Posts tagged ‘Frosting’

Aug 25

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

My baby boy, Miles, turned 1 year old yesterday. I can hardly believe it. He’s been the sweetest, most easy-going baby I’ve dealt with so far. His only problem is that he still only has two teeth. I’ve been reluctant to try too many different foods, like the chewier or harder kinds, because of this. He doesn’t like a lot of the solid food that I give him, but so far he likes French fries (I know, worst food ever!), bread, crackers, cheese, yogurt and cucumbers. Bananas and strawberries and apples, not so much.

He doesn’t like pureed food. I believe it’s because he has to be spoon-fed to eat it properly, and when he sees his older sister and brother eating with their fingers or a fork or spoon, he wants to eat like they are. After all, spoon-feeding is for babies!

Recently I went shopping for bigger clothes for Miles with my mother-in-law and bought him a couple of outfits. You’d think that he could just wear clothes that his 3-year-old brother had grown out of, but don’t forget that we moved to the Southern Hemisphere – the summery clothes that fit his older brother when he was 1 year old will not do in winter Down Under! Our seasons are completely opposite and this has been a little annoying, as we’ve had to basically buy all new clothing for the baby. Ah well, it’s not all bad though – shopping for baby clothes is so fun (and terribly addicting)!

For Miles’ first birthday celebration I planned on making a simple batch of colorful cupcakes. I decided on chocolate-on-chocolate cupcakes with mini rainbow chocolate chip decorations.

Jul 21

15 Comments

Peanut Butter White Chocolate Cupcakes

With all the excitement I’ve had receiving entries for my Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge, I had forgotten that I wanted to post about the peanut butter cupcakes with white chocolate frosting that I had made last week! I got the inspiration for these cupcakes when I made these peanut butter cookies and added white chocolate chunks to the cookie dough. It was a really nice combination. I just had to make a cupcake out of it.

Jun 17

10 Comments

Banana Coconut Cupcakes With Creme Fraiche Frosting And Coconut Caramel Sauce

A big thank you goes out to Cupcakes Take The Cake, where Rachel linked to my latest cupcake creation on Flickr, banana coconut cupcakes with creme fraiche frosting and coconut caramel sauce. I thought I’d better get the recipe for these awesome cupcakes on my blog so that all the visitors from CTTC can make these for themselves.

First of all, let me say that I’ve been planning these cupcakes for weeks. It all started when I made the coconut pancakes with bananas, creme fraiche and caramel sauce last month, which was a recipe from Valli Little in delicious. magazine. I loved those pancakes. The combination of those flavors was like nothing else my tastebuds have ever experienced (probably mostly because I had never eaten creme fraiche!). I started thinking that this flavor combination would taste great as a cupcake as well, and I haven’t made cupcakes in ages!

Over the past week I finally made up my mind as to how I would make these cupcakes. I would use a banana cupcake recipe and stir sweetened shredded coconut into the batter. The frosting would be something of my own creation, which turned out fabulous – creme fraiche whipped with confectioners’ sugar. I made the same caramel sauce for these cupcakes as I made for the pancakes, except I replaced the thickened cream with coconut milk (I would have used coconut cream if I had had any). This turned out fabulous as well, such a great flavor.

Apr 16

10 Comments

Mocha Cupcakes

I take my 4-year-old daughter to ballet classes on Tuesdays. She really enjoys it and has made a new friend in her class. It’s neat to see her perform some of the poses at home – one day she did a plie. Ballet term 2 is now starting after a 2-week long Easter holiday, and my daughter says she wants to continue with ballet.

Ballet class lasts only 30 minutes. Luckily, if I practically run, I can make it over to the nearby Westfield shopping center for a special treat for myself. I visit T2 Tea and sample all four of the teas they have on display that day and have a chat with the friendly ladies who work there. And then I do a fast-walk to get back to ballet to pick up my daughter.

As it turns out, my daughter also likes to sample the teas at T2 Tea, so before the holidays I started going to T2 before ballet class so she could try the teas too, and I sat in the lobby area of the ballet studio and read magazines while she was in her class. They only have a handful of magazines and always the same ones, but I did find an Australian Women’s Weekly magazine (from March 2009!) that I hadn’t seen before and flipped through the recipe section. I found some beautiful mocha cupcakes and read the recipe for them. I was immediately intrigued by it because it used real melted chocolate, almond meal and buttermilk.

Mar 3

196 Comments

Cupcakes & A Giveaway!

The giveaway is now over and any comments left after 7PM on March 7, 2010 as recorded on the comment will not be counted. The winner will be chosen tomorrow so check back then to see if you have won!

The Sweetest Kitchen hasn’t always been The Sweetest Kitchen. I started out blogging about cupcakes in late May of 2008 at Blogspot; my blog was then called The Cupcake Review. As I started to expand and blog about more than cupcakes I knew that I needed to switch to my own domain. After much thought, I finally decided on the name The Sweetest Kitchen in late February of 2009, and launched the new domain on March 3. It’s now been one year and my blogging experience has been such fun. The Sweetest Kitchen has became more popular than I ever expected it to – I’ve almost reached 500,000 page views!

My most famous post, with at least 30,000 page views so far, was the zombie Halloween cupcake I made for Iron Cupcake: Earth and Cupcake Hero in October 2009. However, my personal favorite of anything I have ever baked since beginning this blog is the pumpkin dulce de leche cupcake. Everyone who has made these has raved about them, and I’m so happy about that!

Today I’ve made some cupcakes in celebration of The Sweetest Kitchen’s 1-year anniversary. They are actually very similar to the pumpkin dulce de leche cupcakes, but instead of the pumpkin cake, I used a chocolate cake and sprinkled the frosting with sea salt.

Feb 25

6 Comments

Half-Birthday Cupcakes

Babies are cute. I oughta know, I’ve had three of them. My latest installment was a baby boy, six months ago. His name is Miles. He’s been the sweetest, cutest and most patient of my three. He smiles and giggles at anything and sleeps mostly through the night. You couldn’t ask for much more out of a baby other than that he sleeps through the night, trust me. Sleep-deprivation is not fun.

I have breastfed my babies exclusively for the first six months of their lives (and weaned at 18 months), and on their six-month birthdays I have given them their first tastes of solid foods. Yesterday, the 24th, was Miles’ six-month birthday and we had a great day.

Jan 31

5 Comments

Lemon Myrtle And Coconut Cupcakes

One of the many things that I love about Australia is its native wildlife – kangaroos, emus, koalas, echidnas, bandicoots, wallabies, cockatoos and much more. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of these animals in their natural habitats while driving through the Outback in 1999 and 2002, and every day I hear the sound of cockatoos screeching past our windows. Australia is such a beautiful place with so many interesting and extreme places. I’m so glad to be living here.

Being a foodie, I also really love Australia’s native herbs and spices, such as wattleseed, lemon myrtle, mountain pepper and bush tomato, to name a few. I’ve never cooked with any of these native spices before but now that I’m here for good I would really love to experience these herbs and spices that you can only find in Australia.

Luckily, my husband grows a variety of plants in the garden, including a lemon myrtle tree. He picked some leaves from the tree earlier this week for my first experiment in baking with Australian native spices.

I thought I’d have to wait weeks for the leaves to dry, but I found a very helpful post from Simple Daily Recipes on how to dry basil in the microwave. It looked so easy and quick that I decided to try this on the lemon myrtle leaves.

Jan 6

13 Comments

Vanilla Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

As we’re waiting for the final verdict on December’s Cupcake Hero challenge, I thought I’d post about these cupcakes that my daughter and I made shortly before we left the US. What makes these cupcakes extra special is that they were completely made up by my 4-year-old daughter.

One night as I was putting her to bed she told me she wanted to make her own cupcake. I asked her what kind of cupcake did she want to make. She said she wanted a vanilla cake, pink raspberry frosting, a cherry on top and a piece of white chocolate. I promised her I’d help her make them.

Nov 24

13 Comments

White Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

Our 3 years back in the US have been great, but it’s time to settle down and raise our kids in one spot. As hard as it is to leave your family behind, it’s something that happens every day; kids grow up and leave their families behind to start their own life.

I’m leaving my family behind here in Indiana and moving to Sydney, Australia this weekend. I have lived in Sydney before, from 2001-2006 and it was fabulous. It’s definitely a place I feel happy spending my life in. I know my kids will love it as well.

This will be my last post from the US; expect all future posts to be from Australia and upside down!

Anyway, a friend of mine requested one last batch of cupcakes from me before we left. She wanted cookie dough cupcakes and chocolate/white chocolate cupcakes. Of course I’ve done cookie dough cupcakes before, so I won’t post about them again, but I made the chocolate/white chocolate cupcakes into white chocolate mocha cupcakes. I was inspired to do this because my friend is a big fan of Starbucks’ white chocolate mochas. These were the last cupcakes I made in the US.

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I know, the photos aren’t that great because it was late afternoon and there wasn’t enough natural light from the sun so I didn’t even bother with my usual set up.

These are chocolate cupcakes, filled with chocolate coffee ganache and frosted with white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC). I’m really proud of these because while most mocha cupcakes have coffee in the cake where it cannot be tasted, I put my coffee into the ganache and the coffee flavor is quite prominent. This isn’t just any chocolate coffee ganache, by the way. It was made using the brand new Starbucks VIA Italian Roast instant coffee.

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The white chocolate really came through in the SMBC, as well. SMBC is always an extra effort to make, but the results are so rewarding. The texture was silky smooth and full of white chocolate flavor.

My main point of this post is to share the coffee ganache tip with you. If you want coffee flavor in your cupcakes, don’t put the coffee in the cake (or well, you can, just be aware that the taste isn’t going to be very noticeable) – fill the cupcakes with coffee-flavored ganache!

If you’d like to try the ultimate white chocolate cupcake, the recipes are below. Just choose your own favorite chocolate cupcake recipe (mine is Hershey’s or Martha’s Devil’s food cupcakes) and follow these recipes.

Chocolate Coffee Ganache Filling
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes enough to fill 12 cupcakes (with a little leftover)

Ingredients
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 packet Starbucks VIA Italian Roast
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

Method
Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering then empty the packet of Starbucks VIA into the cream and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and pour the cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and stir until combined.

White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Adapted from Whisk Kid
Makes enough to frost about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
5 egg whites
18 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened slightly and sliced
1/4 cup white chocolate, melted and cooled

Method
Cook the egg whites and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved (test by rubbing some between your fingers. If it’s completely smooth, it’s done).

Pour into another bowl (a stand mixer is preferable) and whip on high speed until room temp.

Then, on a medium-slow speed, add the butter, waiting until each piece is completely incorporated before adding the next. The buttercream may turn into a soupy curdled mess, but I assure you it will be ok; just beat it for a few minutes longer. It’ll come together!

When the buttercream has reached the ideal consistency, add the melted and cooled white chocolate carefully. Try not to get any on the walls of the bowl as it will cool and harden there. Whip to incorporate.

Nov 14

12 Comments

Apple Cupcakes

It astounds me when I see all the different varieties of apples that there are in the store. My favorite for eating is usually Pink Ladies, and my least favorite is Red Delicious. For baking though, there’s usually one main choice, Granny Smith apples. These apples are what I used in my entry for Iron Cupcake: Earth; the challenge ingredient this month is apples.

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This is just your average apple cupcake, baked with chopped apples inside, a filling of dulce de leche for a rich caramel taste, and cream cheese frosting. A pecan sits on top. Read more

Nov 11

12 Comments

Chocolate, PB, Toffee, Bacon Cupcakes

Wow, the title of this post is a mouthful! If you can think of an easier name for these cupcakes, just let me know! These cupcakes were created for November’s Cupcake Hero challenge ingredient, peanut butter. I’ve already entered one cupcake into the competition this month, but I just love peanut butter so there was no way I could only enter just one.

My second entry is a chocolate cupcake with chocolate chips and finely chopped crispy bacon baked inside. It is frosted with peanut butter frosting, sprinkled with finely chopped toffee and topped off with a square of crispy bacon.

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