Posts from the ‘Cupcakes’ Category

Sep 4

Plain Old Vanilla

I made five cupcakes today, just five. I wanted to try something I had read about somewhere (cannot find where now) about coloring your own sugar to make sanding sugar. It only involved ordinary sugar and food coloring. For my own test, I used about 3 teaspoons of sugar, put it in a Ziploc bag and added one drop of yellow food coloring, mixed the sugar with my fingers (on the outside of the bag so my fingers wouldn’t get messy), then added one drop of red food coloring to make orange. When it was mixed, I poured out the sugar onto a paper towel and spread out the sugar so it could dry. The end result was exactly what I wanted. Thus, today this cupcake was born…

A plain vanilla cupcake with plain vanilla frosting (tinted orange as well, with yellow and red food coloring), sprinkled with the colored sugar that I made.

Sep 2

4 Comments

Cookies 'N Cream Cupcakes

I hadn’t ever planned on making cookies and cream cupcakes, but when I found myself confronted with a full package of Oreos I couldn’t help it. Actually, I don’t care much for cookies and cream anything, but thought I’d try out cupcakes with both vanilla cupcakes…

and chocolate cupcakes…

I liked the chocolate one the best.

For the chocolate cupcakes, I used my standard chocolate cupcake recipe. For the vanilla cupcakes I used the recipe below (not sure where it came from, just found it in my recipe clippings).

Note that I crushed Oreo cookies into chunks, and I did not measure how many Oreos I used – this is something that is totally up to you. Add the Oreos to suit your tastes. Also, I did not add the crumbs to the batter, just the chunks. I used the crumbs to later sprinkle on top of the frosting.

For the frosting, I used a very simple vanilla frosting that is usually used with Billy’s vanilla vanilla cupcakes. Once again, I added the crushed Oreos to suit my taste. I did use crumbs in the frosting, but so much as to turn the frosting a gray-ish color that I often see in cookies and cream frosting.

Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Oreos, crushed into chunks

Method
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the egg whites and beat until incorporated.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, add vanilla extract to milk.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Add 1/2 of the milk mixture and beat again until incoporated. Keep adding flour mixture and milk mixture alternately, being sure that you end with the flour.

At this point you can add crushed Oreos, gently stirring them into the batter.

Fill the cupcake lines three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean.

Aug 20

4 Comments

Iron Cupcake Earth: Chili

I have finally completed my entry for Iron Cupcake Earth’s challenge of chili pepper. I made two variations of my entry and chose the one I liked best.

My entry is a chocolate cupcake, filled with chili chocolate ganache, topped with a layer of chili chocolate ganache, frosted with peanut butter frosting and sprinkled with a dash of cayenne pepper.

My other variation was the same as the above, but with chocolate frosting.

I chose the one with peanut butter frosting because it tasted more interesting. I loved this cupcake; it tasted like a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, but with an extra spicy tingle. When my husband took his first bite he said, “I don’t taste any chili in these!”. I smiled and waited. A second later, he said, “Oh, now I do!”.

What I also love about these cupcakes was the fact that I used our own chili peppers that we grew in our garden. We dried them and kept them to use for later. I ground them up today and mixed them up in the chocolate ganache, along with a dash of cayenne pepper.

I didn’t post a cross section of this cupcake because the chili chocolate ganache was so dark that you couldn’t even tell that the chocolate cupcake was filled with the ganache in the photos!

The winner of Iron Cupcake Earth receives prizes from Cakespy’s Etsy shop, Cupcake Courier, Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jesse Steele, and Taste of Home.

Recipes:

Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from a post at Cupcakes Take The Cake
makes 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Preheat oven to 375, then turn it down to 350 just prior to baking

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is soft, then add sugar. Beat about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time beating until they are well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk them to incorporate them.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat it just to combine. Add 1/2 of the liquids (milk & vanilla), scrape down bowl and beat to combine. Continue adding the dry and wet ingredients alternately making sure you END WITH THE DRY.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3′s of the way.

Bake for about 20-22 minutes. Do not overbake! Allow to cool, then frost.

—

Chili Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop
makes about 1/2 cup ganache, you’ll probably have some leftover

Ingredients
1/4 cup + 3 tblsp + 1/2 tsp heavy cream
1 tblsp + 1/2 tsp butter
1 3/4 tsp ancho chili powder
1 small pinch ground cayenne pepper
3.6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

Method
Heat cream and butter over medium heat until butter is melted and cream bubbles around saucepan edge.

Place peppers and chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl, pour heated cream and butter over the chocolate.

Let the mixture sit for about 30 seconds then start whisking it until smooth.

Set aside mixture and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon, until it cools enough to use.

—

Peanut Butter Frosting
Adapted from Shazam In The Kitchen

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 small pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

Method
In large bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk. Mix well, adding more milk as needed to make a fluffy spreadable frosting. Sprinkle with a very small pinch of cayenne pepper if desired.

Aug 12

Strawberry & Chocolate Cupcakes

I was inspired to make these cupcakes from a post at My Sweet Cupcakes. The temptation of chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting was too strong! I made these cupcakes for my husband to take to his office at work to share, and I only got to keep four of them for myself.

They are really good, the chocolate ones are my favorite! The chocolate cupcakes are made from my new standard chocolate cupcake recipe, found on Cupcakes Take The Cake. Both the strawberry cupcakes and strawberry frosting recipe come from Sprinkles. The only thing I did differently was strain the strawberry puree to get out the seeds – the recipe did not say to do this.

My opinion on the Sprinkles cupcakes is that they are okay. Strangely, I didn’t taste any strawberry while chewing the cupcakes, but once I swallowed a bite I got a strawberry taste. The cupcake is nice and moist, but not very pink, or not as pink as I’d like a strawberry cupcake to be. The frosting was very nice (though very sweet) and was a very light shade of pink, as you can see in the above photo.

My classic individual cupcake photos here – chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting and strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting.

Aug 6

1 Comment

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

The cupcakes that I had originally planned for this week had to be put on hold because my daughter spilled a nearly full bottle of vanilla extract, so I couldn’t make any cupcakes with vanilla. So I decided to go with mint chocolate cupcakes instead since the recipe called for mint extract instead of vanilla.

I chose this particular recipe because it was supposed to taste like a mint Aero chocolate bar, which I really like, and the recipe also had good (but few) reviews; I found the recipe at nigella.com.

Now I admit that these cupcakes look very pretty, but I have to tell you that I just don’t like them! Definitely not happy with the way these turned out. The cupcake itself is sort of bland, tasteless and very dry. The frosting, however, is fine.

I did alter the recipe slightly by adding less mint extract than was called for in the cupcakes.

To try to moisten them up a bit, I filled a few of them with white mint buttercream, using the cone method.

It didn’t really help much! I definitely do not recommend using this recipe if you’re after mint chocolate cupcakes.

Aug 1

17 Comments

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I had never heard of red velvet cake (RVC) until a few months ago (I must have been living under a rock!) and at first I thought it was a bit tacky. I also didn’t like the idea of all that food coloring being added (although I understand that RVC can also be colored with beets or strawberries). But eventually my curiosity won and I had to make these for myself.

After reading a post at Bake & Destroy about Magnolia Bakery’s RVC recipe I decided that this would be the recipe I would use. I am so glad I chose this recipe, so thank you Bake & Destroy for posting your review of these!

I used Magnolia Bakery’s cream cheese frosting recipe as well, and topped them with RVC crumbs. I had to hurry to take these photos because the cream cheese frosting was quickly melting into a goopy mess!

But, wow, these cupcakes are fantastic! So moist and delicious, and the red color is perfect for my tastes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients
3 1/3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons red food coloring
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour three 9 x 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

To make the cake: In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well.

In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts, alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overheat.

In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

When the cake has cooled, spread the frosting between the layers, then the ice top and sides of the cake with frosting.

Makes one 3-layer 9-inch cake. (Or about three dozen cupcakes.)

* I cut the recipe into thirds and ended up with 11 cupcakes. For help with recipe calculations, visit this page.

* I made my own buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk, then let it sit for 5 minutes.

* I used regular white vinegar instead of cider vinegar.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 pound (two 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
5 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 continuously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate icing for 2 to 3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.

Makes enough for one 2- or 3-layer 9-inch cake.

*I cut this recipe in half and was able to use most of the frosting for my 11 cupcakes.

Jul 23

1 Comment

Congrats, It's A Girl! Cupcakes

A friend of mine recently had a baby girl and a group of friends got together to bring the new mom meals and treats in these first few weeks. Of course I volunteered to bring cupcakes!

I used Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe and the following vanilla frosting recipe…

Vanilla Buttercream
makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk

Method
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary. Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.

I tinted half the frosting pink. To get the pink and white swirl, simply place pink frosting on one side inside of a pastry bag and white frosting on the other side so that the pink and white frostings are side by side. You’ll need to squeeze a bit of the frosting out at first to get to the swirled part. It’s a really nice effect!

The swirled stars on the white frosted cupcakes were made simply by squeezing out a small amount of frosting and twisting the pastry bag at the same time.

Jul 23

4 Comments

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

My inspiration for my chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes came from How To Eat A Cupcake. I love chocolate chip cookie dough and had never heard of this type of cupcake, so when I saw this recipe I just had to make it for myself! I didn’t follow the same recipe as How To Eat A Cupcake because I personally didn’t to use a boxed cake mix, and mainly because I didn’t want that many cupcakes.

So what I did was this… I bought a package of refrigerated Nestle chocolate chip cookie dough (the kind that is pre-cut) and immediately put it into the freezer when I got home from the store. This is the dough that will be baked into the cupcakes and it must be completely frozen when placed into the cupcake batter.

A few days later, when I was ready to make these cupcakes, I whipped up a batch of Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcakes (I halved the recipe to get 12 cupcakes, though ended up with 14).

I filled my cupcake liners with batter, then cut seven little squares of frozen cookie dough in half so that I would get 14 and placed them each on top of the cupcake batter. I cut them in half because I personally didn’t want to end up with the majority of the cupcake being cookie dough, and the original recipe had also instructed to do this. I also didn’t want my cupcakes to overflow, so I slightly underfilled them to allow room for the cookie dough to bake.

In the meantime, I prepared the cookie dough that I would be mixing into the frosting. This is the same cookie dough recipe that How To Eat A Cupcake used in her chocolate chip cookie dough frosting (see recipe in her post), but I used a different frosting base (my recipe is at the end of this post). The cookie dough itself needs to sit in the freezer for about 30 minutes to become firm, then broken into chunks, and then placed in the refrigerator until it is ready to be used. Just mix the chunks into the frosting when it has been made, then spread onto the cupcake.

The look of the frosting reminds me of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream!

The inside of the cupcake…

These cupcakes are very very good, but also very very sweet. And they definitely require a glass of milk after eating! I think that it would be just fine if you made your own cookie dough for this, and I also think that it could be baked into any flavor cupcake. In fact, I need to make these again sometime and think I will bake them into a chocolate cupcake.

Vanilla Buttercream
makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk

At this point you can mix in your cookie dough that you made while the cupcakes were baking. Mix in enough cookie dough to suit your taste, because I believe the recipe posted on How To Eat A Cupcake is for two dozen cupcakes, and if you’re only making 12 you’ll have some cookie dough leftover (unless you halve the cookie dough recipe). The best thing to do with the leftover cookie dough – eat it! There are no eggs in it so it is safe to eat. Yum!

Jul 6

Independence Day/Birthday Cupcakes

My son’s first birthday was on July 5, the day after Independence Day, so I made him some patriotic cupcakes.

The red and blue dots are supposed to represent fireworks. Just trying to keep it fun for him and his 3-year-old sister, who told me that the cupcakes were so pretty!

I layered red, white (plain) and blue batter in the silver foil cupcake liners to get this effect.

I used, yet again, Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe and for the first time Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla frosting. This is the third time I’ve made these cupcakes and I’m getting the opinion that the cupcakes don’t taste very vanilla-y. I might try adding more vanilla the next I bake these. The texture of the cupcakes is nice, but I’d like it to be a little lighter; also the cupcake seem sticky – it sticks to my fingers more so than other cupcakes. The frosting is very, very sweet, but I like its texture, even on the second day.

Okay, this might be it on the cupcakes until my daughter’s birthday on July 19, for which I am making Bakerella’s cupcake pops, but a friend of mine had a new baby daughter on July 3, and I may bake baby girl-themed cupcakes to take to her sometime in the coming couple of weeks too.

Next on my own list, besides the cupcake pops are chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes.

Jun 29

10 Comments

Watermelon Cupcakes

So I lied – I do have some cupcakes for you after all! Watermelon ones – cross section is pictured so it would look more watermelony.

I thought it was a cute idea that I had for these watermelon cupcakes, so had to try it out. I used Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe, but halved it to get one dozen cupcakes instead of two (though I ended up with 14, actually). I added 10 drops of red food coloring (give or take a drop) and 1/4 cup plus a tablespoon or so of mini chocolate chips.

I then used the watermelon frosting I found here. Though the taste of the frosting was nice with a subtle hint of watermelon, I was disappointed that it was too liquidy to pipe at all, even after refrigerating, so had to just sort of pour it on the cupcake. Because there is cream cheese in the frosting, I am refrigerating the leftover cupcakes so it should harden up a little, I presume. And even though the watermelon juice turned the frosting a light pink color, I wanted it green so added a few drops of green food coloring to turn it this pastel green color.

I’d like to find a watermelon frosting that is pipeable, so if anyone knows of one, please tell me! If I could have piped this I would have liked to split the frosting into two parts – one the light pink color and the other the light green color, then put the two colors into a pastry bag to get a swirl effect. Also what might be nice is a cute little slice of watermelon made out of fondant, placed on top of the cupcake.

Thank you to Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting about my watermelon cupcakes on their blog!