To Booze or Not To Booze?

Today I am making mini margarita cupcakes in honor of the Cinco De Mayo celebration, which I'm guessing is about as popular to Mexicans here as St. Patricks Day is to actual Irish people. Americans just love a reason to throw a party and/or get drunk.

These can be made virgin or boozy, your choice. For regular sized cupcakes, this recipe makes 2 dozen. Otherwise it makes about 4 dozen minis...feel free to half the recipe if you don't want to be friendly to your neighbors.

Margarita Cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 and 1/2 cups sugar, divided
4 extra large eggs (or 6 large eggs) brought to room temperature*
1/4 cup grated lime zest
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, divided
3/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Tequila (optional)

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
-Line cupcake pans with papers.
-Zest the limes and then juice them. Set the zest and juice aside.
-Cream the butter and 2 cups of the granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
-Add the eggs one at a time, beating in well, scraping down the bowl between each. Then add the lime zest and mix until combined.
-In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
-In another combine 1/4 cup of the lime juice, the buttermilk and the vanilla.
-Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the butter mixture beginning and ending with the flour.
-Scoop the batter into the cupcake pans, almost to the top. A regular size ice cream scoop works well for this.
-Bake for about 20 minutes for regular sized cupcakes. 12 minutes for minis (you will need to check them, because these times will vary depending on your oven...) They are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
-While the cupcakes are baking, make the lime syrup: combine the remaning 1/2 cup lime juice and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Keep the syrup warm until ready to use. (It soaks into the cake better if the syrup is warm.)
-When the cupcakes are done, let them cool for 2 minutes.
-Brush the hot cupcakes generously with the lime syrup or Tequila...or a mix of tequila and lime syrup. This works best if you leave the cupcakes in the pans so you don't have syrup dripping everywhere.
*Editors note: I made these again today regular size and find that the syrup soaks in even better if you poke them a few times with a fork before brushing the syrup on.*
-When the cupcakes are completely cool, ice with a swirl of lime frosting (recipe follows). Roll edges ~or sprinkle~ frosting with sugar or a sugar/salt combo. Decorate with a little bit of lime zest or a thin wedge of lime.

Lime Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
4-5 cups confectioners' sugar

-Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
-Mix in the lime juice and zest.
-Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and beat until desired consistency.

*To bring your eggs to room temperature quickly, fill a bowl with hot (but not boiling) water and submerge the cold eggs for 5 minutes.

Mix Master

I guess I'm spoiled. Cake mix, on it's own, is so many shades of wrong after you've eaten from-scratch cakes. But cake mix is easy. And there are a few ways to make cake mix completely righteous if you're willing to play around with it.

The following is a cake mix recipe froofed up to taste like something from a very good bakery. It has a tighter crumb than regular cake, so that makes it ideal for decorating. It doesn't fall in the middle. It doesn't rise up crazy and ooze all over your cupcake pans making them hard to get out. And it's not dry or bland. It tastes amazing. Plus you can doctor it up several ways!

The following is the recipe for my favorite version~Lemon~which I made into cupcakes for St. Patricks day, complete with a swirl of vanilla buttercream icing and a See's chocolate shamrock on top.

It's a bright tasting lemon, slightly-tart-but-with-a-good-balance of sweet. And the texture is like a cross between angel food and pound cake. Trust me, you will not be dissapointed. Included at the bottom is another variation to make an equally delicious White Almond Cake.


White Lemon Sour Cream Cake

1 box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large lemons
Water (measurements will vary)
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 cup sour cream
3 large eggs

1-Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2-Grease and flour cake pans or line 2 - 12 cup cupcake tins with cupcake papers.
3-In a large mixing bowl combine the cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Mix together with a whisk.
4-Zest both lemons with the smallest holes on your grater. Put the zest into the dry ingredients.
5-Juice both lemons, pour the juice into a liquid measuring cup. Now add enough water to the lemon juice to make 1 and 1/3 cups of liquid. Add to the dry ingredients.
6-Add the remaining ingredients to the mixture.
7-Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
8-Pour evenly into prepared pans, about 2/3 full, or use an ice cream scoop to fill cupcake papers 3/4 full*. Bake until cake tests done. (Around 30-35 minutes for cupcakes, depending on your oven...use that as a starting point. Cakes will take a little longer.)
9-Cool completely and decorate as desired. (Because the lemon cake is a bit on the tart side, I'd suggest a vanilla buttercream frosting to balance the flavors.)

*If making cupcakes, you will have more than enough batter for 24 cupcakes. You can either pour this leftover batter into a small pan to make a little cake, or make a few more cupcakes after the first few batches are done. I usually get about 28 cupcakes.

White Almond Sour Cream Cake

1 box white cake mix
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/3 cups water
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup sour cream
4 egg whites

-Follow directions as above, omitting "lemon steps" 4 and 5.
-Fill cake pans to about 2/3 full.
-This cake is wonderful with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut.

Editor's Interesting Trivia Side Note: I made the White Almond version into a birthday cake for one of my friends two years ago, and it was this very cake that I was trying to photograph when our haunted camera died! So, while I can show you the ghost that made our camera wonky, there are no pictures of the cake.

Also, no pictures of the cupcakes, since they were whisked out the door about 30 seconds after I got done frosting them. Maybe it's for the best...we can't afford any new cameras!

Perfect Pumpkin Cupcakes

Whoops! I meant to post this yesterday but I was crazy busy and exhausted.

I don't know if I can adequately explain how awesome these are. They are just amazing. The best cupcakes ever. And they have every exciting spice under the sun...even black pepper! As opposed to pumpkin bread and the like, they are actually quite light. And of course, as with every spiced cake, they taste even better the next day. If you can, bake them the night before, cover them up to keep them moist, and frost them the next morning with a generous dollop of cream cheese frosting. Perfection!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups cake flour (or 1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour + 1/4 cup cornstarch)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin


Make the cupcakes:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with about 21 liners.

2. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl.

3. Add the eggs 1 at a time to the mixer, scraping down the sides after each addition. Alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the pumpkin until smooth. Scoop the batter among the cupcake liners — you’re looking to get them 3/4 full. Rap the filled pans once on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool the cupcakes on racks completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1.Cream together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla.
2.Blend in the powdered sugar until smooth.
3. Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon or nutmeg.

Makes about 21 cupcakes.

Red Velvet

I was up late the other night watching Food Network, which is bad for several reasons. The first being that I should have been asleep because it was midnight. The second being that I knew I'd want to make everything I saw from the dinosaur cake on Ace of Cakes (not happening anytime soon!) and the gingerbread cupcakes with carmelized mango buttercream, which sounded ridiculously hard to make once I tracked down the recipe.

However, I saw a lovely girl making red velvet cupcakes, covered with a literal mountain of cream cheese icing and topped with cute little sprinkles in a rainbow of colors. It was 1 am and I was thinking "oooh...red velvet..."

It's funny how often we forget about the classic recipes. How long has it been since I've even thought about red velvet cake? I can't remember the last time. In fact, I couldn't even remember what red velvet tasted like. So guess what I was making in my kitchen the very next day?

Oh, and it is awesome.


Red Velvet Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 and 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider will both work)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water

For the cream cheese frosting:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar

**quick note: A one ounce bottle of red food coloring (the normal size tiny glass bottles you'd get in a grocery store) only has 2 tablespoons of dye in it, so you will need two one ounce bottles of red dye to have enough for the cupcakes. It's okay if you don't put all the dye in it, they just won't be quite as deep red.

For the cupcakes:
-Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
-Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside.
-In a large bowl mix the oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined.
-Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well.
-Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix until just combined.
-Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.
-Line cupcake pans with 24 paper liners, scoop the batter into the liners 3/4 full. (Or two 9-inch cake pans for layer cake. Grease the pans, line the bottom with wax or parchment paper, then flour. It will need to bake a little longer, I'd say around 30-40 minutes.)
-Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. (Mine got done at about 22-25 minutes) Cool completely on racks.

For the cream cheese frosting:
-Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
-Add the vanilla.
-Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Mix until combined.
-The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
-Frost cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

Cups and Cakes

I broke down and made the Samoas Cupcakes (these uns ri' chere >>) a couple of weeks ago, thinking that if I made them miniature sized (so they weren't so rich) and skipped the caramel filling to save time that they wouldn't be quite so scary.

FOUR hours later I ate my words. Literally. They were incredibly tasty morsels, but not worth all that work. In fact, I thought the Brown Sugar Butter Cupcakes on their own were completely perfect. So did Dana who ate four of them before I realized what she was sneaking away with. They were so good plain that I almost felt bad that I put all that stuff on top of them. Once they were covered with chocolate and coconut frosting you couldn't taste how good the cupcakes were anymore.

I'm including the recipe for the ganache because that part was easy and they look really gorgeous dipped in shimmery chocolate, but I imagine they'd be equally at home with a nice buttercream.

This recipe made almost four dozen cutesy miniature cupcakes, so I think that regular sized they'd probably make a dozen and a half or so.

Brown Sugar Butter Cupcakes

3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 and 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
-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, beating for 30 seconds after each.
-In a seperate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
-Measure out milk and vanilla and mix together.
-Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter mixture and beat to combine.
-Add about one third of the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until just combined.
-Repeat as above, alternating the flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
-Scoop into cupcake papers about 2/3 to 3/4 full.
-Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Adjust time to about 12-15 minutes for miniature cupcakes.)
-Cool on wire racks.

Chocolate Ganache

1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips like Ghirardelli
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

-Put chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl.
-In a small saucepan heat cream gently until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, then pour cream over the chocolate.
-Let sit for 1 minute and then stir until combined.
-Add vanilla and stir until combined.
-Let cool slightly.
-Dip tops of cupcakes into warm ganache and turn as you pull up, swirling the chocolate back onto the cupcake to avoid drips. Let the ganache cool on the cupcakes.
-If the ganache becomes too hard to dip, put the bowl of ganache over a saucepan of gently simmering water, stirring until it becomes warm and smooth again.
-If you'd like a more "frosting" like consistency, you can let the ganache cool to room temperature and spread it on the cupcakes.

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If you want the rest of the Samoas Cupcakes recipe (my hat is off to you, my friend), want to send me random comments or are just bored you can e-mail me at: joelnbots at gmail dot com.

Muffins Are Just Ugly Cupcakes.

I don't know what it is about coconut and cupcakes that makes everyone crazy but these are simply the most divine cupcakes anywhere. The cream cheese frosting, the coconut, the almost obscene amount of butter...heavenly!

Coconut Cupcakes
(adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

1 and 1/2 cups butter, room temperature (3 sticks)
2 cups sugar
5 extra large eggs (or 6 large) brought to room temperature*
1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 bag (14 ounces) of sweetened shredded coconut, divided
Cream Cheese Icing (recipe follows)

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
-Grease the top of two 12 cup cupcake tins (this will help you remove your cupcakes after they bake, otherwise it'll be messy!) and line with 24 paper cupcake liners.
-In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
-Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each.
-Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts.
-In a seperate bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
-In three parts alternate adding the flour and buttermilk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just blended. Don't overmix!
-Fold in 3 cups of the coconut. Set aside the rest to top the cupcakes with later.
-Fill each cupcake cup to the top with batter. (Using an ice cream scoop makes this really fast and easy.)
-Bake for 25-35 minutes until the tops begin to brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
-Remove from oven and let cool in the tins for 15 minutes. You will probably need to cut the cupcakes apart to seperate them since they'll rise over the top of the pan and spread--do this while they're in the pan.
-Remove cupcakes and cool completely on cooling racks.
-Frost generously with cream cheese icing and sprinkle with remaining coconut (press down lightly to keep coconut from falling off).

Makes 24 cupcakes

Cream Cheese Icing

8 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup butter, room temperature (1 and 1/2 sticks)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups powdered sugar

-Make sure your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature to avoid lumps in your frosting.
-Put the cream cheese, butter and extracts in a mixing bowl. Blend together until creamy.
-Blend in the powdered sugar until smooth and fluffy.

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Tips!

* Bringing your eggs to room temperature before using them in a recipe will give your baked goods greater volume (read: light and fluffy!). An easy way to bring them to room temperature quickly is to submerge your eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.

*An easy way to bring your cream cheese and butter to room temperature for the icing is to put them in the mixing bowl when you start to make your cupcakes and set them somewhere out of the way. By the time the cupcakes are baked and you're ready to make your icing, the butter and cream cheese should be ready to mix. I put the extracts in the bowl at the same time so all I need to do is mix them up and add the powdered sugar.

* If you are using imitation vanilla extract as opposed to pure vanilla extract you will need to use twice as much in your recipe because it's not as strong as pure vanilla. The difference is that imitation vanilla is just vanilla flavored alcohol, while pure vanilla extract is alcohol that has had real vanilla beans soaking in it, so it's much stronger in flavor. It may cost more, but the flavor is much more intense and real than the imitation vanilla. You'll notice when you bake that you can smell vanilla everywhere when you use it. It's wonderful!

You can make your own vanilla extract if you have a bottle of vodka and a dozen vanilla beans laying around (put the beans in the vodka and let them marinate for a month) but I can't imagine a situation where I'd have either one of these ingredients in my pantry on a regular day...*hic!*

P.S. Don't drink vanilla extract (or orange or peppermint) no matter how good it smells. It's yucky.

Clearly Not the Craziest

I was starting to think that when it came to cooking, short of being some kind of pastry chef, I was the craziest baker out there. After a short search on the internet the other day I found out that this is not true, and that maybe I have only hit the tip of the iceberg as far as my foodie ways are concerned.

I cant remember where I found this page, but it is all about cupcakes. And not just your everyday cake in a paper with buttercream slathered on top. Nope. This woman is serious about cupcakes. The thing that brought me to her page was the promise of Samoas(tm) cupcakes. If you don't know what Samoas(tm) are then you've clearly never been accosted by a Girl Scout in the spring. They are diabolically evil little cookies that are coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasty coconut and then dipped in chocolate. They are really, really good.

But this recipe was even enough to scare me. Make your own homemade caramel filling and chocolate ganache? Ummm--no thanks. Remember how I'm all about things being fairly achievable on any regular given day? Yeah, this is not going to happen at my house.

There were a few recipes that seemed like they might be doable. I'm really toying with the idea of making the chocolate chai cupcakes or the caramel apple ones--so cute! The pumpkin ones look really amazing. And I love the paper cups she uses so you can do them on a baking sheet instead of muffin tins. Very clever.

I have to admit that I am fascinated and her ideas are as out there as any I've seen. Plus she has gorgeous pictures to show the steps of the cooking process that could turn anyone into a foodaholic.

Still, there is no way I'm ever going to be crazy enough to make cupcakes that take three days to make and are filled with lavendar and honey ice cream.

Curious? Visit Chockylit's Cupcake Bakeshop page for some stunning cupcakery.

I'll invite everyone over when I get around to being brave enough to make the Chocolate Bread Pudding Cupcakes with Toasted Walnuts, Homemade Toffee, and Cream.