Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts

Cookie Dough Cupcakes!

27 March 2013


I told my friend Annie that I would make her any cupcake she wanted for her birthday  & she decided she wanted cookie dough. It seemed a little out of the box, but it was a challenge & I like that!

I wanted to include actual cookie dough somehow, so I scoured the web and found out that eggless cookie dough is a synch to make and will probably be a new staple in my freezer.  The eggless cookie dough fills the center & makes these cupcakes over the top decadent.

There are 3 basic parts to these cupcakes: cake, filling, and frosting. I did each of these parts over a couple of days so that it wasn't so stressful the day of and it gave me a little time for adjustment.  It also gives your dough plenty of time to chill.

Basic Vanilla Cupcake
makes about 24 cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream butter & sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium-high.  
Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the mixture. 
Add the milk and vanilla, mix to combine.
Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full & bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.
Note: you could also add chocolate chips to this batter for a chocolate boost, but I think the chips in the center were just perfect.

Eggless Cookie Dough Filling
Makes quite a bit more than you need for the cupcakes, so you will have extra for late night cravings.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter with brown and white sugar in the mixer. Slowly add the flour.  Add salt, milk, and vanilla extract until well combined. Finally, add the chocolate chips and fold them in by hand. Put the batter in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or up to a day or so before you assemble the cupcakes. When the dough is chilled, it makes it super easy to just roll it into small balls to put inside the cupcakes.

Cookie Dough Frosting
Note: this recipe contains uncooked flour, which may seem a bit odd, but it is necessary to get a good dough flavor, but you can leave it out for a beautiful & simple brown sugar frosting.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk

Cream brown sugar with butter. Sift the flour & confectioners sugar togeter and add slowly. Add salt, milk, and vanilla extract and mix well. For a thinner frosting, you can just add a bit more milk.

Assembly  
Cut cone shaped pieces out of the center of each cupcake.  Add a ball of chilled cookie dough to the center & frost each cupcake.  Add mini chocolate chips over top.



YUM!  This cupcakes are really dense & heavy to hold up to the cookie dough flavor, but they are pretty amazing and they really do taste like cookie dough!

vegan peach cupcakes with mango frosting

24 April 2009

i purposefully used an almost identical recipe for the mango cupcakes for simplicity sake. you can easily whip up a double batch of unflavored batter and then seperate add the diffrent purees into the mix. i loved that these came out with a really strong, not too sweet mango taste.

IMG_7801


vegan peach cupcakes
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (don't worry about the smell, it bakes off)
1 cup of soymilk (flavored if you want...i used vanilla)
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup peach nectar
1/2 cup peach puree (i just used canned because it is not peach season)

preheat the oven to 350ºF.
put the cider vinegar into a small bowl and add the soymilk. whisk well. the mixture will start to thicken up or curdle (i know that sounds weird and gross and i was nervous, but trust me, this will work!)
stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder & soda and salt.
mix the oil, peach nectar, and vanilla extract into the bowl containing the soymilk and vinegar and then slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend.
add peach puree and continue to blend.
scoop into cupcake wrappers. these will puff up a lot...more than most of the non-vegan cupcakes i make do. past vegan recipes i've made have ended up pretty flat, so as a caution i filled the wrappers almost to the top and got a really puffy dome top...so depending on what you are going for about 3/4 full is great.
bake for 20 - 25 minutes until starting to brown.


vegan mango frosting

1 cup (2 stick) vegan butter - room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar
puree of two fresh ripe mangos

bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature and beat together until creamy. add the mango puree.
add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired sweetness and texture.
again, the puree will effect your ability to get a really stiff frosting, but i really think that nice strong mango flavor that came from using two mangos was worth a kind of goopey frosting.

my coworkers seemed to really love these as well as the strawberry ones. i think the key to this was using fresh mango, ripe in the frosting. you could try it with canned or frozen, but i cannot promise the same effect and delicious-ness.

vegan strawberry cupcakes and strawberry buttercream frosting

23 April 2009

i really just wanted to go for the whole orange and pink work color scheme for the cupcakes i was making, so the logical choice to me for pink was strawberry since i have been dying to try my hand at strawberry buttercream. two of my coworkers are vegan. i am not a very good vegan baker, but i am working on it. it's important to me that if i am going to make something for work, hopefully it is something everyone will have the opportunity to enjoy. so, this is more adventures in vegan baking...

IMG_7795

the first step before you do anything else is to cop up a pint of strawberries (about 8oz) and add about 3/4 cup of sugar to them. let them sit in the fridge mixed into the sugar for at least 20 minutes (overnight is good too) so then can absorb the sugars and make a strawberry simple syrup. then mash them by hand or throw them into a blender. you will then use this puree for both the cake and the frosting.

vegan strawberry cupcakes
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (don't worry about the smell, it bakes off)
1 cup of soymilk (flavored if you want...i used vanilla)
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup strawberry nectar
1/2 cup mashed strawberries

preheat the oven to 350ºF.
put the cider vinegar into a small bowl and add the soymilk. whisk well. the mixture will start to thicken up or curdle (i know that sounds weird and gross and i was nervous, but trust me, this will work!)
stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder & soda and salt.
mix the oil, strawberry nectar, and vanilla extract into the bowl containing the soymilk and vinegar and then slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend.
add strawberry puree and continue to blend.
scoop into cupcake wrappers. these will puff up a lot...more than most of the non-vegan cupcakes i make do. past vegan recipes i've made have ended up pretty flat, so as a caution i filled the wrappers almost to the top and got a really puffy dome top...so depending on what you are going for about 3/4 full is great.
bake for 20 - 25 minutes until starting to brown.


vegan strawberry frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter - room temperature
6 oz softened vegan cream cheese
2-3 cups powdered sugar

bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature and beat together until creamy. add 1/2 cup strawberry puree.
add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired sweetness and texture.
you may want to add more puree to get a stronger flavor. i ended up using at least a cup i think, but it made for less firm frosting, so if you are concerned with having the frosting be able to be piped on, you may want to go easy on the puree. if you want to thin things out, just use some of the strawberry nectar. if you do not care to make this vegan, just use real butter and cream cheese...the effect is the same.


i was really happy with the results! i am not going to tell you that i think my vegan cupcakes are 100% as good as my cupcakes with egg and all the things i am used to using...there is definitely a different texture involved, but i think these were pretty darn good. i will absolutely make some version of the strawberry cupcake again in the next few months once it is officially strawberry season!

pink lemon cupcakes

18 March 2009

as i mentioned in my last post, i had a "cupcake baking cheer-up a friend date" this weekend which was pretty great. there is something really wonderful about being in the kitchen and working on projects together while you are doing a little soul pouring and then in the end, there is this pretty little sweet product. and let's face it, you can't help but smile when you see cute little cupcake all decked out with pretty frosting and sparkle sugar.

IMG_7403

we pulled out the baking books and supplies and just started to wing it a bit. and yes, those are tiny cupcakes on the spatula on top of my cupcake book, next to my cupcake spoon rest...i am a big nerd. we decided on coconut lime cupcakes (see my last post) and a batch of pink lemon cupcakes. as you can see both recipes are really similar with a few small exceptions, so we really just made a double batch of simple vanilla cupcakes and divided it in half and did the citrus-ing to them and switched up the frostings a bit and the result was two completely different tasting cupcakes that were both really delicious.


IMG_7436

basic lemon cupcakes!
makes about 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon

beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
add sugar. beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the mixture. add the milk and vanilla. mix to combine.
add the zest and the lemon juice and blend thoroughly.
scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
at this point, heather threw in a handful of shredded coconut to add texture and flavor, but that is optional. i personally didn't like that texture, but a lot of people loved it.
bake for 22-25 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

grenadine frosting!

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter - room temperature
6 oz softened cream cheese
2-3 tablespoons of grenadine
2-3 cups powdered sugar

bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature and beat together until creamy.
add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired sweetness and texture.
add grenadine one tablespoon at a time. grenadine is a syrup, so it can easily overwhelm your frosting with that syrup-y flavor...just be sure to add it a bit at a time until you get a taste you like.


these sort of reminded me of a little cocktail in cupcake form and i really loved them. nothing cures a hung over sunday with a little cocktail cupcake.

ps...i promise i will start blogging and making things OTHER than cupcakes soon!

coconut lime cupcakes!

yesterday was st. patrick's day. i guess don't feel any great attachment to the holiday because i feel no great attachment to its catholic roots or history and i'm not irish (as far as i know). but in case you are really into the whole green st patty's day thing, i have something green for you!

these were actually something we made up this weekend completely unrelated to st patrick's day. my friend, heather, was feeling really down this weekend, so we decided there was no better solution for that than to bake up some yummy cupcakes!

we actually made 2 types, but i will post the other in a bit.

IMG_7442

lime cupcakes!
makes about 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1+ lime
handful of shredded coconut (optional)

beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
add sugar. beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the mixture. add the milk and vanilla. mix to combine.
add the zest and the lime juice. we wanted to get a really tart cupcake with a really distinct lime flavor, so we probably used about the juice of 2 limes, but one lime is good for a more mild flavor.
scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
at this point, heather threw in a handful of shredded coconut to add texture and flavor, but that is optional. i personally didn't like that texture, but a lot of people loved it.
bake for 22-25 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

coconut frosting!

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter - room temperature
6 oz softened cream cheese
1 teaspoon coconut extract
2-3 tablespoons coconut milk or coconut cream
2-3 cups powdered sugar

bring cheese and butter to room temperature and beat together until creamy.
add coconut milk and extract and continue to mix.
add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired sweetness and texture.
the coconut milk makes this really wonderfully light and fluffy if you allow it to beat for an addition few minutes. if you would prefer a more thick piping consistency, you only need to beat this up until fully combined.

this is seriously the best coconut frosting i have ever made. it was light and fluffy and had really great taste to it and was not at all too sweet. i am kind of adverse to too much sweet in a cupcake frosting...which might explain why just about all the frostings i make are cream cheese based. i think cream cheese is a good balancer. i am considering adding the left over coconut frosting to some lemon crepes later this week even. stay tuned.

we topped the cupcakes with some shredded coconut that i died green to give it a spring-y look. how do you dye coconut? well you put regular shredded coconut in a jar or tupperware with a couple of drops of liquid food coloring and just shake the heck out of it until the color disperses through the coconut. easy peasy.

honey cupcakes

08 March 2009

when i made the plan to make the bubble tea cupcakes, it occurred to me that not everyone at the party might be such an adventurous fan of the bubble tea so i wanted make half the cupcakes a more basic flavor, but still exciting and somehow matching the bubble tea theme. i decided to see what i might be able to do with honey because it seemed like the perfect accompaniment for green tea!

it turns out honey cupcakes are simple and amazing! i don't know why it never occurred to me to do more baking with honey before! the honey just adds a bit of sweetness and flavor that i think worked out wonderfully in cupcake form. next time i might try to up the vanilla flavor with some vanilla bean.

IMG_7254

this is a really easy cupcake to make, so have no fear even if you don't bake very often! it is certain to impress a crowd!

honey cupcakes!
makes about 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
add sugar and honey. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk and vanilla. mix to combine.
scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
bake for 22-25 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.


honey cream cheese frosting

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 tbs honey
2-3 cups powdered sugar

bring cheese and butter to room temperature and beat together until creamy.
add honey and continue to mix.
add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired spreading consistency.

IMG_7265

bubble tea cupcakes

one of my dearest friends, jenny, was having a brunch birthday party yesterday and i was in charge of the cupcakes (because a birthday without cake is just wrong). i debated for awhile about what kind of cupcake to make...do i make a classic and decorate like wild? or do i make a fun exciting flavor that might be less about aesthetics? i decided to go for the second option.

jenny loves bubble tea, so i decided to go with that and see what i could come up with. i decided on a green tea cupcake with a tapioca green tea frosting.

after i made this choice, i needed to go on a wild hunt to find green tea powder (matcha) of some sort. after trying 3 other stores around town, the 4th was the charm...i finally found a small jar of organic powdered green tea from the food co-op on alberta street. i want to say that in this recipe, the green tea powder defies all of my rules of thriftiness because it costs $11 for a tiny little jar, but it was worth it for a friend's birthday. if you're interested in trying this recipe out, you might want to plan ahead and buy matcha online.

that being said, the cupcakes were sort of weird and different, but they were a big hit at the party! i think they turned out really well and were not very complicated to put together. definitely worth trying if you are a fan of bubble tea or sweet green tea! on with the recipe...

IMG_7253

green tea cupcakes
makes about 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon (+ or -) green tea powder (matcha)

beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk and vanilla. mix to combine.
add green tea, all powders are of different strengths so i suggest adding smaller scoops at a time until you get the desired flavor. if you add too much, i imagine it could make your batter taste bitter. my powder was not very strong, so i ended up using a teaspoon or more. also, keep in mind you are making a green tea icing, so you might want keep the cupcake a little more subtle for balance.
scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
bake for 22-25 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.


bubble tea frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
2-3 cups sifted powdered sugar
1+ teaspoon matcha green tea powder (see the above note on matcha)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons small dry instant tapioca (i just used the kraft brand, you can find this in any grocery store with the instant puddings)
4 tablespoons milk


in a small saucepan, combine the dry tapioca with the milk and bring to a quick boil. remove from heat and let stand for about 5 minutes until tapioca is softened (it will look sticky, but don't worry it will separate when added to the mix). set aside.
bring cheese and butter to room temperature and beat together until creamy.
add half of the sugar, the green tea powder, and the vanilla. beat until combined.
add the tapioca a bit at a time until you get the texture you like.
gradually add remaining sugar (more if you have to) until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

IMG_7275
annie loves them!!

clementine cupcakes...

04 March 2009

clementines are in season for about $4 for a big box and they seemed so perfect for some sweet sunshine on a dreary winter day...

IMG_7136
clementine cupcakes!

makes about 15 cupcakes

zest of 3 clementines
juice of 3 clementines
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar

preheat the oven to 350. mix together flour, baking powder, zest and salt in a bowl. in a separate bowl, stir together milk, vanilla, and juice, mix. cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, and add the eggs. slowly add in the dry mixture and then the milk mixture.
fill your liners about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes clean. let cool before frosting.


clementine icing!

  • 1 stick of butter, softened (8 tablespoons)
  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon clementine zest (about one clementine)
  • juice of about 2-4 cementines
  •  
  • beat butter until light and fluffy. slowly add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla & clementine peel. add juice...this is the only slightly tricky part: add the juice little by little until you reach the consistencey you like for your frosting. just add it little by little while it is mixing.  for a stiffer frosting, you can just add the juice of 2 clementines, but i was going for a more fluffy smooth frosting with a lot of flavor, so i added juice from about 3 1/2 clementines and it was just about right. 


  • IMG_7144
they were seriously yummy! some of the best cupcakes i have ever made i think!


 
Blogging tips