Cupcake 61 - Whoopee "not pie" Cupcakes

I had planned to continue on with the Christmas theme this week, but got side tracked with the mention of Whoopee Pies. These turned out well, very moist chocolate cake, I used Valronona cocoa, confirming once again, better chocolate makes a better cupcake. And the filling, really worked with the chocolate.

Adapted from Allrecipes

3/4 c butter, room temperature shortening
1 2/3 c sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 t vanilla
1 t espresso powder, dissolved in 2 t warm water
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 1/4 c AP flour
2/3 c cocoa powder
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 1/2 c water

Preheat over to 350. Line wells of 18 muffin cups with liners. In small bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cayenne and cocoa, set aside. In bowl of standing mixer combine butter and sugar mixing well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla and espresso. Alternately add flour and water, mixing well between each addition. Batter will seem thin, its okay. Bake 18-22 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Filling
1 c shorting, yes Crisco
1 c powdered sugar
1 1/3 c marshmallow fluff
1/4 t salt dissolved in 1 T warm water
2 t vanilla

In bowl of standing mixer, beat shorting and sugar until well combined. Add marshmallow and vanilla. Mix well. Add salt/water and whip on high. Using a pastry bag fitted with a small piping tip (I used a #4) poke tip into cupcake and squeeze filling until cupcake expands and starts to crack. (No need to use the cone method removing a portion of the cupcake.)

Cupcakes 58, 59 and 60! Coconut, Carrot and Pumpkin

A trio of cupcakes for Christmas dinner. A little something to appease all the "likes and dislikes" that come with a family gathering. I especially liked the Carrot Cake cupcakes, nice and moist.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2 eggs, room temperature
1 1/8 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c canola oil
1 t vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1/2 c crushed pineapple
1 1/2 c AP flour
1 1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground ginger
1 c walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Line wells of cupcake pans with liners. In small bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices, set aside. In large mixing bowl combine eggs and sugars, (I used a hand mixer) mix well. Add oil mixing well. Fold in carrots and pineapple. Slowly fold in flour mixture into sugar/egg batter. Mix well. Add walnuts. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

White Chocolate Cinnamon Buttercream

4 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled
16 ozs cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c butter
4 c powdered sugar
2 t cinnamon
2 t vanilla
pinch of salt
2 T cream

In bowl of standing mixer, combine cream cheese and butter, whip until light and fluffy. Add white chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla, beat well. Add powdered sugar in 3 increments, mixing well. Add cream, beat on high for two minutes.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

For the crust
1 1/2 c finely ground gingersnaps
1 1/2 c toasted, candied, finely ground pecans
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter, melted

Combine gingersnaps, pecans and sugar mixing well. Add butter and combine. Press crust, about 1 T per cupcake well, into lined cupcake pans. Set aside.

For chessecake
2, 8 ounce, bars of cream cheese, room temperature
1/c c white sugar
1/2 t vanilla
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 c canned pumpkin
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
pinch of salt

In bowl of standing mixer, combine cream cheese and sugar, beating well. Add vanilla and eggs, beat until smooth. Add pumpkin and spices stir until combined. Fill cupcake wells until almost full. Cheesecake does not rise, much. Bake 350, for 18-22 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream cheese frosting
3/4 c butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 c sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 c canned coconut milk
1 t vanilla
1 t coconut extract
2 1/2 c cake flour
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1/2 c sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Line 18 wells of cupcake pan with liners. In small bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder, set aside. In bowl of standing mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add vanilla and coconut extracts. Alternately add flour and coconut milk in three increments, mixing well with each addition. Fill cupcake wells 3/4 full, bake 18-22 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 c butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1 t coconut extract
1/2 c sweetened coconut

In bowl of standing mixer whip butter and cream cheese until light and well combined. Add extracts and salt, mix well. Add powdered sugar and mix on high 2-3 minutes until combined. Add coconut and mix to combine.

Dinner party appetizers, bring it on.

A break from cupcakes. A few appetizers for a dinner party.

Sounds simple enough, but this threw me into a bit of a tizzy. A dinner party at my boss's house with with five co-workers and spouses. We work in an ad agency, we are accustomed to good food, really good food. We use every excuse to take clients to the best restaurants. Hell, we've even carefully planned airport delays around dinner -- Newark to Baltimore by way of San Francisco, not a problem. There is a great restaurant in the San Fran airport. But I digress.

Each of the co-workers was assigned part of the meal. My assignment was "an appetizer." At face value, simple right? Much less pressure than dessert, yeah? Just like the Ritz crackers ads, some spray cheese and parsley and its all good. Not so much. In a short two weeks I had amassed 152 potential recipes. I've always been a bit of an over achiever and very competitive, but showing up with this many apps might "alarm" my hosts. Besides, I'd end up with oven issues. I needed help.

I reached out to several food friends and Kit from Mango and Ginger talked me down off the ledge. She even threw a few more recipes into the mix. In the end, I couldn't arrive at a single appetizer, but ended up an acceptable three. What can I say, I like odd numbers.

• Parmesan cups with goat cheese mousse, from the French Laundry cookbook by way of Mango and Ginger. I have to give myself mad props for the presentation, I had the perfect serving dish. Cool and delicious! (I did have some technical issues putting these together at the host' house, my pastry tip popped off the pastry bag of mousse, my intention was to a tad fancier.)

• Wonton crackers with fresh horseradish cream, smoked salmon and caviar. I used a cookie cutter to cut the wonton wrappers. Very festive and again easy. Finding fresh horseradish for the cream was a bit of hunt, next time I would use the jarred.
  

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• Truffled popcorn. A huge hit. Thank you again, Mango and Ginger for pointing me to Alice Q. Foodies's blog. Once I scored the truffled salt, a bit of a hunt, this was quick and wonderful. Besides, who doesn't love popcorn? (Don't you love the old school air popcorn maker? Being a bit of a pack rat pays off!)

Cupcake 57 - Snickerdoodle Cupcake

Snickerdoodles are one of my husband's favorite cookies. Not one my go-to comfort cookies from my childhood, not sure why. Nothing complicated about them, the ingredients are simple, just not among the "must-haves" like chocolate chip, peanut butter, thumbprint, brown edge and spritz - cookies I grew up with, cookies necessary to the Christmas season. My best friend Leslie's mother made them, I think.

Honestly, snickerdoodles confuse me, its the name. I badly want chocolate, Carmel, gooey nuttiness, you know, the candy bar. But then I remember its only cinnamon and frankly, I'm more than a little disappointed. Once I step back and re-group, I come to terms with the lack of chocolate, I really enjoy these cookies. And the cupcake even better than the cookie. The extra sprinkle of cinnamon sugar gave the cupcakes a nice spicy crust

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

(yields 36 cupcakes)
3 c.+ 6 T cake flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c. butter, melted (1 stick)
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar (250 g)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract
1 1/2 c. whole milk, room temperature

Sift flour, bake powder, salt and cinnamon together in bowl, set aside.
In bowl of standing mixer combine melted butter and sugar, mix to combine. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well. Add extracts and mix. Alternately add flour and milk, mixing well between each addition. Fill wells of lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar topping (below.) Bake 15- 18 minutes. Cool on wire rack

Cinnamon Sugar Topping
3 T sugar
3 t cinnamon

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1 c butter, softened
1 t vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 t cinnamon
4 c powdered sugar, sifted

Sift together powdered sugar, cinnamon and salt, set aside. In bowl of standing mixer, combine cream cheese and butter, whip on high until light and fluffy. Add cooled chocolate and vanilla, beat well. Add powdered sugar mixture in 4 increments. Mixing well between each addition, scrapping bowl as needed. Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours. Chilling will allow frosting to be piped instead of being a gloppy mess.

Cupcake 56 - Gingerbread cupcakes with a Lemmon Glaze

Gingerbread is a favorite of mine, not so much as a cookie but as a cake. I love how all the different spices come together to give you a deeper flavor than a regular spice cake. I used both fresh ginger and ground ginger along with white pepper in this recipe. I thought about adding candied ginger as well, but at the last minute changed my mind fearing ginger overload. Because I wanted to stay true to the spices and allow them to shine, I went with a subtle lemon glaze, just a little bit of tart with the sweet ginger cake. Overall I liked the mix of spice, the fresh ginger was a good addition. Next time I will add some candied ginger as well, what the heck, its GINGER bread right?

Makes 32 cupcakes

3 c AP flour
2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves
1/4 t allspice
1 t ground ginger
3/4 t white pepper
1 t salt
1 c unsalted butter
1/2 c water
1 c packed dark brown sugar
3/4 c unsulphured molasses
1/4 c spiced rum
6 eggs, room temperature
1/2 c grated fresh ginger

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ground ginger, white pepper and salt, set aside. Combine water and butter in microwave safe bowl, heat until butter melts. In bowl of standing mixer combine brown sugar and melted butter water mixture, mix until well combined. Add eggs one at time mixing between additions. Add molasses and rum, again beat for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Add fresh ginger and flour mixture beating until just combined. Fill lined cupcake pans 3/4 full, bake at 350, for 14-18 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Lemon Glaze

1/4 c lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
1/2 powdered sugar

Combine lemon juice and zest in small bowl, add powdered sugar a teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency. Drizzle on cupcakes.

Cupcake 55 - Minty Chocolate Cupcakes with cool Mint Buttercream

I came out of Thanksgiving dissatisfied with my cooking. Nothing was a complete disaster, but not wonderful either. My stuffing (or is it dressing?) was not up to par, I tried some new seasonings and they fell short, a little too much sage, maybe? I tried a carrot souffle for the first time, meh. And my pumpkin pie, my- tried- and- true- always- works-so- I'll- make- two- this- time, pumpkin pie needed a little more time in the oven and less sugar. My head was in the game, really. I didn't have a lot of "funky fresh" recipes on my list to derail me. I stayed with the usual suspects, but overall my sides were lack-luster.

Because I was unhappy with Turkey day, I wanted to linger a bit longer on the pumpkin theme. And I really love pumpkin. Alas, the retailers are pushing hard to make Christmas front and center. Yesterday's paper must have had 3# of ads! Every magazine I pulled out of the mailbox promised 50+ recipes for cookies. Reluctantly, I stepped away from my beloved pumpkin and moved onto a chocolate & mint theme. Not sure why those two ingredients speak to Christmas, but they do. I was hoping this batch of cupcakes would turn my cooking mojo around. Maybe put a little fa-la-la-la into my lagging holiday spirit. The did, sorta, but not entirely. I'd back off the baking time a little next time, I found the cupcakes to be a little dry. I liked the mint to chocolate ratio, not too subtle but not so bold you think you are eating toothpaste either.

Minty Chocolate Cupcakes

1/2 c butter, room temperature
1 c sugar
1/2 c raw sugar
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped melted, cooled
4 eggs, room temperature
2 t mint extract
1 c chocolate milk
3 c flour
2 t baking soda
1 c mini chocolate chips
1/2 t salt
1 c Andes bits

Combine flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. In bowl of standing mixed combine butter and sugars, beat well, add eggs one at time, mixing well between additions. Add mint extract. Add flour and chocolate milk in three additions, mixing well. Stir in chocolate chips and Andes bits. Fill lined cupcake pans 3/4 full, bake at 350, 14-18 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Mint Buttercream
1 c butter, room temperature
3 C sifted powder sugar
pinch of salt
2 t mint extract
3 T cream

Cream butter, salt and mint extract until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar in 3 increments, mixing well each time. Add cream until frosting reaches desired consistency. Whip on high for three minutes. Add a drop or two of green food coloring if desired. (its the holidays, go ahead!)