French Toast Maple Cupcakes (Guest Recipe)

 

My friend Emily sent me this recipe and I told her I would share it on my blog. The cupcakes look delicious and I wish I could have tasted them.

I hope yall enjoy.l 

French Toast and Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Life With Cake

Makes 12 cupcakes

 

INGREDIENTS

For cupcakes
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup half-and-hal
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, at room temperature, separated

For maple syrup buttercream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons heavy cream, at room temperature

2 Tbsp maple syrup

cooked thick cut bacon, broken into pieces

extra maple syrup, garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

To make cupcakes–
Preheat to 375 degrees F. Line the cupcake pan with liners

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla and set aside.

In a standing mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or hand mixer), combine the butter and sugar and mix on low speed until well incorporated. Add the egg yolks to the creamed butter one at time, waiting for each one to be fully combined before adding the next.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Alternately, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Continue mixing until batter is smooth. Set aside.

In a different bowl, whip the egg whites on high speed, using the whisk attachment, until stiff peaks are formed. Working in 3 batches, using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the cupcake batter, until just combined.

Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 full. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven and cool completely before frosting.

To make buttercream–
In a standing mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), mix the butter and sugar on low speed until combined. Continuing mixing until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the heavy cream and maple extract. Raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Using a Wilton 1M piping tip (or your favorite star tip) pipe frosting on cupcake. 

Garnish with crumpled bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup.

“Me want cookie!” - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 The other day I got an e-mail from a co-work with the subject line "HELP!!". Very intrigued I opened the email and it was a request to make cupcakes for one of her friend's birthday's. I felt honored that she would reach out to me, but I also felt pressured that I had to make birthday cupcakes for someone I had never met. I knew that I had to make something creative, tasty, and birthday worthy.

I know that for my birthday I always like cookie cakes. There is just something about a giant cookie that will put a smile on anybody face. So I went on a quest to find cookie cupcakes, and i stumbled across Beantown Baker's cookie dough cupcakes.   I read her post and I knew this was what i wanted to make.A cupcake with cookie dough inside, who wouldn't want that for their birthday?!?

So I went to the store, gathered all the ingredients and went to work. The process was easy. Make the cookie dough, roll into balls and freeze for an hour.

 Then when the cookie dough was soild, mix the ingredients for the batter, put into cupcake liners, and top with cookie dough. It was that easy.

Once they were done, I mixed up the icing, decorated them and top with the left over chocolate chips! They looked perfect.

The recipe made 24 cupcakes, and since the box I got to carry the cupcakes only held 20 cupcakes, I had a few left over to share!

These cookie dough cupcakes would make any cookie enthusiast very happy, even the cookie monster.

Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Adapted from: Beantown Baker

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

For the eggless cookie dough:
2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

For the cupcakes:
3 sticks softened butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the brown sugar buttercream frosting:
3 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the cookie dough:

Combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Beat in milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Beat in the flour and salt until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop, shape the dough into 1 in balls. Freeze on a parchment lined baking sheet for at least one hour

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350° F and line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl combine the butter and brown sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Wisk together to blend.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla.

Fill the prepared cupcake liners 2/3 full with the cupcake batter. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake, do not press down (cookie dough will fall to the bottom during baking)

Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes.

To make the frosting:

Combine the butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. 

Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth.  Beat in the salt, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined.

Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips!

Who Says There's no Cupcakes in Baseball?

With the end of my softball season fast approaching I decided to make some baseball themed cupcakes for the last game of the season. Unfortunately our last game got rained out and is now postponed to a later date, so the cupcakes that were supposed to be taken to the game were instead enjoyed by all of my coworkers.

These cupcakes were very easy to make and I bet every one around you will enjoy how adorable they look!

To make the grass:
Fill a ziplock bag with coconut flakes and add green food coloring. Close the bag and shake/rub together until all the coconut is colored green. ( sorry I didn't take a picture of this) Once it is colored to your preferred green lay out on a paper towel and rub to get any extra green off the coconut. Let sit until you are ready to decorate.

To make the baseballs:

Dip vanilla wafers in white chocolate. Let sit until hard. Take red icing and pipe on wafers to mimic a baseball.

To assemble cupcakes:
Ice the cupcakes with green icing. Cover with coconut and shake off excess. Top with baseball. Enjoy!

 

Oreo Cupcakes.

If anyone else is an avid pinterest fan like me they know how easy it is to pin 100 things but not actually make anything. So I forced my self to pick something off my "Sweet Sweets" board and actually make it. The winner? Oreo cupcakes from Keeping up with the Kunzs blog.

 

Yummy..

Lamar University Graduation Cupcakes

Some More What? (Smore's Cupcakes)

In honor of the Sandlot, and all campers out there, I decided to make some Smore's Cupcakes for my Bingo night with some friends of mine.

Here is a quick video for those of you who have never seen Sandlot:

Next, let me first begin by saying that I didn't win any money that night playing Bingo, but the Cupcakes were a big hit in my mind. With a layer of Gram Cracker, Chocolate, and Marshmallow Fluff, I couldn't be any happier!

Update 2/17/12: I combined two different recipe's to make these. I wish I could remember what I did! Go to Annie's Eats and 52 Kitchen Adventures for the recipes!

Texas Football Cupcakes!

It's football season! So, you know what that means, Football Cupcakes! These cupcakes turned out absolutely adorable and they really did not take that much time at all!

I used a regular boxed cake mix, but I dyed half of the batter orange, and layered to two batters to give the cakes a little marble look. I used rolled out colored fondant to make the footballs, helmets, and the flags!

For the grass I used a  Wilton #233 tip. It really gives the icing a realistic grass look.

The best thing about them.... You could make them into a whole football field!! 

HOOK EM' HORNS
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Cherry & Almond Cupcakes

 Like I said i'm still trying to update all the stuff i made over the summer. I got this recipe from my new favorite cook book: Cupcake Heaven: Hundreds of divine recipes to take you to baking paradise, Edited by Jennie Milsom.

Ingredients
For the cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbs. ground almonds
3 tsp. baking powder
4 large eggs
2 tbsp. cherry syrup

For the frosting
3 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 cup (2 sticks butter)
Pinch of salt
12 bottled maraschino cherries with stems

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Place 18 paper baking cup in muffin pans.

2. Combine all the cupcake ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Spoon the Batter into the cups.

3. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.

4. To make the frosting, beat the confectioners’ sugar, butter, and salt in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add a few drops of food coloring and beat until well combined. Spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes, and garnish each with a cherry.

enjoy!

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Guiness Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ok so its been a LONG time since i've updated with some posts and pictures. I'm gonna try and catch up so I might not be as in depth as I usually am on the next couple of posts.

I made these cupcakes over the summer with my friend Lauren. It was the same night we made the Apple Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting. We took the recipe from the same website Ming Makes Cupcakes, and its recipe #16 if your interested.

Here is the majority of the ingredients!

Yummy!!

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Apple Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

A few weeks ago I went over to my friends place, and we get together we bake! Her friend had sent her website with cupcake recipes so we decided to pick some from there. The website Ming Makes Cupcakes, has 33 cupcake recipes and they all look amazing. We each decided to pick one, and then we went to the store to get the ingredients. The first one we made is Cupcake 10 - Apple Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting.

Cupcakes
1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2  tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Pinch of cloves

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

2 cups peeled, diced apples

Directions
1. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

2. In a separate bowl, beat together sugar, egg, and oil. Add apples. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth.

3. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean

Ingredients for Caramel Frosting

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Melt butter, sugar, and cream in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring mixture to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.

2. Continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

3. Frost cupcakes when cooled.

We had fun decorating these cupcakes. We think that we did not let the caramel frosting sit long enough because it was really runny and it got all over the place. It tasted delicious so we didn't care.

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UT Graduation Cupcakes

OK so I've been super busy with school and work that I haven't had time to post anything new in a long time! Two weekends ago was the University of Texas Graduation. My boyfriend and alot of my other friends were graduating so I decided to make them cupcakes for their gifts. I wanted to make the diplomas out of fondant, so I search online and I found my new favorite love. The All in One Bake Shop. This place was my heaven!

While I was there I bought a small tub of fondant, and orange, brown, and black food coloring.

To make the little diplomas, I rolled out a small portion of the white fondant, and then used a pizza cutter to make small rows. I then rolled them like you would a piece of paper.

I then took another small portion of the fondant and dyed it black. I then rolled those into little rows like spaghetti, and then wrapped them around the diplomas to look like bows.

To make the cupcakes I used a box of yellow cake mix. Before i pored them into the cups I took out half of the mixture and dyed it burnt orange with the brown and orange food coloring. I alternated pouring in the cake mix to give it a little spiral effect.

Finally I dyed a tub of vanilla icing  burnt orange and used a piping bag to decorated the cupcakes. I topped them with the mini diplomas and they were a huge success!!

Congratulations to the Class of 2010!

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Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Today I attempted to make pink champagne cupcakes. I found the recipe  in my Betty Crocker Cupcakes cakes & more recipe book and I was a little hesitant at first because the recipe called for champagne to be mixed into the batter and icing. But I finally got the guts and made it. 

At the end I was a little disappointed. The cupcakes ended up tasting like regular boxed vanilla cupcakes, and the icing turned into an absolute mess. I didn't have enough powdered sugar for the icing, and I only need 1/2 cup more (it calls for 4), so i decided to substitute the remaining 1/2 cup with regular sugar.

Apparently I was really wrong. The icing was super grainy and it just tasted horrible. I ended up scraping all the icing off all the cupcakes, and running to the Quick Mart down the street and buying a normal tub of vanilla frosting. The cupcakes ended up looking great, and tasting good. They are just missing the homemade taste that I wanted them to have. Lesson Learned:  Never substitute regular sugar for powdered sugar, especially in an icing recipe!

 

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