Pretty in Pink

I had the pleasure of making cupcakes for an it's a girl shower this past weekend. I used the Strawberry Rose cake recipe from Apron of Grace blog. They turned out great. I also filled them with vanilla pastry cream for a strawberries and cream effect. I used the Martha Stewart pastry cream recipe. Yum!

Cupcakes and Baseball

Easter Weekend we traveled to a baseball tournament in the central valley.  The Muckdogs represented well -winning both the 9U and 10U divisions.   We camped with good friends, swam, rode bikes, hunted easter eggs and enjoyed yummy cupcakes baked by my close friend and partner in crime when it comes to all things buttercream.  The weather was near 70 degrees which after the winter we've had in Truckee feels downright tropical.  Great weekend. 

Celebrating Another Fab 40 with Friends

Vanilla and Chocolate Cake Pops.

A table full of sweets worthy of a Big Four-Oh Celebration.

A crowd pleasing favorite, grilled pizzas.

This is the year to turn 40!  For my friends and I anyway.  This past weekend a few close friends gathered together to celebrate another Fab 40.  A girls day out, lunch and cocktails at a local favorite Bar of America - recommend the Ahi Tuna Salad and Fish Tacos, then a stop at Truth Tattoo and dinner party featuring appetizers, grilled pizzas, Extreme Vanilla Bean cupcakes and cake pops.  What a weekend.  Happy 40th K.  Really glad to be a part of the celebration.

Sweet Saturday

Carrot cake cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  I am practicing my big swirly rose technique.  Need more practice and a little stiffer frosting.  Back to the mixing bowl.  Still pretty and yummy.

Happy Saint Patty's Day.

A friend ordered 20 cupcakes for her classroom to celebrate St Patrick's Day.  Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream and a Peppermint Patty.  Of course. 

Sweet Saturday

Sweet Saturday equals Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.  I found the recipe from Barefoot Contessa online. 

Chocolate Cupcakes and Peanut Butter Icing

2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup good cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Kathleen's Peanut Butter Icing, recipe follows
• Chopped salted peanuts, to decorate, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.
Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.
Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.
Kathleen's Peanut Butter Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

The cake is moist and I doubled the powdered sugar and cream in the frosting to make it really fluffy and light.  New favorite?

Extreme Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Craving a vanilla bean treat I found this recipe on Sophistimom.com website.  It is easy to make, moist and delicious.  I made a vanilla bean buttercream to top it with but her recipe for strawberry buttercream looked yummy too.  These cupcakes hit the spot. 

vanilla bean cupcakes
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
seeds scraped from one vanilla bean (these can always be left out, and the cupcakes will still be delicious)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Combine all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Fill cupcake liners slightly more then halfway full.
2. Bake for 15 minutes, or until center cupcakes bounce back when touched. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.   From Sophistimom.

Princess Cupcakes

Cupcakes fit for a 3 year old princess.  Just had to share these beautiful cupcakes made by a friend for a birthday party this past weekend.  Pink frosting on chocolate and vanilla cake with handmade chocolate crowns on the top.  Gorgeous.  And delicious.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling

Red Velvet Heaven

A friend from church is getting married in two weeks.  Yesterday was her wedding shower.  Red velvet cupcakes were the order of the day.  They were so goood!  I used the Martha Stewart recipe from start to finish and I recommend it.

It's a Boy Cupcakes

A friend from church is having a boy and my BFF Alissa and I volunteered to make the cupcakes for the shower.  The invitation was brown and baby blue with bright colored stars, stripes and swirls.  We tried to mimic the theme.

Vanilla Cupcakes + Chocolate Buttercream Frosting were the flavors of the day.

We doubled the recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes by Joy of Baking and had to substitute a bit when I discovered one egg in my fridge vs the six I needed.  A little vegetable oil, a little milk and all is well.

The pre made, pre colored fondant from Michael's was a big help.  All in all - delicious and cute!

Cupcake central

 It was cupcake central in my kitchen this weekend.  Our church was hosting a Celebration event Saturday and Sunday and I agreed to provide mini cupcakes to 'sweeten' the event. I chose recipes for Vanilla Bean with Vanilla Buttercream from Annie's Eats.  Chocolate with Chocolate Truffle Frosting from my own recipe stash and Snickerdoodle from Martha Stewart.  I didn't use the 7 minute frosting for Snickerdoodle but instead used Buttercream and added a generous amount of cinnamon to the buttercream and topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar.  They all turned out well and not one was left after the event. 

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Because it is Easter, because it is spring, because I have a huge bag of carrots in my fridge, I made Carrot Cake Cupcakes.  This is one of my favorite recipes. It is from Southern Living and meant for a cake pan but works well as cupcakes too. It is classically filled with grated carrots, nuts, pineapple and coconut.  The cupcake is topped with a generous amount of Cream Cheese Frosting.  Do carrots in a cupcake count as one of your 1/2 cups of fruit/vegetables a day?  I hope so.

Chocolate Cupcakes and Close Friends

About once every two months a group of six fabulous women get together to talk about local issues, politics, business, life and whatever.  The women are my friends and a complete cross section. We're all from different backgrounds and beliefs which makes for very colorful conversation.  I love it. When we gather we each bring something to share and the result is a mini feast.  Last night my contribution was this Chocolate 'Irish Car Bomb' Cupcakes from a Smitten Kitchen recipe. They are soooo good.  There are a few steps but totally worth it.

A terrific treat over which we solved the problems of the world....or tried too.

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen
While the Guinness in the cake gets mostly baked out, the Baileys is fresh and potent, so if you’re making this for people who don’t drink — ahem, nobody I know, but I hear such people exist — you’ll probably want to swap it with milk.
The Baileys frosting recipe makes a smallish amount of frosting — enough to just cover the cupcakes. Because they were so rich and this frosting so sweet, I felt it only needed a little. Double it if you want more of a towering effect.
Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes
For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
Ganache Filling (Updated to double it, based on many commenters suggestions — thanks!)
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)
Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)
Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)
Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.
Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.
Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
[This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.]
When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
Ice and decorate the cupcakes. [I used a star tip and made little "poofs" everywhere and sprinkled it with various colors of sanding sugar to keep it looking festive for New Years. I bet shaved dark and white chocolates would look gorgeous as well.]
Do ahead: You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)

Celebrating St Patty's Day with Cupcakes

A friend was having a trunk show at her boutique on St Patrick's Day and wanted cupcakes. I thought the Mint Patty recipe from Foodtv Magazine looked perfect. They turned out exactly like the recipe/picture and taste delicious.  Just like a Thin Mint.  Yum. Try them you will not be disappointed. 

Valentine Cupcakes

For Valentine's Day we gathered with some good friends (couples and kids) for some afternoon snow play and a great dinner together. We decided on a nod to Julia Child and Bouef Burguignon - delicious! Separate post needed to do it justice. We also wanted to do some kind of pink cupcakes. We used a recipe out of the Martha Stewart Living February magazine. I only had strawberries on hand so substituted those. They turned out moist and delicious. The seven kiddos - age 2 to 10 helped decorate and decorate and decorate. Beautiful.

Raspberry Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream and Lacy Chocolate Hearts To make the hearts, see our Chocolate Filigree Hearts how-to.

INGREDIENTS Makes 2 dozen. 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups cake flour (not self-rising) 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1 1/4 cups whole milk 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 2 1/4 cups sugar 6 large eggs 2 containers (6 ounces each) raspberries, 1 container pureed, 1 container coarsely chopped Gel-paste food coloring, in Tulip Red (optional; sugarcraft.com) Pink Buttercream Chocolate Filigree Hearts

DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with baking cups. Whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Beat butter with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar in a slow, steady stream, and beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl, and beat until smooth. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Fold in pureed and chopped raspberries and a small drop of food coloring. Divide batter among baking cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes, and let cool completely. Decorate with pink buttercream and lacy chocolate hearts.

Friends, birthdays and cucpcakes

Some girlfriends and I gathered to celebrate a birthday. Even big girls like cupcakes. These were Chocolate and Coconut. YUM. Here is the recipe from Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa. They are indulgent and because these are girly girls - only pink coconut would do.



Coconut Cupcakes
1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, All rights reserved


Ingredients
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut
For the frosting:

1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.

Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining coconut.