Category: Cakes + Cupcakes

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

double chocolate cupcakesHave you ever ordered an ultra-chocolatey dessert and regretted it after a few bites, completely overwhelmed by chocolateness? I certainly have. Most restaurants have some manner of “death by chocolate” dessert on their menus, usually involving layers of chocolate cake, mousse, cheesecake, ganache, and so on, and they’re all too overpoweringly chocolatey for me.

One of my lovely coworkers asked if I could bake for her son’s 13th birthday this weekend, and the guest of honor requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. While there are many cupcake and frosting recipes to choose from, I decided to go with a light and dark combination to prevent chocolate overload. The cupcakes themselves are my dark chocolate recipe, while the frosting is chocolate buttercream, light and fluffy and a great complement for a darker cake. Happy Birthday, Theo!

Ingredients

Preparation

Bake cupcakes in full-size cupcake pans; the recipe will yield 24 regular-sized cupcakes and 12 miniature cupcakes, or about 30 regular-sized cupcakes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of frosting onto cupcakes. Frost with a small offset spatula. If storing in the refrigerator, bring cupcakes to room temperature before serving; these do not need to be refrigerated, but I’m chilling mine because it’s quite humid in Pittsburgh tonight.

 

 

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

cinnamon roll cupcakesI love cinnamon! It is my favorite spice, as I believe I’ve mentioned before. It has a calming effect on me like lavender does, especially when paired with vanilla. And while I didn’t have time this weekend to make cinnamon rolls–in fact, I have never made cinnamon rolls from scratch–I did have time to whip up a batch of cinnamon roll cupcakes.

The recipes below are hybrids of several that I found online, including a delicious cinnamon cream cheese frosting that would pair well with pumpkin, apple, or ginger cupcakes. They’re sweet, but not too sweet, and almost muffin-like; I could certainly eat one for breakfast. What’s great is that you don’t actually need the frosting if you’re short on time, or just not into frosting; you could leave the cupcakes plain, or dust them with powdered sugar.

Note: the original recipe that I found claimed to yield 26 cupcakes, but the recipe below that I used yielded 33 cupcakes.

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
  • 2/3 cup butter, at room temperature
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In another medium bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans; mix well and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter for about 30 seconds; add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating well until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat to combine.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour and beating until just combined after each addition. Scrape sides of the bowl often.

Use a 1-inch cookie scoop and drop one level scoop of dough into each cup; top with 1 teaspoon of the brown sugar mixture, then add another scoop of dough, followed by 1/2 teaspoon of the brown sugar mixture.

Bake for at least 20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2  teaspoons cinnamon

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla and cinnamon and beat well, scraping the sides of the bowl often.

Use a 1-inch cookie scoop and drop scoops of frosting onto each cupcake. Frost with a small offset spatula. Store in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

chocolate pb cupcakesIn the history of the world, has there ever been a more amazing culinary combination than chocolate and peanut butter? Absolutely not.

Granted, these foods are pretty nifty on their own, but putting them together was perhaps one of the best decisions ever made in the kitchen (or in general, for that matter). I think the chocolate-peanut butter combination is such a hit because it has great balance; it’s not too sweet or salty, so you get a bit of both kinds of flavors in one bite.

A few months back, several of the gals in my office and I were discussing the merits of the chocolate covered peanut, and the idea for these cupcakes was born. The recipes below are a combination of a chocolate peanut butter cupcake from Woman’s Day and a few other recipes I found online, but I have to admit that my first attempt at icing, using a different recipe, went totally awry. Though it tasted delicious, the consistency was all wrong, so I quickly substituted the chocolate drizzle icing that appears below for the last dozen cupcake that will go with me to the office tomorrow.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 12 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3 eggs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together until well-blended; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk milk and sour cream together until well-blended; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and beat until well-combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add flour mixture and milk mixture alternatively, starting and ending with the flour mixture and beating until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl often.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into prepared cupcake pans. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely before filling and icing.

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup plus about 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 4 to 5 tablespoons milk

Note: I added more peanut butter to suit my preference, hence the “about 3 tablespoons” above. You can certainly just stick with the 1/2 cup if you like, but I found that additional peanut butter enhanced the filling flavor.

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat peanut butter and butter together until smooth.

Add powdered sugar slowly, beating well after each addition.

Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until well-combined.

Fit a piping bag with a 1/4 inch plain tip; insert tip into the top of each cupcake and inject the filling. Stop when the top of the cupcake begins to bulge, as you don’t want it to explode!

Chocolate Drizzle Icing

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • chocolate covered peanuts, for garnish

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in cocoa powder, then remove from heat.

Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk and stir well until you reach a very smooth, drizzle consistency.

Using the teaspoon from your measuring spoons, scoop out 1 teaspoon of drizzle icing and spoon over each cupcake, spreading slightly to coat the entire top.

Gently press one chocolate covered peanut into the center of each cupcake; allow icing to harden before serving.

Lemon Raspberry Roulade

lemon raspberry rouladeLemon and raspberry are two of my favorite flavors, even more so when they’re combined in the same treat. For Easter, I decided that I wanted a lemon-based dessert; I found a few recipes for lemon roulade, but most of them involved a cream cheese or marascapone filling. I wanted something a bit lighter, so I chose a scratch-made raspberry filling and I must say, the end result is delicious.

Rolling a cake can be intimidating, but remember, on this blog, we have no fear. The original recipe for the cake portion of this roulade involved allowing the cake to cool completely before filling and rolling it, but I chose to let it cool for just a few minutes before I rolled it in a heavily-powdered-sugared tea towel. I’d recommend rolling it immediately after removing it from the pan just to be on the safe side rather than waiting any time at all. Also, keep a very close eye on your filling; it goes from liquid to thickened in a matter of seconds!

If you’d rather forgo the tangy lemon icing, you could easily dust the roulade with powdered sugar or serve it with fresh whipped cream. But since you’re working with lemons and will likely have a few tablespoons of lemon juice left over, the icing is a nice way to make the most of it.

Part I: Lemon Cake

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • zest of 3 small to medium-sized lemons
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 15 x 10 x 1 jelly roll pan with parchment; spray with baking spray and dust with flour. I used a sieve and dusted the flour directly onto the parchment. Lay a thin tea towel on a counter top and dust heavily with powdered sugar.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs on medium-high speed for 3 minutes until thickened and light in color.

Add lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat until combined.

With the mixer running on low, add flour and beat until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and gently spread with an offset spatula to distribute the batter in one even layer.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are just golden and cake springs back when touched.

Remove from oven and immediately flip onto a cooling rack; remove parchment paper and quickly flip cake onto the prepared tea towel. Roll up quickly from the short end, placing on a cooling rack to cool completely before filling.

Part II: Raspberry Filling

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries, pulsed in a food processor to crumb-like texture
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons water

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, combine raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Heat until raspberries begin to liquefy; quickly place in the bowl of a food processor and puree. Return to heat; cook until mixture reaches a low boil.

In a small glass measuring cup, place cornstarch and add 1 tablespoon water; mixture will thicken and almost harden immediately, so add another 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of water to achieve a pourable consistency. Whisk into raspberry mixture and cook at a low boil for 1-2 minutes; mixture will thicken very quickly and become glossy.

Remove from heat and place in a small bowl to cool completely before using. Note: this filling will not be seedless unless you pass the puree through a sieve before returning to the stove and adding the cornstarch and water.

Once both the cake and filling are completely cool, carefully un-roll cake and spread with filling. Re-roll and wrap tightly in plastic wrap; store in the refrigerator overnight to set.

Part III: Tangy Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Preparation

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup powdered sugar about 2 tablespoons lemon juice; mix well to completely combine. Add another 1/2 cup powdered sugar and up to 1 more tablespoon lemon juice to achieve a thick drizzling consistency; stir in lemon zest until well-combined.

Unwrap cake and place on a platter or cake plate. Pour glaze down the center of the cake, allowing to drip over the sides, spreading as necessary to cover the entire top of the cake. Allow glaze to harden, then return cake to the refrigerator for storage.

 

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake (for Passover)

passover cheesecakeI may have gone slightly overboard with the Passover desserts this year. There just seemed like so many interesting options, and I had to try them all. In addition to our toffee chocolate matzoh and truffles on tomorrow night’s seder table, there will be this cheesecake, a leaven-free treat of vanilla bean and almond goodness.

The crust for this lovely dessert is a concoction of almonds, matzoh cake meal, sugar, and melted butter, and the filling is a standard cream cheese and sugar mixture that includes the seeds of two vanilla beans, as well as a dash of almond extract. Garnish-wise, you could pair many foods with this cheesecake; strawberries and raspberries come to mind, as does good old-fashioned whipped cream, or perhaps chocolate curls.

I’m so excited about this cheesecake, I may have to break my sugar fast tomorrow night. Passover is about freedom, after all.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup chopped blanched almonds, toasted and cooled
  • 2/3 cup matzoh cake meal
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 3 8-ounce packages cream cheese
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • seeds scraped from 2 vanilla beans
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine almonds, matzoh cake meal, sugar, and salt. Pulse until finely ground, then transfer to a medium bowl and drizzle in butter, mixing with a spoon to incorporate evenly. Mix with your hands to combine; you want a sandy texture.

Press the crust mixture into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan and bake for 12-15 minutes, until one shade darker in color. Cool completely on a wire rack.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed to combine, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add vanilla seeds and almond extract and beat until well combined, about 1-2 minutes more.

Place springform pan in a shallow baking dish and pour filling into crust. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until filling is set 1 1/2 inches from the edge but still wobbly in the middle.

Remove from oven and baking dish; set springform pan on a cooling rack and immediately run a knife around the edge of the crust, then remove the side of the pan and allow cheesecake to cool completely. Store in the refrigerator.

 

Bird’s Nest Cupcakes

birds nest closeupSpring is here! It’s 70-something in Pittsburgh today and appears for the moment that the long, hard, polar vortex extravaganza of winter is over. Having grown up in the fickle weather patterns of Western PA, I realize that tomorrow could be 40, and that snow is a possibility through early May. For now though, I’ll take a beautiful day whenever I can get one.

These bird’s nest cupcakes would be great for any spring-related event; an Easter dinner, Mother’s Day brunch, or in this case, a bird-themed baby shower. One of my colleagues hosted just such an event today and I was happy to provide these, which may look complicated but are actually very easy to prepare especially given the abundance of egg-shaped candies right now. If you can’t find egg-shaped candies for the nests, I suspect that peanut M&Ms would work well too.

Ingredients

Preparation

Bake cupcakes and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Prepare vanilla almond buttercream. Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop frosting onto each cupcake and spread with an offset spatula in an even layer.

Prepare cocoa frosting. Fit a piping bag with a medium plain tip, such as Wilton #5. Pipe nests, creating the outer edges first and filling in with a few squiggles of frosting for the nest bottoms.

Place mini egg candies in each nest; most will fit three eggs, but a few of mine fit four. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days.

Note: one of the cupcakes in this batch featured a hatched baby bird, similar to a cupcake I’d seen in the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, as the cupcake for the mom-to-be. To create this, I used one blue Hershey’s candy-coated egg, melted a few chocolate chips, and dabbed the chocolate on for eyes, then made a batch of Zella’s icing, tinted it orange, and piped on a small beak using the smallest plain tip I have. You can see the hatched bird in the photo below, and you can reserve the batch of icing from the beak for another time; it refrigerates very well.

birds nest all

Caramel Cupcakes with Vanilla Almond Buttercream

caramel cupcakesIn this age of fancy-looking cupcakes, when many a blogger can present the kind of artistic creations that were once reserved for food magazines, I find myself incapable of successfully piping buttercream icing onto regular-sized cupcakes.

While cream cheese frosting flows freely from my piping bag in elegant swirls, buttercream reduces me to the amateur of amateurs. Miniature cupcakes are easier; with such little surface area, you really just need a blob to cover them. But regular-sized cupcakes are another matter entirely, and I simply can’t manage to produce the kind of effect I’d like. We all have our shortcomings, I suppose.

After attempting to pipe this frosting and discovering that my skills were once again lacking, I took hold of my trusty offset spatula. One advantage to frosting cupcakes by hand is that they take on a lovely old-fashioned look, befitting a classic flavor like the caramel of these cupcakes. This recipe was adapted from a few others I’ve seen online to incorporate much more vanilla, and I chose to frost them with a vanilla almond buttercream, rather than a salted caramel or other trendy flavor, to create a more classic treat. Caramel and vanilla are good flavor friends, and according to Mike the almond adds another dimension, which is exactly what I’d hoped to create. If only I weren’t fasting from sugar right now, I’d probably have already eaten a few myself!

Caramel Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe yields about 18 cupcakes.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until very light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat on medium speed until combined.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk in alternate batches, starting and ending with the flour and scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Batter will be fluffy.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into prepared pans, filling about half-full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Mine baked for 21 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool in pans for just a minute, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Almond Buttercream

Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 to 3/4 tablespoon almond extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter for about 1 minute, then add salt and beat another minute.

Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until all of the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter; this will take a few minutes.

Add vanilla extract and almond extract, beating well to combine. Taste; add more extract if desired.

Frost cupcakes using an offset spatula.

 

Orange Cream Mini Cupcakes

orange cream cupcakeI’ve just completed a mammoth baking endeavor: 23 dozen miniature cupcakes, of varying flavors. This is the largest single-client baking project I’ve ever completed, and it went very well (as far as I know; the aforementioned cupcakes are likely being consumed right now at a fundraising event). It also left me with two dozen miniature vanilla cupcakes that needed frosting, so I asked Mike to choose a frosting flavor to complement them. He chose orange, for an orange cream-like result.

Rising to the challenge, I did a quick online search for orange frosting. There are many to choose from, ranging from orange cream cheese to orange buttercream to orange drizzle. Because drizzle would have been too glaze-like and cream cheese would have added a tang I didn’t quite want, I chose an orange buttercream and adapted it to my liking, using orange extract, vanilla extract, and orange juice to achieve a delicate orange-vanilla balance. If you don’t have orange extract handy, you can substitute with more orange juice. Mike was very pleased with the outcome, proclaiming the end result “very orange-creamy.”

The recipes below yield 24 miniature cupcakes and 1 cup of frosting, which covered my cupcakes perfectly.

Very Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cake flour
  • 1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk

Note: to double this recipe for 4 dozen miniature or 2 dozen regular-sized cupcakes, use the quantities in St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one 24-cup mini cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a small bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Place egg in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue beating for another 30 seconds.

Add vanilla and canola oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Batter will be very thin.

Using a teaspoon measuring spoon, scoop batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.

Orange Cream Frosting

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon orange extract*
  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • About 3 tablespoons orange juice
  • Yellow liquid food coloring
  • Red liquid food coloring

*Substitute orange juice if you don’t have orange extract. And, this recipe would be very easily doubled if you wanted to make enough to cover 4 dozen miniature or 2 dozen regular-sized cupcakes.

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on low speed for about 1 minute. Add 1 cup powdered sugar, orange extract, and vanilla; beat on low speed until well-combined. Add second cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon orange juice and beat until well-combined. Add additional orange juice, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, to reach a smooth (but not runny) consistency.

With your mixer running on low, add about 3-4 drops of yellow liquid food coloring, followed by 1 drop of red. Beat on medium speed until color is well-distributed, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, to achieve a pale orange color.

Fit a piping bag with a large plain tip and pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

st. pattys cupcakesHappy (actual) St. Patrick’s Day! Yes, the baking extravaganza continued throughout this past weekend in my kitchen, and these were my final project. I like to think that St. Patrick would be proud of them…if he liked cupcakes, that is. 

The two things I love most about baking are that it is both creative and apt to make someone really, really happy. These cupcakes enabled me to be both creative, and the bringer of sugar joy to the family of one of my lovely colleagues from work, whose kids love this holiday.

Apparently, the cupcakes went over big…as you can see in the “aftermath” photo below. And yes, that is my laptop in this photo…a blogger needs her resources close by, after all! 

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 recipe vanilla buttercream
  • green liquid food coloring
  • leaf green and kelly green gel paste food coloring
  • green sparkling sugar, if desired

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one regular-sized cupcake pan and one miniature cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Place eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat for another 30 seconds.

Add vanilla and canola oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Batter will be very thin.

Using a quarter-cup measuring cup, scoop batter into prepared regular-sized cupcake liners, filling half full. Use a teaspoon measuring spoon to fill miniature cupcake liners.

Bake regular-sized cupcakes for 12-13 minutes and miniature cupcakes for 7-9 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

To frost:

Prepare vanilla buttercream. Add a few drops of green liquid food coloring to the frosting with your mixer running on low to medium speed to achieve a light green color.

Remove about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the frosting and tint darker green; I used a combination of leaf green and kelly green to create my shamrock color. Fit a piping bag with a small to medium-sized plain tip (I used a Wilton #5 tip) and place dark green frosting inside; set aside.

Frost regular-sized cupcakes first; using a 1-inch cookie scoop, scoop light green frosting onto each cupcake and frost in a smooth layer. Pipe shamrock shapes onto each cupcake; make three heart-like shapes then add the stem.

Frost miniature cupcakes next; replace your dark green piping bag with a large plain tip (I used Wilton 12) and pipe in swirls.

Fit another piping bag with a large star tip (I used Wilton 21) and fill with light green frosting. Pipe in swirls.

Dip half of each shade of the miniature cupcakes into the green sparkling sugar. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for 2-3 days (or store in the fridge to extend the life of your buttercream).

The aftermath at the Houser family St. Patrick’s Day celebration is as follows:

IMG_2262

 

Stout Cupcakes

stout cupcakesHappy (almost) St. Patrick’s Day! Most Americans probably celebrate this holiday with no sense of who he was. If you’re curious, check out the History Channel for some interesting information about St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. My Irish-American Catholic mother, Genny O’Donnell Kozusko, would like to remind you that St. Patrick’s Day is a Catholic feast day, so instead of drinking green beer you should really just go to mass. And say a few rosaries while you’re at it. Anyway…

I’m not sure how priests would feel about the aroma of Guinness, melted butter, and chocolate, but it smelled pretty heavenly to me. This is the first time I’ve ever baked with alcohol, and the process was not nearly as intimidating as I’d thought. The batter for these cupcakes is very thin at first, almost the consistency of honey; after it begins to cool a bit it’s a bit more viscous.

Note: this is a big recipe! The original recipe, which is from the Authentic Suburban Gourmet, was written as yielding 24 regular-sized cupcakes. My batch yielded nearly twice that, resulting in 24 regular-sized cupcakes and 24 miniature cupcakes.

Stout Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Guinness
  • 1 cup salted butter, cut into chunks
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2/3 cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium saucepan, combine Guinness and butter and bring to a simmer until butter is completely melted. Add cocoa powder and whisk until blended; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, sour cream, and eggs and beat on medium speed until combined. With the mixer running on low, slowly pour the Guinness mixture into the sugar mixture and beat until smooth. Add baking soda and salt, beating until combined. Add flour, one cup at a time, beating mixture for about 1 minute. Batter will be warm and very thin; it will thicken slightly as it cools.

Using a quarter-cup measuring cup, scoop batter into regular-sized cupcake pans, filling about three-quarters full; for the miniature cupcakes, I used a tablespoon measuring spoon and also filled the liners about three-quarters full. Regular-sized cupcakes bake for 17-20 minutes and miniatures bake for 8-10, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 1 minute, then remove to wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

Devil’s Cut Frosting

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 6 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Devil’s Cut whiskey

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter until very well-combined.

Add powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating until well-combined, then add cocoa powder and beat until smooth. Add whiskey and continue to beat for 3-4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently, until frosting is very smooth and ingredients are completely incorporated.

Fit a piping bag with a large plain tip and pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Store in the refrigerator.