Cupcake in an Egg Shell

        Egg shaped things are so cute, don't you think?  There are egg-shaped lip balm, chairs, and chocolates. And I had a little freak-out moment when I saw these egg-shaped marshmallows.  So naturally, egg-shaped cupcakes will be adorable.

I took these to a picnic.  The best way to transport them is in an egg carton, of course. 

       These cakes are baked in real egg shells.  And yes, you do use some of the egg within the shells to make the cake batter.  There's also a little "yolk" in the middle which I made from pastry cream.  The pastry cream also uses an egg that I emptied from a shell, and I found a pastry cream recipe that uses the whole egg, so I didn't have to worry about adding egg whites to the 16 de-shelled eggs I have in my fridge (omelettes, anyone?)

I had to use food coloring to make the filling more yolk-colored.

        The cake recipe I used was from The Cupcake Project, which also provided instructions for baking the cakes in the egg shells.  The cake is spongy and soft, with a great lemony flavor.  Perfect for spring. And it goes so well with the creamy filling.  The Cupcake Project's recipe uses a cream cheese filling for the yolk, but I didn't have any cream cheese so I used pastry cream instead.  Let me just say the pastry cream was amazing.

         You don't have to dye the egg shells, but I did.  It's really a lot of fun. To dye them:  Prepare one bowl for each color you want with 1/2 cup of boiling hot water mixed with 1 tbs of white vinegar and 6 drops of food coloring.  Drop in the egg shells and let soak for about 5 minutes, or until the desired shade is reached.  You can soak the eggs in more than one color, too. Let the egg shells dry with the hole side down on top of paper towels.
         
         To make these eggs even more irresistible, I decided to dip some de-shelled cakes in chocolate.  Just melt some chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over simmering water, dip in the cakes, and freeze them until the chocolate is hardened.  Then you will have something similar to those Easter candies, only much, much awesomer.

Cross-section

     Here's how you make them:

Make a small hole at one end of the egg.  Corkscrew bottle openers work really well here.  And you know how when you squeeze an egg from all sides, it won't break?  Use that principle here.  Tightly grip the circumference of the egg as you poke the hole to avoid breaking the whole thing.  

Widen the hole a bit with your fingers.

Dump out the egg.  You'll need something pointy, like the end of a thermometer or a skewer to help the eggs come out.  Dump two eggs in one bowl, and one egg in another to use for the cake and filling recipes.  The rest, you can do whatever you want with.  It would be helpful to store them in containers of two so you can measure the eggs out for baking more easily.  And here's a helpful fact: one large egg is 2 oz in weight.
This process of emptying the eggs gets easier as you go along, trust me.

Rinse out the eggs and soak them in saltwater for 30 minutes. Now you can dye the eggs if you want.    

Make the pastry cream. 

You can tint the cream yellow or orange to make it more yolk-like.

For the batter, whip the eggs (reserved from when you dumped out the egg shells) with the sugar. 

Add the butter and lemon extract.

Fold in the dry ingredients.

Lighten the dough by folding in some sour cream.  (I had just enough sour cream left in my fridge from when I made my nest cupcakes last week!)

Put the eggshells in a cupcake pan, using foil to help them stand upright.  Fill the egg 1/4 way with batter, then 1/2 way with pastry cream, and finally 3/4 way with more batter.  Here, it's better to overfill than under-fill, because you can always trim off the excess later (and eat it). 

You can use a piping bag with a smallish tip and/or a squeezy bottle to pipe the batter into the egg shell.

Bake the egg shells, and they'll look something like this. Let them cool, trim off any excess if you want to, and then  get  kraken.  You can also carefully peel off the shells and dip the cakes in chocolate like in the pictures above.

   So there you go, cakes baked in egg shells.  They do take some time and effort to make, but the result is very interesting.  You eat these just as you would a hard-boiled egg.  Crack it, peel of the shell, and enjoy.  April Fools idea:  give someone one of these and tell them it's a hard-boiled egg.  It'll be priceless. 

    Enjoy!

Lemon Cupcakes with Pastry Cream Filling, Baked in Eggshells

makes 18 large eggs

adapted from Cupcake Project and Tartine

Ingredients

For the egg shells:

18 large eggs (shells only)

1/2 cup hot water +1 tbs vinegar + 6 drops food coloring (for each color you want to dye the eggs, optional)

For the pastry cream "yolks":

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbs cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg (2 oz) (from empying egg shells)

2 tbs butter, cut into pieces

a couple drops orange food coloring (optional)

For the cake batter:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt

2 large eggs (4 oz) (from emptying egg shells)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 tsp lemon extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Directions

For the egg shells:

1. Take something pointy (like a corkscrew bottle opener) and, while firmly holding the egg in all directions, poke a small hole in the bottom of the egg.  Widen the hole a bit with your fingers, and then  coax out the egg innards with a skewer or the end of a thermometer.  Repeat with the rest of the eggs, reserving 2 eggs in one bowl and 1 egg in a separate bowl (for the cake and filling).
2. Rinse out the eggshells, and then soak in saltwater for 30 minutes.  Rinse again with cold water to remove the salt.  Dye the eggshells by soaking them in the hot water/ vinegar/ food coloring mixture for about 5 minutes.  
3. Let the eggshells dry for a bit with the hole side facing down on top of paper towels.
4. Place the eggshells in a cupcake tin, wrapping squares of aluminum foil around them to help them stand up straight.

For the pastry cream:

1. In a small saucepan, combine the milk, vanilla, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, cornstarch, and sugar.  Slowly add the milk mixture in a thin stream, whisking constantly.
3. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and starts to boil.
4. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.  Then stir in the butter and optional food coloring until combined.  Set aside.

For the cake batter:

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar on high speed, until light and fluffy.  Add the butter and lemon extract and mix until well combined.
3. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
4. Fold in the sour cream.

For assembly:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Fill 2 piping bags fitted with small tips with the batter and the pastry cream.  
3. Pipe batter into the eggshells until they are 1/4 full.
4. Pipe pastry cream into the eggshells until they are 1/2 full.
5. Pipe more batter into the eggshells until they are 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven.
7. Let cakes cool, crack, and enjoy.
8. If desired, you can carefully remove the shells after the cakes are baked, dip the cakes in melted chocolate, and freeze until the chocolate hardens to make candy eggs.  

          

Hot Cross Buns

     So apparently, hot cross buns are an actual food.  Before, I just that they were the words to the song that everyone who plays an instrument has heard at some point.  A hot cross bun is a buttery, golden bun filled with spice and dried fruit.  However, hot cross buns are not actually eaten hot.  You have to wait for them to cool before frosting or the icing will melt.  But they are hard to resist when they are fresh out of the oven.
   

     These treats are a tradition to make on Good Friday, though I haven't learned that until this year.  I've never actually had a hot cross bun before.  The icing cross is not just a sweet decoration; it symbolizes Christ.  Hot cross buns are the subject of many superstitions, like buns baked on Good Friday will never go bad, and a hot cross bun in your kitchen will make sure that all your breads rise.  I don't know how I didn't know any of this before.  

      Hot cross buns are really easy to make, too.  I just threw all of the ingredients into a bread machine, shaped the dough and baked it, and then frosted the buns.  If you don't have a bread machine, I included instructions for mixing by hand.  It really doesn't take that much work.  You do need to let the dough rise for some time (2-1/2 hours), though. 

In the bread machine.

Dough cutlets.

Ready for baking.

Fresh out of the oven.

     You can change the spices to your liking, but 2 teaspoons is the recommended total amount for spice. The combination in this recipe is amazing.  Cardamon is often found in hot cross buns, but I didn't have it and it was expensive, so I used coriander instead, which gives these buns a lovely flavor.  I also used a mix of raisins instead of the normal currants.  I have a bunch of raisins left from making those oatmeal raisin cookies.

Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

makes 16 buns

adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

For dough:

2-1/2 tsp (1/4 oz) active dry yeast 

3/4 cups warm milk (I used 2%)

3-1/4 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 1 tsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

4 tbs unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup currants (or raisins, or candied citrus peel)

2 tsp grated orange zest

For glaze:

1 egg

1 tbs milk

For icing:

1 tsp milk 

3 to 4 tbs confectioners sugar

Directions

1. If using a bread machine on the dough setting, place all ingredients for the dough in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer; press start. Let dough rise for an extra hour after the cycle ends, until it is double. Skip to step 7.
2. In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup of warmed milk and 1 tsp of sugar.  Sprinkle the yeast over the milk and let sit for 5 minutes, until foamy.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together 3 cups of flour, and the salt, spices, and 1/4 cup of sugar.
4. Create a well in the flour and add the foamy yeast, softened butter, eggs, and the remaining milk. Mix until well incorporated.  Add dried fruit and orange zest.
5. On a floured surface, or with a dough hook, knead the dough, adding additional flour by the tablespoon.  Knead until the dough is slightly tacky, but doesn't stick to your fingers. 
6. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Place somewhere warm and let the dough rise until double, 2 hours. 
7. On a floured surface, press down on the dough to gently deflate it.  Roll the dough into a log and cut into 16 equal pieces (it's easiest to cut the log in half a bunch of times.)  Roll each piece into bun and place each bun on a lightly greased baking sheet, spacing them apart 1 to 1-1/2 inches.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double, 30-40 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 400*F.  Whisk together the egg and milk for the glaze, and brush the glaze on top of the buns.  Make sure that you cover the whole bun.  Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes, until light golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. I suggest covering the bread with a towel while it cools, so that the crust stays tender, and so nobody passing by decides to steal one.
9. Whisk together the milk and sugar for the icing.  The icing will be thick.  Fill a ziplock bag with the icing and snip off the corner.  Pipe the icing onto the cooled buns in a cross shape.