MIA like always

So, I haven't updated this blog in...well...an incredibly long time! How horrible of me. I don't think I have many followers anyways so not too many people can be disappointed at me :) Now that that's out of the way. I am back! Well. I'm trying to be back. I dropped off the face of the planet for a while because I started pastry school. Once I started pastry school at home baking became very seldom BUT now I only have 6 weeks of school left and I very much look forward to getting back on track and sharing the things I've learned :) From cakes to chocolates. I love it all and I hope through this blog some of you will become lovers of the pastry industry as well. Stay tuned for some awesome post to come. I'm going to be making chocolate banana molded chocolates for my welcome back post!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Now just to clarify a thing before getting into this recipe. It doesn't taste very much like a caramel apple. It is more of an apple pie type cupcake with an old fashioned caramel frosting. It is absolutely delicious...and if I didn't have to share them I probably would have eaten all of these myself. Honestly I had a hard time of not eating all of the batter before actually getting it into the oven.

Fresh Apple Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 large granny smith apples (peeled and chopped)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your cupcake tin with liners and spray them with nonstick spray.
2. Stir together first 5 ingredents in a large bowl until blended.
3. Combin flour and the next 3 ingredients together. Add to the butter mixture stiring until combined. Stir in the apple. It will look like there isn't much batter but you should have just enough if you don't eat half of it before you bake it.
4. Spoon your batter into liners 2/3rds full and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Allow cupcakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove and allow them to finished cooling completely on a wire rack.

Old Fashioned Caramel Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1/2 of a 16oz package of brown sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
2 cups of powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and bring to a boil, constantly stirring. Stir in evaporated milk, baking soda, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil once more. Remove from heat and allow to completely cool. This takes about 1 hour.
2. Transfer caramel mixture to a mixer bowl. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. 

Viola! Pipe your frosting on your cooled cupcakes and decorate however you want. I was going to put little crab apples on top of mine....but they're really bitter....they're edible but I didn't want to risk the chance of someone straight up biting into that crab apple and hating me fore it.

Raspberry Lemonade

Since summer was winding down I felt the need to make a cupcake to capture the refreshing feeling that summer brings so many people. I decided that I would make some sort of lemonade type cupcake. I few weeks prior to this experiement I was walking around downtown Saint Petersburg, FL, where I live and walked into a local cupcake shop. This is a habit of mine since I want to own a shop myself one day. When I walked in I purchased a Pink Lemonade cupcake and was sadly dissapointed when I ate it :(. It tasted like a pink cupcake...not a pink lemonade cupcake....all I could taste was vanilla and food coloring....which for those of you that dont know...too much coloring makes food incredibly bitter.

So with that in mind I went home and told myself....I can so do better. It actually took me 2 tries to get this cupcake right. I tried making a buttermilk based cupcake first....I hated it. For some reason I can just taste the bitterness of the buttermilk no matter what I put it in. So I nixed that idea and came up with the recipe I am about to share with you all :D

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 whole egg
1/3 cup thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate (you can use whatever lemonade you want)
1/4 cup whole milk
pink food coloring (if you use gel you don't need a lot...i used a smidgen and it was uber bright!)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your cupcake tin with your liners and spray with a flour based cooking spray to keep your cupcakes looking nice.
2. In your mixer bowl whisk together your sugar, oil, egg and lemonade concentrate.
3. In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk in 3rds starting and ending with flour (flour, milk, flour, milk, and flour) Mix until just combined.
5. Add your food coloring and mix until evenly colored.
6. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3rds full and bake in the oven until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
7. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove the cupcakes to completely cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry Lemonade Frosting
INGREDIENTS
3 cups confectioners sugar (you can use more if you need to)
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp of salt
2 tbsp thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate (use more if you want a stronger flavor)
pink food coloring

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat together the butter, salt and concentrate until creamy.
2. Slowly add in your powdered sugar until you get the consistency you would like.
3. Add in your food coloring until you achieve the desired color.

That's all there is too it! All that's left to do is pipe on that frosting and enjoy!

Blog Neglect!!!

Alright. Let's take a second to acknowledge the fact that I neglect my poor blog like whoa. I feel like a bad parent. I don't even know how this happens! One minute I'm telling myself lets get this blog up to date and the next minute I'm like "WAHHHHHHH I HAVE TO MUCH HOMEWORK" -facepalm-

I have absolutely no idea how Julie managed to cook recipes from Julia Child and blog about it on a daily basis but I applaud her for it. Now that my first quarter of culinary school is winding down I find myself with no homework (for now...I'm sure my work load will become insane again after my 1 week break) and a bit more free time. Mind you...I still bake once a week. That never changed. I just haven't gotten around to writing about it.

So. For the next few days I will be attempting to catch this blog up with the cupcakes that I have made over my weeks of absence....as well as updating it with the cupcake that I made this week. I will keep my fingers crossed that I will be able to manage this.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

Who doesn't love warm gooey chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven. I mean seriously. They are just delightful. There is almost nothing better than a warm cookie...except...maybe..... How about a chocolate chip cookie cupcake stuffed with eggless cookie dough? I'm going to say yes. Heaven in my mouth. And after a hard day of studying for my midterm this cookie cake seriously hit the spot.

So I've been thinking about these cupcakes for a while now. I figured chocolate chip cookies are primarily brown sugar right? So why not make a brown sugar based cupcake with chocolate chips in it. Declious!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your cupcake tin like always.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat together the butter and brown sugar until nice and fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
4.  Once your sugar and butter is nice and fluffy add in your eggs one at a time until completely incorporated. 
5. Add in your flour mix and your milk alternating, starting and ending with the flour. Only mix until just combine. 
6. Add in your vanilla extract and mix until that is completely incorporated in the batter.
7. Fold in your chocolate chips.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 liners and back for 18-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then remove and completely cook on a wire rack.

Cookie Dough Filling

INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose flour
3.5 oz sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup semi sweet chocolate mini chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
2. Beat in the flour, vanilla and sweeten condensed milk until nice and smooth. 
3. Fold in your chocolate mini chips.

This filling makes more than enough for your cupcakes. If you want to just keep some around for eating go ahead and make double.

Brown Sugar Buttercream

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room tempurature
3/8 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp + 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat together the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy.
2. Mix in the powdered sugar until smooth.
3. Mix in the salt and flour.
4. Mix in the vanilla and milk. Beat until nice and smooth.

Putting them together

Once your cupcakes are cooled just use a melon baller of sorts to scoop out a bit of the middle of each cupcake. Fill the hole with the cookie dough. Pipe on your frosting and top with mini chips!!!!

Hot Fudge Sundae's

Well by golly. I'm finally updating. I'm actually going to do two posts today. This one and the cupcakes I'm currently baking. Anywho. This cupcake was absolutely fantastic. Actually to put it into the words of my roommate "Epic as F....!" I understand this is my blog and I'm sure I can type whatever I want...but I'm a classy girl...so I'll refrain from using the dirty words. :D

Anywho. I can't take credit for this delicious creation. I found it on www.gracessweetlife.com. She actually got the chocolate cake from Dhirardelli I think...and the frosting from Martha Stewart. It doesn't even mater where it came from. It's just flipping delicious!

Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 large egg
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup superfine granulated sugar
5/8 cup whole milk (the whole milk really does make a difference)
1/3 cup strong coffee
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line your muffin tin like normal.
2. Using a fine mesh sifter, sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium sized bowl. In a seperate bowl sift the cocoa powder 3 times (this really does matter so don't try the easy way out and not sift!). Add the sifted cocoa to the flour mixer and whisk it all together.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the egg and both sugars. Whisk in the milk, coffee and the melted butter. 
4. Add the flour mix in to the egg mix in 3rds. Whisking until just combine. Do not over mix. 
5. Divide your batter evenly among your liners and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cook in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In a stand mixer bowl beat the butter on medium-high until pale and creamy.
2. Reduce the speed to medium and add in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. Scrap the sides down after each addition. After two additions increase speed to high for 10 seconds to fluff up the frosting. Return to medium speed and repeat until all the sugar is combine. 
3. Add the vanilla and beat until the frosting is smooth.

Chocolate Ganache

INGREDIENTS
3 oz good quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tbsp light corn syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. In a heatproof bowl combine the chocolate, heavy cream and corn syrup.
2. Heat in the microwave in 15 sec intervals until completely melted. Mix it all together until smooth.

Putting them all together!!

Frost  each cupcake generously with vanilla frosting. Drizzle with the ganache. Sprinkle with some fun colored sprinkles. Last but not least, top with a delicious cherry! YUMMMMM

Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

Well once again I have gotten a little bit behind. I had intended to update this as soon as my cupcakes were done but once again homework gets in the way. I've finally managed to get my homework load back under control so I should be able to get back to normal. I plan on making a new cupcake tomorrow so I'll probably have another post up here soon.

This weeks cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter buttercream. It turned our rather well if I do say so myself. I even took a few of them to school to get some opinions other than my boyfriend and the family. Everyone really enjoyed them and I even got offered money to make some for someone. The only thing I'm not too happy about is the chocolate cupcake part. Don't get me wrong, it tastes good. I just want to figure out the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe you know? So from here on out I'll be experimenting with chocolate cupcakes until I get what I consider to be the ultimate chocolate cupcake recipe.

Chocolate Cupcake
Yeilds: 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup + 1/8 cup flour
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water

DIRECTIONS

1.) Preheat your oven to 350F and line your muffin tin with liners.
2.) In the bowl of a stand mixer (if you don't have one don't worry it's okay, just use a large mixing bowl) mix together all the dry ingredients.
3.) Add in the egg, milk, oil and vanilla and beat on medium speed for about a minute.
4.) Mix in the boiling water. The batter is going to look really really thin and runny but it's the way its supposed to look so its okay.
5.) Fill your liners 2/3 full. Since the batter is so runny i just put it in a measuring cup and poured it instead of my normal ice cream scoop method.
6.) Bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.


Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
about 1/8 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1.) Beat together the butter,salt, peanut butter and vanilla until nice and smooth.
2.) Slowly add in the powdered sugar.
3.) If the frosting gets too thick add in the milk as needed to make it a spreadable consistency.

Put your cupcakes together and garnish with mini peanut butter cups! Enjoy!!!