Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I got to make wedding cupcakes again this summer! It was so much fun working with the bride to figure out flavors, colors, etc., and one that we were both really excited about was this Strawberry Lemonade cupcake. There are a lot of these types of recipes floating around on the internet, and all of them are different. The cupcake recipe I ended up using came from my Betty Crocker cookbook, with a few tweaks of my own; the cream cheese frosting recipe was from Cupcakes! from the Cake Mix Doctor.

The combination of the light, moist, lemon cupcake with a not-too-sweet strawberry cream cheese frosting is  amazing. In fact, one of my sisters said it was the best cupcake she'd ever eaten! I'll put that compliment in the books. ;) The cupcakes themselves are very tender, yet they hold up nicely freezing and traveling; the lemon flavor is just the right amount - it doesn't slam your taste buds as soon as you bite into it, but as you chew, the flavor develops in your mouth. And strawberry cream cheese frosting? Enough said.

*On a super-exciting note for me, this cupcake recipe would also make a phenomenal yellow cake. From scratch. I've been searching for years to find one that's moist and flavorful. All the ones I've tried are either too dry, not flavorful, or both of those things. With the few changes I made to the original recipe, this is it! Just make sure you substitute vanilla extract for the lemon and leave out the lemon zest if you just want a yellow cake. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Lemon Cupcakes (adapted from Betty Crocker's Starlight Yellow Cake)
2 1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 1/4 c. milk
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon flavoring
3 eggs
zest of one lemon
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners (should get between 24-28).
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat all ingredients on low speed 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. Beat on med./high speed an additional 3 minutes.
3. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full, and bake approximately 18-22 minutes, or until cupcakes are light golden brown on top and spring back went gently pressed with your fingers.
4. Allow cupcakes to cool for a few minutes before removing from pan. Let cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor)
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. butter, softened
4 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. mashed, drained strawberries
1/2 tsp. strawberry extract
1. Beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed 1 minute.
2. Add powdered sugar, extract, and strawberries and mix on low 1 minute until combined. Scrape down bowl, and beat again on med./high speed 1 minute more. Add additional powdered sugar to thicken it if needed, or milk, 1 tsp. at a time if you want it a little thinner consistency.

Hugs and cookies,

Amanda

A Tale of Two Cakes - Part 2

Have you seen these things called "cupcake cakes"? They're so fun for birthday parties - especially for kids! If you haven't heard of or seen them, basically you take unfrosted cupcakes and form them into some sort of shape (e.g. I used a number 1 for Aiden's bday) and then frost all of them together so the top looks like one big decorated cake. So cool. And, as I said, it's perfect for a party because everyone can just grab a cupcake and you don't have to worry about slicing a cake. I'm in love with the idea.

Mine didn't turn out as smoothly as the video showed, but I already know what I did wrong so I can fix it next time and you won't make the same mistake! Usually when I bake cupcakes, I like a little dome over the liner after they're baked. Apparently (as I discovered), that's not ideal for a cupcake cake. You want the cupcakes as close together as possible so there are few to no gaps between them; otherwise what happens is you need a lot of frosting to put in those gaps. (As I'm writing this, a light went off in my head telling me I could have just trimmed the edges off the cupcakes . . . sigh). Anyway, underfill your cupcake liners a little bit so they don't spread too far over the edges as they bake. Lesson learned.

The cupcake and frosting recipes I used came from "Cupcakes From The Cake Mix Doctor" and were titled "The Best Birthday Cupcakes (with two frostings)" - how perfect is that?!

The Best Birthday Cupcakes
1 pkg. butter golden cake mix
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 Tbls. vanilla
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with paper liners (mine made exactly 24, but if you fill them less you'll get more . . . obviously).
2. Place all ingredients in mixer and mix on low speed about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl, and mix on medium speed for 2 more minutes.
3. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full (or a little less if you're doing a cupcake cake) and bake for 24-27 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting

Chocolate Syrup Frosting
1/2 c. softened butter
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. chocolate syrup
3 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1. Place butter, cocoa powder, and syrup in mixer and mix 1-2 minutes on medium.
2. Add sugar, milk, and vanilla, and mix on low until combined. Turn mixer to med-high and beat an additional 3-4 minutes.

On a Side Note: This is the first winter since I was little that I remember wishing there was snow on the ground. "Why?" you may ask. Asher got all this winter gear (snowpants, boots, mittens, shovel) and has only been able to use them twice! He had so much fun playing in the snow and being pulled on the sled, and I wish we could do it again! Especially since we also got some snowpants for Aiden on clearance that he hasn't been able to use at all yet. I was hoping to get some pictures of them being pulled together on the sled, but somehow doing that through the mud doesn't sound as appealing . . .

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Brown Butter Buttercream Frosting

Oh pumpkin-flavored goodness, how I love you. I love Fall baking because pumpkins are in season, and all of the warm spices that go so well with them make chilly days so much better. I had been wanting to make some pumpkin cupcakes for a while, and assumed that I would use a cream cheese frosting with them (because really, who doesn't love cream cheese frosting?). BUT, I found this recipe for a brown butter buttercream at foodnetwork.com and knew I had to try it . . . And it was wonderful. It complemented the pumpkin beautifully, and I think would also be great with apple cake or apple cupcakes. The cupcake recipe is one that I found in my Betty Crocker cookbook - it's actually for pumpkin bars, but it worked beautifully for cupcakes. They turned out moist, flavorful, and brimming with fall flavors.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease 24 cupcake tins, or line with paper baking cups
2. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until smooth.
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
4. Spoon evenly into baking tins - about 3/4 full.
5. Bake 18-22 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed lightly. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Brown Butter Buttercream Frosting
The original recipe can be found here, and below is with my minor modifications.
2 sticks of softened butter
4 c. powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. cinnamon
3-4 T milk
1. Melt one stick of butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and continue cooking and swirling the pan until the butter is a deep golden/amber color. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Once the brown butter is cool, beat it on medium speed with the second stick of butter until creamy - 2-3 minutes.
3. Add cinnamon and powdered sugar and beat on med.-high speed until thoroughly combined, 2 minutes.
4. Add milk and beat on med-high until light and fluffy, approximately 4-5 minutes. Add more milk or powdered sugar to achieve the consistency you want. This frosting was great for piping!

These went with Dusty to work, and he accepted some very nice
compliments on my behalf :)

And this one was for me!

On a Side Note: Asher and Aiden got to see two of their cousins over the weekend and absolutely loved it! They had so much fun together. Aiden is now pulling himself up on everything and is way too daring for my peace of mind - I can't leave him for a second or he'll try to stand up by the fridge or something and slide forward and bonk his head  . . . So far, this hasn't deterred him. He's our little daredevil!

Obviously Asher and Tryg are in the "won't-sit-still" phase :)

Aiden bothering Tryg and thinking he's hilarious

Popcorn and movie night!

Loves popcorn, just like his Mom

Buddies

Mr. Mischief . . . 

"What, Mom? I'm not up to anything, I swear!"

It's Wedding Season! Part 2

This summer I was lucky enough to be asked to make cupcakes and cake balls for a friend's wedding reception: cue nervousness. But, it was the good kind of nerves that makes you excited, not terrified. I made 160+ cupcakes, and 180+ cake balls. I was also asked to make a small layer cake for the top of the cupcake stand so the bride and groom could have something to cut. All in all, I was really proud of how it all turned out. I so appreciated having the opportunity to do something like that. It was stressful (especially with my paranoia that Asher would get into the decorated cupcakes), but really enjoyable.

I definitely couldn't have done it without Dusty, though; he watched the boys pretty much all day on Thursday as I frosted and decorated cupcakes, and dipped cake balls, and he didn't complain or seem annoyed once. THANK YOU! My mom and sister, Hannah, also came down that weekend to watch the boys while Dusty and I went to the wedding and reception - big thank you to them, too!

The cupcake flavors were white with buttercream frosting, chocolate with Kahlua frosting, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The layer cake was white with buttercream, but the frosting between the layers was a raspberry buttercream - yummy.

If you haven't heard of cake balls, they're the new thing in the cake world. You take a warm, 9x13 cake and mix it with approximately 2 c. of frosting. Form the mixture into balls and pop them in the freezer. You can freeze them like this for a while as long as they're in an airtight container. When you're ready to use them, take them out, let them thaw a little, and dip them in either chocolate bark or chocolate chips, or a mixture of both. Totally simple method, and it's so fun because you can literally make any combination you want! Genius. I was asked to make chocolate cake mixed with raspberry buttercream, dipped in white chocolate, and yellow cake mixed with peanut butter frosting, dipped in milk or semi-sweet chocolate. Both were delicious - I'm partial to the PB ones because I love the peanut butter/chocolate combo.

Chocolate Cupcakes
I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe for the cupcakes, which is Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake. You can find the recipe here. The Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting is delicious, too, but I didn't use it for the cupcakes.



Kahlua Frosting

6 tbsp. butter
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
3 tbsp. Kahlua

2 to 3 tbsp. hot strong coffee or hot water

Cream butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and cocoa. Mix slowly until combined, then increase speed to medium and add Kahlua. Continue beating as you add the hot water or coffee, and mix until a thick, smooth consistency. (You can adjust the amount of Kahlua to your taste. I used slightly more Kahlua, and hot water instead of coffee so the Kahlua flavor stood out more against the chocolate cupcake.)

White Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

For these, I used the same recipes that I posted last time, with the exception of leaving out the almond flavoring in the cake. This time I tinted the frosting pink because the bride and groom's colors were pink and gray - so cute. You can find the recipes here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

1 box German chocolate cake mix with pudding

1 c. sour cream

1/2 c. water

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1 oz. red food coloring

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add all ingredients into mixer. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down sides of the bowl, and mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Pour batter into greased or lined cupcake pans (you'll probably get about 20 or so from 1 batch). Bake appr. 22-25 minutes, or until the cake springs back when pressed lightly with your finger. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese

1/2 c. softened butter

3 3/4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese until thoroughly combined, 2-3 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 more minutes. Use to frost cake of your choice!