Becca Jane St Clair

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Product Review: Giant Cupcake Silicone Mold

A few years ago, my sister-in-law gave me one of those cupcake cake tins made out of silicone and joked that she gave it to me so I would make her a giant cupcake. The pans sat in the box in the kitchen until one day I finally opened the box, gave the kit a wash, and stuck it in a cabinet. I kept thinking about using the cake pan, but ultimately would make something else, or not be in the mood to play around with it, so it just sat there. My sister-in-law loves peanut butter, and when I was in PA in December, I was reminded of Peanut Butter Icing…which of course, needed to go on a cake for my SIL. Since her birthday was this past Friday, I decided to break out the big cupcake. My sister-in-law also likes white chocolate better than milk, so I had decided on making her a white chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.

For the white chocolate cake, I just took a regular chocolate cake recipe and where it called for melted plain chocolate, I subbed in 200g of melted white chocolate, and I used some white hot chocolate mix in place of the 4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa. I also removed a few tablespoons of sugar from the recipe to compensate for the extra sugar in the white chocolate.

The directions said to spray the cupcake bottom, top, and insert with cooking spray, so I did that and followed the directions which said to fill the bottom part up to the line on the inside (about half way) and to fill the top part 3/4 of the way. The piece that makes a hollow hole in the bottom for filling is optional, so I snapped it in place thinking it’d make a nice little cave for some peanut butter icing.

Baked for 20 minutes, and it wasn’t done. Baked it for 15 more minutes (total 35) and it still wasn’t done, but in fact the bottom part of the cupcake had spilled out over the side of the mold and was baking itself into a little pile of cake on the baking tray I sat the molds on. The lid was still in place on the bottom though, so I assumed it would still have an indention. I set the timer for a further 15 minutes (total 50 mins) and both halves appeared to be done so I removed them from the oven….

The TOP piece developed an indention while it was cooling and appeared to be brown in colour on the sides. The BOTTOM piece did not have the indention for filling anymore, and when I removed it from the silicone mold, it appeared to SHRINK in size.

Since I had the indention in the top piece, I decided I would still put some icing in the middle and I attached the top piece. Due to the shrinking of the bottom piece, it looked like a mushroom instead of a cupcake, and I discovered the bottom piece started to buckle a little under the weight of the top piece and it appeared to have a hollow bit….ALL THE WAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CAKE. So I used a spoon and shoved in some peanut butter icing into the hole. Why not?

Since I wanted a cupcake and not a mushroom, I decided the best thing to do would be to make a cupcake “liner” out of card stock and arrange it to make the bottom look closer to the same size as the top. my SIL’s favourite colour is purple, so I used purple card stock. Then, to hold it together better, I took a bamboo skewer and stuck it through the middle of the cake. Since it would stick out the top, I made a sign on the computer with Tim’s nickname for my SIL in the shape of a star to tape to the skewer.

I made the Peanut Butter icing and piped it on using a Wilton 1M tip – the same size tip I would use on a normal-sized cupcake.

Peanut Butter Icing (recipe from my cousin, Jen)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Directions
1.Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy

I decided the icing wasn’t peanut buttery enough, so I added a few extra desert spoonfuls of peanut butter, a little more milk, and a little more sugar. Basically, make the icing to your own taste.

Hopefully, the cake tastes okay – I’m waiting for my SIL to text me!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

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2 Comments so far

  1. Karen August 8th, 2012 21:47

    I made this with Blue Bonnet (1/2 cup) and Jif PB (1 cup). It was NASTY! I followed the directions to a TEE and it was nothing but GREASE floating and looked like a rice-y texture. Ugh! 🙁 I added more powdered sugar and a tablespoon more of milk and it still looked like nothing but grease. 🙁

  2. Rebecca August 8th, 2012 22:41

    I didn’t know what Blue Bonnet was, so I had to google for it, and from their website, it “tastes like butter but without the trans-fat”, which to me sounds like it’s margerine. You really do need to use real full-fat butter for this icing. When I’ve tried to make buttercream icing with a butter substitute, I found I had the same problem you’ve just described. I’ve just done a quick google for Peanut Butter icing to see if I could find a different one for you, and it looks like most of the recipes are very similar to the one my cousin gave me, and some of them suggest using equal parts shortening, butter, and peanut butter. Hope that helps!

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