“Icing on the Cupcake” @ BookPeople Tuesday

Apr 5, 2010 by Cynthia    2 Comments    Posted under: Austin-tatious Events, Bookworm Reviews, Now She's Cookin'

If you’re a voracious reader with a sweet tooth, here’s a treat that’s sure to get your mouth watering. In the vein of the bestselling book “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert, featuring the powerful healing and redemptive properties of food, comes a fictional tale of a young woman who decides to start a new, delicious life for herself by opening a bakery after being jilted by her fiancé. “The Icing on the Cupcake” takes place in Dallas, Texas, and was written by Austin resident Jennifer Ross, a former Wall Street Journal reporter. The persona of this little upstart bakery, from which the book takes its name, is similar in feel to local dessert spots like Amy’s Ice Creams, with a friendly and funny waitstaff who like to put on a show for customers. Protagonist Ansley Waller finds herself through the difficult but sweet journey of building her bakery business and to top it all off, the book includes several decadent cupcake recipes that author Ross (a lifelong baking enthusiast herself) collaborated with a professional baker to produce.

Ross’ Sprinkles book tour kicks off with a release party at BookPeople on Tuesday, April 6, at 7 pm. Attendees are invited to bring their prized cupcake recipes to share in the cupcake tasting contest and enjoy along with complimentary Tito’s Vodka cocktails. Following the contest will be a book signing and reading by Ross. The tour also includes a stop in Dallas on April 13 as well as other select cities. For a sneak peek at one of the book’s chapters (including a cupcake recipe for “Everyone Likes A Cream Cheese Filling” pasted below), just click here.

Everyone Likes A Cream Cheese Filling Recipe (Yield: 14 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup or 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• chopped 1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground salt, either sea or ionized

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Place 14 paper liners into cupcake trays.
• Cream butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add eggs and beat another two minutes.
• Add buttermilk and vanilla.
• Boil water and mix with chocolate.
• Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into bowl.
• Alternate mixing into the batter the flour mixture and the chocolate mixture. Start and end with the flour mixture.
• Pour the batter into the paper liners. Fill two-thirds of the way to the top.
• Drop the filling into the center of each cupcake. You will see part of it peek out of the top.
• Bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
• Let cool for five minutes and then move the cupcakes to a baking rack.

Filling:

• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 4 ounces peanut butter

To Make The Filling:

• Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter together with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.

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