Strawberry Cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcake

I have been looking for a strawberry cupcake recipe from scratch. I love to use my cake mixes, but sometimes you just want to put a little more "homemade" into something. I found this recipe that I thought sounded fabulous. . . and then I put my little touch onto things. Oh, and the fabulous idea for flavoring the icing. . .I am in love with that and going to use that for so many other recipes. Then I found on the "joy of baking" website a really great fruit flavored whipped cream (you have to look at the bottom of that link to see my inspiration, I tried to make that sponge cake into cupcakes, and I failed miserably at that). This whipped cream could be used for anything, a topping, a filling, just to eat:)! I really think the cupcake recipe you could change up the fruit and make an entirely different cupcake, but it would use the same foundation. I was really excited by finding it and I cannot wait to experiment with it some more. Well, now on to what I did for this batch of cupcakes. . .

The first thing I did was gather my ingredients. I had to do a little shopping for some, because while they may be common in many pantries, it wasn't in mine. This recipe doesn't use crazy ingredients, but I just don't keep seedless strawberry jam on my shelves and I needed to get fresh strawberries (and kiwis). According to the original recipe, it makes 12 cupcakes. . . I made 12 regular sized and then I had enough leftover to make about 16 mini cupcakes after I added the kiwi to it. The ingredients for the Strawberry Cupcakes will come first.

Ingredients:
2 TBSP Seedless Strawberry Jam (I used Smuckers "Simply Fruit")
1/4 cup finely diced fresh strawberries
1 1/4 cup All-Purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter (half cup)
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
Pink gel dye (gotta make it look pretty)
1/3 cup milk
Strawberry buttercream icing (I will put that recipe at the end of this blog)

Strawberries & Jam

Preheat oven to 350.

Start by combining your jam and strawberries, set aside.

Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs, one at a time.

Alternate adding in the flour and the milk--add a little flour, add half the milk, a little flour, the other half of the milk, the rest of the flour--it incorporates a little better when you do it that way.

Finally, fold in that strawberries and jam mixture. Pour into your prepared cupcake/muffin pan. I like to use the Reynolds Staybrite baking cups. And bake for about 20 minutes.

Strawberry-Kiwi cupcake

I had batter leftover and I wanted to do a little something different with it. A friend of mine suggested I make some Strawberry-Kiwi cupcakes sometime. I had picked up some kiwi at the store, and I was trying to figure out how to put it together. Thankfully, with a little of this batter leftover, I had my chance to experiment with it. I chopped up 1 kiwi finely and folded that into my batter (I probably had about 1/3 of it left, so if I were doing this as a complete recipe, I might add 3-4 kiwi, diced finely, to the batter). I baked these mini cupcakes for about 12-15 minutes. I had a little bit of Strawberry Whipped cream leftover from a chocolate cupcake filling--that is the next blog:)

For the Strawberry Whipped Cream:
I started with putting my mixing bowl and my whisk attachment into the freezer for about 15 minutes. I poured in 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1 Tablespoon of sugar and mixed until stiff peaks formed. Then I folded in about 1/3 cup of that seedless strawberry jam. I topped those mini cupcakes with some small chunks of kiwi. YUMMY!!!!!!

For the Strawberry Buttercream icing:
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 TBSP milk
Pink gel dye (food safe, Wilton brand)
2 TBSP Seedless Strawberry Jam*

Blend the butter and Crisco together. Add in the powdered sugar and milk as you need to. . .you might need more milk depending on the consistency of the icing you want. Add in that vanilla.

*You can change that to whatever jam you want and make a yummy, fabulous tasting icing.

I had some icing in my refrigerator leftover from 2 days before that I didn't use completely. I added some strawberry jam and pink gel dye to this and put it in my stand mixer. It made a lovely, yummy icing.

Buttercream icing will last about 2 weeks in your refrigerator if it is well sealed, so I am told. I honestly don't know as I don't keep it that long. I have made it ahead of time--like for my kids' birthday parties--when I know my day is going to be very full.

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

It's been a while since I have blogged about my cupcakes. . . not because I haven't done any. It's just that I have had a couple of days to really play around with cupcakes and icing and I am trying to decide what to start with. Since I last blogged (on Valentine's Day), I have made a Cookies & Cream cupcake and played around with carrot cupcakes again, found a new strawberry cupcake recipe and a new method for flavoring icing, and I played with fillings for my chocolate cupcakes. So I guess I will just start with the Cookies & Cream and know that the strawberry will be next, and then new filling ideas for the chocolate cupcakes will follow that and OH MY GOODNESS, I just remembered about another cupcake I made combining leftover batter that I got all prepared for (and that my family LOVED) and never blogged about. . .It's good to know that I have my blogs figured out for a while.

Cookies & Cream

Sunday nights after Bible Study we have a fellowship. It seems a pretty common thing in our church to do. The Bible Study group I am a part of had their turn to bring refreshments on Sunday night. I thought, since I am pretty decent at making cupcakes, that will be my contribution. I made my carrot cupcakes because I wanted to try something new for my decorations. I also made a new-to-cupcaking-recipe-for-me. I used to make this all the time as a cake. I thought it would be a perfect time to try it as a cupcake.

Cupcakes with the crushed cookies

This is quite a simple process. You can do this with your favorite white cake recipe. Since I was going for quick and easy, I chose the cake mix option. Put your cake mix together according to package directions. Before pouring into my prepared cupcake pan, I crushed a sleeve of Oreo cookies (any chocolate sandwich cookie will do). I used the Double Stuff, but I honestly thing the regular would work out fine, and maybe even a little better. I baked for the same amount of time (according to package directions) in my preheated oven. I usually let mine bake for about 20-25 minutes, depending on how full they are.

Trying to decide what looks better

After letting them cool, I made a buttercream icing that I used to put the "cupcake swirl" on top. I had some crushed cookies leftover and I sprinkled them on top. I also tried using an Oreo cookie, but I thought that was too big without REALLY piling on the icing. If you wanted to do the cookie on top, the mini variety of those would be a nice option. The other thing you could do, is put the crushed cookies IN the icing. Since I was going to be using my leftover icing for something else, I chose not to put the cookies in the icing.



This made a great cupcake. I had some left after church that I took to my friend who is recuperating from a wreck and she thought they were quite tasty. I always love having feedback on these cupcakes; I gotta know what people like :). I know what I like, as these cupcakes are mostly made according to my tastes.

The cupcakes I took to church, Cookies & Cream and Carrot

Strawberry Banana Cupcakes

The teacher gift

Okay, so today is Valentine's Day, and I will be honest, I am not the biggest fan. My husband proposed 2 days before Valentine's so that day is more important to us anyway. I don't need a day to tell people I love them; it is something that should be done daily. Trust me, I like any excuse for presents, so it is just a good reason for that, but it isn't my most favorite of our holidays. That being said, I was reluctant to make a Valentine's themed cupcake, not to mention that every time I tried, it failed miserably this year. That too, will go in my flops blog that I will create someday when I have the courage to show how "hopelessly flawed" I am :) I made a Strawberry-Banana cupcake. Not entirely "themey" but it is a little pink. When we were trying to figure out what to do for the kids' teachers to show our love and appreciation, making a cupcake was what I could think of. They seemed to like them.

I started out with a Strawberry Cake mix, used bananas (in place of eggs) and a strawberry-banana nectar instead of water. I made a strawberry buttercream and a banana buttercream and did a twisty design for them and I garnished the top with a strawberry. The end result is a moist and flavorful cupcake.

Strawberry Buttercream

Ingredients (for the cupcakes):
Strawberry Cake Mix (I used Pillsbury)
1 cup Strawberry-Banana nectar (our grocery store carries the brand Jumex)
3 Bananas, mashed
1/3 cup oil

Directions:
Mix ingredients well. Dollop into your prepared cupcake/muffin tin. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. I made 22, but it will depend on how full your tins are and how big your bananas are.

Strawberry Buttercream icing:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup butter flavored crisco

Banana Buttercream

4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup Strawberry banana nectar (I used the rest of the can)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Banana Buttercream icing:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup butter flavored crisco
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 package of banana cream pudding mix (4 serving size)
1/4 cup milk (approximate, depending on consistency)
1 teaspoon vanilla

I made my two buttercream icings. I put them each in a small pastry bag. I snipped the top off each one and placed it into a larger pastry bag which was fitted with a #1M tip. I used the basic twist--starting from the outside of the cupcake going in towards the center. The result was not like the tie dyed cupcakes I have made in the past. Instead, it was two very definite colors. I thought it was a very neat look.

You can see the frostings are side by side

I garnished it with a strawberry quarter. The teachers I made them for were really glad to get them. . . at least that is what they told me ;)

Mint Chocolate, YUM!

The icing wasn't quite so lime green looking in real life.

Mint Chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations! York Peppermint Pattie, Thin Mints, Andes Mints, Grasshopper Pie and Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream could all be listed as some of my favorite things. Since these are some of my favs, I definitely had to make a cupcake with those flavors, right?! I decided to do two different variations of a mint chocolate cupcake.

I started with my chocolate cupcake recipe (follow the link to one my of previous blogs detailing the cupcake recipe). You can also start with your favorite chocolate cake mix--a dark chocolate or a devil's food would be tasty! Since I was doing this two different ways, and I can get about 24 cupcakes out of my recipe, I thought, how perfect. I can do a dozen one way and switch it up for the other dozen.

I put a scoop full of batter in each cupcake liner. For one dozen, I just put them in the oven. For the other dozen, after filling them I place a miniature York Peppermint Pattie and then made sure it was covered with batter. I baked them both for about 20-25 minutes.

For my plain chocolate cupcakes--I used two different designs on my cupcake liners, that is how I could tell them apart--I used a trick I have used on brownies before. Andes mints has a baking chip. I think it is seasonal and I can't always find them. Since I couldn't find them, I bought some actual Andes mints and chopped them up. As soon as you pull the cupcakes out of the oven, sprinkle the chopped mints on top of those warm brownies. Let it melt a little, then spread with a knife. It turns into a lovely little topping that will harden slightly and be oh-so-minty good!

Chopping Andes Mints

Sprinkling the yumminess on top of the WARM cupcakes.

Spreading the goodness around

For my other dozen, I had to let cool. While they were cooling I made a Mint Buttercream frosting. I used my usual recipe with a slight adjustment. I replaced the vanilla with a pure peppermint extract. 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup Butter Flavored Crisco, about 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon mint extract, and 2 Tablespoons of milk and blend well. I also tinted it green with a little "leaf green" gel coloring. I piped that yummy icing onto my cooled cupcake and then topped it with another York Peppermint Pattie.

The inside with the York Peppermint Pattie

I honestly don't know which one I liked more. I thought they were both a tasty option. The quicker one was the one using the Andes mints as a topping. The prettier one was using the buttercream frosting. I guess you will have to make both and you decide.

Yummy!!!!

Tie Dyed Cupcakes

Tie-Dyed Cupcake

My daughter's bestie was having a birthday, and her mom asked if I could help out with some cupcakes. I said of course, because we all love the girl so much. It also gives me "blog fodder" :), total win-win! Anyway, in the past, I had seen an adorable cupcake that was multicolored on Pinterest. . .Some people called it rainbow, others called it tie-dyed. I have made them before and put it on Pinterest, but I just took a picture of it and typed the directions below. On this blog post, I will give step by step pictures and instructions on how it's done. It isn't just the icing, but the cake is "tie-dyed" too.

I started off really simply with this cake since it takes just a little bit of extra work. I used a strawberry cake mix and I doctored it up just a bit. Instead of water, I used 1 can of strawberry nectar and a little water to equal my liquid content. I also used 2 cake mixes.

My Ingredients

After I made my cake, I divided the batter into 5 different bowls so I could dye my batter. Because I used 2 mixes, I put about 2 cups in each bowl. If you chose to do a different amount of colors, the cup total would vary per bowl. This is the part where you get creative and decide how many and what colors you want to use. For example, I will do this for my son's birthday in a couple of months and use browns and greens and make it look kind of a camouflage look.

My batter divided. You can also see that I have my oven set to 350.

Then I tinted my batter with Wilton gel colors. I used the blue and pink to get the purple color.

My colors

My tinted batter

Then I began to color by color, fill my cupcake liners.

Green

Then a spoonful of pink

The yellow-orange color

The blue color

The purple color

Since I was making 24 cupcakes, I had a little leftover to make a cake with it, that turned out pretty cute.

The cake :)

After about 20 minutes of baking at 350, this is how they looked when they came out. They were a beautiful jewel toned color, that actually reminded me a bit of the Mardi Gras colors.

The baked cupcakes.

I did these the day before and covered them in a cling wrap. I love being able to do things like this in little hitches. It makes it seem like no work at all.

My next step was to prepare the butter cream icing that I had made earlier in the week. The great thing about butter cream icing is that it lasts up to two weeks in the refrigerator. This is another one of those things you can do ahead and it saves you tons of time on party day. I tripled my usual recipe, and I made 3 different colors of the icing. Once I made the icing, I put it in a large pastry bag/piping bag, whatever you actually call them:).  I put a spoonful of the blue in first, then the pink and finally the yellow, right next to each other. What comes out is a really cool effect.

Do you see how each color is separated, but still in at the same time?

I used a Wilton #1M tip to pipe the little cupcake swirl onto the tie-dyed cupcakes.

The Tie Dye Cupcake

This is what the inside looked like after it was all said and done.

The inside of the cupcake.

I had a little icing leftover, so I made a little 4 inch cake and piped colorful stars all over it.

I took this from my phone, so the photo isn't as good, but still adorable (in my opinion anyway).

So I took these to the party and they were a huge hit. I am so glad the Birthday Princess liked them.

The cupcakes and the cake together.

Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes

Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes

My husband travels, a lot. He doesn't normally get to take advantage of my cupcakes since I mostly do them during the week for our Wednesday evening after church fellowship time. I also share them with my teacher friends at my kids' school and I have to do that during the week too. :) So today's cupcake is my husband's favorite, Chocolate Surprise. Of course, he can't eat them right now because he is out of town, but since I am a "good wife" I thought I would save him at least one. :)

The Chocolate Surprise Cupcake starts with my favorite chocolate cake recipe. You can also start this with a Devil's Food or any other chocolate cake mix (devil's food is just my favorite at this), but since I discovered this fabulous recipe, it is about all I use. I made the cupcakes the night before, put them flat in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag until I was ready to use them. They were incredibly moist and tasty and a perfect vessel for all the other yumminess.

Ganache, right out of the refrigerator

My next step was to make my frosting, a whipped ganache. Seriously, I think it might be a little piece of heaven on earth. This frosting takes a little time to do, but to quote my son, OMW--as in, oh my word--it is SOOOOOO worth it. Well, you know, if you like chocolate. It might be somewhat time consuming, but it is quite simple. Heat 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (I do it until right before boiling. . . you might call it a scald). I add about 1 tablespoon of corn syrup, I saw it in a recipe once. Then I was reading Martha Stewart, and she said it is supposed to add shine. I figure it just gives it a little bit more sweetness if nothing else. After heating the cream, (what I do is) pour it over 1 bag of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. Mix well. I find that the mini chips help it melt faster, but you can use whatever size and flavor (dark, semi-sweet, milk) you like. (I experimented with using a cherry chip and didn't have as much success--that will go into a "flops" blog later. I am going to try a peanut butter chip sometime too and see if that works.) I also added 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Let it chill for a while. I let it go for a few hours, but as long as you let it get pretty cold, you can go to the next step. I had time to do a little shopping (trying to make a quilt for my daughter so I needed to get material) and I also had time to prepare my cupcakes (I will talk about the cupcake prep below).

Whipping the ganache

Depending on what you want to do with the ganache, depends on what you do next. If you want a lovely pourable option, just whisk it just a bit and then pour it over what you want. If you want to spread it, mix it for a little bit--maybe a minute. If you want to put it in an icing bag, mix it for about 3-5 minutes. I then put it in my bag with a #1M tip. I was ready to put little rosettes and the other lovely cupcake design.

Cutting my hole

For my traditional Chocolate Surprise cupcakes, I make my cupcake just like usual. I then cut a hole in the center of the cupcake (I use my cute little tool, but you can use a knife, or honestly a spoon if your kids are helping). I make this fabulously tasty filling with two store bought ingredients: White Icing and Marshmallow Creme. Blend these together. I put it in a "piping" bag and filled the hole in my cupcakes with it. (Since I only did 1 dozen cupcakes this way, I had some leftover. I will use it again this weekend.). Then I piped my frosting into the traditional cupcake design on top.

The "Surprise" part of the cupcake

I also made a variation of my Chocolate Surprise cupcakes this time. I was trying for a Black Forest, but I had a lot of the ganache leftover, so I thought I would just do a cherry chocolate surprise cupcake.

Cherry Chocolate cupcakes, before icing

When making the cupcakes, I put a little dollop of cherry pie filling in my cupcakes before baking. (The next time I do it, I think I will make sure it gets covered with batter.)

I didn't have it covered with batter. I will next time.

I covered these with the ganache in a rosette pattern and had a little extra on the edges of it because I wanted to put some more cherry pie filling on top as a yummy garnish.

See how there is a little "divot" to put my filling in.

Cherry Chocolate Cupcake

I made two dozen cupcakes to take to church with me. . .I normally only take about 18 (because my mom will bring cookies) and have about half leftover that I can take to the teachers the next day. . .I only brought 3 home!!!! I think they were a hit!!!! I guess I will have to make something special for the teachers really soon.

If you can't follow the link to the chocolate cupcakes, I will type the recipe out, just let me know. It is a recipe I have used in the past and you can access it thru my archives too.

Super Bowl cupcakes!

Super Bowl cupcakes

Since it is Super Bowl weekend, I thought some football "shaped" cupcakes were in order. Yesterday I had made some chocolate cupcakes for Groundhogs's Day (click groundhog's day for the link) but I didn't use all the batter for them. I decided half groundhog, half football. This is the recipe I followed below that I pretty much copied and pasted from my previous blog.

 Cake Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
3 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pan. (I used cupcake liners, but you can spray it with a non-stick cooking spray like Pam. If I am not using my favorite Reynolds brand liners, I will spray my cupcake papers to make the cupcake come out better). Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa and set aside.


In another bowl, blend the butter and sugar. The original recipe says to cream it together, but with that little butter and that much sugar, it is quite difficult to get it light and fluffy. Just get it mixed well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well. Stir in vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk. Pour into prepared muffin/cupcake tin about half full. These rise nicely so you don't need to over fill them.

I had seen another cute idea on Pinterest that said to put a Hershey Kiss in the middle before you bake it, and when it is out; the cupcake will be "lava like." I thought I would try that, so before putting them in the oven, I plopped a kiss in the middle.(Let me tell you, if that is going to work, you must have to eat it immediately after you pull it out of the oven, because by the time it cooled, it held its shape and was soft. By the next day, it was about the "hardness"--is that even a word?--of a kiss out of the bag).

If you look hard enough, you can see the candy center

Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

I put a chocolate buttercream icing I found inspiration here. Since I was piping this into a football look, I thought I needed it to be a bit stiffer. I added more powdered sugar. I made my stripes with a little bit of butter cream icing that I had from a previous day that was not tinted any color yet.


The recipe I used for chocolate butter cream icing is as follows:

5 TBSP butter (I had that much of a stick leftover from my chocolate cake recipe)
2 cups powdered sugar (this is an approximate, I think it might have been just under 2 cups)
4 TBSP cocoa
2-3 TBSP milk (depending on how thin or thick you want it)
1 TSP vanilla

Pretty simply, I sifted my powdered sugar (started with a cup) and cocoa together and mixed with the butter. I added the milk and vanilla. I realized that while it was fine, I wanted it to be stiffer, so I began to add powdered sugar to get to the consistency that I wanted. I used tip #32 and did a little zig zag pattern across--making it appear to be slightly oval shaped by doing a tiny bit at the top and bottom I just love the illusions you can do with icing. I just put the white butter cream icing in a plastic baggie and snipped the end off to make the laces on the football.

It was fun and easy, cute and scrumptious! It obviously wouldn't have to be Super Bowl weekend. . .Late August, early September would also be a perfect time for these too. Enjoy the Super Bowl, or if you aren't watching the Super Bowl, just enjoy the cupcakes!!!!

Groundhog Cupcake Cuteness

Groundhog Cupcakes

Since tomorrow is Groundhog's day, I thought I would attempt these super cute cupcakes. I found my inspiration on Pinterest, but I thought I could do it a bit differently. I thought a chocolate cupcake would be perfect. . . you know, because dirt can be that chocolatey color :) I found a recipe from one of my favorite sources, allrecipes.com. Here is the link to the recipe I used. I will type it out below with what I did differently or how I followed it.

I made a butter cream icing and tinted it green with the Leaf Green color from Wilton. I used tip #21. What was so great about the icing, I could be messy with it and so not perfect!!!! It's supposed to look like grass. Since grass grows in a random pattern (unless it is on a golf course) the more random it was, the cuter it became, at least I thought so. I sprinkled brown sugar around the center of the cupcake. I put a Teddy Graham in the middle to act as the groundhog. This was a fun cupcake to decorate. It looks adorable. Sometimes the cute things don't always taste so great, not an issue on this one. The cupcake is good, and I love the icing.

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
3 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pan. (I used cupcake liners, but you can spray it with a non-stick cooking spray like Pam. If I am not using my favorite Reynolds brand liners, I will spray my cupcake papers to make the cupcake come out better). Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa and set aside. I usually skip this step. I generally put my dry ingredients in a separate bowl and use a whisk. This works just fine to get the lumps out and blend the mixture. I thought I would try something different. I have seen the Barefoot Countessa use a strainer and tap the side of it to "sift" the ingredients together. I tried this today.

Sifting the Cocoa

When all you have is lumps, you can press it through with spoon

 

In another bowl, blend the butter and sugar. The original recipe says to cream it together, but with that little butter and that much sugar, it is quite difficult to get it light and fluffy. Just get it mixed well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well. Stir in vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk. Pour into prepared muffin/cupcake tin about half full. These rise nicely so you don't need to over fill them.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

My butter cream frosting is pretty easy and the same one I always use.
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening (I use butter flavored Crisco)
4 cups powdered sugar
2 TBPS milk
1 TSP vanilla

Mix well and tint to your liking :)

Other Ingredients for this project:
Brown Sugar
Teddy Grahams