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

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

These were on my to bake list, and I got to cross them off! And add them to list of ones i'd bake again. And i will... in four days. (Spoiled Pam, they're for her birthday weekend but i wanted to bake them beforehand to make sure that they were edible.)

I figured if I liked the cookies, then surely i'd like the cupcakes right? Turns out, I like the cupcakes more than the cookies! :) Also, i've done an informal survey that has found that boys like snicker doodles. So these cupcakes should surely catch me that husband right?

I got the basic recipe here. I halved it, and made a few changes. I was also baking another batch of experimental cupcakes as well, so i tried to reuse some ingredients. I don't think that i like baking half batches, especially frosting. It makes it somewhat harder to mix.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

(Baked for 15 minutes at 350*, made 16)

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups cake flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp cream of tartar powder

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cups buttermilk

1. Sift together cake flours, all purpose flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, salt & cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.

3. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with additions of buttermilk, beating until combined after each addition.

I love,love, loved the look of the batter. Maybe that makes me a nerd, but i love the way the cinnamon flecks look. :) It's pretty.

It was a good consistency and scooped well into the liners.

Snickerdoodle Frosting

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

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 table spoon brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

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

2. Add brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.

3. Add powdered sugar. (This should be to taste. I try to use as little as possible, since there's so much sugar already, but if you need to add more in order to stabilize it then so be it!)

This tasted so yummy. >.< I love cream cheese! Forever and ever, the end.

I frosted them with the standard 1M tip.

Topping

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Mix together the two ingredients.

2. Sprinkle on top of cupcakes.

Don't add too much though! Just enough to make them pretty like their cookie counterparts.

There are still two cupcakes left in the fridge. I can't decide whether to bring them into work tomorrow (which at that point they will be 3 day old cupcakes lol) or if to just eat them myself. But i guess since i will have more of these in a few days, i should be nice and feed others.

Oh and if you're wondering -- YES they totally do taste like the cookies.

xoxo,

Anna


Edit//  Here's a few extra pretty pictures of the second batch i made the following week.  Much better pictures when i'm not behind the camera! 

bottom photos by pandippo

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I got new toys! The first and the one i was most excited over was the cupcake corer. :) I bought it especially to make these cupcakes because i decided on being adventurous and fill them with a different kind of frosting then the top. The second was a zester!

I combined a million recipes to come up with one that actually sounded yummy and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I just wanted a cupcake that tasted like a creamsicle. And i'm pretty sure that i accomplished that with these!

They are orange/vanilla cake with a marshmallow middle frosting and a orange cream cheese frosting on top. It's like summer. In your mouth.

The recipe for the cake portion i took from here. Except i ended up adding one thing at the end.

Orange Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 24, bake 15 minutes, Bake at 350*

1 1⁄2 sticks (3⁄4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1⁄2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1⁄2 cup orange juice

2 tsp grated orange zest

1 teaspoon orange extract

(optional: orange gel food coloring)

1. Beat butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, orange extract, orange juice and zest in a large bowl with mixer on high 3 minutes or until fluffy. (Optional: Add orange food coloring.)

2. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each.

3. On low speed, beat in flour in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, just until blended, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

This was when i got to play with the zester. Actually i had to youtube how to use a zester. But don't tell anyone. I felt bad for the naked orange afterwards, though.

This recipe says to bake for 22 minutes. But they came out perfect for me at 15 minutes. I actually tinted the batter with orange frosting just a little. The natural color is a light orange, almost yellow. I added just enough to give it a pale orange color instead.

These were for a party. So i had to do this twice... The second time is when i added the extra orange extract. It changed the flavor slightly, but most importantly it made them SMELL SO GOOD. I ate one still hot. Don't judge.

As i said, i had to bake 48 of these babies. That's a lot of cupcakes. Rows of them. I like the cupcake liners too. Light orange.

I actually baked these Friday night and finished at midnight, so i had to finish them the next day. My mom complained that i have invaded her kitchen so i cored and frosted them before the party house instead. I also go to have worker bees help me for once. =p I got all the cupcakes cored and ready for frosting in no time. It's the perfect little hole!

We also kept the middle in a bowl for people to snack on. Drunk people will eat anything.

The middles were filled with a marshmallow frosting so easy to make it's ridiculous. Adapted from here.

Marshmallow Frosting

(Enough to frsot the tops of 24 regular cupcakes, or enough to fill 48 cupcakes)

1 8 0z Marshmallow jar

2 sticks butter

2 cups powdered sugar

It took all of 4 minutes to frost the centers. No lie. Just shoved the frosting in a bag and cut off the tip.

Then i got to make the frosting for the top. I actually made the same frosting twice, and used one in it's natural white color while i tinted the other frosting orange.

I hate butter cream! One day i will mess around until i find one i like, until then i am making cream cheese frosting. I have not had any complaints yet...

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough for generously frosting 24 cupcakes

1 stick butter

1 8oz cream cheese package

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons orange extract

(Optional: orange gel food coloring)

Why did i make two? Because i wanted them to be swirly! >.< It's more adorable that way, trust me. So i shoveled a zip lock with 1/2 orange and 1/2 white frosting and set to work. (Put the frosting on each side of the bag so that the tip (Wilton 1M) squeezes out both at the same time. It's tricky but it works!)

Since there were helpers in the kitchen, you can actually see me doing something for real this time =p

You can see that piped out, the frosting comes out in two colors! Cool huh? Kind of looks like those soft serve machines.

Once i was done with all 48, i set them up on my trusty cupcake display. But first i had to add a few finishing touches. They're popsicles right? They needed a popsicle stick through them! I also threw some candy oranges around the table.

And if you cut them down the middle you get to see how awesome filled cupcakes look on the inside!

I wish i had saved one now though. Cuz all these pictures made me hungry... do you guys want one too?

xoxo,

Anna

Nintendo Cupcakes

When my external drive crashed, i lost this set of pictures. But i finally got them back thanks to the ex-bf. I think i made these about 4-5 years ago? This was when I first started experimenting with baking and things like food coloring. So they're just straight up out of the box. And apparently this was when I didn't know how to work the macro function on a camera either. Oy.

You may ask why the pictures aren't rotated correctly. I have been asking the same thing for about 24 hours. I DON'T KNOW WHY BLOGGER HATES ME AND DOESN'T DO AS I SAY. Just tilt your head crooked for a bit?

Nintendo Logo Birthday Cake
Boo

Red Mushroom

1-Up Mushroom

My favorite: Goomba! >.<

Stars

Obviously, they were for his birthday. I cant believe i tried to over-sugar him with a cake AND cupcakes though, haha. I used mainly black licorice and cut up marshmallows for the faces. The mushrooms i cut off the ends to make them mushroom shaped. And Reynolds sells the pre-formed star cups.

They're still one of my favorites ones I have ever made, despite them being messy. Maybe one day i will try these again, now that i'm not as sloppy and know not to use liquid food coloring.

xoxo,
Anna

P.S. (Hopefully) Awesome cupcakes coming this weekend! I'm excited to get into the kitchen again. All i have been baking the past few months have been cookies. But i feel like getting more creative! I already went to Michaels and have everything ready. :)