For my Daddy's Birthday...

So I have all these incredible Black Raspberries that my daughter picked out of my papaw's garden... and I have a Daddy that loves chocolate cake and has his 60th birthday this weekend... so I had to come up with a Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake for the party.

I looked online but couldn't find anything that seemed just right so I modified a Chocolate Cherry Cupcake recipe that I love. And here it is:

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
*makes 12 cupcakes*

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup rasberries (with a little sugar sprinkled on them)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup strained raspberry puree (with 1/4 c sugar mixed in)

1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350F.
2) Line muffin pan with paper liners.
3) In a small bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
4) In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and oil. Mix in raspberries and vanilla. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and puree, making three additions of flour mixture and two of puree, beating until batter is smooth. Mix in chocolate chips and vinegar.
5) Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 22 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.

Chocolate Raspberry Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
1 Tsp vanilla
3 cups confectioners sugar
3 Tsp raspberry puree
2 Tsp milk

Directions:
1) In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir on cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add confectioners sugar. Beat well (it is extremely thick). Beat in puree and milk a teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved.

Now while they were really good, there was an issue with seeds. Next time I make them, I think I'll try using all raspberry puree instead of part puree and part whole raspberries. But we'll see.

Uh Oh... It's before noon...

So when a friend asks for a cupcake, I hop to it! My friend (sponsor), Jacque, mentioned Margarita Cupcakes the other day and my interest was piqued so I had to get on it straight away. And I gotta say they look awfully good!

So here's the recipe (which I got from Baking Bites):

Margarita Cupcakes (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World)

1/4 cup lime juice

1 1/2 tsp lime zest (1 lime)

1 cup soy milk (I used regular milk)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp tequila

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with liners. In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, lime zest, soy milk, oil , tequila, vanilla and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to lime mixture and stir until just combined. Divide evenly into muffin tins. Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Tequila and Lime Frosting

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tbsp milk

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp tequila

2+ cups confectioners’ sugar

coarse sugar for “rims”

Cream together butter, milk, lime juice, tequila, and 2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Add in more sugar as needed to make frosting stiff, but spreadable. Spread on cupcakes and roll the edges in a small amount of coarse, colored sugar (poured into a small bowl, so it’s easy to direct it.

As far as the sugar rim, I piped a little frosting around the edge, dipped it in sugar, and then piped the rest on. It was really easy that way. And, while I generally don't like buttercream frosting (at least the ones I've made), the frosting was INCREDIBLE!!!

One cupcake recipe I won't be trying...

I just don't get bacon cupcakes... Even when they're this pretty.

First casualty of the day...

As I was finishing up my brownie cupcakes this morning (probably more on that later), I broke ANOTHER mixer! Sheesh! I guess that's the danger of being the Cupcake Queen.

1 recipe 2 cupcakes...

So I found this awesome Key Lime Pie cupcake recipe. It's basically a graham cracker cupcake and then you swirl Key Lime Pie filling into it. I had tried the recipe back when I made the cupcakes for my cousin Steph's party and fell in love with them. But this time I did a little something different. I made a larger version of the cupcake recipe (not quite doubled though) and then split the recipe in half and made the Key lime out of half and made the other half into S'mores Cupcakes.

So here are the recipes:

Graham Cracker Cupcakes (originally from the Cupcake Project):

3/4 c butter

1 1/2 c sugar

4 1/2 eggs

1 1/2 c milk

1 1/2 c flour

2 1/4 c graham cracker crumbs

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar and beat till fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing 30 seconds after each addition. In another bowl, mix flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add 1/3 of the graham mixture to the butter mixture and beat just until mixed. Alternate milk and graham mixture ending with graham. Once mixed, split into two bowls.

For the Key Lime:

5 egg yolks

14 oz condensed sweetened milk

1/2 c key lime juice

a few drops green food coloring (optional)

Mix all that in a separate bowl and mix it into one bowl of the graham cracker cupcake batter. Don't fully mix it in. Just mix it so that there are basically globs of graham cracker batter and globs of key lime mixture.

Scoop the mixture into cupcake pans, making sure to get even amounts of graham and key lime. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Key Lime Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 c butter

2 c powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons key lime juice

4-5 c more powdered sugar

Green food coloring

Mix cream cheese and butter till light and fluffy. Mix in 2 c powdered sugar. Add juice and then the rest of the powdered sugar and food coloring (if desired). Top cooled cupcakes.

For the S'mores cupcakes:

To the other bowl of graham cracker batter add one bag of Milk Chocolate chunks. Scoop the batter into the cupcake pans and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

To frost the S'mores cupcakes:

I piped marshmallow fluff on the cupcakes with a pretty little star tip and my apartment is so warm that it quickly melted to the point that I coulda just scooped a spoonful onto the cupcakes and it woulda looked the same. Once the fluff is on the cupcakes, put them under the broiler in the oven until they brown.

And that's all there is to it! Although I should warn ya that the S'mores cupcakes are seriously messy! But yummy!

Who needs some cupcakes? I do! I do!

OK... so before my world went crazy, I was beginning my weekend the standard way... with cupcakes. I had a request for Chocolate Mint Cupcakes so I decided to give it a shot. And this:

is the result.

They are basically standard chocolate cupcakes with a Peppermint Patty in the middle and frosted with chocolate mint frosting, with a Junior Mint on top.

And now for the recipes...

For the cupcakes, I used the One-Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe from allrecipes.com. So here it is, with the changes I made.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake III

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups white sugar 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs 1 cup milk 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup boiling water Some mini Peppermint Patties

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour cupcake pans.
2.	In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pans and stick 1/2 to a whole Peppermint Patty in each cupcake.
3.	Bake 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing, I modified my favorite chocolate frosting, again from allrecipes.com.

Chocolate Frosting II

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 2 tablespoons milk 1/2 tablespoon mint extract

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in cocoa, mint extract, and vanilla. Place confectioners' sugar in a large bowl. Pour in cocoa mixture. Beat well (mixture will be extremely thick). Beat in milk, a teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.

Anyway, they were a big hit!

The first b-day cupcake recipe...

So Hunt wanted Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes for his birthday (along with two other kinds) and this is what I came up with.

For the cake, I went to allrecipes.com and found this recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups packed brown sugar 1 cup butter or margarine, softened 4 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup baking cocoa 1 tablespoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/3 cups sour cream

1 1/3 cups boiling water

DIRECTIONS:

1.

In a mixing bowl, cream brown sugar and butter. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add alternately with sour cream to creamed mixture. Mix on low just until combined. Stir in water until blended. Pour into cupcake pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

For the filling, you mix 2 cups peanut butter and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Make it into little balls and push them into the cupcakes before baking.

For the frosting, I used this recipe from Serious Eats:

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
- makes 2 1/2 cups (enough to frost 14 cupcakes) -

Ingredients
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup peanut butter

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 tablespoon milk (a few drops more if needed)

Procedure
1. In a large bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.

2. On low speed, slowly add 1 cup sugar, then a few drops milk. Increase mixer speed to medium-high, and mix thoroughly. Add remaining sugar and a few more drops milk if necessary.

3. Increase mixer speed to high, and mix until frosting is fluffy and reaches a good spreading consistency. Use immediately.

And they were AWESOME!!!!!