Buffalo Cupcakes? Really?

I love to cook, but I've never been a big baker, probably because I'm not a huge sweets lover. I would much rather have a plate of cheeses for dessert than a triple layer chocolate cake.  When I make a trip to my local cupcake shop, I usually choose carrot cake, since it's not overly sweet.

A couple weeks ago before the super bowl, a friend tweeted me a recipe for buffalo chicken wing cupcakes, since she enjoys my Required Chicken Wing Dip (which was required for her baby shower...).  At first I was scared by the concept, but wanted to see how this would turn out.  The recipe called for full sized cupcakes with a huge chicken wing placed on top, but I'm a functional eater - I'm not going to eat a cupcake where I have to take something off to eat.  Also, I thought these would be better as a mini cupcake, given it's not your typical cupcake, as well as being the perfect size for a party. 

While not a typical cupcake, they are quite delicious.  It's like a spicy cornbread.  The cake itself holds some heat from the 1/2 cup of hot sauce (which I had used wing sauce, which had already been cut once with butter), so you can tweak the amount of hot sauce to your liking.   The blue cheese buttercream frosting helps balance the heat, so you get that sweet and savory mix.  Since there is no chicken in them, my vegetarian friends can enjoy the taste of chicken wings without the meat, which is why I took "chicken wing" out of the name of my recipe.

I took these to a super bowl party, and bite size was definitely the way to go, since everyone had the same reaction...."Buffalo Cupcakes?   Really?" Really.  And delicious. 

Buffalo Cupcakes 

Makes 36 mini cupcakes

Cake:

• 1/2 cup hot sauce or chicken wing sauce (Frank's Red Hot) - cut the amount of hot sauce to your liking.
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium-sized saucepan on medium-high heat, heat hot sauce and butter until butter is melted. Add the blue cheese and mix periodically until blue cheese is melted. Remove from heat and mix in the sugar. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg.  Once the hot sauce mixture is cool enough to touch, mix the sour cream mixture into the hot sauce mixture. In another small bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda. Fold the flour mixture into the hot sauce mixture. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full, and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Blue Cheese Buttercream Frosting:

• 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Mix blue cheese on high speed until smooth. Add the unsalted butter and mix on high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Slowly mix in the powdered sugar until fully combined. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Zillycakes & Blue Monk Buffalo 10-15-11

When I travel back to Buffalo, the weekend schedule is usually trying to cram all my favorite hometown foods and specialties into a 72 hour span - Mighty Taco, A Royal from Penora's, Pizza & Wings from anywhere, Beef on Weck are usually the menu (I believe to the chagrin of my mother, who always wants to make me a home cooked meal...)  Since I'm always chasing down the old standbys, I never really get to try new restaurants in the area.


My last trip home, my sister & I went down to the Elmwood Strip,  a 2 mile stretch of Elmwood Avenue, lined with bars and eclectic shops near the Buffalo State College campus.  The day was cold and rainy, so our plan to walk the strip was altered to jump in the car and drive 5 blocks to the next group of stores, but still fun nonetheless to explore.


While we were up at the northern end of the strip, we saw Zillycakes, a specialty cake and cupcake shop. Their main business is designing cakes, but they do have a walk-in cupcake bar.  The walk-in area is TINY - there is a small bar with a couple stools, but is adjacent to the bar, so when someone else walks in, you are cramped.  Fortunately, we had some space when making our selections.


All the cupcakes at the cupcake bar are made to order - you pick your cupcake, your frosting, and if you desire, your toppings.  They had the standard cupcakes - yellow, chocolate, red velvet - but they had special cupcakes - apple almond, and lime thai chile.  Same goes with the frosting - standard buttercreams and cream cheese, but also had apple cider buttercream, which sounded perfect on a fall day, so we went with the apple almond cupcake to complement the apple cider buttercream.  They sprinkled almond slivers a top the cupcake, and was beautifully presented.

The cake was super moist, and frosting had hints of apple and spice, but not overpowering.  The almonds gave it texture.  Definitely a great cupcake.  Since Zilly (the owner, hence the name) was recently on Food Network Halloween Challenge, she may want to think about expanding, because her walk-in business will do the same.


Shopping makes me hungry....and thirsty.  As we continue down Elmwood, we were going to stop somewhere to knock another Buffalo staple off my list, but we ended up near the Blue Monk, a gastropub that opened in 2010.  And being from Buffalo, it's very standard to say "want to get a drink?" at 2pm.  So of course, my arm was twisted and off we got out of the rain.  The windows are tainted dark, so it was hard to see in from across Elmwood Avenue, and we wondered if they were open....oh, they were open, all right.


We walk in and the place is PACKED.  At 2pm.  On a Saturday.  The only place we can grab seats is at the bar near the door, coincidentally where we had sat when I had first come to Blue Monk on a Saturday evening out with my sister earlier in the spring.  We had only come for drinks that evening, but had looked at the menu and was intrigued and wanted to come back.


The restaurant is long and narrow, as most businesses on Elmwood are.  The bar runs along the right side before a staircase takes you upstairs to the dining area.  To the right of the steps is a huge blackboard listing all their beers on tap.  They run approximately 32 beers on tap in a wide variety of craft beers.  I go with a Flying Bison Rusty Chain, a Vienna lager which is locally brewed and only locally distributed.  Great flavor and always have when I'm in town.  Sis goes with a Southern Tier Pumking, a seasonal pumpkin ale which is brewed an hour south of Buffalo in Lakewood, NY, but is distributed regionally.  I had this beer in Raleigh a few weeks earlier, and loved it, so introduced it to my family when I was home, and Kim was hooked.  Balanced pumpkin flavor that doesn't overpower you (hmmm...now I need to go downstairs and crack the growler of it I bought yesterday....)


The menu is gastropub food, highlighted by the Duck Frites - belgian style fries cooked in duck fat, and served with a choice of 2 sauces.  We went with chipotle bacon mayo and wasabi aioli.  Since it was a cold day, soup sounded good, and the soup of the day was a creamy fennel and greens soup with goat cheese crostini.  I love fennel and I love goat cheese, and in soup?  Immediately intrigued.  We each got a bowl.  


The frites were perfectly cooked - slight crunch on the outside, yet soft inside.  The chipotle bacon surprisingly was my favorite of the two sauces we selected - the smokiness of the bacon and the slight heat of the chipotle made for a great sauce.  The wasabi aioli was good, but I didn't think the wasabi was strong enough against the mayo.  


The soup was even better.  Shame on me for not taking a picture of it.  The goat cheese was spread on top of the crostini, and placed on top of the soup.  The soup itself was delicious - hints of fennel and the creamy warmth of the soup made for a perfect fall meal, but once the crostini softened to break up and eat, the soup took new dimension.  The goat cheese heightened the creaminess and the flavor, and was so delicious. I immediately wanted another bowl, but then remembered I had to gorge on other Buffalo delicacies later, so I declined.


We stuck around for another beverage, and this time I went with Three Heads The Kind India Pale Ale from nearby Rochester.  I usually don't drink IPA's because they are too hoppy, but sometimes they can surprise me, as this one did, since it more resembled a Pale Ale, which is my beer style of choice.


Blue Monk is not a place I'd expect in Buffalo.  Buffalo bars are like the city and their people - simple, no frills, and great heart & soul.  This bar seems to be more high end and something I'd see in New York, but given the crowd on a Saturday afternoon, Buffalo embraces it, and so do I.  Next time, I will do a full meal, complemented with an Rusty Chain, of course.