Jun.
02

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted by Em at: 3:01 am | 18 Comments


Believe it or not, here’s yet another post about chocolate cupcakes. And this won’t be the last since I’m still playing around trying to find “the one” that I’ll add to my bag-o-tricks :) The recipe I used this time is so darn good I like to think I’ve hit my “Eureka!!” moment… but just last night I received another that, of course, I’ll have to try. This one I’m sharing with you today is the closest I’ve come so far to finding “a keeper”. For someone who’s not all that big on chocolate, I’ve sure been baking with it a lot lately!

I’ll freely admit that when I first read this recipe I was skeptical… very very skeptical. A cake recipe with no eggs? No milk? I was really scratching my head as to how this one would turn out. The batter is thin and easily pourable – and that worried me too. But the taste is great! And the texture? Well, I’d by lying if I didn’t say it was the closest to that hard-to-duplicate texture of box cake mix… though the flavor is so much better!

Now I’m not a vegan… far far from it… but since the recipe has no eggs and no milk, does it qualify as vegan-friendly? Someone who knows these things please post a comment and let me know because I’m sincerely interested.

I realize the calendar shows June and St. Patrick’s Day was about 2-3 months ago, but I recently had a hankerin for minty icing. Maybe it was that Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream I posted about here. To make these Mint Chocolate Cupcakes you can either put the mint extract in the batter itself… or put the mint extract in the icing. Maybe go all out and put it in both! But if you go that route, try to use a light hand with the amount of mint because too much can be overpowering for some folks.

Pair it with my favorite buttercream frosting that I posted about here and you’ve got yourself one tasty cupcake. I added a small amount of mint extract to the icing… and a very small amount of Wilton Gel Icing Color in Kelly Green to dress it up a little. I also dusted some with cocoa powder and dotted a few chocolate sprinkles on others. When I gave one of each to a couple in my neighborhood, they playfully teased each other with “well, which one do you want… sure they both have chocolate stuff on top but one has dust and one has chunks… make a choice” hahahaha :)

The recipe, as written, is enough to make a full cake. I halved it and it still made a whole lot of cupcakes… in excess of 2 – 3 dozen petite mini, mini and regular sizes. When trying out a new recipe for the first time I tend to cut it in half or even one- third to see how it works out. I figure if it’s great I can always make more… but if it’s pretty bad, I haven’t wasted a lot of ingredients and gotten stuck with a whole lot of something that just doesn’t taste very good! LOL! When I made this recipe, I was only disappointed in the fact I didn’t make more… it was THAT good. Try it out for yourself… and tell me if you don’t agree :)

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted from Amazon Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
3 cups flour
2/3 cups Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract
2 tablespoons white vinegar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt together.

In a separate bowl whisk together the water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, mint extract and vinegar.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/3 of the dry ingredients with 1/2 of the wet ingredients. After the mixture is thoroughly combined, add half of the remaining dry ingredients with the remaining wet ingredients. Combine thoroughly. Lastly add in the remaining dry ingredients. Once the mixture is thoroughly combined, continue to mix for another 2-3 minutes.

Pour into cupcake liners or for a full cake pour into a 9×13 cake pan prepared with baking spray. Tap the pan against the counter to break any air bubbles that exist.

Bake for 20 minutes (cupcakes) or 25-30 minutes (cake) or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.
Top with my favorite buttercream frosting and ENJOY!!.

 

 

Posted in Chocolate, buttercream icing, cupcakes, recipes | 18 Comments »

May.
21

Totally -O- Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted by Em at: 12:46 pm | 1 Comment


I think I’ve mentioned a time or two that I’m not a huge fan of chocolate. Now, before you start flooding my inbox with hate-mail and nasty-grams, realize that I don’t **dislike** chocolate. It’s just not a real draw for me. But trust me, if a box full of cupcakes magically appeared and they were all varieties of chocolate, I would most certainly indulge (note, I didn’t say I’d eat *one* LOL!!). Tonight I made some chocolate cupcakes that were so far out of this world, I have to share with you how it’s done so that **you too** can have your very own “Totally -O- Chocolate Cupcakes”

I read a lot of blogs. As a food blogger, I think it’s my responsibility to (plus it’s a LOT of fun!!). If you’re into making cupcakes from scratch, I definitely suggest checking out this blog as inspiration. It definitely inspires me even though the recipes are far more complex than anything I’d really make or have a strong desire to attempt making. But you can pick up ideas anywhere and use them as a jumping-off point to create your very own masterpiece! And that’s how my Totally -O- Chocolate Cupcakes came about.

For the cake part I followed a rather simple recipe but here’s a few cupcake baking tips that I’ve picked up from others as well as from my own personal experience:

read and understand all directions before you start (I’m a dolt and read two or three times)
make sure you’ve added ALL the ingredients in the right proportions before filling the cups (when I made this recipe the first time, after the cupcakes were in the oven for about 2 minutes and I was cleaning up, I noticed I had a couple of eggs on the counter… eeep! I’d forgotten to add them so I quickly removed everything from the oven, poured the batter back into the mixing bowl, added the eggs and re-beat everything… easily avoidable disaster so don’t be like me! LOL!!)

fill cups no more than 2/3 full (for me, I can only fill them 1/2 full since my “eyeballing” what I think it 2/3 full always is too much and overflows making a big mess)

if using nut or souffle cups as cupcake wrappers, be sure to spray the insides with baking spray (otherwise you’ll never get those wrappers off… yes, I’ve had this happen a time or two… or ten! LOL!!!)

do not open the oven for the first 15 minutes of baking - resist all temptation – if you’re insanely curious turn on the oven light and peek thru the door but -do not- open it … leave your cupcakes alone and let them bake

Okay enough words of wisdom, let’s get on with the recipe

Totally -O- Chocolate Cupcakes
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups super fine or caster sugar (granulated sugar *will* work)
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F
Measure flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Measure the milk then add the vanilla to it and combine. Set aside.

In a stand mixer cream butter until softened. Add sugar and cream until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes)

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until well combined

Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and combine well. Add about half of the milk/vanilla combo and combine well. Add another third of the dry ingredients and combine well. Add the remaining milk/vanilla combo and combine well. Finally add the remaining dry ingredients and combine well.

Fill cups one-half to two-thirds full. Do not overfill!! Turn oven temp down to 350F and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out cleanly.

Cool in pan for 3-5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

While the freshly baked cupcakes are cooling, you can start on the icing. Recall that here I provided my favorite recipe for buttercream icing. In order to make this what-I-consider-to-be amazing chocolate buttercream icing, I used this basic buttercream recipe and added Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder. Now, I’m sure you *can* use other cocoa powders instead of what I used. How will it compare, you ask? Honestly, I don’t really know since I used Hershey’s Special Dark. If you use something else, write and let me know your results because I’m definitely interested :)

In the “How to Make Buttercream Icing” tutorial linked above, I mentioned the icing can be stored in the fridge. In writing the tutorial the other day, when I made that big batch, I didn’t use it, I just put it all in a big ol mason jar and kept it refrigerated. When I wanted to use it for these Totally -O- Chocolate Cupcakes, I just brought it to a bit colder than room temperature and it was ready to use. I scooped a couple/three cups of frosting into a separate bowl, and added in a total of *about* 3 heaping tablespoons of Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder and mixed by hand with a small icing spatula. I added the tablespoons one at a time to prevent a dark cloud of cocoa dust from descending over my kitchen (yeah, that’s happened a time or two… or five LOL!!). You can add less or you can add more depending on how chocolaty you want the icing to be. The taste was great -but- the resulting color was more grey than dark brown so I added a bit of Wilton Icing Color in “Brown” to get it to the shade I wanted. Flexibility – it’s a good thing :) If you’re unfamiliar with Wilton Icing Colors, check out this link here.

That’s it! That’s really all there is to making totally orgasmic chocolate cupcakes. I’m not even a huge fan of chocolate but these are amazingly good. DJ is a big chocolate lover and while I won’t tell you exactly how many in a row he scarfed down (okay, it was an odd number… more than 2 and less than 4) he loved them and raved enthusiastically these were the best chocolate cupcakes he’d ever had. THAT’S a compliment!

As a bit of a switch up (and to use up some extra icing I had from the PB&B cupcakes), I frosted a few with peanut butter buttercream. Topping off the chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing was goooooood :)

If you have a hankerin for some really good chocolate cupcakes, give these a try. And even if they’re not “totally -O-” for you, I think you’ll really like them – - – especially with the chocolate buttercream icing! M’mmm M’mmm Good!!!

Posted in buttercream icing, cupcakes, recipes | 1 Comment »

May.
19

Buttercream Icing

Posted by Em at: 12:00 pm | 39 Comments


One question I come across all the time is “does anyone have a really good recipe for Buttercream Icing?”. In response I’ve posted this recipe more times than I can count. If you’re looking for a stand-up-and-take-notice, rave-worthy, knock-it-out-of-the-park recipe for buttercream icing, bookmark this post right now because the one I’m about to share is what you’ve been looking for! This is the world’s best buttercream icing :)

Okay okay… maybe not world’s best… yet… but it will be. I’m confident that if you try this you will love it :) If not, well, then I was wrong… but I’m not… you will love this!

In another life, I was into cake decorating. I got into it by taking Wilton cake decorating classes thru the parks & recreation system. The classes were one weeknight each week at the High School down the street. We had full kitchen facilities though we never *baked* the cakes in class.

I found I really enjoyed it – and after I completed the Level 1 class I decided to continue to Level 2… and then Level 3. I’d make the cakes, decorate them and since I was single at the time, I’d bring them to work and let my colleagues devour them :) It wasn’t long until people were asking me to make cakes for them… and they paid me. I loved it, I really really did. Fast forward many years later… and while I no longer make cakes for customers, I still enjoy making them for family and friends…. and for me! I love cake. I really do :)

This recipe for buttercream icing is without a doubt the absolutely best Buttercream icing I’ve ever found. And it’s really pretty simple. It’s just butter, shortening, clear vanilla extract, confectioner’s sugar and milk. But don’t let the simplicity fool you into thinking this is just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill buttercream. The end results is positively fantastic! After all, this is the world’s best buttercream icing – at least in *my* world :)

Buttercream Dream Icing

Yields 4 cups


Ingredients
1 stick salted butter – room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter – room temperature
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoon Clear Vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
4-6 tablespoons very cold milk

Method
Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the clear vanilla extract and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk… one tablespoon at a time, combining very well after each addition (mixer on medium-high to high speed) until you reach the desired consistency.

Here’s a tutorial in words and pictures…

Put one cup of shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer…

… add one stick of salted butter and one stick of unsalted butter each at room temperature…

… cream together the butter and shortening…

… This is Clear Vanilla Extract and it’s what you want to use for white icing. The reason you want to use clear vanilla extract is because it creates WHITE icing. Now, if you’re going to color your icing a darker color, you can probably get away with using regular vanilla extract which is brown. But if you want white buttercream as your end result or if you want to color your icing a pale color, you definitely need to use **clear** vanilla extract. And speaking of coloring your icing, use gel or powder colors, don’t use liquid food color because it will change the consistency of your icing…

… add one tablespoon of Clear vanilla extract… see how it’s like a very pale light yellow color? This won’t effect your icing color at all :)

At this point, you want to mix in the vanilla. I didn’t take a picture of this step but you can figure it out :)

… next you want to start adding the confectioner’s sugar. Don’t add it all at once or your kitchen will be covered in a white cloud of powdered sugar… not that I’ve ever done that or anything! LOL. I use a 2-pound bag and usually add the sugar about 1/4th of the bag at a time…

… this is what it will look like after you’ve mixed in the first amount of confectioner’s sugar…

… continue adding in more sugar and mixing very well after each addition…

… finish adding in all of the confectioners sugar and mix very well… I love this shot because you can see the paddle attachment just flying!

… now that you’ve mixed in all the confectioner’s sugar, start adding the milk, one tablespoon at a time and mixing well after each addition…

… after adding about 4 tablespoons of milk this is what it will look like… you might decide it’s perfect this way and if so, you’re all done…

… if you decided to add more milk, after 5 tablespoons this is what it will look like… again, you might decide it’s perfect and you’re all done…

… but sometimes you decide you want to add all 6 tablespoons of milk and if so this is what your buttercream will look like… it’s light… it’s fluffy… and best of all it tastes terrific.

The important thing is to work slowly when adding the milk. You can always add more… but you can’t take it away if you add too much and the icing is too thin. You want it to be thick enough to set up well… but you don’t want it so thick that you can’t pipe it out of a pastry bag or spread it with a spatula.

Yes, this recipe does make quite a bit but keep in mind you can refrigerate the icing in a covered bowl. I usually make a whole batch of it, transfer to a large mason-style jar and just leave it in the fridge. When I need to use it, I just take it out, bring it to room temperature and give it some mixing by hand.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. If you need to make buttercream, I urge you to try this recipe. Honestly, it’s the absolute best I have ever found. Heck, even if you don’t NEED to, you might just WANT to… and now that you have all this fantastic buttercream icing, you’ll need some cupcakes or a cake to use it on, right? Right. Why not try the recipe I posted here for tropical cupcakes (just use the basic cupcake recipe) or the one I posted here for Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake (just make the basic cake recipe).

Have a delicious day!

Posted in buttercream icing, recipes | 39 Comments »

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