September 11th, though it marks a dark day in recent American history, is also the day when we celebrate the birth of my dear friends, Emily and Julie. And for the past three years or so I have had the pleasure of doing what I LOVE to do to help them celebrate their special day: BAKE! Which is all the more enjoyable when it’s for friends’ birthdays, of course!
With Houston once again refusing to drop below 90 degrees before November 1st, I choose year after to year to combat the hot weather in September by embracing all things fall anyway (well, except for maybe knee-high boots and long-sleeve shirts), hence the inspiration for this years birthday treat – sweet figs, nutty pecans, tangy balsamic, and slightly bitter dark chocolate. Picture strolling down the sidewalks on a crisp fall morning, latte in hand, stooping down to pick up a handful of pecans and – oh! is that a fig tree? I’ll grab a pocket-full of those as well!
Now I won’t lie to you, the mornings as of late certainly do not deserve the adjective “crisp”, nor do I have a fig tree on my street. However, the pecans were from our backyard harvest last year 🙂 The flavor combinations in this cupcake were a definite win, and got me in the fall frame of mind…
Below are the links to the recipes I used, along with any minor adjustments I made:
Cupcakes – NOTES: I doubled the recipe to make ~20 cupcakes and omitted the butterscotch flavoring as well as the butterscotch schnapps. Also, the recipe author suggests combining ALL of the ingredients into the mixing bowl at once (except for 1/2 the liquid), mixing for two minutes, then adding the remaining liquid. I, being a creature of habit, stuck to the tried-and-true method of creaming my fats and my sugars first, then combining the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and adding them to the creamed mixture alternately with the liquids, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Frosting – NOTES: I am of the belief that there should be equal parts cake to frosting when it comes to cupcakes so I needed to 1.5 this recipe in order to have enough frosting 🙂
Fig Jam – NOTES: I halved this recipe and still had some to spare! What to do with leftover fig jam? Spread on a cracker and top with rosemary parmesan cheese…. yum….
Chocolate Ganache – NOTES: Instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips I used 72% dark chocolate chips for the added bitterness. Plus, I just really really like dark chocolate.
METHOD: Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled completely, use a sharp paring knife to cut a cone-shaped hole that extends 1/2 to 3/4 down the center of the cupcake. Fill the hole with about a 1/2 teaspoon of fig jam, then use the cone-shaped piece to close off the hole. The cone-shaped piece of cake will stand above the rest of the cupcake, but don’t worry! You will cover it with frosting soon 🙂 Frost the cupcakes liberally with your spreading/piping tool of choice. Make the chocolate ganache and let cool to room temperature, then place inside of a zipper lock bag and clip a tiny hole in the bottom corner of the bag. Line up the cupcakes then gently squeeze the ganache over the cupcakes in a grid pattern and sprinkle a few gold sprinkles over top!
Oh, I do hope you try these out!! You will not be disappointed!
Fig and crumb,
HK