Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This is another recipe that I have been making for many years that I just haven't gotten around to blogging about yet. I forget what I first made these cupcakes for but they were an instant hit. The original recipe came from allrecipes.com and I have since tweaked it here and there. I top them with cream cheese icing. When I first started making these, I did not own a food processor so let me tell you that grating the carrots by hand was quite an adventure and not something I looked forward to doing often. Now that I have my wonderful food processor with grating disc, that part is a breeze. Joe's coworkers had been clamoring for him to bring in a treat for awhile so the Monday before Thanksgiving I decided to send him in with something for the upcoming holiday. He requested these cupcakes since he had been telling everyone about them for awhile. He said they were a hit and gone very quickly.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups shredded carrots
1, 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, partially drained
1 batch cream cheese icing

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with liners (recipe will make 18-24 cupcakes depending on size).

Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg on low in bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment. Add sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix on medium-low speed until combined. Add in carrots and pineapple and mix until just incorporated, do not over-mix batter at this point.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 - 3/4 full. Bake for 21 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks and ice when cool. Store in air tight container in refrigerator when not serving.

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

I seem to be on a cooking with bananas kick.  I am not sure if it is because we just aren't eating the bananas in time before they get too ripe or if I am just really into banana recipes recently.  Maybe a little bit of both.  Anyway, this recipe was recommended on a message board that I visit frequently and I was hooked when I saw the title.

I love Nutella.  I first discovered Nutella when I was a 14 year old exchange student in Germany.  It was on the table every morning for breakfast along with warm rolls bought that morning from the local bakery.  The wonderful chocolate hazelnut spread would melt into the warm roll and it was just heavenly.  I remember bringing some back to the US with me at the end of that summer but it was quite a few years before it made its way to our supermarket shelves.  Just looking at that jar brings back lots of memories.

So I again found myself with very ripe bananas at home so I decided to give this recipe a try.  The cake was very moist and tasty.  The banana flavor was definitely present.  The frosting is what steals the show in this recipe.  It is just wonderfully light and fluffy, almost mousse like in texture and the Nutella flavor really comes out.  I am already envisioning using this frosting in other ways.

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting
From French for Cupcake

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large very ripe bananas, mashed

For the frosting
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup Nutella
8 oz powdered sugar
3 tbsp. milk or cream (I used cream)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.  Sift the flour and salt together in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Ass the vanilla and the eggs, 1 at a time mixing well after each addition.  Add the flour mixture and blend ingredients together until only just combined.  Stir in the banana.  Blend mixture until ingredients are fully incorporated.  Portion batter into muffin cups.  Bake 25-30 minutes until cakes are light golden brown and tester comes out clean.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, cream together the butter and Nutella until blended.  Add the powdered sugar gradually until ingredients are combined.  Mix on high speed, adding in milk or cream until frosting is smooth or creamy.  You may need a little more or less cream or milk.  I wound up using about 3.5 tablespoons.  Fill a pastry bag and pipe frosting over the top of each cooled cupcake.

Chunky Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Joe and some of his crew at work had to work really late this past Tuesday night so we thought it would be nice if we brought them dinner and dessert so they didn't have to worry about buying anything to eat.  Good thing we did, since they wound up being there until after 11pm!  I made a pan of macaroni and cheese with bacon and vegetables per Joe's request.  I guess he hadn't gotten enough of it from a couple of weeks ago.

He left the dessert portion of the night entirely up to me.  I had a bunch of apples that I needed to use and I didn't want to do a pie or tarts so I started looking at apple cake recipes.  I found this recipe on My Recipes and decided to make them into cupcakes which are easier to transport and serve at work over a whole cake.  I used my own cream cheese frosting recipe which you can find here and just made a 1/2 batch of the frosting since this recipe makes only about 18 cupcakes.  Joe came home with an empty pan and an empty cupcake container and rave reviews for both dishes.  He also told me that there were a couple of request for the apple cake recipe so for those of you who asked, here it is.


Chunky Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from My Recipes

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg (freshly ground is preferable)
4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4 inch chunks (I used a mix of Jazz and Granny Smith)
1/2 Batch Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake pan(s) with 18 paper liners.

In a mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until blended.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add to butter mixture and mix until just incorporated.  Stir in the apple chunks by hand and divide evenly among cupcake pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Spread with cream cheese frosting.  Store in airtight container in the refrigerator if not serving immediately.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

My friend Danielle's birthday was on Friday so I had to bring something into the office to celebrate.  She let me choose so after lots of searching I decided on these black bottom cupcakes.  A mixture of rich chocolate cake and cheesecake with chocolate chips?  What could be better?  Of course, when I went home and told Joe what I was making, he gave me the look and asked if there would be any for him to take to work too.  Since the recipe only makes 12 cupcakes, of course I then had to double it.  They went over very well in both offices and were really easy to make.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
From Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:
For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 oz. semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons naturally processed cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Make the filling:  Beat together the cream cheese, granulates sugar and egg until smooth.  Stir in the mini chocolate chips.  Set aside.

Make the Cupcakes:
Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla extract.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring just until smooth.  Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less than tender cupcakes.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups.  Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling equally.  This will fill the cups almost completely, which is fine.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed.  Let cool completely before serving.  Store in refrigerator.

Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red velvet is Joe's favorite cake flavor.  Carrot cake runs a close second but 9 times out of 10 when given the choice, he will choose red velvet cake over all others.  I, on the other hand, have never really been a big fan.  It is not that I don't like it, just that there are so many choices out there that I like better.  This recipe for red velvet cake made me like them a lot more than I used to.  In the past all of the red velvet cakes I have had have been dry and not really infused with a lot of flavor.  This one was so moist and tasty that I even had a couple mini cupcakes!  I made these along with mini carrot cupcakes for Joe and I to take to work and share.  They went over so well at his office that one of his coworkers asked me to make her daughter's birthday cake.  Shows it is a pretty good recipe, I guess!  The cupcake recipe I got from Brown Eyed Baker and the only way I modified it was to change the cooking time to account for mini versus regular sized cupcakes.  The cream cheese frosting recipe is one that I have been making for a long time and have cultivated over time.  I will say that I prefer my icing to still have the tang of cream cheese pretty evident in it.  If you like your cream cheese icing a little sweeter, just add more powdered sugar, easy as that!

Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes
From Brown Eyed Baker

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp. red food coloring (I used the gel instead since that is what I had at home and just added a little bit of water)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup + 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. distilled white vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two mini muffin pans with liners (24 mini cupcakes)

On medium high speed, cream the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Turn the mixer to high and add the egg.  Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.

In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food coloring to make a thick paste.  Add to the batter and mix on medium speed until completely combined.  You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk.  Add half of the flour and mix until combined.  Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining buttermilk and flour.  Beat on high until smooth.

Again, reduce mixer speed to low and add the salt, baking soda and vinegar.  Turn to high and beat for another couple of minutes until completely combined and smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and bake for about 14-15 minutes, or until a thin knife or skewer inserted into the center of the largest cupcake comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes and then remove cupcakes from the pans and place on a cooling rack to completely cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
From Colleen's Kitchen Therapy

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 8 oz. bricks cream cheese, at room temperature
2 1/2 - 3 cups powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you like your frosting)

Directions:
In a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium high speed cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy with no lumps, about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments, scraping down the bowl as necessary.  Once you have the desired sweetness, increase mixer speed to high and beat on high for 3 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

So I created this blog last year and then just kind of let it fall by the wayside.  It is not that I wasn't cooking or taking photos of some of my dishes, I just didn't upload the pictures and write the posts.  I promise that is going to change!

My mom hosted Easter this year and I decided to bring a dessert.  I didn't want to do anything traditional and I love making cupcakes so I decided on trying these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes from Annie's Eats.  I have made quite a few things from Annie's website in the past and have not been let down on any of them.  These did not disappoint either.  Every layer that goes into making these cupcakes is made of the ingredients you would think of in a traditional chocolate chip cookie.  The base is a brown sugar-chocolate chip cake with an eggless chocolate chip cookie dough filling topped with a cookie dough flavored buttercream.  Annie tops her with mini homemade chocolate chip cookies but I have to admit that I was crunched for time so I used store bought.  All of the elements of these cupcakes were amazing but I have to admit that put together they were all a little too sweet for me but not for the rest of my family.  One of my brother's had 3 of them and the other one had 4!  The leftovers went over very well at work the next day too!

 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
From Annie's Eats


Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies
Mini chocolate chips (I forgot to put these on)

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total).  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.  Stir together to blend.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake.  Fill each hole with a a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar int he bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.

Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.