Cookie Dough(n't You Want Some) Frosting?!

For my BFFL's birthday, there had to be dessert.  He's not a cake person (my friend?  NO!!), but he likes cookies and is tolerant of brownies.  My compromise?  Triple Chocolate Ghiradelli Brownies (made into individual cupcakes with an egg-free) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting.
Ingredients:
3 sticks unsalted butter (1.5 C) at room temp
3/4 C light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 C confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1 C flour
3/4 tsp salt

3T milk

3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 C mini chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Beat together brown suagr and butter until creamy.
2. Mix in confectioner's sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in flour and salt until smooth.
4. Mix in vanilla and milk until well blended.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Chill to make more firm, but just heap it on your cupcakes. There's no need to be pretty about it!
I think these are best a little chilled, but room temp isn't bad, either, they just get excessively gooey!  :)
 

Why yes, that is Scary Spice popping out of his cupcake frosting.  Why do you ask?

 PS - if you take these to a bar, everyone will be your friend if you share!!

Salted Caramel Butter Cream Double Chocolate Cupcakes

The original recipe for these amazing cupcakes can be found over at Sweet Bliss Bakery. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to make it.  The problem was finding an excuse to make cupcakes.

Odd, huh?

For the cupcakes, your ingredient list includes...
Chocolate cake box mix (your favorite)
3 eggs
1/2 C melted butter
1 C water
3 Tbsp cocoa powder (Dutch processed)

Directions:
1. Mix ingredients.
2. Place in paper lined muffin tins (1/2-2/3 full)
3. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
4. Cool for 5, then remove from tin to finish cooling.

Caramel Ingredients:
1/2 C sugar
2 T water
1/4 C heavy cream
1 1/2 t vanilla

Directions:

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil, in a small pan on med-high heat.

(I only had a very large pan, making this nearly impossible)

2. Have your cream and vanilla ready to go as your working.

3.Once sugar water boils, leave it be (NO STIRRING) for 5 minutes.

4. Remove from heat, and slowly mix in cream and vanilla.  It will froth, so be careful!  Mix until completely smooth.

5. Set aside to cool.

Butter Cream Ingredients:
1 C butter, softened
4 C+ powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Cream butter in a medium bowl
2. Slowly add powdered sugar to desired consistency.
3. Add in cooled caramel and blend to desired smoothness.  If you need to, add more powdered sugar.

Additional, Optional, Toppings:
Caramel Sauce (Smuckers, Hersheys, or your favorite local sauce)
Chocolate shavings or curls.  I just used my small cheese grater and Bakers semi-sweet chocolate.

Caramel Cafe Mocha Cupcakes

My sister in law is a huge Starbucks fanatic.

Huge.  In fact, I'm sure she spends at least one full paycheck there each year.

When I saw this at the Brown Eyed Baker, I knew I should keep it in mind for her birthday.  I slightly modified it, but in the long run, these treats were a huge success.


Since my SIL is gluten free, I made the entire process easy for myself by investing in Betty Crocker's Gluten Free chocolate cake mix.  I've tried different GF mixes before, but her's is the smoothest I've found so far.  

The only thing I did differently was to add 2 Starbucks Via Italian Roast packets to the mix.  This added the "mocha" flavor I desired.  Bake according to the box's directions.

For the butter cream frosting, it went like this:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2½ cups powdered sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ Via Italian roast packets

Mix up butter until smooth.  Slowly add powdered sugar.  Once to desired consistency, blend in vanilla and coffee crystals. Start with one packet of Via.  Add as much or as little as you want, depending on the strength of the coffee flavor.

To decorate, I took the naked cupcakes (remove the paper if you use the liners), and placed them in the bottom of a Starbucks hot sample cup.  (They'll share them with you if you buy something there, like the Via.)

Then, leaving a little space around the edge, frost the cupcakes to look like whipped cream.  For the straws, cut the Starbucks' straws into thirds.  Top with caramel drizzle (I used Smucker's from the squeeze tube), and then finished with mini chocolate chips.

FYI: The straw helps to pull the cupcake back out for eating purposes.

Happy Fourth of July!

 Let freedom ring my friends!

Today, at least in my case, that means not doing a red, white, and/or blue themed post.  It means I have the right to choose what I post about.  I mean, this is America, right?  We like to stand behind our rights, so that only makes sense.

And, actually?  I just don't have any red, white, or blue themed recipes that I want to share at this moment.  But, what I do want to share is awesome, just the same.

 Today, we're talking about Chocolate Cupcakes with a Peanut Butter-Cream Frosting Dipped in Chocolate.

Yes, those capital letters were absolutely necessary.  I feel as though I should be yelling how much I LOVE THIS RECIPE!!!  But, let's try to keep ourselves contained, at least a little bit, right?

First off, start with your favorite chocolate cupcake base.  I really love the base I used for the Oreo cupcakes (minus the Oreo). You could use your own favorite or even a box mix.  I won't tell.

 To me, the glory here comes in the top half of the cake, so that's what I'm going to focus on.

Peanut Butter Cream Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar2 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons softened unsalted butter,
cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

* this only covers about 12 cupcakes *

 Directions:
1. Combine sugar, egg whites, and salt in bowl.
2. Set bowl over pan of simmering water. Gently whisk until mixture registers 160 degrees F on instant-read thermometer. (I just went until it's warm to the touch).
3. With whisk attachment on your mixer, whip on medium-high speed until mixture resembles consistency of shaving cream.
4. On medium speed, add butter one piece at a time, until combined and creamy.
5. Whip in peanut butter and vanilla, and beat until smooth.
6. Using a zip lock bag, or a nice frosting bag and tip, pipe on that frosting, and let it go high.  Looks aren't necessarily important since all imperfections will be covered with the chocolate dip.  You could also just stop here and have a great recipe for PB Cream Frosting on Chocolate cupcakes, but why stop when you know it can only get better?

7. Place frosted cupcakes in the fridge for at least an hour to let the butter cream harden.

Chocolate Dip Ingredients:
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

* this only covers about 8-12 cupcakes *

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate and oil together (in microwave or through a double boiler approach)

2. Dip cold cupcakes directly into the chocolate.  It helps if you have a tall, relatively skinny container for the chocolate. Cover all of the butter cream frosting.

3. Let harden in fridge and enjoy!

Strawberry Meringue Butter Cream Cupcakes

Welcome to heaven, population: you.

Too corny?  Oh well.  It was difficult for me to share these cupcakes with my family, so I really do believe I've found my favorite recipe.

But it's not just the cupcakes, trust me.

I was planning on using an angel food recipe for the cake, but then found this handy dandy box of strawberry cake mix at the store and quickly ditched my preliminary efforts.

 I followed the box mix directions, with one minor exception.

I added about 1 cup of diced strawberries to the mix.  This way it really reinforced the strawberriness of the cupcake.

And it wasn't over powering.  It was still the light and fluffy that I was looking for, just with little chunks of love added!

 Where I really wanted to spend my time was with the Strawberry Meringue Butter Cream frosting.  I know I try to avoid Martha Stewart, but I think she really nailed this one.

Ingredients:
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) strawberry jam, pureed in a food processor

I started off by using my PC Batter Bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water.  I combined the egg whites and sugar until dissolved and warm to the touch.

You're supposed to use your free standing mixer bowl, but since my KitchenAid is shoved back in the corner of a deep cabinet, this was a close second.

 Next, I added my whisk attachment to my hand mixer (again, I was supposed to use the free standing mixer), and whisked until there were stiff, wet peaks, which felt like forever.  Martha claims it's 6 minutes, but with a hand held, it certainly felt longer.

Finally, I'll let Martha take it from here...

With mixer on medium-low speed, add butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. (If frosting appears to separate after all the butter has been added, beat on medium-high speed until smooth again, 3 to 5 minutes more.) Beat in vanilla. Beat on lowest speed to eliminate any air bubbles, about 2 minutes. Stir in strawberry jam with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.

 

 Here's where I added my own trick...
You know I love to can, right?  Well, I didn't have a plain strawberry jam in the house, but I did have one better: I had a strawberry jam with Thai herbs that I made about a month ago.  It's sweet like strawberry jam, but the basil, mint, and cilantro add just a bit more.  I processed it, as per directed, and then used my hand mixer to blend the entire thing together.  (It was much quicker than doing it by hand.  I tried that first and got extremely frustrated.)

By the time I was done, none of my frosting tips were wide enough for my chunks.  So, I just took a spoon and smeared the frosting on.  For the topper, I just took a quarter of a strawberry and made two cuts along the length of the strawberry from the hull, leaving the tip connected.  With the little bit of left over frosting, I just dipped in the leftover strawberries.  I had to force myself not to eat it all.  SO GOOD!