Mardi Gras

King Cake Cupcakes

Made: February 12, 2013

Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 2/3 cups flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons soft butter
- 2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia; OR 1 teaspoon vanilla + 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil
- 2 large eggs

Icing
- 3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (half of an 8-ounce package) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, enough to make a spreadable icing
- colored sugars, preferably purple, yellow, and green

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 FL
- Lightly grease and flour a muffin tin, or line the muffin tins with papers, and spray the insides of the papers

Cupcakes
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt
- Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until the mixture looks sandy
- Combine the milk and vanilla and add, all at once
- Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl
- With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 egg
- Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds
- Add the second egg, again beating for 30 seconds
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat briefly, just till smooth
- Scoop the batter by heaping 1/4-cupfuls into the prepared muffin tin (A muffin scoop works well here)
- Bake the cupcakes for 23 to 25 minutes, until they've domed, and are a light golden brown around the edges
- They'll spring back when pressed gently on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven, and place on a rack to cool completely before icing

Icing
- Combine the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and lemon oil in a medium-sized bowl, and beat them together until light and fluffy
- Add the sugar gradually, beating well
- Beat in the milk a little at a time, until the frosting is a spreadable consistency
- Spread each cake with icing, and immediately dip in gold, purple, and green sparkling sugars, covering about 1/3 of the cupcake with each color sugar

I followed this one really close to the recipe; only a couple of changes. I couldn't find lemon oil anywhere. So I used lemon juice in the batter with the vanilla and extract in the icing. Also, I didn't use a full 2 cups of powdered sugar. It was getting a nice consistency, so I used 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of milk. I also didn't have or could find yellow sugars, so I just used green and purple I had. I never had King Cake before, but these cupcakes were quite delicious!

(Recipe used: King Aurthur Flour)

Chocolate + cream

Black Bottom Cupcakes (full size)

Originally made date; unknown - Recently made: January 5, 2013

Ingredients
Chocolate batter
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream cheese filling
- 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt
- Set aside
- In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar, oil and water until blended
- Stir in the vinegar and vanilla
- Beat in the flour mixture until incorporated
- Set aside
- In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and salt
- Stir in the chocolate chips
- Fill muffin cups 1/3 full with chocolate batter, then top with a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture
- Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes

These are requested quite often :) I didn't realize I never posted the recipe before today ...

(Recipe used: Allrecipes.com)

Fall Harvest Cupcakes

School Days Applesauce Cupcakes

Made: November 2, 2012

Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 box Yellow Cake mix (or your favorite recipe)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 3 eggs

Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions
Cupcakes
- Heat oven to 350 F

- In a large bowl, beat cupcake ingredients with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds
- Beat on medium speed about 2 minutes
- Divide the batter evenly among the cups
- Bake 18-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
- Cool for10 minutes
- Remove cupcakes to cooling racks to cool completely

Frosting
- In a 2 qt saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat
- Stir in brown sugar, heat to boiling, stirring constantly
- Stir in the milk, return to boil
- Remove from heat
- Beat in the powdered sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until smooth
- Frost the cupcakes

I followed this one to a tee, minus that I used cinnamon flavored applesauce since my unsweetened one went bad on me. Oops! But I called them my Fall Harvest cupcakes since I took them to a bowling alley and not a school haha Plus, Apples are best in the fall :)

(Recipe used: Best of Betty Crocker 2013)

A drink you can eat

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Made: January 27, 2012

Ingredients
- Your favorite Devil's food or chocolate cake mix
- 1 cup whipped vanilla frosting
- 1/2 cup marshmallow creme
- 1/4 teaspoon unsweetened baking cocoa
- 6 miniature pretzel twists, broken in half

Directions
- Heat oven to 350F
- Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups
- In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and egg with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally
- Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
- Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
- Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack
- Cool completely, about 30 minutes
- In small bowl, mix frosting and marshmallow creme
- Spoon into small resealable food-storage plastic bag; seal bag
- Cut 3/8-inch tip off 1 corner of bag (Or spoon mixture onto cupcakes instead of piping)
- Pipe 3 small dollops of frosting mixture on top of each cupcake to look like melted marshmallows
- Sprinkle with cocoa
- Press pretzel half into side of each cupcake for cup handle
- Store loosely covered

Unfortunately, they don't look like they do in the "recipe picture" as my "marshmallows" melted all over my cupcake. I did a couple things differently (like always) I didn't add on the pretzel as my carrying case has little space in-between the cupcakes. And with my marshmallow everywhere, it was just a mess. :( I also used my Pampered chef decorating Easy Accent Decorator to pipe on the marshmallow. Love that thing! (The marshmallow is also white; excuse the lighting!)

Recipe used: Pillsbury

Happy Valentines Day!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Made: February 14, 2011

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:

- 1 pound cream cheese, softened
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
- Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

Instructions

Cupcakes:

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
- In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.
- Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

- Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled.
- Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through.
- Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

- In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth.
- Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated.
- Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.
- Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

For the first time ever making them, they were a success! :) Everyone enjoyed them. Which makes me happy. With the frosting, I think I put in too much powdered sugar was it was very sweet; 4 cups is a lot. (Almost an entire box!) I have so much left over. I wanted something pink and easy for Valentines Day :D

(Recipe used: Food Network)