Silver Lining Cupcake Co.

Saturday afternoon my mom and I checked out Silver Lining Cupcake Co. in Athens, GA. I've been following this shop for a while on Facebook after finding them online when I was searching for UGA cupcake ideas. Side note: I found a silicone "super G" chocolate mold on Saturday at University Spirit but didn't purchase it because it was $16.99. At least I know where I can buy one now.

Anyway back to these amazing cupcakes! The store is located in an industrial type "shopping center" and is decorated with adorable cupcake art on the walls and cupcake containers on the tables. I own one of the same containers myself (yay Gardenridge). I picked out the Rise and Shine cupcake which is a cinnamon cupcake with maple buttercream and topped with your choice of bacon or a raspberry. I chose a raspberry because I just have not been able to embrace bacon on top of cupcakes yet. I know it is all the rage...whatever. It was French Toast in the afternoon - a nice breakfast delight. Mom selected Raspberry Lemonade - raspberry cake with a raspberry center topped with lemon buttercream and a raspberry drizzle. Mom said "it is like summer time in your mouth". Of course we sampled each cupcake and left with a smile. Both cupcakes had just the right amount of icing and the cake was moist. The ingredients seemed really fresh. They bake these yummy things on site as we saw their KitchenAid stand mixers in the back. My only regret is not getting a cup of coffee because it would have been a fabulous pairing with my cupcake. But it was in the afternoon and we were headed to the Gym Dogs meet. And yes the Dawgs beat LSU!! Go Dawgs!

We both strongly encourage you to check out this cute cupcake shop the next time you are in Dawg country. Luckily I live far enough a way and cannot frequent this place often.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes

Surprisingly I'm growing tired of baking cupcakes. Not sure if I lost my inspiration or what. Maybe it is because I've baked cupcakes for the past three Saturdays. Either way I wanted to make cupcakes for the Alpha Gam alumni game night I hosted at my house tonight. I first was thinking I would make a cupcake out of inspiration from my favorite childhood game - Candyland. But then I decided ice cream cone cupcakes are a little childish. I think I was fascinated with baking a cupcake inside an ice cream cone. I remembered I saved a simple yet delicious recipe from the How About Orange blog.

This is my first time baking cupcakes without frosting. With the gooey cream cheese and chocolate chip center, I really did not miss the frosting. Shocking, I know.The recipe was simple but the chocolate batter was runny which was challenging when filling the muffin wells. I was unaware that Reese's makes peanut butter chips and oh man they are yummy. So glad I decided to use chocolate and peanut butter chips instead of just chocolate. Now I need to find another purpose for the rest of the Reese's chips...hmm.

All of the girls enjoyed the cupcake and one said it was moist which I have to agree. And if you are not a frosting fan then you will love these cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes
Filling:1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips (or just use more chocolate if you want)

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. water
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbs. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

In a bowl, beat cream cheese. Add sugar, egg, salt. Mix well. Fold in chips. Set aside. For cupcakes, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix well. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with batter. Top each with 2 Tbs. of cream cheese mixture. Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Makes 18.

One of my friends recently purchased his first home so a few of us decided to check it out after church on Sunday and then play some board games. Apples to Apples is a fav of ours! I asked my friend what his favorite cake is and of course he said snickers cheesecake. Well I knew right a way that cheesecake was out because the cupcakes would be in my car until we got to his house. I searched the world wide web and found a great recipe on the My Baking Addiction blog.

Surprisingly this is the second week of doctored cake mixes. I'm really coming around to this idea because you really cannot tell. This was my first time adding instant pudding to the mix. It was really gooey and a bit messy. Adding the frozen mini snickers was fun and for the most part it came out well. The recipe says it may make more than 24 cupcakes. With the extra batter I made a little cake in a ramekin. Apparently I should have made several extra cakes because some of the cupcakes came out with muffin tops. There was a hole where the cupcake fell in around the snickers on some of them. Nothing a little frosting couldn't fix though.

Instead of the frosting recipe that Jamie, My Baking Addiction author, used I decided to add caramel topping to the Wilton butter cream recipe. I'm not a fan of butter because it requires refrigeration and piping may be challenging. I ended up not piping these anyway due to time and wondering how the caramel would pipe. Also, I knew the cupcake was rich and did not want the frosting to be overwhelming.

The end result was a hit! I heard a lot of "these are good, thank you". You are welcome friends! And yes my small group will get to sample this recipe because the other dozen cupcakes and frosting are in the freezer.

Snickers Cupcakes

Makes 24-30 cupcakes
For the cake:
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24-30 frozen Snickers Miniatures
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line (2) 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, vanilla and water.
4. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}.
5. Gently push a frozen Snickers Miniature bar into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy bar with batter.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.
For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup caramel topping; plus more for drizzling
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.
2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more caramel syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.
Garnish with chopped Snickers bars and a drizzle of caramel of caramel syrup.
Notes:
Not a fan of Snickers? Sub in your favorite candy bar, just make sure you freeze them first.
Not a fan of vegetable shortening? No worries, simply sub in butter for the shortening.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Another Alpha Gamma Delta alumni function means a new recipe! I'm the Recording Secretary - so sophisticated - and twice a year we have a board meeting. This time we decided to have a potluck Italian dinner and surprise, surprise I signed up to bring dessert. I found several Tiramisu cupcake recipes when I first started my crazy cupcake adventure. A lot of recipes out there seem challenging, so I creatively pieced together my own recipe. But the blogs that gave me inspiration were Becky Bakes and Brown Eyed Baker. Also, check out this TLC recipe link.

It all started with - a box mix - oh no! (gasp) One of those French Vanilla Duncan Hines deals. Shockingly this flavor is really good. Then I brewed some Batdorf and Bronson Dancing Goats blend. Prepare for big side story - I am now addicted to Batdorf and Bronson's coffee. I mean a girl has to find something to drink with her cupcake, right? Well last month my friend and I went on a tour of the roastery. The company is out of Washington and recently opened up a roastery and coffee shop in Atlanta. Thanks to Scoutmob we got an amazing tour, a tasting, slice of this incredible coffee and chocolate pie, 1/2 pound of coffee, and an adorable Scoutmob and Batdorf and Bronson coffee mug. My eyes were officially opened to the world of coffee. I've been a coffee drinker for some time now but was clueless about what goes into growing, roasting, and brewing it. A few new concepts I learned were that you need to grind your coffee when you are ready to brew and the clever dripper brews the best cup of coffee. So I went out and purchased a grinder and clever dripper ($15). I drink coffee with two sugars and one cream usually but the awesomeness of Batdorf and Bronson does not require additives. So if you want to get your hands on some of this coffee go to Dancing Goats in Decatur or Whole Foods in the Atlanta area.

OK back to baking sorry! Once I brewed the coffee I then mixed 1/3 cup of coffee with 1/4 cup of sugar. Poke holes in the cupcakes with a fork- make a lot of holes so more coffee is absorbed. With a silicone brush gently brush on some of the coffee mixture. You may want to do this several times until you can see that the cupcake is looking saturated with coffee.

Next I whipped up some mind blowing mascropone frosting. I mean mascropone cheese by itself is not appealing but add powdered sugar and Kahlua and it is so GOOD! Spread this yummy stuff onto the cupcake. You may choose to pipe it but I did not so I'm unable to advise on how well the consistency works with piping. Lastly you should choose some type of "decoration". Many bloggers sift cocoa on top and others went with chocolate curls. Well this blogger does not like the taste of plain cocoa and I am inept to produce beautiful chocolate curls. Thus as you can see in the pictures I added chocolate chips. And of course I had to spell out my sorority letters!

Some may think they cannot handle all of these steps but trust me you can. It only took me about two hours. If you decide to take on the challenge, then the end result is worth it. One of my sisters said, "I don't like tiramisu but I love your cupcakes so I'm going to try one." She and all the others loved them of course!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

(Makes 24 cupcakes)
Cupcake
  * 1 (18 1/4 ounce) package white cake mix prepared as directed on box. I chose Duncan Hines extra moist french vanilla cake mix.

Coffee Mixture
1/3     cup strong brewed coffee or espresso
1/4     cup sugar

Frosting
8	ounces mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
1‑1/2	to 1-3/4 cups powdered sugar
2	tablespoons coffee-flavored liqueur

Felice Cucina!

Christmas Day 2011

Well it is Christmas Day! In addition to celebrating the birth of Jesus we are eating some good food today. Sadly I'm sick (most likely allergies thanks to all the warm weather we are having in Georgia) so I did not get to help out too much in the kitchen this year but I still wanted to share these fabulous recipes.
Breakfast started out with overnight french toast! Wow it is delicious!!! It was so nice waking up and just putting it in the oven. We made eggs and sausage too. The french toast reminded my parents and I of a pecan swirl or a honey bun. I would highly recommend making this recipe that we found on the Six Sister Stuff blog on any weekend.

Overnight Baked Caramel French Toast

(Recipe from Tablespoon.com)

Ingredients

Topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup whipping (heavy) cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
(I added chopped pecans for a little somethin' extra!)

French Toast:
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 (3/4-inch-thick) diagonal cut slices French bread

Directions:
1. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In 2-quart saucepan, mix topping ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. DO NOT BOIL. Spread topping in baking dish.

2. In shallow bowl, beat eggs with fork. Beat in milk, vanilla and salt. Dip bread slices into egg mixture, making sure all egg mixture is absorbed; arrange over topping in dish. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.

3. When ready to bake, heat oven to 400°F. Uncover baking dish; bake 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and toast is golden brown. Remove from oven; let stand 3 minutes.

4. Place large heatproof serving platter upside down over baking dish; turn platter and baking dish over. Remove baking dish, scraping any extra caramel topping onto toast. Serve immediately.

Also, my mom made Cranberry White Chocolate Bars that we discovered on the Glorious Treats blog. I've not tried the Cranberry Bliss Bars at Starbucks that Ms. Glory was trying to replicate but either way these are amazing.  Mom said she struggled a bit cutting them so needless to say they are not in any fancy shape - just rectangles. Oh well, the shape doesn't effect the taste.

Cranberry White Chocolate Bars

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (slightly softened)

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons fresh orange zest

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup dried, sweetened cranberries, chopped

6 ounces (about 3/4 cup) white chocolate chips

~ Frosting ~

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 Tablespoons butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon orange extract

1/2- 2/3 cup dried, sweetened cranberries, chopped

2 ounces white chocolate, melted

~ Directions ~

1.) Preheat oven to 350 (F) degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan then set aside (I also like to line the pan with parchment paper, leaving some hanging over the two long sides- this allows the bars to be pulled out of the pan after baking for easier cutting).

2.) In a medium bowl add the flour, powdered ginger, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set bowl aside.

3.) In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, and orange zest and mix well. Gradually add the flour mixture and blend until combined.

4.) Stir in cranberries and white chocolate. Pour the batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.

5.) Bake 25-30 minutes, until edges are light brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6.) Prepare frosting by beating the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and orange extract. Beat about 1 minute until fully incorporated.

7.) Assemble dessert by spreading the frosting onto the baked and cooled bars. Sprinkle additional cranberries on top. Drizzle melted white chocolate on top as desired.

Mom and I enjoy the Food Network - big surprise for a foodie family. Saturday mornings are often spent watching our favorite line up while on the phone with each other - kind of like cartoons for kids. A few weeks ago a Deen Family Christmas aired. It was hilarious! Her family visited her dressed up as elves as they prepared an amazing meal. We decided to make slow cooked roast with herb sauce and twice-baked shrimp stuffed potatoes. Check out Paula's food network site for the recipes.

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

Peppermint Fudge Cupcakes

Merry Christmas!

I love peppermint desserts for Christmas. When I found this recipe on the Our Best Bites blog I was sold. I decided to make the cupcake version instead of the jars. Maybe next year I'll try the jars. The recipe is very easy and does not require a mixer! I chose to double the recipe again because I was feeling the Christmas spirit. Well that and my coworker asked twice if I was bringing cupcakes in this week.

No real hiccups this time. I practiced the "cone method" again for the ganache. I went with the pairing knife this time and felt like my skills are improving. One coworker sliced her cupcake in half and you could really see the yummy ganache center.

I decided to be a little creative with my decorating too. You will have lots of ganache left over especially if you make 24 and I did not want it to go to waste. (Fingers crossed for the rest of the ganache I stuck in the fridge!) So some cupcakes have a ganache center and topping. Ooohhh! Then I added red, green, and white sprinkles before the ganache set. Target had cute snowflake cupcake liners and toppers in the dollar spot so I used the toppers for the white cupcakes. Chocolate buttercream was still lurking in the freezer from Thanksgiving and I like how it looks with white sugar pearls. So fancy! Lol. I plan to try the tip for swirling two icing colors they explained in the blog post soon - may look nice on some red velvet cupcakes.

I'm getting all professional with transporting these jokers. I'm taking some cupcakes to my hair stylist so I purchased Wilton four count boxes. They are so cute! When you stack the boxes the cupcakes line up.

Peppermint Fudge Cupcake JarsRecipe by Our Best Bites
Makes approximately 8 jars or 12 Cupcakes

Cupcakes (cake base for this dessert adapted from Shelly Kaldunski)

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 oz chocolate, chopped.  (or abt 1/2 C chips) Use bittersweet, dark, or semi-sweet.
1/2 C + 3 Tbs real butter, cut into pieces
3/4 C plus 2 Tbs sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 8oz wide mouth mason jars (the short squatty kind)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted and smooth.   Set mixture aside and let cool 10-15 minutes.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  Using a wooden spoon (don’t use an electric mixer) stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture until combined.  Stir in the eggs one and a time, beating with your spoon until combined after each addition, and then beat in the vanilla.  Gently fold in the flour mixture just until no traces of flour remain; do not overmix.

Place the mason jars on a cookie sheet.  Divide the mixture evenly among the 8 jars (no need for greasing the jars) or 12 cupcake liners if you’re going that route.  The jars should be about half full or a little less.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the jar comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached 22-25 minutes.   Remove from oven and carefully (with a pot-holder!) transfer jars to a cooling rack.  Let jars cool till at least close to room temperature before topping with ganache.

Peppermint Ganache
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate (chocolate chips are fine)
1/2 C heavy cream
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
Place chocolate chips in a bowl.  Heat cream in microwave until bubbles form around the outside.  Pour in bowl over chocolate chips and immediately cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let sit for 5 minutes, add peppermint extract and then whisk until smooth.  Let cool un-covered until thickened slightly, almost like a thin pudding.
To assemble, pour 1 1/2-2 Tbs ganache over the top of each cupcake jar.  If desired, use a paring knife to first hollow out a well in the middle of the cake.  Tilt jars to distribute ganache evenly over the top of the cake and then let cool for the ganache to set.  If storing overnight, place lids and rings on jars and leave at room temperature.

Storage: Note that just because these are in jars does not mean they are shelf stable for extended periods of time.  Also, baked goods are always best fresh, that being said, here are a few storage options.
When fully made, store with lids on at room temp for a day or two.   If made up to the ganache step (before frosting) you can screw lids on and store in the fridge for 3-4 days, then frost right before gifting.  If you’d like to fully prepare them a day or two ahead of time, I would actually reverse the filling and topping.  Core out the center of the cupcakes and fill with frosting.  Place the “cap” of the cupcake back over the hole and then top the entire top with ganache and a sprinkling of candycane.  Store at room temp for 1-2 days or refrigerated for 3-4.

For my frosting - I added 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract to the Wilton buttercream recipe.

Be sure to check out the Our Best Bites blog because they included printable labels for the mason jars.

Winter Wonderland

Well another Alpha Gam Alumni function inspired me to make these "snow" cupcakes. This was my first year attending our annual Holiday Brunch and it was lots of fun. I love Christmas like most people but my idea of Christmas is not traditional. Snow people, snowflakes, gingerbread people and houses, and penguins are more my speed. Something about blue, white, and silver is just elegant in my opinion of course. In my search for blue Christmas cupcakes I found this Bakerella picture for inspiration.

I was considering baking Gingerbread Cupcakes but I was concerned that not everyone is a fan of gingerbread so I chose cinnamon instead. Back in my pumpkin phase I found a recipe on the Pink Parsley blog for Cinnamon Cupcakes with Pumpkin Icing that I did not get around to making. I began by baking these cupcakes with Mary Engelbreit  snowmen cupcake liners. Oh and I doubled the recipe so I could spread more Christmas cheer. The recipe says to add buttermilk to melted butter. I let the butter cool a bit but was still concerned about combining the two ingredients. As suspected I ended up with a lumpy mess. Luckily my mom was helping and she reassured me that the heat of the mixer would dissolve the lumps. Not sure about that theory but the lumps eventually disappeared. I must say the cupcakes were perfect - great cinnamon flavor and moist!

Next it was time to make icing. Of course I made Wilton Buttercream thin icing which I used to frost about half of the cupcakes. I had some light blue almost teal in the freezer and added a few drops of blue to get that blue Christmas color I love for the rest of the cupcakes. Also, in the fridge was some purple and again I added a couple drops of blue to make it darker. Don't judge me for reusing icing people! There is nothing wrong with it.

For the snowmen I piped three white "dots" with a round tip. Of course the dots get bigger in size like real snowmen. Next I used a knife to gently touch the icing and quickly pull up to create an uneven fluffy snow look. Hope you followed that explanation! Haha. I mean HoHoHo. Then with the dark blue I piped a scarf and hat. No snowmen is the same so each hat is slightly different on purpose. With black sparkle gel I added buttons, eyes, and a smile. Well I tried to make it a smile at least. Orange sparkle gel made a cute carrot nose! I added a few sugar pearls around the snowmen to look like falling snow. Brrrrrrrr!!!

My plan was to decorate some with raw sugar. This was my first time to purchase raw sugar and I chose the wrong kind!!! For future reference "sugar in the raw" is BROWN not WHITE. One of my friends said I should have just went with the brown to make it look more realistic. Sorry but I wanted fresh, clean fallen snow not dirty brown snow! My mom tried to dust some with regular sugar and it made the blue cupcakes sparkle a little. We sprinkled some with sugar pearls to add glamour. Lol.

Snowflakes are a little complicated at least for me anyway. I piped dark blue on white cupcakes and white icing on the blue cupcakes with a small round tip. Everyone said they looked great but the perfectionist in me expected better. Oh well.

All my Alpha Gam sisters seemed impressed with my skills. One sister asked "who made the cupcakes?" and the other replied "Jen, she is our chef." I was informed that it is now expected for me to bring cupcakes to our events.  Love it!

Here is what I decorated with:
- black sparkle gel
- orange sparkle gel
- white sugar pearls (you can use nonpareils too)
- white icing
- blue Christmas icing
- dark blue icing

Cinnamon Cupcakes
adapted from Annie's Eats, originally from A Southern Grace
makes 12

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. grated orange zest (optional)
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with liners, and spray with cooking spray.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Melt the butter and combine with buttermilk. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the sugar and eggs until a thick batter forms, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and orange zest, and mix until combined. Mix in the flour mixture until just combined, and then do the same with the butter and milk mixture.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full, and bake 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before icing.

Happy Holidays!!!