Sorry Guys!

Sorry about the lack of updates! My Absolutely-Stellar-Hero-Man and I have had some things come up and I haven't had much time to bake lately. But I promise, cupcakes will be coming soon! (I think I've deprived my ASHM a little too long of cupcakes.)
I have no idea what kind of cupcakes I'll be making but cupcakes will happen soon. I feel absolutely awful that I haven't posted in about a month, but I know that you all will forgive me.

Boston Cream Cupcakes

Ganache recipe from Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella

Sometimes I bite off a little more than I can chew. Like when I made 84 cupcakes with the Mint Chocolate cupcakes. Or when I go a little overboard with trying to make the cupcakes look pretty. Or when I tried to make these bad boys.
They were a pain in the ass!
And even though they are extremely tasty, there are some things I would have done differently (and I'm really hoping you pay attention here and learn from my mistakes!)
#1 - I wish I would have remembered my Absolutely-Stellar-Hero-Man telling me about how messy it is to work with chocolate. All you have to do is barely touch the stuff and it gets all over your fingers and you end up smudging it all over the place. SO BE CAREFUL!
#2 - I would have used a different cake recipe. Now, I love the cake recipe that I used. Absolutely/hands down it is one of my most favorite cakes. However, I don't know whether I kept them in the oven for too long or what, but they were a little dry. If there had been no pudding in these bad boys, the cakes + the ganache would have been super dry and no fun! Tasty, but you'd be craving a glass of milk.
That being said: You are more than welcome to switch up this recipe. Use a vanilla cake instead of the Boston Favorite Cake I've got listed here. Or, instead of doing a chocolate ganache on the top, just use a chocolate icing. Anyway... ON TO THE RECIPE!

Yields 15 to 20 cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp/softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (SEPARATED!)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups Cake Flour (this is different than All Purpose flour!)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup milk

Ingredients for Filling

• 1 box of vanilla instant pudding (and whatever ingredients it asks for)

Ingredients for Ganache

• 1 cup (6 oz) white or dark chocolate (Use a chocolate that you like eating!)
• 3/4 cup whipping cream (I used heavy whipping cream and it turned out just fine)

So here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. Cream the butter until softened and slowly add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat to blend well.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl (or onto a sheet of wax paper.)
5. Alternately blend the dry ingredients and the milk into the butter mixture in three stages. Beat until smooth.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.
7. Stir a third of the whites into the cake batter and gently fold in the remaining.
8. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. (Be careful not to over fill!)
9. Bake your cupcakes for about 30 - 35 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.) Make sure to keep an eye on them at about the 10 minute mark.

For the Filling:

1. Follow the directions on the box. Duh. I would suggest making the pudding either before you get started on the cupcakes so it can sit in the fridge or while your cupcakes are in the oven.

For the Ganache:

1. Place the chocolate in a bowl.
2. In a saucepan, bring the whipping cream to just a boil over high heat.
3. Pour the hot whipping cream over the chocolate and stir until chocolate is melted. Let the ganache cool to room temperature.

Here's how I constructed the cupcakes:

1. I waited until the cupcakes & the ganache had reached room temp. Then I took a small serrated knife and through the top of the cupcake, I cut a cone out so the inside was hollow enough for me to have a place to put the pudding. Once I had the cone in hand, I cut the top off so once I had filled the cupcakes with pudding, I could just put the top back on.
2. I filled the cupcakes with the pudding, and then put the top back on.
3. Spread the chocolate ganache on top of the cupcakes as if it were icing/frosting.
   

THESE CUPCAKES SHOULD BE REFRIGERATED!
I cannot stress that enough! There is pudding in them and the pudding has milk in it! If you're not going to enjoy these immediately, they need to be refrigerated! But I suggest you give them 24 hours to sit in the fridge anyway. Just so the cake soaks in a little of the pudding flavor and your ganache has time to set.

And last, but not least, ENJOY!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcake Recipe from Martha Stewart
Frosting Recipe from MyRecipes.com

I'm ornery. I can't help it. It's just how I work.
Not only that, but I over do things. Which is how my Absolutely-
Stellar-Hero-Man and I ended up with 84 of these delicious cupcakes.
That's right. We made 84. I don't even know enough people to give these all to! But we had fun making them. And I guess that's all that really matters.
When I started thinking about what cupcake I wanted to make this week, I had just gotten some Thin Mint cookies picked up for me. I'm a sucker for chocolate and mint so it was only a matter of time before I made it into a cupcake, right? Right? Okay. These cupcakes are just like those cookies, only they are cupcakes... and not cookies...

ALSO! A first for the blog: this is the first time I've made a chocolate butter cream frosting!

We grabbed the recipes off the internet and altered them to our needs. So for the most part you can just follow the Martha Stewart recipe and then alter it to your liking. But here's what we did.

Yields 18 to 24 cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcakes

* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (We used Baker's sugar, or Super Fine, and it turned out just as good.)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 warm water
* 3/4 buttermilk
* 3 tablespoons safflower oil (I used vegetable oil and it worked out great. So you don't have to go out and hunt for safflower oil if you don't have it.)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 a package of chocolate covered mint cookies, crushed (We used a generic brand of cookies and just put them in a food processor until they were all crushed up. You can use whatever brand of cookies you'd like, and whatever consistency of crushed-up-ness that you'd like. They're your cupcakes! Do what you want!)
* 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (BE CAREFUL! This stuff is really strong and can mess up your entire batter if you use too much!)

Ingredients for Frosting

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp/softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 (16-oz) package of powdered sugar (Confectioners' sugar)
* 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 5 to 7 tablespoons milk

So here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. In a large bowl sift all of your dry ingredients together. This includes the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add crushed cookies to the mixture.
4. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and peppermint extract to your dry ingredients. Mix until smooth or until all the ingredients are incorporated.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. (Be careful not to over fill!)
6. Bake your cupcakes for about 20 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on them at about the 10 minute mark.

For the Frosting:

1. Beat the butter, vanilla, and salt together at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy/light & airy/whatever other ways I use to describe this fluffy buttery step in the frosting process.
2. Whisk together powdered sugar & cocoa. I suppose you could sift it to make the frosting more smooth in the end. (I skipped this step and just started incorporating everything together at once. DO NOT DO THIS! It'll take forever for you to get the right kind of taste if you just dump all of the ingredients together at once. I'm a dummy.)
3. Gradually add powdered sugar/cocoa alternately with 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, and beat at a low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. (Remember what I said about powdered sugar all over your kitchen, clothes, and hair? Add in the powdered sugar SLOWLY!)
4. Beat in up to 4 tablespoons of additional milk for desired consistency.

Wait until your cupcakes have completely cooled (aka room temperature) before you attempt to put frosting on them. Otherwise, your icing is going to melt and just run all over your cupcakes and become a huge mess.

And last, but not least, ENJOY! (But they are not safe for bunnies. So don't try feeding these to them. I know Orion, my rabbit, wanted one... I felt bad when I had to tell him no.)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe from The Artful Cupcake by Marcianne Miller

When I first decided that I was going to make cupcakes more often, these were the first cupcakes I decided to make. With my Absolutely-Stellar-Hero-Man by my side, I figured "What could go wrong?" What ensued was the most aggravating 4 hours of trying to bake yummy cupcakes for people to enjoy. And my parents suggested that I use canned vanilla frosting on some of them. What?!? That's blasphemy! If I'm gonna bake, I'm gonna do it up right. So here's my favorite Red Velvet recipe so far.

Yields 24 cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter or shortening, room temp/softened (I used butter)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 oz red food coloring (When I bought the food coloring at the store I opted to buy the red food coloring by itself, and not in one of those multi-packs. Best decision ever!)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (Make sure it's unsweetened!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

Ingredients for Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp/softened
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp/softened
• 1 lb confectioners' sugar, sifted (pssh, you know me and sifting... it doesn't happen unless it NEEDS to happen. But with the recipe, if I recall correctly, we did sift the sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

So here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. Cream together the butter/shortening & sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend well after each addition.
4. Make a paste with the food coloring and cocoa. Add the paste to the butter/shortening mixture and blend well.
5. Add the salt and buttermilk to the mixture.
6. Add the flour, vanilla, vinegar, and baking soda in that order, mixing after each addition.
7. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. (Be careful not to over fill!)
8. Bake your cupcakes for about 20 - 25 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.) Make sure to keep an eye on them at about the 10 minute mark.

For the Frosting:

1. Mix cream cheese and butter together until fully incorporated and looking a little light in color.
2. Add powdered sugar. (I did 1/2 a cup at a time.)
3. Add the vanilla extract and mix until smooth.

Wait until your cupcakes have completely cooled (aka room temperature) before you attempt to put frosting on them. Otherwise, your icing is going to melt and just run all over your cupcakes and become a huge mess.

And last, but not least, ENJOY!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

The Cupcakes without their frosting.
Frosting Recipe from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly
Cupcake Recipe from Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella

I'll admit, I don't normally use cupcake recipes from this book because the one time I did, the cupcakes didn't come out at ALL like I had hoped. So I'd been a little hesitant about using other recipes from the book. But my Absolutely-Stellar-Hero-Man had a craving for banana cupcakes and I told him the only way I'd make these is if they had chocolate in them. So we found this recipe and I decided to give it a go. The cupcakes will last about a week if you're not going to freeze them, but I suggest making sure they're eaten within three days. Just sayin'...

Also, when I made these, I doubled the recipe. So you won't need 5 bananas mashed. You can just use 1 cup.

Yields 24 cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp/softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar (That's regular sugar for you kids not really following along.)
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (To make them super banana flavored I mashed up 5 decent sized bananas. And to mash them I just used a potato masher... it worked out fine... I promise.)
• 1 3/4 cups All-Purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  

Ingredients for the frosting

• 1 cup cream cheese, room temp/softened
• Up to 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (I didn't sift mine. I'm lazy.)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (again, I used the prepared lemon juice. I'm not going to juice a lemon just for one tablespoon. Lazy! Hello!)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• OPTIONAL: 1 banana thinly sliced for decoration (I didn't do this. For the third time, I'm lazy! I just want yummy cupcakes for people. I don't really care about decoration.)

So here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers.
2. Beat sugar and butter together in large bowl until light and fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl - sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set this mixture aside.
   
4. Add the eggs to the mixture (ONE AT A TIME!!!) until completely incorporated.
5. Add in the bananas to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix well. Mix like your life depended on it!
6. Add in your flour mixture. To avoid lots of flour all over the place, I recommend (yet again) adding the mixture in 1/3 at a time. You really don't want to have to clean up flour out of your hair and the floor.
7. Add in your milk and vanilla.
8. Now stir in your chocolate chips by hand! ( Check out what I said in the Chocolate Chip Cupcake recipe about why you should do this by hand.)
9. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. (Be careful not to over fill!)
10. Bake your cupcakes for about 20 - 25 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.) Make sure to keep an eye on them at about the 15 minute mark.

For the Frosting:

1. Beat the cream cheese until soft and smooth.
   
2. Add in the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla. (I like adding the confectioners' sugar 1/2 a cup at a time just to make sure I don't have a huge cloud of sugar in my kitchen. Believe me, you only have to do it once to learn your lesson.)
3. Beat all of it together until you get the consistency you want and it is nice and smooth.

Wait until your cupcakes have completely cooled (aka room temperature) before you attempt to put frosting on them. Otherwise, your icing is going to melt and just run all over your cupcakes and become a huge mess.

And last, but not least, ENJOY!