Defrosting Cupcakes

Defrosting cupcakes?? What a terrible idea! Cupcakes need frosting.

I totally agree, which is why in this case I’m talking about defrosting frozen cupcakes. Sometimes when I make a big batch of cupcakes I freeze some for later. Unless I’m cooking for a party 2 dozen is way too many. Not that they wouldn’t get consumed, but more that they shouldn’t.  So when I made chocolate cupcakes for my brother’s birthday I froze half of them. Now I know I could just halve the recipe but it’s not much more work to make two dozen than just one dozen.

So first off – freezing cupcakes.  What’s the best method? Well first off you want to let the cupcakes cool completely and freeze them undecorated. My personal method is to wrap each cupcake in a saran wrap and then place them into a one gallon ziplock freezer bag. You can easy fit a dozen.

Cook’s Illustrated [via Cupcakes Take the Cake] have some good advice on freezing cupcakes.  Especially important to note is that unwrapping the cupcake when defrosting is far more important than how you wrapped it.

Thawing the cupcakes wrapped–whether enclosed in foil, plastic wrap, or both or left in a zipper-lock bag–allowed condensation to form between the wrapper and the tops, which turned gooey. Those that were unwrapped before thawing were as good as new. In terms of taste, there was little to differentiate one storage method from another. – Cooks Illustrated

I also tried freezing some leftover Swiss Meringue buttercream. Most recipes say that you can freeze icings for a month and I was right on the cusp.  I let it defrost for a bit and it looked good. Then I stirred it up and it all fell apart.  But I remembered that when you make Swiss Meringue buttercream there is a point when you are mixing it that it may look like it was curdled. You keep mixing and it all comes back together.

Mmmm..delicious leftovers

So I pulled out my hand mixer and mixed it for 3 or 4 minutes until it did, indeed, come back to the right consistency. I slapped some icing on the cupcakes and had a nice treat to drink with my post-work tea on a cold, dreary day!

I still have 6 cupcakes and some dark chocolate frosting in the freezer for the next time I’m craving some cupcakes or when I have unexpected guests!