Pimp My Dessert Club
Ok. So it's my turn to do "Dessert Club" (a rotating pool of people who prepare dessert for everyone on Friday afternoons at work.)
I was inspired recently when Mick sent me (and presumably others) the link to "Pimp My Snack". So: what to pimp? .... hmm.... what to pimp?
I gotta go with a classic. I briefly considered the Twinkie...but I'm really stumped about how to cook one (I'm not sure they are cooked anyway).
Pimping seems to be all about the construction process and since Dessert Club is tommorrow and I can't come up with a way to cook a giant Twinkie....I'll have to go with my second choice: the Hostess Cupcake.
I fondly remember the Hostess Cupcake from my youthful days of school box lunches... that cupcake was the reward for choking down a cheap bolonga sandwich and a luke-warm box of milk.
Ok... if you're starting to lose me... and you didn't click on the "Pimp My Snack" link up there.... go do it now.
On to the pimp....
First I acquire some Hostess Cupcakes... I literally haven't looked at one of these things for probably 20 years...
Hm... I don't remember "Scary Cupcake Man" on the package; but the cupcakes:
seem to be pretty much what I remember. (Though possibly smaller...probably just the "Milk Can Effect"). I seem to remember them being packaged two to a container. I think they were just in plain plastic wrap...though I do remember at some point they came in a molded sort of brown plastic package.
I think I want to go with the dual presentation in clear wrap (as I remember).
The first step: some measurements:
Oh... a note about the pics. ...not great resolution... taken with my cell phone, cause "the little woman" is away for the weekend with the good digital camera. Excellent! I can make a mess in the kitchen without repercussions. (Assuming I remember to clean up...)
Here's my carefully rendered architecture sketch:
Ok... let's take a look on the inside... how do I get this thing open... aha!
Hm... doesn't look like the filling is that precisely laid out...
So here's my plan: --Cook a giant chocolate cake (actually two, since I need more dessert and I feel like going with the classic double-cupcake presentation). --Scoop out the top --Fill with some sort of white stuff --Cover the damage with the frosting. --Apply the traditional 7 loop white frosting decoration.
If we scale up the cupcake by 4x (I think this is really the minimum for a good pimp -- but I am worried about cooking something much bigger in my oven...), that would make the cupcake about 10" across and 5.5" high.
Unfortunately my poor selection of baking pans...
doesn't not contain a 10x6 circular pan with a sloped side.
I do have this one:
which has the perfect shape, but it's only 8" across (do the math- that's a lot less cake and delicious filling!)
I briefly considered quickly making a pan...
...heh...maybe not...I'm in a rush here...and ...err... I do expect that some people I work with might actually want to eat some delicious giant cupcake tommorrow (after having seen this web page)...So... off to the local shop's housewares section:
This pan is about the same as mine (too small)... nice shape though:
The anglefood cake pan is the right shape, but just a bit on the small side. And I'd have to patch the bottom and the top... But the bowl is the perfect size and about the right shape (and I could use a couple more big mixing bowls anyway).
Back at home. I've mixed up a whole bunch of a basic chocolate cake recipe (I won't bore you with the details). Here are the bowls (yes, floured - don't want that cake to stick!) just before I pop them into the oven. I hope that's enough batter...
Well... they took a long time to cook. That's a lot of volume... unfortunately I didn't quite use enough batter, so they are a little smaller than I planned. Ah well... no time to start over now (besides I already used all the eggs...).
The tops are a little marred... no problem though; remember: I'm frosting them anyway.
What to do about filling and frosting...
Huh! It appears that someone's had this idea before (Google is a wonderful thing): This recipe suggests marshmallow fluff.... err... "bleah"....
This one has some better idea... and suggests a pastry cream:
* 1/2 cup Sugar, divided * 1/4 cup Cornstarch * 4 Egg yolks * 2 cups Milk, divided * 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
but frankly I'm a bit worried about the stability of scaling up a pastry cream to the amount I would need to fill my giant cupcakes...so I'm simply going to cop out and use whipped topping - it will be lighter. (Besides I don't have any eggs left and my dessert eaters probably don't need the cholesterol from the 12 egg yolks I'd need to use...) As for the frosting, I think the ganache (which is just a fancy french word for chocolate and cream) is a good idea....
While it cools, I'll carve out the cakes...
And fill them...
And replace the tops...
I popped some of the ganache into the 'fridge to check the consistency... it's not hard enough...so I added some more chocolate and a bit of starch...
The white frosting is just confectioner's sugar with a bit of milk...
The ganache is still cooling...
I need to make the little white cardboard rectangle that goes under the cupcakes... Obvious cardboard is not strong enough... a bit of panelling (carefully covered with wax paper) will work though...
Ok... I frosted them with the ganache. It's a bit messy.
I don't have a piping bag...but that never stopped a pimper! A baggie with the corner cut out will work just fine:
Here's the seven loop design applied:
Darn! It's late and I'm getting impatient. I didn't let it cool enough and it ran...
After some cooling... and patching with extra chocolate... here's the final version, "plated" up on the "cardboard" (with an actual size cupcake for scale).
And here they are! Packaged and ready for dessert!
Final Measurement: 9" diameter. Slightly smaller than 4 times the original.
So these two babies are the equivalent of about 115 of the original sized cupcake treats!
Maybe tommorrow I'll get some cross-section pics when we cut into 'em...
UPDATE: Click here for the pictures from Dessert Club and the Serving of the Giant Hostess Cupcakes.
If you have any questions about my snack, send me some email