Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes

I have pretty much just stopped baking all together this summer. It's been hot and beautiful out and I just haven't been spending time inside baking. However, the last few weeks have been slightly cloudy and the other day Charlotte and I went into a baking frenzy. We made fresh italian bread and these-
I wish I had taken pics of the bread because it was truly delicious. Anyway- I have this GIGANTIC bag of almonds in my fridge. I kinda am at a loss at what to do with this beside snack on them. So because of this I came up with the cupcake.
I took a heaping half cup of almonds (these are roasted and salted) and pounded them with a mallot. They went in a bowl with 1 1/2 sticks soft butter, 3 eggs, 1 3/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 1/2 cups AP flour, 1 cup milk and a little less then 1/2 cup of hazelnut syrup. (the kind you'd use for flavoring coffee) I beat them together and baked them at 375 for 18 minutes.
For the icing I used 1/2 stick softened butter, 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, 1 tbsp clear vanilla extract, about 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream and about 2 cups powdered sugar. I topped the icing with more crushed almonds.
They came out awesome. The little bit of saltyness in the was great and the crunch throughout the cupcake was really nice. Here is a picture of Charlotte enjoying one and another of her sharing one with our dog Toby. Or as we like to call her, the Shruffenator!

Toby almost looks mean in this but she totally isn't. IT was literally like ok toby, one bite for you, one bite for me-too cute

She got to all the icing before I could get a picture

Brownie Cupcakes!

I recently watched an episode of Paula Deen's, from Food Network. She and her guest were making something called Turtle Trifle. basically was brownie, layered with a sugary pecan mixture, whipped cream and caramel syrup. Fucking Fantastic! I absolutely have to make it one of these days. I looked the recipe up today and decided it was too much work and I didn't exactly have all the ingredients for it so I opted to make a brownie cupcake to satisfy the craving. John has a recipe for brownies that is super delicious, I had never really had homemade brownies until I tried his. They have such a different taste. In fact, at this point, with all the baking from scratch I do, nothing that comes boxed, jarred or canned already really tastes right to me anymore. I can taste the preservatives I think. So here is my homage to Paula Dean, and my sexy fiance! Brownie cupcakes with chocolate chips and toasted pecans, with a butter cream frosting. 
3 squares (ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped and toasted in a sautee pan
First, melt the chocolate and butter together, add in the sugar, salt, baking powder and flour, then the eggs. Whisk it all together till smooth then fold in the chocolate chips and chopped pecans. I baked these at 350 for 22 minutes. It made 10 cupcakes. They didn't fall either, thank God, because that was beginning to really drive me nuts!

For a kid who was so pumped to bake chocolate cupcakes today, she didn't do much to help. She basically set up shop with her blankie, pillow and duck and lay down and watched. She's still cute tho! She did make the call on what color to make the frosting. Huge surprise, she picked pink!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and Chocolate Chips

I have been SOOO off my cupcake game lately. I haven't been baking and there are two reasons for that. okay three. One, it's summer and we've had some gorgeous days and I've been outside and not near my oven. Two- I'm getting married in November (AHHH SO EXCITED) and I need to not be eating cupcakes, not to mention, my time is constrained with all the planning. And finally, three, I'm plain lazy and have not felt like baking. However, I have baked a few times and not written about it b/c I did not take pictures. I have one post to come after this one about a cake I did though. Today I baked cupcakes for Charlotte's great grandparents and there weekend guests. I thought I'd just stay simple and due chocolate and vanilla. So here goes:

1 1/2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp each of baking powder and baking soda
tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup AP flour/1 cup cake flour
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips melted
3 eggs
I beat every thing together and baked them for 15 minutes at 350. They made 2 dozen cakes. I don't know if it was the weather or what, but they fell and did not stay round. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but that happens a lot to me lately and I have to look up how to stop that. Anyway, once you cover it with icing you can't really tell.

To make the frosting, i took 2 tbsp soft butter, 3/4 cup vegetable shortening, 1 1/2 tbsp clear vanilla extract, 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup heavy cream. I frosted the cooled cupcakes and then topped them with chocolate chips. Voila- very simple, but delicious, cupcakes. MMMM

Peaches N' Cream Cupcakes

One of the first things John ever cooked for me was a peaches n cream pie. I really don't think I had ever had one before then. It's sweet and creamy with the right touch of cinnamon and fluffy whipped cream. I have such great memories related to that pie because it was when we had just started dating, it was an awesome summer. I wanted to recreate some of that into a cupcake. I think I got all of the flavor components in there. Here is what I did:

1 stick butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 egg, plus 3 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups AP flour
1 can of peach pie filling (which has nothing to do with the way john makes that pie, but its the best I could come up with.)
1/2 cup milk
I whipped the butter, sugar, salt and eggs together until it was super light and fluffy- maybe 5 minutes- then added in the flour, pie filling and milk. I made sure to let my beaters break up some the of the peach slices in the filling- then scooped the batter into paper lined tins- It made 17 cupcakes and I baked them for 20 minutes at 350. Cooled on a wire rack.


To top them, I made a cinnamon, vanilla butter cream.
1/2 stick softened butter
2/3 cup vegetable shortening
tbsp vanilla extract
tbsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 tbsp milk
I piped the whipped frosting onto the cakes and then made a small amount of crumb topping- 1/2 cups rolled oats, 3 tbsp soft butter, 4 tbsp dark brown sugar, pinch of cinnamon- I mixed the ingredients together with a fork and made 1/2 tsp sized balls of the mixture and placed it on top of the icing - then I placed a slice of peach on each one as well. I used canned, but if they are in season, fresh would be even better! 

Chocolate Pretzel Cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream

As I've mentioned before, I love the combination of sweet and salty. I recently saw a recipe for pretzel cupcakes on cupcakeproject.com and I had to try it out. I didn't use her cake recipe but I borrowed her recipe for the pretzel crust. After this I may want to give everything I bake a pretzel crust. IT'S PHENOMENAL!! To make it here is what I did:

2 cups of crushed pretzels-not pulverized tho, u want some chunks

3 heaping tablespoons of dark brown sugar

1 stick softened butter

Combine everything and line 24 cupcake lines with the mixture- then bake at 350 for 10 minutes. 

Here is where I messed up slightly, I tend to multi-task too much and I totally forgot to set the the timer for 10 minutes so they were a little over cooked but still ok, I probably only left them in 3 minutes too long.

Then onto my chocolate cake***

1 1/2 sticks softened butter

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 ounce melted unsweetened chocolate

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3 eggs

2 cups AP flour

1 1/2 cups milk

I poured the batter into the pretzel crust-lined cupcake papers- not too full, i'd say about half an ice cream scoops worth. I baked these at 350 for 18 minutes. (I had a little batter left over so when these were done I baked 3 more plain chocolate cupcakes) I let them cool and then made my chocolate butter cream**

1/2 stick softened butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, melted

2 cups powdered sugar 

2 tbsp milk

I topped each cupcake with a cute waffle pretzel so people knew what to expect.

Here is a picture so you can sort of see the crust- Like I said, I over baked the crusts so they got a little too caramelized. I'll make sure to time it better next time so you can see it better and it isn't so dark.

The pretzels stayed crunchy though and the caramelized brown sugar in it gives it a sort of toffee bite. YUM!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I love the south. John took me to Savannah, GA 3 years ago and I fell in love with it. We've been back every year since.  Red Velvet Cake is such a big deal down there, and yet, I've never really had it or made it. I didn't get what the big deal was... what?. Because it's red? I don't know! Well I figured I'd give it a shot so I looked up about 50 recipes and finally settled on one from the joyofbaking.com- It came out super moist and delicious. I'm still not really sold on fact that it's anything super special but it's definitely good. I apologize for my poor looking cream cheese frosting. It's not as stiff as I'd like (that's what she said, HA) but I didn't have any heavy cream and I used a little milk. I should have skipped adding the milk but you live, you learn.  Here is what I did to make these southern belles:


1 stick butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder (i added that bc i wanted them to rise a little)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cocoa powder 
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tbsp red food coloring
I baked at 350 for 20 minutes- batter made 16 cupcakes


For the frosting I used 3 tbsp soft butter, 1/2 cup shortening, 3/4 cup soft cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract (clear vanilla)- I also added about 1/4 cup milk- I wish I hadn't bc it thinned it too much. I piped the icing on the cooled caked and then crumbled a cupcake up and toasted the crumbs slightly and sprinkled on top! Try em out and tell me what you think... 

Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake Cupcakes

It felt like a chocolate kind of day! Here are my chocolate pound cakes made with sour cream. 

1 stick of butter, softened
1 heaping cup of sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
heaping 1/2 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 cup milk
The batter made 15 cupcakes that I baked for 30 minutes @ 325 degrees
I really think that using the cake flour lightened it up, which I liked. They came out very fluffy and not as dense as a traditional pound cake. I frosted them with my usual whipped topping only I added more sugar then usual. I wanted the icing super sweet today for some reason. 
3 tbsp softened butter
2/3 cup vegetable shortening
3 1/2 cups powders sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Charlotte couldn't wait to try one! She was running around the house yelling "Azul, Azul!" She always says her colors in Spanish. She was covered in icing when she was done and butter and shortening are a bitch to clean! Watching her enjoy it is so worth it though!