Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting OR Vanilla Frosting, with candy garnishes, 11/24


With Thanksgiving looming on the horizon (and a FIVE DAY WEEKEND), Cupcake Wednesday was 1) on Tuesday, and 2) dedicated to an "early" Thanksgiving. I owe credit to my nana, who alerted me to a fun episode of Paula Deen where she made some fun looking cupcakes that looked like peas and carrots, a turkey/chicken leg, and mashed potatoes. I'll be honest, the verbal description left me a little confused. How do Starburst candies make a cupcake look like mashed potatoes? Well, I caught a re-run and was HOOKED. I HAD to try making these adorable cupcakes, the brainchild of the authors of "Hello Cupcake." So, the base cupcake is spice, one batch from each of my two cupcake cookbooks (the early favorite is from "Crazy About Cupcakes"). The peas and carrots frosting is cream cheese frosting, and the rest are frosted with store-bought vanilla frosting (which normally I would oppose but the amount of frosting used to create the turkey leg is a semi-ginormous). The "peas" are M&Ms, the "carrots" are cut-up Starburst, the "butter" is the yellow Starburst, the coating for the turkey leg is cornflakes, and the "bone" is white melting chocolate in the shape of a leg bone. The "gravy" is leftover caramel frosting from the week before (how fortuitous!). They were super fun to make and received rave reviews (for both the decorations and the actual cupcake). I was so excited to share these because they are just so fun to look at, and now I think I need to add to my cookbook collection "Hello Cupcake."

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Applesauce Cupcakes with Caramel "Frosting", 11/18


This cupcake smells like fall. Let me clarify myself--there are several "fall" type spices that make up the applesauce cupcake, including nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. And as I mixed the ingredients, it was a happy accident that really did put me in the mood for the holidays (how many more days until we get a 5-day weekend?). The applesauce cupcakes were from the 125 Best Cupcake Recipes cookbook, and the great thing about it was that I had ALL the ingredients already. It is a very simple, but tasty cupcake to make, and fine to eat without frosting. However, I might be ostracized from my lunch group if I brought a cupcake without frosting. Therefore I topped it off with caramel frosting from the same cookbook, but let me clarify about this "frosting"--it was caramel sauce. Problem? No. Solution? Dipping the cupcakes, top side down, into the frosting (like I have seen Paula Deen and Ina Garten do with chocolate ganache on the Food Network)and then twirling my wrist a little to keep the frosting on the cupcake and not on my counter. And I did kind of like how it melted down the edges a bit. The cupcake was fluffy and spicy and the caramel--because of the limited amount that could be put on (lets just say I could not glob a bunch of THIS frosting on top of the cupcake)--was just sweet enough without being overpowering. And as Courtney suggested, it would make an EXCELLENT bundt cake with the sauce drizzled over the top. What do I say about that? New ideas = new desserts!!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, 11/12


Cupcake Wednesday was postponed to Cupcake Thursday thanks to Veterans Day (and believe me, no one is complaining). My choice this week was a repeat flavor but from a new recipe--instead of Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cupcake recipe, I used Martha Stewart's Red Velvet Cupcake recipe (and as I compared ingredients and measurements, the differences are negligible). I did, however, want to try the Martha Stewart recipe in case I want to get her cupcake book (or at least borrow it from my aunt). Some of the reviews on Amazon.com are not very positive. My lunch group was my guinea pig group (did they care? Not. One. Bit.). Contrary to some of the reviews, the cupcakes were not too heavy, and just chocolate-y and buttermilk-y at the same time. The cream cheese frosting was, again, my own version adapted from a few different recipes, and it seems to please, so I'll keep using it until I am told to stop :). And PS--when Martha says the recipe yields 24 cupcakes, the recipe yields 24 cupcakes!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, 11/4


Before the holidays start and Cupcake Wednesdays become holiday-themed, I wanted to try a new, fun cupcake recipe. I used the Cookies and Cream recipe from the Julie Hasson book, mainly because her recipes tend to make 16-18 cupcakes (although they say 12), whereas Crazy About Cupcakes makes upwards of 24. This was a fun recipe to mix because I got to take some aggression out on the poor sandwich cookies that needed to be crushed. There were two variations--vanilla sandwich cookies and chocolate sandwich cookies--to satisfy everyone's likes and dislikes, plus the cookies were on sale :) They were a little drier than other recipes, but if you got a bite of some of the frosting from the cookies, it was a good bite! The vanilla frosting was a good compliment to both cupcake flavors, and I added a bit of the cookie to the top (after a day the cookie became a little soggy--not a problem for me because I like them that way, but just a warning). And aside from the cookie piece, they kept well until the next day, when one of the counselors (and the principal), who had been at a bullying conference, returned to have Cupcake Thursday. I would recommend these again, maybe for a birthday party, and topped with vanilla ice cream! YUM:)