Dinner with Julie

Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Icing

When we managed to light all the drippy birthday candles on almost two dozen of these, we sang: happy birthday dear MomandAnneandBenandRoryandHugo! Happy birthday to yooouuuuuu! Between our immediate family, marrieds and offspring, January has become almost as celebratory a month as December.

My mom and sister share the same birthday, and sometime longer ago than I can remember it was decided that spice cake with penuche icing would be their birthday cake. None of the rest of us have a particular cake we must have from year to year, and to be honest I don’t even know if a spice cake could be called their favourite kind of cake anymore, but it gets rolled out annually without question. Usually it comes in layers, with money in between, but I thought we’d streamline things this year, as they’d be served at the second birthday party of the day, with 5 boys 8 and under in the house.

At Party 1, Ben’s 8th, we had a grilled cheese bar (just marble cheddar, white and grainy bread and ketchup, but can you imagine a grilled cheese free-for-all with caramelized onion, crispy bacon, sundried tomatoes, pesto, different cheeses and interesting breads? I can suddenly not wait for my next birthday) and a lemon sheet cake decorated like a hockey rink, complete with strategically placed gummi bears. (Which, my sister calculated, was her 40th homemade birthday cake, when you count the birthdays of all three of her kids. How does one celebrate that? With a cake?) At dinner we ordered Indian/Pakistani food from Mirchi, which was spicy but delicious, and a good price – 8 grown ups and 5 kids ate for under $100.

And the cupcakes. I’m not sure what the technical difference is, but when I think of frosting it’s more of a billowy, Martha-esque cake topping, whereas icing is the more dense, sweet stuff we had on our childhood birthday cakes and cookies and licked off beaters. Penuche is a brown sugar icing that’s traditionally cooked, a method that opens the door to the possibility of overcooking it into a sort of a fudge that while delicious, can easily rip the top off a delicate cupcake as you try to spread it. This time, I dissolved the brown sugar into water, making a sort of syrup which I added to the butter-icing sugar mixture as I beat it, and it worked just fine. I’d venture to call it a foolproof penuche.

Or you could just call it brown sugar icing.

Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Icing

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg and/or allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup canola or mild vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir it in by hand or with the electric mixer on low speed, just until it’s combined. Add about half the milk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour, mixing just until the batter is blended.

Divide the batter between paper-lined muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are springy to the touch. Let them cool tipped in their cups to allow steam to escape. Let cool completely before frosting. Makes about 20 cupcakes.

Brown Sugar Icing

I confess: I didn’t measure the icing sugar, but dumped in the bottom half of the bag. I’d guess it was about 3 cups, but use your judgment – you may need more or less to make it spreadable.

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 cups (ish) icing sugar

In a small bowl or pot, stir together the brown sugar, water and vanilla. If you like, heat to a simmer to dissolve the sugar, or let it sit for a bit, stirring occasionally until the sugar is more or less dissolved. (It doesn’t much matter if there’s still some graininess in the bottom.)

In a medium bowl, beat the butter until creamy; add the icing sugar and about 3/4 of the brown sugar syrup and beat until smooth. Add more sugar or syrup as needed until you have a soft, spreadable icing.

January 22 2011 | cake | 15 Comments »