Recipe of the Week: Churro Con Chocolate Cupcakes

Mmmm the spanish doughnut, also known as churro. I have many fond childhood memories of these cinnamon sugary delights. The aroma especially is what always attracted me to them as a child. And there is something so simple and fun about them, who doesn't like to dip things in chocolate, right? I've seen other recipes for such cupcakes but I wanted to develop it a little further. I made 2 different versions of these scrumptious cupcakes and used Dollhouse Bake Shoppe's churro recipe as my base.

I first did a cinnamon graham cupcake with a chocolate ganache filling and a cinnamon graham cream cheese frosting.

The 2nd type was the same base cinnamon graham cupcake but instead of filling the cupcakes I simply used the ganache as the frosting and dusted them with cinnamon + graham cracker crumbs.

So far the verdict in the family is they enjoy the simplicity of the 2nd version but are in love with the frosting in the first so it is hard for them to decide. If you make these, come back and let me know the version you went with and what you thought, I'd love to hear others opinions :) Happy Baking!

Churro Cupcakes
(Cinnamon graham cupcakes w/ chocolate ganache filling and cinnamon graham cream cheese frosting)
3 1/4 cup cake flour, shifted
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 cup sugar
5 large eggs (separated into 5 yolks, reserving only 3 egg whites)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 1/3 cup whole milk, room temp

Ganache:
8oz chocolate
1 cup heavy cream

Frosting:
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 8oz packaged cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions:
Cake-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl, set aside. Combine graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar in a small bowl and pour in the melted butter. Stir until combined, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add the sugar and beat about 3 minutes more, or until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed to low and add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract and cinnamon. On low speed, mix in 1/3 flour mixture and 1/2 the milk, repeat alternating between the flour and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until the flour is incorporated. Do not over beat once the flour mixture is added.

With an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium-stiff peaks form and fold into the batter. Fold in the graham cracker-brown sugar mixture. Scoop the batter into the lined cupcake pan. Bake 22 minutes for mini cupcakes or 27 minutes for regular-size cupcakes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

Ganche-Place cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 2-3 minutes (watch cream, when it begins to boil take it out). Put chocolate in a medium sized bowl and pour hot cream over the top. Let sit for a few minutes, then stir or whisk until well combined and completely smooth. Chill the ganache to a thick spreading consistency. Best to leave in the fridge over night, but if your inpatient like me placing in the freezer for a bit works awesome too ;) Using a knife, in the center of the cupcake cut out a cone, slice off the "pointy" end of the cone, leaving just the circular base. Fill cake with the ganache and place the circular piece onto as a plug to seal the filling in.

Frosting-Combine the graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar in a small bowl and pour in the melted butter. Stir until combined and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. Reduce the speed to low, and add the confectioners' sugar until well blended. Increase the speed to high and beat about 3 minutes more, or until light and creamy. Fold in the graham cracker-brown sugar mixture. Place the icing in pastry bag fitted with a pastry tip. Pipe the icing on the cooled cupcakes. Garnish the cupcakes with graham cracker crumbs, a piece of cinnamon sugar graham cracker, and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Recipe of the Week: Chocolate + Peanut Butter= Best Combo Ever!

Don't even try to argue with me, chocolate and peanut butter married together is pure bliss! This recipe came about because #1 currently can't leave the house due to recovery from a recent surgery, which meant no going to the grocery store, had to use what I had. And #2 brownies sounded like fun, but I'm completely and utterly addicted to making cupcakes...so what was left to do?...combine the 2!! Brownie mix + extra chocolate + peanut butter frosting, really does it get any better then this?! These rich cupcakes are so delicious and make the house smell INCREDIBLE. Just try not to give yourself a tummy ache with all the bowl licking you'll be doing while making the scrumptious frosting.

Double Chocolate Brownie-Cupcakes w. Peanut Butter Frosting
Chocolate fudge brownie mix
3 eggs
2 oz good quality dark chocolate
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
3 tbsp milk

Peanut butter frosting
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 12 cup muffin pan (or line with cupcake liners if preferred). Set a small heatproof bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until chocolate is melted. (Alternately, you can microwave the mixture at 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted.) Set aside to cool until just warm. Whisk eggs in a medium-large bowl to combine; add milk, water and vegetable oil until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Gradually add in brownie mix. Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 28-35 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and cool to room temperature before icing.

PB Frosting: 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 go. Add the heavy cream,beat on high until light & smooth.

Recipe of the Week: Jelly Doughnut Cupcakes

Is your mouth watering yet? Now I personally am not a fan of jelly doughnuts (I'm more of a glazed girl myself) BUT these cupcakes might have me changing my mind! The perfect combination of moist cake with a kick of sweet jam in the center and of course a jelly doughnut is not complete without the powder sugar on top! Your eyes do not deceive you, this is indeed another cake mix recipe-the simplicity and ease of developing new textures and flavor combination's is too wonderful for me to resist lately! Hope you all enjoy this fun, scrumptious cupcake. Next weeks recipe will be 100% homemade goodness with a chocolate theme, be on the look out!

Jelly Doughnut Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounces) yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounces) cheesecake (or vanilla) instant pudding mix
1 cup milk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 jar (12 ounces) strawberry preserves
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, pudding mix, oil, milk in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer. Add eggs one at a time making sure to incorporate fully. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling them two thirds of the way full.

Bake the cupcakes until they are golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 1 12-15 minutes. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before filling.

Fit a pastry bag with a metal tip that has a large round hole and spoon preserves into the bag. Insert the whole tip into the top center of the cupcake. Generously squirt 1 to 2 Tablespoons preserves into each cupcake (you may need to wipe the tip clean as you go). Continue filling the cupcakes, refilling the pastry bag as needed. When done, sift the cupcake tops with confectioners' sugar.

Recipe of the Week: Lemon-licious!

OH MY GOODNESS all you lemon lovers out there are in for a treat with these little pieces of heaven!! My mom and grandma are both huge lemon fans, and went nuts for these! A wonderful combination of both sweet and tart; a refreshing flavor perfect for those blistering hot summer days. Normally if I'm going to bake I want it to be 100% homemade and I honestly get joy out of measuring every small detail that goes into my goodies. BUT sometimes you just want fun and simple! When I came upon this fast and equally scrumptious recipe by Paula Deen (whom I adore) I just had to try it. I did adjust the originial glaze recipe to give it a bit more of a kick. Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to check back next week for the latest update!

Lemon-licious Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cake-
1 package yellow cake mix

1 3.5oz package instant lemon pudding mix

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

Glaze-

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

grated zest of 1/2-1 lemon

1 tbsp butter (vegetable oil can be substituted)

2-3 tbsp milk

Directions:

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, and oil in an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, making sure to incoperate completely each time. Pour batter into lined muffin tin, half way up each cup. Bake for 12-15 minutes until bouncy to the touch. Let them cool for a minute or 2, and while they are still hot turn onto a tea towel.

To make the glaze, in a medium bowl add sugar, lemon juice, zest and oil, combine well. Add milk 1 tbsp at a time until reaching the desired consistency for dipping.

With your fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they are still warm, covering the entire top of cupcake. Place on wire racks with wax paper underneath to catch any glaze that may drip. Let the glaze set (for about an hour) before storing in air-tight containers.

February 2010

Valentine Cupcakes: Chocolate cupcakes with pink fluffy buttercream frosting and chocolate heart toppers.

















Margarita 21st Birthday Cake: 10" round with 2 HUGE layers of double chocolate cake, raspberry filling and buttercream frosting. fondant details in neon pink,orange and yellow

















Purple & Gold Wedding Cake: Each layer is covered in white fondant, fondant flowers w. candy centers and ribbon around the base of each cake.

1st tier=vanilla cake with cream cheese icing.
2nd tier is marble cake with a chocolate ganache center and buttercream covering.
3rd tier=double chocolate cake with a raspberry filling and buttercream covering

Add a caption

A very clean wedding cake, simple but sweet. Each layer is covered in white fondant, fondant flowers w. candy centers and ribbon around the base of each cake. 1st tier=vanilla cake with cream cheese icing. 2nd tier is marble cake with a chocolate ganache center and buttercream covering. 3rd tier=double chocolate cake with a raspberry filling and buttercream covering

Double Chocolate Cupcakes w. Cream Cheese Frosting

(original post on 5.15.08, updated 7.26.09)

Sorry guys I had to take this recipe down, since it is my orginial recipe. I am in the process of building my small baking business, I will have many more updates concerning this in the near future so keep checking back!! So far I have developed the name, designed my business cards and had them printed. I am now working on building my website and getting my name out there.

The Cupcake Life

Cupcakes have become my favorite thing to bake, they are pretty quick to whip up and are fun to decorate for special occasions. The above chocolate cupcakes are frosted with my homemade cream cheese frosting (recipe can be found here) and valentine heart sprinkles.

I think the smallest touches can make this biggest difference. For example, I found these football key chains at a party store, took off the key rings (of course properly cleaned the footballs) and used them as toppers for a super bowel party. Making boring cupcakes into party cupcakes. ;)

Sorry for the lack of recipes lately, I am in the midst of putting together a handful of recipes for a few baking contests coming up.

Chocolate PB Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food cake mix

1 cup cold milk

1 pkg. (4-serving size) vanilla Instant Pudding

1/2 cup peanut butter

1-1/2 cups thawed Whipped Topping

4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate

1/4 cup peanuts

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
2. Prepare cake mix and bake in 24 paper-lined muffin cups, as directed on package. Cool only 30 min. (Cupcakes need to still be warm to fill.)
3. Pour milk into medium bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Add peanut butter; beat well. Spoon into small freezer-weight resealable plastic bag or pastry bag; seal bag. (If using plastic bag, snip off one of the corners from bottom of bag.) Insert tip of bag into center of each cupcake; pipe in about 1 Tbsp. of the filling.
4. Microwave whipped topping and chocolate in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 1 min.
5. Dip the top of each cupcake into glaze. Sprinkle evenly with peanuts. Store cupcakes in refrigerator.

Review:
very yummy, if you like the peanut butter chocolate combo then you will LOVE these. A big hit with the chocolate lovers of my family.

Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

recipe from Magnolia's Bakery

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
5 to 8 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.line two muffin tins with cupcake papers
3. in a small bowl cobine the flours and set aside
4.In a large bowl, on medium speed, cream the butter until smooth. add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addtion, beat unitl the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
5.Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing. Ice cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream icing.

icing directions:
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Rating:if you follow the directions exactly the cake will come out light, buttery and very yummy. The icing for me is a little on the sugary side...but most people like it that way but you can always reduce the amount of sugar you add. I used a small amount of red food coloring to make my icing a light pastel pink and used easter M&M's for the center.

Pumpkin Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:
3 1/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking sod
3 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1 c. oil
4 eggs
2/3 c. water
2 c. pumpkin

Icing:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1.Prepare muffin tins with muffin cups
2.Stir in all dry ingredients first then add wet ingredients
3.Fill muffin tins three-quarters full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4.Prepare icing in a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. I toped each cupcake with a pumpkin shaped candy corn.

Rating:made the house smell so yummy! A great treat for fall or even a Halloween party. (9/10)