It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time

 Well, I finally managed to pull myself away from the VA hospital yesterday. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected it to be. All of the people there were incredibly nice. Anyway, enough about that, onto the cupcake. This week I decided to make PB and J cupcakes. They turned out delightful. At first I was a little skeptical. The recipe was quite a bit easier than the recipes used for the previous cupcakes I've made so far. I think that this cupcake would be a great one to make with your children if you have them. It's just a wonderful take on a PB&J sandwich. I hope you all enjoy :)

MAKES: 12 cupcakes     ACTIVE TIME: 20 minutes     TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 55 minutes

Ingredients

Baking spray with flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flours

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

1 cup grape jelly (or whichever jelly you prefer)

 Peanut Butter Frosting, recipe to follow

Candy bars, crushed with a rolling pin (Reese's Pieces, Butterfinger, Nutter Butter, Heath Bar or small sandwich cookies) for decoration

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line one 12 cup standard muffin pan with cupcake liners. Gently spray the liners with baking spray and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over a large piece of paper. In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in the milk and continue to mix until smooth (the batter will look curdled at first but it will eventually smooth out). Pick up the paper and gradually pour into the wet ingredients. Continue to mix until just blended.

Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin tin, filling each cup about three-quarters full. Bake until the tops of the cupcakes spring back to the touch and are not too golden, about 20 minutes. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, and then allow to cool completely on a wire rack before filling, frosting or decorating. 

Fill a squeeze bottle with the grape jelly and screw on the cap. Carefully insert the tip of the bottle as far as it will go into the tops of the cupcakes. Gently squeeze about  1 tablespoon jelly inside of each cupcake. Ice the tops of the cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting to cover. Decorate with your favorite candy.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature 

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon milk

Beat the peanut butter, butter and cream cheese with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and continue to mix until frosting is smooth. Mix in the milk and continue to mix until it reaches a good spreading consistency. 

That's all there is to it. I decided not to top my cupcakes with anything. I had a taste of the frosting before I topped all the cupcakes and I thought that the frosting was perfectly fine on its own. So, my only suggestion to you is to give it a try by itself and see if you still want to add the extra goodies. Enjoy!!!

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Don't forget to come back next week. I'll be making Black Velvet Cupcakes with a Red White Chocolate Swiss Buttercream Frosting for Marks birthday.

Today is the day

Well. It's Tuesday again. Tuesday is my baking day. That means that shortly after I manage to navigate my way in and out of the VA hospital I will be headed off to the grocery. I've got a list of delicious ingredients that I need to pick up for today's scrumptious treat! I'll write more in a bit and let you know all about this weeks cupcake. Until then, stay sweet <3

Cinnamon Swirl Breakfast Cupcakes with Bacon!

So it has come to my attention that pretty much everyone thinks that bacon is the most amazing thing on the planet. Unless of course, you're like me, a vegetarian. Cooking the bacon in this recipe was probably the hardest part for me. I can't vouch for how delicious they are with the bacon on them but I can say these babies were pretty tasty without it! According to my family and my boyfriend (they are the ones that get force feed all of my creations since I don't have a division of boys to force them on anymore) they turned out pretty darn tasty!

MAKES: 24 cupcakes ACTIVE TIME: 45 minutes TOTAL TIME: 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) salted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups sour cream

1/2 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe to follow)

Maple-glazed bacon (recipe to follow)

1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and diced for garnish

Maple syrup, for drizzling

Directions

 

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line 2 standard 12 cup muffin pans with your cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Set the bowl to the side.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and granulated sugar together, about 5 minutes. Scrape the sides and then add the vanilla and 1 egg at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition. Turn the mixer to the lowest speed and add the flour mixture and sour cream, alternation between the two, starting and ending with the flour.

In a separate bowl mix together the cinnamon and brown sugar and then fold it into the batter by hand. You don't want this to be completely mixed in. It should be swirly. 

Fill the cupcake liners half full with the batter and bake until golden brown and cooked all the way through, about 30 minutes (once again this is oven dependent). Cool the cupcakes completely

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

 1 lb cream cheese

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Okay. So here is the deal with this part. The above ingredients are what the recipe called for. For me it was way too much cream cheese and not enough sweet. So, I kind of just did my own thing after following the directions.

Whip the cream cheese and syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until fluffy.

I did that and then I tasted it and I wasn't very happy with the outcome so considering I still had brown sugar, granulated sugar and maple syrup next to me I just started adding things in until I thought I tasted delicious. The majority of the extra things that I added was syrup and brown sugar. I'm sorry I can't give the exact measurements. I just put it it until I liked it so my suggestion to you would be to do the same. Who knows. You may like it the way it's supposed to be made originally.

Maple Glazed Bacon

1 12 ounce package of bacon

1/4 cup of Maple syrup

olive oil cooking spray

 

Coat 2 nonstick skillets with the cooking spray. Cook the bacon over medium heat, turning once, making sure the bacon is cooked all the way. Turn the heat down and divide the maple syrup between the two skillets, drizzling on the bacon. Continue to cook turning the bacon often and watching closely so that the syrup does not burn. You want the bacon to be coated with the syrup and caramelized, but NOT soggy. Let it cool and then chop it up.

Putting it all together!!!

Generously frost the top of each cupcake. Sprinkle with the bacon and diced strawberries (I skipped the strawberries, my boyfriend hates them) evenly over the frosting. Drizzle with maple syrup before serving.

I want to thank Holly Wilder for the recipe. She was on Cupcake Wars. Woo Hoo!

That is it for today. Don't forget to come back next week for my next cupcake!

S'mores Cupcakes

Welcome to my cupcake blog! Since this is my post I'll start off with a little bit of information about myself. I'm just your average 24 year old girl that likes to bake. I'm not an expert but maybe one day I will be. This blog is just to share some of the creations I have made and how you can make them yourself. I hope you all enjoy it!

I'm going to start off with the first cupcake I made. By first cupcake I mean the first cupcake that I made completely from scratch.

The recipe I used for this amazing cupcake is from Food Network Kitchens. I actually got it off of the cupcake app for my Ipad.

MAKES: 12 cupcakes ACTIVE TIME: 35 minutes TOTAL TIME: 2 hours

Ingredients

 Cupcakes:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely ground graham crackers
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 sticks (6oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk

Filling:
 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (milk chocolate can be used if you aren't a big fan of bittersweet)
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Meringue Frosting:
 4 egg whites, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate squares, for garnish

Directions

Cupcakes
 preheat oven to 350F. Line your cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and ground graham crackers together.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until combined. Then increase the speed to medium high and continue to beat. Don't forget to take a few breaks to wipe down the sides of the bowl. Continue beating until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until they combined. Add the flour mixture and the milk, alternating, starting and ending with the flour mixture, until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the cupcakes liners. Each one should be about 2/3 full. Bake them until they are golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into the center. It's about 25 minutes but it is always subject to change depending on your oven (mint took about 20 minutes). Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove the cupcakes and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

FillingWhile the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the filling. Combine the chocolate and cream and corn syrup into a medium bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals on high, stirring, until smooth. Allow it to set until cooled and slightly thickened. About 30 minutes

Meringue Frosting
Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a saucepan that will fit your heatproof stand mixers bowl above the water. Combine the egg whites, granulated sugar and cream of tartar in the mixer bowl. Set the bowl above the water and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are white, starting to get fluffy and warm to the touch. Move the bowl over to the mixer with a whisk attachment, and whip on high speed until the meringue is cooled, fluffy and thick. Beat in the vanilla

Putting Them Together!Put the chocolate filling into a pastry bag that has round tip (about 1/8 inch diameter). Pierce the center of each cupcake with the tip and gently squeeze in the filling until it gently comes out of the top. Repeat with all cupcakes.

Pipe or swirl the frosting onto each cupcake. If you want that nice golden brown look you could use a kitchen torch but for those of you who don't have one of those (like myself) the broiler works just fine. Place them under the broiler just for a few seconds until you get the color you desire. Garnish with your chocolate square and enjoy!!!

This recipe was truly fun to make. I enjoyed ever minute of it and they really were delicious! I hope you all love them just as much as I do.