I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

cake and cupcakes

Sweet 16(+10)

Yesterday was my 26th birthday. It started off pretty rough since I fell in the drive way on the ice, but things started to get better once I got to work. Surprising, no? Well I was greeted with 2 sweet treats from one of my bosses, Julie. She actually was traveling but made them the night before and my studio director presented them to me. It was so thoughtful since they both were personalized and she tried a new recipe for me. I loved it since it was loaded with almonds, which I love. And another great thing… no singing!!!! I escaped the thing that I (in recent years ) have been hating so much… the all eyes on you mumbled singing. Score! It made having cake for breakfast so much better.

And then my over the partition co-worker, Mai, made cupcakes for my birthday too. Not just your run of the mill birthday cupcakes but… Guinness Bacon Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. Holy Crap they were amazing!!

My day was also brightened when my Mom sent me tulips at work. They are stunning and bright. They are definitely helping me get out of the winter blues whenever I look at them. Plus, my flipcam accessories arrived from my Dad. Very excited about that so I can continue to document life without having to worry about batteries.

Every year Price and I make pizza on my birthday but I was in a pissy mood for thinking I messed up the dough, so we decided to get our favorite pizza instead. This would be perfect…keep this pizza theme alive and have a pizza we had not had in ages, but the place was closed! It is under new ownership and, I’m assuming, their idea of running a place involves having a closed restaurant when people want to eat. Genius! What place in a city closes at 9pm? What pizza place anywhere closes at 9pm? So after some quiet thinking/angry time in the car, we headed over for some sushi, for me just to change my mind and get falafel instead.

This birthday had it’s ups and downs, but I got through. Onward and upward.

Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

Snowman Cupcakes

I have not been the holiday mood this year. We don’t even have a tree. We just have a simple advent calendar I made but it keeps falling down. Go figure. The only ornaments I have up are at my office on my cube. (I do love looking that them all day- Thanks Erin!)

So I have been a bit Grinchy lately and I decided that I had to get out of this by making something fun. What’s better than cupcakes? Cupcakes topped with snowmen! I’m not a big fan of the cucpakes that are filed high with frosting so I decided to use marshmallows for the snowmen. And I’d use chocolate covered pretzels as twiggy arms. hehe

So began my baking at 5.45am on Wed morning. I prepped the night before but I did not feel like baking then so I just decided to make them in the morning. I made a chocolate cupcake with an eggnog frosting. The chocolate was the frozen ground, frosting was the fresh snow where the happy snowmen sat.

These little guys were well received in my office. We were totally maxed out on sweets with a lot of furniture vendors giving us brownies, cookies, candy, cake, and pie, but some people made room for them or brought them home to their kids.

Snowmen Cupcakes

recipe makes 24 cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcake

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa power
3/4 cup of coffee
1/2 cup of cold milk
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 /2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 large eggs
6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted.
 

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 12-cup cupcake pans with liners.

Combine the first 4 ingredients together in a small bowl, set side.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt together, set aside.

Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture one at a time. Beat in the melted chocolate, mix thoroughly.

Add in the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the liquid ingredients.

Mix all until thoroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly into the 24 cupcake liners.

Bake 16-20 minutes, or until a toothpick is cleanly removed.

Once the cupcakes have cooled frost them and decorate.

 

Eggnog Frosting

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup eggnog
approximately 1 1/2 pounds of confectioners sugar
 

With a mixer, beat the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla  extract and continue to beat it.

Add in 1/2 the eggnog and then add in small batches of confectioners sugar. As the frosting begins to combine, add in the rest of the eggnog and then add enough sugar to reach the desired consistency.

 

Snowmen

12 10″ skewers, cut in half
72 marshmallows (2 packages)
Black and Orange- foodoodlers, gel icing, or markers
24 chocolate covered pretzels (1 package of Flipz is enough)
 

Using a scissor, cut all dowels in half to get 24 “spines” for the snowmen.

Put 3 marshmallows on each skewer. Do not pierce the end of the top marshmallow since it is the head.

Draw face on top marshmallow.

Cut 2 pretzel arms from each pretzel. Using a paring knife or scissor, cut 2 deep slits on each side of the middle marshmallow. Insert each arm into knife slit, marshmallow will “self heel” around pretzel arm.

Insert 1 snowman into each cupcake.

**If you don’t have edible food markers (aka foodoodlers), or forget your stuff at home like me, just use a marker and warn people about the top marshmallow.**

Apple Cupcakes with an Apple Butter Buttercream Frosting

From the first time I flipped open my October 2010 issue of Every Day with Rachel Ray, I knew I would be making the apple cupcakes in there. I love fall because of apples. Apple pie, apple donuts, apple cider, candied apples, caramel apples, apple and cheddar omlets… the list goes on. so when I saw apple cupcake I knew I would be trying these out.

The cupcakes sounded great as they were described in the magazine, but I decided to give them my own twist. I had spent the day prior to making the cupcakes canning various things, including apple butter. I loved spending the day in the kitchen, esp surrounded by the sweet smells of  fruit cooking down into jam and butter. Our whole place smelled like an intense apple pie for the whole day while the apple butter was cooking down. Once it was complete I canned some and left some for us to use immediately. And by use immediately, I mean eat right out of a bowl. Since one can only do that for so long I decided that I would need to eat it on toast for some ‘real’ substance and add into some recipes. Which resulted in the development of the apple butter buttercream frosting.

The cupcakes are really easy to make. I loved it since I did not need to make the mixer dirty for that. Just use 1 whisk for the cupcakes and you are all set. The recipe called for peeling the apples, but I did not think that was necessary, so I just grated them as is, and ended up with great results. Laziness can pay off.

I wanted my cupcakes to stay really moist so I slightly under baked my cupcakes by a minute or so. I tested the cupcakes with a toothpick and it came out pretty clean so I stopped it at that point. (You will note the toothpick in one of the cupcakes… Price was marking his because he felt that one looked the best. I couldn’t help but laugh at him.)

I typically store cupcakes in the refrigerator or in a cool place because of the milk in the buttercream. However, this frosting does not have milk in it so you don’t have to rush them into the big chill. That is one thing I really like about this frosting since I really dislike harden butter cream frosting. That being said, don’t leave them by your warm stove or you will have a frosting disaster on your hands.

Apple Cupcakes with an Apple Butter Buttercream Frosting

 -makes 24 cupcakes-
 
 

 Ingredients

Cupcake

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 4 baking apples (about 2 pounds), shredded
   
Apple Butter Buttercream Frosting
 
  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 5+ cups of powered sugar, sifted
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup of apple butter
  Process
  1.  Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar until smooth. Whisk in the oil and vanilla extract.
  4. Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture until just combined. Add in the shredded apples.
  5. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and until almost full.
  6. Bake for 25- 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a baking rack.
  7. Prepare the frosting by: Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar in batches, mix completely. Add in the vanilla and apple butter and mix completely. Add more powdered sugar until reached desired consistency.

Hummingbird Cupcakes

I previously wrote about Price’s birthday and how great a day it was. Well, the one thing that was missing was a birthday cake. I had originally planned on leaving early that day so I could make the cake before dinner, but that did not work out. Then, I intending to make it after dinner since I’m used to baking pretty late, but we drank quite a bit so that was scraped and we just went down the road for a little piece of cake. No worries, it all worked out but I still owed Pricer a cake. So the birthday cake became a First-Day-Of-Work cupakes. (I realized I left my can pans in CT in August for my dad’s Bday)

Back to Price… I told him to pick out a cake for me to make. So he picked out a few of my cookbooks and went to work. He picked a Hummingbird Cake from The Baking Bible: From the Oven to the Table. We had never heard of this cake before. I wanted to know why it is called a Hummingbird Cake, so I did a little research. My research yielded that the reason behind the name is unknown. It is suggested that is has to do with how sweet the cake is, being that hummingbirds eat nectar. The cake has Southern origins, but word spread about this cake when it was featured in Southern Living in the late 70’s.

The cupcakes were easy to make and produced a great result. The cupcakes were rich a moist- from the oil in the cake. While I like {cup}cakes with butter in them I appreciate baking with oil since I don’t have to wait for the butter to come to room temperature. And without having to cream butter and sugar together I didn’t need to use a mixer for the cake portion. The pineapple also made for a moist cake. However, the banana flavor was much more dominate than the pineapple flavor. I admit that just mashed up bananas and figured ‘close enough’… this just goes to show that measuring is really important! The frosting is a basic cream cheese frosting and it tied the whole thing together.

Hummingbird Cupcakes

makes 24 cupcakes
 
 
Cake
 
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups superfine sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1  teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sunflower oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup pecans, finely chopped, plus extra for decorating
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
3 oz/85 grams canned crushed pineapple (drained weight)
4 tablesppons pineapple juice from can
 
 
Frosting
6 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
4 tablesppons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or line 2 12 cup cupcake pans.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda in a large bowl, set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the wet ingredients together. Incorportate the wet ingredients and chopped pecans into the dry ingredients. Mix throughly with a wooden spoon.

Divide the batter into the cupcake pans. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean

While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting by combining the soft cream cheese and butter. Add the sifted sugar and vanilla extract, and mix until smooth.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost with the cream cheese frosting. Top all with chopped pecans.

 
 




Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I made mini pineapple upside down cakes in a cupcake pan. I like turning full cakes into cupcakes, since they are fun to give out, it’s a perfect portion, and really cute. Well making a pineapple upside down cake into cupcake pan is really easy. So make them and you will happily enjoy some cake, as well as easily share with a friend.

 

I have this thing for pineapple. Love it. I put pineapple on my pizza. Love pineapple in fried rice. I always cook pineapple chunks with baby carrots. ( I learned it from my aunt and have done it like that since). Sliced pineapple is pure tart, sugary joy. Pineapple juice is great to start a mixed drink. My only beef with pineapple is how if I consume too much I quickly get canker sores. Damn you! Well, one of the standards is pineapple upside down cake; which I have never had before. How you ask? No idea but I decided I would need to have it before National Pineapple Upside Down Cake (today-April 20th) to understand the fuss. I now get it. Pineapple upside down cake is moist, sweet, sugary, and delightfully sticky. Sure you can avoid the stickiness of eating the cupcake  by using a fork but then you don’t get to lick the carmely brown sugar from your fingers.

 

 Now the standard is making this in 1 pan so you might be wondering about getting these cupcakes out. Well, don’t freight about getting them out of their cups- not really different than the standard cake. Instead of putting a plate on top of your pan and then flipping it, you use a cutting board and in 1 swift move flip it over. Ta-da, done. Don’t wimp out now. Give it a try and you will be happy you did.

 

 I used the pineapple upside down cake recipe from Ree Dummond’s cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Since getting this cookbook there have been quite a few nights sitting on the sofa while I flip through it and think how great it would be to make buttermilk biscuits, sunriser eggs, meatloaf, etc but I have finally made the jump and made her pineapple upside down cake. I divided the recipe in half to make the cupcakes, which perfectly equaled 12 cupcake, plus a tiny bit of extra batter to lick off the spoon. The only reason I made half the recipe is because I only had 1 egg in the house and I did not feel like going out for more eggs- ha! So feel free to make 24 cupcakes by doubling the recipe below. Ree has such a great book full of mouth-watering recipes. Can’t wait to try another thing in there.

 

 Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons of butter, divided into 2 and 4 tablespoon pieces
2 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 oz of chunked pineapple* (half of a 20 oz can), reserve 2 tablespoons juice (drink the rest)
12 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar
6 Marcschino cherries, halved (optional)
 

To make the batter, cream the 2 tablespoon portion of butter and shortening with the granulated sugar. Once they have been combined add the eggs and vanilla. Alternate the addition of the flour with the milk. Mix until all are gently combined.

In a small pan melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Once the butter has melted divided it into the 12 nonstick cupcake cups. Add a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar to each cupcake cup. Add 2 pieces of pineapple* and cheery half (optional) to each cup. Divide the batter evenly, fill each cup just under the top of the edge. These don’t rise much but don’t do over the edge since they will rise a bit and make removal difficult.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until your toothpick is inserted and is removed clean. Run a knife around each cupcake to allow for easy removal. Take a cutting board and place over the cupcake pan. In one swift motion flip the pan over to invert the pan for cupcake release.  The cupcake generally invert easily, if you have any problems gently tap the tin for release. It is best to serve these warm, but don’t rush it and burn your mouth!!

If you happen to prefer, or have it and don’t feel like going to the store for anything else, crushed pineapple over chunks then use a bit of  that. Just do what makes you happy.

Got Milk? Tres Leches Cake

 

Another staff meeting, another cake. I really love that I make cake for work things. It’s a good way to try new cakes, I try to make a new cake every meeting. A way to keep things fresh and new.

  

 

I have wanted to make Tres Leches Cake for a while. I’m not a dessert person but this really makes me have a sweet tooth. The custardy consistency and the frosting really get me hooked. I was always interested in the frosting because its taste reminded me of a marshmallow. Well I learned that it is just heavy cream vanilla extract, and A LOT of sugar, which explains the sugary sweet marshmallow taste.

 

  

I search for the perfect recipe had my blog hoping and diving into cook books. In the end I decided to go with the one on Foodnetwork.com by Alton Brown. I picked this one because the frosting had the most sugar in its frosting recipe (how dare someone else tell me that 2 tablespoons is enough?) and I met him!! I was using a bigger pan than the recipe called for. I decided to multiply the recipe by 1.5 for my 11x 14.5″ pan. There were a few things that I played around with like the quantities for the glaze, like I just used 1 can of evaporated milk, 2 cans of condensed milk, and 2 cups of heavy cream (instead of the half and half).

 

 I think it turned out pretty well. Next time I would poke a few more holes and add the milk mixture in 2 batches so it would soak in it bit at a time. I think pouring all the mixture in at once prevents it from soaking in properly. The mixture did not soak in consistently, it settled in the bottom and soaked up about 4/5 of the way up- which kinda defies gravity. Either the mixture was tasty and the frosting was addicting.

Tres Leches Cake

Vegetable oil
6 3/4 ounces cake flour, plus extra for pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces sugar
5 whole eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the glaze:

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half-and-half (or heavy cream)

For the topping:

2 cups heavy cream
8 ounces sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour a 13 by 9-inch metal pan and set aside.

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and with the mixer still running, gradually add the sugar over 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F.

Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer or fork. Allow the cake to cool completely and then prepare the glaze.

 For the glaze:

Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and the half-and-half (or heavy cream). Once combined, pour the glaze over the cake. Refrigerate the cake overnight.

 Topping:

Place the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whisk together on low until stiff peaks are formed. Change to medium speed and whisk until thick. Spread the topping over the cake and allow to chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This being fall and being in the mist of the Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2009, I had to grab as much canned pumpkin as I could to be prepared of anything to come my way. What’s a person to do with like 8 cans of pumpkin, and quite a few of squash bought in a fit of hysteria? Make Pumpkin Cake, of course! All of this worked out perfectly for the monthly cakes I make for our staff meetings to celebrate the birthdays. Unfortunately, I had to combine Oct and Nov since I was too busy with hw the night before the Oct staff meeting.

I found a recipe online but it called for an insane amount of eggs and oil so I figured I could find something a bit less artery clogging and keep searching. I went for my Fearless Baking cookbook by Elinor Klivans and found a recipe called Pumpkin Cake with Brown Sugar Icing. This recipe seemed normal with 2 eggs so I decided to move on from there. I would have made the recipe as is except I did not have whipping cream for the icing since I had anticipated a cream cheese frosting from the start. I think I’ll give this another go and make it with the brown sugar icing since the cake came out so well with a light texture, perfect flavor, and a nice hint of ginger.

Yes, this is true. I don’t really eat the cakes I make. I’m a savory person who would rather eat chips/pretzels/tortilla chips than cake/cookie/ice cream/fudge/etc. I can’t buy goldfish crackers or cheez its… cheese and salt, damn you being my two favorite things! Honest I tried a piece of the cake that I trimmed off to sqaure them off that square inch was enough for me.

I made 3 batches of this cake that I divided among 2 pans. I had two 9×11 pans but 1 was ‘borrowed’, so I used the 9×11 and a 11×13 that I have. I just had to keep an eye on the baking times. Instead of using 1 cup canned pumpkin I just used the whole can. This might have prevented the cake from rising as much but it resulted in a very flavorful and moist cake.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

9-in square baking pan or 11×17 inch baking pan, both with 2 inch sides
 
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 can pumpkin
 1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup pecan halves (optional) 
 
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper, and butter or oil the sides and bottom.

Sift together the dry ingredients (except sugar), set aside.

Combine the canned pumpkin, sugar and oil in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer/stand mixer until smooth, about 1 minute.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated.

Once the mixture looks smooth and shiny begin to add the dry ingredients in batches.

Pour batter into pan, layer pecan halves into batter. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted in the center is clean when removed. Let cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to continue cooling.

The frosting is made by creaming the butter and cream cheese together with an electric/stand mixture. Sift the powdered sugar and slowly combine into the butter mixture. Lastly add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Apply the frosting once the cake has completely cooled. When transporting layer cakes place dowels or toothpicks into the cake to prevent the layers from sliding apart.

Super Rich Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

IMG_0195

I served this cake yesterday at our monthly staff meeting for our September birthdays. It’s easy to make and it provides great results. The cake is rich, crumby and chocolately and it’s topped with a smooth frosting that is full of peanut flavor. I doubled the recipe to make 2 9×13 cakes that I stacked. I can cut about 48 slices of cake when I use an 9×13 pan. I perfer cupcakes but 1 single cake it a lot easier to transport than a lot of cupcakes.

Super Rich Chocolate Cake

Serves 12-16 people

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup coffee*
  • 1/2 cup cold water*
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted (Baker’s Brand is good)

Cake pans:

  • Two or three 9 x 2- inch round cake pans
  • One 9 x 13-inch cake pan
  • Muffin Tin (Makes 24, No need to grease & flour prior to using cupcake liners)

 Process 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking pans by greasing and lightly flouring the cake pans. Line the bottoms with waxed paper
  2. In a small bowl, wish together the cocoa, coffee, and water. Add in the vanilla extract. Set aside
  3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl (or freestanding mixer), using medium speed cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the melted chocolate, mixed thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the liquid ingredients, beating well after each addition.
  5. Pour the batter into the pans, dividing evenly. Bake for 20-25 (cupcakes for 20-22) minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.
  6. When the cake has cooled, ice it with the Peanut Butter Frosting.
 

*If you want to taste more coffee flavor the use more coffee and less water, and wise versa. Any adjustments need to equal 1 1/2 cups of a coffee/water combination

 

Peanut Butter Frosting

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
  • 2 cups of creamy peanut butter (do not use natural)
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar (with more to add to reach desired consistency)
Process
  1. Beat the butter and peanut butter until creamy, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add the milk and vanilla extract slowly and beat for 3 minutes, gradually add in the sugar and beat until creamy and of desired consistency.

 




Chipotle Chocolate Cupcakes

I saw the Spicy Chipotle Chocolate Cake from What We’re Eating and have wanted to do it for awhile. I love Mexican hot chocolate so I thought they that I would enjoy this too. Our friend Essa is going back to Egypt to sort some Visa issues out so decided to make these his ‘pot luck good luck send off’.

It was fun to bring them to the pot luck dinner because I was able to have quite a few reviews of it. Everyone liked them but they liked the cake and frosting seperately. The cake gave you a hint of chili about the 3rd bite in, a slow mellow burn. They could not taste any nutella in the frosting, just cream cheese.  But people like the frosting since they were eating it out of the mixing bowl (frosting them there made transporting them a bit easier!). I will try it again with a plain chocolate buttercream frosting so the cream cheese does not battle with the chipotle. Such a good cake, I know I’ll make it again.Amanda had a great idea with the chili/chocolate combination. So good!

I made changes to the recipe to work for cupcakes and my convection oven. (You may refer to the original recipe here)

Chipotle Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes
2 sticks butter, unsalted
10 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp chipotle chili powder
 
For Frosting
16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
6 oz nutella
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup milk, plus extra as needed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 24 cups in cupcake pans with wrappers. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, sift together the salt, flour, baking powder & chipotle chili powder. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl/stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugars. Beat until the sugars have completely dissolved into the eggs and the mixture begins to thicken- 3-5 minutes.

While the egg/sugar mixture is mixing, melt the butter in a double boiler. Once the butter has melted, add the chocolate chips. Stir until all chocolate has melted. Do not burn chocolate. Remove from heat.

Once the egg and butter mixture has thicken fold in the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla extract and chocolate-butter mixture into the batter. Fold to incorporate. Batter will be thin

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake lines. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (If it comes out with any gooey batter, let the cake bake longer, as needed.) Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cool for at least 2 hours before frosting, store frosted cupcakes in a cool place/refrigerator. Once cooled, the cupcakes may be covered and stored at room temperature for a day before frosting.

Making the Frosting:

Using a larger bowl and electric beater or standmixer beat the the cream cheese and nutella into until light and fluffy. Sift in the cocoa powder and powdered sugar. Add the milk then then gently beat to incorporate. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes!


Orange Poppyseed and Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

I use any excuse to bake. Shakespeare in the Park for The Boston Couples Meetup  was a great reason. Cupcakes are my favorite… the perfect portion of cake. Well, I have had Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake for awhile and figured now is the time to crack it open and give it a go. I picked her recipe for Orange Poppyseed Cupcakes but made some modifications to it and made a version with lemon (thanks to a suggestion from Ben at work).

Orange/Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup of sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
4 tablespoons of orange juice or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice +1 tablespoon vanilla extract
zest of whole orange/lemon
1 cup of self rising flour
 1 tablespoon of poppyseeds

Marscapone Frosting

8 oz of marscapone cheese
1 cup of powdered sugar, sifted
juice of orange/lemon

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with wrappers.

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy and pale. Gently beat in the eggs one at a time.  Add in the zest, juice of the citrus, and poppyseeds, then sift in the flour and fold all to combine. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcakes. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely ice them with the frosting. decorate with sections of citrus, sprinkles, or candied citrus.

The frosting is made by combining the mascapone in a bowl with sifted powdered sugar and juice until desired consistency and taste is reached. Mix until smooth.

*There will be a little batter in each wrapper, but it rises substantially to fill the cupcake wrappers

100_6164

Creaming the butter and sugar

100_6166

Add in the poppyseeds and zest

100_6167

Flour has been added

100_6168

…. almost done!

100_6169

 Marscapone Frosting

100_6211

Carrot Cake- Time to Celebrate August Birthdays

There are a lot of people who celebrate their birthday’s in August, including my family and the people I work with. I try to bring in a cake or cupcakes for the people I immediately work with to help celebrate their birthdays. But this time, 8 in one month was a lot to take on! So I figured that I could bring in 1 big one for the office to enjoy with the all the birthday people. I love to bake but I am not bakery! Especially with 4 birthdays in a row!

IMG_2927 IMG_2929

I made a massive carrot cake for the 8 people who have August birthdays. Requested by Kellie (August 8th birthday)

IMG_2931 IMG_2932

IMG_2933

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Serves 24 (but you can get 36 decent pieces out of it)

2 pound of carrots

3 cups of all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

8 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup raisins

2 cups walnuts, finely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line and grease 2 11”x8” baking pans.

Peel and grate carrots (fine shred with a food processor is okay but a grater has the best results)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a very large bowl, beat the eggs until blended. Add the vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil and beat until well incorporated.

In three batches, add the dry ingredients, mix well.

Fold in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts until they are mixed evenly throughout.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, test for doneness.

Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Let it cool completely on a rack prior to icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

24 oz (3 8oz packages) cream cheese, softened to room temperature, cut into small pieces

¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract to the mixture. Slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar. Beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

This recipe can be reduced in half.

The last time I made this recipe I left out the raisins and walnuts (afraidof nut allergies in the office) and it was a lot drier. This cake was very moist but not as easy to work with, especially when icing it!

It was nice that we were able to gather the majority of the office to get together for some cake and signing instead of our teams. We figure that we will now have a birthday cake for the month and it will be done during the staff meetings. hmmm what will I make for September?