As delicious as cupcakes are, there are times when you want something a little more elegant looking than your standard cupcake but still want your desserts to come in a small package. There are a wide variety of shaped cupcake pans out there, but this Swirl Cupcake Pan from Williams-Sonoma puts a real twist on a standard cupcake. The pan has six cavities, and each one is shaped into an elegant swirl. Batter is added to fill each cavity and baked until it forms a flat top, rather than a domed one, and the cupcakes sit swirl side up to be served. The heavy-duty pan is nonstick, and uses a Swiss-made ceramic nonstick coating (Goldtouch) that is very durable and scratch resistant, so your cakes will turn out flawless again and again.
The finished swirl cupcakes can be finished with a simple confectioners’ sugar glaze or with a rich chocolate glaze. Thicker frostings will hide the details of the swirl, although you could use the cone method to core the cupcakes and pipe in a creamy filling. The cakes can also simply be dusted with confectioners’ sugar – whatever flavor you decide to make them – and served with fresh berries on the side.
rainey
February 28, 2012The whole “cupcake thing” was entirely lost on me. Nothing but an excuse for too much frosting in my view. But I can see that this would make lovely individual sized bundt cakes that would be very elegant with the kind of glaze/ganache you suggest. The only thing is that it would probably take 4 of these puppies to bake a full recipe of batter.
I suppose one could bake a single pan of these and use a loaf pan for the remaining batter. Or simply decrease all the ingredients to make a portion of the batter. They would be pretty served on a shiny lemon leaf or two.