40th Anniversary Cupcakes

My parents 40th wedding anniversary is today. Over the weekend we celebrated by having lunch at the Atlanta Fish Market and checking out the Frida and Diego exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Of course I made cupcakes for the celebration. I baked my go to vanilla cake recipe and frosted with Wilton buttercream. May not be able to tell in the pictures but I piped various designs of rosettes. My first time making cupcake toppers was a success for the most part. I located a free template online and customized it for my parents initials and wedding date.







J+G 4/8/73



Cupcakes for Two

Sometimes you just want two cupcakes instead of 12, 16, or 24. Little easier on the waist line this way thanks to 52 Kitchen Adventures blog. You don't even need a mixer! It could not have been simpler. The two little cupcakes were so cute sitting in their cupcake wells and of course they tasted great too. Next time you want something to share with a sweetie or to indulge by yourself consider making these chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream frosting!

Nutella Cupcakes for Two

Ingredients

• Two Chocolate Cupcakes
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
• 1/8 teaspoon + 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/16 teaspoon salt
• 1/16 teaspoon instant coffee powder (optional, but recommended)
• 3 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Nutella Frosting
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2-1 teaspoon milk

Instructions

1. Prepare the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cupcake pan with 2 paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and instant coffee together.
3. Add milk, oil, and vanilla and whisk until just combined.
4. Evenly divide the batter into the 2 lined cupcake wells (mine were almost 3/4 full).
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Set aside to cool.
7. Prepare the Nutella Frosting:
8. Beat butter and Nutella until smooth.
9. Add powdered sugar and mix until combined.
10. Add vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon of milk, then mix until incorporated. Add additional milk if necessary to achieve desired consistency.
11. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

It is that time of year again! Pumpkin season!!! One of my friends requested coffee cupcakes and I had a coffee frosting recipe that I decided to spice up. Haha! The recipe calls for instant coffee and I added Starbucks Pumpkin Spice instant coffee instead. My recipe was flawed because it called for only a quarter cup of confectioners' sugar. I don't remember where I found this recipe but I knew I needed more sugar. Most frosting recipes call for 4 to 5 cups of powdered sugar. Not sure exactly how much sugar I used but just add enough until it is spreadable. I frosted chocolate cupcakes because for some reason in my head chocolate and coffee go together.

Coffee frosting:
Ingredients:
8 tablespoons of butter (room temperature)
2-4 cups of confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup of milk

3/4 teaspoon of instant coffee

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1. Heat milk for 30 seconds in the microwave and then add instant coffee and salt. Whisk the mixture until the coffee is dissolved.

2. Beat butter in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. 

3. Reduce mixer speed to low.  Add confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating for a few seconds between each addition.  Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes. 

4. Add the coffee mixture and beat on low speed to combine. 

5. Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl.  Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until fluffy.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

I love chocolate and raspberry as a flavor combination!!! At Christmas my mom is always stuffing my stocking with Ghirardelli raspberry squares. And now Mars company is meeting my craving needs with dark chocolate and raspberry M&Ms. When I read Diane's recipe I knew I had to give it a try!

My first challenge was to locate raspberry extract. For some reason I thought I saw some at Publix a while back and oh was I wrong. (Always seems to be the case when trying to eliminate multiple stops on the way home.) Michael's is across the street from my Publix so I gave them a ring to only be let down. Luckily not a mile from my house is a fabulous store called Cake Art and they have almost everything you need for baking including raspberry extract. I say almost because while I was there I asked them to order University of Georgia baking pans. If you are not a Bulldog fan, then they do have everything you need!

The recipe is a doctored cake mix which is a good thing when trying to save time over a long holiday weekend. (I baked these over my 5 day Labor Day weekend.) All went well with the cupcakes. Then came the icing! My mom and I contemplated whether or not to leave out the raspberry jello in the icing. Needless to say it tastes a little gritty. Not sure if we should have mixed it longer. The next day when I shared some with my small group the icing had a more pleasing texture. It is up to you if you want to experiment with jello in frosting. Next time I will leave it out. With all my baking experiences there are bound to be some failures. Doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist. Let's just say my parents, coworkers, and small group were not complaining when it came time for the taste test!

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Raspberry M&M’s

Ingredients

• 1 Chocolate Cake Mix (Betty Crocker’s Devils Food)
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons raspberry jello*
• 1 teaspoon raspberry extract

Raspberry Frosting

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup shortening
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons raspberry extract and 3 tablespoons raspberry jello*
• 3 tablespoons milk
• Beat butter and shortening, add in sugar, milk and extract and coloring. Mix until smooth and creamy.

Instructions

1. Prepare cake mix with butter and milk instead of oil and water that it suggests and add eggs one at a time until incorporated.
2. Place mix in cupcake lined cupcake pan and bake according to package and oven temperature. Test cupcakes at minimum time to be sure they won’t be dry. I bake mine at 325 degrees as mine pans are dark and my cupcakes are finished at the minimum time it suggests.

Sweet Dee's Bakeshop

Tucker, GA  has a cupcake shop!!! I didn't think I would ever see the day. They have spent a lot of money revitalizing downtown Tucker to include sidewalks, benches, and new lamp posts. So fancy! This sleepy train town is coming to life!

Sweet Dee's Bakeshop is an adorable little space. I went a few weeks ago and created my own cupcake but I ate it before snapping a picture. Whoops! I had a chocolate cupcake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. It was delish!!! Thus far they are the only ones I've encountered that have a "create your own cupcake" option. Each day they have a different selection of cupcakes, icing, filling, and toppings. Once you make your selection they make your cupcake right in front of you!
Friday night I took my mom in and we each got our own cupcake. She chose a lemon cupcake and let me sample it. Wow was it lemon! I'm still trying to figure out how they got the icing so lemon. I selected a chocolate and peanut butter cupcake. The Reese's pieces on top lured me in. (And yes Reese's pieces make me think of E.T. - I'm a big fan). I was slightly disappointed. This was my first time trying a peanut butter cupcake and I guess I didn't know what to expect. I love peanut butter so maybe my expectations were too high. Oh well! Now I know. Next time I'll have to get my very own lemon cupcake.

The next time you are craving a cupcake and happen to be near the Tucker area, swing on by to Sweet Dee's Bakeshop!

S'more Cupcakes

I love s'mores so much so that I typically make them in the microwave. That is not the best way but I'm rarely by a camp fire. Well, actually I'm never by a camp fire because camping is not my thing. Anyway, I just had to try s'more cupcakes! I baked up some chocolate cupcakes, frosted them with marshmallow creme, sprinkled some graham crackers on top, and the final most important part was a Hershey's chocolate square.

Let me just warn you, in case you didn't know, that marshmallow creme is STICKY! And it gets everywhere so beware. The frosting recipe is another one of Betty Crocker's sure things. Don't put the marshmallow creme jar in the microwave as instructed - Jet Puff now sells a plastic jar instead of glass. I halved this recipe because I only had 10 cupcakes (don't even ask what happened to the other 14..hehe) and it worked perfectly! I sampled some of the frosting and felt like I needed to schedule a dentist appointment ASAP. Wow! The powdered sugar and the marshmallow is sweet! To quote one of my fav Food Network personalities, Jamie Deen, "ooooooo dawgies". Not sure if Jamie actually uses the University of Georgia spelling of dog but he is a Bulldog fan so it just seems right.  Go Dawgs!!! Sick 'em. I mean gee wow those cupcakes are delicious.

The weather was dark and stormy when it came time for these guys to have a close up so the pictures are not amazing. I didn't even bother pulling out my Nikon because I knew with the lighting situation that my iphone would do the job.

My small group and coworkers raved about these cupcakes. One of my small group members even said that these are her favorite because she is not a huge frosting fan. Success!

These cupcakes were the perfect treat for such gloomy weather but you could make them anytime you are craving that s'more and camp fire feel. (For the non camping folks like me - just bake it whenever...lol!)

Hamburger Cupcakes

After I completed the Wilton cake decorating class last year I discovered the idea of making hamburger cupcakes and filed it away for later. Well my dad loves hamburgers so I decided to make these for him.

I opted to bake vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from a box. After baking the vanilla cupcakes top them with sesame seeds. Cut the vanilla cupcake in half. Then cut the chocolate cupcakes in half or thirds for the "meat". Pipe red frosting on one end of the vanilla cupcake and yellow frosting on the other end with a large or small round tip. Some bakers added tinted green coconut for lettuce but I'm not crazy about coconut. But I did add a dollop of vanilla frosting to the center of each cupcake to help the cupcakes stick to each other since the "mustard" and "ketchup" are only on the edges.

The end result looks like sliders which kind of plays with your mind because the taste is sweet. Happy Grilling!