April 3, 2013 · 12:24 pm

Facebook is Cray!

Today has some craziness of some random Facebook page taking photos from my blog and posting them as their own.  She was posting the pictures as if she had made them but apparently hadn’t cooked/baked any of the recipes she had tried.  Why would someone want to take random recipes if the person posting doesn’t know if they’re good or not.  She was also claiming that she could say that I stole the pictures on my blog from her.  I’m pretty sure the dates on my computer from when I saved them and the fact that I have tons of other pictures of the same cupcakes not posted would say otherwise.  People are ridiculous.

Anyway, I’ve decided to create my own Facebook page.  Like me here!

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March 20, 2013 · 11:15 am

Lucky Charms Cupcakes: They’re Magically Delicious

Seriously, it’s been over three months since I’ve posted?  That’s horrid.

And I have so much to update, especially my giant baking project in January but that’s for another time.  I have to start with the most recent.

IMG_1481[1]

As we all know, this past weekend was St. Patrick’s Day and I like to believe that no one celebrates it better than we do in Boston.  My wonderful friend Nip lives on the parade route so the whole weekend is a party at her place.  I’ve done a few St. Patrick’s cupcakes like car bomb and green velvet but I wanted something new this year.  What better than Lucky Charms cupcakes?  They’re Irish, right?  I forgot how much I liked Lucky Charms when I started making these.  I’m not usually into sugary cereal but there’s something about this one.

For Cupcakes

[Inspired by The Cupcake Project]

Makes 36 mini cupcakes

For the crust:

  • 1 and 1/2 cups crushed Lucky Charms
  • 1/4 cup of butter
  1. Preheat oven to 350 FIMG_1484[1]
  2. In a small bowl, mix together crushed Lucky Charms and melted butter
  3. Divide mixture evenly between the mini cupcake liners.  Pack it firmly into the bottoms of the liners
  4. Bake for 10 minutes

For the cupcakes:

  • 1/4 cup corn syrp
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. cake flour
  • 3/4 Tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 Tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 Tsp. salt
  • 4 Tbsp. canola oil
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/2 cups Lucky Charms
  1. Mix together all flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder
  2. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, corn syrup, and oil
  3. When these are well mixed, beat in egg and vanilla
  4. Mix dry ingredients into the wet alternating with the whole milk in two batches
  5. Fold in the Lucky Charms
  6. Divide among the mini cupcake liners that have the pre baked crust and bake for 11-13 minutes

IMG_1483[1]For Frosting

  • 1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 3 cups of powdered sugar
  • 2-3 Tbsp. milk
  • Green food coloring (optional)
  1. Beat butter in a mixer until soft
  2. Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time
  3. Mix in 2 Tbsp. milk.  If the frosting is too thick, add in more milk one Tbsp. at a time
  4. Mix in green food coloring if using and frost cupcakes.  Decorate with Lucky Charms marshmallows

You know how Lucky Charms has those crunch little marshmallows?  Of course you do! They melt into the batter for a nice swirl of color and taste.  And the dry cereal pieces give the cake some texture.  I thought these tasted a lot like the cereal.  They should be breakfast cupcakes, right?

I’ve got to leave you with my favorite St. Paddy’s Day flare I got to wear.  How can you not love an Irish cupcake tattoo??!!?

IMG_1514[1]The necklaces, stickers, and glow bracelets were all good and fun but this has to be the best!  Thanks to Nip’s sister Kathy, this might be my annual face decoration!

 

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January 2, 2013 · 9:37 am

2012 in review

Here’s hoping 2013 is even better than 2012!

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 15 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

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November 26, 2012 · 9:25 am

Boston Cream Cupcakes

It’s pretty much known that Boston cream anything is going to be amazing.  I mean even Boston cream donuts from Dunkin Donuts are pretty awesome and their donuts completely…well…suck for lack of a better word.  So when I offered to make cupcakes for a going away and was told my cupcakes were legendary, I knew that I had to pick a pretty great flavor that people would go crazy over.  Of course I turned to my trustee source for all cupcake ideas, Pinterest.  But this time Pinterest let me down.  I just couldn’t seem to find anything that I thought would be perfect.  Randomly Boston cream pie was in my head so I just went for it since it’s usually a crowd pleaser!

[Inspired by Martha Stewart]

Makes 18 Cupcakes

For Cupcakes

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 Tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 Tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 6 Tbsp. butter at room temperature
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 Tsp. vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour cupcake tins.
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
  3. Warm milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat.
  4. Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in dry ingredients.
  5. Bring milk and butter to a boil. With mixer on low speed, add milk mixture to batter, and beat until smooth. Add vanilla.
  6. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each halfway. Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes or until light gold.

For Vanilla Cream Filling

*Note…This recipe didn’t quite fill the 18 cupcakes.  I suggest doubling the filling recipe so that each cupcake has a little extra filling.*

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp plus 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
  1. Whisk yolks until smooth. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add milk in a slow, steady stream. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble and thicken, about 5 minutes.
  2. Pour 1/3 of milk mixture into yolks, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thick, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
  3. Pass vanilla cream through a fine sieve into a bowl. Press plastic wrap directly on surface. Refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour.
  4. Core cupcakes and fill with pastry cream and replace with top of the cut out core.

For Chocolate Ganache

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 7 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
  1. Place butter and chocolate in a microwavable bowl and microwave on 30 second intervals until melted, stirring between each interval
  2. Cool for at least 30 minutes before topping cupcakes

Yum, these were tasty little guys!  The only thing I’d do differently is double the filling recipe because I didn’t have enough to fill 18 cupcakes…mine only filled 16.  If I had a double batch, then each cupcake would have more of the delicious filling.  I actually had a nightmare before I brought them into work that people bit into them and there was just a hole in the middle with no filling.  Thank goodness they had filling in them!  I think these are a make again recipe!

Xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

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November 20, 2012 · 12:41 pm

All things cupcake

Since I love all things cupcake, I have to share my new house keys.  I lost my whole set of keys which is definitely no fun but I found out that Home Depot sells pink cupcake keys!  And I completely love that they are blinged out too.  He hasn’t told me but I’m completely sure that Boy Cupcake loves driving my car because he gets to carry around the pretty pink, sparkly cupcake key!

On another note, I know this is completely late, but I have to share my Halloween pumpkin.  Boy Cupcake and I went to a pumpkin carving party which had a prize for the best pumpkin.  Can you guess which one is mine?

Being creatively competitive  I knew I had to do something awesome and tried to figure out how to carve a cupcake into my pumpkin.  I had a whole elaborate plan hatched on how I was going to carve this cupcake with sprinkles on it but I was completely over my head.  Thankfully Boy Cupcake had one of the girls there convince me to carve out the whole top of the cupcake.  And it worked out awesome!

Not to brag because there was some good pumpkins there but I totally won!  And I got a case of beer for my efforts.  Not bad!  I do have to thank Boy Cupcake for doing the dirty work of cleaning out the guts from the pumpkin.  Here’s a closeup for you…

Now I’m going to have to figure out how to top this next year!

Xoxo,

~Curlycupcake

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November 18, 2012 · 9:10 pm

Nanaimo Bar Cupcakes: A Canadian Treat

Before trying to find the perfect cupcake for a birthday, I had never heard of nanaimo bars.  Apparently they are a Canadian treat and since our birthday girl is Canadian, it was suggested I try to make them into a cupcake.  According to Wikipedia, nanaimo bars  were voted “Canada’s favourite confection”.

After doing a little research on these, I found out they are a triple layered bar…kind of like seven layer bars…with a layer of chocolate, coconut, almonds, and graham cracker, a custard layer, and a top layer of chocolate ganache.  Sounded good enough to me.  The only problem is that the filling calls for custard powder.  What?!  I’ve never heard of such a thing.  Well apparently they don’t sell it in the U.S. so I had to improvise with vanilla pudding mix.  I have a feeling it’s not exactly the same but hopefully it was close enough.

[Inspired by C&C Cakery]

Makes 18 cupcakes

For Cupcakes

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 cups graham crackers crushed (this was about 1 sleeve of graham crackers)
  • 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 2 Tsp. baking powder
  • 1 Tsp. salt
  • 1 stick butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • 1 cup chopped almonds
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a cupcake tin with 18 liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, graham, cocoa powder, coconut, baking powder and salt.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until they’re completely incorporated. Add and mix in the vanilla. Slowly incorporate the melted chocolate chips (make sure it is cooled to at least room temperature first).
  4. Add the flour mixture and the milk/yogurt mixture into your batter, alternating between the two. When your batter is just about mixed.
  5. Divide batter among cupcake liners and bake 20-25 minutes, or when your cake tester comes out clean.

For Filling

  • 1 stick of butter at room temperature
  • 4 Tbsp. vanilla pudding mix
  • 4 Tbsp. milk
  • 2 cups powered sugar
  1. Mix butter, pudding mix, and sugar together with an electric mixer
  2. Add in milk 1 Tbsp. at a time until it is fully incorporated
  3. Core holes into your cooled cupcakes, about an inch and a half around and at least half way in. Carefully spoon the custard filling into the holes and cover with the top of the cupcake that’s been cut out

For Ganache

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 7 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
  1. Place butter and chocolate in a microwavable bowl and microwave on 30 second intervals until melted, stirring between each interval
  2. Cool for at least 30 minutes before topping cupcakes and garnish with chopped almonds and coconut

These cupcakes definitely have a lot going on between all the stuff in the cake and the filling and chocolate on top but it’s a great combination.  The cake part was almost like an Almond Joy.

The birthday girl was really excited about it and had to tell everyone what nanaimo bars actually are…she even said the cupcakes were pretty close to the actual bars.  Yup, I’m brushing my shoulders off.  I can’t wait to actually try the real thing to see how they compare, especially since custard powder is nowhere to be found in the U.S.  I’m wondering if the pudding was a close substitute.  I guess we’ll see.

Until next time.

Xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

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November 16, 2012 · 10:41 am

Pumpkin Bourbon Cupcakes with Vanilla Bourbon Frosting

I’m a little late here trying to play catch up with my cupcakes but this is just in time for Thanksgiving!  My work has this awesome thing called Pumpkinfest where everyone brings in some kind of pumpkin food.  It can be sweet or savory and lots of people get to try all of the pumpkin deliciousness.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to show off my cupcake skills but I knew it couldn’t just be a regular pumpkin cupcake.  So I decided to take a standard pumpkin cupcake recipe and give it a little zing!  There’s just enough bourbon in these mini cupcakes to give it that something extra.

The unfortunate thing was that I completely forgot the cupcakes at home that morning so I didn’t get to take part in Pumpkinfest.  So sad!  I did bring them in the next day though for all to enjoy.

[Inspired by Martha Stewart]

Makes about 75 mini cupcakes

For Cupcakes

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 Tsp. baking soda
  • 1 Tsp. baking powder
  • 1 Tsp. salt
  • 2 Tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 Tsp. ginger
  • 1/2 Tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 Tsp. allspice
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • 2 sticks butter (melted and cooled)
  • 4 large eggs lightly beaten
  • 1- 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
  • 1 nip  bourbon of your choice (I used Red Stag honey bourbon)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar , granulated sugar , butter, eggs, and bourbon
  4. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth.
  5. Fold in pumpkin puree
  6. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway.  It’s easiest to do this with the mini cupcakes if fill up a ziplock bag with the batter, cut off a corner, and use it to fill the cupcakes
  7. Bake 10-12 minutes until the tops spring back when touched and a toothpick comes out clean

For Frosting

  • 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • A pinch of salt
  • 5 egg whites
  • 4 sticks of butter at room temperature
  • Bourbon to taste (I used about 3 Tbsp. of Red Stag cinnamon spice bourbon)
  1. Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth.
  2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don’t worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla and bourbon, and beat just until combined.
  4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes.

My pictures are a little blurry because I was trying to be all artsy putting the little cupcakes on a pumpkin.  But these little cupcakes were a hit.  They had just enough bourbon taste to give it a little something extra and the frosting was different than the typical cream cheese frosting that’s usually on a pumpkin cupcake.  And the best part about them is that since they’re mini, it gives you an excuse to eat at least 4 cupcakes to make up for the fact that they’re so small!

Xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

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