Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I'm not normally a chocolate cake gal, but the idea of peanut butter frosting was too enticing to pass up. This peanut butter frosting recipe is light, fluffy, rich, and just all-around delicious. It's definitely going into my 'favorites' list. I was really pleased that it was so light and fluffy while still holding its shape enough to pipe on the cupcakes. Yum!


"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake
From Hershey's

• 1 cups sugar
• 1/2 + 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.

3. Bake 20 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (Do not overbake!). Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans and place on wire rack. Cool completely.



Peanut Butter Frosting
From Barefoot Contessa

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

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 work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Cupcake Mania (XP)

My Kitchen Aid was working overtime this last weekend!!! Saturday was they day I was planning to make a bunch of cupcakes for a church bake sale tomorrow (and a little for me, of course!). I knew I had nothing planned, so I could dedicate most of the day to the baking. Typical me, I couldn't decide what kind to make, so I made 3 kinds of cupcakes: Magnolia's Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream, Strawberry-Balsamic with Cream Cheese Frosting and Boston Cream Pie from "Cupcakes!" a cupcake cookbook by Elinor Klivans and France Ruffenach.

Here are all my recipes spread out so I could try to work on them all at the same time.

I started all my prep work by making the vanilla custard for the Boston Cream Pie and the strawberry balsamic syrup.

Strawberry-Balsamic Syrup cooking on the stove:

The first batch of cupcakes were supposed to be the Boston Cream Pie ones. This was a recipe I got from "Cupcakes!", a cupcake cookbook I received from a friend for my birthday. It was the first time I made these cupcakes. They are filled with vanilla custard and topped with a chocolate glaze and sounded incredibly delicious.

Well, when they were cooled enough, I picked one up and looked at it. The thing didn't rise! It was a little 1" solid lump of cooked cupcake. There was no air, no fluffiness. Nothing. Erm... Not good. My poor little lumps are still sitting on the counter. I have no idea what to do with them or if I should just throw them. I still don't know what happened to them; I followed the directions to a 't', or so I thought...

I had the filling made already, so I decided to go ahead and make a full batch of the Magnolia's vanilla (which makes 24, I was going to half the recipe) and turn half of them into the Boston Cream Pie cupcakes. Not a problem.

Here is the end result. My cupcakes turned out quite well. I love the flavor of them. And I think they're cute. I have about 30 of them for the bake sale tomorrow and I'm keeping about 9 of them for me and my family.

Strawberry-Balsamic Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes filled with Vanilla Custard and Chocolate Glaze

All lined up and ready for the bake sale. Cupcakes anyone?

Valentine's Day Goodies

Valentine's Day. That fun day to bake some sweet treats for the ones you love. And if you're like me, you always want to try something new. As a completely last-minute idea - I had no intentions of baking this year, I decided to scour the web for something to make. I found a few recipes from Bakerella for Oreo truffle kisses and red velvet cake balls. I combined the ideas into red velvet cake kisses which was perfect since I just happened to have a box of red velvet cake mix on hand. So, I decided to go for it.

As a disclaimer to all you food snobs out there (hehe!), yes, I used a box mix! Oh the horror! I actually usually turn my nose up at boxs, however, I found this in the "New Orleans" section of Cost Plus. The brand is Mam Papaul from the south. Since red velvet is a traditional southern cake, I figured I'd give it a go. Plus, I've heard horror stories of people trying to make their own red velvet cake and the taste came out awful because of how much red die is required. But feel free to make a homemade batch on your own if you want to try these.



I wasn't sure if any of these ideas were actually going to work, so I decided to make half a batch of cupcakes and the other half half red velvet cake ball kisses in dark Ghirardelli chocolate. So, half the batter went into cupcake pans/papers and half into cake pans.




To make the kisses, after the cakes came out and cooled, I took the blocks of cake and crumbled them in a big bowl. I used a pastry cutter and it worked perfectly. Once the cake was nothing but crumbs, I added a big glob of cream cheese frosting (also from the red velvet box mix, but I doctored it with a little extra cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla to get it the right texture and flavor).

With the pastry cutter, I blended the frosting with the cake crumbs until goopy and workable. With my fingers, I formed little kiss shaped cake balls (about 2 inches tall) and placed them in the freezer to prep for the chocolate. Once they were cool and firm, I melted dark chocolate in a double boiler with just a touch of canola oil to keep it smooth. I then poured the chocolate over each kiss, let the access drip off before setting it on waxed paper to set.


After the chocolate was completely set, I wrapped each in a square of foil (about 6" squares) with strips of paper printed off from my computer. They were adorable and tasted amazing! I gave them to a bunch of my friends, and of course, my husband. Everyone raved. The kisses were better than the cupcakes (though the cupcakes were cute). I sort of wished I had made the whole batch into kisses. They were a lot more work though so it probably would have taken me a couple more hours.





The kisses were moist, flavorful, and the touch of dark chocolate worked to keep the moisture in as well as add a level of decadence to the kiss. There's only one left. I hope I can get to it before my husband does! ;)

Raspberry Creme Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Coconut Ganache Frosting

A long name for a little cake, but that little cake has a ton of flavor!

My friend's birthday was a couple of days ago, so I decided to make her a batch of cupcakes to celebrate. It was a last-minute decision and my creation was from whatever I had in the house.

Magnolia Vanilla Cupcake: (I cut all this in half)

• 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, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, 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 three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until 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.

Filling: (all of these are approximations)

• 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 3-4 Tbsp Seedless Raspberry jam
• 2-3 tsp. Grenadine (optional)

1. Whip cream until soft peaks form.
2. Add jam and grenadine.
3. Continue to whip until stiff peaks form.
4. Use a pastry decorator bag and tip to fill the cupcakes. (My preferred method, but it takes more time is to cut a cone shape out of the top of the cupcake, cut the tip of the cone off, fill and cover with the cupcake top. It gives you more filling that way, but takes more time which I didn't have with this batch.)
   

Frosting: (again, approximations since I didn't measure)

• .5 cup Bittersweet chocolate chips, melted
• 2 Tbsp. Creme of Coconut (optional)
• 1/4 tea. Coconut Extract (optional)
• .25 cup Powdered Sugar (or more)
• 2-3 Tbsp. Whipping Cream (or more)

1. Start blending chocolate chips with coconut.
   
2. Add sugar and cream until consistency is soft and fluffy. Add more sugar or more cream depending on consistency.