Cooking Therapy: Cupcakes!

My husband took our daughter to softball practice tonight, and my son tagged along to shoot some hoops, so that leaves me with some free time all to myself! Enjoying a freshly brewed cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee, with the Food Network running a marathon of "Chopped!", I plan on catching up on this blog.

The subject for today's blog is cupcakes! I know most people love them...I'm not usually a fan. I'll eat a cupcake whenever offered, and really like all of the cute cupcake ideas I see on Pinterest, and my kids love them, but I have never liked making them. I end up making a mess, there never seems to be enough batter for the whole 2 dozen, I'm not a very good decorator and honestly the worst thing about cupcakes is that I have no easy or good way to store them.

However, as a mother of two and a teacher, with a slight guilt complex for working outside the home, I've purchased the double decker tupperware cupcake holder and baked a few dozen throughout the years.

So, when I was selected as one of the teachers who would "kiss the pig", during FFA week, I decided the best way to raise money for the math teacher's jar was a bake sale. (Of course, selling of cupcakes on a high school campus, without nutrition labeling, to students would be illegal, so I merely offered the cupcakes to students and staff in return for a donation to the "Mr Rios will kiss the pig fund".) I made a different cupcake every day, and raised $313.84!

Below are the recipes and some pictures of the cupcakes. I apologize for the quality of the pictures...they were taken with my phone, in order to upload to post on Facebook, teasing the staff with the next flavor....not really thinking about blogging at that time.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcake

First up were these yummy treats that my children love. I found the recipe on Pinterest and thought this was the best frosting I had ever tasted the first time I made it.

Cinnamon Cake:

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

¾ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup sour cream

Vanilla Cake Mix (not white cake mix)

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Buttercream:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch powder

(Crush the cereal in a bag and then sift out 2/3 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with 20-22 cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl, gently combine eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla.

3. Mix in sour cream.

4. Add cake mix and cinnamon and mix until smooth.

5. Stir in lightly crushed cereal.

6. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

7. Buttercream: Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add Cinnamon Toast Crunch powder. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Adjust the consistency using milk if it is too thick.

8. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with cinnamon sugar and Cinnamon Toast Crunch squares.

(Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcake in the background, and chocolate mocha cupcake in the foreground)

Chocolate Mocha Cupcake

1 box of Devils Food cake mix, prepared as directions on the box suggest.

Shhhhhh! Almost every cupcake I make is "semi-homemade".

Mocha Frosting

1/3 C butter (softened)

4 C powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 dash of salt

4-6 Tbsp of half and half (my secret to yummy frostings is to substitute half and half for milk)

3-4 Tbsp of unsweetened powdered cocoa

1 tsp of instant coffee granules

Cream the butter, add sugar, vanilla, salt, cocoa, and coffee. Add the half and half a little at a time, until you achieve the consistency you desire.

Decorating

Let's talk about that frosting for a minute....looks good, huh? I only have one tool...my Pampered Chef tool you see in the picture below...

I use this to frost all of the cupcakes. I usually have to load it twice for 2 dozen cupcakes. But, I found another use for it in my week long baking frenzy....fillings! I made a chocolate cupcake with a creamy vanilla middle and topped with a chocolate glaze...kinda like the long lost Hostess cupcake.

Mock Hostess Cupcake

1 box of Devil's Food chocolate cake mix, prepared as suggested by the directions on the back of the box.

Creamy Center

1 cup of salted butter

3 teaspoons of vanilla

4 cups of icing sugar (powdered sugar)

4-5 tablespoons of coffee cream (18% and up)

After the cupcakes have cooled, load the Pampered Chef tool with the butter cream frosting. Then insert the tip of the frosting gun into the cupcake and push a glob in. The top of the cupcake will have a small hole, with the white frosting visible inside, but it will be covered by the chocolate gaze. This technique is much easier than the poke cake method (poking a hole with a wooden spoon handle and then filling each hole).

Chocolate glaze

2 C powdered sugar

4 squares of semi-sweet Bakers chocolate (melted in the microwave)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1-2 Tbsp half and half

Blend all ingredients to desired thickness. I actually melted the chocolate in a small pot on the stove top and then added the other ingredients until everything was blended. I then used a large spoon to ladle and smooth the glaze over the cupcakes.

The result was delicious! Beware of adding the filling before the cupcakes have cooled, however, the cream will just melt into the chocolate cake.

One last tip on cupcakes....you've probably all seen this on the food network, and may already use this tool, but I never had. Part of my frustration with baking cupcakes is trying to get the batter into the cupcake, evenly, without making a mess all over the cupcake pan and edges of the cupcake papers.

That's right...the ice cream scoop! I have a rather large one hear, with the squeeze scraper. Seriously, this scoop kept me sane in a crazy week of cupcake baking. I had to go buy one. I didn't own one before Christmas break. Now, I would never think of any other way to fill a cupcake paper.

O.K., I'm all cupcaked out! I made other flavors: strawberry with white chocolate chips and a creamy vanilla frosting, a banana pudding cupcake with banana pudding in the center, a spice cake with a brown sugar butter cream frosting, and a maple bacon cupcake! Those recipes will just have to wait for another day.

Oh, yeah, I did have to kiss that pig! Mr. Rios sold cup of noodles with slices of lime and raised over $590 for my jar!

Teenagers are crazy! And, don't let this little piggy fool you....he screamed like a demon possessed!