Iced Coffee Cupcakes

No, I haven't given up on Weight Watchers already. It just so happens that January is an incredibly busy month for birthdays among my family, friends, and coworkers. Diet or no diet, cupcakes are kinda my thing when it comes to celebrating someone's birth. Don't worry, I ate light all day yesterday so I could test out the frosting and make sure I had the perfect blend of flavors:-)

The cupcakes I'm blogging today are for someone very special at my practice -  my office manager and good friend. She has really been my lifeline since I joined the group just over two years ago. There have been quite a few bumps along the way for me and she has been on top of them all helping me get in touch with the right people and getting answers in a timely manner. She's also a huge reason my practice has built so quickly - she actively works the phones to recruit patients to the office and then presents a happy, smiling face at the desk that welcomes families and makes them feel at home. Aside from business, I also genuinely really like her personally. She's a great mom to her own "big kids" and is always offering me encouragement through the rough times with my monsters. In short, she's pretty great. And really, making this fabulous lady a few cupcakes doesn't even begin to thank her for all she does. But I hope it's a start.

So without further ado, I present a cupcake many Pinterest articles came together to create...I call them Dunkin' Donut Iced Coffee Cupcakes.

My inspiration was my friend's daily morning brew from DD. I blended elements from a few different recipes and modeled the final "look" after two or three different images I came across when searching for "coffee cupcakes" on Pinterest. I assure you, they really are as good as they look.

If you want to try making your own, I got the cake recipe from here. I followed it exactly as written using her modifications in red. The frosting was my own recipe that you will find below. The "sprinkles" are actually just a dusting of organic raw sugar from Trader Joe's. I tried to mimic the DD look by using pink cupcake wrappers and garnishing with actual straws from the restaurant.

Milk and Coffee Buttercream Frosting

2 1/2 sticks of butter, at room temperature

3 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp whole milk

1 tbsp hot water + 2 tsp instant espresso (dissolve coffee in water)

1. Beat butter on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer until very soft and "white" in appearance.
2. Add 2 cups (240g)* confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract, and milk to the mixer and beat for at least two minutes until smooth and thick.
3. Remove 1 1/2 cups frosting from the mixing bowl and set aside.
4. Add 1 cup (120g) confectioner's sugar and the espresso/water mixture to the mixer bowl and beat for at least 2 minutes.
5. Decorate cupcakes by piping large circle of coffee buttercream first, then smaller circle of "milk" buttercream. Sprinkle with sugar and top with straw (if desired).

*I use a small food scale to measure the sugar and get more precision in my recipes.

Gender Reveal Party

This has been a crazy thing for me to wrap my head around, but my little sister is having a baby! A few weeks ago she and her husband went for their 20 week ultrasound and decided to find out the baby's gender. She was very excited and wanted to have some type of fun way to tell us if the baby was a boy or girl. She came up with the idea of making cupcakes with either pink or blue frosting as her "big reveal", but ended up having to work longer hours (and wasn't feeling well) the day before the ultrasound.

I love to plan a party, even a small one, so I volunteered to make the cupcakes for her. I thought it would build more suspense if the cupcakes were colored and we actually had to unwrap/bite into them to see the color, so that's what I did!

I don't know how I managed to take every single photo at an awkward angle, but I did...

Vanilla cupcakes from this incredibly simple, but delicious recipe that  you mix  in the food processor

Pink and Blue!

Ready to bake...

Topped with a simple chocolate ganache to completely cover the cake and conceal the color!

My girls happened to be extra cooperative that day, so I had some fun setting up a little tablescape for her as well. This was a very small scale event (she was just "revealing" to myself, my husband, my daughter, and her step-kids), but could easily be adapted for a full family event!

Pink tablecloth, blue fabric "runner" from my fabric scrap bin, cupcakes on display, and pink/blue gift bags  with a small gender specific gift (baby hats!)

Happy Easter!

You know your kid is spoiled (or a perfectionist just like you) when you whip these up without notice because you realize that it's the last school day before Easter and you haven't made a treat for the preschoolers yet and her response is, "They were yummy, but next time you should really get jelly beans instead of M&Ms because they look more like eggs."

I am not going to be able to post a lengthy recipe because I totally winged it on these. Here are the components:

1. 24 Funfetti cupcakes made from the box mix substituting unsweetened applesauce for the oil
2. Homemade buttercream tinted light green (totally improvised this by starting with 1 cup of butter whipped in the Kitchen-aid and then just started pouring in dream whip, vanilla extract, milk, and confectioner's sugar til I liked the way it tasted)
3. Easter M&Ms
4. White chocolate bunnies that I used candy melts and a super old bunny lollipop mold (didn't insert the sticks) to make

Anyway, Happy Easter to those that celebrate:-)

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

After reading one of my healthy weight watchers recipes and then checking my facebook and seeing a photo of the extremely unhealthy cupcakes I made for my husband's birthday, my cousin challenged me to create a delicious cupcake that was low in points. I was going to wait until the weekend so that I had more time to play around with ingredients, but I was eager to get started and came up with this recipe this morning. It's obviously not the Coffee Heath Crunch Cupcake (recipe coming soon!) seen below, but I take it as a big compliment that my picky three year old who usually licks the frosting off cupcakes and throws the rest away ate the whole thing!

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting (3 points plus)
Recipe makes 24 cupcakes

Banana Cupcakes (serving size one cupcake, 2 points plus)
2 cups all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fat free egg substitute (equivalent of 3 eggs)
2 tbsp fat free milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
2. Blend butter and yogurt in the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment for 2 minutes.
3. Add sugar to the bowl and beat until well blended.
4. Beat in eggs 1/4 cup at a time, mixing until incorporated. 
5. Add in milk and vanilla.
6. Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the bananas.
7. Finally, add the last of the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated.
8. Divide evenly into 24 cupcakes liners, fill each approximately 2/3.
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Nutella Frosting (serving size ~1 tbsp, 1 point plus)

4 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp nutella

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1-2 tsp fat free milk

1. Using hand mixer, beat butter and nutella together until smooth.
2. Add confectioner's sugar 1/4 cup at a time beating until fully incorporated after each addition.
3. Finally, add milk by 1/2tsp until desired consistency is reached (I used the full 2 tsp).

*After I took my photos I saw one of the heath cupcakes I made for my husband and quickly calculated the points and realized you can top each cupcake with 1 tsp crushed heath without increasing the points value!*

The cupcake that started it all...

Friday Five: St. Patrick's Day Yummies!

Just in time for this St. Patty's Day this weekend I'm sharing some of the yummy things I've whipped up in the past week or so to celebrate at home, school, and work.

 

Start St. Patrick's Day off right with a well rounded breakfast. I used my favorite basic pancake recipe with whole wheat white flour and tinted with Wilton icing colors to get vibrant hues.

For the kiddos: "Rainbow" pancakes, banana "clouds", and a scrambled egg "pot of gold"

For the grown-ups: Rainbow silver dollars

If you're looking for a treat that is colorful and only requires a few ingredients (but a bit of time to assemble), try out these rainbow rice krispie treats. I was inspired by this blogger, but I think that her recipe made them too crisp and if I made them again I would add more marshmallows and perhaps a dash of heavy cream during the cooking phase to make them chewier.

The colors didn't come out nearly as vibrant in this photo as they were in person

The in production shot before I portioned them...

These St. Patty's cake pops are stunners, but require MANY hours of dedication to create. I got the idea for a rainbow cake pop from this blogger's beautiful picture tutorial, but wasn't confident I could handle the wrapping of layers of cake without just squishing it all up into a mess. Instead, I opted to roll each color out between sheets of wax paper and then layered them in rainbow order. After a 6 hour rest in the fridge, I cut the big block of cake into small rectangles. I realled wanted to make sure they stayed together when dipping in the chocolate, so I rested them in the freezer for another 30-60 minutes before inserting the sticks and dipping them.

Funky lighting because I snapped this as they were chillin' in the fridge while I dipped another batch 

Outside: Green chocolate and some festive sprinkles

Inside: Surprise! Rainbow cake!
The poor lighting in my kitchen at 11pm when I finished these does not do them justice:-(

This "adults only" Guiness/Jameson/Bailey's cupcake will leave you with a buzz as well as a sugar rush. I shared these a few years ago (see my old post here) and have been making them yearly ever since.

 

Once again, not a great photo because I finished them at night and then I snapped this in our lunchroom just now

For those of you who are trying to behave and follow a diet (like me!) here's a healthy St. Patty's Day treat - Green Fruit Salad!

Diced kiwi, honeydew melon, and green grapes

 

One Recipe Two Ways

Last week I was churning out sweets and treats like you wouldn't believe. Overall, I was very happy with how things came out, but have been obsessing over the process I went through with my cake pops. I've done them before and although they always take forever, I've never been quite as ready to pull my hair out as I was with those Hello Kitty pops. The craziest part is that the decorating wasn't the hard part, it was getting the cake to stay on the stick! In line with my OCD personality, I've been obsessing about having a redo to prove to myself that it was the stupid box mix that created the issues and not my lack of skills.

As I had also promised my co-worker I would make another batch of red velvet cupcakes for her family, I came up with the following plan: double the batch of red velvet cupcake batter, use half for her cupcakes and half for a 9 x 13 sheet cake, make a single batch of marshmallow fluff frosting, and use the sheet cake to make cake pops. I did make one of the cake balls into a pop (and it worked perfectly!), but just made the rest into truffles. Have I mentioned that I hate how calling them "cake balls" sounds? I glam it up by calling them truffles. I present to you...

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Red Velvet Cake Truffles

All you have to do to make the truffles is:

1. Crush the sheet cake by hand. 
2. Set aside about a cup of crumbs. 
3. Mash in all the remaining frosting left after you frost the 12 cupcakes. If the mashed up dough seems too wet, add more of the crumbs that you reserved. If not, chuck them in the garbage bin, use them as garnish, or eat them right then and there with your fingers. 
4. Roll the dough into small 1-1/2 inch balls and freeze for 1 hour. 
5. Melt 1/2 bag of dark chocolate morsels in a double boiler.
6. Dip the balls and put on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
7. Refrigerate (or just set aside) until chocolate is set.
8. Try not to eat them all in one setting...

Oreo Cupcakes

I fear my blog is very bipolar these days. I'm flipping between healthy Weight Watchers recipes and super decadent desserts faster than yours truly a kid can devour a chocolate bar. It just so happens that January is a birthday heavy month for my family and friends while I am still (mostly) sticking to my new diet. And honestly, I just LOVE to bake - birthdays or no birthdays, diet or no diet.


The recipe I am sharing today is one of those that didn't have an occasion. I stumbled across a few different recipes using Oreo cookies on one of my favorite cooking blogs (Annie's Eats) and couldn't get them out of my head until I gave it a try. I followed her recipe for the cupcakes exactly. I intended to top them with a marshmallow frosting I pinned awhile back.

Following the directions, the frosting came out beautifully - nice pillow-y, shiny peaks of lightly sweetened, fluffy goodness. Then, I had the brilliant idea to add crushed Oreos, destabilized it, and turned it into soup. The second time around I stuck with a classic buttercream and balance was restored to the universe as cake and frosting came together to create these delicious treats.

Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extra
1 tbsp heavy cream

1. Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer for a full five minutes on medium speed until it is whipped
2. With mixer on low, add the confectioner's sugar gradually until all is incorporated
3. Scrape down the sides of the mixer with a rubber spatula
4. Add the vanilla and heavy cream
5. Beat for 2 minutes on medium/high speed
6. Use pastry bag to pipe frosting
7. Sprinkle with crushed Oreos (if desired)

The secret surprise in these cupcakes: half an Oreo in the bottom of the cupcake liner!

My little taste tester - note: she only eats her cupcakes with LOTS of added sprinkles

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream

This past week the office manager for my practice celebrated her birthday. Since I began working with her last year she has been a HUGE help for me. She has been an advocate for getting me integrated into the practice and has talked me up to recruit new patients - in summary, I love her! I wanted to make her a special treat for her birthday so I took something I love doing (baking cupcakes) and combined it with something I know she loves (coffee) and something everyone loves (nutella!) and created these...

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream

I searched through lots of recipes and combined a few different ideas I saw along the way. The cupcake and frosting recipe can be found here. I upped the yum factor by adding nutella.

1. Cook cupcakes according to directions
2. When the cupcakes are cooled, use a melon baller to scoop out the middle
3. Soften about 1/2 cup of nutella in the microwave on half power for 30 seconds
4. Using a pastry bag, fill in the cupcake with about 2tsp softened nutella and replace the scooped out ball of cupcake on top (squish it down so the top is mostly level again)
5. Follow the frosting recipe and pipe frosting on top
6. Decorate with mini chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, chocolate sprinkles, or chocolate covered espresso beans

Candy Corn Cupcakes

This is going to be a very short post as I can just link to the two recipes I used:-)

Go to Scharffen Berger's site and click "Make a vanilla cupcake." Once there look for the link in the upper right that says "Get our base cupcake recipe." I followed the recipe exactly. At the end I divided the batter into two bowls and used food coloring to make half yellow and half orange. I put one spoonful of yellow into the cupcake liner followed by a spoonful of orange to mimic a candy corn. Bake as directed

I used this buttercream recipe and it might be my new favorite! I halved it to avoid too much leftover. I did add a little bit more milk than called for so it would be softer - you can play with it as you go to get the consistency you want.

Enjoy!

Cupcakery

(a dangerous trio: Raspberry White Chocolate, Margarita, and Rum Punch cupcakes)

Our family recently had the pleasure of celebrating the marriage of my husband's cousins to a very wonderful guy. As many family had traveled for the event, the bride and groom hosted a day-after-the-wedding party at their new home. I'm always looking for an excuse to bake, so I offered to bring dessert. I decided to continue the theme of celebration with some spiked cupcakes. I know cupcakes are a big "trend" in baking right now, but I love them for so many more reasons than their trendiness. Here are a few if the reasons I adore them so very, very much: easy to portion control, inherently kid-friendly, simply portable, very fun to decorate, and amendable to cute dessert displays.

Anyway, on to the cupcakes! The Margarita and Rum Punch versions are spiked, but the final recipe is alcohol free.

Margarita Cupcakes

I found the recipe for these on another food blog I like to follow called Tracey's Culinary Adventures. As I LOVE lime, I was practically drooling just thinking about this recipe. I followed her recipe exactly and they were delicious! See her website for a much prettier picture that actually does these beautiful cupcakes justice! I was just lucky my photographer remembered to snap a shot before he devoured the leftovers...

Rum Punch Cupcakes

Once again, the picture leaves something to be desired, but the flavor of these amazing coconutty, rum drenched, pineapple whipped cream topped delights does not. I found this recipe on another food blog called Annie's Eats. Once again, I followed her recipe to the letter and was very pleased with the results. The only thing I added was the cherry on top for a garnish.

Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe was also borrowed from Tracey's Culinary Adventures (recipe here).These cupcakes were very pretty and dainty in appearance, but quite dense when you ate them. The white chocolate cupcake was not light and fluffy like the other cakes, but heavier like a pound cake. Not bad, just different. The issue I did have with them was that I felt the frosting was too sweet - it was the kind of sweet that makes the insides of your cheeks tingle from all the sugar! I would definitely make them again, but with about 1/2 the sugar in the frosting. Also, I did skip filling them as I was running out of time. (I made use of the extra raspberry filling as a yogurt stir-in and as a topping for baked brie, yum!)

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

The recipe was shared with me by one of my co-workers from the PICU, so I can't spread it around. BUT, if you are very nice to me, I might just make them for you someday...

1. Guinness chocolate cupcake

2. Fill generously with Jameson dark chocolate ganache

3. Top with Bailey's buttercream frosting

4. Enjoy!