Officially, Telesphore's cupcakes should be snake-berry and swamp apricot, which are clearly unavailable to me, so I went with berries from a fresh batch of berry liqueur and some almond and vanilla extract. Which means these are going to take longer to perpare than usual, since you need at least two weeks to make the liqueur (the berries need to sit in sugar and ferment for about a week and then at least another week to macerate with the alcohol of your choice).
I went with a fluffy cake that I overbaked, to get a nice, crispy exterior.
Recipe under the cut and on ao3
If you know how to make vișinată or afinată or any other kind of -ată, or a cordial, you're set. If you don't, I recommend looking up a recipe, but what I did was put a bunch of blueberries, redcurrants, strawberries and sliced apricots (get the pieces about the same size as the berries) in a 1L jar with about 200gr sugar, in layers, and leave them for about a week. Shake the jar every now and then, so the sugar dissolves. About a week later, you'll have some nice syrup and some fermented fruit - fill up the rest of the jar with vodka and leave it for at least another week. (You're supposed to leave it for three months for vișinată, for instance, but that would just make this whole recipe's prep time ridiculously long. You can let whatever's left from making the cupcakes age properly afterwards. A week is long enough for what we need here).
Now, for the cupcakes proper.
Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
200gr sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2tsp almond essence
150gr flour
1/4tsp salt
4tbsp oil
2tbsp water
a few drops lemon juice
200gr berries from the liqueur (this will include about a tablespoon of alcohol) (if you don't want to use alcohol, you can use fresh berries and apricots. don't worry about it)
Preheat oven (Gas Mark 4/180° C/350 F).
Separate the eggs
Mix the yolks with 2tbsp sugar, half the salt, the vanilla and almond essence
Beat the egg whites with the rest of the salt, a few drops of lemon juice and the rest of the sugar (add it gradually), until you get stiff peaks
Incorporate as much flour as you can into the yolk mixture
Gradually incorporate the whites into the mixture (switch to a fork or a whisk at this point)
Gradually incorporate the rest of the flour, one tablespoon at the time
Carefully incorporate the berries into the batter.
Spoon the batter into the muffin tray and bake for 30min
Leave them in the over for a couple more minutes after they're done, to make sure they won't deflate.
Let them cool in the tray for 1-2min after you take them out and then let them cool completely.
Having canon and semi-canon flavors to work off of is somehow making this endeavor both easier and harder.
While these didn't take as long as the Colette ones to figure out, they still took me a lot longer to get these right than expected. Mostly because I kept getting the amount of flour wrong and they wouldn't rise properly, but I finally got it!
Recipe on AO3 and under the cut.
Ingredients:
100gr butter
150gr sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp cardamom
1/4tsp salt
150ml orange juice
100ml milk
250gr flour
2tsp baking powder
Preheat oven (Gas Mark 6/200° C/400 F).
Mix butter and sugar
Beat in the eggs
Mix in vanilla extract, cinnamon and cardamon
Add some of the flour
Mix in the baking powder and salt
Mix in the rest of the flour and the orange juice and milk, alternating between them
Spoon the batter into the muffin tray and bake for 30min
Let them cool in the tray for 1-2min after you take them out and then let them cool completely.
I blame @kingmakerpod for this. (I have an idea for Telesphore cupcakes, but this needs to sit for a while. Should be enough for at least two batches) (It's apricots, blueberries and red currants)
You'd think starting with Colette would be easy, since she already has a canonical cake. Guess again!
After nearly seven months and six different attempts, I finally figured out a spiced coffee cupcake recipe I like (I tried making these with actual coffee, with coffee extract, with milk and buttermilk and instant coffee, before settling on instant coffee). Also, I don't know how to make gnash, so I made a chocolate cream after various frostings (one of them green). And I tried sculpting the Kingmaker out of frosting, but I gave up on later versions and eventually got some blue sugar crystals.
Recipe on ao3 and under the cut
Ingredients:
80gr butter
200gr flour
100gr sugar
200ml coffee (i used instant coffee, 4 heaping teaspoons of coffee to 200ml water)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven (Gas Mark 4/180° C/350 F).
Mix butter and sugar
Beat in the eggs
Mix in vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger and cardamon
Add some of the flour
Mix in the baking powder and salt
Mix in the rest of the flour and the coffee alternating between the two
Spoon the batter into the muffin tray and bake for 20min
Let them cool in the tray for 1-2min after you take them out and then let them cool completely.
Chocolate cream
100gr chocolate
50gr butter
Fill the bottom pot of a double boiler half-way with water and let it boil, then turn the heat down to low
Melt chocolate and butter together until smooth
Sprinkle some colored sugar on top
Bonus, my terrible first attempt from October last year. Why are they green? I accidentally used blue coloring instead of black and then added more black and it turned out green for some reason... WTF is up with the stones? I tried to make them out of icing. I failed.
With the solstice and the new episode, last week, and Sânziene on the 24th, the Fairy Queen was practically asking for her own cupcakes.
I'm still not sure if the flowers in the new logo are elderflowers, or not, but they sparked the inspiration for these cupcakes - they're associated with the fae, with transitions, with protection, but also with curses, so it's a pretty versatile plant as far as folklore goes. They felt like the obvious choice for the Fairy Queen.
Recipe on ao3 and under the cut
Ingredients
125g flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100gr butter
200gr sugar
2 large eggs, separated
125ml elderflower soda
juice of 1/2 lime
Preheat oven (Gas Mark 4/180° C/350 F)
Separate the eggs
Beat the egg whites, gradually adding in 100gr of sugar, until they form stiff peaks.
Mix the flower with the salt and baking powder in a cup
In another bowl, beat the butter and the other 100gr of sugar
Mix in the yolks
Mix in the lime juice
Gradually mix in the flour mixture and the elderflower soda, alternating between them
Add the egg whites and fold them in carefully.
Spoon the batter into the muffin tray and bake for about 20-25min.
Turn off the oven and leave them for 10 more minutes while it cools (door ajar) so they don't completely deflate.
The dragon stole my heart, so I made cupcakes to cope.
I don't have much to say about these, just that they're inspired by Themberchaud and they are very sweet and a bit spicy. Not spicy enough to have you breathe fire, though.
They're slightly burnt, but still fluffy.
Recipe on ao3 and under the cut.
Ingredients
~65gr butter (softened)
100gr brown sugar
one egg
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
red food dye
1tbsp sweet paprika
1tbsp smoked paprika
1tbsp ginger
1tsp cinnamon
lemon rind
1tsp lemon salt (?) (i was out of lemon) - you can use some lemon juice
~100gr flour
100ml milk
Preheat oven (Gas Mark 5/190° C/375F).
In a large bowl, gradually mix everything in the order listed
Spoon the batter into the muffin tray, all the way to the top. This makes about nine regular cupcakes, but you should make it fit into six.
Bake for about 30min (they're supposed to get a bit burnt)
Let them cool in the tray for 1-2min after you take them out and then let them cool completely.
Glazing:
1tsp lemon juice
a few drops red food dye
1-2 drops green food dye
powdered sugar until you get the right consistency
