chocolate chip cupcakes

i can't believe it's been over a year since i've posted here. well, i sort of can, i guess. i can explain...sort of. i have fibromyalgia and it really hinders the amount of activity i can do when it's hot outside. i happen to live in central texas where we had almost 100 days of temperatures over 100 degrees last summer. so, as you can imagine, i was in pretty bad shape. i basically just went to work and came home. i did very little socializing and as a result of that, very little baking. i mean, i can't bake a batch of cupcakes if i don't have anyone to share them with! 

so, what about the fall/winter months? i can't really explain that but i will tell you that i made the most amazing chocolate tres leches cake as a thank you to one of my best friends for taking me to the wilco taping of austin city limits. i didn't take any pictures of it and i would honestly have to do some serious research to come up with the recipe that i used because i used elements of 2 or 3 different recipes that i found online. one day i will figure it out though because i'm sure i'm going to want to make it again. 

anyway, how about those chocolate chip cupcakes? tuesday is my little nephew's 2nd birthday so we're having a little family celebration today. tuesday is also the birthday of one of my favorite coworkers. she won't be there on tuesday so i have to bring her birthday cupcakes tomorrow. that means i have to make 2 batches up cupcakes today. in an effort to retain some sanity and order i decided to use a cake mix for karsten's cupcakes. 

1 betty crocker super moist white cake mix

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 tablespoon brown sugar

i made the cake mix per the directions on the box, then added in the chocolate chips and brown sugar. with about 7-8 minutes left until the cupcakes were done (i baked them for 18 minutes) i started to caramelize some brown sugar. 

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup water

i just put the ingredients in a saucepan and put it on high until it started to boil. then i turned it down to medium heat and stirred it with a whisk while it boiled for about 4 more minutes. after the cupcakes came out of the oven i poked holes in the tops of all of them, then i brushed the caramelized brown sugar on top. it's important to note that this needs to be done immediately after taking the sugar off the stove as it will start to harden pretty quickly, making it difficult to brush on to the cupcakes. i let them cool for a while, about an hour, before frosting them.

i made a chocolate buttercream. here's the recipe:

5 oz good quality semi or bittersweet chocolate (i actually used ghiradelli gourmet milk 32% cacao, so...not semi or bittersweet)

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

4-8 tablespoons milk

melt chocolate in double boiler (i find that it's easiest if you shave down the chocolate or cute it into really small pieces). allow to cool to room temperature. in the bowl of an electric mixer, blend chocolate and butter until creamy, about a minute. sift in 1/2 of the powdered sugar and all of the cocoa, then beat until thickened and mostly combined, adding 2 tablespoons milk to loosen. add remaining powdered sugar and beat until combined, adding up to 6 tablespoons more milk until desired consistency is reached. 

this is one of the cupcakes after it was brushed with the caramelized brown sugar. i actually ate one of these without frosting and it was delicious!

and here is the finished product. i realize that the frosting looks like poop but i don't care. the frosting came out pretty soft and i knew that if i used a star tip, the design would fall pretty quickly anyway so i just used the big circle one. luckily it's just for my family so i'm not too worried about the appearance. also, they taste amazing.

if you're wondering about all the brown sugar i will tell you, it's because i wanted these to be kind of like chocolate chip cookies and brown sugar is one of the main flavors that i identify in a chocolate chip cookie. so there you have it. 

devil's food cupcakes with raspberry filling

via 

i am in some sort of a haze. i just posted about the cupcakes i made yesterday as if i hadn't baked in weeks and that's not exactly true. i totally forgot about the cupcakes i made last sunday! i was invited to a small memorial day gathering and was asked if i would be interested in bringing some cupcakes. i didn't want to (couldn't) put a whole lot of effort into it so i decided i would just use a betty crocker devil's food cake mix and some rainbow chip icing. then i started to feel a bit lazy for using a mix and canned frosting. i decided to add a filling to the cupcakes. it was my first time making filled cupcakes but i think it turned out pretty delicious. 

i used the wilton raspberry filling recipe. the directions that the raspberries should be "packed in sugar" didn't make much sense to me because i don't really know what that means. i used probably 4-6 tablespoons of sugar mixed in with the frozen berries. i was worried about the filling turning out too sweet so i didn't want to use a whole lot of sugar. as it turned out, the filling wasn't really sweet at all. it wasn't bitter and mixed with the sweetness of the cupcake it was quite yummy. 

i have always loved chocolate and raspberry together and these cupcakes just reenforced that love. i let 2 of my favorite kiddos (carmen, almost 4 and nels, 3) help me decorate the cupcakes and it was a lot of fun. i didn't even think of taking any pictures but now i wish i had because they were pretty silly looking! 

browned butter cupcakes with chocolate buttercream

hello, remember me? well i've been feeling way under the weather for several weeks now so there hasn't been much baking happening over here. i finally forced myself back into the kitchen to make these browned butter cupcakes with chocolate buttercream that i've been dying to make for a couple of months now.

i had some seriously freaky eggs that kind of ruined these cupcakes. the recipe calls for 4 eggs and the first 3 eggs i cracked into the bowl had double yolks. i didn't know what to do! i ended up not putting the 4th egg in so i had 6 yolks and only 3 egg whites. it made the cupcakes more muffin like than i would have liked but the flavor was still good. how did i end up with so many sets of twins? totally weird! i used ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate for the frosting and it was way delicious. i don't know if i'll be making these cupcakes again but i will definitely hang onto that chocolate buttercream recipe. 

because i've been feeling so crappy, it was quite a feat that i even managed to bake anything edible but pictures of the cupcakes simply did not happen. sorry, folks.

via 

supreme bars: cookie brownies

i've been a bit under the weather the past couple of days but i start to go a little stir crazy if i haven't baked anything for a few days. however, being on vicodin and soma limits what i am able to/should do in the kitchen. i decided tonight was the perfect night to make that betty crocker cookie brownie mix i bought a while back. it just looks so tasty!

i may have screwed up putting the cookie dough into the brownie batter but i don't care. maybe i was supposed to push it down in the batter instead of just plopping it on the top? i don't know, the directions weren't very clear but nothing burned and it all tastes great and that's really all i'm concerned about. 

this would be very easy to make from scratch as well, i imagine. just make your favorite brownie batter, spread it in a pan, and put in teaspoons of your favorite cookie dough. although, i think the cookie dough in this mix must be engineered in some way not to burn because it has to bake for a very long time and most cookies would be burnt to a crisp after being in the oven for 50 minutes. 

chocolate monkey cake

today was my nephew's curious george themed party so i experimented with this cake. i used peanut butter frosting instead of the caramel frosting the tutorial called for. i just love chocolate and peanut butter together so it was a no brainer. also, i think i might have used a slightly larger cake pan because the image of cutting a cupcake in half for the ears seemed ridiculous. he's a monkey, he should have big ears! so, i used a cupcake for each ear. i knew from previous experience that my peanut butter frosting doesn't spread too well but i think it still turned out somewhat cute. nels sure liked it!

it looks like my decorating skills still need some work though. 

chocolate kahlua cupcakes

my mom recently requested that i make some kahlua cupcakes for her. i googled for a recipe and, what do know, annie's eats had one! she's the genius behind the margarita cupcakes i made a few weeks ago, too. i followed the recipe exactly until the frosting, where i used about 4 teaspoons of coffee extract instead of the kahlua that she called for. i think brushing the cakes with kahlua is enough for me and we just so happen to already have coffee extract. the recipe also calls for instant espresso powder which, according to the comments on that recipe, isn't usually found in a regular grocery store but may be found at some specialty shops. well good news for texas residents, they have it at HEB! it really is the best grocery store in the world. anyway, here are some pictures!

key ingredients, kahlua and instant espresso powder

fresh out of the oven with holes poked and brushed with kahlua

coco is going to help me get rid of the rest of the kahlua

and the final product

i'm not even the biggest fan of coffee but these are unbelievable! and, look, i finally used my fancy camera in the kitchen!

master of meringue

i've been toying with the idea of making a meringue for a few weeks now but i keep freaking myself out about the difficulty. last night i decided i wanted to make s'mores cupcakes and for that i would have to make a marshmallow meringue.

for s'mores cupcakes i used a little recipe i found for a graham cracker crust that goes at the bottom of each cupcake.

1 package graham crackers, smashed up into crumbs

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, melted

graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar

pre cake batter cups

alright, just so y'all know, that is too much butter. the "crust" on my cupcakes turned out a little greasy and it just tastes like butter, not graham cracker. so next time i'm going to use less butter.

for the cake part i used a betty crocker super moist devil's food and replaced the water with buttermilk. i've said this before, i'm not too good for a cake mix. it really just saves time which is nice because the crust and the topping for this cupcake were both labor intensive.

the cupcakes right out of the oven

then came the meringue. it didn't actually take all that long in the end but at the time it felt like it took forever. 

here's the recipe i used for "creamy marshmallow frosting"

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 egg whites

2 cups marshmallow cream (1 7oz jar)

combine sugar, egg whites, and water in double boiler. beat over boiling water until soft peaks form. add marshmallow cream, beat until stiff peaks form. remove from heat, beat in vanilla.

sugar, water, and egg whites...looks like saliva :( 

tada! marshmallow meringue!

the finished product

if i had a mini butane torch i totally would have toasted the meringue once it was on the cakes but i don't. i was a little lazy when i decorated these so they're a bit sloppy. my arms were tired from wrastlin' the meringue so i quickly, using just my right hand, slapped the frosting on top. i know better than to use an icing bag with only one hand but i didn't care. i didn't make these for any particular reason other than the fact that i got off work early today and decided to use my extra time experimenting in the kitchen. 

the next recipe i plan to experiment with is pineapple upside down cupcakes. yum!

peanut, peanut butter

i had a little potluck dinner party to attend saturday night and i volunteered to bring cupcakes. we were all getting together because my friend robyn was coming to town from seattle for the weekend. robyn loves the odd couple cupcake from sugar mama's so i was going to try to recreate it for her. once i realized i didn't really have the time or energy to make the salted caramel icing i decided to do a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. initially i was going to make the cupcakes from scratch but then i realized i didn't even have time for that so i had to use a cake mix. i used a betty crocker super moist devil's food mix and it turned out pretty delicious. the peanut butter frosting recipe goes as follows:

1 cup reese's creamy peanut butter (any creamy peanut butter will do but it's definitely worth it to spring for a more expensive brand. the peanut butter is the foundation to the flavor of this cupcake so you don't want a cheapy store brand that has an inferior flavor)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

mix butter and peanut butter in a large mixing bowl with a handmixer. add in sugar 1 cup at a time, adding the milk in 1 tablespoon at a time as well. add vanilla last and mix until fluffy.

i used a wilton 22 icing tip to frost the cupcakes and then finished them off with some of the new mini reese's. they looked and tasted beautiful! 

after i ate one i decided that using a cake mix was probably the best idea because the cake is so secondary to this particular cupcake. it would have almost been a waste of time to make a cake from scratch when really all people were going to notice would be the frosting. they were a huge hit at the party and i actually managed to bring home a few leftovers. i'll definitely be making these again.