Oatmeal Craisin Cupcakes

I'm in Colorado! Whoop Whoop! Happy Spring Break! I'm so happy to be back in the Colorado sunshine. Elise and I went hiking today up at Red Rocks and it was delightful! I've missed Colorado so much. After our hike, we decided to make some cupcakes. Ever since my Pie Cupcakes, I've wanted to try out some sort of oatmeal cupcakes. Elise's dad makes the BEST oatmeal craisin cookies and they gave me the inspiration for this recipe. Shout out to Dave Miller for making the best cookies ever. These were the best snack after our hike. The oatmeal made them feel almost healthy, even! We topped them with a vanilla, cinnamon, maple buttercream, which made them not-so healthy, but oh-so delicious. We had a little help from Gingerbread Bagels.

Such a wonderful morning!

OATMEAL CUPCAKES:

1 cup oats

1 1/1 cup boiling water

1 1/2 cups flour

1 t baking today

1/4 t salt

1 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

Splash of vanilla

2 eggs

A couple handfuls of craisins

Put the oats and boiling water in a small bowl and let the oats cook until cooled. In a separate bowl, sift he flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In yet another bowl beat the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and blend. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. Add the cooled oats to the butter mixture and blend on low speed. Slowly add the dry ingredients. Fold the craisins into the batter. Divide among lined cupcake tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

VANILLA, CINNAMON, MAPLE BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter

3 cups powdered sugar

Splash of vanilla

a couple shakes of cinnamon

Maple syrup 

The vanilla, cinnamon, and maple syrup are all to taste. If you want a more mapley buttercream, add more maple syrup. You might need to play with the powdered sugar amounts to get the right consistency with more maple syrup, etc. 

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and syrup and blend until thick and fluffy. Spoon or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

These cupcakes, though rather healthy tasting, were still so delicious. The maple and vanilla in the butter cream went really well with the cinnamon, brown sugary, oatmealy cake. These were perfect breakfast cupcakes. They weren't too sweet but were still really hearty. I will definitely make these again! Elise had the idea of not cooking the oats before baking the cupcakes so they would have a little crunch to them.

I have some Colorado sunshine to frolic in. Adios!

xoxo,
KG

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I am finally almost caught up on my posts from finals week! I had so much stress baking to do and not enough time to blog! I had a brief lapse in judgement when I made these cupcakes. I dropped Marissa off at the airport at 5:30 in the morning, but didn't want to fall back asleep because I had review sessions I wanted to wake up for. Getting up at 4:30 isn't necessarily conducive to waking up early for a less than exciting physics final review session. So instead of going back to sleep, I decided to bake cupcakes. At 6:00 AM. With an electric mixer. In an apartment with paper thin walls. Sorry to all of my neighbors for this. I can't be responsible for my actions at 6:00 AM after only one cup of coffee. In my defense, I made it to my review and these cupcakes were delightful. These cupcakes traveled 12 hours by bus and train with me to Spokane and they actually arrived relatively in tact! Amtrak Plug: The train is so cool. It takes years to get where you are trying to go but the ride is beautiful, and the train is so comfortable. There is so much leg room! 

Stunning right?

Ben and his buddies with their cupcakes! It was such a fun weekend!

LEMONADE CAKE:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

Splash of vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

Zest and juice of 1 large lemon

1/2 cup milk

Beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and lemon juice. Beat until combined. Divide among lined muffin tins and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

RASPBERRY FROSTING:

1 1/2 sticks butter

3 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup frozen raspberries (thawed)

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and blend until combined. Using a hand blender, or a regular blender, mash the raspberries to a messy pulp. Run the raspberries through a sieve or cheesecloth to get rid of the seeds. (Some people like the seeds, but I don't like how they get stuck in my teeth) Add the raspberries to the mixture. This is to taste so add how ever much you want. I ran out of raspberries and 6:30 wasn't really an optimal time to go get more. Instead, I used about 2 tablespoons of strawberry jelly (because I didn't have raspberry jelly either). Whip the mixture until smooth and thick. Spoon or pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes!

Delicious. These were so light and summery and I will definitely make them again but with different fruits. Blueberry lemonade or peach lemonade cupcakes also sound totally divine. One of my favorite restaurants in Eugene features a lavender lemonade that is simply to die for. Maybe when I'm feeling extra adventurous I'll try my hand at lavender lemonade cupcakes. 

Until next time!

xoxo,

KG

RED BULL Cupcakes

Finals. So exhausting. I'm so happy to be done with them and home and sleeping in and baking cupcakes as often as I want. I obviously had some stress baking to do to keep my nerves in line and to keep my sanity during this crazy week. I LOVE red bull. It is so delicious, not to mention the caffeine effects are to die for. BUT, I cut myself off this term cold turkey because red bull is SO bad for you. In honor of finals week, however, I decided red bull cupcakes were totally in order. This easy recipe was perfect for the exhausting week and these cupcakes were a delicious treat.

Cheetah just elbows deep in physics. These were the perfect study snack!

CAKE:

1 1/2 Sticks butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

Splash of vanilla

2 cups flour

2 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/3 cup milk

6 oz Red Bull

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend until combined. Mix in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk and red bull to the butter mixture. Blend until combined. Divide the batter among lined cupcakes tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

FROSTING:

1 1/2 sticks butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 oz red bull

Beat the butter until fluffy and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add the red bull and blend until think and creamy. Spoon or pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes. 

I wanted to make these cupcakes as elegant as possible because red bull is the most elegant of energy drinks. It seems to be the least radioactive of all energy drinks so I wanted these to be as crisp as possible. But red bull is fun so I dusted them with a little blue sugar. 

The carbonation from the red bull made these cupcakes super springy, which was a nice change of pace. Usually I like my cupcakes pretty dense but these were delicious. The red bull flavor was light and scrumptious as ever. I'm a BIG fan of these. I want to try some new recipes with with carbonation. I really liked the consistency of these cupcakes. 

I hope these cupcakes give you wings!

xoxo,

KG

Tiramisu Cupcakes

It seems like a million years since I have posted. I think I'm about 4 recipes behind on the blog from being swamped with finals so I'm excited to be able to finally sit down and update it! Anyways, Tiramisu cupcakes. Yum. I love tiramisu. It is so spongy and coffee-y and creamy and one of my favorite desserts. So when there was an opportunity to bake for the APO bake sale, I decided I wanted to make these tiramisu cupcakes. They were delightful and so much more individually sized than a big honking piece of it. I was a big fan of these. The original recipe came from one of my favorite bloggers, Brown Eyed Baker

Some lovely APO brothers at the bake sale

CAKE:
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 cup milk
Splash of vanilla
4 T butter (Room Temp., cut into pieces)
3 Whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla in a small saucepan until bubbles form on the edges of the pot. Remove from the heat, and whisk in the butter until completely melted and combined. Let cool for 10 minutes. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar at medium speed. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk until sugar is dissolved, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and beat on high until the mixture is fluffy, thick, and pale yellow in color. Gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Fold the milk mixture in, but only until combined. Don't over mix. Divide the batter among a lined cupcake tin and bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the syrup.

COFFEE SYRUP:
1/3 cup strongly brewed coffee
1/4 cup sugar

Over medium heat, whisk together the coffee and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool until syrup is thick. Brush over cooled cupcakes and let the syrup seep into the cupcakes for about 30 minutes before frosting.

FROSTING:
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. mascarpone cheese at room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar

On medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix the mascarpone and powdered sugar until smooth. Very gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. Use immediately so the whipped cream doesn't collapse.

Not my best looking cupcakes. The whipped cream collapsed while folding it into the mascarpone

This recipe was super delicious despite the frosting not looking very good. I dusted mine with a little cocoa powder to try to spice up their look a bit but it wasn't too successful. I don't work with whipped cream frosting often, so with a little practice, hopefully these cupcakes will be prettier. Regardless, they tasted delightful and I will definitely make them again. 

Happy Spring!!

xoxo,
KG

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, guys! I've sort of been on a "bake cupcakes for the relevant holiday" lately. On March 15th, my dad wished me a happy Ides of March. Having never read Julius Caesar, I didn't know what the Ides of March was and immediately went into panic because I hadn't thought of any sort of cupcake for the holiday. Luckily, the Ides of March is when Brutus stabbed the holy smokes out of Caesar and that just doesn't really call for any sort of celebratory cupcakes. Saint Patrick's Day, however, totally does. So I made some Irish Car bomb cupcakes. An Irish car bomb is half of a shot of Irish Whiskey and a half of a shot of Irish cream, dropped into Guinness and chugged before you keel over from the disgustingness of it. I have never actually had one but it sounds absolutely terrible. So instead, I incorporated the drink recipe into a cupcake recipe. Guinness infused chocolate cupcakes with irish whiskey ganache and irish cream buttercream. Just your everyday alcoholic cupcakes. They were pretty delicious too and I only ran into one major problem: my bank account. I have always heard "only cook with wine you would drink". I'm assuming this goes for liquor too. As a college student though with meager pickings in my bank account, my interpretation of "only cook with liquor you would drink" is WAY more lenient than the chefs I have heard preach these words... Though I'm sure these cupcakes could have been much better had I had sufficient funding for nicer liquor, they were still pretty darn delicious. The original recipe came from Will Cook For Friends.

Alex and the brethren Vallejos just enjoying some cupcakes on a uniquely sunny day in the Eug

CAKE:

1 cup Guinness Stout

2 Sticks butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups flour

2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 t baking soda

3/4 t salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup plain yogurt

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the beer and butter to a simmer. Once it is simmering, whisk the cocoa into the pot. Remove from the heat when the mixture is smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In yet another bowl, combine the eggs and yogurt and beat to combine. Poor the cooled chocolate beer mixture into the egg bowl and beat. slowly add the dry ingredient, mixing on low until completely combined. Divide among a lined muffin tin and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool.

GANACHE:

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1-2 T irish whiskey

Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan to almost boiling. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips and mix vigorously until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the whiskey, keeping in mind A LOT GOES A LONG WAY, and mix to combine. 

Once the cupcakes have cooled, hollow out the center with a small knife (I like paring knives), and pipe or spoon the ganache in the center of the cupcake. I find piping to be a bit easier since it can be a little sticky.

IRISH CREAM BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 Sticks butter at room temp.

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup irish cream (or just to taste really)

Beat the butter until fluffy and slowly add the powdered sugar until combined and smooth. Add the irish cream and beat to incorporate. This is sort of a taste thing. The irish cream can get a little zippy in the back of your throat so use as much or as little as you want. Pipe onto your already cooled and ganched cupcakes!

I sprinkled mine with green sugar. Just place some granulated sugar in a bowl or ziplock bag and put a few drops of food coloring in and mix it around until the sugar is all green. These cupcakes were way better the next day. Once all of the alcohol had a chance to sort of settle, they were much better and didn't have quite as much of a twang. They just needed to merry up a bit overnight like leftover italian food. They were definitely delicious though.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

xoxo,

KG

Pi day disasters

HAPPY PI DAY (3/14)! I love pi day. It is just about the geekiest holiday to exist and as a self proclaimed nerd, I revel in it. In honor of pi day, I had to make some sort of pie cupcakes. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about this baking endeavor. My ONLY task at thanksgiving last year was to bake a pecan pie. I think I would have executed it perfectly had I not BURNT IT TO A CRISP. BLACK AS NIGHT PECAN PIE. Granted, there was a big fat mashed potato fiasco happening simultaneously and anyone could have forgotten the pie in the oven. Whoops. So instead of doing this pie recipe on my own, I decided I needed to do a little recruiting. I have two favorite pies in the whole world. My Uncle Rich makes the best apple pie know to man kind. It is the food I most look forward to when we go to New Jersey for Thanksgiving. On the other hand, Ben's mom is just an incredible baker in general and makes the most divine mixed berry pie ever. I consulted with both of them and got the recipes to these delicious pies to see if I could come up with a cupcake from them. Since I couldn't decide what type of pie I wanted to make on this special occasion, I just made both. Thanks for the recipes!!

Trying to conjure up this cupcake recipe was really tricky. At first I was just going to make baby-sized pies in cupcake tins and call those cupcake pies. But that seemed like cheating. There wasn't any actual cupcake to it. I made "apple pie cupcakes" before I started this blog and they were delicious, but they didn't seem pie-y enough. They were just cinnamon cupcakes topped with caramelized apples. I wanted to incorporate a cakey batter, fruit, and the crispy pie crust.

This day was a sad time in my kitchen. This was my first cupcake recipe that was TOTALLY DISGUSTING. These cupcakes looked like toxic waste and were so soggy. I can't even provide a recipe because no one should ever have to come within 100 yards of them. But Charlotte and I had a blast making them as always.

The outside of the cupcakes looked WAY better than the inside.

The idea for the cupcakes was to make an oat-y, brown sugary batter sort of resembling a crumble of some sort that you would find on top of a pie. We filled the liners about half full with the batter (which was delicious and I have lots of ideas for some oat-y, brown sugary cupcakes now), filled the middle with a fruit-pie filling, and then surrounded the fruit with more batter. So far so good.

 Then we topped them with pie crust and baked them. 

This is where they get gross. The berries had too much water so when they were baking, the water just sopped out into the cake and made the most hideous mush. Not to mention a horrible color. The crust sort of just sat on top so they looked nice until the crust fell off... I can't even put a picture of the inside on here because they were so nasty.

Since they were totally inedible, we decided to take advantage of the nerdy day and pipe the phases of mitosis on them. But even that didn't work because the frosting wouldn't stick to the sugar on the crust. They were bad news.

We tried a lattice technique for the apples, which weren't quite as terrible and soggy, but they still weren't good by any means. 

I think I need to just stick to the things I know and let the real pie experts worry about pie. I hesitate to mention Rich and Sue in this post because I don't want to slander their good names as pie artists. They are good at pie. I am not. 

Oh well! On to the next! I still have plenty of recipes up my sleeve and this little disaster was probably necessary to keep me humble in my baking adventures.

And with that, I leave you with my favorite nerd joke of all time: Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says "I think I lost an electron". The other says "Are you positive?"

xoxo,

KG

Chocolate Toffee Carmel Crunch

I had the best surprise in the mail the other day. My dad usually sends me care packages corresponding to the nearest holiday, so when I found a big package in my mailbox from my dad with no holidays in the near future, I was a little perplexed. But nonetheless very excited because who doesn't like mail (sans bills and junk mail). After viciously tearing open the packaging, I found a new standing mixer! I was so excited. Marissa laughs at my passion for cooking utensils and appliances but not that much because she always gets cupcakes out of my new gadgets. Look how cute it is! Thanks, daddy!

 I was so stoked to use it so I whipped up, in my opinion, some of the most majestic looking cupcakes ever with my new accouterments. I was still in a chocolatey mood from the Cookie Dough Cupcakes so I made chocolate toffee crunch cupcakes with salted carmel buttercream. There are so many emotions right now: I'm pretty sure my arteries are clogged from these, the HUNDREDS of textures in this cupcake were to die for, and heath bars never get enough credit.

Just some cupcake bonding.

Weirdos.

The original recipe comes from Bakers Royale but naturally I made some changes.

CUPCAKE:

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 cup butter (melted)

2 eggs

Generous helping of vanilla

1/2 cup of hot, brewed coffee (mine was STRONG)

2 heath bars smashed to smithereens (apparently you can buy chocolate covered toffee bits in the grocery store but smashing candy bars was pretty fun. I'm sure my neighbor wishes I bought the pre-smashed toffee. Sorry 7B...)

Sift together the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat for about a minute (cue new mixer!). Add the coffee and beat until combined and the batter is smooth. Fold in the heath bars into the batter. Divide the batter among a lined cupcake tin and bake at 350 for about 19-20 minutes. Let them cool before doing any sort of decorating. In fact, I tossed them in the freezer to make sure they were extra cold before ganaching them. Speaking of ganache...

GANACHE/ TOPPING

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate but that is just my preference)

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 More Heath bars smashed to smithereens

Heat the heavy cream until almost boiling. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and stir like crazy until the chocolate is creamy and melted. Dip the cooled cupcakes in the ganache, making sure the top is totally coated. Roll the edges in the smashed heath bars. Place the cupcakes in the freezer so the ganache can harden a bit and the heath bars pieces can set.

SALTED CARMEL:

5 T water

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup heavy cream

A sprinkle of sea salt

Ok. Carmel is way tricky and can easily be botched. I have messed it up many times. So just be patient with the process. In a small saucepan heat the water and the sugar on low heat. Using a whisk, stir only until the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, crank up the heat to high and occasionally stir the mixture by swirling the pot by the handle, but don't stir it directly. The mixture will start to bubble and turn amber in color. This burns quickly so expect the correct amber-y color at about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the heavy cream. BE SO CAREFUL because this mixture tends to bubble and steam a lot. Keep stirring until you have acheived a smooth sauce. Mix in a baby bit of salt, just for a little kick. ANOTHER WARNING: This is SUPER hot. Don't do any sampling for a few minutes because you will singe your tongue right off. Toss the carmel in the fridge or freezer because you will want it cooled for the buttercream.

CARMEL BUTTERCREAM:

1 stick butter (room temp)

3 cups powdered sugar 

Vanilla (as much as your little heart desires, probably around 2 tablespoons)

The carmel you just made

Beat the butter until fluffy (again, in your snazzy new mixer). Add the powdered sugar in batches until combined and smooth. Add the vanilla and blend. Add the cooled carmel to taste. Since carmel has a pretty strong flavor, I started with small amount and added until I was happy with the taste. I think I used about 3 big scoops, though. Spoon or pipe onto the cooled, ganached cupcakes.

I drizzled the left over carmel over the buttercream, which totally threw the texture element over the top. The dense cake, crunchy toffee, creamy buttercream, and smooth carmel flowed so delightfully in this recipe. I think this is what professional chefs mean by layering flavors and textures because all of the different aspects of this cupcake worked really well together. 

These cupcakes were a bit over the top but SO worth it. I think this my favorite recipe so far. SO delicious. Props to Ariston for this sweet instagram photo.

Happy crunching/inhaling/etc.

xoxo,

KG

Chocolate Madness Dessert Confusion

Hi Guys. I have a bit of a confession to make. I am getting a bit cocky on the baking front. Ever since I figured out I can just make up my own recipe from scratch, I'm under the impression I can just throw a bunch of ingredients together willy nilly and come up with an awesome recipe. When it comes to cupcakes, I can usually manage since I know the dry ingredients to wet ingredients ratio, etc. But this recipe was a bit more complicated. KJ asked for chocolate cupcakes for his birthday but I didn't want to just make plain ol' chocolate cupcakes. I decided to throw in a little twist: COOKIE DOUGH. Chocolate chip cookie dough filled chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. SO MUCH CHOCOLATE! I had made cookie dough truffles before so I was just going to whip up something like that and drop them in the batter and bake them. Did I have any urge to use a recipe? No. Did I have any right to not use a recipe? No. I don't know anything about cookies or cookie dough. That's why I bake cupcakes. I wound up just adding a little bit of this and that and made the most awful tasting cookie dough to ever grace this lovely planet. So I just kept adding things (SUGAR) until it was acceptable for these cupcakes. So the recipe I'm providing for you today could taste exactly like the cupcakes I made or they could be completely different, but I'm sure they will still taste delicious.

Some semi-candid birthday cupcake love

CHOCOLATE CAKE:

This is just a simple chocolate cake recipe. It is the same one I used in my Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes.

CHOCOLATE CAKE: (This is just a basic chocolate cake recipe so if you have a favorite, use it!)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 t baking soda
3/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 t Vanilla
1/2 cup boiling water

Sift all of the dry ingredient in a large bowl. Add the egg, milk, canola oil, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the boiling water and stir until there aren't patches of water in the batter. This batter is a bit runny so I used a ladle to spoon it into the lined cupcake tin.

COOKIE DOUGH:

This is a recipe that looked most similarly to what I put in my cookie dough from The Galley Gourmet.

8ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips, plus extra for garnish
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch of kosher salt

Cream the butter and sugar together for about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla, flour, and salt and mix until combined. Fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Roll the dough into balls (1/2 inch in diameter) and freeze for two hours.

Once the cookie dough has been frozen, place one cookie dough ball in each cupcake slot. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Let these cool completely before frosting them.

CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter (room temperature)

3 Cups powdered sugar

Splash of Vanilla

2 Heaping Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

2 T milk or heavy cream

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in segments. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until light and fluffy. You could use more or less cocoa depending on your tastes. This frosting was delightfully chocolately. Spoon or pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.

These cupcakes were delicious. The cookie baked a little more than I was anticipating inside of the cupcake. If you are going for a super doughy filling, I'd add the cookie dough after baking the cake. Just spoon out the center and drop in a gooey ball of dough. If you are using this method, there isn't much need to freeze the dough. I gave them to KJ for his birthday and apparently he was rather unwilling to share with his roommates. He said these were his favorite recipe yet. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, KJ. Hopefully my next batch of cupcakes will surpass these extremely chocolatey bundles of madness.

It's March! Get out in the sun!

xoxo,

KG

It's Peaunt Butter Jelly Time

WHEW! Week 8 is over! Thank goodness. I am a stress baker. If anything is making me even the slightest bit anxious, I can usually calm my nerves by baking. If you know I'm stressed, come to my house because there will definitely be cupcakes. I can't guarantee any stimulating conversation, but you will get fed. This week was particularly stressful so not only did I bake some cupcakes, I went for the most comfort food-y cupcakes I could possibly think of. Peanut butter and jelly. It is the most comforting of all comfort foods, not to mention one of the most delicious. I went to the UK on a choir trip in seventh grade and we made sandwiches for lunch everyday to eat on our bus trips to different attractions and sightseeing excursions. Our bus driver had never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before so we made one for him. He couldn't have been happier with his sandwich and he asked for one everyday for the next two weeks. I think he probably ate a total of 50 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches over a span of 13 days. PB & J is just too delicious, and it is even better in cupcake form. This recipe came from Kokken 69, but there was some adapting to be done.

There is nothing like a Starbucks and cupcakes with buddies to put you in a good mood!

CUPCAKE:

1 3/4 Flour

1/4 t baking soda

3/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (room temperature)

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

Generous splash of vanilla

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup milk

Jelly in any flavor of your choosing

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Reduce the speed and beat in the peanut butter. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between additions. Add the vanilla and mix. Add the flour mixture in batches, alternating with additions of yogurt and milk. Beat until combined and super fluffy (like really whipped and airy almost). Fill lined cupcake tins about 1/4 full with batter. Add a generous dollop of whichever jelly you like on your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I used strawberry. Then add the remaining batter and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. I ran out of big cupcake liners (WOE IS ME!) so I made some mini cupcakes too. These were only baked for about 14 minutes As always, let them cool completely before frosting. In this case, eating too. The mini cupcakes are so much easier to just pop in your mouth right out of the oven. Don't do this unless you want third degree jelly burns on your tongue. I'm only assuming these cupcakes were good from the feedback from my friends. I actually can't taste anything because of my singed taste buds. Patience is truly a virtue.

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING:

6oz cream cheese (at room temperature)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

Splash of vanilla

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar slowly and beat until mostly combined. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the heavy cream and mix until fluffy. Spoon or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. I started piping but this frosting is pretty thick and the peanut butter makes it really sticky. I felt like I was channeling the hulk when piping the frosting so I switched to just spooning the frosting on. 

These cupcakes had the perfect balance. Not too light, not too dense. Not too dry, not soggy. They were delicious and the perfect comfort food. Next time, I think I want to bake the cupcakes with out the jelly and pipe it inside before frosting. The cupcakes that didn't get as much jelly tended to lose the gooeiness. Or I'll just use a lot more jelly. 

I have had that ridiculous dancing banana Peanut Butter Jelly song stuck in my head throughout this whole post. Sorry if you do too, now....

xoxo,

KG