And the two shall become one...

Man, has it been a crazy few weeks since I last posted! Finishing up my semester and getting my camera fixed for picture posting are just a part of it.

Anyhow, I had to make some cupcakes for a teacher who was leaving due to family emergencies, and to send him off I had to make something different. The usual just wouldn't cut it this time. So I set off to find something comforting, delicious and maybe a bit surprising as well.

After the wildly successful coconut cupcakes, I took another browse through Julie Hasson's book, 125 Best Cupcake Recipes for something new. As I was flipping through the pages, somthing caught my eye.

It couldn't be, I thought, quickly turning back to make sure I'd not been hallucinating. But there it was, the Chocolate Brownie Cupcake. So simple, yet I hadn't though about it before, all the familiar comforts of a brownie with the lighter texture of a cupcake. How would it taste, would the cake become too dense, or would it be so airy as to deny its brownie integrity? I had to know.

Busting out the bowls, sifter, and wooden spoon, I set to work. bout 45 minutes later I pulled these pretties out of the oven.

Don't worry if they sink in the middle, just use the toothpick test to check if they're finished. They should also have a brownie-like crust over the top, it is more obvious once the cupcakes are completely cooled.

Here's another, closer look. Sorry about the lack of frosting, but the camera was still acting up and I couldn't get any pictures of these once they were frosted. They're not the prettiest cupcakes you'll ever see, but they won every taste test hands down.

I iced them with a coffee frosting (they only need a little) made the same way as described in my other post, the Tin Tin Surprise. Just halve the recipe to avoid making too much.

My worries about texture were proven insubstantial as these babies were not too cakey and not too dense, the perfect combo of cupcake and brownie, pcked full of chocolate flavor and then some chocolate chips. This one's a keeper for sure!

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes (125 Best Cupcake Recipes, by Julie Hasson)
Ingredients:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt (only if using unsalted butter)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract (I don’t use this, I just add more vanilla, but that’s optional)
3 eggs
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (about ½ of one 12 oz bag)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. In a medium sixed bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt
3. In a larger bowl, whisk together (or use a good ol’ wooden spoon) granulated and brown sugars and butter until smooth. Mix in the extracts and then beat in the eggs one at a time until combined.
4. Add flour mixture until just combine and there are no clumps, stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop batter into lined cupcake pan (I use an ice cream scoop) and bake for 28 minutes, turning pan halfway through for even cooking. When toothpick tester inserted into center cupcake comes out with a few crumbs and melted chocolate (from the chips,) cupcakes are done. The tops will not spring back when pressed. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before finish cooling on a wire rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting of choice (I use coffee) and enjoy!

Coconut Cupcakes

I am ALIIIVE!!!

Alright, my oven has been fixed. And just ion time for my housemate's birthday!

She wanted cupcakes and she told me to surprise her with anything but chocolate. All I knew was that she liked coconut, so coconut cupcakes it was! And I found an amazing recipe for these litte jems. They were moist, light and super delicious!

I also had some pictures, but the camera has been taken across the country by my mother, so I'll add them in when she returns.

EDIT: The camera has returned!

Here's the pictures from my coconut cupcakes...

And here's the recipe (from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, by Julie Hasson):

Coconut Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sweetened shredded/flaked coconut
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (only if using unsalted butter)
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 egg whites
1 cup buttermilk ( if you don't have buttermilk, use 1 cup of regular milk and mix in 2 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar, let sit for a few minutes before using)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. spread coconut evenly over a cookie sheet and toast in oven for about 5 minutes or until they are slightly brouwn, watch them carefully or they will burn! set aside to cool.
3. In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt (if needed.)
4. In a seperate, larger bowl, beat the butter until smooth, add in sugar and beat until light and smooth. Add egg whites one at a time, beating them in completely after each addition.
5. Add cooled coconut to flour mixture and pour half into the butter mixture. Mix well.
6. Pour buttermilk into the nowl and mix until completely combined.
7. Add in the rest of the flour mixture and mix until smooth.
8. Scoop into lined cupcake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes.
9. When cupcake are finished (a toothpick poked into the center of a cupcak in the middle of the pan comes out clean) remove from oven and let cool.

Frosting: If you like lots of frosting, this recipe can easily be multiplied.
Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (for buttercream, you need to use unsalted butter for the right taste)
pinch of salt (a tiny pinch, mind you)
3 cups confectioner's/powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sweetened shredded/flaked coconut

1. In a mixer, cream the butter (don't use the wisk! only the paddle attachment or a wooden spoon for those doing it by hand) until smooth and light. Add sugar and salt, beat until light and fluffy, add vanilla and beat until completely smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add 1/4 cup milk and beat until smooth.
2. In a shallow bowl or small plate, spread out the coconut.
3. Frost your cupcakes, then simply turn them puside down and dip into the coconut, making sure to completely coat the top. Repeat with all of the cupcakes, then unwrap one and eat it!

I really like this recipe and I might try to turn them into Pina Colada cupcakes. We'll see...

Sadness

Sorry about the lack of posts these past two weeks, but my oven broke and I am eagerly awaiting the repairs.

Soon, there will be more baked goodness, but sadly, not today.

Tin Tin surprise

So this past Sunday was my mother's birthday. She's Belgian and a HUGE fan of TinTin.

For anyone who doesn't know who TinTin is, he's a comic book sleuth, and very famous throughout Europe. The comic series originated in Belgium around the 1930's.

Here's a quick peek of the characters:

TinTin and his trusty sidekick, Snowy (Milou in the original french version)

The characters I used for my mom's gift are the five in the middle. Starting on the left, the bearded man in the blue sweater is Captain Haddock, then TinTin, Snowy and the identical not-brothers Dupond and Dupont (in english, they're called Thompson and Thomson.)I made fondant silouettes of the character's profiles and put them on cupcakes.


My mom was pretty psyched about the whole thing, bringing them in to the office to show them off to all of her co-workers. Mission birthday present was a success!

I used mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream. The cupcakes were a little lacking, but the buttercream was a definate keeper! On the sweet side, but you can always use less sugar than the recipe calls for.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
4 tablespoons hot water

Cream the butter until smooth. In a smaller bowl, dissolve coffee granules in the hot water. Slowly add sugar 1 cup at a time to butter, alternating with sugar, vanilla, sugar, coffee, and finally sugar. Mix until smooth and spread onto cooled cupcakes of your choice.

This frosting is pretty sweet, so make sure to ice your cupcakes in moderation.

I wish I had some coffee beans to decorate these with! Alas, but oh well.

That's all for now!

Double the chocolate, double the fun!

This was supposed to be last weeks post, but I ran a little short on time, so this week is Double post time!

Today we have Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sounds good already, doesn't it?

Now, this recipe is much easier to mix with a machine, but seem to get a kick out of getting hand cramps. I usually ignore my shiny mixer for a good old fashioned wooden spoon. Please use some of the sense that I am clearly lacking and use an electric mixer.

On to the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened (salted, if using unsalted, add 1 tsp salt to flour)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups (or 1 12 oz bag) white chocolate chips

Anyhow, you'll want to start with creaming the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

In a sperate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda (and salt if needed.)

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir until just combined, mix in the chocolate chips.

It should look something like this:
Maybe not quite as appetizing as the last chocolate chip cookie dough, but just you wait.

You can make mini cookies like these...

Or larger cookies for those times when you need a fix...
Any way you make them, they're always delicious.

Yum.

Red Velvet Awesome!

This past Saturday was a good friend's birthday, and his request was red velvet cupcakes.

Now, I've tried some red velvet recipes in the past, only to get less than pleasing results. But I was willing to try once again, and apparently the recipe gods heard my wish, because I found one heck of an amazing recipe! And even some pretty awesome icing to top them with.

The sprinkles are just tiny red circles that I got in a winter sprinkles collection, the were called red winterberries, I believe. Pretty snazzy, eh?

And yes, I will share this amazing recipe!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour (or all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (only if using unsalted butter)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz. red food coloring
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature (if you don’t have any buttermilk, you can take 1
cup of milk, add 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar, mix and let sit for ten minutes.)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins or silicone pans with cupcake liners.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl, sift cocoa powder and mix in food coloring to form a thin paste without lumps and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Be careful as it will fizz so don't do it in a shallow bowl. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter until they are a little under 3/4 full. I use my trusty ice cream scoop. Bake for about 20-22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. The cupcake are done when you insert a toothpick into a cupcake in the center of the tin and if it comes out clean.

5. Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe is enough for me to frost about 20 cupcakes, but I frost sparingly, If you like a lot of frosting on your cupcakes, you can double this recipe easily.

1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy and smooth.

2. Mix in the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.

3. Frost your cupcakes and enjoy!

Olympic Games

And here we are for cupcake fondant practice number two: Olympic style. I used a white cake, unfortunately the cake was not amazing, so no recipes this time. Anyhow, I decided on three iconic images, the Inukshuk, the olympic rings and the torch.

This one is my favorite. I only have the primary colors for fondant so I got to mix the rest, which was pretty fun.

Here's the rings, not my proudest work, but whatever.And finally, the torch! Not the torch they used for this years opening ceremonies obviously, but I'm not awesome enough to try that yet. I went for a more traditional (as in generic) look.

And then a quick look at all of them together. Yeah, ignore that crumb in the corner...

Until next time!