Lego Cupcakes

R.'s  birthday was a few weeks ago.  Although he opted out of having a party, he did want lego cupcakes so I made him some to bring to his school.



All I did was made a batch of vanilla cupcakes and piped on frosting using the 1M tip.  That's my favorite no fail tip.

I used my lego mold I made here and used candy melts to make the lego blocks.  The mini-figure mold I bought at the lego store.

   

My best advice for getting perfect figures is to shake the mold after you pour the candy melts so that all the air bubbles are released.

After the candy melts are set, I just popped them out of the mold and placed them randomly on the cupcake.

R. said they were a hit and since the molds I used are true to scale and looked pretty convincing, some kids were hesitant to eat them.

Not to worry, once R. demonstrated they were edible, the lego candy were the first to be scarfed down.  :)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I'm a big fan of snickerdoodle cookies.  I've made them many times in the past.  You can check out the recipe here.  When I saw this snickerdoodle cupcake recipe, I was so excited, I thought I would give it a try. 

It turned out supermoist and resembled more of a muffin, making it the perfect breakfast delight.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

To finish, combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip (Wilton No. 1A), pipe frosting on each cupcake: Hold bag over cupcake with tip just above top, and squeeze to create a dome of frosting, then release pressure and pull up to form a peak. Using a small, fine sieve, dust peaks with cinnamon-sugar. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

 
Seven Minute frosting

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites, room temperature

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.

As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.

I tried the seven minute frosting and to my disappointment, it didn't remain fluffy to give it the height and puff its supposed to be.  Sometimes things just don't work out for me and this so happens to be one of those times.  It's a good thing, I don't normally eat frosting ;)  I'll be eating my snickerdoodle cupcake, bare, just the way I like most cupcakes.

Margarita Cupcakes

I don't normally drink any alcohol because I haven't yet acquired the taste.  I doubt I'll ever at this point in my life.  I, however do like fruity drinks and drinks that don't have that alcohol taste in it.  I guess you can say, I'm not my father's daughter in that regard.  My dad used to hand my dates a beer as they entered the door.  He was always grilling something and he used to say, beer with anything grilled was perfect.  That was my dad.  Back to the title of this post - Margarita Cupcakes.  I enjoy a margarita every now and then so when I found this recipe, I thought it would be perfect to share with some neighbors of mine.

I loved the cupcake.  It was moist and it had the perfect amount of acidity from the lime.  The amount of tequila was just a hint that made it really taste like a margarita.  I got kudos for the frosting above all else so that made this recipe worth it.

Margarita Cupcakes

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
zest and juice of 1½ limes
2 tablespoons tequila
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

Tequila Lime Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2¾ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons tequila
Pinch of coarse salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla extract and tequila. Mix until combined. (The mixture may start to look curdled at this point, but don’t worry, it will all come back together)

Reduce the mixer speed low. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated, using a rubber spatula to give it one last mix by hand.  Divide the batter between the muffin cups. These cupcakes do not rise very much, so fill the liners over 3/4 of the way.  Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until just slightly golden and a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached, rotating the pan at the halfway point.

Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.  Leave the cupcakes in the cupcake tin as they cool.  This will enable the cupcakes liners to stay on.  The moisture from the limes may cause the liners to pull away from the cupcakes.  Brush the tops of the cupcakes with the 1 to 2 tablespoons of tequila. Set the cupcakes aside to cool completely before frosting them.

Frosting
To make the frosting, whip the butter on medium-high speed of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low, and gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl until all is incorporated. Give it a mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add the lime juice, tequila and salt mix on medium-high speed until incorporated and fluffy. If the frosting appears a bit too soft, add some additional sugar, one spoonful at a time until desired consistency is reached. Frost cupcakes and garnish, if desired, with lime zest, an additional sprinkling of salt and a lime wedge.

I made miniature cupcakes as well.

Can't you see this at a bachelorette party?

I simply love the way they turned out.

The best part is that you can make a kid friendly version as well by just eliminating the tequila out of the cupcakes and replacing it with a tbsp of vanilla in the frosting.

Pink Lemonade Cake and Cupcakes

On the cover of Better Homes and Gardens May 2012 issue was a Pink Lemonade Cake.  The minute I saw it, I knew I wanted to make it.  I've made layers of different colors before, but never shades of pink nor have I ever had a pink lemonade cake before so I was oober excited to taste it.  It turned out beautifully!

Pink Lemonade Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter

4 eggs
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
red food coloring
1 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 tsp lemon extract

 

Allow butter and eggs to stand until room temp.  Grease 2 9x2 in. round pans.  Line bottom of pans with parchment paper.  In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl beat butter, add sugar, 1/8 tsp of food coloring, 1 egg at a time, beating well.  In another bowl, stir together milk, lemonade concentrate, and extract- it will curdle, but that's okay.

Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture beating on low.

Remove 1/2 (4 cups) of tinted batter and spread in 1 pan.  Stir in 1/4 tsp of red food coloring in remaining batter and spread in other pan.

Bake about 35 minutes until toothpick is clean when inserted.

In the meanwhile, you can start making the frosting.  Since using 6 sticks of butter was a little too rich for me, I used my almond buttercream frosting recipe instead which was still delish.  However, in hindsight, I think that making the pink lemonade buttercream would have been a better choice to really bring out the lemony flavor.

Pink Lemonade Buttercream Frosting

3 cup unsalted butter (6 sticks-at room temp)
2 -16 oz. jars of marshmallow cream
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate (thawed)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp lemon extract

In a large bowl, beat butter about 30 seconds  Add marshmallow and frozen concentrate.  Beat until smooth. Add sugar, beat until light and fluffy.

Frost cake after it has cooled and the frosting is at room temp.

To make the different layers, slice the cakes in half with a serrated knife, sawing gently back and forth. Alternate the colors.  I sugared lemon slices as decor right on top.

The cake was super moist and I thought it was so tasty.  I will definitely make it again. 

  

Along with the cake, my sister and I went ahead and made some pink lemonade cupcakes.  

I'm not very good frosting cupcakes, but I'm happy with the way it turned out this time.

Can you say yum-o?

Who's ready to make a batch?

Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream Frosting

My sister took me to a local cupcake store where I had Almond Buttercream Frosting over Vanilla cupcakes.  I don't like frosting and I normally just eat the cake, but I LOVED this frosting so much I ate it all.  I went back for more.  I decided I would try to make the almond buttercream frosting myself.  After all, how hard can it be?

The cupcakes turned out pretty good.  If I make the cake recipe again, I would definitely add probably 2 jars of Maraschino cherries instead of one to really bring out the cherry flavor.  As far as the frosting.  It was amazing.  This will be my go to recipe from now on.  I finally found the frosting to use for the key lime cupcakes I made a while back.  I am ecstatic. 

Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes found here.

• 10 oz maraschino cherries
• White cake mix
• Reserved juice from cherries
• Enough milk to make 1 cup liquid
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drain the cherries and reserve juice.  Add enough milk to the cherry juice to bring the liquid to 1 cup.  Slice the cherries in quarters.  Put the cake mix in a mixer bowl and add all the ingredients and mix until well combined.  Pour into the prepared pans.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when you test the center.

 

Almond Buttercream Frosting

• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (softened)
• 3 cups confectioner's sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp of pure almond extract.

With an electric mixer, cream butter in a large mixing bowl. Slowly beat in the sugar until smooth and creamy and sweetened to your liking (about 2 minutes). Add almond extract and stir to blend.   Frost cake when fully cooled. If you are not using the frosting immediately, store it, covered, in the refrigerator and then bring it to room temperature just prior to using.

This is SO good.The frosting is definitely finger lick'n good.

A cupcake with a wonderful cherry surprise inside.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

To celebrate, my sister made these adorable cupcakes. We whipped up a batch of cupcakes, added a little cream cheese frosting, sprinkled some toasted coconut and topped it with some whopper egg candies.

Aren't they cute?

Left over coconut became delicious macaroons.

Espresso Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream

I'm not a coffee drinker, yet I love coffee icecream and anything else that has coffee in it. I'm strange that way. I discovered these espresso cupcakes a while back and have wanted to bake them, but didn't get a chance until now. My sister came over with all the ingredients and we went baking.

Malted Espresso Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream
Source: from Brandy's Baking blog
yield: 12

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1/2 cup malted milk powder
• 1/4 cup freshly brewed coffee
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 eggs
• 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together malted milk powder, espresso powder and coffee until smooth.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Alternately whisk in flour mixture with coffee mixture, beating until smooth. Gently fold in chopped chocolate.
5. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Coffee Buttercream

• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp instant espresso powder
• 2 tsp hot coffee
• 2 tsp Kahlua

Stir together vanilla, instant espresso powder, coffee and Kahlua until smooth; set aside. In a medium bowl, beat butter, sugar and salt until well combined and smooth. Add coffee mixture and continue to beat until frosting is light and fluffy. Spread icing over cooled cupcakes.

These were absolutely scrumptious.

Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes

Hooray! Today is the last day of school for us. I needed an excuse to bake some cupcakes so what better way to kick off the summer than these ice cream sundae cupcakes. I thought I would bake some for all of the teachers on the last day of school.

I baked up some chocolate cupcakes using a box mix and placed them in these ice cream cone ceramic bowls I found at Target. They were only $1.00.

I froze a can of vanilla frosting to get it hard enough to scoop.

After about 30 minutes, I used a melon ball scooper to scoop out a generous portion of frosting.

Doesn't it look like vanilla ice cream?

Looks so yummy already.

I melted some chocolate almond bark. You can use candy melts as well, but should steer away from chocolate syrup since you want it to harden.

Pour over the frosting, add some sprinkles and a jaw breaker or gumball on top for the cherry and you have completed the sundae.

There you have it, an ice cream sundae cupcake. It really doesn't get any easier than that. For an added touch, I placed it in a treat bag and topped it off with a spoon.

I am so ready for summer, how about you?