Dulce de Leche filled Mocha Cupcakes

January 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 

Dulce de Leche filled Mocha Cupcakes by JavaCupcake.com

 

I’m super excited to be a part of a blog that I’ve been reading for 4+ years, Coffee Cup News! CCN has invited me to be an author, sharing my recipes for decadent and delicious coffee desserts and yummies!

For my first post, I’ve made the most amazing mocha cupcake and it’s filled with dulce de leche and topped with a mocha whipped cream.  It’s just like having your favorite caramel mocha from Starbucks… but in a cupcake!

So if you love coffee, visit Coffee Cup News, tell them Betsy sent you and enjoy the coffee!

PS… the FULL RECIPE for this cupcake can be found HERE!

 

Filed Under: chocolate cupcakes, Coffee, cookie cupcakes, cupcake recipes, dulce de leche, filled cupcakes, frosting and icing, guest blogger, recipes, whipped cream frosting, whipping cream

Strawberry Shortcake

May 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

The weather has been so beautiful lately (minus the thunderstorm this morning) and I’ve been dying to make strawberry shortcake!  Last week on my favorite daytime tv show, The Chew, Carla made a strawberry shortcake that looked so amazingly delicious that I knew I had to find her recipe and make it myself!

This shortcake makes enough for 12 servings and can be easily made in two batches for a larger group… but for me, I don’t want to share… I might be eating most of this myself.  I LOVE biscuits and I LOVE strawberries.

Nom.

Nom nom nom.

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

Go get some strawberries and make this!

Print
Strawberry Shortcake

51

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12 strawberry shortcakes

Lemon zest & sour cream bring life to these biscuits topped with fresh sliced strawberries and a lemon & mint infused whipped cream!

Ingredients

    Biscuit
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • zest of 1/2 lemon

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

  • 5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1/2 cup cold sour cream
  • 1/3 cup cold milk
  • 1 Tbsp cold water

  • 2-3 Tbsp Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
    • Whipping Cream
  • 400ml heavy cream
  • 3 5in sprigs of mint, leaves removed and torn in half
  • zest of 1/2 lemon + lemon peel, cut into strips

  • 1 Tbsp sugar
    • Strawberries
  • 6 cups fresh strawberries, cleaned and sliced
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions

    Biscuit
  1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees and move baking racks to upper third of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and generously grease or spray with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, press lemon zest into sugar using the back of your spatula until the sugar becomes fluffy.
  3. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well combined.
  4. Cut the butter into the flour using a fork until no large chunks of butter remain. Use your fingers if that's easier for you.
  5. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk and water.
  6. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture. Using a spatula, fold ingredients together until just combined. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH. You want it lumpy, not smooth.
  7. Using an ice cream scoop, drop 12 mounds of dough onto prepared baking sheets.
  8. Sprinkle Turbinado sugar over the top of each biscuit.
  9. Bake about 15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.
  10. Immediately remove to wire rack to cool.
    11. Whipping Cream
  11. In a small sauce pan, on high heat, stir together heavy cream, mint leaves, lemon zest and peels until right before boiling point. DO NOT BOIL.
  12. Remove from heat and cool completely.
  13. Strain so that only cream remains. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  14. When ready to use, whip cream in a cold metal bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment until soft peaks form.
  15. Add the sugar and continue whipping until you reached your desired texture and consistency.
    16. Strawberries
  16. Clean and slice strawberries until you have about 6 cups worth.
  17. Toss strawberries with lemon juice, sugar and vanilla extract. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to allow flavors to come together and juices to form.
  18. Refrigerate until ready to use.
    19. Assembly
  19. Place one biscuit in a bowl. Scoop 1/2 cup of strawberries on to the biscuit, making sure lots of juice from the berries is included.
  20. Dollop a generous scoop of whipped cream on top.
  21. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Notes

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Filed Under: biscuits, bread and pretzels, cake, lemon, perfect for spring, recipes, rolls & biscuits, shortcake, strawberry, whipping cream

Thin Mint Cupcakes

January 25, 2012 by 26 Comments

It’s totally that time of year… GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME!

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

Filed Under: buttercream, buttercream, chocolate, chocolate cupcakes, cookie cupcakes, cookie cupcakes, cream cheese, cupcake recipes, filled cupcakes, frosting and icing, ganache, ganache, girl scout cookie cupcakes, Madagascar vanilla beans, mint cupcakes, peppermint, peppermint and mint, recipes, top posts sidebar, whipped cream, whipping cream

Madagascar Vanilla Bean Sugar & Cream for baking

January 21, 2012 by 8 Comments

Beanilla was having a HUGE sale on their vanilla beans, so I snatched up a 1/2lb of Madagascar beans this week.  Seriously, the BEST investment I’ve made for my baking in a long time.

These beans are so fresh, so moist, and so full of great vanilla flavor…  I really can’t wait to use them in EVERYTHING for the next few months.  I just hope that 1/2lb was enough!

First thing I made took me no time at all.  Vanilla Sugar.  Seriously, get some vanilla beans and make some of this yourself.  It takes 2 minutes and your sugar will thank you!!

Vanilla Sugar
airtight container
5lb bag of sugar
2 Madagascar vanilla beans, split length wise

  1. Empty the bag of sugar into the airtight container.
  2. Add the two vanilla beans to the sugar.  Put the lid on and shake until the beans are covered in sugar.
  3. Let the beans hangout over night in the sugar.
  4. Take the lid off, smell, taste, enjoy!  You now have vanilla sugar!

NOTE:  You can just keep adding sugar to the container as you go through it as well as any other used vanilla bean husks as you bake.  Just take the old ones out when they’re all dried up.  You can used the dried up beans in milk/cream to make vanilla cream! Nom nom nom.

And then I made Vanilla Cream.  You can use this cream in place of any recipe that calls for milk or heavy cream.  It will add such a rich, delicious vanilla flavor to whatever it is you’re baking.

You could also use it as coffee creamer.  Nom nom nom

Vanilla Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Madagascar vanilla bean

  1. Split the vanilla beans open length wise using a sharp knife.  Scrape out the vanilla bean paste from inside the pod.
  2. In a small heavy bottomed pot, whisk together the heavy cream, vanilla bean pod and paste.
  3. Cook on LOW for about 10 minutes, whisking often.
  4. Increase heat to medium until the milk just begins to simmer and bubble.  NOTE:  You don’t not want it to reach a full boil or burn.  Just a nice, slow simmer.
  5. As soon as the milk begins to bubble up, remove it from the heat and whisk.
  6. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  7. A film may form on the top of the cream, just whisk it until it’s smooth again.
  8. Remove the vanilla bean pod if you’re going to use all the cream immediately.  If you plan to store the cream for later use, leave the bean in the cream until you’re ready to use it.

Filed Under: featured, Madagascar vanilla beans, recipes, vanilla, whipping cream