Posts from the ‘Cupcakes’ Category

Feb 15

Valentine's Day Goodies

I got a huge surprise for Valentine’s Day from my husband; a chocolate stash.

I love the little Starbucks Chocolate Tasting Squares, they are so cute!

All those Ghirardelli bars will be used in the future to make cupcakes, brownies and/or cookies!

Now, on to our Valentine’s Day cupcakes. They did not turn out how I planned. I planned for nice, fluffy, high-rising chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes with cherry cream cheese frosting. But three things went wrong. 1) I forgot to put in the chocoalte chips!; 2) the cupcakes didn’t rise very much at all; 3) I wanted to use heart sprinkles, but didn’t have any. I think they didn’t rise because I cut the recipe into thirds and perhaps it messed up the properties of the baking soda and baking powder. I’m not sure. Anyhow, they still taste nice.

The recipe for the cupcake was Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake, and the cream cheese frosting recipe comes from How To Eat A Cupcake (and I also cut her recipe in half). I just added a tiny dollop of red gel food coloring, and approximately 3-4 tablespoons of chopped maraschino cherries to her recipe.

Feb 5

2 Comments

Happy World Nutella Day

As if you didn’t already know, today is World Nutella Day. I suggest you start celebrating and eat some Nutella! We have!

That is my 3 1/2-year-old daughter enjoying this once-in-a-blue-moon treat straight from the jar.

I also want to point everyone in the direction of my Nutella recipes here at The Sweetest Kitchen; namely my peanut butter & Nutella swirl cookies:

my Nutella coffee frosting:

and my Nutella cupcake that was worthy enough to be posted on Cupcakes Take The Cake:

So what are you waiting for? Go celebrate World Nutella Day!

See Ms Adventures In Italy, Bleeding Espresso and World Nutella Day for more information.

Jan 19

4 Comments

Crumb Cupcakes

To be honest, I haven’t really been craving sweet stuff lately. This is another reason that posting here has been slow over the past month. I found out on Christmas morning that I’m pregnant with our third child; I had the first ultrasound this past Thursday and I am currently 9 weeks along. The due date is August 23, and I think baby #3 will be a girl!

Anyway, I have been craving savory stuff, rather than sweets. When it comes to cupcakes at the moment, frosting makes me feel queasy. Remembering a few recipes in the book Cupcakes! that do not use frosting, I decided to try one out today and they really hit the spot.

Crumb cupcakes! They remind me of those Hostess crumb cakes, although this particular cupcake has a much crunchier top. While I used the recipe for the crumbs, I could not use the recipe for the yellow cake because I did not have all the listed ingredients. To substitute, I chose Bakerella’s moist yellow cake recipe, and it did live up to its name! It’s a great yellow cake, one that I will now use time and time again when I need a yellow cake. Very soft, very moist.

I don’t have two cupcake pans, so I used leftover cake batter and crumbs in a loaf pan to bake at the same time as the cupcakes, so I ended up with a little crumb loaf.

I sliced an end off and stuck it on top so you could see how beautiful that yellow cake is.

I don’t feel comfortable posting the recipe for these cupcakes (except of course for linking to Bakerella’s yellow cake recipe) because it came from a cookbook, and while apparently it is not illegal to post the actual recipe, I would just rather not. Go grab the book if you’re interested, or I’m sure you can find another similiar crumb cupcake recipe by searching online.

Update next day: These crumb cupcakes are fantastic reheated in the microwave for breakfast! I would definitely make these again, but next time I will not put crumbs on the bottom of the cupcakes; the crumbs are crunchier on the bottom than on the top, and I personally don’t like that crunch. I’ll just put extra crumbs on top!

I’m not sure how things are going to be, cupcake-wise, for a while, since I’d much rather eat an entire bag of something like sour cream & onion potato chips, but I’ll try to update with cupcakes a bit more than what I have, even if I have to pawn them off to neighbors!

For anyone wondering about my Iron Cupcake: Earth prizes, I haven’t yet received them all. Once I receive everything I’ll post pictures of them in one big post.

Dec 29

Chocolate Cupcakes With Instant Pudding Frosting

It’s been a while since I made a great cupcake, with the exception of the gingerbread cupcakes I made for Christmas – I made gingerbread cupcakes, frosted them with Bakerella’s buttercream (with a dash of salt added), and topped them all with a mini gingerbread man from Martha Stewart’s gingerbread cookie recipe. They tasted great.

But the chocolate ones I made for Christmas, like so many of my previous batches of cupcakes in the past weeks, were flat, short, tasteless and sort of rubbery-like. It’s really been a huge disappointment; even the red velvet cupcakes I made for my husband’s work were flat, short and rubbery.

I think the reason I have been baking cupcakes like this is that my baking powder expired 3 months ago. I only found this out within the past few days, and I encourage everyone to take note of their baking powder expiry dates! I did do a test by putting a teaspoon of baking powder in some tepid water, and it did fizz, hinting that it is still active, but I really think that it is not. There’s no other explanation to my recent string of cupcake failures.

Well, I still have no new baking powder, but I needed to bake cupcakes today because there are no other sweets in the house! I chose the chocolate mayonnaise cupcake, which uses baking soda, not powder. They rose just fine, have a nice soft texture and are very chocolatey. This is my second time baking this cupcake.

I intended on making blueberry frosting for these cupcakes, but realized that I was about 1.5 cups short of confectioners’ sugar. I did have French vanilla instant pudding, however, and knew I could make frosting out of this:

Instant Pudding Frosting

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 package Jello instant pudding, any flavor

Pour all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix with whisk attachment on high speed until the frosting is thick and spreadable.

It won’t be pipeable, though. It’s airy and light and will thicken somewhat after a time in the refrigerator. Be sure to keep any cupcakes frosted with this frosting in the refrigerator.

I know, it’s a strange combination – mayonnaise, chocolate and French vanilla pudding, but as I have done before, I assure you that you cannot taste the mayonnaise in the cupcakes.

The matching liner and frosting was a total fluke, by the way.

Dec 29

3 Comments

Amy Sedaris Vanilla Cupcakes

In my search for a perfect vanilla cupcake recipe, I realized I haven’t yet tried Amy Sedaris’ vanilla cupcakes. I baked up a batch before Christmas, with Bakerella’s favorite buttercream.

I did like Amy Sedaris’ recipe, and would use it again for my next batch of vanilla cupcakes. However, the addition of Bakerella’s favorite buttercream made it too sweet; next time I would add a dash of salt to her buttercream recipe.

Dec 2

14 Comments

Matcha Cocoa Cupcakes

I made this cupcake intending to enter it into December’s Iron Cupcake Earth challenge Chocolate With A Twist. Then after I made it I thought it wasn’t good enough. It tasted great, but I didn’t think it was the worthiest contender. Then as I keep looking at them sitting there in the kitchen I thought, what the hay, I’ll enter them! Here is the matcha cocoa cupcake.

Yes, I need to work on my piping skills, I know!

I call it the matcha cocoa cupcake, because it does taste similar to the matcha hot cocoa recipe I enjoy. The chocolate cake in these cupcakes are very chocolatey, and the matcha is very matcha-y. The cake is dense and heavy and quite filling.

The dark chocolate ganache is a nice touch, and the matcha Swiss meringue buttercream is to die for. This is my second attempt at making SMBC (my first attempt failed) and it went really well. The texture is amazing, almost mousse-like. It pipes really well. The matcha taste in the SMBC is not overpowering and adds an extra light matcha flavor.

Thank you to Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting my matcha cocoa cupcakes on your blog!

Our December ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
* BETTY TURBO
* as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES
* PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice -sweet!

As an added bonus for December we have adorable cupcake pincushions complements of SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: FIESTA PRODUCTS; HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS; the CUPCAKE COURIER; TASTE OF HOME books. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.com.

Recipes:

Chocolate & Matcha Marbled Cupcakes
(adapted from La Tartine Gourmande)
makes 10-12 regular sized cupcakes

Ingredients
8 Tbsp butter, melted (1 stick)
3 oz dark chocolate, melted
3 eggs, large
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 + 2/3 cups flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1.5 tsp sifted unsweetened cocoa, diluted with 2 Tbsp whole milk
1.5 tsp Matcha powder

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter and set aside. Melt the chocolate using a double-boiler.
Beat the eggs with the sugar until blended. Add the melted the butter and vanill extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and add to the butter/egg mixture. Beat until blended, but do not overbeat.

Divide the batter in two halves. In the first half, add the Matcha tea, in the second the chocolate and cocoa diluted in milk. Stir each half until thorougly incorporated.

Spoon chocolate mixture into cupcake liners, and spoon matcha mixture on top of the chocolate. Fill liners about 1/2 – 2/3 full. You can use a toothpick or knife to gently stir the colors together for a marbled effect, or you can leave as is.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-22 minutes. Test with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Chocolate ganache

Ingredients
3oz dark chocolate
3oz heavy whipping cream

Method
Heat the whipping cream and chocolate in a small pan over low heat unti melted. Do not boil. Remove from heat and sit aside until cooler. Dip tops of cupcakes into the ganache and sit aside to let ganache harden, or put into the refrigerator to harden it quicker.

Matcha Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(method adapted from How To Eat A Cupcake)

2.4oz egg whites
4.8oz sugar
5.3oz unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 tablespoons matcha (use more or less to suit your taste)

Method
Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).

Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add matcha powder and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles.

Nov 30

Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Today I took six more cupcakes out of the freezer from the box cake mix that I made last week. I made the vanilla frosting from this recipe (but divided the recipe in half) and coated the frosting with sweetened shredded coconut.

And of course a bright red maraschino cherry sits on top. Once again, you can use any chocolate cupcake recipe to make these cupcakes, and also any vanilla frosting. It might even be a good idea to replace the milk in the vanilla frosting with coconut milk for extra coconut flavor.

Nov 24

4 Comments

Chocolate & PB Cupcakes

I will start this particular post by noting that I am not of those cakers who vehemently abhor box cake mixes. While it is true that I would much rather bake a cake from scratch, I have no problem with a box cake mix.

And I did have a box cake mix sitting in the cabinet, due to expire on December 8. I couldn’t think what to do with it, so I decided I’d bake cupcakes with it, frost six of them and freeze the rest for when I need a quick cupcake fix. Let me tell you that I needed a quick cupcake fix on Saturday, the day I baked these cupcakes. I caught the cold that my daughter, son and and husband had last week and I could barely manage to eat anything; the only thing that sounded good was a cupcake.

So, I quickly mixed and baked two dozen chocolate fudge cupcakes. On top of the six cupcakes I planned to eat, I evenly placed about 10 semisweet chocolate chips the very second I took the cupcakes out of the oven. After a minute or so, the chips were melted and I took a knife to spread them into a thin layer on top of the cupcake.

After the cupcakes were cooled, I froze the leftovers and frosted my six with my favorite peanut butter frosting, which can be found in this post (except I made a little creamier with a little more milk). Then I melted a small palmful of the semisweet chocolate chips, spooned the melted chocolate into a ziploc bag, cut off the corner of the bottom of the bag, leaving a very small opening, and piped a swirly chocolate circle on top of the six cupcakes.

As a note, of course you can make any type of chocolate cupcakes for these, it doesn’t have to be a box cake mix. The melted chocolate chip layer gives a nice sublte crunch to the cupcake, which I liked. I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips – I think that they are softer than the average chocolate chip. Another brand might give a harder crunch to these cupcakes.

Nov 17

Earth Cupcakes

My second, and final, entry into the solar system cupcake contest is one dozen Earth cupcakes.

A section of our beautiful home planet is represented in cupcake form. This edible Earth is a brown sugar cupcake, filled with two layers – a layer of chocolate ganache to represent Earth’s solid rocky core and a layer of caramel cream to represent Earth’s molten core. The cupcake is then coated in a layer of chocolate ganche to represent Earth’s crust. On top of the “crust” on half of the cupcakes is a layer of ocean blue-tinted vanilla frosting to resemble Earth’s oceans. The other half of the cupcakes have been frosted in caramel cream and sprinkled with finely ground golden Oreos and green sprinkles to resemble Earth’s land and vegetation. The mountains, as well as the volcano, have been structured with the caramel cream and coated in regular chocolate Oreos and the snowcaps are made from melted white chocolate; a few orange sprinkles sit inside the volcano to resemble molten lava. Marshmallows have been hand-formed to resemble clouds hanging above this section of Earth.

Recipes:

Brown Sugar Cupcakes
Makes 12-16

Ingredients
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Measure out milk and vanilla together.

Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.

Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched.

Chocolate ganache
Makes enough to fill and frost 16 cupcakes with a thin layer

Ingredients
4 oz semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
4 oz heavy whipping cream

Method
Place chocolate and cream into a saucepan and heat on low heat. Stir until all the chocolate is melted and the chocolate and cream are fully combined. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature for 2 hours or until a spreadable consistency.

Fill the cupcakes by cutting a cone shape out of the top of the cupcake, and place a small amount (1/4 tsp, approx.) of ganache inside.

Caramel cream
Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Pinch of coarse salt
2 cups heavy cream

Method
Prepare an ice bath; set aside. Cook sugar, water, and salt in saucepan over medium heat, stirring once, until sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking, without stirring, until sugar turns golden amber. Remove pan from heat; slowly pour cream down sides of pan in a slow, steady stream (it will spatter). Return pan to medium heat, and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

Transfer caramel cream to a mixing bowl set in ice bath; let sit until very cold, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Mixture can be refrigerated overnight. Before serving, whip the caramel cream until stiff peaks form. Use immediately.

Place a small amount (1/4 tsp approx.) on top of chocolate ganache layer inside of cupcake, then place the top of the cone shape back on top of the cupcake. Use the rest of the cream to frost the “land” cupcakes and sculpt mountains.

Vanilla whipped frosting
Makes enough to generously frost about 16 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method
Put cream, sugar, and vanilla into the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until medium peaks form. Use blue food coloring to turn the frosting an ocean-blue color and use a knife to kick up some waves.

Notes
*Use golden Oreos and chocolate Oreos with the cream fillings removed to sprinkle the “land” cupcakes – simply place them in a food processor until finely ground, or place them into a strong ziploc bag and roll a rolling pin over the bag until the cookies are finely ground.

*Use green sprinkles to resemble vegetation on the “land” cupcakes and a few blue sprinkles on the “ocean” cupcakes.

*For white chocolate mountain snowcaps, simply melt a couple squares of white chocolate for 20-30 seconds in a microwave, then use a spoon to place a small amount on the mountaintops.

Nov 12

4 Comments

Jupiter Cupcakes

These are Jupiter cupcakes for the solar system cupcake contest!

The cake is chocolate with a kick of cayenne pepper to represent the heat of Jupiter’s core, and the center of the cupcake is filled with a soft whipped cream to represent the many layers of clouds on Jupiter. The frosting is a cream cheese/chocolate buttercream swirl in colors similar to Jupiter’s. Hanging above the Jupiter cupcakes are the 4 Galilean moons of Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto, formed from homemade playdough.

Thank you Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting my Jupiter cupcakes on your blog!

Recipes:

Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (use more or less to suit your taste)
1 large eggs
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cayenne pepper and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Whipped cream filling
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Chill stainless steel bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer in freezer for about 10-20 minutes. Combine all ingredients in steel bowl and use whisk attachment at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fill cupcakes when the cupcakes are completely cool.

Cream cheese frosting
Makes enough for 1-2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients
8 ounches cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

Method
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate frosting for 2-3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.

Chocolate buttercream
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa powder. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

To make swirled frosting, spoon an amount of each color individually into a piping bag so that the colors are side by side. Squeeze out the frosting over a bowl first until all the colors start coming out, then start swirling!