Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Custard Buttercream

Anyone else so let down by the decline in the flavor of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte that you find yourself inserting pumpkin into all other possible places in your diet, just hoping to achieve something as glorious as the vintage 2009 Starbucks creation? I don't know what happened to the lattes, or if maybe I just got too old and thinking about things like what the flavor syrup is made out of in such a way as to ruin my own fun, but my last few Fall seasons have been deeply lacking an pumpkin confections.

I started making these cupcakes last year. They are a combination of delicious pumpkin cake and a spiced up version of the custard buttercream you find on Nanaimo bars. I learned about Nanaimo bars last year around this time after two amazing friends of mine sent me a package full of them. I rapidly set to work reading pretty much every Nanaimo related recipe on the internet and fiddling around with my own buttercream until I came up with something resembling the perfection that is Nanaimo bar cream. I then decided that, were I to add some fall spices, it would be the perfect compliment to my favorite pumpkin cake recipe. So, without further ado, I present to you my favorite fall treat!

Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing

Hello! Sorry for the week of no posts, it's be HOT here in Chicago! It's not much cooler this week, but tonight is my book club and, dammit, book club cannot happen without treats! I love carrot cake, but am not the biggest fan of cream cheese icing (I know, I know, I'm a weirdo). But what goes with carrot cake other than cream cheese icing? Nothing. That's correct. So I've developed a super-vanillay version of the classic that I find to be delicious. Also, carrot cake is made of carrots, which are a vegetable, so I declare this a vegetable, and, therefor, healthy. Comments noting the fact that the butter and sugar content outweigh the carrot content, or any other sort of science refuting my vegetable theory will be deleted, ummmkay????

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Remember that time I admitted to being obsessed with this dark chocolate cake recipe? Yes. Obsession still happening. I'm the birthday fairy at work, and we had another birthday a few weeks ago. When I asked said birthday girl what she wanted and she said, 'chocolate,' so I came up with these. In short, this is a dark chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, dipped in chocolate. They are just as delicious as they sound. :-)


On a side note-- due to the heatwave hitting Chicago right now and my lack of a/c, I will be a bit quiet through the month of July. I hope the heat breaks so I can be back to baking ASAP!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

It appears to be a bit of a right of passage for a baking blog to feature a cookie dough cupcake recipe. I've staked a number of them on pinterest, (like this one and this one and this one), and they came in two varieties-- the kind that stuff with dough post-baking and the kind that freeze the dough and bake it inside. I opted to go the route of freezing the dough, so that it really goes in the middle and so that you can get a little in every bite. Consequently, I also went about deciding how to make my favorite cookie dough egg-less, as the dough stays doughy and I have no desire to send anyone into the grips of Salmonella, or any other brand of food poisoning. This post by The Girl Who Ate Everything gave me the idea to substitute the egg with sweetened condensed milk, which worked perfectly. I combined my newly egg-less dough with my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe, doctored up a little vanilla butter-cream to hold a more cookie-like flavor, and DONE. They are delicious.

You'll notice that this vanilla cupcake recipe is the same one I've used as a base for a lot of recipes. I like it because it is consistent and easy. I have a few other recipes I'll bust out for you at another time, but I specifically chose this one for these cupcakes because the batter is thick. It's the same one I use as the base for my cupcakes with Oreos baked inside. You need a thick batter when you want something to bake in the middle-- this helps prevent the stuff in the middle from sinking to the bottom.

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Photo by Donya.

This lemon cake recipe originated from a recipe in a magazine given to me by a friend. I have no idea what magazine it was, as the clipping given to me did not identify a title and I've googled to no avail. That being said, I've made enough adaptations over the past couple of years that I'm comfortable blogging it here as 'mine', but would very much like to give credit where credit is due! If you happen to recognize this as being something similar to something you read in a magazine, let me know!


The first thing we need to address before we get to the recipe is that this cake is finicky. So is the icing, for that matter. (See note about refrigeration in the icing instructions). The cake is sensitive to movement in the oven and, if irritated, falls in the middle. Luckily, if it comes out ugly, it still tastes good, but, the point is, if this is your first metaphorical rodeo, this is not your metaphorical horse. Or bull. Or whatever it is one rides at a rodeo. If you have not baked a cake from scratch before, start somewhere a little more straight forward, such as here or here. I don't mean you need to be an expert, I just wanted to give you fair warning that this is not the most simple of cakes. It is sensitive enough that it baked differently based on the color of cupcake paper I used (lighter worked better, FYI.) It is, however, delicious.

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes

Photo by Donya.

I'll start by stating that I've developed a minor obsession with this dark chocolate cake recipe. You'll notice it popping up a lot. That's because it's good. Like, REALLY good. I have plans to bust it out for some triple chocolate high-hat cupcakes soon, so stay tuned for that one. Also, I liked it for this recipe because you can make the coffee extra strong by using Starbucks VIA packets, which gives the cake a slightly mocha-ish flavor all on its own, even without the icing. (Usually, even though there is coffee in the batter, it doesn't taste like coffee, it just tastes like chocolate).

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
The Cake...


Dark Chocolate Cake (Yield 2 dozen standard sized cupcakes)
Adapted from Sweetapolita's Rich & Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups dark cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee (I used 1 cup water + 2 Starbucks VIA packets)
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, unwrapped (optional)

Chocolate Fluffernutter Cupcakes

 I needed something REALLY awesome to celebrate the amazing Erin completing her first half marathon, so I came up with these. They are chocolate cupcakes, filled with marshmallow fluff, and topped with peanut butter icing. Need I say more?? I used the chocolate cake recipe my mom used for birthdays and special occasions when I was a kid, which is not only delicious, but easy to make.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Chocolate Celebration Cake (Yield 2, 9" layers or 24 standard cupcakes)


2 eggs
2/3 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 1 cup water
1 cup sour milk*

*Sour milk can be made by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice per cup of milk. Stir well and allow to sit for a few minutes before adding to the batter.

Butter Pecan Cake

We decided to start celebrating birthdays at work. This is very exciting, because it means I was nominated birthday fairy and I get to make treats for birthdays. The tricky part is that my office has a few people who either don't like or can't eat chocolate, so I'm rapidly expanding my non-chocolate portfolio. (If your response right now was, 'wait, cake comes in NOT chocolate?? WHAAAT??" then we are totally friends.) One of the new cakes I've adopted is a butter pecan cake / cupcakes, and it is AWESOME. Almost worth forgetting I know about chocolate.

For work or for places where there are lots of people, I always do cupcakes just to make serving the cake easier. However, this recipe makes so much batter that I made two dozen cupcakes and still had enough batter/icing to make the birthday girl her own 6" cake to take home.

My only disappointment in this whole experience was my use of the floral themed Wilton cupcake papers. These did not bake as pretty as I had hoped and many of them looked kind of ridiculous. Since the icing on this cake is not able to be piped, I was hoping that using the flour papers would help decorate them, or that the nutty icing would look like centers in the flours. Unfortunately, it did not turn out this way.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Butter Pecan Cake - Yield 3, 9" layers OR 3 dozen standard cupcakes
Adapted from the recipe found here and originally published in Christmas with Southern Living, 2005.

Cake:
6 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all purpose flour
Toasted pecan halves- for garnish, if desired


Icing:
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
16 ounces powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk/cream;
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Step #1 - Preheat oven to 350* F.


Step #2 - Melt chocolate with evaporated milk in double boiler over medium/low heat. Set aside to cool. If you don't have a double boiler, you can always put a glass bowl over a sauce pan to create one, which is what I do. Make sure that the bowl is big enough to sit on top of the pan securely, but without touch the bottom of the pan and allowing for the water to boil underneath.Also, make sure steam is not escaping from the pan below and contaminating the chocolate. This will ruin it.If more that slight amounts of steam are escaping from the pan, then it is too hot; turn the heat down.

Step #3- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until they are fluffy.

Step #4- Add, the vanilla and, one at a time, the egg yolks, mixing after each one.

Step #5 - Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. 

Step #6 - Add,the flour, white chocolate, and the milk/soda mixture to the butter mixture, alternating between them
as you stir. Once it's all incorporated, the batter should be smooth and slightly thick.

Step #7 - In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a mixer until they form still peaks. This always takes me a different amount of time depending on the day. 'Stiff peaks' means that, when you pull the beaters out of the mixture, the mixture stiffly holds the peak. Having egg whites at room temperature when you start is vital-- cold egg whites are much more difficult to fluff/get to the peaking point.

Step #8 - Fold the egg whites into the batter until well incorporated.Folding is the motion of using a spatula or large spoon to 'lift' the batter over on top of itself as if you were folding it. DO NOT MIX WITH A MIXER!! The purpose of adding fully egg whites to a cake batter is to help the cake become moist and fluffy. If you beat the batter too much, it will beat the fluffy-ness out.

Step #9 - Bake at 350* F. For 9" layers, bake for 20-22 minutes. Make sure the pans are well greased and lined with wax paper.For cupcakes, bake for 10-13 minutes.

The Icing
You can easily make this icing the day before you bake the cake if you need to. Also, this type of cake/frosting freezes well.

Step #1 - Melt two tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped pecans and simmer over medium heat until pecans are toasted. (about 10 min). Careful! It's easy to burn the pecans! Remove the pecans from the pan immediately. The pan holds enough heat to burn the pecans even after you've removed the pan from the heat. ALLOW PECANS TO COOL!!!

Step #2 - Beat, with a mixer, the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, milk and powdered sugar, until creamy.

Step #3 - Add cooled pecans and beat until well incorporated. Apply to cake and garnish with toasted pecans if desired.

S'mores Cupcakes

So, first, these are delicious.

Second-- save these for a special occasion or a day when you have nothing on your schedule, because HOLY MESS, BATMAN! Delicious enough to warrant a mess, but, mess it is! Just for the batter, you need five separate mixing bowls, plus a microwave safe container/sauce pan to melt butter, that's not even starting on your pans/measuring cups/etc.

Why would I make such a mess, you ask? We can start with: SEE DELICIOUS ABOVE. Then we can note that these were made in honor of the fantastic Corrin's birthday / visit to the Chicago area. Corrin is my fashion guru and even carried one of my Julie Vision Designs bags in a NYC fashion week event last year. (Yes, I did practically pee myself with excitement, and still do JUST a little bit when I think about it.) It also turned out there was another birthday to celebrate once Corrin got her Chicago based gang together, so CLEARLY this warranted deliciousness.

I've been inventing this baby in my head for a while-- I feel like there are so many cupcakes out there that claim to be S'mores flavored, but don't do the trick. I find they are usually a chocolate or vanilla cupcake filled with either chocolate or marshmallow filling, topped with either chocolate or marshmallow icing, and the sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs. I consider this (though it may be tasty in it's own right) a s'mores fail. There MUST be substantial graham involved in s'mores themed deserts. So I came up with this: A graham cupcake, iced in a mountain of marshmallow, and coated in a layer of chocolate.

These do require being frozen for several hours (over night is best) in order to chocolate coat them, so please keep that in mind as you plan your epic s'mores cupcake making event.

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

These cupcakes have an Oreo inside of them. How can you NOT want to make these???

OK, wait, let me back up. This started when we decided to revive birthdays at work. I've been at my job a year and a half and we have not been celebrating birthdays.  That's dumb. We decided to change that. As in, we decided to change that the day before a coworkers birthday, and the same day an AT&T technician was *supposed* to come fix my home internet. (He never showed, FYI.......) ANYWAY-- On the drive home, I mentioned to my carpool buddy that, if the AT&T guy showed up in a timely manner, I'd run to the store and get Oreos and make cupcakes with Oreos inside. The conversation went like this:

Carpool buddy: You'll do what?

Me: Make cupcakes. With Oreos inside.

Carpool buddy: Like, it stays in there-- in the middle-- like a cookie.

Me: Yes. Just like that.

Carpool buddy: (Wide eyed, as to indicated mind has been BLOWN) WE MUST GET YOU OREOS!!! There is a store up there by that red light. I'm getting out.

Me: Dude, you can't do that.

Carpool buddy: Yes I can!!!!

And, in fact, she did. She totally jumped out at the red light, ran in the store, and came out with Oreos. So, really, this whole post is owed to her ability to swiftly hop out of my car, buy Oreos, and jump back in during the length of a red light.

Cocktail Cupcakes Part 4 - Irish Cream Cupcakes

Welcome to the fourth and final installment of the cocktail cupcake recipes!! If you are new to this blog, These are part of a series of booze flavored cupcakes I did for my BFF's 30th birthday. You can check out how this got started here. You can also check out the other cocktail cupcake flavors: mojito cupcakes, chocolate cinnamon stout cupcakes with salted caramel icing, and amaretto sour cupcakes.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Irish Cream Cupcakes (Yield - 24 standard cupcakes or 4 dozen minis)
Adapted from the Baileys Irish Cream cake recipe on the Baileys website.

Cupcakes:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 teaspoons baking powder (divided)
1 1/2 cup Baileys Original Irish Cream
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Icing:
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons Baileys Original Irish Cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cocktail Cupcakes Part 3 - Amaretto Sour Cupcakes

 

This is part three of four in my series of cocktail cupcakes! For a look back at how this all came to be, take a look here.  Other cocktail cupcake flavors include mojito, chocolate stout with salted caramel icing, and Irish cream. 

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Amaretto Sour Cupcakes - The Recipe (Yield 24 standard cupcakes or 4 dozen minis)
Adapted from the Magnolia Vanilla Cupcake recipe posted on the Food Network.

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup amaretto 

Icing:
1/2 cup butter or shortening (I used shortening)
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
3 cups powered sugar
3 tablespoons sweet-and-sour mix 
1 teaspoon amaretto 
(optional - maraschino cherries as garnish)

Cocktail Cupcakes Part 2 - Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Icing

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently made a number of booze themed cupcakes for a friend's birthday. Most of them were in traditional cocktail flavors, (mojito, amaretto sour, Irish Cream), but my favorite were the chocolate cinnamon stout cupcakes made with Guinness and topped with salted caramel icing. Stout cakes don't really taste like stout; something about the stout creates a rich, dense, moist chocolate cake. I wanted to put a unique twist on the traditional stout cake, so I added some cinnamon and topped it with salted caramel icing. The pairing of chocolate and cinnamon is one of my favorites; it started with my big-pink-puffy-heart love of truffles made with chocolate, cinnamon and chili; and has led to chocolate cake spiced with cinnamon rapidly climbing my list of favorite things. I really like it in the stout cake, as the cinnamon adds a layer of flavor to what can otherwise be a very dense, almost too rich, type of cake. All the alcohol in these cupcakes is in the batter, so it bakes off, making these family friendly treats.

Cocktail Cupcakes Part 1 - Mojito Cupcakes

This weekend, I organized a 30th birthday for one of my oldest and dearest friends.

It was a slumber party.

Yup. Like, a real, live, slumber party just like when we were kids. Except there was booze. And we didn't even have to try and sneak it out of anyone's dad's liquor cabinet.

And, I have to say, it was LOADS of fun and very easy on the budget, as far as birthdays go! The birthday girl chose a handful of her closest girlfriends; we rented a couple of hotel rooms in a location central to (almost) everyone's city of residence; everyone left their partners and progeny and home; we rocked some SWEET pajamas; and danced ourselves silly until the hotel security guard told us we had to be quiet.

I got together with, Crystal, one of the other ladies attending the party to plan desert, which, of course, needed to be fantastic. Crystal is a trained pastry chef and master chocolatier, so, needless to say, I had baking stage fright like whoa. We decided on a boozy, girly, shot themed desert menu, consisting of mini/shot sized cocktail flavored cupcakes, and pudding shots served in chocolate glasses. I made the cupcakes, Crystal made the shots and shot glasses. Let's talk about how good these pudding shots were, ummkay??? Take a look!

 
Check out Crystal on the news being interviewed about chocolate AND check out her website where she sells her own cakes and cakeballs.

For my part, I created cupcakes in four flavors: Mojito, Amaretto Sour, Irish Cream, and Chocolate Cinnamon Stout made with Guinness.