chocolate easter cupcakes - the birthday girl keeps getting gypped

Recall the decadent flourless chocolate cake my cousins and I created? Well as you know, the cake came out flawless and we were immensely satisfied. But what about the birthday girl who were originally going to bake the cake for? She, unknowingly, had just been denied the privilege of such a cake (or any birthday bakery for that matter). So while at the grocery store shopping for the ingredients in our indulgent flourless chocolate cake, we quickly grabbed a box of chocolate cake mix.


Anyone who knows me (even someone who is barely able to call me an acquaintance) will tell you how much I detest using anything boxed. With that said, this is not my friend's birthday cake, nor am I the one buying the ingredients.


Needless to say, I did not oppose to my cousin's choice of this box cake mix. I mean after all, I have found a great doctored recipe to use on box cake mix. Every time I've used it- the cake had been flawless and extremely delicious. Never any issues whatsoever.


Something I hadn't realized until after we placed the cupcakes in the oven was that this wasn't the typical Betty Crocker cake mix. I reread the box and it appeared to be one of those special fancy super-de-duper moist cakes. Well, I mean whatever. I guess the cake would be superly extremely moist then. No one ever complains when a cake is too moist, right?


Funny thing is that we had so much extra batter (from all my add-ins) that we could make a whole batch of cupcakes plus a little 8x8 tin. We figured my cousin could decorate and give the 8x8 cake to her friend, and we'd keep the cupcakes for ourselves (muaha). Shown here are the cupcakes my little cousins and I decorated. I commend them on their great decorating skills (I'm loving my little cousin's carrot here).


If you haven't got the hint by now, these cupcakes were specifically decorated with Easter themes in mind (given the date and all). This cute little bunny rabbit (don't forget the cute grass as well) was my creation.


Okay- I'll pat my own back on this one. I mean come on, given the circumstances and tools around me, I did an awesome job. We were given a can of vanilla icing, 4 shades of food coloring, a butter knife and a few ziplocks. Voila! Imagine what I could accomplish with fancy cake decorating tools.


After the mini photoshoot with my bunny, it was time for a taste test. We all sat there with our cupcakes in hand, ready to taste my supposedly awesome doctored-up box cake mix. Let's spare the details here. The cupcake tasted fine, nothing spectacular, however was more so on the moist side. Although not technically a fail, I do feel bad for the poor birthday girl who was given the 8x8 inch cake of this stuff. Because of its size, that cake must have undoubtedly been extra moist. Happy birthday to my cousin's friend! (Hehe).

---RECIPE---
Taken from multiple sources and mostly from experience.

1 box cake mix (for future reference, don't get anything already super moist)
1 box instant pudding mix (flavor depending on the type of cake, for this we used chocolate)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs

Bake as directed on box.

banana cupcakes - for the banana in my life

One of my darling cousins was coming to visit me on her Spring Break at college. I love her dearly, and being I haven't seen her in more than a year, I was extremely excited to see her again. I felt a little baking would be the perfect welcoming present for her (especially since she was unfamiliar to my new baking-self). Her nickname is banana, because it rhymes (sort of) with her name. Going along with that theme, I figured I'd bake some banana cupcakes for her. I knew I was taking a risk baking banana-anything (because I can never get anything tasty out of these damn fruits), but I figured why not- She'd still love me anyways.


I have tons and tons of frozen bananas in my freezer (my roommates tend to forget about their bananas and let them spoil, so I wrap them up and freeze them).


Before I started baking these, I made sure that I found a recipe for banana cupcakes, and not banana muffins. I wanted these to turn out like regular cupcakes, but with a subtle hint of banana.


They came out looking pretty good I must say, although I didn't know what they tasted like. The recipe only make 11 cupcakes, and that was the exact amount of cupcakes I needed in order to spell out her name.


While the cupcakes cooled, I prepared the chocolate frosting. The website I got the cupcakes from (Martha Stewart) used a Honey-Cinnamon Frosting, but I decided to scratch that idea and go with a more ordinary flavor.


The buttercream frosting was gently slathered on, and then the lettering was piped on top with a darker chocolate frosting.


Okay, so they definitely looked adorable, but would my lovely cousin think they tasted as good as they looked?


Only once she got to witness the arrangement and the beauty of my cupcakes, was I able to have my first bite.


We both uniformly agreed that these were indeed not good cupcakes. Essentially they were banana muffins that were impersonating cupcakes- which was not cool in my book.


However, there was one good thing that came out of this cupcake catastrophe- The chocolate buttercream frosting. My boyfriend (who claims to be anti-chocolate) can even attest to this frosting- it was creamy and smooth, not heavy at all, and had a pleasant flavor of chocolate. Most of the cupcakes were licked clean by myself, and then promptly thrown in the garbage.

---CUPCAKE RECIPE---
Taken from Martha Stewart.

ingredients:
1+1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1+1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Spread tops with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting. Just before serving, peel and slice banana into rounds, and place one on each cupcake, if desired.

amount:
Makes 12 cupcakes.

---FROSTING RECIPE---
Taken from Joy the Baker.

ingredients:
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup Ovaltine (omitted, because I don't even know what Ovaltine is.)

directions:
1. Cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth. In a 2 cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine. Turn mixer speed to medium and pour cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream, until you’ve reached your desired consistency. You may not need the full amount of Ovaltine and cream.

Amount:
I think this makes frosting for about 4 dozen cupcakes, which is why I one-fourthed the enormous recipe.

valentine's day - caramel cupcakes - this is what i get for being an overachiever

I'm the type of person who doesn't want to just settle on a basic recipe. I will purposely find the hardest and most time consuming recipe, just so I can conquer it and feel like a bad ass. By bypassing all these basic fundamental recipes, I guess I'll never understand how the magical mysteries of baking works. Here's an example: Cake. I have yet to bake a basic yellow cake or basic chocolate cake recipe. Reason being that I think it's too freakin' boring. If I was going to go all out and bake something, then I want it to be a fancy recipe like red velvet or ricotta or cookie dough filled cake. Which is why for Valentine's Day, I thought I had to pull out all the stops.


And so Valentine's Day was approaching and I thought I'd bake some caramel cupcakes I found off a website. The recipe used a "caramel syrup" in the batter and icing, and this was my attempt to make it.


I've made caramel before (for the caramel chocolate crunch tart) so I didn't think this would be such a feat. Unfortunately, either the recipe wasn't thorough in its directions, or I'm just a retard, but the first batch didn't turn out so well (left). It tasted like bitter metal (that's the nicest way to put it), so I scratch it and made a new batch (right). See the big difference in color?


This "syrup" wasn't very caramely though; but I assumed it was because it was a "syrup" as opposed to strictly being caramel. I filled each heart-themed cupcake liner with the batter, but decided I'd fiddle around with them a bit. Some cupcakes got filled entirely with the batter, some got different amounts of caramel syrup blended throughout, and some just got a whole spoonful of syrup ladled on top. Each specific liner got a different way of preparation (notice how the second row of cupcakes have a liquid floating on top, opposed to the cupcakes further back which probably had syrup in the center).


Unfortunately I forgot which liner had which style of batter. Either way, they sure looked pretty!


The frosting also used a good amount of this mysterious "caramel syrup". I first made a mound on each cupcake (I saw this on a website) and then the frosting gets piped on in coils to make that mountain shape so familiar with bakery style cupcakes.


My boyfriend noted how sweet these cupcakes were (he definitely had one that had an excessive amount of this caramel syrup). I agree though, that extra spoonful or so of syrup made these very sweet, even for my taste.


Another comment was how dense these were. I don't understand... maybe it was because of the extra syrup, or maybe it was because this was a shitty recipe.


My boyfriend's mom told my boyfriend that she knows that one day I'll find the best cupcake recipe... Translation: I need to find the best basic cupcake recipe. I need to quit dabbling with these fancy shmancy recipes, and I need to start at the bottom- Here I come boring yellow cake recipe.

---RECIPE---
Taken from Sugarlaws.

ingredients:
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1+1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1/3 cup caramel syrup (see below)
caramel butter frosting (see below)

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Butter one tall 9-inch cake pan (I made cupcakes, so line muffin tins).
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. (This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.)
7. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.
8. Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

caramel syrup recipe:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process (no idea what this means) )

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber. (my first batch, I probably went a little too far, whereas the second batch I was so hesitant that it was probably underdone.)
2. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.
3. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. (Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.)

caramel butter frosting recipe:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream (I used milk, and probably only 4 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup (I wanted it to be extra-caramely so I used 4)
Kosher or sea salt to taste

1. Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.
2. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner’s sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

cookie dough stuffed cupcakes - "i don't like cookie dough" = "i don't like your cupcakes"

Once I had the dough for my edible-cookie-dough recipe ready, I prepared the cupcakes that they were to be stuffed in. (My friend specifically asked for these cupcakes for our Fondue Party we were having.) I knew that the cookie dough would cook inside the cupcakes anyways (because that's what happened with the Halloween cupcakes), but I thought my friend and I would probably like some cookie dough to munch on as a side dish (yes, we really do love cookie dough that much). While searching for the best cupcake recipe (I had nowhere to start from, so it was basically a shot in the dark), I ended up at Martha Stewart's website. A basic vanilla cupcake was chosen, and I hoped for the best.


Being that it was a basic yellow cake recipe, there were more egg yolks than egg whites to the batter.


Typical me...always trying to use leftover ingredients. Being that I cook for one person (myself) and bake (on the rare occasion) for a small group of people, I tend to have leftover "weird" ingredients that I wouldn't use otherwise. I had a whole carton of buttermilk left over from the Red Velvet cake, and while deciding between two yellow cupcake recipes I found on Martha Stewart, I chose the one which used buttermilk so I could get rid of the carton in my fridge.


My silicon cupcake cups were filled with batter then got a tiny spoonful of edible cookie dough dropped in the center.


I knew the cookie dough ball was fairly large, but I figured there could never be too much cookie dough.


I guess the cookie dough didn't sink as much as I thought it would. Nothing a little frosting can't cover up!


As I was rushing that morning to cook and bake, I didn't have time to make any frosting. I decided to grab my hand mixer and a few basic ingredients (butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla) to salvage a topping for the cupcakes when I got to my friend's house. I apparently didn't bring a mixing bowl, and I was forced to use a large cooking pot as a substitute. I also didn't bring any buttercream-type recipes with me (and my picky-eater didn't want chocolate frosting, which was the only recipe I had saved in my phone) so I chose to make a thick and tastier royal icing recipe off the top of my head.


Surprisingly enough my homemade concoction came out. It looks a little wet and drippy here because it needed some time in the fridge first.


I added a little ball of cookie dough to make it cuter and set them in the fridge to harden.


The best part was after you took your first bite of this cupcake, where you actually got a big chunk of cookie dough and chocolate chips. The cookie dough barely cooked and maintained that moist texture typical to cookie dough.


As for the actual cake part- I didn't really care for it. It was a little too dense for me, and not as fluffy as I like cake to be (once again though, I am not a cake/cupcake person). Honestly, I think it was that damn buttermilk that ruined this cupcake! It really was not cupcake-y.


I ate a bunch of the cookie dough toppings and I even broke some cupcakes in half just to eat their cookie-dough centers (I'm obsessed!).


I put my cupcakes in my new snazzy Martha Stewart carrier (which I got for Christmas from my boyfriend's family) and I left them at my boyfriend's house.


Just as I suspected...none got eaten. It was because they "don't like cookie dough" (which as I explained already, my boyfriend does like cookie dough, he just doesn't know it yet), but I think the real reason was because the cupcakes tasted like hard crap. The end.

---CUPCAKE RECIPE---
Taken from Martha Stewart.

ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1+1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2+1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1+1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
9 ounces (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
2+1/4 cups sugar
5 large eggs plus 3 large yolks, room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
2.Reduce speed to low. Mix remaining wet ingredients in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each full. (This is where I dropped my mini ball of cookie dough, recipe here, in the center.)
3.Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

amount:
Makes 3 dozen cupcakes.


---FROSTING RECIPE---
Made up on a whim, not exact.

ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1/3 cup milk (less than that)
2 cups powdered sugar (probably more than that, depending on consistency)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract