Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Seedless Raspberry Frosting

I'll preface this by admitting that the idea for the decoration was, sadly, not mine. I wish I was smart enough to think of this... maybe next time. The credit, though, goes to What's New, Cupcake? a book given to me for Christmas by a dear friend. The decoration was super easy and fun, but time consuming.
The cupcakes are vanilla bean cake (OMG) with a seedless raspberry frosting. They were made to bring to my parents' house for Easter and were perfect for the day.

This was my first try at making vanilla bean cupcakes and they were phenomenal. I tweaked the recipe for my Key Lime Cupcakes since it would make the perfect amount for this occasion. That recipe is nice and basic and allows for some wiggle room with ingredients. However, I only frosted half of these with the seedless raspberry frosting. The other half I frosted with some basic chocolate cream cheese frosting and rolled the edges in toasted coconut to make them look like nests. I then placed some chocolate easter eggs in the middle :)

Ingredients: (makes about 16 cupcakes)
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean pod

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Cut the vanilla bean pod in half to make it easier to scrape. Cut each half lengthwise and scrape the inside of each piece with a butter knife. Mix scraped vanilla seeds into buttermilk and discard empty bean pods. Beat butter until smooth and creamy, then add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating in between to combine. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and buttermilk in the following order: 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Here's a picture of this amazing batter:

Sorry for the low quality picture... I now have a DSLR so my pictures will finally look decent! This picture makes me want to eat straight vanilla bean batter... mmmmmmm.

I REALLY wanted to try making a frosting using coulis so I figured this would be a good chance since I didn't need to pipe them. I didn't realize how great of an idea that was since this frosting is NOT pipeable. Yet. I'm still working on a recipe for pipeable seedless raspberry frosting. I made the coulis the night before, but this isn't necessary- just make sure you allow yourself to have enough time to let the coulis cool completely prior to making the frosting. I imagine hot coulis would probably make this frosting really runny.

For the coulis:
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Place the raspberries and sugar into small saucepan and cook over medium heat until berries are completely deconstructed and a thick liquid forms, about 15 minutes. Check and stir frequently to avoid burning and sticking. In small batches, strain liquified raspberries in a mesh strainer, using a rubber spatula to push through strainer. Make sure to scrape bottom of strainer in between batches since the mixture will be thick and will stick to the strainer. Once all of the seeds are strained out, stir in lemon juice and refrigerate.

*I had some leftover coulis that I used on top of some cheesecake and almost died because it was so good.

For the frosting:
One pound confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp milk*
Raspberry coulis

Beat butter until smooth, add milk and combine. Slowly add confectioner's sugar and scrape down bowl occasionally. Once all confectioner's sugar is added, slowly add coulis and beat on low until combined. *I think I ended up using the whole batch of coulis in this because I wanted a good raspberry flavor to it. However, the milk probably shouldn't have been added. I didn't realize how thin this frosting would become... had I known, I would not have added the milk. I'll post another recipe soon for another batch I made without the milk, but it still turned out quite thin. I'll have to keep working on this recipe. Since I was decorating these the way I did, it was perfectly acceptable for me to dip the cupcakes in the frosting, which worked out just fine. AND, it was the first time I dipped cupcakes, so it gave me some good experience and inspired me to make some chocolate ganache again :)

Decoration:
One bag of mini marshmallows (you won't use the whole thing)
Different colored decorative sugar

Place each color of sugar into a separate ramekin or souffle dish. Use as many colors as you want based on how many different colors of flowers you'd like to make. I used blue, pink, and purple. Next, cut mini marshmallows in half diagonally, pushing the sticky side of each piece into the colored sugar. Set aside. Decorate cupcakes by placing sugared marshmallow halves around the outside edge of the cupcake first, then working inwards in circles until you reach the center. I just cut a bunch of marshmallows and dipped in alternating colors of sugar, then started decorating until they were all used up, then cut more marshmallows one by one until I had enough to cover all of the cupcakes. I also put little balls of yellow fondant in the center to look like stamens.

Champagne Pear Cupcakes

Okay, so the decorating was a little underwhelming this time, but these were my girly-spring cupcakes. They were made for a coworker who is pregnant, and inspired by one of my favorite flavor combinations: pear and vanilla bean.
Let us start by having a little moment of silence for those cupcakes whose lives were cut short by a tragic baking accident..........

I attempted to make some double chocolate cupcakes a little while ago but they ended up being double busted cupcakes :( I bought these new Hershey's drops and figured they would be great as a cupcake filling. I was probably right, but I wouldn't know. About halfway through baking, I realized that I forgot to put them inside the cupcakes! A foolish choice was to pop out the cupcakes, put in the chocolates, then finish baking. I don't know if that was why they didn't turn out, or if I possibly forgot to add the salt. Regardless, they were my first cupcake catastrophe and they've been haunting me ever since.
I've made my Lemon Cupcakes, the Remix and these champagne pear cupcakes since that time, and was VERY nervous both times. But with good reason: I made two substitutions in ingredients and had a measuring mishap while making the lemon cupcakes, and my champagne pear cupcakes were a bit of a crazy experiment in recipe making. Here's the (hopefully) abridged story:
I didn't plan out my grocery shopping well, so I assumed I'd need one pear for the recipe and bought an extra to eat by itself. WRONG. The ONLY recipe I could find online for champagne pear cupcakes called for 2 3/4 cup of flour (which would make about 30-36 cupcakes) and three pears. UGH. After some thoughtful debate, I decided to do what I've been wanting to do for a while: research baking science. It was super enlightening and now I have much more appreciation for the ingredients that go into a cake. Armed with my new-found knowledge, I decided to tweak my Pomegranate Green Tea cupcakes recipe because it seemed to have a good ratio of ingredients and mirrored the liquid content I'd need to use to get the champagne flavor to shine in these cakes. I figured the pear component was an extra and wouldn't affect the chemistry, and I was right. So here's MY recipe:

Champagne-Pear Cupcakes:
2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup milk*
1 cup champagne*
Two pears, grated*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grate the pears and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl, set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla extract and milk, plus half the flour mixture. Mix together until combined. Add the champagne and other half of the flour mixture, mix together until combined. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake 16-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
*The milk is probably not necessary, because the batter was a little thinner than I'm used to. They still turned out fine, but next time I'll omit the extra liquid. I used some cheap champagne- I think it was like $9 per bottle and was of the "brut" variety. It was quite interesting to have an ingredient fizz as I added it into the batter, but the best part was finishing the champagne afterwards (which was surprisingly pretty good!). As far as the pears go, it wasn't that bad to grate them. One of them was a little under-ripe and quite firm, and the other was much more ripe and soft. However, grating them with a cheese grater (using the side with the largest holes) wasn't a big deal. A little messy, but not difficult. Oh, and I also added some pink food coloring to make them a little extra cute :)

It's hard to tell what color they are, but they're a light pink-ish color. So needless to say, having made my own recipe for these, I was apprehensive about how they'd turn out. But I think the flavor of the champagne was there, but not overwhelming. The pear flavor was almost non-existent, but I think it balanced everything out and made for the most moist cupcakes I've ever had. Possibly my new secret weapon for moist cakes :) Overall I was relieved that they turned out ok and somewhat proud that I tweaked an already-tweaked recipe to make something new.

On to the frosting of my dreams...
Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 of one vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod discarded*
One poud of confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbps+ of milk
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

Beat butter until smooth. Add vanilla bean seeds and extract, then slowly begin adding about half of the powdered sugar. Add the milk, then the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed to desired consistency, and beat until smooth. Do not overbeat. Makes enough frosting for about 24 cupcakes.
*This was my first vanilla bean experience. I bought some McCormick gourmet vanilla beans, found on the spice rack at my local grocery store. They actually sell them in a little glass jar just like they use to sell other spices (like rosemary). I cut the seed in half width-wise with a paring knife. I put one half back in the jar, and then cut the other half length-wise. You'll see the darker seeds in the middle of the pod. Use the rounded side of a butter knife and hold the knife perpedicular to the bean on the side that has access to the seeds. Apply some pressure to the pod and scrape down it to extract the seeds. The seeds should come right out and stick on the butter knife.

I piped on a swirl of frosting and spinkled on some yellow sprinkles. Mmmmm... sophistication.

Lemon Cupcakes II: The Remix.

I made a deal with a good friend a while ago: I would give her cupcakes in exchange for some authentic Asian food. And we both held up our end of the bargain, just a year after the fact. My friend requested some lemon cupcakes, but prefers her cupcakes to be moist and fluffy rather than dense. So I ditched the Opposite of Low-Fat Lemon Cupcakes recipe I used before because those were some pretty dense cupcakes. I pondered what to do, then decided to tweak my Key Lime Cupcakes recipe because those turned out having my target texture for this batch. 

*I'm SO excited about my next batch of cupcakes that I'll be making soon: pear champagne with vanilla bean frosting. So stay tuned, because I'm hopeful that those will be my best yet :)

Lower-fat Lemon Cupcakes:

Ingredients: (makes about 16 cupcakes)
1 3/4 cup cake flour*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp  lemon zest*
yellow food coloring
3/4 cup buttermilk*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt three times and set aside. Beat butter until smooth and creamy, then add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating in between to combine. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, food coloring, and vanilla extract and beat until combined(mixture may look curdled). Add flour mixture and buttermilk in the following order: 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

*Once again, I used my "fake cake flour" since I still don't have actual cake flour. Our brand new Publix just opened about a mile from my neighborhood, so I'm hoping they carry cake flour. Regardless, this works just fine: put 2 tbsp corn starch in the bottom of a one cup measuring cup, then fill the rest of the measuring cup with flour. Then, put one tbsp of corn starch in the bottom of a 1/2 cup measuring cup, and fill the rest with flour. Another 1/2 tbsp of corn starch in a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill the rest with flour. And voila! Fake cake flour.

*I never measure zest. It doesn't change the chemistry of the batter so it will only affect flavor... I just zested about half of a medium sized lemon and the flavor turned out pretty well.

*Holy crap! I didn't have any buttermilk this time, but LOVED how it worked in my key lime cupcakes. Never thought I'd say this, but buttermilk may soon surpass sour cream as my favorite ingredient in a basic cupcake recipe. Sour cream makes the cupcakes very dense, which isn't a bad thing to me, but not everyone likes a dense cupcake. Buttermilk, on the other hand, makes a nice, thick batter that is a little fluffier after baked. I didn't know this before, but buttermilk is actually low fat (less guilt!!). Anyways... I decided to use the typical buttermilk substitute of putting one tablespoon of white vinegar into a one-cup measuring cup, and fill with milk to the one cup line. Let sit for five minutes. Since the recipe only calls for 3/4 of a cup, you can either put 3/4 tablespoon of vinegar into a 3/4 cup measuring cup or use one cup and only use 3/4 of it. Yes, I am a math genius.

So, these cupcakes were actually pretty scary for me, especially since the batch I made prior to these (that were supposed to go to the same friend) were BUSTED. I'll post on those later. So with that horrifying memory in the back of my mind, I worried that I suddenly lost my cupcake baking finesse. Added to that was the fact that I used TWO ingredient substitutes (cake flour and buttermilk). Then, after adding my first addition of buttermilk, I realized that I must have filled the measuring cup pretty far past the one cup line, because after adding what I thought to be about a third of a cup, there was still about one cup left in the measuring cup. DOH! So I guesstimated how much to add after that, and ended up adding a splash more at the end because the batter seemed a bit too thick. Once I popped them in the oven, I said a little prayer to the God of cupcakes, and started washing dishes so I wouldn't keep peeking at them.

So obviously they turned out just fine! Some were a little well-done, but not bad at all. Notice the time on the clock in the second picture? That's AM. I made the fondant decorations first, then decided that I would go ahead and make the cakes that night as well, since the next day was going to be quite busy. Of course I had to try one, and they turned out just how I wanted them to be. Not too lemony, but fluffy and moist.

I busted out the Wilton fondant again and spent a long time trying to figure out how to decorate them. I didn't want to make lemon wedges because I did that with the key lime cupcakes and I wanted to try something new. I started searching high and low in my house for inspiration, and stumbled upon this:

It's a necklace I bought a little while ago, and it was perfect inspiration for some spring cupcakes.

Method for making fondant flower decorations:
Knead fondant of chosen color (I decided light blue would be a nice contrast to the yellow cupcake and frosting) until soft and workable, and roll out until about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Using a small circle (about 1/2" around... I used the small end of a piping tip coupler for this) cut out five circles per flower. Pinch one side of each circle until shaped like a tear drop, then pinch to flatten a little on that side (so it is thinner than the other end of the circle). Arrange each petal to form a flower, pressing each petal together to ensure they stick:

Then, with another color (yellow would be the obvious choice), roll out more fondant and break off into small pieces. Roll into tiny balls (about half the size of a pea) and flatten into a circle. Using a wet brush, wet the center of the flower and the back of the yellow circle and press together to bond. Set aside and let dry. Store in an airtight container if not using immediately.

I ended up scoring the petals the next day to add more detail, and used a paring knife for it. Which was really dangerous, so I suggest using a toothpick to prevent cutting your fingers off :)

On to the frosting.

OMG. This frosting is heavenly. It made more than I needed (probably the perfect amount if you want to pipe something pretty on them) and for once, I couldn't throw away the leftovers. I saved it in a Tupperware container in the fridge, and have been enjoying it smeared onto a graham cracker as a dessert. I think the graham cracker was just an attempt to not feel like a total fatty from eating the frosting by itself. It's just that good.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest*
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
5 cups confectioner's sugar
Yellow icing color

Directions:
Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and extracts together until smooth and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar in two additions. Beat until creamy. Add more icing sugar or juice as needed for easy spreading.
*Still didn't measure the zest. I probably used about 1/4 of the same lemon I used for the cakes.

I piped a small swirl onto the top of each cupcake, then topped with one of the flowers:

LOVE.

Key Lime Cupcakes

I'm like a boutique cupcakery without the boutique :) These were made specially for my sister-in-law's birthday and I took them to her at work as a surprise. I was really happy to have given my best cupcakes ever as a gift to someone special. So... I'm usually pretty humble about my cupcaking, but not about these because not only did they taste amazing, but they were really darned cute too. I came up with the decorating idea all on my own and they turned out even cuter than I thought they would which is unheard of for me. I'm not an artsy kind either, so trying to work with fondant for the first time was a little frightening to say the least (if you aren't making the fondant limes, the cupcakes still look super cute without them. Just skip to the bottom for the recipe and how to decorate). Which is why I bought pre-made fondant. I wanted to make sure I could make something that looked alright and if it was worth it to pursue... and yes, it was. So once I use up all of my premade fondant, I'm going to start making some marshmallow fondant. But for these, I used the Wilton pre-colored fondant (I made the fondant decorations the night before I made the cupcakes):

Aaaaaannnnnnndddddd nut cups!! I've been wanting to make cupcakes in nut cups for so long and I finally did it!! More about that later... here are some pics of my fondant work:

This was the fondant I used. Notice how dark it is before kneading...

And this is the fondant after I kneaded the crap out of it. It's slightly lighter than it was straight out of the package. And I have a few sore muscles from kneading it because it was a little tough to knead at first, but it really wasn't that bad at all. I also realized that I really need to get a fondant mat because kneading this on wax paper was really not a good idea. BUT, I didn't want to dye my beige countertops green so I had to improvise and use the wax paper. Hubby and I just ordered a new kitchen island with a granite counterop so I'm going to try to knead some fondant directly on that to see if it works. With the leftover fondant, I experimented with combining colors and dying it with icing color gel so I now feel more comfortable making my own fondant and coloring it.
To make the fondant limes, I rolled out the fondant and used the measuring cup from a bottle of medicine (thoroughly washed, of course) and cut out little circles of the dark green fondant. Since there are so many things in a typical household that can cut out a circle, I don't see the point of buying circle fondant cutters. Anyways, I cut each dark green circle in half and set them off to the side. I then took the bottom of the measuring cup to cut out slightly smaller circles from the light green fondant. I then cut each of those circles into triangles of varying sizes- about four or six triangles per circle.

To assemble the fondant pieces, all you have to do is brush the pieces that you are going to bond together with a little bit of water, gently press them together, and let them dry. However, I realized that I didn't have a brush! While debating about how to go about doing this, I dug into my makeup bag and found a little brush that came in an eyeshadow compact that I never used. After confirming it was completely clean, it officially shed its title of eyeshadow brush and earned the title of "fondant brush." Here it is, in all its glory:

I then assembled the "limes"

I scored the light green wedges with the back (non-sharp) edge of a paring knife (which is what I used to cut the circles into the wedges) in the center of each triangle as an afterthought and I think they made them look a little more realistic. So that, my friends, is how you make fondant wedges Shortcakes style.

Now for the key lime cakes. I used a recipe I found on Cook Eat Share:
Ingredients: (makes about 16 cupcakes)
1 3/4 cup cake flour*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp key lime juice*
1 tbsp key lime zest*
green food coloring
3/4 cup buttermilk*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt three times and set aside. Beat butter until smooth and creamy, then add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating in between to combine. Add lime juice, lime zest, food coloring, and vanilla extract and beat until combined(mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture and buttermilk in the following order: 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. I used nut cups instead of cupcake liners, which made them look extra cute, but they were also a little difficult to open. However, these cupcakes, being a little higher in sugar content than the average cupcake, shrunk a little bit. So the nut cups were perfect because they held their own shape. So when the cupcakes shrunk, there was no issue with wrappers peeling away from the cake. So even though they're tough to open, I'll use them again in the future for cupcakes that will probably shrink.

*I didn't have cake flour on hand and was shocked to find that my local Publix doesn't carry any. BUT, I made my own by mixing all purpose flour and corn starch. Since the recipe called for 1 3/4 cup of cake flour, I did the following: put 2 tbsp corn starch in the bottom of a one cup measuring cup, then filled the rest of the measuring cup with flour. Then, I put one tbsp of corn starch in the bottom of a 1/2 cup measuring cup, and filled the rest with flour. Another 1/2 tbsp of corn starch in a 1/4 cup measuring cup and filled the rest with flour. And voila! Cake flour substitute.
*I also probably used a little more than 2 1/2 tbsp of key lime juice. I added maybe another 1-2 tsp of it but I didn't measure.
*I don't know exactly how much lime zest I used, and it wasn't key lime zest but just persian lime zest. I zested one lime and added that into the batter without measuring to see how much I actually had. When it comes to an ingredient like this that won't affect the chemistry of the cupcake and affect the texture, you don't have to be super exact with the measurements.
*We all know I'm obsessed with using sour cream in a cupcake but for once I resisted temptation. I haven't ever used buttermilk in anything before, but I will definitely use it in a cupcake again. It was almost like milk and sour cream mixed together, which is typically what I use in my cupcakes. However, my local grocery store only sells buttermilk in a quart size bottle and I can't see wasting that much buttermilk each time I bake, so it won't be a common fixture for my recipes. But, I did use some of the buttermilk tonight to make some Irish Soda Bread and it was perfect :)
* The original recipe didn't call for vanilla extract but I thought it would be a good addition to smooth out the flavor. It was probably a really good idea because they tasted wonderful.

It's best with these to not fill them too full. The ones that were filled a little more full didn't rise much and spilled over a bit.
For the key lime cream cheese frosting:
I used a recipe I found on open source cupcakes but tweaked it a tiny bit:

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese
2 tbsp key lime juice*
1 tsp lime zest*
4-5 cups confectioner's sugar (about a one pound box)
Yellow and Blue icing color gel

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth (but don't overbeat!). Add the lime juice and lime zest and beat until combined. Add the confectioner's sugar about a cup at a time and beat slowly until desired consistency is reached.

*I used probably about 3 tbsp of lime juice because I felt the flavor wasn't as intense as I wanted it to be. Once again, I didn't measure the amount of lime zest but I used about 1/2 a lime's worth of zest. To color the frosting, I first colored it yellow and then added little bits of blue slowly until it was a very pale yellowish green, just like real key lime pie. Even though I wasn't piping the frosting, I still made it a little stiff so it would sit nicely on top of the cupcakes.

To decorate:
Spoon a dollop of frosting on top of each cupcake and spread evenly. Use the flat back of a butter knife to edge the frosting if the frosting extends too close to the edge of the cupcake.

Crush graham crackers in a small shallow bowl, and press edge of frosting into the crushed graham crackers to look like a pie crust.

They're already cute as is! Then put some of the leftover frosting in a piping bag with a small star tip and pipe a small star into the center of each cupcake. If you aren't using the fondant limes, they still end up looking like mini key lime pies at this point... maybe garnish with a small curl of lime skin or leave as is:

If using fondant limes, place one lime at an angle on the star of frosting and enjoy how cute they look before devouring them...

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Salted Dulce de Leche Frosting

So apparently Shortcakes has gone more international than I ever imagined, so welcome to all of my international readers :) It's cool to think that someone across the world may have made one of my recipes...
This installment: Devil's Food Cupcakes with Salted Dulce de Leche Frosting. AND they're really easy to make!! The inspiration for these actually came from a need to use up some sweetened condensed milk that I mistakenly bought for some homemade fudge when what I really needed was evaporated milk. Doh! These were my "progress cupcakes" because I have been buying some tools I didn't have in the past which made my cupcake baking so much easier (I'll post a little blurb at the end of this post with my experiences with my new stuff). I also feel like I've gotten a much better feel for the process and what goes into a good recipe. AND I made them the weekend of my first round of Clomid pills. So not only am I progressing with my cupcake making, but baby making as well ;) Things are much easier with a little help sometimes...
If you're making the dulce de leche "frosting," skip down to the recipe for that and start it before you make the cupcakes. You'll need about 4-8 hours for this part (don't be scared! it's super easy to do!) so start it well in advance of the actual cakes.
So for the cakes, I reverted back to the Devil's Food Cupcakes recipe but I decided to tweak it Shortcakes-style. So here's my version of the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda and set aside. Pour milk into a bowl with the sour cream and set aside. Beat butter until soft and smooth, add sugar and beat until fluffy (when using sour cream in a cupcake recipe, the more you beat the butter and sugar together, the fluffier the cupcakes will be. Conversely, the less you beat them, the more dense they will be.). Add eggs, one at a time, beating to combine in between. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the dry and wet ingredients in the following order, beating until just combined in between each addition: one third of the flour mixture, then one half of the milk/sour cream mixture, then another third of the flour mixture, the rest of the milk/sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

*I filled them about 3/4 full and they ended up being quite huge. They also spilled over the tops of the liners about halfway through and I thought I had a complete disaster on my hands because, at that point, they were really soupy looking. It gave me terrible flashbacks to my Easy Bake Oven disaster as a child when I (ironically) was making a chocolate cake and accidentally used the tablespoon measure for the water instead of the teaspoon measure. It ended up being a soupy sticky mess, but I learned a valuable lesson about double checking measurements and recipes. So needless to say, when they were spilling over but not firming up, I thought I had ruined a batch of cupcakes for the first time ever. Oh the horror!! But my fears were unwarranted, because they turned out just fine. Big, but fine. And big in this case was no problem because I took most of them to the fire station for hubby and the men/woman of station 22 to feast on. They were firefighter sized :) So here they are pre-"frosting:"

So you can obviously see that they are accidentally jumbo. But it worked out well for the "frosting" in this case because there was more surface area. If they were smaller, I would probably ended up putting on a thicker coating of the dulce de leche, which would have rendered them too dulce-de-leche-ey.

Now for the easiest part: the dulce de leche.

Ingredients:
One to two cans of sweetened condensed milk
Water

There are a few ways to do this. The way I did it was to take the label and the top off the can of milk and cover with tin foil. I then placed the can and tin foil into a crock pot and added water until it reached just below the top of the can. I set the crock pot on high for about four hours (low on eight works is an alternative if you have the time or want to make it overnight), checking occasionally to make sure the water level didn't drop too much. The dangerous part is getting the can out of the crock pot... I used some tongs but didn't have a very good grip, and the can fell into the water, tipped over, and about 1/4 of the dulce de leche was ruined. I thought all of it was ruined, but I was able to salvage 3/4 of it. I made another can after the first one (although you can make two at a time if your crockpot is big enough) because I realized after making the first that I was going to need another to top all of the cupcakes. The second time around, I got a little wiser and removed as much of the water as I could using a measuring glass before lifting the can out with the tongs. I then placed the cans into the refrigerator on top of a towel (because the cans were really hot) to let them cool, although it may be best to let them sit out for a few hours to come to room temperature, I just didn't have that much time.

The other way you can do this is to put the whole can, minus the label but with the lid intact, into the crockpot and fill with water so the can is submerged completely. Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low and remove after the water cools to room temperature. Apparently the can will not explode as long as the water level stays above the can, the can is put into cold or room temperature (not hot) water initially, and you wait to remove the can until the water cools off, but I didn't want to risk having a dulce de leche missile in my kitchen. So I opted for the safer method. It should be noted, however, that the method I used caused the milk to overflow a bit and get into the water, which wasn't very pleasant looking but didn't affect anything.

Once the dulce de leche cooled enough, I spooned it onto the center of the cupcake and spread it. It was still a tiny bit warmer than room temperature so it ended up spreading itself a little bit, but it made for a cute cartooney kind of look. I then topped them with a swirl of chocolate and a dusting of sea salt:

See how they look kind of cartooney? I thought they were cute :) My husband was intent on eating at least two that night, but said they were a little too rich to eat more than one due to the "frosting." However, he doesn't have a big sweet tooth and I think others ate more than one. I had one as well and thought they were darned good. The sea salt was a great touch and I highly recommend it... when I brought the rest into work the next day, I put a sign on them to encourage them to be eaten and I made sure to label them "chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche and sea salt." I wanted to make sure everyone knew the sea salt was intentional. I was only in the office for a short period of time that day and I didn't see any left the next day, so I guess that means they were all consumed. And hopefully happily at that.

As promised- my new cupcake baking tools/tricks: My stepmother-in-law spoils me, and bought me a new stand mixer for Christmas. Check this baby out:

It really is a fancy piece of machinery and I'm so in love with it. And I finally got myself a sifter. It's such a necessity and I don't know how I lived so long without it. I also invested in a cookie scoop. Or maybe it's an ice cream scoop? I've seen it described both ways... but it's basically one of those scoops that has the handle that you squeeze and this little metal bar scrapes across the scoop to ensure that everything comes out nicely. So I now use that to put the batter into the cupcake liners and it's amazing how much easier and cleaner this process is now. I also purchased another cupcake pan so I can bake more than just twelve at once which saves me a lot of time. So it was a much more pleasant experience this time all the way around...

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Frosting

Quick baby update: I think I'm starting Clomid next week *bites nails* I would also appreciate it if people would stop telling me that I'll get pregnant when I stop stressing about it. I'm pretty sure I'm not stressing, much like I'm not ovulating as well. Kthanks. Now onto the stars of the blog...
I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! My original idea for a Christmas flavor was peppermint mocha... mmmmmmm... however, I was going to take them to my parents' house for Christmas Eve and realized that my dad wouldn't go near the "mocha" part. And I wasn't sure if he'd be fond of the peppermint part, nor would my squishy little nieces. So that meant I would have to make some regular chocolate cupcakes and mocha cupcakes, AND two kinds of frosting. Not too big of a deal, except Christmas Eve came really fast and I still hadn't wrapped any of the gifts for the family members. So I forced myself out of bed in the morning and got baking immediately, and wrapped during the downtimes. I was baking/wrapping for about 6 hours straight... I'm very glad I didn't decide to do two flavors of cupcakes :)
Here they are:

Aren't they cute?! The frosting looks quite pink (that's another story, below) but it darkened after a while; exactly as the little jar of icing color said. Prophetic, Wilton. Anywho, here's the recipe (kind of) for the cakes:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt chocolate in a double boiler and allow to cool. Combine dry ingredients, including cocoa powder, in a bowl and set aside. Beat butter until fluffy and add in sugar. Beat butter and sugar extra long to encourage fluffier texture since this recipe calls for sour cream. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined in between adding each egg. Add vanilla and incorporate. Add in melted chocolate chips and beat until well combined. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and combine. Add 1/3 of wet ingredients (milk and sour cream) and combine. Add another 1/3 of dry ingredients, combine. Add the rest of the milk/sour cream, then the rest of the dry ingredients, beating in between to mix. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean (or with tiny crumbs).

*The actual recipe I used didn't call for cocoa powder, and it was very lacking in chocolate flavor. I'm not even going to link to the original recipe because it was actually a recipe for Mexican chocolate cupcakes and I tweaked it a bit. The cupcakes were good, just with a very subtle chocolate flavor (not a problem for me! But I don't like false advertising) and my husband referred to them as "really good vanilla cupcakes." I know he was exaggerating because I could definitely taste the chocolate, just not the strong flavor I was looking for. It really bothered me because this was going to be the first time my family has tasted my cupcakes and I didn't want to give them underwhelming ones! They were well received despite the lack of wow factor in the cakes.

On to the frosting: this is the first time I've made two flavors at once and it was just as easy as I thought. I just started off with a basic buttercream recipe and divided it in half:

4 1/2 to 5 cups confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter
milk*
1 tsp vanilla extract

I've gotten to the point with my frostings that I don't measure the amount of milk I use. I figure about 4-5 cups of confectioner's sugar with 3/4 cup of butter is enough to pipe about 24 cupcakes. Some recipes tell you to add the confectioner's sugar last, but there's no reason to. I just beat the butter until fluffy, add the sugar, then the extract, then the milk until  it reaches the consistency I want. But either way- sugar first or milk first- it comes out the same.

Peppermint Buttercream Frosting:
I then took half of the frosting out of the bowl and added 3/4 tsp of peppermint extract. I then took half of that and added some red icing color. I put some of the red (ok, not really red... more like pink) frosting on one side of my piping bag, and the white on the other side and began piping. It was a disaster. The "red" was way too light and it ended up looking more easter-ish than Christmas-y. Grrrr.... so much for my visions of candy cane striped frosting. So I just combined it all into a bowl and added more red icing color. Actually, a lot more red icing color, until I threw up my hands in defeat and accepted that I was just going to have pink Christmas cupcakes. I figured that adding more red color was going to cause everyone's teeth to be stained and I just didn't want to keep adding color all day. Luckily, it darkened up after a little while. I topped them with some crushed candy canes and a mini candy cane in the top:

See how they darkened up? Now onto the chocolate half...

Chocolate Buttercream Icing:
(Alright, I don't have much of a recipe for this) start off with the basic buttercream above, but add an unspecified amount of cocoa powder. I didn't measure, I just added and tasted until it seemed and looked right. To decorate these, I made some little chocolate swirls and Christmas trees and sprinkled them with some green and red nonpareils for added Christmas effect. Here's a photo of my mess:

And here are the chocolate babies, post decorations:

Pomegranate Green Tea Cupcakes

These were quite sophisticated ;o)

Yes, this picture has been "shopped." And very novice-ly at that... I took the pictures of these cupcakes in the flourescent lighting of my kitchen and the colors were just very off. So I flexed my amateur photoshop muscles and present to you my shopped photos. Please don't make fun- I'm really a horrible photographer and even worse photoshopper... kthanks.

I read a lot about matcha powder in cupcakes and immediately put it on my "must have" list of ingredients. I really had to try my best not to use all of the matcha powder for tea and save some for baking- this tea is beyond words. Especially right before a hefty 90 minute yoga routine... sends me into a state of bliss similar to cupcake baking :) Anyways, I sunk $20 into this little tin of wonder at the local Teavana after much searching. I went into a few "tea stores" and people looked at me like I had three heads, and one with three eyes, when I asked for Matcha or green tea powder. So when I finally found it, $20 didn't seem unreasonable for what seemed to be this powder made of dreams. So worth it. I actually had this sitting around for some time before I finally made cupcakes with it because I kept having actual reasons to bake (or people to bake for) and I figured these wouldn't be the kind of cupcakes that everyone would like. Overall, I really liked them. The texture of the cakes was light and fluffy and I loved the balance of the sweet cake and the earthy but tangy frosting. My coworkers graciously stated that they liked them even after I warned them that the matcha wasn't a flavor for everyone.

So I hunkered down and searched for recipes. Most of what I found was matcha cupcakes with pomegranate frosting, but I really wanted to do it the other way around. So I used this recipe from Pandas and Cupcakes with one minor change:

Pomegranate Cupcakes
2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract*
1/4 cup milk
1 cup POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
Seeds from one pomegranate
(something I thought would be good to add after I made them: a tablespoon of lemon zest..something I shall try next time!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl, set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla extract and milk, plus half the flour mixture. Mix together until combined. Add the pomegranate juice and other half of the flour mixture, mix together until combined.
Pour batter into prepared cupcake pan (or whatever you prefer using). Add 5-8 pomegranate seeds to top of batter. Bake in oven for 22 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

*In the original blog, it was mentioned that some lemon zest would be a good addition, so I added about a teaspoon of lemon extract since I didn't have a lemon on hand. I took a ton of photos of the process because the colors were so vibrant. And I also chugged the remaining pomegranate juice. I could suck down straight Pom Wonderful all day and never get sick of it...

This is the Matcha I used... according to the guy at Teavana, it's the highest quality stuff you can get in the US. Kinda of made it seem like an illegal transaction when he put it that way.

These are the cupcakes post-oven and before they started shrinking (remember, higher sugar content, which in this case came from the pomegranate juice, causes shrinkage).

I also made some minis since I had these awesome liners in such a vibrant color. They actually ended up looking great with the green frosting.

You can see in the background that some of them got a little brown on me (although they weren't as brown in real life- they just look worse in this pic due to some of my photoshopping. I failed to realize for the first batch that I should have reduced the temperature to 325 and baked longer since there was a higher sugar content in them, but I fixed the issue for the subsequent batches.

On to the frosting... I used a recipe that I found Here

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup or 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted (more if needed)

2 tbsn. matcha powder

combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until smooth. Turn the mixer on low and add the powdered sugar, vanilla and matcha. Add more powdered sugar if needed until you get the right consistency. Beat on high until light and fluffy and everything is well incorporated. Frost the cupcakes when cooled completely.

*I was really hesitant to use 2 tbsp of matcha, and not just because that was the equivalent of like $8 worth of powder. I was worried that it would be a little overpowering and not everyone would enjoy matcha as much as I do. So I started off with 1 tbsp and ended up using around 2, because 1 barely had any matcha flavor to it at all.

I happened to be wearing a matcha-esque shirt, and my frosting came out to be almost exactly the same color :)

My frosted full-size ones. The frosting was a little on the thin side, possibly because of the extra beating to incorporate the few additions of matcha until I was happy with the flavor. So I decided to get creative and play with the piping. They didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped, but not terrible nonetheless.

These were the minis. I took them to the State Attorneys office since I had a trial and needed to find a home for these. Never heard back if they liked them or not, but they didn't die so I guess that's a good sign?

In conclusion: I need a nice camera. I mean, the one we have is new, and nice. But I need like a really nice one that takes good shots instead of this silly point-and-shoot. Or I need someone to show me how to make this point-and-shoot into something that takes better looking pictures. I also need to brush up on some photoshop techniques... but I liked these cupcakes. They were very... cleansing. Which is fitting since the pomegranate and matcha components contained super antioxidants. I made them at a time when I was strongly considering purging some toxic "friends" from my life and moving on. I ended up doing just that, and I feel great now. Much like I did after enjoying one of these lil treats :)