Carrot Cake Cupcakes

The last time I made cupcakes for my work my boss came up to me and put in a request for carrot cake cupcakes.  I said I would love to do it, then he proceeded to tell me a story:

He and his wife just went to DC and since they were there they stopped by Georgetown Cupcakes.  If anyone hasn't heard of them, they have their own show and I absolutely love watching it.  Anyway, he said they went to Georgetown Cupcakes and waited an hour and a half in line just to buy one cupcake.  AN HOUR AND A HALF!  I couldn't believe that.  He said once he got to the front, he ordered got his carrot cake cupcake and ate it.  And the hour and a half was worth it.  Then he said, make me a carrot cake cupcake.  No pressure right??  Wrong!  I was excited to make these for him, and now I have to compete against Georgetown Cupcakes.  Great.

So I was looking online and found a couple of recipes, but non seemed right.  How I could tell, I have no idea I have never made carrot cake cupcakes before or really tasted it.  Lovely.  I came across a recipe that used apples in it, and I thought that sounded good so I decided that was the winner.  Thank you http://www.joyofbaking.com/!!

This morning when I came into work I talked to my boss and we decided that he would test them first, be brutally honest and if they sucked we wouldn't put them out.....but he LOVED them!  Wooooooo!!!  Seriously it made my whole day.  He looked like a happy little boy eating his cupcake it was so great.  In the words of Mark Smith "BOOM!!!"  Success.

So this recipe makes about 20 cupcakes, I just added an extra egg, some extra oil, extra sugar and flour to make about 27.  That was risky on my part for not adding more of everything, but it worked!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I actually ended up using around 3 tsps)
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 cups finely grated raw carrots (I only used 1, it seemed like a lot)
1 cup grated apple (approximately 2 large)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts coarsley chopped
1 cup raisins or currants (I left them out)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl whisk eggs, oil and sugar together
3. In another bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda and ground cinnamon (I added in 1/4 nutmeg as well, you can do what you want!  Add the flour mixture to the eggs, oil and sugar.
4. Fold in the carrots, apples, nuts and raisins.
5. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until done in the middle.

The frosting is the Cream Cheese frosting that I use on a lot of mine so that is on the website.  When I was done frosting I added some of the extra crushed nuts on top to make them look pretty.

Also I got to use my new cupcake stand that I made as well!!  What a success.  Enjoy!

Cupcake Stand

So I am obsessed with this website called Pinterest.  (Pinterest.com)  I have mentioned it in my blog before and I am pretty sure everyone who reads this already knows about it.  Anyway they have a lot of DIY crafts to do, and one of them was a cupcake stand.  I love making cupcakes and  I have been wanting to make a cute stand for them for a long time now and just got around to doing it. 

I went to the DI and found a few cute plates that I wanted to use, all of different sizes.  I also bought two old candlesticks and some crazy glue.  While I was putting the crazy glue on the candlesticks to put onto the plate, I got some in my hair!!  Ahhh I was freaking out.  My parents were up in their room sleeping and I was so tempted to go up and say "I know this is going to take you back a few years, but I have glue in my hair and don't know how to get it out!!"  I just decided to finish the project and deal with it later.  Probably not the smartest thing to do, but once it dried I just combed it out.  Luckily.

Anyway back to the cupcake stand.  I used crazy glue, so far it is working well, but I think that something stronger would be better to use.  I still think it turned out good though!

Tuuuhhhdahhhhh!!!

Finally...I blogged! Oh and some lovely cupcakes

Alright, alright.  I know it has been over a month since I have blogged....I know I am a hypocrite!  I check my certain blogs everyday that I follow and am always so bummed out when someone takes so long to blog back...cough cough....Shay....cough cough. :) ha ha and then my dearest Brady pointed out that I have not blogged in quite some time and so I fall right back into that category.  The thing is, I have had PLENTY of things to blog about.  My summer has been full of trips and adventures.  Do you want to know why I haven't blogged?  It's not becuase I don't have time.  It's because I don't have any pictures!  Way lame excuse right?  Well come on you have to admit, reading blogs, especially when they are long, are so much better when you have some fun pictures to look at.  So, now I have some pictures, I will blog!

I decided to make cupcakes for the schedulers at my work, my boss found out and announced it to the whole department that I was making cupcakes for everyone, so instead of my one batch I have been dying to try out, I made two so I could try to feed everyone.

Of course trying two new cupcakes with two new frostings, something bad was bound to happen.  Oh do you think just one bad thing happened?  I wish it was only one thing.  I filled the cupcake tins too high, one frosting I thought didnt make enough, the other frosting wasn't mixing so I melted the caramel more and it melted the entire thing, should I go on?  Needless to say I had yet another cupcake meltdown last night.  I do this everytime I make cupcakes for something I swear!  Luckily I had Brady there, to let me know my life wasn't ruined.  After baking for two hours I went to bed.  Woke up the next morning, refreshed, but still unsure what I should do about my melted frosting that didnt set in the fridge like I hoped to.  So I went to Brady's early in the morning, he gave me some good ideas and I made new frosting and used the old caramel frosting to drizzle over the cupcakes.  I am not going to lie, they turned out great!  After all, it is about presentation right? 

I decided to make Pina Colada cupcakes, as a request from one of my co-workers.  Luckily the lovely cupcake book that Brooke and Dan gave me for my birthday, Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella, had a fantastic recipe in it.  The other cupcake batch I made was sort of something I just put together.  It was a devil's food cake which was supposed to have a yummy caramel frosting.  But you heard what happened with that so it ended up being a cream cheese frosting with the non-set caramel frosting as a surprise under the frosting as well as drizzled on top.  Compliments of Brady Mower.

Pina Colada Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1/4 lb. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1 TBS rum (I didnt use this in my recipe, but it calls for it)
2 TSP vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/2 all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP baking soda
1/4 TSP salt
1/3 cup crushed pineapple
1/3 cup shredded coconut

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a large bowl beat together the melted butter, pineapple juice, rum and vanilla extract with an electric beater until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well.
3. In a seperate bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture 1/2 cup at a time until all combined.  fold in the p ineapple and coconut.  (I wasn't sure what "fold in" meant so I just mixed them in!)
5. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full.  Bake for 20-25 min

Toasted Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:
Ingredients:
4 TBS unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups flaked coconut (this is a lot of coconut.  I only used 1 1/2 cups and it was still a lot.  But it was yummy!  Use as much or as little as you prefer)
One 8 oz package cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups confectionsrs sugar
2 TSP milk
1 TSP vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Melt 2 TBS of the butter  in a large skillet over medium heat.  Stir in the coconut and cook, stirring constantly until coconut is golden brown.  About 8 minutes.
2. In a bowl cream the remaining butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add the confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla slowly, beating after each addition.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in the toasted coconut.

Of course you have to do a fun topper!  Brady did a great job

We didn't take as many pictures of the Pina Colada cupcakes by chance, but we took PLENTY of the next batch.

Chocolate Caramel Cream Cheese...Delight
Ingredients:
1 box of Devil's Food Cake
-All ingredients that are used for box mixture
Frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter room temperature
2 TBS heavy cream
20 caramels
2 cups of powdered sugar
Kosher salt

Instructions:
1.  Melt caramel and butter.  You can put it in a microwave safe bowl and put it into the microwave for about 30 seconds or until smooth, then stir.  Allow to cool in the fridge for a few mintutes.  (be sure not to let cool too long, just cool to the touch.  You still want it to be able to drizzle)
2.  Whip the butter until fluffy.  Add one cup of powdered sugar and mix until it is all combined.
3.  Once the caramel is cool to the touch, drizzle into the frosting mixture until it is all mixed.  **IMPORTANT NOTE**  This is where I messed up.  I let it cool too long so when I needed to use it, it wouldn't drizzle in to mix all the way.  So I decided to heat the rest of it up and not let it cool as long.  Of course I was impatient and didnt wait long enough so my entire mixture MELTED.  Don't be like me!  This is a tricky recipe so let it cool just enough, but will still drizzle.  You may need to experiement.  If for some reason it ends up melting you can do what I did, make a batch of my cream cheese frosting and drizzle on top.  Either way works!  Okay back to instructions
4.  Beat until fluffy.  Mix in last cup of powdered sugar.  Add in 1/4tsp to 1/2tsp of salt at a time to the mixture.  REMEMBER a little salt can go a long way.  Go to taste.

Since I did the caramel frosting wrong we used part of it as a little surprise under the frosting

Well, I took the cupcakes into work and they were a hit!  Thank goodness.  This end result is why I love baking!  Enjoy :)

Bridal Shower with a lot of Cupcakes

Alright this is probably going to be a really long post since I have two recipes that I am putting in here.  I guess I could split them up, but I am too lazy to do two seperate posts and the pictures that I have are together so I will just do one. 

Last night was the bridal shower for my best friend all growing up.  Seriously we have known each other since we were like 5 so it is crazy to see that she is actually getting married.  I am so happy for her and was lucky enough to have the pleasure of baking cupcakes for the party.  I ended up making almost 5 dozen, I couldn't believe how much the batter made.  Good thing though, they were delicous.  If any of you guys know me, you know that I don't like to eat my cupcakes, I don't know why, but I am just not a cake person.  I decided to tried these and they were so yummy!  I am glad there are extra :)

My beautiful friend and her Fiance

Keylime with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

Of course I got this recipe from Pinterest, the food blog it is from is Baked Perfection.

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons key lime juice
zest of two limes
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or paper-line 30 baking cups.

1.  In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2.  In a separate mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla, key lime juice and lime zest; mix well. Add the flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream (batter will be thick).
3.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup blackberry filling (seedless blackberry jam or preserves can be substituted)
pinch of salt
6 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk

1.  Beat butter and vanilla until creamy. Mix in blackberry filling and salt. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until combined. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach desired consistency.  When I added the milk it made it a little soft, so be careful when you add it

Devil's Food Cake with a Surprise Reeses with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

1 package Devil's food cake
Bag of Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

1. Prepare Devil's food cake as directed on box
2. Fill the cupcake tins with cake batter to where the bottom of the tin is covered
3. Add 1 Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cup
4. Cover the Peanut Butter Cup with batter
5. Bake as directed on box

Pictures are not great sorry!

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
generous pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
4 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream the butter, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla. Slowly add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time alternating with the milk until you reach the desired consistency.

Enjoy :)

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I love to cook and I love to bake, but my favorite thing to bake by far are cupcakes.  I don't know what it is, but I love everything about making them.  Funny thing is, I don't even like cupcakes.  I don't like cake, I don't like brownies, I don't like cupcakes.  I consider it a good thing that I don't like them because for how often I make cupcakes, if I actually ate them I would gain a whole lot of weight.

Something else that you should know is that I am not a professional baker, this isn't something that I do every chance that I get, it is just something that I enjoy doing.  Like a hobby.  So the pictures aren't professionally done either.  Whenever you look at food blogs, whatever is made looks flawless and the pictures are impeccable, we do what we can here and it works for me. 

So as I  mentioned in the post before this one, one of my best friends left on her mission this week, yesterday to be exact.  So this past Sunday was her farewell along with her little brother Derek's farewell.  (He is leaving for London, England next Wednesday) So I decided to make some cupcakes for the lunch after church.  I was going through a bunch of ideas that I had seen on other food blogs trying to decide what new recipe that I wanted to try and I decided on doing cookie dough cupcakes.  What is better then cookie dough inside of a cupcake??  Beats me. 

Ingredients:
1 box of Devils Food Cake
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. butter flavored shortening
1 1/8 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Start by making the cookie dough, the amazing recipe that I have says it needs to sit for an hour or two, but I have no idea why, I just follow instructions.  Oh and I ALWAYS double this cookie dough recipe.  You will need dough to put some in the cupcake, to make the little cookie garnishes you put on top and to eat as you bake of course!
1. Beat together the shortening, butter, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract, beating until combined.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the salt, baking powder, and flour, then gradually stir them into the batter. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Put in the fridge and let sit for an hour, unless you want to test it without chilling, if you do please let me know I am curious if it matters or not.

While the cookie dough chills, grab  your box of Devils Food Cake and do as the instructions say.  Let me tell you what I think about cake boxes....THEY ARE FANTASTIC!  For those of us who aren't great bakers, it saves a whole lot of time and confusion as well as the chance you might mess up, so I go with a box cake any chance that I can.

After the dough has chilled and the cupcake batter is made something that I find useful when putting the batter in cupcake tins is dumping all of the batter into a gallon zip lock bag.  Seal it up then cut one of the corners of the bag off, it helps control where the batter goes as well as helps with spills.

Fill the cupcake tin so the bottom is covered, don't fill much past that.  After you have done that, roll the cookie dough into balls as big as dimes.  You can make them bigger or smaller, depending on your preference.  After you have put a ball of cookie dough in, grab the rest of your batter and cover the cookie dough ball.  Be sure the whole ball is covered!  Fill to about 3/4 of the cupcake tin.

Look at the instructions on the cake box and bake.  Leave them in until you can put a fork in them and pull them out without anything on it.

What you can get ready next since you have the cookie dough out you can make the cute little cookie garnishes that go on top of the cupcakes.  Roll about the same size as you put in your cupcakes, maybe even smaller.  Bake in the oven at 350 for 6-7 minutes.  They may not look all of the way done, but remember the cookies will still continue to cook a little bit as they cook on the pan they cooked on.

While those bake you can make the frosting.  The frosting that I use on these cupcakes, and most all of my cupcakes if we are being honest is cream cheese frosting.  It is heavenly.  So even though I don't eat cupcakes, I eat a lot of the frosting...mmmmm. 

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter
1 8oz box of cream cheese
6 cups of powdered sugar.
1/2 Tsp of vanilla

1. Be sure that the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature.  If they are cold DO NOT put them in the microwave.  Well I guess you can if you watch them carefully and do it for a few seconds at a time.  You don't want either of them to get runny at all, it will ruin the consistency of the frosting.
2. Mix together in a medium size bowl the butter and cream cheese.
3. Add in one cup at a time the 6 cups of powdered sugar.  If you are like me  you always make a mess, and this is where it comes in.  Wear an apron if you have one!
4. Mix in the vanilla

After the cupcakes have cooled off, time to frost.  I use a big frosting head that I bought from Spoons and Spice which is so nice to have.  I highly reccomend getting one, it makes your cupcakes so much prettier.  If you don't want to buy one, don't have money or don't have time to get one, you can use your trusty gallon zip lock bags again.  Fill the frosting in and cut off a corner then swirl.

After you are done frosting add your cute baby cookies that you made for the finishing touches.  Depending on the size they turn out to be, you can either put the full cookie on or cut it in half.  Mine were too big, so I cut them in half and put them in.  Another thing that I think would be cute to add would be to buy mini chocolate chips and add a few of them after you have put the cookie on for more decorations.

Enjoy!