Week 3: Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Cream Filling!

Now the past two weeks I picked the cupcake based on what I like and wanted to try.  This week, I made cupcakes for a co-workers birthday.  Joe, my co-worker, is always making coffee in the office, so I figured I’d try coffee flavored cupcakes.  My friend Lindsey and I searched for about 15 minutes online to find the perfect recipe, as of course I waited last minute to find one.  After searching and searching, I finally found a reasonable recipe that sounded really yummy!

The recipe I found was a Paula Dean recipe named Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Cream Filling!  I do have to admit that I tasted the filling to see what the cool whip and alcohol tasted like, but I actually never had a cupcake. However, according to everyone else this was the best cupcake so far!  It’s nice to hear, but upsetting to know that I have no idea how it even tasted! I learned my lesson and will make sure I eat a cupcake! Oh and I finally got to use my cupcake corer that I got for Christmas, which I was very excited to use!

Here is what my final product looked like:

I got the recipe from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-cupcakes-with-coffee-cream-filling-recipe/index.html

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Cream Filling

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Yields: 24 to 30 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
• 3 large eggs
• 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Coffee Cream Filling, recipe follows
• Coffee Butter cream, recipe follows
• Chocolate covered coffee beans, for garnish, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add oil, coffee, and eggs. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix in the sour cream and vanilla.

Spoon the batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, for 16 to 18 minutes. Let them cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool completely on wire racks. 

*Cupcake out of the oven:

Spoon Coffee Cream Filling into a squeeze bottle with a long narrow tip. 

*Using corer instead of squeeze bottle:

Insert the tip into the top of cupcake and squeeze about 1 tablespoon of filling into center of each cupcake. 

*Cupcake with the filling:

Spread the Coffee Butter cream frosting evenly over the cupcakes and garnish with chocolate covered coffee beans, if desired. 

Finished Product:

Coffee Cream Filling:

• 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup coffee-flavored liqueur
• 1 (8-ounce) container frozen chocolate flavored whipped topping, thawed

In a small bowl, whip the cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Slowly add the liqueur and fold in the whipped topping. Cover and chill.

Coffee Butter cream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee

In a medium bowl, beat the butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth, then beat in the coffee.

*My Notes:

-Instead of using the squeeze bottle to fill the cupcakes, I used the cupcake corer.  It was easy to use and there was more than enough filling to use.

-I couldn’t find chocolate cool whip, so I just bought regular and it came out fine!

-For liquor, I used a Godiva nip which ended up being the perfect amount.

Love always,  aloterella :)

Week 2: Andes Mint Cupcakes

First off, sorry for the delay in posting of my cupcake challenge, I have been making the cupcakes, just not keeping up to date on my blogging!

So I got mixed reactions on my announcement of my 52 week cupcake challenge.  Most people love the idea, as they get to eat and try all these yummy treats.   But I have gotten a few negative comments.  First off I just want to make it clear; you don’t have to eat the cupcake that is your choice.  But really one cupcake a week isn’t really going to hurt you!  Life is too short to not enjoy the little things :)!  I really wanted to give myself challenge, so I am determined to do it! 

This week I decided to do something minty!  I love minty things, and when I saw the picture I was like omg!  This week’s cupcake is an Andes mint cupcake!  Let just say these went fast!

Now when looking at this recipe I was a little skeptical as it used boxed cake mix, which I have no problem using but wanted to be trying things by scratch.  The other weird ingredient for me was sour cream.  I am not skeptical anymore, after making the cake, I think this is the best cake I have ever made and tasted.  It was so moist and just so good!  

This is what my finished product looked like:

This week I got the recipe from : http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2011/05/andes-mint-cupcakes.html and the pictures in the recipe are from me!

Andes Mint Cupcakes

Yield: 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients

Chocolate Cakes:

1 cup sour cream

½ cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

¼ cup water

½ cup buttermilk

Devil’s Food Cake Mix

Chocolate Mint Filling:

1/3 cup chocolate chips

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

¼ cup powdered sugar 

Mint Butter cream:

8 oz cream cheese

6 tablespoons butter

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon heavy cream or milk

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

green food coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. Using a whisk, mix sour cream, oil and vanilla extract together. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well in between each addition.

3. Alternate adding the cake mix and liquids (buttermilk and water), starting and ending with the cake mix.

4. Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for 14-18 minutes, or until and inserted knife come out clean.

5. Chocolate Mint Filling: Melt chocolate chips and heavy cream together in the microwave or on the stove top over medium heat. Stir in peppermint extract and powdered sugar.

6. When cupcake come out of the oven, use a squeeze bottle to fill the cupcake with the filling, or use the filling as a ganache and dip the tops of the cakes into it. 

*This is what it looked like after I filled it!

7. Mint Butter cream: Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream and peppermint extract and beat well. Add green food coloring and stir well

8. Pipe butter cream onto cooled cupcakes 

9. Top with extra Chocolate Mint Filling and an Andes Mint.

*I then added a little more ganache on top!

My notes:

-I couldn’t find a squeeze bottle at the store, so I used these icing decorators I got from Avon.  They worked perfect in getting the ganache in the center.

-The cake may not looked cooked, but as long as it when you use a knife or tooth pick and it comes out clean than it is baked. 

-When do the icing, as I learned, you start from the inside to the outside!  It took me a few trial runs to  figure it out!

Now if anyone is wondering, like I was what the ganche inside looks like here you go:

These are so far out of the two I have made, my favorite!

Love always aloterlla :)

Grandma Westdyk

I try to live my life by the motto that life is too short, no matter your age, do what you want now as tomorrow could be your last day.  Last Wednesday, January 18 my grandma passed away, at age 90.  Living to age 90 is a really long life and I hope I can live to be 90.  My grandma lived through a lot and got to see the world change and change some more. 

Just to name a few things, she lived to see 21 different presidents in office, 6 wars, lived through the prohibition (even if she was a baby), the Great depression, and got to see many inventions from AC to computers, even if she didn’t use them all.

She lived through many years of style changes, but always remained in style for her age and always had her seasonal clothing :)!

My grandma married her perfect match, an amazing man who took of care her and gave her everything she wanted.  She gave birth and raised three boys, one especially amazing, my dad!  (he was a 13lb baby and to think they didn’t have much back then to help with birthing.. ouch!) 

She was an amazing baker, known for her chocolate chip cookies but my favorite her banana bread!   I learned at her funeral her secret chocolate chip cookie recipe that only my brother knew!  My favorite memory with her is spending an afternoon just the two of us making banana bread and I will cherish that memory forever!

Even though she wasn’t my biological grandmother, she took me in as her own grandchild.  She was a very caring and sweet woman.  When you’re a kid you think it’s annoying that you have to go to your grandparent’s house every Sunday or embarrassed to have them hug or kiss you in public.  But as you get older, you learn that it isn’t annoying and when they are gone you wish that you could have all it back.  She was very much a girly girl, who had three boys and they all had boys.  She took me in as her granddaughter, where she was able to have someone else to admire the girly things with hers.  The last time I saw her, she gave me a bracelet that was her.  It is very pretty; it has three opals in the shape of hearts.  I will pass this bracelet proudly in the family and am glad to have this piece of her.    

She also was a very tough woman, as much as we love her; we didn’t think she would live long after my grandpa passed in 2004.  We thought she would die from a broken heart, of not having her love of her life by her side.  She lived 8 more years, which still amazes me, but happy to know she is very happy right now in heaven being back with her best friend and love of her life!

As much as I miss her, I am at ease knowing she is very happy in heaven in now.  I hope to live such a happy wonderful life, just like she did!  Rest in peace Grandma Westdyk, you will be missed! 

Here is the link to her obituary: http://vandermay.com/Obituaries.aspx?from=obtDet&obituaryid=3922. 

A new challenge ..

So I will admit I really do have a Pinterest addiction.  I am telling those who haven’t joined Pinterest, don’t do it!  Lol I am constantly on it and finding some many new crafts and recipes.  My issue is that I keep finding new things; however, I haven’t been that good in doing or trying them.  So I am going to change this!  During one of many browses on Pinterest, I found this lady’s blog on 52 cupcakes.  She is going to make 52 different types of cupcakes in a year.  I thought this sounds awesome, maybe I should give myself a challenge doing something I love!  And hey, I already have probably already found about 25 different types of cupcakes on Pinterest already! Lol 

So here I am in week one of a 52 week challenge!  This week I decided to make snickerdoodle cupcakes!  I have wanting to make these for a while and finally made them!  Let me just saw they are awesome and I will definitely be making these again!  I found the recipe originally from: http://www.bakerella.com/snickerdoodle-duo/.  After reading through her blog post however, she didn’t recommend the icing she used, so I went on the search for a new icing. Now I am not really a fan of icing, and I think it just comes from making cakes.  However, I found a cream cheese icing for these cupcakes and I was like perfect.  I got the icing recipe from: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/11/snickerdoodle-cookie-cupcakes/.  Once I found all of the recipe’s I went food shopping and got all my supplies. 

I figured, I start with the cookies, as I feel like they would be the most work.  Here is the original Snickerdoodle Recipe from marthastewart.com, which I found on Bakerella’s blog. It makes about 4 dozen cookies.  And Bakerella tweaked it slightly to make about 20 cookies.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In a mixer, cream butter, shortening, and sugar on medium for about 2 minutes.
• Add egg and mix until combined.
• Add the flour mixture and beat until combined.
• In a small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon.
• Use a small 1 1/4 inch ice-cream scoop to form balls. Release in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and roll until covered. When coated, you can shape them in a nice round ball and place on the baking sheet. (reserve any leftover cinnamon sugar to top the cupcakes)
• Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cookies begin to crack. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.

The recipe was pretty easy, compared to other snickerdoodle cookies I have made in the past.  Especially because most snickerdoodle recipes you have to chill the cookie batter in fridge for a few hours.   I used a tablespoon to separate out the batter which created the perfect size balls/cookies to top the cupcakes with. Below are some pictures I took while making them:

Cookie Batter:

Cookie in balls and rolled in sugar/cinnamon mixture, ready for the oven:

 

Cookies right out of the oven:

From the cookies, I moved on to the cupcakes.  I need to read before I make things, as I didn’t know until I made the batter that it was only for 12 cupcakes, not 24.  Here’s the original recipe from marthastewart.com that makes 28.  And here is Bakerella tweaked it slightly to make enough for 12 cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes (not shown).

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk, room temperature

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line regular and miniature cupcake trays with paper liners.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium for about 2 minutes.
• Add eggs, one at a time and mix until combined.
• Add vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add flour mixture to creamed butter and sugar in three additions. Alternate with milk in two additions.
• Fill baking cups about 3/4 full.
• Bake for about 15-20 minutes.
• Remove cupcakes from trays and let cool.

This was also easy to make.  The only issue I ran into was it only made 12 and I wanted 24, and some of the ingredients need to be room temperature, which threw me off a little.  I also took some of the cinnamon sugar left over from cookies and sprinkled a little on top of the cookies prior to baking them.  Below are some more pictures from the process of making/baking them:

Cupcakes prior to baking:

Cupcakes right out the oven:

Last but not least was the icing.  I love cream cheese icing, so I was really hoping it would come out good.  Here is the recipe I got from: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/11/snickerdoodle-cookie-cupcakes/.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 block (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

·         Add butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy and combined.

·         Gradually add in powdered sugar and vanilla, mixing on medium speed and scraping down the sides of the bowl for 4-5 minutes.

·         Finish with adding cinnamon, then mixing until combined once more.

·         Frost cupcakes as desired and sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar.

·         Cupcakes should be refrigerated after about 1-2 hours of sitting out.

This just like the rest was easy to make.  To decorate the cupcakes I frosted the cupcakes using a pastry bag and tip.  Now with the two different batches of cupcakes I made, I decorated the cupcake two different ways. 

One way:  After frosting the top of the cupcake, I put a little on the bottom of a cookie and placed on top of the icing.  I then created a dot on top of the cookie and sprinkled some of the cinnamon sugar on top.  It looked like this:

 

Second way:  After frosting the top of the cupcake, I dipped it into the cinnamon sugar mixture.  I then put a little frosting on the bottom of a cookie and placed on top.  This way looked like:

I personally preferred the second way, but either way the cupcake is good.  The only complaint I had was I felt like the cake was a little dry for my liking.  When I make them again, I will probably add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and see if that helps with the dryness. 

1.9% of my challenge complete .. now to think of next weeks!

Love always aloterella :)