The Cupcake Kick, Part 3.

It's Iron Cupcake time!!!  This is my first month participating in the Iron Cupcake: Earth Challenge, and I was glad that the theme was one I enjoy.  Nuts/Seeds is the ingredient of the month, and I had a couple ideas right away.  For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, Iron Cupcake is a monthly competition in the vein of the Food Network staple show, Iron Chef.  Each month a new ingredient is listed as the theme and competitors have about three weeks to create and submit an original cupcake based on that ingredient.

A friend of mine recently returned from Nicaragua bearing gifts for the office:  hand made, stone ground chocolate truffles of various flavours.  While the mango was one smooth and the chili one was spicy, the one that we really enjoyed was the one rolled in sesame seeds.  So when I began debating which seed to use for my cupcake, inspiration was not far away.

Open Sesame! A Chocolate and Sesame Seed Extravaganza

A dark chocolate sesame cupcake with a sweet sesame centre.  Topped with chocolate frosting and sesame garnish:

Be forewarned if you attempt these:  I'm a not a "good" baker because I don't follow recipes exactly and firmly believe in tossing things in and sort of measuring...  

I started by toasting up the raw sesame seeds.  I whipped up a batch up cupcakes from my default dark chocolate cake recipe and added about 1/3 cup of the toasted sesame seeds to the batter.  After baking I filled the centres with a gooey sesame concoction of 1/2 cup ground sesame seeds and 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk (again, approximate measurements) and then swirled the very chocolatey frosting on top.

In my mind the tops of the cupcakes were then going to be dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in sesame seeds.  But due to laziness, I decided to try and cut corners and just dip the frosting in the sesame seeds.  I suppose it might have worked if I had dipped right away, but the frosting had already started to crust so the sesame seeds didn't really stick: 

So I melted the dark chocolate for the dipping and tried it out.  I've never dipped a cupcake in chocolate, and it didn't exactly go smoothly.  Rather, the frosting/sesame centre/some cupcake were all left behind in the bowl when I tried to upright the cupcake.  Oops.  So I grabbed a spoon and fished out the cupcake remnants from the bowl and just slopped them back on top of that cupcake.  And then I told Dad that there was a special cupcake for him:

Giving up on the dipping, I piped some dark chocolate lines and swirls on top and dipped that in the sesame seeds.  The lines were very cute, while the swirls provided much fuller sesame coverage.  A cross section shows the pale sesame centre surrounded by the dark chocolate cake.  It's hard to see the seeds in the cake, but they were there when you starting eating!

I quite enjoyed the sesame/chocolate combination, as did my coworkers and family.  It may not be an everyday cupcake, but it was certainly a fun treat!

As of somewhere around April 1, you'll be able to go to the Iron Cupcake website and vote for this cupcake.  If I were to win, here's the loot bag I'd get:

The March ETSY PRIZE-PACK:

• A Bunnycake Easter Plushie by DOGBONEART,http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21636297.
• A whimsical piece by CAKEASAURUS,http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5729584.
  
• as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• a collection of all new printed cupcake liners, 200 in all from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery,http://www.acupcakery.com/
  
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

And then there are the corporate prize providers: 

HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS,http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers,http://www.1800flowers.com . 

I made these cupcakes a week ago and am only getting around to posting about them now, but just talking about them and looking at those pictures makes my mouth water again.  Maybe I should whip up another batch...

Yay, Cupcakes!!!

- Carolyn