Reindeer (Cupcakes) in a Jar

Sometimes I feel like I am a caricature of myself.  I don't even think i'm a real person.  I am that ridiculous. Or awesome.

I decided this Holiday season that what my life was missing was cute holiday antlers.  I spent a whole week running into drug stores and trying on reindeer antlers I could parade around in comfortably and with little to no shame.  It was hard to find a happy medium between too plain and too much Christmas cheer on my head.   But I found some!  Luckily I had a White Elephant party to attend so I didn't have to wear them just around in my room, in my matching reindeer pajamas.  The antlers, along with said reindeer pajamas, were what inspired these cupcakes in the jar first place. Might as well go all out, right?

The cupcakes are gingerbread latte flavored.  Like the Starbucks Holiday drink I binge on every year.  Yes I know, more gingerbread.  Molasses all over the kitchen for the second weekend in a row!  You could use any flavor you'd  like but why not make something seasonal to impress your friends?

Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes
Makes 22, Bake for 15 minutes at 350*

2 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c oil
2/3 unsulphured molasses
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (hot) strongly brewed coffee

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg together.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat sugars, oil and molasses together, and add in eggs one by one.
3. Add in the flour mixture and the coffee in alternating additions to the sugar mixture.  Beat until fully incorporated.
5. Scoop batter into lined cupcakes and bake.  
6. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack until completely cool.  

Latte Frosting
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons VERY strongly brewed coffee

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2.  Add 2 tablespoons coffee (or as much as you can before butter and cream cheese starts getting soft).
3. Slowly add in  3 cups powdered sugar by the 1/2 cup full.  
4. Add in remaining coffee.  Add in remaining sugar.


Reindeer Antlers
1 cup melted dark chocolate
1 bag pretzels
Assorted Sprinkles

Directions:
1. Break your pretzels with your hand or a knife until you get the antler "shape" you would like.
2. Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals.
3. Dip pretzel pieces in chocolate, cover completely and place on wax paper.
4. Before the chocolate dries, use sprinkles to decorate.  The sprinkles will adhere on their own if the chocolate is still wet. Make sure the antlers are dry before using.

Jar Assembly

Click here for instructions I used when I made my bunny jars last spring.  Easy peasy, promise.


Admittedly, the antlers were a little tedious to make but only because it is HARD to cut pretzel pieces into the right shape.

The last layer of frosting should be thick so that the chocolate antlers will stay in place.  You can also try making a small hole in the top cake layer with a knife and sticking the end of the antler there to keep it firmly in place.

Once I got to the sprinkle part I was having too much fun.  The possibilities are endless! Mostly I stuck with pretty snowflakes, some holly...

But I couldn't help myself.  Pink heart sprinkles exist for a reason.  I'm sure there are girl reindeer out there, right?

No?  Just me?  Just Anna the girl reindeer being ridiculous?  Yes, I did wear these all night long.  In every single picture.

Happy Holidays everyone!  Shop online, stay out of the mall, go to lots of boozey parties! Enjoy the next two weeks.  I know I will.  It's also my birthday this weekend and in case you are wondering there is no way that I will be baking ANYTHING.  Someone better bring me a cake.

xo,
Anna

P.S.  You can also stick some (stolen) Starbucks straws in these Gingerbread latte cupcakes if you're feeling lazy.  Still looks fancy pants!

Cinnamon Coffee Cupcakes

Okay. I'm not a coffee drinker. Sometimes on Monday mornings when I'm walking through my work building's doors i want to stop at the front desk and crawl underneath it and live there in darkness and slumber forever -- that's when i contemplate starting a coffee addiction. But I never do and in general i'll pass on the Starbucks. Which means i don't know the difference between a latte and a mocha. So when googling a coffee based cupcakes, all the espresso/cappuccino words were confusing as heck. So i'm not labeling it anything other than coffee. It was either that or Cinnamon Mocha Choca Lata Ya Ya Cupcakes. And that's kind of long.

I wasn't sure if i was even going to like them. But i did! A lot. =x I think it's because the cake part wasn't very heavy on the coffee taste, but the frosting totally was. There are some things that I will change the second time around, but all in all i was pleased.

The cake part was based off of this recipe. And the frosting was based off of this, but now seeing it next to what i actually did, it's not what i did at all. Oh well. I'm going to go with mine was even yummier than whatever it would have been!

Cinnamon Coffee Cupcakes

(Baked for 14 minutes at 350*, makes 11.)

1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) unsalted butter at room temp

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

14 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup baking cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature

(I don't brew coffee... haha. So instead i cheated and did instant coffee. So I did 6 table spoons of instant coffee into 1/2 a cup of boiling water, and drew the 1/4 cup from there)

3 tablespoons buttermilk

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

2. In a separate large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the egg. Beat in vanilla.

3. In a third bowl/cup combine buttermilk and coffee.

4. Add the flour mixture in three parts to the large bowl, alternating with additions of the buttermilk/coffee, beating until combined after each addition.

These plumped up a lot. They look like plain chocolate cupcakes, but smell and taste really cinnamony.

Coffee Frosting

4 oz cream cheese (1/2 a standard package)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 table spoons strongly brewed coffee

2 teaspoons vanilla

1. With a hand mixer, blend together the butter and cream cheese.

2. Add vanilla and coffee.

3. Add powdered sugar.

Now, there is a lot of liquid in this frosting. Which means that you have to be super careful that your butter and cream cheese AREN'T too soft, but also that you add enough powdered sugar to stabilize it. It's not a runny frosting, but it's def not as hard as others. I put this in the freezer for about 5 minutes before I piped it on to harden it up.

I decided to play around with something other than the 1M in tip when frosting these because all the cupcakes are kinda starting to look the same - right? So i tried frosting with a 12. And i didn't like how it looked... And not just b/c it had a few bubbles.

So i switched it up and frosted the remaining ones with a 2D.

In the end, i think that i like 1M best for a reason. =p

I have been eating these cold, right out of the fridge for like 3 days now. This is what is left.

Don't judge me!!! I run/kick box for a reason; Total Cupcake Domination. Take no prisoners, eat all in sight.

xoxo,

Anna