Mochaccino Cupckaes

Let me just start this post by sharing my complete and utter gratitude for the existence of coffee. It is the perfect drink in any form. Black, iced, lattes, cappuccinos, you name it, I love it. The taste is magical and the caffeine effects are miraculous. Until the withdrawal headaches come on. This term has been a little crazy and my coffee drinking has gotten a little bit out of control. Cutting myself off of caffeine cold turkey might have been a hasty decision but I figured it was the easiest way to get my coffee drinking back under control. While I was in the midst of this little caffeine cleanse, I had a little lapse in judgement. I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to make mochaccino cupcakes during this dark time. But I did, and I can't say I'm upset about it. Even though I slipped up a little on my coffee detox, I don't regret a thing. They were delightful. I made these cupcakes for a co-worker who so generously helped cover a shift for me and I brought them on our DDS camping trip! Thanks, Jordo! This recipe was adapted from Better Homes and Gardens.

My lovely DDS fam eating cupcakes at tent event!

MOCHACCINO CUPCAKES:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 t salt

1/4 t baking powder

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 sticks butter

2 eggs

2 cups sugar

Splash of vanilla

1 cup STRONGLY brewed coffee (cooled)

1/2 cup milk

4 Dark chocolate hershey bars  broken into pieces (or your favorite dark chocolate)

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Stir in the vanilla. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the coffee and milk until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Gently fold in the chocolate pieces, being careful to not overwork the batter. Divide the batter among lined cupcake tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. 

CARMEL SYRUP (almost the same recipe as the carmel from my Chocolate Toffee Carmel Crunch Cupcakes:

3/4 cup sugar

5 T water

2/3 cup non-fat milk (I used almond milk because it is my latest obsession but regular milk will be fine)

A sprinkle of sea salt

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 milk. 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. This won't be a thick caramel. I wanted to make it thin so it wouldn't alter the consistency of the frosting but would still have that caramelly flavor. If you want a thicker caramel, replace the milk with 1/2 to 2/3 cup heavy cream.

COFFEE CARAMEL BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter ( room temperature)

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup STRONGLY brewed coffee

1/4 cup carmel syrup, or to taste and texture

Beat the butter until fluffy. Carefully add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Slowly add the coffee and caramel syrup to the buttercream and beat until combined. There is a lot of liquid in this buttercream so you made need to add a little more powdered sugar to achieve a thicker frosting. Spoon or pipe onto your completely cooled cupcakes!

These were the perfect little pick me up. The coffee flavor was delicious and I didn't even feel bad about consuming the coffee. The caffeine was cooked out when I baked them, right? That's what I keep telling myself so I hope it's true! I felt like I should have been sitting in a little European cafe overlooking some beautiful monument while I was eating these. They just felt so regal.

I hope these cupcakes do the justice for coffee it deserves. I certainly thought they did!

Enjoy friends!

xoxo, 

KG

Neapolitan Cupcakes

I have always had trouble making up my mind. Making decisions is just not my strong suit. Simply picking what I want when I go out for dinner is a task. (I just about lost ALL of my marbles when trying to pick a college). I try to avoid decisions as much as possible. If I have the choices of vanilla, chocolate, or swirl frozen yogurt, I'll totally pick swirl. It's like not having to make a decision at all! Plus it tastes so much better than just plain ol' vanilla or chocolate. Because of this, I was always intrigued by Neapolitan ice cream. You can have 3 flavors for the price of 1! Plus it looked so nice with the strips of pink, brown, and white all lined up in the carton. So, I  decided to do the same thing with my cupcakes. 3 flavors, 1 cupcake. And let me tell you, they were one of the best decisions I have ever made. These cupcakes were so much fun. They looked cool and tasted great! We sold these at a rotaract bake sale for "pennies for polio".

Some lovely Rotaracters with lots of baked goods for a good cause!

NEAPOLITAN CUPCAKES:

1 1/2 cup flour

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt 

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

Splash of Vanilla

3 T Seedless strawberry jam

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 cup milk

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Mix in the vanilla. Slowly add the flour and milk until totally combined. 

Separate the batter equally into 3 bowls. Leave one of the bowls alone. This is going to be the vanilla part of the cake. In another bowl, add the strawberry jam and mix until combined. In the last bowl, beat in the cocoa powder. 

In lined cupcake tins, layer the batters, being cautious to not mix them together (the color of these cupcakes can get pretty gross really fast). Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry

Vanilla

Chocolate

Slurp

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter (room temp)

3 cups powdered sugar

Generous splash of vanilla

1 generous squeeze of honey

1 T heavy cream

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, honey, and vanilla slowly until combined. Add the cream to bring the frosting together. Whip until the buttercream is thick and fluffy. Spoon or pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.

These cupcakes were totally yummy. The honey in the frosting gives it a nice little zing but it doesn't really give it a honey flavor. I loved the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors. It was just a fun cupcake! I've been feeling a little creative with my piping lately so look out for some new piping experimentation in the future!

If only every decision was as easy as picking a cupcake recipe!

xoxo,

KG

 

Shirley Temple Cupcakes

In my opinion, shirley temples are the quintessential kid drink. They taste so good and digging the cherries out from the bottom of the glass with the straw was a beloved tradition. My sister and I used to get shirley temples anytime we went out to eat when we were little. We both LOVED the cherries and had totally different ways of eating them. My mom gets the BIGGEST thrill teasing me about it. I would always save the best for last. I would drink the shirley temple slowly, to make it last throughout my meal, and then finally, when both my meal and my drink were gone, I would savor the one or two cherries left in my glass. Grace, on the other hand, would eat all of her precious cherries right away, and then ask for more. Don't ask me why I never changed my ways. She clearly had the better technique. Since those days, I have lost my zest for maraschino cherries, but I have definitely not lost my zest for shirley temples. SO, when I found out my new little in APO liked shirley temples as well, I knew I had to whip up some shirley temple cupcakes for her. Unfortunately, since I had to be sneaky with my shirley temple cupcake gifts, I couldn't take a picture of her eating them:(. But not to worry, Marissa and Qdoba Brian were able to save the day and indulge in some cupcakes for the picture. The original recipe came from Armen Atoyan.

My friends are so weird.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE CAKE:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 stick butter, at room temp

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sprite

Splash of vanilla

1/4 cup grenadine

Red food coloring

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend until combined. Beat in the vanilla. Mix in the flour mixture and sprite just until combined. The batter will look a little curdled because of the sprite, but no need to worry about it. 

Remove 1/2 cup batter and place in a separate bowl. Add several drops of red food coloring and and grenadine until combined and a rich red color. Place about 1 tablespoon of the red batter in the bottom of each lined cupcake tin. Fill the rest of the way with the white batter and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

CHERRY BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

Splash of vanilla

1/4 cup grenadine

Beat the butter until fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until combined and thick. Add the vanilla and grenadine and whip until creamy and combined. The grenadine is to taste, so add more or less if you'd like. Spoon or pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.

These shirley temple cupcakes were a nice little childhood throwback. They were a lovely addition to the weird 90s nostalgia I have been experiencing lately, especially with my recent purchase of new roller-blades.  I loved how springy the carbonation from the sprite made these cupcakes. I'll be honest though, these were a little on the bland side. Despite adding all sorts of extra grenadine and sprite, it didn't seem to really do much to enhance the taste. I really like the idea of cherry frosting though, so I want to experiment with some other ways to get that intense cherry flavor. 

Happy slurping, friends!

xoxo,

KG

Shortbread Butterscotch Cupcakes

I love baking cupcakes. Duh, right? If I didn't, this blog wouldn't exist. But seriously, not only are they delicious, they have so many other benefits besides the individually-sized sugary goodness. I mentioned in my Mint Chocolate Chip post how much more willing people are to help you out when you are known for thanking them with a heaping plate of cupcakes. My newest cupcake revelation is in regards to recognition. Since I started the blog, I have begun to develop a much broader range of tasting subjects for my cupcakes. Because my theme for the blog is taking pictures of the people who eat my cupcakes, I have started to bake a lot more for the different groups I belong to on campus. I am always the first to volunteer to bake for meetings and gatherings so new people are constantly eating my cupcakes and I am starting to become more widely known for them. Not to make it sound like my apartment smells of rich mahogany and leather bound books, but it is just sort of nice to have developed this little cupcake queen title among my friends and colleagues. I can't help but feel pretty good about my cupcake skills when I hear of people telling their friends about me. I even had a friend who was inspired enough to try on of my recipes on her own! Who knew baking cupcakes came with such a confidence boost? Anyways. Now that I'm off of my high horse, let's talk about the recipe for this post. Since I love bringing cupcakes to new people and events, I decided to bring some banana shortbread cupcakes with butterscotch buttercream to a little gathering for APO. I have had this nagging urge to incorporate shortbread into a cupcake for a while now. A nice crunchy, buttery layer on the bottom of the cupcake just sounded like the best idea and I am so glad I tried it.

Kyle and Kristina with their cupcakes at brother interview potluck!

SHORTBREAD:

2 sticks butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

splash of vanilla

1/4 t salt

1T heavy cream

Cream the butter and sugar together until they are just combined. Add the vanilla, flour, salt, and cream and beat until combined. Kneed the dough until it sticks together, but don't over kneed. Press the shortbread dough into lined cupcake tins, about a centimeter thick.

BANANA CAKE:

This recipe is one I have used previously in my Banana Cupcakes. I haven't worked much with butterscotch so I wasn't really sure what flavors would go well with it. So I figured banana wouldn't be bad.

1 1/2 Cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 stick of butter, melted
4 ripe bananas, smushed and mashed to a gloopy mess
2 eggs
2 T vanilla
1 t cinnamon

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a little well in the bowl and add the melted butter, eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Stir to combine but don't over mix the batter. Divide the batter among the cupcake tins, over the shortbread. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

BUTTERSCOTCH BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

splash of vanilla

1 Bag butterscotch chips

In a double boiler, melt the butterscotch chips. They don't really melt as much as they just get kind of pasty. Set aside to cool. Beat the butter until fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until smooth and fluffy. Slowly add the melted butterscotch to the mixture and mix until well combined and delicious. The butterscotch, like all of the extras in my buttercream recipes, is to taste. If you want the frosting to be super butterscotch-y like me, use the whole bag. The frosting was super sweet when I used the whole bag, so if you are looking for something less intense, cut down on the butterscotch.

I must say, I was a big fan of these. Since I had no experience working with shortbread and little experience with butterscotch, aside from my passion for butterscotch pudding when I was little, these cupcakes were definitely a challenge. But a welcomed challenge, nonetheless. My suspicion of banana and short bread pairing well together was spot on. I was really happy with the result and I am totally going to use more butterscotch in my recipes!

Until next time, my friends!

xoxo,

KG