Lovin' From the Oven

Mocha Cupcakes with Kahlua Cream Cheese Frosting

by 22 Comments


Please excuse my repetitive posts of cupcakes recently. I realized that my photos are also becoming somewhat homogeneous. Hmm… I’ll have to work on that. I’m done with midterms this week and the weekend is finally here! As you may or may not know, I’m kind of a nerd at heart. I love the marvel superhero comics, my favorite being X-Men. I’ve seriously been counting down the days for Wolverine to come out ever since last year. That day is finally here! I’m celebrating the end of week 5 with the midnight showing of Wolverine. Luckily, my boyfriend is a bigger nerd than me, so I don’t have to hold back my adoration for X-Men. 🙂

By the way, is anyone watching this Bulls/Celtics game? It’s so ridiculous!!! I can’t stand the celtics, but oh my goodness, ray allen! By the way that they’re playing, this game will never end. But man, what a game to be at. They’re going into the 3rd overtime right now… how intense is that?!

I haven’t baked in a week and it’s driving me nuts! Luckily, I’ll be baking this weekend and next week, as I’ll be sending out cookies for my mailing list. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out my previous post. I got this recipe from Culinography and pretty much followed it exactly, with a few minor adjustments. I piped on the cream cheese frosting and dusted some cocoa powder on top (the second picture, I just slathered on the frosting and got a little lazy 🙂 The cupcake was indefinitely moist, flavorful, and went well with the Kahlua frosting. I upped the cocoa and mocha, making an even stronger cupcake. After baking, you couldn’t really taste the coffee much.. it just had a coffee aftertaste. Now, don’t go thinking that I’m an alcoholic because I put a little kick into the frosting. I actually despise drinking and everything about it, but if I HAD to choose a drink, it’d be a white russian. You can always sub this frosting and use a regular cream cheese frosting if you don’t want the alcohol or plan on serving it to kids. The recipe with my adjustments is as follows:

Mocha Cupcakes
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup yogurt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 1/2 rounded tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Insert liners into a cupcake pan.

On medium speed, cream together the sugar, butter, and eggs until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the yogurt.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt.

In a measuring cup combine the water, coffee and vanilla.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/sour cream mixture with the coffee mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to wire rack and cool before frosting. (makes 24 cupcakes)

Kahlua Frosting
5 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2.5 tablespoons Kahlua
16 ounces powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Mix in Kahlua, then powdered sugar in one cup increments until frosting reaches desired consistency. Apply to cupcakes. (frosts 24 cupcakes generously)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

by 18 Comments



Welcome to the first phase of hell week.. week 5.. midterms week. Compiled of late nights & early mornings, iced coffee & donut runs, procrastination & perseverance, every student is relieved once they see the light at the end of the tunnel (the end of week 5). Crazy to say, this is the last set of midterms that I’ll ever be taking! That alone makes me overcome with joy. I’ve prepared myself and created blog posts to keep my blog up to date while I’m out writing numerous papers for school this week. Ironic how that works- how I procrastinate so much on school work but don’t procrastinate when it comes to baking. I guess that’s why they call it a passion.

Alright let’s be honest here.. I’ve been searching for a moist, light red velvet cake recipe and still have yet to find it. I have a folder in my bookmarks solely dedicated to numerous red velvet recipes that I’ve stumbled upon across the internet. Going down the list, I’ve been testing and checking each recipe one at a time, never being able to put that huge star next to the title. All of the recipes that I’ve tried have just been “meh” and unimpressive. I’m on a mission to find the perfect red velvet recipe… so if you have it, let me know! 🙂 Everything that I’ve tried just doesn’t compare or even come close to the ones sold in bakeries. I was really disappointed in these cupcakes so I didn’t bother piping on the frosting. I just slathered a chunk on and let it be. As for the cream cheese frosting, it was just okay in my book. I’m sticking to my cream cheese frosting on my carrot cakes. I’ll post the recipe just in case you guys want to tweak it or give it a go for yourselves.

Recipe from The Repressed Pastry Chef:

Allison’s Amazing Red Velvet Cupcakes
adapted from the NY Times Red Velvet Cake recipe

  • 1c cake flour
  • 1/3c cocoa
  • 1/2tsp salt
  • 2/3c vegetable oil
  • 3/4c sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1oz (2T) red food coloring (I used red food gel by Wilton)
  • 1/2tsp vanilla
  • 1/2c buttermilk (I used the milk & vinegar method)
  • 1/2tsp baking soda
  • 3/4tsp white vinegar


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line12-cupcake pans with cupcake liners and spray with cooking spray.
Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time.
With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring (and water or syrup, if necessary). (Take care: it may splash.)
Add vanilla.
Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
Divide batter among 12-cupcake pans, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Em’s Magnificent Cream Cheese Icing
adapted form the 06/98 Epicurious.com Cream Cheese Icing recipe

  • 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese – room temperature, divided in three parts
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter – COLD
  • 1 tablespoon shortening
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup powdered sugar


Directions
Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and combine very well. Add the first third of the cream cheese and combine very well. Add the shortening and combine very well. Add the remaining cream cheese one piece at a time, combining very well after each. Gradually add the sugar and combine thoroughly until light and fluffy.

From-Scratch Funfetti Cupcakes

by 26 Comments




Happy belated Easter, everyone! My baby cousin came over (alright, so maybe he’s not so baby anymore.. he’s turning 5 this year) and we did a mini Easter egg hunt for him. I absolutely adore the little munchkin and spoil him quite a bit. He doesn’t eat much, but he LOVES cupcakes. He’ll finish a cupcake in no time at all. I wanted to make something that the adults would love too, something not too sweet. I settled for vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I’ve always been a fan of Pillsbury’s Funfetti cake mix, and when I saw this recipe on the community bakebakebake from livejournal, I knew I had to make it. This recipe is adapted from livejournal user bluemotion and the original recipe can be found here; thanks! I got about 17 cupcakes from this recipe. The cream cheese frosting is pretty much a basic cream cheese recipe. I usually just play around with it until I get the consistency/taste that I want since it’s very forgiving. You can’t really mess it up. The cupcakes were a huge hit– adult and children alike. I probably should’ve left my cupcakes in a bit longer, as they sunk a bit in the middle. Besides that, the cake was wonderfully moist and the frosting was perfect– creamy and not too sweet. The cake batter tasted exactly like that from the box, which is a huge plus in my opinion. These sure won’t disappoint!

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 XL egg whites
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/8 cup plain nonfat yogurt
  • a handful of rainbow sprinkles (jimmies), optional
  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. Mix together in a bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together melted butter and sugar until combined. Add egg whites and beat until mixture is smooth and light. Stir in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture in two additions, alternating with the yogurt. Gently fold in sprinkles, if using. Scoop batter into prepared tins.
  4. Bake for 25 minutes, until cupcakes are barely golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out with a couple of loose crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes in tins. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Cream cheese frosting:

  • About 1/3 cup and 3 T of softened butter
  • 10 oz cream cheese
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese together until well blended. Mix in the vanilla. Gradually incorporate the powdered sugar into the batter. Beat until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if necessary to get the desired consistency.

And just for kicks, here’s my little chubs (phone picture):
Devouring his cupcake, frosting first, as always:

Categories