Cupcakes Category

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Booze Cakes

I’ll be honest with you, this will be short tonight. Our new puppy Maiya is not happy that I am working on the blog, her sister doesn’t want to play with her tonight and Derek is taking the Jeopardy online test. If she’s not chewing on something, she’s peeing on it, so naturally I’m a bit distracted. For those of you with children, I don’t know how you do it!

These were the first cupcakes I made from Booze Cakes and wow, they were strong! I cut the champagne in the recipe in half, but I think I could have decreased it even more. I was a little worried, but I liked the finished product more than I thought I was going to. While these weren’t my personal favorite, a co-worker declared them the best thing I’ve ever made. I think if you are a lover of champagne these would be the perfect Valentine’s Day treat to whip up for you and your sweetie. Enjoy!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes
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1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 egg whites
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2-3 drops red food coloring
1 cup champagne

Pink Champagne Frosting

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) salted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup champagne
¼ cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
2-3 drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a mixing bowl beat together butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then beat in egg whites one at a time. Add a few drops of food coloring until the batter is the color of your preference.
Add in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Pour batter into cupcake liners, filling ⅔ full. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
To make the frosting beat together the butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar in one cup increments, then add champagne, milk, and food coloring. Frost cupcakes once they have completely cooled. Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.

~I’m sharing this over at Recipe Swap Thursday and Sweets for Saturday~

Tags: Alcohol, Buttercream, Cupcakes

Posted in Cupcakes | 15 Comments »

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

White Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

I’m a list person. I love them. Can’t live without them. No lie, I will sometimes add things that I have already done to my to do list just so that I can cross them off. I once made a list of lists that I wanted to make.

I hope my OCD’ness hasn’t scared you off yet.

Naturally I made lists when I started blogging. I started a master list of various different desserts I wanted to make, and split them into subcategories (cake, cookies, cupcakes, etc). The longest list was for cupcakes and I started brainstorming all of the different flavors I wanted to try. Peanut butter and jelly was near the top of the list but it has taken me until now to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. Remember the white chocolate peanut butter and jelly puppy chow? It was such a heavenly combination that I knew it needed to be in cupcake form. I brought these in for a coworkers birthday and she doesn’t like filled cupcakes so that meant I had to put both flavors in buttercream on top of the cupcakes.

I modified a recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor (love her!) for the white chocolate cake. It is so much more rich and indulgent that just a regular box of cake mix, and combined with both peanut butter and strawberry buttercream makes for one heck of a flavor explosion! One of my coworkers even labeled these as her new favorite (hi Cathy!)

I got about 18 large cupcakes out of this recipe and had just enough frosting for the pattern seen below (Wilton tip 22). If you made two dozen smaller cupcakes, or want to use more frosting in swirl patterns (one flavor on top of the other) I would multiple the frosting recipes by 1.5. Enjoy!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
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Cake
1 package white cake mix
1 box (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
⅔ cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup white chocolate chips

Peanut Butter Buttercream
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk

Strawberry Buttercream
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
½ tsp vanilla
¼ cup strawberry jam
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer combine together cake mix, pudding, eggs, sour cream, water, vegetable oil and vanilla. In a small bowl melt white chocolate chips for one minute. Stir until smooth then add to remaining cake mix and combine. The mixture will be thick. Place in cupcake liners, filling ⅔ full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in pan for five minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

To make the peanut butter buttercream, beat together the butter, vanilla and peanut butter until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar in one cup increments, then add milk to thin. Repeat process to make strawberry buttercream. I used a disposable pastry bag with a Wilton 22 tip to frost.

Tags: Buttercream, Cupcakes, peanut butter, strawberry, White chocolate

Posted in Cupcakes | 5 Comments »

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Recipe by Aimee

Since I started this blog I feel like I’ve become known for my cupcakes (which doesn’t bother me one bit)! Naturally I knew I would need to make some sort of holiday cupcake, but I am not blessed enough with any sort of artistic genes. I am not capable of making cute little santas, snowmen, or Christmas trees, so I go more for flavor than anything else. Since I’ve been on a huge peppermint kick this season I decided that was the flavor to go with. Almost 6 weeks ago now I came across peppermint baking chips at the grocery store and I instantly decided to put them in a chocolate cupcake. Throw together some peppermint buttercream and you have quite the tasty treat! I had every intention of making this frosting a beautiful light pink color, not the neon pink you see here, but it certainly makes these hard to miss. I baked these cupcakes for my usual 25 minutes, but the peppermint baking chips seemed to turn to a jelly like substance and made the cupcakes seem like they weren’t completely done. I would recommend adding a few minutes to the baking time, and avoid eating them until they have completely cooled (unless of course you like the gooey, not quite done taste). I sprinkled some of these with extra peppermint baking chips, but crushed candy canes or mints would work as well. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
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1 Box Devil’s Food cake mix
Ingredients listed on box + 1 extra egg
1 cup Peppermint baking chips (plus extra for garnishing, if desired)
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
5 tbsp. milk
¼ tsp peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix according to directions, adding an extra egg. Add peppermint baking chips. Pour into cupcake liners, filling them ¾ full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

While cupcakes are baking, beat together butter and vanilla using electric mixer. Mix in powdered sugar in one cup increments. Add milk and peppermint extract. You may use Wilton coloring for buttercream if desired (you should avoid using regular food coloring in buttercream). Frost cupcakes when they have fully cooled, and sprinkle with peppermint baking chips if desired.

Tags: Buttercream, chocolate, Christmas, Cupcakes, Peppermint

Posted in Cupcakes | 11 Comments »

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Halloween Oreo Cupcakes

I know that I may get a lot of flack for saying this, but I am not a huge fan of Halloween. It’s not that I hate it or anything, it just doesn’t come anywhere close to Christmas in my mind. I did dress up this year (a “dress as your name” theme, I was Amy Winehouse!), but you won’t find a single Halloween decoration around my house. I much prefer to decorate for Fall in general and leave the decorations up for longer.

All of that being said, it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy baking for Halloween (or eating Halloween candy). I really struggled with what to make this year. Brownies? Blondies? Cake? Since cupcakes seem to be all the rage in the baking and blogging worlds I settled on those. But what kind? How to decorate them?? So many decisions!! The number 1 Google search sending people to the site has been ‘oreo cupcakes’, so that made my decision for me. The last oreo cupcakes I made were the hugely popular strawberry golden oreo cupcakes and I mixed pieces of the cookies into the batter, but this time I wanted to try placing an entire oreo at the bottom of the cupcake. Obviously I had to use the Halloween Oreos, plus make an oreo buttercream. I originally intended to use a chocolate cupcake, but when I went to make them I discovered I didn’t have any chocolate cake mix in the pantry (don’t you hate that!). I still wanted to do something to make them a little more “Halloweeny” (is that a word?) so that’s when I decided to use the Nutter Butter cookies to make ghosts. I have never had good luck dipping things in chocolate, and my luck certainly continued. I dipped half of each Nutter Butter into vanilla flavored Candy Quick melting chocolate. For the most part it worked well but I can never seem to get everything smooth and perfect. The eyes of the ghosts are mini chocolate chips, which should be placed on the ghosts right after dipping, before the chocolate begins to harden. They stood up in the Oreo buttercream nicely, and added a nice extra treat to the cupcakes. Enjoy!

Halloween Oreo Cupcakes
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1 box yellow (or chocolate) cake mix
Ingredients listed on box + 1 extra egg
24 Halloween oreos
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
7 regular oreos
12 Nutter Butter cookies
1 package vanilla Candy Quick for melting (or any other white chocolate of choice)
72 mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Place a Halloween Oreo into the bottom of each cupcake liner (18-24 depending on how big you plan on making each cupcake). Pour batter over oreos, filling each liner approximately 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl cream together butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar in one cup increments, then add milk to thin. Crush the 7 oreos (more or less depending on your taste) in a food processor, then mix into buttercream. Frost cupcakes when cool.

To make ghosts, melt Candy Quick in microwave for one minute. Remove from microwave and stir until smooth. Cut Nutter Butter cookies in half and dip each into the chocolate. Place on parchment paper to set. Immediately place 3 mini chocolate chips onto each cookie to form eyes and nose. Once set place a “ghost” on top of each cupcake.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

~I’m sharing this recipe over at Delicious Dishes, Cupcake Tuesday and All Halloween Bash~

Tags: Buttercream, Cupcakes, Fall recipes, Halloween, Oreo

Posted in Cupcakes | 40 Comments »

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Maple Cinnamon Cupcakes

Recipe by Aimee, Inspired by Baking Bites

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Fall? The colors, the weather, the FLAVORS!

I’m a planner. One of those super organized types. In our house you will find the DVD’s all organized alphabetically and my books all organized by size first then alphabetically by author’s last name. Yep, I’m that girl.

So of course that organization has rolled over into my blog. I keep a calender next to my computer with dates of posts. I usually bake things about a week and a half before they end up here and I am usually very good about sticking to my schedule.

These cupcakes though? I wanted to post them the second I sampled the batter. Not even kidding you, these are hands down the best cupcakes I have made. They are in a very tight race with the cookie dough cupcakes, but in my book these win! So simple, so tasty, so Fall! I took a break from cupcakes for a while but now I can’t wait to dive back in (sticking to my organized schedule though of course). I really struggled with using maple syrup vs maple flavoring. I have had such good luck with using almond flavoring in the past that I decided to give the maple a try. A little bit of this stuff really goes a long way. Since it worked so well in the cupcake batter I wanted to use it in the frosting as well. I will say that I didn’t really care too much for the frosting by itself, but in combination with the cupcakes the flavors are amazing! Enjoy!

Maple Cinnamon Cupcakes
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1 Box yellow cake mix
Ingredients listed on box + 1 extra egg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp maple flavoring

Maple Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp maple flavoring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl combine cake mix, oil, water and eggs. Then add cinnamon and maple flavoring. Pour into cupcake liners, filling them at least 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Meanwhile, cream together butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar in one cup increments. Add milk, then maple flavoring. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting. Makes approximately 18 cupcakes.

Tags: Buttercream, Cinnamon, Cupcakes, Fall recipes, Maple

Posted in Cupcakes | 12 Comments »