Butterbeer Cupcakes

A few months ago my husband and I started hosting a dinner and a movie night once a week. We have been working our way through the Harry Potter series and finally finished last weekend (I have mixed emotions anytime Harry Potter comes to an end). In honor of the movies I decided to try my hand at making some butterbeer cupcakes. I found this recipe on Pinterest and have been dying to try them!

If you are like me and haven't been able to make your way down to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet you might wonder 'What does butterbeer even taste like???'. After doing some research, I found that most copycat butterbeer recipes contains some combination of melted butter (or imitation butter flavor), cream soda, butterscotch, and sometimes rum. In the case of these cupcake, the 'butterbeer' flavor comes mostly from butterscotch chips, imitation butter flavor, and a little bit of cream soda. Maybe next time I'll experiment and try to work in some rum...

These cupcakes have a butterscotch cake (infused with cream soda and imitation butter flavor) that is filled with a butterscotch ganache, that is then topped with a butterscotch and butter flavored icing. Sound like a lot of flavor doesn't it?

After making them, here are my thought on these cupcakes:

• They are good but not great. Sorry to be a buzz-kill... (Although a few of our dinner guests loved them, so maybe it's just me...)
• The ganache is delicous, but if you make it I would recommend starting off with less heavy cream than the recipe suggests (my ganach was a little too runny).
• The icing was also delicious!
• But the cake...it wasn't bad, but I think it could use some work. There was something about the texture of the cake that I didn't love, but it could possibly be fixed by leaving them in the oven a few minutes longer (The cupcakes were cooked through (a toothpick came out clean!), but they still just seemed almost under cooked in the middle somehow). They were also surprisingly lacking in flavor! In the end, it turned out to be ok because the ganache and icing had so much flavor and sweetness, that it balanced it out.

If you would like to try these butterbeer cupcakes, here is the recipe I used: http://www.pastryaffair.com/blog/2011/7/14/butterbeer-cupcakes.html

Happy baking!

 Here are some more pictures of my cupcakes, because I think they're cute!

Red Velvet Cake Balls

I made these red velvet cake balls last year for a Valentine's bake sale and they were a hit! They were cake-y and creamy on the inside and have a hard chocolate coating on the outside! They are positively delicious!

To make 40-50 cake balls you will need:

• 1 box RED VELVET CAKE MIX (prepared as directed on the box)
• 1 can CREAM CHEESE ICING
• ALMOND BARK (regular or white)

NOTE: I think chocolate chips taste better than the chocolate almond bark, but the almond bark definitely sets up better than the chocolate chips. If you don't want to have to have to keep the cake balls refrigerated, then use the almond bark! (you can still refrigerate them if they are covered in almond bark though)

Start off by baking the red velvet cake as directed on the box. (You could make the cake from scratch if you have a favorite recipe, but boxed cakes work just fine!) Once the cake has cooled, break it up with your hands in a large bowl.

Once the cake is broken up enough that it is just a pile of crumbs, mix in the cream cheese icing (I usually use my hands, but does get messy!). When the cake and icing is well mixed together, roll the mixture out into 1 inch balls. You should end up with 40-50 balls.

Depending on how much time you have, either refrigerate the balls overnight, or pop them in the freezer for a few hours. Having the balls chilled makes it so much easier to cover them in chocolate. Otherwise they tend to fall apart in the warm melted chocolate.

Once the balls are chilled, melt a few squares of almond bark in a small bowl in the microwave. Then dip each ball into the almond bark to coat them. For a tip on covering the balls in chocolate CLICK HERE to see my post of Oreo balls! When they are coated, place the balls onto a piece of wax paper to set up.

After all of the balls are coated in chocolate you can then decorate them by drizzling more almond bark over the top, rolling them in sprinkles, or anything else you can think of!

The Valentine's Day bake sale spread! Doesn't it all look delicious?!

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Red Velvet Cake Balls

Ingredients:

• 1 box RED VELVET CAKE MIX (prepared as directed on the box)
• 1 can CREAM CHEESE ICING
• ALMOND BARK (regular or white)

Directions:

1. Start off by baking the red velvet cake as directed on the box. (You could make the cake from scratch if you have a favorite recipe, but boxed cakes work just fine!) Once the cake has cooled, break it up with your hands in a large bowl.
2. Once the cake is broken up enough that it is just a pile of crumbs, mix in the cream cheese icing (I usually use my hands, but does get messy!). When the cake and icing is well mixed together, roll the mixture out into 1 inch balls. You should end up with 40-50 balls.
3. Depending on how much time you have, either refrigerate the balls overnight, or pop them in the freezer for a few hours. Having the balls chilled makes it so much easier to cover them in chocolate. Otherwise they tend to fall apart in the warm melted chocolate.
4. Once the balls are chilled, melt a few squares of almond bark in a small bowl in the microwave. Then dip each ball into the almond bark to coat them. For a tip on covering the balls in chocolate CLICK HERE to see my post of Oreo balls! When they are coated, place the balls onto a piece of wax paper to set up.
5. After all of the balls are coated in chocolate you can then decorate them by drizzling more almond bark over the top, rolling them in sprinkles, or anything else you can think of!

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Buche de Noel

I went to my first Meetup on Sunday and of all things it was a baking Meetup! Unfortunately it started to snow about an hour before the event so I ended up being the only person (out of 15) that showed up! It really worked out in my favor though because I ended up getting several hours of one-on-one time with the hostess who is an experienced baker! I was able to ask her all kinds of questions and benefit from her experience. As you can see in the pictures we made a buche de Noel! 

We used a vanilla sponge cake, filled it with a rum pastry cream, and topped it with a chocolate ganache! Then we used marzipan to make mushrooms and holly leaves for decoration!

With some coaching, I think it turned out pretty darn well!

Close up!

One more, just because I'm proud of it!

Thanksgiving 2013

I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! My husband and I recently moved away from where our families live, but we were lucky enough to have our siblings and one of my closest friends come visit us for the holiday!

We ended up having a total of 8 people over for Thanksgiving dinner this year so I took full advantage having so many people to cook for and made all kinds of things!

I started off Thanksgiving week by making some kolaches, which are traditional Czechoslovakian pastries. They are made of a sweet dough and generally have a fruity filling. I made my brother and my favorite flavor, cherry!

Look how gooey and yummy they were! I will post the recipe for these soon!

Then, my brother helped me make my favorite spinach artichoke dip to snack on during Thanksgiving day!

We even made the bread! I used the crusty bread recipe, but rather than shaping it into a ball I shaped it into a loaf. 

My husband made his favorite Thanksgiving food, dressing!

My husband and I decided that rather than making turkey for Thanksgiving, we wanted to make a ham. Some of our guests on the other hand, decided that they could not have Thanksgiving without a turkey. So one of them volunteered to make a turkey....and then another one volunteered to make a turkey... and then there was a little bit of a miscommunication and we ended up with 2 turkeys!!!

Here is a picture of turkey #1, your classic turkey:

And here is turkey #2, the 'burkey':

And here is the ham that we made:

And here are the sides! We had mashed potatoes, sauteed Brussels sprouts, sweet potato casserole, potato salad, dressing, green bean casserole, and rolls! Whew! That was a lot of food! And it was all so good!

Here is a picture of the guys trying to figure out how to carve their birds!

And here is my plate! Look at all of that delicious food!

We weren't done yet! Now time for the desserts! My friend and I started off by making Oreo balls! They are super easy to make and so good! They are the perfect dessert for a chocoholic!

And then we made a mini carrot cake using my mother-in-law's recipe! It was so delicious!

Look at that yummy cake!

Welp, that's all! I will be posting some of the recipes for things that we made over the next few weeks. If you have any questions or recipe requests just let me know! Happy Thanksgiving!

Can you freeze cupcake batter and still have good cupcakes? YES!!!

I ran a little experiment regarding freezing cupcake batter and it totally worked! I have heard a lot of different things about whether or not the cupcakes would look or (more importantly) taste as good after freezing the batter so I set out to find the truth! 

This experiment actually started off as an accident. I was making a half batch of chocolate cupcakes for a party and ended up forgetting to half one of the ingredients. So rather than starting over, I just made a whole batch. You can never have too many cupcakes right??

I baked up half of the batter that night for the party and poured the other half in to a large baggie and popped it into the freezer. 

Then, about 3 weeks later, I defrosted the batter and baked some cupcakes. The cupcakes in the picture below were made from frozen batter and don't they look wonderful?!

Then I whipped up some vanilla icing and dug in! They tasted just as wonderful as usual! 

Now here is the tip: If you are really busy, make your cake batter ahead of time and freeze it until you need it! Just defrost the batter overnight, or while you are at work, and you can have cupcakes made from scratch any day of the week!

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Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Icing

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake:

• 2 cups SUGAR
• 1 & 3/4 cup FLOUR
• 3/4 cup COCOA POWDER
• 1 & 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1 & 1/2 tsp BAKING SODA
• 1 tsp SALT
• 2 EGGS
• 1 cup MILK
• 1/2 cup VEGETABLE OIL
• 2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 cup BOILING WATER

Vanilla Icing:

• 2 cup SHORTENING 
• 8 cup POWDERED SUGAR
• 0.5 tsp SALT
• 2 tsp VANILLA
• 6 oz. HEAVY CREAM

Directions:

Chocolate Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and coating three 8 inch baking dishes in nonstick cooking spray and then flour to make the cake easier to remove from the dish after baking. 
2. In an electric mixer combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
3. Add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and the boiling water making sure each ingredient is incorporated before adding the next.

• If you are making a cake, divide the batter equally into the three baking dishes and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Bake until you can insert a toothpick and have it come out clean. Let the cakes cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the baking dishes. 

     OR

• If you are making cupcakes with the batter, bake them for 15-18 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and have it come out clean.

Vanilla Icing:

1. Cream the shortening in an electric mixer until it is fluffy. 
2. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar. 
3. Add the salt, vanilla, and cream. Mix until well combined. 
4. If it is too thick add more cream, if it is too thin add more powdered sugar.

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Tiramisu Cupcakes

If you like tiramisu and you like cupcakes then you will definitely LOVE these tiramisu cupcakes! The cakes are vanilla and are brushed with a coffee liquor syrup and topped with a delicious mascarpone frosting! This recipe will make about 18 cupcakes. 

Tip: Be sure to make these cupcakes on the day you plan to serve them. You could make the components ahead of time, but don't assemble them until the day of! Due to the coffee syrup being brushed onto the cupcakes, they they start to taste a little soggy after a day or two. 

Vanilla Cupcakes:

• 1 & 1/4 cups CAKE FLOUR
• 3/4 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 tsp SALT
• 1/4 cup MILK
• 2 tsp VANILLA 
• 2 Tbs BUTTER, unsalted
• 3 EGGS & 3 EGG YOLKS
• 1 cups SUGAR

Coffee Syrup:

• 1/4 cup STRONG COFFEE
• 1/4 cup KAHLUA
• 1/4 cup SUGAR

Mascarpone Frosting:

• 1 cups HEAVY CREAM
• 8 oz. MASCARPONE CHEESE
• 1/4 cup POWDERED SUGAR
• COCOA POWDER, for dusting 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl sift together the 1 & 1/4 cups cake flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt, then set aside. 

Put the 2 Tbs of butter in a small microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until the butter has melted. Then mix in the 1/4 cup milk and 2 tsp vanilla and set aside.

Add the 3 eggs, 3 egg yolk, and 1 cup sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until the contents have almost tripled in volume. The egg mixture should be thick enough that when drizzled over itself, it will stay on the surface for a few seconds.

Before whisking:

After whisking:

Once the egg mixture has tripled, switch from the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment and mix in the dry mixture and milk mixture. 

After all of the ingredients are well mixed, line a cupcake tray with paper liners and fill each liner 3/4 full. Then bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Coffee Syrup:

While the cupcakes are baking, make the coffee syrup by whisking together the 1/4 cup coffee, 1/4 cup Kahlua, and 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl, then set aside. 

Mascarpone Frosting:

To make the frosting, start by whisking 1 cup of heavy cream in an electric mixer until it forms stiff peaks.

Then mix in 8 oz. of mascarpone and 1/4 cup powdered sugar. It should look something like the picture below!

Cupcake Assembly:

Once you have all of your components you can either assemble everything right away or else wait and store the components separately until you are ready to eat them! Remember, only prepare them the day that you plan to eat them!

Ok, once you are ready to assemble the cupcakes poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes either with a toothpick or a small knife. Then, use a pastry brush to brush the coffee syrup onto the top of the cupcakes (about 5-7 coats per cupcake). Make sure to use all of the syrup! It might seem like a lot, but won't be too much!

After brushing on all of the syrup, put the mascarpone frosting in a piping bag and pipe it onto the cupcake covering all of the holes in the top of the cupcake.

Then dust the top of the cupcakes with cocoa powder!

Vuala! Eat up!

Here you can see how the coffee syrup got down into the cupcake giving it the delicious Kahlua coffee flavor!

Yum!

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Tiramisu Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cupcakes:

• 1 & 1/4 cups CAKE FLOUR
• 3/4 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 tsp SALT
• 1/4 cup MILK
• 2 tsp VANILLA 
• 2 Tbs BUTTER, unsalted
• 3 EGGS & 3 EGG YOLKS
• 1 cups SUGAR

Coffee Syrup:

• 1/4 cup STRONG COFFEE
• 1/4 cup KAHLUA
• 1/4 cup SUGAR

Mascarpone Frosting:

• 1 cups HEAVY CREAM
• 8 oz. MASCARPONE CHEESE
• 1/4 cup POWDERED SUGAR
• COCOA POWDER, for dusting 

Directions:

Vanilla Cupcake:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. 
2. In a medium bowl sift together the 1 & 1/4 cups cake flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt, then set aside. 
3. Put the 2 Tbs of butter in a small microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until the butter has melted. Then mix in the 1/4 cup milk and 2 tsp vanilla and set aside.
4. Add the 3 eggs, 3 egg yolk, and 1 cup sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until the contents have almost tripled in volume. The egg mixture should be thick enough that when drizzled over itself, it will stay on the surface for a few seconds.
5. Once the egg mixture has tripled, switch from the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment and mix in the dry mixture and milk mixture. 
6. After all of the ingredients are well mixed, line a cupcake tray with paper liners and fill each liner 3/4 full. Then bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Coffee Syrup:

1. While the cupcakes are baking, make the coffee syrup by whisking together the 1/4 cup coffee, 1/4 cup Kahlua, and 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl, then set aside. 

Mascarpone Frosting:

1. To make the frosting, start by whisking 1 cup of heavy cream in an electric mixer until it forms stiff peaks.
2. Mix in 8 oz. of mascarpone and 1/4 cup powdered sugar. It should look something like the picture below!

Cupcake Assembly:

1. Once you have all of your components you can either assemble everything right away or else wait and store the components separately until you are ready to eat them! Remember, only prepare them the day that you plan to eat them!
2. Once you are ready to assemble the cupcakes poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes either with a toothpick or a small knife. Then, use a pastry brush to brush the coffee syrup onto the top of the cupcakes (about 5-7 coats per cupcake). Make sure to use all of the syrup! It might seem like a lot, but won't be too much!
3. Put the mascarpone frosting in a piping bag and pipe it onto the cupcake covering all of the holes in the top of the cupcake.
4. Dust the top of the cupcakes with cocoa powder.

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I found this recipe on this blog: http://alimentageuse.com/2012/11/16/tiramisu-cupcakes/