Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

I don't know why I've been procrastinating writing up this recipe for so long! It's a really yummy one! Who doesn't love chocolate + caramel?? I used one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes- from my Reese's Cupcakes. I wanted to make a true caramel buttercream, but after my caramel ice cream burn fiasco last year, I wasn't quite ready for that ( I still have the scar to prove it!). This frosting is more of a brown sugar buttercream. It was good, next time I might just buy some caramel sauce and whip it into some buttercream frosting. We'll see how I'm feeling. These cupcakes did get great reviews though- yum yum eat em up!

Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes
From Ina Garten

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 TBSP) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature*
• 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
• 2 TBSP brewed coffee**
• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup good quality cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

*I use buttermilk powder (follow directions) or juice of 1 lemon and add milk until it reaches desired measurement
** I do not drink coffee, so I "brewed" a cup using instant coffee granules

1. Preheat oven to 350. Get your cupcake pan ready with paper liners. 
2. In your electric mixer bowl (fitted with paddle attachment), cream butter and sugars on high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 
3. Lower speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, better well after each addition. 
4. Add vanilla & mix. 
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream and coffee.
6.  In a third bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. 
7. With mixer on low speed, add buttermilk mixture and flour mixture alternately in thirds, beginning with the buttermilk and ending with the flour. Mix until just blended and scrap sides with a spatula. 
8. Scoop batter evenly into cupcake pans (I do 2 medium scoops each). Bake on middle rack 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and then place on wire rack to cool completely before frosting. You can cool faster in the fridge, if desired.

Caramel Frosting
From AllRecipes
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes, can be doubled if needed

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream + 1-2 TBSP
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-2 cups powdered sugar

In a medium saucepan, bring sugar and 1/2 cup cream to a rolling boil. Boil 1 minute. 

Add soda and boil for 1 more minute.This will cause it to bubble up a lot- don't worry. 

Remove from heat and pour into heatproof bowl. Add butter and DO NOT STIR. 

Cover & place in fridge for 1.5 hours. Once it is completely chilled, it is ready.
Remove and add remaining 1-2 TBSP cream and beat with electric mixer for several minutes, adding powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.
Pipe frosting onto cupcakes & enjoy! 

My New Scentsy Warmer

Isn't it SO cute? :) My sweet mommy sent it to me and it makes my office smell like freshly baked birthday cake! I've had lots of visitors wondering what I'm baking at my desk- ha! I don't know if I can turn it on everyday, because today it made me want some cake really badly...

P.S. My Auntie Brenda sells Scentsy, so if you want to buy one, go here.

Ina Garten's Reese's Cupcakes

Chocolate and peanut butter are a truly wonderful combo- as you are probably aware. Of course I've been dying to make some cupcakes like this for some time, but I was waiting for the right occasion.

A friend's birthday party came up and so I decided to make these - the only condition was that I could not take any home with me! The result? Success! :) Ina Garten is a genius!

I only had one- at the party. My craving was satisified and these received RAVE reviews. Everyone thought it was the perfect combo. Choppped reeses cup make the perfect topping, if you can resist snacking on them... :)

It's a Fun Day- Funfetti Cupcakes!

You know how you get fixated on one food craving and you just cannot stop thinking about it until you eat that cheeseburger or get that brownie? Well actually that happens to me several times a week.... Boys, you may not know what I'm talking about. Just skip ahead to the recipe. :) Anyway, I saw a picture of these amazing Funfetti cupcakes on How Sweet it Is and I literally could not stop thinking of biting into a big vanilly buttercreamy rainbow sprinkly cupcake for 2 weeks.

I finally just went ahead and made them. Because I wanted to. Because I needed to have just one. Small problem, this recipe makes 12- luckily I was able to find 11 very lovable cupcakes a home. Mission accomplished. :) And these are OH so much better than a box mix. I just cannot do box mixes anymore- they just taste off to me.

The frosting is so fluffy because its whipped extra long- its almost like a marshmallow frosting I think. My cake was slightly dry due to over baking by a few minutes. Be careful not to do this. You can even add a little more milk if you like to make them more moist.

Please don't want for a birthday to make these. Any day is a Funfetti day!

P.S. Can I bribe anyone to vacuum the extra sprinkles with a cupcake? :)

Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes- AKA seriously the best cupcake EVER!

You may remember my obsession with Sprinkles. Love. Love. Love their cupcakes. Especially the strawberry one. Its light and fluffy. Strawberry-y, but not too much so. Sweet berry goodness. You can imagine my excitement when I came across "The Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcake Recipe" here and "The Sprinkles Strawberry Frosting Recipe" here. Yay! :) I knew it was meant to be when strawberries were on sale for $0.96 a pint at H-E-B the other week.. Score!

Let me tell you, this is a winner! It is very similar to the Sprinkles version, but even if it wasn't, its still light and fluffy and slightly sweet.

 The frosting is where most of the strawberry flavor comes from. You just feel happy and summery while you eat it. Everyone who I gave one of these to loved it too. I went ahead and purreed and froze the rest of my strawberries before they went bad. Now I just need a special occassion to make them for! Anyone having a party? P.S. See, I DO use all my cake stands. :)

P.S.S. I was also happy to use one of my newer kitchen gadgets- the strawbery huller! Handy dandy little stocking stuffer.

Is it still my birthday?

24 hours seems like a short time for a day when its your birthday. Especially when you are sleeping for 8 hours of it (I'm being optimistic) and working for 9 1/2 (also optimistic). Not that I'm complaining! I had a great time out at dinner with friends. Would you be shocked if I told you I surprised myself with a cupcake cake? :) Well it was from my Mom and Dad (Thanks guys!), but it might have been my idea...

 

I did take Friday off work to enjoy myself and really didn't get much done other than sleeping in and laundry, but I think beauty sleep is priceless.  My Aunt Cathie and Uncle David passed through Austin Friday night on their road trip back to San Diego, so of course I had to show them the Austin highlights.

Aunt Cathie and me at Guerro's- a local Mexican restaurant

Saturday one of my close friends from college (and roommate of 2 years!), Michelle, came to visit me from Houston and we had a fun night out!

Michelle and me downtown

Here are a few photos from my birthday dinner for your enjoyment. I guess I forgot to get one of the whole group, however I was very insistent on getting a photo with each person. Thank you everyone for making my birthday so special! :)

Brittney and me- IDK what was so funny?

Brittney, Mandy and Kelly

Sandy, Jessica and me

Banana-Bo-Bana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing

I hosted an appetizer-themed Ladies Game Night for some co-workers last week. So fun! I wanted to make something sweet and I KNEW I had to make some cupcakes when my friend Jenna gave me this darling cupcake stand last weekend as a belated Christmas present. :)

 

I'm also obsessed with this adorable cakestand my mom gifted me with last year!

I decided on banana cupcakes when I had some bananas that were the perfect ripeness for baking and I was not making anymore trips to the store! ha I just invented my own recipe (basically the same as my banana muffin/bread recipe- See the love marks?)

, but I got so many compliments on these little cuppies! Speaking of cuppies, remember these darling little cupcake liners I found in my stocking? I just love them!

The peanut butter icing is SO yummy. It just adds that extra-something when combined with the banana bottom. Warning! You will probably have a little icing leftover, and you will want to pipe it directly into your mouth...

I. Need. More. Sprinklesssss

 

So I went to Houston last weekend to visit some of my favorite friends. It just so happened that I found out that Sprinkles had recently opened a new cupcake shop there. I NEEDED to go. It was calling to me! So we stopped by on a rainy Saturday afternoon, waited in line, drooled over these...

Ghobusters Cupcakes with SLIME!

First I saw this. Then I saw this. And this. I knew I wanted to make something Halloween-inspired for my Halloween potluck at work (woo-hoo big party!), and thus Ghostbusters cupcakes were born.

Nothing too original here, but I do think that the slime idea was kinda cute. I got a couple different reactions on the slime (which is just green buttercream), ranging from "WHAT IS THIS GREEN STUFF?! What is in the middle of this cupcake?!" to "YUM! Slime!" The chocolate pumpkin cupcake recipe was found from The Dutch Baker's Daughter, which was adapted from Amanda. It was very tasty and moist, but was still a little too muffiny for me- although the icing added more than enough sweetness. Maybe this is because I bake a lot of pumpkin muffins, but not a lot of pumpkin cake... The bf kept saying "OMG! These are the best muffins ever! You could seriously sell these." EVERY time he ate one (which was a lot- as much as 4 in one day!), but I think next time I would definitely add more cocoa to make them more chocolatey. I also need to hone my ghost-making skills, but most people seemed to know what they were! :)

My friend Sandy came over with her dog, Sonny, for dinner (I made Fiesta Chicken Salad again) and she stayed to make cupcakes with me. Oh and here are my other "helpers." G was testing out his new office chair...


And then Sonny wanted to test it out too...


Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

• 2 cups AP flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp all spice (or equal parts ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup canola oil (I used vegetable)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2-1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices and cocoa. Set aside.

Using paddle attachment, combine sugar, oil and applesauce in large mixing bowl on low.


Add vanilla and pumpkin. Increase speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Gradually add flour fixture (so it doesn't poof everywhere!) and mix until just combined.

Turn off mixer and use spatula to scrape sides and bottom of bowl to combine everything well.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop batter into muffin cups (I use a measuring scoop to make less of a mess).

Bake 18-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool completely before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream (and Green Slime filling)

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-4 TBSP milk
• food coloring

Using paddle attachment, cream butter for several minutes, until fluffy. Slowly add 3 cups powdered sugar (again, beware of the poof!) while on lowest speed. Increase speed to medium and add vanilla and 2 TBSP milk. Gradually add more sugar to stiffen and milk to soften until you have the perfect consistency. If you're going to pipe the icing, it will need to be a little thicker.

Separate about 1/4 of the icing into a small bowl and add food coloring until you get desired color (i.e. SLIME green), mixing thoroughly to incorporate color.

Place a long, filling tip into your icing bag and fill (no more than 3/4 full), twisting the end. If you don't have an icing bag, a Ziploc bag with the end snipped off works OK (although you really need this tip to be able to insert the filling). I am by no means working with professional tools- I got my bags and tips in a cheap cupcake decorating set from H-E-B (local grocery store)!

Next, color a spoonful of icing in a third bowl black or dark gray (this took a while for me to do with my food coloring- which is why I need gel icing for Christmas!) and place into an icing bag with only the smallest opening cut off at the end (no need for a tip unless you have a teeny tiny one).

Fill a third icing bag with the white icing to make your ghosts (I used the wider, rounded icing tip).

Once your cupcakes are cool, insert the long filler tip 1/2 inch into the top of the cupcake and squeeze for 2 seconds before pulling tip out carefully. Wa-la!- slime!

I couldn't really tell how much I was putting in there, but I knew I didn't want much, since I already had a lot of vanilla icing going on. If you want to put more you definitely could. It would also be really tasty with another flavor (chocolate? peanut butter?) inside with a different flavor (chocolate? vanilla?) cupcake. Oh the possibilities are endless!

Using the vanilla icing, slowly pipe into a circle on top, gradually piling on top like a snake and ending at the top with a little extra blob for Mr. Ghost's head. You can use the black icing to draw eyes or a face. Keep in fridge until you're ready to scare your guests! Boo!

As you can see, I ran out of white icing (next time I would make 1 1/2 times this recipe) and made a few "gak" cupcakes with my leftover slime!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween with lots of treats!

-Marissa