Guinness and Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Cheese Frosting

Sure, I made some cupcakes last night… So what?! Cupcakes are awesome! I took 5 cupcakes from the Carrot Cupcake batch to our apartment complex to say ‘thank you’ for all they do! I want to take some to my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law, and I might just do that! I met up with my sister, niece, and a friend at the local swap-meet for some shopping, then they came over for some Wii games and baking. We made the Guinness and Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheese Frosting, from here. A friend of mine gave me the link, and I’ve made two of the recipes from here and so far, so good! I topped my cupcakes with Pampered Chef Sweet Cinnamon Sprinkle, which added a bit of flare and a good taste and texture. If you would like to BUY some of the cinnamon sprinkles, you can buy them here! It’s definitely a recipe I’ll use again, but I learned a little something about frosting: ALWAYS MAKE MORE! I need to double or do a 1 ½ batch of frosting.

Cupcakes 

Information: 
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Makes: 20-24 cupcakes

Ingredients: 
2 C unbleached all purpose flour
½ C Dutch processed cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 C granulated sugar
½ C light or dark brown sugar
½ C unsalted softened butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg
½ C sour cream
12 oz Guinness beer

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter or line with paper cups 2 12 count muffin tins.

2. In a large bowl briefly whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. Mix the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add one egg and beat until evenly mixed and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary. Add the second egg and vanilla extract and beat again until light and fluffy.

5. Add the sour cream and beat in, then with the mixer running, slowly pour in the Guinness.

6. Slowly add the flour mixture into the batter until it is evenly mixed and there are no streaks of flour. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl to incorporate any clumps of the flour mixture.

7. Fill each cupcake liner to ½ to ¾ full.

8. Bake at 350°F on the middle rack for 20 – 25 minutes, so that a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

9. ****Make sure to rotate the pans halfway through baking. Set on a rack to cool to room temperature before frosting.

Frosting

Information: 
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Makes: Not really enough (I should have done a 1 ½ batch)

Ingredients: 
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
2 C confectioner’s sugar
6 Tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish Cream

Directions: 
1. Mix the cream cheese, butter, and confectioner’s sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Slowly drizzle in the Bailey’s until completely incorporated into the frosting.

Carrot Cupcakes with Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

It isn't a baking experience in my kitchen without something going absurdly wrong... Tonight: I made the mistake of putting carrot peels and burnt coconut down the garbage disposal. That was a "fun" 45 minutes of cleaning. Ick!! Overall, I think the recipe went well. I found the recipe here, which is the same blog as the Guinness & Chocolate Cupcake with Bailey's Irish Cream Cheese Frosting is from (that recipe has not been made yet).

Cupcakes

Information:

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 60 minutes

Makes: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

¾ pound carrots, peeled and finely grated
8 oz crushed pineapple, drained
4 large eggs

½ C brown sugar
¾ C granulated sugar

½ C unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ C canola oil
2 C unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
⅛ tsp allspice

Directions:

1.   Preheat the oven to 350°.

2.   Mix the carrots and pineapple in a large bowl and set aside; Mix dry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice in a large bowl and set aside.

3.   Mix eggs and both sugars.

4.   Melt the butter (on stove top or in microwave for 2 minutes at 30-second intervals).

5.   Drizzle the butter and oil into the egg/sugar mixture.

6.   Slowly mix in the flour mixture with the egg/sugar mixture.

7.   Slowly add the carrot/pineapple mixture with the batter.

8.   Pour (or spoon) batter into 24 cupcake papers to ½ or ¾ full.

9.   Bake for 27 minutes.

10. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

I made a double batch of frosting so I could be generous on the cupcakes

Frosting

Information:

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Makes: a lot

Ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese
8 oz unsalted butter
5 C powdered sugar, sifted
6 tbsp dark rum (use 3-4 tbsp for “a hint of rum” taste)

Directions:

1.   Let the cream cheese come to room temperature.

2.   Whip the cream cheese with 2 cups of the sugar.

3.   Melt the butter on the stove. When bubbles start to form, pour the hot butter into a small, ice-cold bowl sitting in another bowl with ice under the smaller bowl.

4.   Drizzle the cooler butter into the cheese/sugar mixture and blend.

5.   Mix in the remaining sugar.

6.   Mix in the rum.

7.   Whip the mixture until it’s light and fluffy.

Topping

Information:

Prep Time: 0 minutes

Total Time: 5-10 minutes

Makes: 1 lb of toasted coconut (way more than needed, but the rest can be frozen for a later use)

Ingredients:

1 lb package of sweetened, shredded coconut

Directions:

1.   Preheat the oven to 350°.

2.   Lay out coconut on a metal pan.

3.   Cook coconut for 5-10 minutes, stirring the coconut, until the edges are brown.

Frost the cupcakes and top with coconut to your liking.

I think I’ll deliver these cupcakes to the management of our apartment complex to thank them for everything they do. Also, I want to take some to my husband’s grandma because we haven’t seen her in a while, and I absolutely love her! She’s a wonderful woman, and I know she will appreciate homemade carrot cake cupcakes!

New Cupcake Recipe

A friend of mine recently made cupcakes that his entire family was talking about. They made me curious. I requested the recipe, and he said he found it at a blog here. My goal was to work all the recipes I already have and then start on new ones, but I really can't pass this one up. Especially since my husband's love of beer and the fact that we have most of the ingredients in our fridge already!

Saturday, I'm going shopping for accessories to wear to my best friend's wedding, and then I'm having two friends over to bake these cupcakes. One friend knows about the recipe, the other doesn't. It should be a fun time, and I'll let you know how the cupcakes come out!

I will not copying and pasting the recipe from this blog. I will be rewriting the directions as to how the recipe was done in my own kitchen. I can't wait!

Next week, I will be attending a "Girls Night Out" for my best friend's bachelorette party, and it's all cupcake and wine-tasting based! I'll make sure to take a ton of pictures and maybe even collect some recipes!

Fudge Marble Cupcakes

A recipe for 12 regular cupcakes. Sounds simple right? I'm sure it is, I wouldn't know. I tripled the recipe for 36 cupcakes and somehow only ended up with 32. This is just the start of my problems with this recipe. My mixer can handle a triple batch of cupcakes, no sweat. The question is: Can the baker? Next time, I think I'll stick to a cake for the Birthday Club. Oy. As delicious as these cupcakes sound, I hope they come out alright. As of right now, the cupcakes are done cooling, and I am deciding what to do for the topping. (You'll see why later on.) This recipe comes from the book "Cupcakes!" by Elinor Klivans, which can be bought here. So, here's the recipe:

The single batch is first, the triple batch is in parenthesis.

Cupcakes

Information:

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Makes: 12 regular sized cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 ¼ (3 ¾) cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ (1 ½) tsp baking powder 

¼ (¾) tsp baking soda

¼ (¾) tsp salt

1 (3) large egg**

1 (1) large egg yolk**

1 (3) cup sugar

½ (1 ½) cup canola or corn oil

1 (3) tsp vanilla extract

½ (1 ½) cup sour cream

**For a double batch, you double everything except the eggs. For a double batch, you do 3 large eggs only. Well, for a triple batch (that would be a single and a double batch put together), I did 3 large eggs and 1 egg yolk.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix the egg, yolk, and sugar on medium speed until the mix is thick and cream-colored, roughly two minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary. On a low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Continue mixing and add the sour cream until completely blended. Mix in the flour mixture until the batter is smooth.

4. Spoon out ¾ (2 ¼) cup batter and set it aside.

5. Measure ½ (1 ½) cup fudge glaze and gently add it to the batter without mixing the two.

6. Using a spoon, fill each cupcake liner with about 3 tbs of the batter and fudge, without mixing the batter.

7. Using the left-over plain batter, put about 1 tbs of batter on the top of each battered cup, to about ½ inch below the top of the liner.

8. Bake the cupcakes for about 23 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted in the cupcake and come out clean.

9. Let the cupcakes cool and then frost.

(† - See note below)  

The single batch is first, the 1 ½ batch is in parenthesis.

Fudge Glaze

Information:

Prep Time: less than 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Makes: two cups glaze **

**The recipe calls for 1 cup of fudge glaze, and since I have made a triple batch of cupcakes, I need 3 cups of fudge glaze, hence the 1 ½ batch of fudge.

Ingredients:

1 (1 ½) cup heavy cream

2 (3) tbs unsalted butter, cut into two (three) pieces

3 (4 ½) tbs light corn syrup

9 (13 ½) oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ (¾) tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, butter, and corn syrup on low heat. Small bubbles will form, but do not let the mixture boil.
2. Right before the boiling point, remove the pan from the flame and add the vanilla and chocolate chips. Let the mixture sit for 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Whisk the mixture to completely combine the cream base and chocolate.

(† - Note below ;-) ) This is where the recipe gets tricky… The glaze is not thick enough to frost the cupcakes with, so I am at an impasse. I do not know what to do. Should I just glaze them, or should I whip up some whipped cream and mix in the chocolate glaze and have chocolate whipped frosting? I wasn’t sure what to do, so I Googled “rich and creamy frosting” and what came up? “Butter cream frosting”. So I made a batch of butter cream frosting and heated up the now cool glaze (I had stuck it in the fridge to harden it a bit) and added it to the frosting. This heated up the frosting, so I put in the fridge to cool down, then I used my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator to decorate the cupcakes, then put them in the fridge. I found the recipe for the butter cream frosting here.

Butter Cream Frosting:

Information:

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Makes: 2 ½ cups

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened

⅛ teaspoon salt

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 egg yolk, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs milk (I used non-fat)

Directions:
1. Mix the butter and salt until the butter is creamy.
2. Alternating, add the sugar, vanilla, eggs, and milk. (I did: 1C sugar, vanilla, 1C sugar, eggs, 1 C sugar, milk, 1C sugar)
3. Whip until light and airy.

Spectacular Spectacular!

No words in the vernacular/Can describe this great event/You'll be dumb with wonderment/Returns are fixed at 10%/You must agree that's excellent

The cupcake/brownie/ice cream cone amazement is wonderful! Or so I've heard. I have yet to taste one, as I am not a fan of the cone. I am glad that they were a job well-tasty, and my husband will be taking the five left to work to share with his co-workers.

Tomorrow, after a very long day that includes church and Disneyland, I will be making a double batch of Fudge Marble Cupcakes for the Birthday Club at my work! That will be four recipes in just as many days!!

In other news, my best friend (who lives four states away, boooooo) has decided I am the definition of frustrating, and has taken it upon herself to make her own cupcakes to satisfy her sweet tooth, and those of her husband and son. She took the time to decorate a cupcake or three in my honor, and snapped a quick photo. Her pages can be found here, here, here, and here.

Chocolate-Covered Brownie Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

My husband had some friends over for the soccer game between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, and in anticipation of them eating the rest of my cupcakes (which they didn't, I'm really surprised!) I made more cupcakes. I decided on the Chocolate-Covered Brownie Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes from the book "Cupcakes!" by Elinor Klivans, which can be bought here.

Because cupcakes usually consist of the same basic ingredients and directions, I've shorthanded this recipe, but if you have any questions, feel free to comment and ask. Also, I've tweaked the recipe to how I did it (time wise). The cupcake batter recipe, can be found here, also.

Cupcakes
Information:
Prep time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Makes: 12 ice cream cone cupcakes

Ingredients:
12 flat-bottomed ice cream cones
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 oz unsweetened chocolate (baking chocolate works)
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (4 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

2. Place butter and unsweetened chocolate into double boiler and melt until creamy and completely melted. Set aside, but keep warm.

3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, mix eggs and sugar on medium speed until the mix is thick and cream-colored, roughly 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary. On low speed, first add the vanilla until completely combined, then the chocolate mix until completely combined. Continue mixing on low and mix in the flour mixture until completely smooth, then mix in the semi-sweet chocolate chips.

5. Fill each ice cream cone to just below the top of the cone. Make sure the batter is even at the top of the ice cream cone; try to fill in any holes. Place one flat bottomed ice cream cones into each cupcake spot in the cupcake tin.

6. Bake for about 28 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean. (If you hit a chocolate chip, try another spot).       ---      This is where my instructions differ... I put it in for 28 minutes, and the tops looked good, but the toothpick came out with batter. So I kept baking for 3 minute intervals for another 15 minutes and there was STILL batter on the toothpick, but my husband took them out of the oven anyways.... We'll have to see how the cupcakes come out, if they are dry or anything.

7. Let the cupcakes cool for 20 minutes in the cupcake tin.

Topping
Information:

Prep time: 1 minute

Total time: 5-10 minutes

Makes: more than enough topping

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups (8 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tbs canola or vegetable oil

My own added ingredients:
1 tbs canola oil
1 tbs and 1 tsp of non-fat milk

Directions:

1. Using a double boiler, melt all ingredients together.      ---    This is where my instructions differ. My double boiler is barely big enough to hold all the chocolate, but could not heat it to the right temperature with that much chocolate in it, (** See note below) so I used a regular pot on the stove with extremely low heat.

2. Once the cupcakes are cool enough, dip the top in the chocolate, letting the excess chocolate drip off. Put the cupcake back into the pan to let the chocolate firm up.

3. Let the topping firm for about 10 minutes before adding sprinkles or another topping.    ---    This is where my instructions differ. After 10 minutes, I knew the chocolate would be too firm to accept the sprinkles, so I added my sprinkles right after dipping it in chocolate.

4. Let the cupcakes with the topping cool for 2 hours. If you want/need to speed up that time, you can carefully stick the cupcakes in the fridge for 15-30 minutes to let the chocolate firm.

** My double boiler is pictured above. It looks like a toy (red) and I'm sure it was meant for a teenager to make some chocolate candies, but this double boiler is amazing!!! It works wonders for my chocolate dipped Oreo's and my chocolate covered pretzels. I will need to upgrade to a bigger double boiler for some future recipes, but for now, my little red chocolate melter works just fine for me!! :)

Making these cupcakes was rather fun! I hope they taste as good as they look! My husband's mom stopped by to pick two of these and two Hummingbird Swirl cupcakes. She's been wanting for SO long to have some of my home made goodies, and she is finally able to try two of them!

Hummingbird Swirls

 Last night I had my parents over for dinner, dessert, and games. I had a request to do Hummingbird Swirls. The recipe comes from the book "Cupcakes!" by Elinor Klivans, and can be found here.  The recipe calls for two recipes: Easy-Mix Yellow Cupcake Batter and Cream Cheese Frosting. According to the cookbook, "Hummingbird Cake is a banana, pecan, and a pineapple cake that has a cream cheese frosting."

I made a few mistakes (but learned from them) while working this recipe, and I won't let it happen again.

#1: I let the batter sit for a while (I still had dinner in the oven, and had to wait to put the cupcakes in). This caused the cupcakes to not rise as much in the oven, so the cupcake was very dense.

#2: I let the frosting sit out instead of cool in the fridge. After the cupcakes were baked, and while we were playing cards, I let the frosting sit out. This made the frosting very liquid-y and didn't hold its shape on the top of the cupcake. If I had refrigerated it, the frosting would have firmed up a bit and I could have made the frosting into pretty designs.

Cupcakes

Information:

Prep Time: 25 min

Total Time: 1 hour 25 min

Makes: 12 big-top cupcakes (if done correctly :-/) or 48 (says 4 mini-cupcake pans) mini-cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 C sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C sour cream
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 C mashed banana (1 banana)
1/2 C canned crushed pineapple in its own juice, drained
1/2 C (2 oz) pecans, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix the egg, yolk, and sugar on medium speed until the mix is thick and cream-colored, roughly two minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary. On a low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Continue mixing and add the sour cream until completely blended. Mix in the flour mixture until the batter is smooth. Add the banana, pineapple, and pecans until completely blended. 

4. Fill the cupcake liners with 1/3 cup of batter, to about 1/4 of an inch from the top of the liner. If making mini-cupcakes, fill with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter, to just below the top of the liner.

5. Bake the cupcakes until the tops are golden and when a toothpick is inserted comes out clean (about 25 minutes for regular cupcakes and 16 minutes for mini-cupcakes).

6. Cool the cupcakes on a rack and frost as you please!

Frosting

Information:

Prep Time: 5 min

Total Time: 10 min

Makes: 3 cups

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. With an electric mixer on low, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth, roughly one minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary.

2. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about one minute. Beat for an additional minute to lighten the frosting.

Overall, it was a great success! I have several left over and my sister and niece enjoyed a couple today, and my husband’s friends are here to watch soccer and I'm sure they will eat some. I might run to the store and get some more ingredients and make some more for tonight, as we are going to a friend's house for dinner and I am providing dessert, or I might make a different kind. I would like to try again so that I can pop the batter directly into the oven and see if they rise better. Monday is a co-worker's birthday and as head of the "Birthday Club" I collect money to support the cakes for everyone's birthdays. I will be making Fudge Marble Cupcakes.

(my personal photos taken by Roger Worden)

Things to come

This weekend is full of times when I might want or need to make more cupcakes, so I may just bake all weekend and get some of the recipes done early! Tonight my parents are coming over for dinner and I need to prepare dessert. I have had a verbal request for Hummingbird Swirls, so I think I shall do that tonight. I need to make dessert for dinner tomorrow, and I might do a half batch of something, but I need some ideas. Feel free to comment on what you think I should make.

In the meantime, please enjoy this pretty picture brought to you by my best friend... Tanya Fodor!!

Marshmallow Cupcakes

For a while, I've been wanting to try the Marshmallow Cupcakes, since they have an interesting design to them. The perfect occasion came around, a "Catch Up Birthday Party." Eight friends got together to celebrate everyone's birthday with two rounds of laser tag at Laser Quest, pizza, dessert, and a gift exchange. I was asked to make dessert, and of course I said "heck yes!" The final question was: What to make for this particular group of friends? This isn't a typical group of friends. This is the group that I had lunch with in high school almost every day, and then a few extra people who are "worthy" of joining the group. That sounds really bad, but "worthy" actually means "Can you geek it up enough?" This extends to new friends, siblings, and significant others. The party consisted of 9-10 people, and the group can get up to 10 more people than that at times. I knew I had to make something that could be consumed by 9 people or by 20 people. My answer? CUPCAKES! Which cupcake was the hard choice, since I have quite a list to choose from. I really wanted to do a homemade recipe with a homemade topping, but I was strained on time because of such a busy week that I resorted to a Betty Crocker box of cake and can of frosting. Betty Crocker makes some darn good boxed cakes, but there's just a major sense of accomplishment when you watch someone eat and enjoy something you made from scratch. Below is the recipe and some of my own pictures, but the recipe can be found here: Marshmallow Cupcakes 

Information:

Prep Time: 25 min

Total Time: 1 hour 25 min

Makes: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box

2 containers (1 lb each) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy creamy white frosting

24 to 30 large marshmallows

Betty Crocker® colored sugar or candy sprinkles

White or colored birthday candles

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 24 cupcakes, using water, oil and egg whites. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
2. Frost cupcakes with frosting.
3. Cut marshmallow with dampened kitchen scissors into slices; sprinkle with colored sugar. Arrange on cupcakes in flower shape. Place candle in middle of each flower.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Follow High Altitude directions on cake mix box for cupcakes.

Ideas are forming.....

Cupcakes, to me, are the perfect dessert or snack. They are the right size that you could potentially fill up on just one, but are small enough that nobody even thinks twice about someone taking a second cupcake!

When I was a child, I didn't like sweets all that much, and I still prefer a ripe fruit to a sweet cookie. When I was asked if I wanted a cupcake, I would say "I don't like them." But turn around, take the frosting off the cupcake and ask if I want a 'muffin,' I would gladly say "Yes, please!" I have since learned that frosting (in moderation) can actually improve a sometimes boring cupcake. I'm still not big on sweets, but I take great satisfaction in watching other people enjoy the sweets I bake. I love decorating, but have never taken a decorating class; I like to think of myself as a creative and artistic person. I like to tweak the decorating just a little and make the dessert my own.

When I saw the movie "Julie and Julia" and Julie said that she never finished any projects, my husband nudged me and smiled. I'm the same way, I start something and never finish it -- Just ask my sister! ;) I'm not trying to copy anyone's idea or start an uproar, I just like her goal. Where Julie used a Julia Child cookbook, I am going to be baking cupcakes (to start) and maybe some other desserts. I will state which book I am using for each recipe, and give the author their credit. I guess I just wanted to do something and stick to it. So once a week (or more) I will sit down and make a batch, or a half-batch, of cupcakes, blog about the cupcakes and the experience, and snap photos! So far, to start I have about 55-60 cupcake recipes, so this will take more than a year if I do one batch a week. We shall see how it goes.

On the right is a list of the cupcakes I want to start with. It's listed alphabetically because I'm not sure which order they should go in. I will be choosing one recipe a week, and working from there. I will make a note next to the recipe, once I have completed it. If you want me to do a certain recipe for next week, just post a comment. If I get a ton of requests, I will bake the one with the most requests.

UPDATE 5/21: I have added a new list of cupcakes I have baked. I will remove the cupcake from the To Do list and add it to the Done list.

UPDATE 7/18: The To Do list has moved to the top of the page, along with the Done list. Both of these lists have links to where you can buy the cookbook, or the website you can find the recipe on. If you are looking for the recipes I have blogged about, with comments and photos, click on the Nicole's Recipes link at the top. The same goes for the recipes Tanya has blogged about, click Tanya's Recipes.

Feel free to comment, ask questions, give suggestions, and what-not; I'm always looking for those who share my love of baking and cupcakes!

Classic Yellow Cupcake Mix

In an effort to clean up the blog a little bit, the following post has been removed from a "page" and made into into a "post".

Cupcakes:

Information: 

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Makes: 12 regular cupcakes or

               42 mini-cupcakes or

                 9 big-top cupcakes or

                 6 extra-large cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg **

1 large egg yolk **

1 C sugar

1/2 C canola or corn oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C sour cream

** For a double recipe, use 3 large eggs, instead of 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk.

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.

2. In a large electric mixing bowl, beat the egg and yolk**, sugar, until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary.

3. On a low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla.

4. Mix in the sour cream until completely blended, no white streaks.
5. Add in the flour mixture until completely blended.

The batter is ready to be baked now, or add fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc. To bake, put batter in cupcake liners 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes. After 20 minutes, check the cupcakes. A toothpick inserted should come out clean, or with dry crumbs.

Classic Chocolate Cupcake Mix

In an effort to clean up the blog a little bit, the following post has been removed from a "page" and made into into a "post". This recipe is a bit of a problem for me, as stated in this post. 

Cupcakes:

Information:

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30-35 minutes

Makes: 18 regular cupcakes or

               12 big-top cupcakes or

               12 extra-large cupcakes or

               60 mini-cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 C unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 C sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C sour cream

1/2 C water

Directions: 

1. Put the chocolate in a double boiler, and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat, and set it aside to let it cool

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3. In a large electric mixing bowl, whip the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl if necessary.

4. On a low speed, mix the melted chocolate in the butter mixture.

5. On a medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, until the batter is smooth.

6. Add the vanilla, mix about 1 minute.

7. Mix in the sour cream until completely blended, no white streaks.

8. On a low sweep, add half of the flour mixture.

9. Mix in the water.

10. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until completely smooth.

The batter is ready to be baked now, or add fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc. To bake, put batter in cupcake liners 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes. After 20 minutes, check the cupcakes. A toothpick inserted should come out clean, or with dry crumbs.