Hmmm… So yeah.  I made cupcakes today.  And, I didn’t start back into baking cupcakes slowly.  No, I didn’t ease into things.  I went BIG!

Chocolate cupcake + Cookie Dough = HOLY GOODNESS!!!

Baked inside this cupcake is a chocolate chip cookie dough ball.  Yah, you read me right.  Cookie Dough.  The best thing that God ever created inside this cupcake.

And to make things even better…. the frosting.  Cookie Dough.   Both my hubby and my neighbor told me I needed to just make this frosting.  A big giant bowl of it so they could take a spoon and scoop it out and shove it in their mouth.  It’s that good.

Personally, I found the bottom of the cupcake to be the best.   But hey, everyone has their preferences.

I can’t resist.  I bought 10 boxes.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  10 boxes.

2 to eat (with in the first 24  hours).

8 to bake with.

Yeah… you read that correctly.  8 boxes to bake with.

Last year I made Samoa Cupcakes and Tagalong Brownies.  This year… I started with Thin Mint Cupcakes.  These cupcakes are a super decadent chocolate cake filled with a whipped chocolate ganache topped with a mint buttercream.  Serious amounts of NOM NOM NOM.

PS…. This is my new favorite chocolate cake recipe.  I know it’s got beer in it… but I’m totally using it for every chocolate cake I make from now on!!

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

1 bottle of Guinness Stout Beer
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
3. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter on medium-high heat.  Add the vanilla beer, whisk together and heat until it just begins to simmer.  Whisk in the cocoa powder and espresso powder and heat until it just begins to bubble up.  DO NOT BOIL.  Remove from heat and whisk until smooth.   Cool slightly.
4. In the meantime, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sour cream.  Slowly pour in the slightly cooled chocolate mixture. NOTE:  DO THIS SLOW! You don’t want to cook the eggs, so start pouring a very small amount of the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture… DO NOT DUMP IT IN ALL AT ONCE.
5. In three parts, add the flour mixture to the chocolate/egg mixture.  Whisk until smooth.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, making sure everything is incorporated.
6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter.
7. Bake 18-20 minutes, rotating pan after 12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan for 3-4 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

4 oz dark chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp corn syrup

1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a medium glass bowl.
2. In a small sauce pan, heat the heavy cream and corn syrup just until it bubbles.
3. Pour heavy cream over chocolate and stir until smooth.  If the chocolate doesn’t melt all the way, place the bowl over a double boiler and continue to stir until smooth.
4. Mix in the butter and extract.
5. Allow ganache to cool to room temperature.
6. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the cooled ganache until fluffy.  Don’t over mix or it will get grainy.

Vanilla Bean Peppermint Buttercream

12 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 cup Madagascar Vanilla Bean Cream
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
pinch of salt
Wilton Green Food Gel

1.  Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
2. Add half the powdered sugar and mix on high until incorporated and smooth.
3. Beat in half the vanilla bean cream until smooth.  Scrape the sides of the bowl, making sure all the sugar is combined.
4. Add the remaining sugar and the peppermint extract.
5. Mix in the food gel until it’s the color you desire.
6. Add remaining vanilla bean cream until you get the consistency you want.  Mix on high 3-4 minutes until smooth and fluffy.

To Assemble Cupcakes:

Thin Mint Cookies
Peppermint Buttercream
Chocolate Shavings
Piping bag & large round tip
Apple corer

1. Core each cupcake using the apple corer.
2. Fill each cupcake with whipped ganache.  (I filled a disposable piping bag, cut off the top and filled each one with that.)
3. Using a large round tip and a piping  bag, pipe a round swirl of buttercream on to each cupcake.
4. Top with a Thin Mint cookie and chocolate shavings.
5. EAT! ENJOY!

And this is what you do when you have left over peppermint buttercream.  NOM NOM NOM

I’ve been dreaming of doing a special post for New Year’s… but wasn’t sure if I’d make it in time.  Today… well, with nothing really on the agenda today, I decided to spend a few hours in the kitchen and make some cupcakes!

And… what better way to celebrate the New Year than with a big bottle of BUBBLY!  These cupcakes have a very strong champagne flavor but paired with the homemade raspberry filling they sure are a sweet treat!

Of course, these little cupcakes had to be all dressed up to celebrate 2012!  I melted white chocolate and created the cutest toppers for these cupcakes… perfect to ring in the New Year!

Since this will be my final post of 2011… I want to take this time to wish you all a very Happy 2012!  I hope all your dreams and wishes come true in this year year!

Love you all!

Raspberry Champagne Cupcakes
Makes 18-20 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup of your favorite champagne – I used Cook’s Extra Dry for this recipe

pink food gel coloring

Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners.

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs until fluffy and smooth… at least 4-5 minutes.
2. Mix in the vanilla and sour cream.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the flour and champagne, alternating, as well as beginning and ending with the flour.   Mix only until combined.
5. At this point you can either add the pink food gel coloring or you can leave them white.  I did half white and half pink.  Mix the food gel only until combined… you don’t want to overwork the batter.
6. Scoop into liners 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
8. Once cool, using an apple corer, remove the center of each cupcake and fill with raspberry filling.

Raspberry Filling
Makes enough to fill 2+ dozen cupcakes

1 bag of frozen raspberries
1/3 cup sugar
3-4 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp corn starch

1. In a large pan on the stove, melt the butter.
2. Add the raspberries, sugar and vanilla and cook for about 5 minutes on med-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
3. Once the sugar melts and the raspberries begin to bubble, in a 1 cup measuring cup, mix together with a fork 4-5 tbsp of the raspberry mixture and the corn starch.  Add this mixture back to the pan with the remaining raspberries and stir until combined.
4. Bring mixture to a bubble/gentle boil then remove from the heat.  Stir every few minutes as it cools.
5. Cool completely before filling cupcakes.
6. To fill cupcakes:  place raspberry mixture into a piping bag and squeeze just enough filling into each cupcake.

Champagne Buttercream
Makes enough to frost 18 cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup butter flavored shortening (you could use all butter if you wanted too)
1 1/2 lbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 cup Champagne (I used the same as what I put in the cupcakes)

1.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and shortening.
2. One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar and mix on high until smooth.
3. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until combined.
4. Add 1/4 cup of champagne and mix on high until smooth.  Add remaining champagne until you get the consistency you desire.
5. Mix frosting on high for 1-2 minutes until fluffy and the color brightens.
6. Pipe frosting onto your cupcakes and decorate!

And here they are all dressed up for a client to enjoy!  Happy 2012!

Now, there’s no getting around prepping the apples in butter, sugar and spices. That’s just a MUST for these cupcakes, especially if you want them filled. If you wanted to skip the filling step, you could add the cooked apples to your batter before baking and omit the raw apples from the batter. You’d have swirls of cinnamon and apple throughout the cupcake. YUM!

But, I wanted filled cupcakes this time so I chopped up half a large apple and put that in the batter. I’ll fill the cupcakes when they’re cool with the cooked apple mixture.

I topped these cupcakes with an apple, cinnamon and caramel buttercream… it took has chunks of apples running through it. Super good… super sweet!

Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk (you could use apple juice too)
1/2 cup chopped apples

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line your cupcake pan with liners.
2. Cream together the butter and sugars.
3. One at a time, mix in the eggs. Add the vanilla then beat on high for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
4. Sift into the batter the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix by hand about 5-6 strokes.
5. Add the milk and mix only until all the flour and milk are incorporated.
6. Gently fold in the apples. Do not over mix!
7. Bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Leave in pan for 3-4 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Filling
1 large apple, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk mixed with 1 heaping tbsp corn starch

1. In a medium pan, melt the butter on medium-high heat.
2. Add the apples, sugars and vanilla and stir. Cook until bubbling, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the milk + cornstarch mixture and bring to a bubble. Cook for 1-2 minutes until thickens.
4. Remove from heat and continue to stir for about 1 minute.
5. Set aside to cool.
6. Fill cupcakes and reserve remaining apple mixture for buttercream.

Mini Cupcakes

Tools: 
Apple corer
Piping bag

3 Steps:

-Press the apple corer into the center of the mini cupcake.  Twist gently and pull out the center piece of cake.
-Fill a piping bag with your mixture, cut off the tip so you have about a 1cm opening.
-Pipe the mixture into the cupcake just until it reaches the top.

Tools: 
Sharp knife
Mini ice cream scoop

3 Steps:
-Using a sharp knife, cut a cone out of the center of each cupcake.  Make sure the knife goes almost to the bottom of the cupcake when cutting the cone.  Trim off the bottom of the cone so what you have left is a flat top.
-Using the mini ice cream scoop, scoop a dollop of filling into each cupcake until it’s full.
-Replace the flat top of cake back on top of the filling and press down until it’s flat.

You may remember the Tree Hugger Apple cupcakes I made before!  I brought them to my first Cupcake Camp and they were a HUGE success!  My very first recipe I came up with on my own from scratch!  I knew I didn’t want to make these caramel apple cupcakes exactly the same, but some elements of it I knew were too good to pass up.

I started these Caramel Apple Cupcakes with the same pan cooked chopped apples that I used with my Tree Hugger Apple cupcakes.  Sugar, apples, lemon, and spices cooked on low heat to create a ooey gooey apple filling.  Seriously, I could eat it by the spoonful.

Apple Mixture
Makes about 2 cups apple mixture

3 Granny Smith apples, diced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbsp hot water + 1 tbsp corn starch

1. Over medium high heat,  mix together all the ingredients in a frying pan on the stove.
2. Bring to a boil then reduce to low and cook for about 10 minutes.  Stirring frequently.
3. Set aside to cool completely.

Apple Cream Cheese Filling

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup apple mixture
1 tbsp heavy cream (optional)

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment.
2. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
3. Mix in the vanilla.
4. Add the apple mixture and mix on low until just combined.
5. If mixture is too thick, add a tbsp of heavy cream to smooth out.

Apple Cupcakes
Makes 18 full size cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes

2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup apple juice
1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

1 cup apple mixture

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, oil, applesauce, juice and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk/sift together the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Add the flour to the wet mixture and mix together just until combined.
5. Fold in the apple mixture.
6. Fill regular size liners about 2/3 full.  Fill mini liners 1/2 full.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Rotate pan after 12 minutes of baking.
8. Cool in pans for about 7 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Assembly

1. After cool, cut a cone out of the center of each regular size cupcake.  Trim off the bottom of the cone.
2. Core out the center of each mini cupcake using an apple corer.
3. Fill each cupcake with the cream cheese apple mixture.  Replace to tops of the regular size cupcakes only. (I used a small ice cream scoop to fill the regular size cupcakes and a piping bag to fill the mini’s)
4. Top with caramel buttercream and then rim with your favorite topping. (Nuts, candy, sprinkles, caramel sauce)
5. Insert popsicle stick or lollipop stick into center of cupcake.

For me, a PB&J sandwich means 3 things:  1-white bread, 2-strawberry jam, and 3-creamy peanut butter frosting.  These cupcakes are the best combination of all 3 in the most amazing way possible!  They are made with a white cake batter that seriously tastes like white bread! I don’t eat a lot of white bread these days (or any, if I’m keeping it real… and yes, I’m aware of how snotty that makes me sound! lol) BUT when I want a PB&J sandwich the only kind of bread I want is good ol’ fashioned white, Wonder Bread.  Right? Right! They’re filled with my favorite strawberry jam and topped with my favorite peanut butter frosting, that’s mixed with a little bit of cream cheese to keep it a little tangy and light.

I promise if you make these you’ll be in love.  Well, in love if you love white bread, strawberry jam and peanut butter.  Sounds like a winning combo to me!

PB&J Cupcakes (Cake Batter & Inspiration: My Baking Addiction)

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I totally want to make a Goober version of these cupcakes… sort of makes me drool, just thinkin about it!  If you’re a Goober hater, please keep the hatin’ to yourself!

Seriously, if you love chocolate… then this cupcake should satisfy every chocolate craving you will ever have.

The first dozen I made, I also topped them white a swirl of white chocolate.  But… my chocolate wasn’t behaving for me, so I only did a dozen with the white chocolate.  It really looked awesome with the white on top… but my patience was running out by the time I got to the second and third dozen.  :)

These cupcakes are pretty labor intense and cost a little extra because of all the chocolate, but the presentation is gorgeous and they really are heavenly.

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Cake
Makes 12+ cupcakes

1 ½ cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp clear vanilla extract

3.5 oz white bakers chocolate, melted

¼ cup milk
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup hot water

Milk Chocolate Cake
Makes 12+ cupcakes
1 ½ cups cake flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp clear vanilla extract

3.5 oz milk chocolate, melted

¼ cup milk
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup hot water

Use the same directions below to make both batters.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a measuring cup that pours, mix together the milk and sour cream.
4. Using a double boiler on medium-high heat. Melt the chocolate. Set aside to cool.
5. In the meantime, using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar.
6. Add the egg whites one at a time and mix until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
7. Mix in the vanilla.
8. On medium, slowly pour the chocolate into the egg/sugar/butter mixture. Scrape the sides and mix until completely combined.
9. Add the flour and milk/sour cream alternating, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix only until combined.
10. Add the hot water and mix just until incorporated.
11. STOP. Make the 2nd batter. When that is completed, continue to the next step.
12. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of white chocolate batter into one side of the liner. Scoop the same amount of chocolate batter next to it in the liner.
13. Pound the cupcake pan flat on the counter 2-3 times to help the batter settle. Using a toothpick, swirl the two batters together 3-4 times. Do not over swirl, you don’t want to mix the two together, just create a marble effect.
14. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
15. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
16. After the cupcakes have completely cooled, core each cupcake and fill with the chocolate ganache. Top with the dark chocolate frosting and a shaving of white chocolate (optional).

1. Combine all ingredients in a microwaves safe bowl.
2. Microwave in 30 second spurts and stir until 85% of the chocolate has melted.
3. Remove from the microwave and stir until all the chocolate has melted.
4. Let cool for 5-7 minutes to thicken.
5. Spoon into cored cupcakes.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 lb powdered sugar, sifted into the cocoa powder

1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted into the powdered sugar

8oz dark bakers chocolate, melted

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup sour cream, heaping

1-2 tbsp milk

1. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.
2. In the mean time, cream together the cream cheese and butter.
3. Add sifted cocoa powder and powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
4. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again.
5. In a slow stream with the mixer on medium, pour in the melted chocolate.  Mix until combined.
6. Add the sour cream and beat into submission.  :)
7. Add the milk until you get your desired consistency.
8. Frost cupcakes immediately.

This cupcake is a really moist cupcake filled with my favorite raspberry jam.  The frosting is a twist on a classic peanut butter frosting because it has a bit of cocoa powder in it too.   I made them for a 4th of July party and they were a HUGE it!

Peanut butter Cupcakes
Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

½ cup butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
½ cup creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract

½ cup sour cream
½ cup milk

1/3 cup hot water

½ cup raspberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
3. Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugar.
4. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix on high 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
6. Mix together the sour cream and milk.
7. Add the flour and sour cream/milk, alternating, beginning and ending with the flour.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix only until incorporated.
8. Add the hot water and stir until combined.
9. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minute or until a toothpic comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove to wire wrack to cool completely.
11. Core the center of the cupcakes and fill with raspberry jam.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 lb (3-4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup whipping cream

1. Cream together the peanut butter and butter.
2. Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
3. One cup at a time, add the sugar mixture and mix until creamy.
4. Add the vanilla and just enough cream until you reach you desired consistency.
5. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix on high for 30 seconds.

They were super simple to decorate. I had most of the things on hand already and luckily, I had recently won a kit from Cupcake Crafts specifically for the 4th of July!

This weekend, I’ll be out of town, so I want to wish all of you a very safe and fun Independence Day!!

Happy 4th of July!

I think the key to this recipe is the hint of maple syrup and the cinnamon. There is just enough of each to add a flavor that makes these cupcakes stand out from a regular white or vanilla cupcake. I also used my favorite store bought raspberry jam to fill them. You could use any filling you wanted really… the possibilities are endless.

At the party I served these at, I think I ate three. Yeah, they were THAT good!

JavaCupcake’s Glazed Jelly Doughnuts

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 scant tsp cinnamon

1 cup milk

1 cup of your favorite jam or curd
vanilla glaze

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. Cream butter and sugars together.*
3. One at a time, add the eggs and cream after each.  Don’t forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl!
4. Add the maple syrup and combine.
5. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
6. Add the flour in three parts adding half the milk in between the flour. Mix only until combined.  Sometimes, I’ll even mix the last bit of flour by hand, just to make sure I don’t over mix it.
7. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Glaze
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. In a bowl, whisk together ingredients until smooth.
2. Really, it doesn’t get much easier.

To Assemble:

1. Prepare glaze.  Dip each cupcake upside down in the glaze and shake off the excess.  Set aside to harden.
2. Using THIS TECHNIQUE, fill the cupcakes with your favorite jam or curd.  Make sure to squeeze enough so that some filling comes out the top.

Tips & Tricks:
Have you ever wondered what it really meant to “cream together” two things?  To me… it means throwing those items in my stand mixer, turning it on high then walking away for at least 4-5 minutes.  Seriously,  walk away.  I might come back once to scrape the sides of the bowl down, but I really need the mixer to do it’s thing and bring together the ingredients, usually butter and sugars.  Sometimes, I might even throw in the eggs and go for another 2-3 mins. You want that creamed mixture to be light, fluffy and all the sugars broken down.  It really makes a huge difference in the final product!

We had an amazing birthday dinner for him at Indochine in downtown Tacoma, one of our fav places, ever!  We were able to reserve the pagoda table in the restaurant, which was super awesome.  I didn’t bring cupcakes to dinner, but I wanted to make sure that he had something really special over the weekend-just for him Enter, Reese’s PB cupcakes.  They. Are. Delish.

The batter was really really thick, almost stressed me out a little bit (kind of like when batter is really watery) but I went with the flow and amen to that, because this chocolate cake is ummm, something to write home about.  We love it…. I’m already dreaming up some different combos that would work really well with the cake (I see some chocolate & strawberry cupcakes in our future very soon).  I’m not a huge chocolate fan, I know, I know… It’s a crime against life… but I LOVE ME SOME REESE’S (actually just the mini reese’s, they’re the best lol). LOVE. So does the little brother!

These are similar to Betsy’s PB Ball Cupcakes or the Reese’s Cake that she made for daughter’s bday last year… as you can see, we heart the PB & Chocolate combo around here Instead of using PB balls in the cupcakes, I just put an un-wrapped mini reese’s in the cupcake liner before adding the batter, which ended up being a fun little surprise and then adding 1/2 a reese’s as garnish for the cupcakes.  The PB buttercream is pretty basic, nothing fancy… butter, cream cheese, creamy PB, powdered sugar and milk (as needed).

I know that there are a ton of chocolate cake recipes out there, actually even here on the blog but a lot recipes call for some type of oil and I didn’t have any on hand, but we always have sour cream so this recipe was perfect for me in more than 1 way You’re welcome to use your favorite chocolate cake for this recipe and if you have one, your favorite PB buttercream… really you just want to add those mini reese’s for the finishing touch

Reese’s PB Cupcakes (Cake Recipe: Annie’s Eats)

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups sugar
• 2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners.  Add 1 mini reese’s to the center of each cupcake liner.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the sour cream, milk and vanilla extract.
4. Using your standing bowl mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
6. With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the dry ingredients with the sour cream mixture to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
7. Mix until combined.  Do not overmix.
8. Fill cupcake liners with batter (I used a full ice cream scoop for each cupcake)
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Allow cupcakes to cool, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Pipe your favorite PB frosting with a large star/french pastry tip.  Add mini reese’s as desired to finish it off

Ps. They’re a little hard to see, but these are the cupcake liners that I used… from Bake it Pretty (of course).   Happy allllmossst Friday!

*hugs* Jenn

The verdict…. UHM YUM!  The cupcakes were a chocolate Nutella cupcake which I filled with a simple vanilla pudding then topped with Nutella buttercream and chopped hazlenuts.  Some of the cupcakes I topped with a Nutella and peanut butter cream cheese frosting swirl.  Double yum.

There were three things though about this recipe that I didn’t like.  1) The cake was a little dry.  Now, I think that was probably my fault.  I could have taken the cupcakes out a little sooner and they probably wouldn’t have been so dry.  2) Next time I’ll fill them with something different, like Nutella or a different banana mixture.  The banana pudding tasted good, but it soaked into the cupcake too much after a day or so and when you bit into it you didn’t really see a lot of the filling because it soaked into the cupcake.  Yummy, but not perfect like I wanted.  3) It made FIVE DOZEN cupcakes.  The place I got the recipe from said it made 3 dozen, but really, I got five.  So… if you need A LOT of cupcakes, this a good recipe to use.

The cupcakes got rave reviews though… so I’m sure next time I make I’ll use half the recipe and probably a different filling, straight Nutella.

Nutella Bliss Cupcakes
Makes 5 dozen cupcakes
Adapted from Good Life Eats

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup Nutella
2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, cocoa, baking soda and powder and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, mix together butter and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.  Add the Nutella then the buttermilk, mixing until combined.  Scrape the sides of the bowl several times.
4. Add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with the milk.  Begin and end with the flour and mix only until combined.  Do not over mix.
5. Fill cupcakes liners 1/2 full with batter.  Bake for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpic comes out clean.
6. Let cupcakes sit in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Pudding Filling
2 packages of Vanilla Cream instant pudding mix and milk needed to make it
3 ripe bananas, mushed with a fork

1. Make pudding according to directions on the box.  Place in freezer for 10 minutes until set.  If you have time, you can put them in the fridge instead, but I’m impatient!
2. After the pudding has had time to set up, fold in the mashed bananas.  Return to refrigerator/freezer to set up more.
3. Using this method, fill the cupcakes with the banana mixture.

Nutella Buttercream
1/2 unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup Nutella
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Cream butter and Nutella together. Add the vanilla extract and combine.
2. Mix in the powdered sugar, adding the cream as necessary until you get your desired consistency.
3. Mix until you have the texture you desire.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy*
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp heavy cream or milk

*(I like a really sweet frosting, so only use about 1 1/2 cups of sugar for a less sweet frosting. You may also need to use less cream if you reduce the sugar)

1. Cream together the butter, cream cheese and peanut butter. Add the vanilla extract and combine.
2. In small amounts, add the powdered sugar. Scrape the sides of the bowl as you add more.
3. Add the cream until you get your desired consistency.
4. Beat the crap out of the frosting too. It’ll make it yummier.

*Tips & Tricks*
To make a swirl of Nutella and Peanut Butter frosting on your cupcakes, fill one side of your piping bag with Nutella and the other with peanut butter.  You’ll get a nice swirl of each flavor on top of your cake! Yum!

Here’s what you need:

• Cupcakes
• Filling (anything that isn’t too chunky will work)
• Wilton tip #230
• Piping bag
• Butter knife or scraper

If you have any questions about this… please ask ask ask!

The original recipe calls for a lemon curd filling, which sounds super tasty, but I decided to use a raspberry jam (just the regular jam from my fridge) as the filling because I wanted to something sort of sweet to play off the lemon flavor in the cupcakes.  The cupcakes remind me of a lemon pound cake, they’re kind of dense but all of the flavors and textures definitely work well together.  The filling really works well with the cake, the cream cheese frosting is light and sweet with a nice kick from the limoncello!

These are definitely a grown-up cupcake!  I would love to make them for bachelorette party or a ladies night…

Limoncello Cupcakes (recipe slightly adapted from: Brown Eyed Baker)

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons limoncello
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 1/2 cups  raspberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar in a standing bowl mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time until combined.
5. Add limoncello and mix for 1 minute.
6. On low speed add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour.
7. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest to the batter, mix just until combined.
8. Bake cupcakes for 20 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool.
9. Core the center of each cupcake and remove to make room for the filling.
10. Pipe raspberry jam into each cupcake. (You can keep or discard the cores, up to you )

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon limoncello
• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• zest of one lemon (reserve some to garnish cupcakes)
• 12 raspberries to top cupcakes

1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a standing bowl mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
2. Add limoncello and mix until combined.
3. On low speed, add powered sugar and mix until everything is combined.
4. Add lemon zest to frosting and pipe frosting with a star pastry tip.
5. Top each cupcake with lemon zest and a fresh raspberry.

Just an FYI, these cute little cupcake wrappers are from World Market they were like $4 for a pack of 24… super cute!  Also, I linked to the brand of limoncello that I used ($24) but you could also make it!  If you’re looking for a fun project for presents, limoncello would be great!  Check out this cute post from Veronika of Tick Tock Vintage… (she’s one of my fav fashion bloggers!)

I hope that you’re all having a great weekend!  Oh, and just for funsies here’s a fun pic of favorite my baking companion Cupcake Wine? YES PLEASE!

xoxo-Jenn

Celebrity Cake Studio, a bakery in Tacoma donated a full sheet cake for the event.  Not only was it super delicious, it was also super pretty Yay & yay! Check it out:

It was a marble cake with an eclair filling and a vanilla buttercream frosting.  Right?! Super tasty.  So, anyways… after having this amazing cake and forgetting to take some home with me, I was totally inspired to make my own.  Well, not a big cake, cause me and big cakes don’t have the best history together.  But marble cupcakes sounded just as good  The recipe I used is from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, instead of doing an eclair filling, I used her pastry cream recipe, also from the book that actually goes with the Boston Cream Pie recipe and a regular vanilla buttercream.

Sometimes, I’m not really sure how I bake because I’m not really a patient person… but, I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way to help me out-like keeping butter out on my counter all the time because I bake so much.

This time, I didn’t really follow all the rules, so they weren’t the most aesthetically pleasing cupcakes, but they still tasted great and SOMETIMES that’s just enough for me I *realllllly* should have waited for the pastry cream to cool & firm up in the fridge, but I didn’t, cause I was being lazy.  Long story short, I piped the pasty cream into my cupcakes before it cooled and the pastry cream made my frosting melt, ugh.  I was able to get a few good pics before they had to be tossed into the fridge to keep their shape!  Technically these don’t really call for frosting, but I’ll take any good excuse to use my ginormous pastry tips from Bake it Pretty

Marble Cupcakes

• 1 3/4 cupscake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup milk, room temperature
• 1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line 16 muffin tins with paper liners.  Sift together flour, baking powder & salt.  Combine milk and heavy cream.
2. With a standing bowl mixer on high speed, cream together butter & sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the vanilla.  Add flour in 3 batches, alternating with milk mixture until batter is combined.
3. To make chocolate: measure 1 cup batter into a bowl.  Combine cocoa and boiling water in a bowl.  Stir into reserved batter.
4. Fill cups alternating with spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter filling each tin 3/4 full.  Run a wooden skewer through the batter in a figure 8 motion to make swirls.
5. Bake until tops are golden, a cake tester comes out clean, about 2o mins.
6. Transfer to a cooling rack.
7. Core the center of each cupcake to make room for the filling.
8. Reserve core to cover the pastry cream filling.

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Pastry Cream

• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Whisk egg yolks until smooth in a large bowl.  Combine sugar, corn starch, and salt in a medium saucepan and heat over medium.  Stirring constantly, gradually add milk in a slow, steady stream and cook until mixture begins to thicken and bubble, about 5 mins.
2. Whisking constantly, slowly pour 1/3 of milk mixture into the eggs yolks.  Temper the egg yolks so they do not curdle.  Pour mixture into remaining milk mixture in the saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a full boil and is thick enough to hold shape when lifted with a spoon, 2-4 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl.  Cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming.   Refrigerate until chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).
4. Pipe pastry cream into each cupcake.
5. Press reserved cupcake cores over the pastry cream filling.
6. Add your favorite vanilla buttercream frosting
7. Enjoy.

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Ps. If you’re interested, we raised almost $800 at the Showcase for Japan and will continue to collect money all Spring Quarter.  All the proceeds are going to Peace Winds America.  A non-profit organization that is working in tandem with their sister organization Peace Winds Japan to provide relief and recovery operations to the hardest hit areas in Japan.   Every little bit helps, whether it’s a monetary contribution or just spreading the word….

Pss.  Lots of love to Celebrity Cake Studio, once again for the *AMAZING* cake and supporting the event!  Mahalo!

xoxo-Jenn

One of the last cupcakes I had back home was the chocolate peanut butter cupcake from New York Cupcakes in Bellevue, WA and really… it’s probably my all time favorite cupcake.  It’s a super delicious chocolate cake with a baked in chocolate covered peanut butter ball, toppeed with peanut butter frosting.  Seriously, so good.  So… these first cupcakes are inspired by my favorite NYCC cupcake.

For the cake, I used my standard chocolate cupcake recipe, but tweaked it just a little bit by adding sour cream.  I also only had regular cocoa instead of dark.

I hand rolled the peanut butter balls in the middle… the recipe is really so simple and can be made ahead of time.  I actually made them the day before and they sat in my freezer until I needed them.

The last time I made peanut butter frosting, it turned out really too thick.  Almost unspreadable.  So, this time, I tried things a little different and really loved how it turned out.  I’m pretty sure I can find a dozen different uses for this frosting too.  It’s THAT good.

So… without further adieu… here’s the recipe!

JavaCupcake’s Covered Peanut Butter Balls
Makes about 24 balls

1 cup creamy peanut butter (crunchy would be good too!)
2 tbsp room temperature soft butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 heaping cup of powdered sugar, sifted
1 12oz package of milk chocolate chips

1. In a medium-heat safe bowl, microwave the salt, butter and peanut butter for about 45 seconds or until it’s soft, but not completely melted.
2. Add the vanilla a mix it all together using a rubber spatula/scraper.
3. Add the powdered sugar and mix together until it’s a paste like consistency.  Add more sugar if it’s too soft.
4. Roll ¾ in balls in your hands and line on a cookie sheet.
5. Freeze for 1-2 hours or until hard.
6. After 2 hours, melt the chocolate.
7. Dip each frozen ball in the chocolate, shake off the excess and place back on the cookie sheet.
8. Freeze another 1 hour.
9. Make sure balls are completely frozen when baking them in cupcakes.

JavaCupcake’s  Chocolate Peanut Butter Ball Cupcakes
Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1cup milk

premade peanut butter balls

1. Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.  Line cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Whisk together until combined.  Make sure all the flour and cocoa are thoroughly combined and all clumps are gone and the mixture is very fine.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl,  (with my new hand mixer!) mix oil and sugars.
4. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each.  Beat on high for 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
5. Add the vanilla and sour cream and mix until incorporated.
6. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together.
7. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in three parts, adding half the milk between each addition.  Make sure to begin and end with the flour and to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Do not over mix.  Tip:  After flour has been mostly incorporated with the mixer, use a large spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl & mix.  You don’t want to work the flour too much, so hand mixing will help with that.
8. Place one chocolate ball in the bottom of each cupcake liner.  Pour batter over the top of the ball until the cup is almost full.
9. Bake at 375 F degrees for 10 minutes.  Rotate pan 180 degrees and bake another 5-6 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

JavaCupcake’s creamy, light, fluffy not-too sweet, not-too peanutbuttery PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes

½ cup room temperature soft butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used JIF)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 tbsp heavy cream
2-3 tbsp non-fat milk

1. In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and peanut butter about one minute.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again another 30 seconds.
2. Add the vanilla in mix to incorporate.
3. About ½ cup at a time, add in the sugar alternating with the heavy cream first then non-fat milk. You may not need all the milk.  Scrape the sides after each addition of powdered sugar.  Add only enough milk until you get the consistency you want.
4. Mix together another 1-2 minutes.  Do not over mix.

ASSEMBLY
1 cup milk chocolate chips
peanut butter m&m’s

1. Place one ball in the liner before adding the batter.  Make sure it’s centered.
2. Frost cupcakes.  Melt 1 cup chocolate and drizzle over the frosting.
3. Top each cupcake with peanut butter m&m’s.

I used Sutton Gourmet Paper liners in black and white and used a light pink cream and white pearls, and red, pink, white nonparrells.  If you haven’t tried Sutton Gourmet Paper liners for your chocolate cupcakes yet, you MUST!  They hold their color, shape, texture with a dark cake unlike any grocery store liner ever will!!  Don’t these look amazing?

The cupcakes are a chocolate cake, filled with cream topped with a dark chocolate ganache.  I used a slightly different cake recipe than before, but both are great recipes.

After the Love cupcakes were ready for the order, I wanted to mix things up a bit and decorate the rest a little different for Emily’s class.  So, I printed some toppers, cut them and pasted onto sticks and made some buttercream (a new recipe – I’ll post it at the bottom of this post!).

I love the idea of black and white with red/pink and I really love how these turned out!  They’ve got a shiney layer of ganache topped with buttercream.  Oh YUM!

Vanilla Buttercream
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
2 lbs sifted (1 bag) powered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
Scant 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
dash of salt

1. Cream together butter and shortening.
2. A cup or so at a time, mix in the sifted sugar.  Scrape down the sides after each addition.  After the first addition, add the vanilla.  Add the cream after each next addition.  IMPORTANT:  You may not need all the cream, so add it SLOWLY.
3. Add the salt then beat on high for 3-4 minutes.

I found the most amazing University of Washington cupcake liners at the UW Bookstore and I knew I had to use them for this big game!  I thought about doing apples for this cupcake, but then realized that red was the color of our rival and well, let’s be honest, I’m over apple.  So I decided on lemon!  (Besides, the Huskies are purple and GOLD so lemon would work great!)

Earlier this summer, I made a strawberry lemon cupcake which was out of this world and knew I had to use some of the same techniques with the lemons in this cupcake.  So, off to the store I went, got a giant bag of lemons, then I got a family recipe from my mother-in-law for lemon curd to fill the cupcakes with and started baking!

Eves Family Lemon Curd (make this before you make your cupcakes so it has time to cool)
1 lb sugar (approx 2 cups)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
6 oz (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 lemons

1. Zest & squeeze the lemons and set aside.
2. Using a double boiler, melt the butter on medium heat.
3. Add the sugar, lemon juice and zest, whisking until smooth.
4. Bring to a soft, slow simmer (but NOT a boil) and add eggs and whisk thoroughly.  Stir constantly until thickened.  Make sure not to boil or bring the heat too high, you don’t want to cook the eggs.
5. Cook until the curd sticks to the back of a wooden spoon and is nice and thick (approx 10 mins).
6. Transfer to an air tight container and cool in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
7. Stores for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Lemon Infused Cupcakes
2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 lemon, zested and squeezed for juice
1 1/4 cups milk
3 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
lemon food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line pans with 24 liners.
2. In a medium bowl, prepare the sugar by working the lemon zest into sugar by pressing the back of a spatula down into sugar, thus releasing the oils from the zest into the sugar.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy.
4. Add the sugar/zest to the butter and mix on high until smooth.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time and mixing thoroughly after each addition.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.
6. In another bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt.
7. In a measuring cup that pours, mix the milk and lemon juice.
8. Beginning and ending with the flour, add the flour and milk alternating on low speed. Scrape the sides and mix only until incorporated.
9. Using an ice cream scoop, fill liners 3/4 full.  These cupcakes don’t rise too much, so you can fill your liners a little fuller than usual.
10. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Rotate pan and reduce heat to 325 degrees and cook an additional 8-10 minutes.  Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean.
11. Leave in pan to cool for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.

Sweet Lemon Buttercream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 lbs sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 lemon zested and squeezed for juice
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy.
2. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.
3. While it’s mixing, zest the lemon into the butter/sugar.
4. Combine the juice of the lemon, milk and vanilla in a measuring up the pours. Set aside.
5. In three parts, add the sugar alternating with the milk. Begin and end with the powdered sugar.
6. Mix on high for 3-4 minutes until smooth and fluffy.

To Assemble the Cupcakes:

1. Core out the center of the cupcakes.  (I used an apple core tool which made it really quick and easy)
2. Fill the cupcakes with apple curd.
3. Top with buttercream and sugar sprinkles.

I brought Carrie her cupcakes at the Tacoma Holiday Food & Gift show because she had to work on her birthday!

For Carrie’s cupcakes, I made a variation of my Tree Hugger cupcakes… a little simpler and a few less steps!  These are a snickerdoole cupcake filled with caramelized apples, topped with a cinnamon buttercream, more apples and caramel drizzle!  SO GOOD!

JavaCupcake’s Appledoodle Cupcakes
Makes approx 36 cupcakes

Cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
4 large eggs (3 jumbo eggs), locally grown, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2tbsp milk
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line cupcake pans with 36 liners.
3. With an electric mixer, combine butter and sugars and mix until light and fluffy.
4. While mixing, in another bowl sift together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Sift at least twice to ensure all ingredients are combined.
5. Add eggs one at a time to butter and sugar, mixing thoroughly after each egg.
6. In a measuring cup that pours, mix together the milk and vanilla.  Get applesauce measured as well, do not add it to milk mixture.
7. Add flour mixture in four parts alternating with either the milk or the applesauce making sure to end with flour mixture.
8. Scrape sides of the bowl and give it one final mix for about 30 seconds.  Do not over mix.
9. Fill liners 2/3 full with batter.
10. Bake for 15 minutes and rotate pan 180 degrees in oven. Bake another 3-4 minutes.
11. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean and top is lightly golden brown.

Apples for filling
4 tbsp butter
2-3 large locally grown apples, cored and diced – Honeycrisp was used for this recipe
½ cup brown sugar, not packed
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp corn starch

1. In a medium pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter
2. Add apples to the pan and coat with the melted butter
3. Add the brown sugar and mix  until sugar starts to melt.
4. Add cinnamon and mix until combined.
5. Put a lid loosely on top of the pan for 2-3 minutes, just long enough to start to soften the apples.
6. Add corn starch to thicken.
7. Remove lid and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
8. Remove from heat and let cool until ready to fill cupcakes.
9. *Note* You want the apples to have a lot of sauce! So don’t reduce it too much!

Cinnamon Buttercream
-1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
-2lbs (or one bag) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
-1/2 cup milk
-2 teaspoons vanilla
- ¼ tsp of cinnamon

1. In an electric mixer on medium-high, cream butter until smooth.
2. Mix the vanilla and milk together in a measuring cup and set aside.
3. Add sifted sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth after each cup.
4. Between each cup of sugar, add the milk/vanilla mixture, making sure to end with powdered sugar.
5. Add the cinnamon.
6. Beat on high for 5 minutes.
7. Frost cupcakes using a Wilton #6B star tip.

To Assemble the Cupcakes:

1. Core each cupcake and insert a dollop of caramelized apple mixture.
2. Use a Wilton #6B star tip to frost with buttercream.
3. Top with a drizzle of caramel sauce and 3 pieces of diced apple.

I thought – what if I made brownies? Then I thought, what if I made them in cupcake form? Then I thought, what if I put a peanut butter cup in the middle? This is how my brain works. Be thankful I stopped there.

ingredients:
8 ounces chocolate chips
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
12 peanut butter cups (regular size NOT mini)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

I got these FULL size peanut butter cups at Target for ONE DOLLAH. HOLLA! That’s cheap, and rather than just eat them all myself (which I am fully capable of doing) I thought they’d go great in brownies.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and the butter, stirring constantly. Once melted and combined, carefully take off the heat and let cool for a few minutes. Whisk in the sugar until smooth. Then quickly add the vanilla and eggs, whisking constantly, you don’t want them to cook.

Carefully add in the flour and cocoa, just whisking until combined. The nice thing about brownies is that you don’t need an electric mixer, however you do need arm muscle. I. Am. Weak.

Now, spoon a small amount (just about 1 Tablespoon) of batter into each liner. Place one peanut butter cup on top (I don’t need to tell you to unwrap them do I? Good.) and then top with more batter – covering the peanut butter cup completely.

Bake for approx 25-30 mins depending on your oven. You can do a toothpick test, but it’s kinda tough since the peanut butter is right in the middle – just make sure the brownie part is cooked through.

Let cool on a wire rack IF you can control yourself. Because they are darn good right out of the oven. Now give them away to all your peanut butter lovin’ friends!

These cupcakes are an apple cupcake with chunks of apple, filled with a homemade caramel then topped with a cream cheese frosting and decorated with sugar crystals, mint and pretzel stick!  So cute!

JavaCupcake’s Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Adapted from I Heart Cuppycakes
http://iheartcuppycakes.com/2008/10/06/aye-1-caramelappleautumn/

Makes 16 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

For apple cupcake
3 medium granny smith apples
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

For caramel
2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

For cream cheese frosting
8oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

pretzels
green & red sprinkles

mint leaves

INSTRUCTIONS

To make cupcakes—

1. Preheat oven 350F.
2. Rinse, cut in half and core the apples. Place them on an ovenproof pan or baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 35-45 minutes until soft.
3. Remove the apples from the oven, let cool slightly, then remove peel and mush the apple with the back of a fork. Measure out 1 cup of apple mush and set aside to cool.
4. Combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.
5. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the eggs, oil, and vanilla.  Add the cooled apple mush and mix just to combine.
6. Add the flour and apple juice in three parts, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined.  DO NOT OVER MIX!
7. Scoop into cupcake papers about 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate pan 180 degrees, then bake 3-5 more minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make caramel—

1. Measure sugar, water and corn syrup in a large pot and stir just to combine ingredients.
2. Turn to medium-high heat and without stirring, bring sugar mixture to a boil.  Boil 10-15 minutes until sugar turns an amber color.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the butter with a whisk. Be careful, it’s HOT and the caramel will bubble!
4. Wait about 30 seconds and slowly stir in the heavy crème.
5. Scrape sides of pan and mix until thoroughly combined.  Pour into a heat safe glass bowl/measuring cup to cool.

To make frosting—

1. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
2. Add vanilla and mix to incorporate.
3. One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar mixing after each. Scrape down the bowl as needed.

To assemble cupcakes—

1. Fill cupcakes with caramel using this method.
2. Top the cupcake with frosting in a rounded shape.
3. Roll cupcake in green sprinkles to cover the frosting.
4. Break off pretzel and stick into the top to resemble a stem. Insert a mint “leaf” in the frosting near the stem.

These cupcakes are a white butter cupcake filled with a homemade strawberry preserve and topped with strawberry buttercream, pink sugar crystals and cute flowers!

You can find the recipe I used for these cupcakes, here!

And for her Daddy…. I made the same cupcakes but in blue liners with different decorations!!

WELCOME HOME 1SG JASON EVERSHED!!!!!

And here’s the complete order…

She wanted mini’s…. two different kinds…. and in 3 days.  Ok, it’s not like I had much going on… but usually, I like at least a weeks notice for cupcakes because I like to special order liners, wrappers, embellishments, etc etc.  I had to come up with two cupcakes and find everything I needed for them locally!  But… I did it!  I came up with two delicious cupcakes… and this first one:

Mini chocolate cupcakes with a fresh raspberry center topped with a super sweet vanilla buttercream, sugar pearl and sprinkles garnished in a white cup with green ribbon!

Wow, that’s a mouthfull! hehe (and so is the cupcake!)

The recipe was an easy one for me… I used my standard moist chocolate cupcake recipe, put a fresh raspberry inside and topped it with my standard buttercream recipe.  Easy-peasy! For me… a basic cupcake can be spiced up and embellished to become a spectacular cupcake!

Mini Moist Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Makes 36 minis and 12 regular cupcakes

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs at room temperature

1  ¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup boiling water

Fresh raspberries (enough for each cupcake)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line pans with foil or paper liners.
2. Mix oil, sugars, cream and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each.
4. Beat on medium for about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl.
5. Sift dry ingredients together.
6. Sift them again.  Make sure all the flour and cocoa are thoroughly combined and all clumps are gone and the mixture is very fine.
7. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in three parts, scraping the sides of the bowl and thoroughly mixing after each.
8. Beat for about 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
9. Add the boiling water and mix until just blended.  DO NOT BE ALARMED, mixture will be thin.
10. Fill cupcake liners no more than 1/2 full.
11. Add a raspberry to the center of each cup, push in until almost covered.
12. 
13. Bake 8 minutes, rotate pan 180 degrees, and bake an additional 2-3 minutes.
14. Do not over bake! Cupcakes will be done when there are air bubbles in the center and it springs back to the touch.
15. Leave in the pan 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 lb bag of confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tbsp corn syrup

1. In an electric mixer on medium-high, cream butter until smooth.
2. Mix the vanilla and cream together in a measuring cup and set aside.
3. Add sifted sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth after each cup.  Between each cup of sugar, add the cream/vanilla, beginning and ending with sugar.
4. Slowly pour in corn syrup and mix well.
5. Add more cream, if necessary, to obtain desired consistency.
6. Beat on high for 5 minutes.

I started looking on Etsy to find some liners which would match perfectly for my niece and found turquoise with green polka dot liners.  I mean really, it’s like they were made just for her! So super cute!! I ordered them and they arrived the morning I was baking the cupcakes.  Well….. unfortunately, the company I ordered them from sent me the wrong liners.

<-the ones I wanted

Apparently, she had two liners with the same name and sent me the other ones.  Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy and I didn’t have time to search out a local store potentially an hour away just for new liners.  So, I made do with these and wrote an email to the company I bought them from.  (Who didn’t really offer much help other than a discount on a future order.  It’s not like these things are that expensive, so a discount?? lol no, I’m good. Thanks)

After I got over that little fiasco, it was time to make the cupcakes and they turned out amazing!  Made a special pedestal for my niece to hold one perfect cupcake just for her and she was thrilled with it.  I told her that she’ll be able to put the pedestal on her dresser next to her jewelry box and keep her special rings and necklaces and such on them.

I also created several pedestals with some fun things I found at thrift stores.  A couple of them even matched the cupcakes perfectly!

And finally…. the birthday girl with her cupcake and pedestal!

Emily was so happy with these cupcakes and loved everything about them!  Everyone at the party gave me rave reviews and some even said they were the best cupcakes they’ve ever tasted! YAY me!!!  I got two referrals and hopefully they’ll turn into orders!

Courtney’s Trifle Cupcakes

Chocolate Dessert Cups:

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 bag white chocolate

Muffin Cups

Muffin Pan

Pastry brush (silicon works well)

• Line muffin pan with muffin cups.
• Melt chocolates separately over a double boiler. Once the chocolate is melted brush the chocolate inside the cups making sure to get the sides and bottom.
• Freeze for about 20 minutes, then you can peel the liner off. Easy peasy I promise
• When all the cups are separated I like to put the chocolate cups in a fresh muffin cup and place in the refrigerator.

Now for the Trifle, or my take on a trifle

Cake

Bake a batch of chocolate cupcakes, cake, anything you don’t mind crumbling up! I made cupcakes so I’d have leftover to bring of those as well. I made chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes

While the cupcakes are baking start the “mousse”. I hate real mousse, but some like it.. For me the taste is too strong, so I made a “faux mousse”

Mousse:

I used 2 packages of the smaller size chocolate pudding

2 cups Milk

2 cups heavy cream

• Whip until pudding consistency and refrigerate.

On to the whip cream

Wilton’s Stabilized Whip Cream:

Credit – Recipezaar

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

4 teaspoons cold water

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

• In small pan add gelatin and cold water and let stand until thick.
• Once its thick place over low heat and stir constantly until the gelatin is dissolved, then removed from heat and allow cooling, but not getting thick.
• Meanwhile whip the cream and powdered sugar until a little thicker in texture.
• On low speed add the cooled gelatin, then whip at high speed until you see whip cream.

Assemble:

Take the unfilled dessert cups out of the refrigerator. Fill a pipping bag (any tip) and pipe mousse into the cups.

Take the cupcakes…

And chop ‘em up! I didn’t use the tops.

I wanted the softer texture of the cupcakes.

Take the pieces…

Lightly crumble them into the cups.

Cover with more mousse (I switched the tip)

Then do a little star with whip cream…

Hey, wait… what about all the leftover cupcakes and whip cream? I didn’t forget

Because I Can Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Devil’s Food Cake

9 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup water
½ cup whole milk

Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Butter (or use the baking spray) two regular size cupcake/muffin pans or two mini. I personally made 12 large cupcakes and 20 mini cupcakes.

Sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)

Mix together the water and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the water and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.

Fill cupcake pans 2/3 of the way full with cake batter. For regular size bake 20-22 minutes. Mini bake 13-15 minutes.

Cake recipe  from David Lebovitz.com

Crème Egg Filling Buttercream Frosting

the centers of 20 Cadbury Crème Egg scooped out (save the chocolate shells for décor and filling)
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 to 8 cups powdered sugar
1 TBSP vanilla extract
milk to thin frosting

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Add the creme from the eggs and beat until incorporated.

Add 4 cups of the sugar and vanilla extract.

On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. If too thick, thin out with milk.
You can take half of the icing and color it yellow for effect. You will also probably have little bits of chocolate that stayed with the crème filling, no worries, it’s tasty.

Chocolate Shell Ganache

10 ounces of chopped up Cadbury Crème Egg Shell, if you don’t have enough to make 10 ounces, then add some milk chocolate chips to it
1 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate in a medium bowl.

Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan and remove from heat. Pour over chocolate. Let sit 5 minutes.

Whisk in chocolate until smooth. Let set up at room temperature.

To assemble the cupcakes:

Take chocolate shell filling and place into a pastry bag fitted with a small tip.

Take tip and place into cupcake squeeze filling into cupcake using the cone method (or just poke into center and fill if making mini).

Frost cupcake and top with chocolate shell piece. If making the mini, they do make mini eggs. Cut those in half and use as décor.

I used my Moist Chocolate cupcake recipe for the base… mmm it’s soooo good.

The creme filling was so smooth and yummmmmy!

Here’s a finished dozen, ready for delivery!

Click on recipe to enlarge and save to your computer!

]]> http://javacupcake.com/2010/02/love-cupcakes/feed/ 8 http://javacupcake.com/2010/01/tree-hugger-apple/ http://javacupcake.com/2010/01/tree-hugger-apple/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:27:07 +0000 JavaCupcake http://javacupcake.com/?p=379 I was asked by Foodies@Work (on Twitter @foodiesatwork) to write a guest blog for their site.  They wanted me to come up with a cupcake that reflected the Pacific Northwest.  At first, I instantly thought seafood!! But reconsidered because I’m certain that a lobster cupcake wouldn’t be that tasty.  So I decided on apples.

I know that apples aren’t native to the Pacific Northwest, but we have a lot of apple orchards on both sides of our state and thought it would be a perfect base for a cupcake! With a suggestion from my sister, I decided to buy locally the apples and eggs because we all know how much the “tree-hugging” people from Seattle and the Northwest love their locally grown, organic foods!  So from this, the “Tree Hugger Apple” cupcake was born!

The base of the cupcake was inspired by this Appledoodle Cupcake I found while browsing the Iron Cupcake Earth website.  I changed a few things and made it my own by adding sliced apple to the top of the batter before baking, then filling the cupcake with more apple and drizzling the buttercream on top with caramel.

For this Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, I started with my recipe for super moist chocolate cupcakes and tweaked it just a little bit and they came out perfectly.  I have a feeling that this recipe might become a part of whatever my signature cupcake is.  I’ve got it pretty much perfected.

To top the cupcake, I wanted a peanut butter buttercream and this particular recipe came from Mermaid Sweets.  I did my thing, adapted it some and I think it came out pretty good… a bit sweeter than I had wanted, but it’s still pretty damn delicious!

Finally, I quartered mini Reese’s peanut butter cups to garnish the top.  They look like HEAVEN to me! But… seeing that it’s 2:30am, I should probably wait until tomorrow to try one.  Otherwise, I’ll be up ALL NIGHT.  hehe

Click on image for recipe!

White Butter Cupcakes with Strawberry filling and Strawberry Buttercream

3 ½ cups sifted cake flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated white sugar, divided

½ cup HOT water

4 large eggs, separated

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup milk

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1)      Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake tins with liners.

2)      While eggs are still cold separate the eggs, placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl.  Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and allow the eggs to come to room temperature before using (about 30 minutes).

3)      In a mixing bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

4)      In bowl of electric mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes).  Add 1 ½ cups of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

5)      With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

6)      Add the hot water and mix just until incorporated.

7)      In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form.  Gradually add the remaining ½ cup of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.  With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined.  Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate.

8)      Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners ½ full.

9)      Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

10)   Cool the cupcakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on the wire rack.

Strawberry Filling
2 (4) cups strawberries (can be frozen), stems removed
1/2 (1) cup water
1 (2) teaspoon vanilla
1/2 (1) cup sugar
2 (4) tablespoons cornstarch or 4 (8) tablespoons AP flour

1. Add the strawberries, water, and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat.
2. Sift together the sugar and cornstarch and then stir into the strawberry mixture. Cook until the mixture is thick and the strawberries have broken down, about 20 minutes.
3. To fill the cupcakes, use this method.

Strawberry Buttercream

2.5 sticks (1 ¼ cup) butter, room temperature

5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Pinch of salt

2 heaping tablespoons of strawberry filling

1. Beat butter until creamy.
2. Adding  sugar one cup at a time, mixing until creamy between each cup.  With last cup of sugar, add the salt.
3. Add vanilla and mix.
4. Add strawberry filling one tablespoon at a time until incorporated.
5. Mix on high until light and fluffy. (About 4-5 minutes)

.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg white, at room temp
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup+1tsp STRONG brewed coffee (Starbucks Pike Place roast was used for this cupcake)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare pan for 12 cupcakes.

Use mixer to combine sugar and butter until fluffy (3-5 minutes).

While that is mixing, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the egg and egg white slowly to the sugar and egg and beat well.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then add the milk. Add 1/3 more flour mixture and then add the coffee.

Mix in the rest of the flour mixture until just combined (don’t overbeat your cupcakes or they will be disgusting).

Using an ice cream scoop, fill 12 cupcake papers with equal amounts of batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Vanilla Filling
1/2 package instant vanilla pudding
A little less than 1/2 cup milk
A little less than 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish creme

Mix all ingredients with electric mixture until it has the consistency of thick pudding.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temp
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1-2 tbsp whipping cream

Beat the butter until it’s smooth and creamy.

Slowly add the powdered sugar until it’s smooth.

Add the milk and cocoa.

Scrape down sides of bowl.

Beat on high 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy.

Cupcake Assembly
Cool cupcakes completely.

Cut out a little cone shape in the tops of each cupcake.
Drop in a dollop of Bailey’s filling and squish the top back on the cupcake. If it squirts out the sides a little, no worries.
Pipe the frosting on top, making sure to cover the seams and the filling.
Add espresso bean on top.
Cupcake and Filling recipe adapted from: Frosted Creations
Frosting recipe happens to be the same as Frosted Creations, but is also one I use.

To. Die. For.