thought, her time overseas preparing her in ways many of them couldn’t have imagined. She was calm and well mannered because she chose to be, not because she was some silly ninny who couldn’t defend herself. She simply chose not to, as any attempt would be drowned out by the chorus against her, anyway. She’d rather hoped her hard work and Baxter’s faith in her would speak for her, but that hadn’t been the case. So, ultimately, she’d figured out that if she wanted to survive there, the easiest path was simply to stay in her own world, build a certain kind of calm around her, where she could focus on learning. And on Baxter. Preferably doing both at the same time. But ... not always.
She’d endured almost five years of that constant bedlam. And, in doing so, had learned more, professionally, from Baxter, than she’d ever hoped. She had no regrets. So what if Baxter never had come to her rescue? So what if he had, in fact, thrown her directly to those very same wolves when he’d left for the bright lights of his own brand new television show, and put Gateau, his baby, essentially in her hands? She’d done it, hadn’t she? She’d shown them all.
Sweet Stuff Page 30
