Winner Bakes All (9 page)

Chocolate Chili Cupcakes

Makes 12

1 cup all-purpose flour

½
cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½
teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 egg

½
cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

½
teaspoon vanilla

½
cup warm water

2 tablespoons cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the muffin pan.

2. Mix together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper.

3. Add the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and warm water. Mix until smooth and combined.

4. Divide batter evenly among the cups, filling each ¾ full.

5. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

6. Cool cupcakes and frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

7. Lightly sift cocoa powder on top.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 2 cups frosting

4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup cream cheese

4 cups of confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

2. Add confectioners' sugar and salt. Beat until most of the sugar is moistened, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

3. When the mixture is fully combined, add vanilla.

4. Increase speed and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Recipes developed by Jessi Walter, Founder and Chief Bud at Taste Buds Kitchen (
www.tastebudskitchen.com
).

It's a lot of fun to stage a baking battle in your own kitchen. I've done it tons of times with friends—and the best part is eating whatever you make! Everyone's a winner!

1. Divide your friends into two or three teams—and pick a name for your teams. For example, “Sweet Sensations” or “Cupcake Queens.” I like to make a poster with our team name on it. It puts you in the mood!

2. Pick older members of your family—like your mom, dad, or siblings—to be the judges. (Younger ones can help, too.) The adults can also help you put cupcakes in the oven and take them out.

3. Come up with a theme for the cupcake battle. I've done lots of different themes, like “Pirates and Princesses,” “Easter Eggs,” and “Haunted Halloween.” I've even done one to celebrate the royal wedding in England! Any occasion or idea is a great one! I decide ahead of time so I can provide my friends with cupcake decorations and wrappers that match the theme.

4. Set the timer for
exactly
60 minutes. The cupcakes should take about 20 minutes to bake, which leaves you enough time to mix, cool, decorate, and display your cupcakes. Pick one flavor to bake for both teams (unless you have two mixers and can make two flavors).

5. Your team gets to decide how they will color, fill, and frost the cupcakes. Here's how you set yourself apart from the competition! For Halloween, we made gross green frosting ooze out of a chocolate cupcake. Then we put gummy spiders on top. Make sure each team has a lot of choices: fill small cups with different types of candies, sprinkles, and chips. You can also provide food coloring (to dye your cupcake batter) and fondant (to make small figures or decorations).

6. Make sure the judge sets a timer and tells you every 5 to 10 minutes how much time is remaining. It's a lot of fun when you know the clock is ticking down…that makes it even more exciting and like a real cupcake battle.

7. After you have frosted your cupcakes, display them creatively. I have a cupcake tower so I love to stack mine high. You could also serve them in a circle, on a silver platter, with bows around the wrapper, any way you think will impress the judges!

8. Finally, ask your judges to rate the cupcakes on taste, decoration, and theme. I like to give the winner a cupcake-themed prize, like some pretty cupcake wrappers or a cupcake charm. Congrats!

For more cupcake news, reviews, recipes, and tips, check out Carrie's website:
www.carriescupcakecritique.shutterfly.com
and Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/PLCCupcakeClub
. You can also email her at [email protected].

Girls start your ovens!
The Cupcake Club is back with an even sweeter story and mouthwatering recipes to match!

The girls of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes volunteer to make a
giant
cupcake wedding tower for Jenna's mom's wedding in Las Vegas. But in the midst of all the excitement, Jenna has mixed emotions about her new family. She's worried that her new stepdad will want to move the family closer to his work and she doesn't want to leave her school or her friends. Meanwhile, the girls' new teacher, Juliette, announces she's getting married, too. And she wants PLC to make the cupcakes for the reception! Will the girls be able to pull off two weddings in just one weekend?

The aroma of her madre's
magdalenas
rising in the oven made Jenna Medina open her eyes and leap out of bed—even though it was 6 a.m. on a Sunday and the sun was barely up. The light, sweet muffins with just a hint of lemon zest were one of her favorite breakfasts and her mom's specialty, usually reserved for special occasions. It wasn't her birthday…or any of her siblings'. So why the special treat?

“Where are you going?” her big sister Gabriella grumbled. “It's too early.”

“Go back to sleep,” Jenna whispered. She hoped her Mami would give her a delicate pastry right out of the oven before they were all gobbled up. That was the thing about having two older sisters and twin younger brothers—you had to fight for your share of practically everything, from food to clothes to the TV remote.

“As if I could ever sleep with all the snoring that goes on in this room!” Gabby gestured to the bunk bed above her, where her oldest sister, Marisol, was making a loud, hissing sound through her nose.

“She's worse than you are…and that's saying a lot!” Gabby groaned. She pulled the pillow over her head, trying to drown out the racket. Sharing a room with two sisters wasn't easy!

“
Buena suerte
…good luck!” Jenna chuckled. She wrapped the purple fuzzy cupcake robe her BFF Kylie gave her for Christmas over her PJs. “I'm going to see what Mami is up to.”

She tiptoed down the hall of their small apartment. She could hear her mother banging around in the cupboard. Uh, oh, Jenna suddenly thought. I hope we didn't use up all her sugar on our last cupcake order.

Peace, Love, and Cupcakes—the club and cupcake business Jenna and her four friends Kylie, Lexi, Sadie, and Delaney ran while trying to be normal fifth graders—had a knack for baking up a storm. Their last batch of St. Patrick's Day cupcakes had used up four dozen of her mom's eggs, Jenna recalled. Not to mention all that food coloring, flour, and vanilla extract. Kylie was sure she had bought enough to make their weekly order of 200 cupcakes for The Golden Spoon gourmet shop and four more dozen custom orders. But then Lexi decided she needed to experiment more with the color of the icing.

“I'm not sure I like the green,” she sighed, piping it on a vanilla cupcake. “Does it say St. Patty's or split pea soup to you?”

Jenna shrugged. “It kinda says ‘spinach stuck in your teeth' to me. I'd put in a little more blue—but you're the artist.”

Lexi closed one eye and squinted out of the other. “I say….back to the drawing board!” Jenna wasn't surprised; when it came to icing color, Lexi was very picky.

Each of the girls in the club had a special talent: Lexi created beautiful fondant decorations and elegant swirls of frosting on each cupcake. Sadie was the most coordinated, able to crack and egg in one hand while stirring chocolate on the stove with the other. Kylie was the club's president—which meant she kept track of orders, organized meetings and baking schedules, and generally kept everything running smoothly (most of the time!). Jenna liked to think of Kylie as PLC's “lemon zest”—she added a “kick” to the club, whenever they needed a little push or inspiration. She reminded them what was really important (“friends and frosting!”).

Delaney—who joined PLC after Kylie met her in sleepaway camp—had become the club's DJ. Anytime the girls were stressing over a crazy deadline, she'd crank up her MP3 player and break into song and dance (usually Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, or Adele). It was so much fun, and got everyone pumped up. When Jenna complained last week that she was tired of the usual soundtrack and wanted some Latin rhythms, Delaney obliged. She jumped on the couch and sang J.Lo's “Let's Get Loud” into a wooden spoon. Delaney was a riot—and the only person she knew who could sing the entire “Gangnam Style” in the original Korean!

“How did you memorize that?” Sadie gasped. “I can barely memorize my multiplication tables!”

Delaney smiled. “I am a whiz with lyrics. Anything I need to learn, I sing. I got a 98 on my American History test because I could rap the entire Preamble!”

Then there was Jenna. Kylie made her the official “taster” for the cupcake club right after their first meeting. Jenna had to admit she had some talented tastebuds. She could tell with one bite what type of vanilla (Madagascar? Tahitian? Mexican?) or brand of chocolate (Callebaut from Belgium? Amadei from Italy? El Rey from Venezuela?) went into a cake batter. While other kids at Blakely Elementary teased her about being overweight, her friends never judged her. That was the thing about PLC: everyone appreciated each other for the unique talents they possessed—and the special people they were.

And in a family of five kids where she landed smack in the middle, being appreciated was all Jenna ever wanted. She felt most of the time like she got lost in the crowd. She wasn't as pretty as Gabby or as smart as Marisol. And her twin brothers, Enrique and Emanuel, were just too much trouble to compete with. They were seven years old and in first grade at Blakely. Kylie nicknamed them “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum,” but Jenna preferred “The Disaster Duo.” Wherever they went, chaos followed.

This morning was no different: the living room looked like a tornado had swept through it. There were toys, blocks, sneakers—even a tube of toothpaste—scattered around the room. Manny was busy building with Legos in a corner and Ricky….where was Ricky?

“You the only one up?” Jenna asked, peering behind the sofa and in the closet. Ricky loved to jump out and scare her to death, and she suspected that's what he was plotting.

“He's with Mami mixing cake,” Manny pointed to the kitchen. “He says he's going to join your cupcake club.”

Jenna bristled at the thought. That's all she needed: her crazy little brother finger painting the walls of Blakely with frosting. She knew Kylie would feel the same, but Juliette, their club advisor, always reminded them “the more the merrier.” She didn't think anyone who wanted to join a club should be excluded. She had never met Ricky.

“Cake? You mean
magdelenas
. My favorite Spanish sweet!” Jenna replied.

“No. She said it's a wedding cake.”

Jenna looked puzzled. “A wedding cake? Why would Mami be making a wedding cake?”

Manny scratched his nose—that's what he did whenever he was thinking something over. “Dunno.”

“Ay,
dios mio
!” Jenna exclaimed. It was her Spanish version of “OMG.” She would have to get to the bottom of this.

She barged through the kitchen door and found her mother and Ricky at the counter frosting a white cake.

“
Buenos dias, mija
!” her mom smiled brightly.

Ricky held up his hands, covered in frosting. “
Hola
, Jenna!”

“Everyone is up so early today,” said a voice behind her. It was her mother's boyfriend, Leo. Jenna spun around and gave him an icy stare. What was
he
doing here?

He tried to kiss her on the top of her head, but Jenna pulled away. Hadn't she made it clear every time he was here that she didn't like him? She'd practically ignored him the entire Christmas Eve dinner, keeping her face buried in her plate of
cordero asado
—her mom's famous roast lamb.

“You're very quiet, Jenna,” Leo remarked. “Hope you're not feeling baaaa-d.” Manny and Ricky cracked up and began making more barnyard animal sounds.

Jenna didn't glance up once from her plate. She didn't know what her mother saw in this guy! He thought he was funny…but he wasn't. And no one was about to out-pun her.

She picked up a plate of veggies and pushed it under his nose. “Would you like some? You know what they say at the holidays: ‘Peas on Earth, good will towards man?'”

Leo slapped his hand on his thigh. “Now
that's
a great one!” he laughed out loud. “But I find your mother's orange flan more a-pealing. Get it? Oranges are a-pealing?” He continued to laugh till his cheeks turned red and his eyes watered.

Jenna glanced around the table: everyone was cracking up at his dumb joke. Everyone except her.

“He's very handsome and smart,” Marisol leaned over and whispered. What did she know? She was a freshman in high school and totally boy crazy!

“And he works in manufacturing for Ralph Lauren, the famous fashion designer,” Gabby sighed. “Do you think he could get me that red gown Taylor Swift wore to the Grammy's for my middle school dance?”

Jenna's mom was just as smitten as her sisters. From the moment Leo came into her cleaning store and remarked how beautiful and neat her stitches were, she was practically head over heels.

“We have so much in common,” she told Jenna. “We both love fashion, and the Yankees, and food! Leo loves my cooking!”

Well, that was clear! He made himself a guest in their apartment every other Friday night for dinner—whenever it was his ex-wife's turn to take their daughter.

“He's such a devoted Papi to his little girl,” her mom cooed.

Jenna's dad was anything but devoted. The way she remembered it, he had packed his bags suddenly one day when she was five years old and the twins were babies. He was always traveling for work, so goodbyes were nothing unusual. She remembered that he simply kissed her on both cheeks and walked out the door. No explanation; no long goodbye. Most of the other details were fuzzy: her mom crying, her sister Marisol standing at the door and waiting for him to return. But he never did. It was like he simply vanished off the face of the Earth. She knew Marisol pretended he was dead—at least that's what she told her friends. But Jenna knew the truth—her
abuela
had shared it when she came to visit her relatives in Ecuador last summer.

“Do you want to talk to him?” her grandmother asked her one day. “He lives in Ecuador. He has another family now. But I can call if you like.”

Jenna shook her head. “No. He's gone.” She could never forgive him and she didn't need him. The Medinas stood by each other and they survived. Jenna's mom got a job as a seamstress in a dry cleaning store, and her two sisters worked there after school and on weekends when they got older. They didn't have a lot of money or a lot of “stuff,” but they had each other, and that's all they ever needed.

Until
he
came along.

“Leo's a really nice guy,” Marisol told her. “He makes Mami happy.”

Jenna wanted to see her mother happy. She wanted to see her not working so hard all the time and falling asleep in her armchair in the living room before the evening news. But she wasn't convinced that Leo was the answer. He tried too hard—and it got on her nerves.

On her birthday in January, he showed up with an extravagant present. “I hear you're a Yankees fan like your mother,” he said. He tossed her an autographed ball. “That's A. Rod's signature.”

Jenna caught it and rolled it between her fingers. “Wonder how much I can get for this on Ebay?”

“Jenna!” her mother scolded her in Spanish. “
Dar
las gracia
s
!”

But Jenna wasn't about to say “Thank you” or apologize for how she felt. Nothing he could do or say would ever change that. But Leo kept pushing.

Today, he was determined to show his expertise in the kitchen. This should be good for a laugh, Jenna smirked. He tied on one of her mother's aprons and stuck a finger in the vanilla frosting.

“Hmmm,
delicioso
!” he said, taking a lick. He then kissed her mother on the lips. Jenna wrinkled her nose and turned away.

“I see where you get your baking talent from, Jenna,” he added. “You know my daughter Madison is your age. I told her about your cupcake club and she said it sounded—I quote—‘awesome.' Maybe she could join your club?

First Ricky wanted to join PLC…now ‘Maddie'? Things were getting worse by the moment!

“You like my cake?” her mother asked Leo.

“It's
bonita
, Betty…just like you.”

If they kiss again I'm going to scream! Jenna thought.

“It's a wedding cake,” Ricky piped up.

“No, not a wedding cake. An engagement cake,” her mother corrected him.