Rockstar Cupcakes - Leap Year Cupcakes 2012

I thought it would be neat to make a "Leap Year" cupcake - something over the top that I hadn't tried before.  I didn't want to put frogs on it though or anything else that signifies "leaping".  I just think something different should suffice :)  I had these really neat wrappers I made for them but my printer went on strike.  Phooey.

There are a few things about this cupcake I learned while making it that I probably won't be able to do again to them and a few things, like always, that I'd tweak.

Rockstars are a deep chocolate cake, filled with a marshmallow cream and topped with shortbread cookie crumbles, piped over that is a vanilla buttercream, sprinkled with gold and rainbow discos dust, crushed rock sugar and pop rocks.  This cupcake has a lot of texture.  If you don't like cupcakes with texture (crunch with the cake) then it's not for you!  But it was yummy!

I originally wanted a white chocolate ganache in the center but though, hey, I've done that before.  So marshmallow it was - since I don't get to use marshmallow cream that often and I really like it.

What I learned - pop rocks melt the longer they are exposed to the air.  I did not know this.  The one cupcake that I ate was just made and the pop rocks were the neatest thing!  You could feel them fizzling as you ate the cupcake!  This might be something where I have to supply the pop rocks in the packs and let people put them on themselves.

What I want to tweak - I wanted it to be a little more BLUE.  Closer to a neon like blue.  I also wanted to add edible blue disco dust but it was on back order.  Phooey.

Otherwise I like the way they look.  They're colorful :)

Recipe below!

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
4oz chocolate fudge pudding mix

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all together.  Place in cupcake liners (makes 24)
Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Marshmallow Cream

1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tblspn cream

8 - 10 shortbread cookies, crumbled

Mix all together and set aside.

Cut a hole in the middle of each cupcake and fill with marshmallow cream.  Top with a few pieces of the crumbled shortbread.

Icing

3 sticks butter
3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tspn vanilla
blue food coloring

Mix all together.  Pipe over and around crumbled cookies.

Top cupcake with crushed rock candy, disco dust and pop rocks.  Serve immediately :)

Milano Melts Cupcakes

Chocolate.....just saying the word invokes a euphoria....although I have many favorite cookies, milanos have been on my list for a very long time.  Sooooo when Pepperidge Farm came out with Milano Melts....I thought I'd died.  Crunchy yummy cookie with melted chocolate inside....I find myself licking the inside more than just eating the cookie sometimes.

So of course I couldn't resist a Milano Melts Cupcake.

This is a simple vanilla cupcake, with a chocolate ganache center and a swirled chocolate and vanilla buttercream topped with a milano melt cookie.

Mmmmmmmmmmm............

The recipe is below!  Have fun!

Milano Melts Cupcakes

makes 2 dozen

Cupcake Ingredients

3 cups cake flour

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2  1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1  1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

2  1/4 cups sugar

5 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature

2 cups buttermilk, room temp

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

24 milano melts cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 24 cupcake tins with liners.

Directions:

1. Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Reduce speed to medium.  Add whole eggs, one at a time.  Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.  Add yolks and beat until thoroughly combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beat until combined.  Add vanilla.

3. Divid batter into cupcake liners.  Fill each about 2/3 full.  Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean - about  15 - 20 minutes.  Let cool before adding ganache and buttercream.

Chocolate Ganache Ingredients  (Do this first as it needs to sit in fridge)

6oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (I use Bakers Chocolate)

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, cook heavy cream and corn syrup.

2. Place chocolate in heat proof bowl.  Once heavy cream comes to a boil, remove from stove and slowly pour over chocolate.  Stir until well incorporated and ganache starts to thicken.  Place in refridgerator until thick but stirrable.

3. Once the ganache has thickened and cupcakes are cool.  Cut a coned shape piece out of the center of each cupcake and spoon a tablespoon (or more, up to you) of the ganache in the middle.  Replace the piece that was cut out.

Swirled Swiss Meringue Buttercream Ingredients

5 egg whites

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  Place sugar and egg whites into a heat proof mixing bowl.  Set over a pan of simmiering water and whisk until sugar is dissolved.  Mixture will be smooth when rubbed between fingers.

2.  Whisk with whisk attachment on medium speed until egg whites form stiff but not dry peaks.  Add butter a little bit at a time until well incorporated.  Add vanilla.

3.  Replace with paddle attachment and mix on medium high.  Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing until frosting is smooth.  Takes about 5 minutes.

4.  Remove about 1/2 cup of buttercream from mixer and set aside.  Add 2 tablespoons of the chocolate ganache to the buttercream still in the mixing bowl and swirl with spoon.  Do not mix.  Add more buttercream if it starts to turn too chocolatey.  Add more chocolate by teaspoons if you need more swirl.

5. Place in piping bag and pipe onto cooled cupcake. 

Decorate cupcakes by placing a whole or half of a Milano Melts on top.  Variation:  chocolate cupcake, with chocolate buttercream and chocolate Milano Melts.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee or a nice glass of milk! :)

>> Short Cut - Box<<

1 box yellow cake or french vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

Mix together and pour into liners.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Snickers Cupcakes

This one was a doozy.  Since it took some time to make all the components that make up the cupcake.  But OMG did they come out gooood!

As you can see my sister enjoyed them.  There wasn't a crumb left.

 The cupcake is a devil foods cupcake with a peanut nougat (handmade) and caramel cream center topped with a caramel cream buttercream and garnished with a nougat piece dipped in chocolate and crushed peanuts.  The taste a lot like a snickers bar I'll tell you!  I would, however, like to find a softer nougat.  So if anyone has any recipe recommendations I'm open!

This is my first candy bar cupcake.  I still want to make a Kit Kat, Milky Way (will reuse this caramel cream recipe it was awesome) and Rice Krispies Treat cupcakes.

Please share if you like!  These were although time consuming, fun to make!!

I'll have the recipe and instructions soon.  So join my blog and stay tuned!

Cherry Dr Pepper Cupcakes

Ok so this was on a wimb.  A friend on Facebook posted a status about needing to drink Dr Pepper to keep herself awake and I thought....hmmmm....cupcake.  But of course I couldn't do JUST Dr Pepper so I bought the cherry Dr Pepper. I am not a huge fan of Dr Pepper but I like the cherry one.

The cake is a dark chocolate cake infused with cherry Dr Pepper and topped with a cherry Dr Pepper buttercream and a cherry soaked in cherry Dr Pepper (overnight) and dipped in chocolate garnished with shaved dark chocolate.  Wow that's a mouthful.  The cake came out nice and airy and Dr Peppery.

The casualties of being OH SO YUMMY!

Below is the recipe for anyone who would like to make it.  I added the box short cut too.  The buttercream is a true swiss meringue (I make all my cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream.  I very rarely deviate.) so if you want a simple confectioner's buttercream - I added that at the bottom too.   Enjoy!

BTW - the from scratch and meringue buttercream are very time consuming.  So if you want to make them quickly, use the box version and confectioner's sugar buttercream below.

Cherry Dr Pepper Cupcakes

Box version ingredients

1 box dark chocolate / fudge cake mix

1 box chocolate pudding (4oz)

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil  

1/2 cup cherry Dr Pepper

Mix all until well incorporated.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way and cook for 12 - 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Makes 18 cupcakes.

From scratch ingredients

1 cup unsweetend dark chocolate Dutch processed cocoa power

3/4 cup hot water

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tspn baking soda

1 tspn baking powder

1 1/4 tspn coarse salt

3 sticks unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cherry Dr Pepper

4 large eggs

1 tblspn plus 1 tspn vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  This recipe makes about 28 cupcakes.  Place cupcake liners in their tins.

Whisk cocoa and hot water together until smooth.  In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside. 

Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir to combine.  Remove from heat and pour into your mixing bowl.  On medium-low speed, beat the mixture until it is cool - about 5 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time and until well incorporated.  Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.  Add vanilla, Dr Pepper and then the cocoa mix.  Beat until well combined.  Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in two batches alternating with the sour cream.  Beat until combined.

Divide batter and fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.  Bake 15 - 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely before adding buttercream.

Dr Pepper Buttercream (Swiss Meringue)

Ingredients

5 large egg whites

1 cup plus 2 tblspn sugar

4 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature but still firm

1 tspn pure vanilla extract 

1/2 cup cherry Dr Pepper 

** Confectioner's Sugar Buttercream Ingredients

3 sticks unsalted butter

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 tspn pure vanilla extract

between 1/4 & 1/2 cup Dr Pepper (more if you want but don't make the mixture too liquidy - add more confectioner's sugar if you over do it)   **

fresh or marischino cherries for garnish (as many as there are cupcakes)

8 oz dark chocolate for dipping

1 chocolate bar for curling chocolate pieces

Take cherries and place them in a container filled with Dr Pepper.  Leave them overnight to soak.

When ready, take the cherries out of the Dr Pepper soak and pat dry.  Take a small tray and line with wax paper.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave a little at a time (about 20 sec each) and stir until chocolate is dippable.  Using a fork, dip the cherries in chocolate and place on waxed lined tray.  Put in refrigerator until ready.

Place the bar of dark chocolate into the refrigerator as it will be easier to curl later.

Combine egg whites and sugar in mixing bowl.  Place over boiling water and whisk until the sugar dissolves.  The egg white and sugar mixture will be smooth and silky when rubbed between the fingers.  Add vanilla and Dr Pepper.

Place on mixer with whisk attachment at medium speed.  Mix until bottom of bowl is cool to the touch.  Add vanilla and Dr Pepper.  Add the butter in cubes until it is well incorporated.

Remove the whisk attachment and add the paddle attachment.  Mix on high for about 5 minutes or until mixture turns to buttercream (it will be liquidy for a moment but eventually will begin to look more like buttercream). Pipe or spread the buttercream onto the cupcakes.

** Confectioner's Sugar - cream butter until pale and fluffy.  Reduce speed to low and add confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time alternating with Dr Pepper.  After each addition of confectioner's sugar - raise the mixer to high speed for 10 seconds, then reduce to low and continue.  Add vanilla and beat until smooth. Pipe or spread on cupcakes.**

Take the cherries and the bar of chocolate out of the refrigerator.  Using a vegetable peeler, scrape or curl the chocolate and then sprinkle on top of the cupcake.  Garnish with one chocolate covered cherry.

Enjoy!

What's on the to do list.....

I have a few things I want to try.  I've been ordered to make a Snickers cupcake so that one is definitely on the list (look for it around April 16th).  Currently it's a deep chocolate cake with a peanut nougat filling topped with a caramel nougat buttercream and sprinkled with peanuts and caramel drizzle.

This week I am planning a strawberry cheesecake cupcake with a graham cracker and almond crust and a chocolate covered strawberry on top.  I haven't had cheesecake in a while and this seemed like a good excuse.

I am not a fudge person but I always wondered what fudge would be like in a cupcake.  So I have two planned.  A penuche (panucci) fudge and chocolate ganache filled chocolate cupcake with a brown sugar buttercream.  Also a white fudge cupcake - an almond vanilla cupcake filled with white fudge topped with white chocolate buttercream and white chocolate curls.

Also need to do the special Easter cupcake (pysanka, pysanky) and the not so cupcake Easter cake pops.  They looked cute so thought I'd try them.

And yes, the bridal cupcakes.  I have to find some quiet time to be able to mold fondant.  Then I can get started on that!

Have a great week!  Look for the cheesecake cupcakes maybe Tuesday.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Ok two things I like, chocolate and cherries. My first attempt at these didn't do so well. The cherry filling dried out. This time I added cherry pie filling so the cherries would stay moist.

This is a chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream - cherry with cherry pie filing syrup and a cherry dark chocolate drizzle. The inside is filled with cherry pie like filling. It's really good but i don't think it's chocolate enough! LOL! I might have to add chocolate to the filling too! Like a ganache or something!

I had a photo of the inside but it didn't come out right. Sorry. You'll have to trust me it had luscious goodness on the inside.

Again this is a mini. It was made for a Cupcake Tasting Party I had in Ocala.

Coming up:
Peanut Butter Cupcakes - 3 varieties
Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Mint Mint Cupcakes
Sparkle Cupcakes

Cupcake Party

OMG! Did I really make 265 mini cupcakes!? I DID! The work involved was immense but it was so much fun! Two dozen cupcakes of eleven flavors including four new ones! Take a look at all the photos posted below.

With the help of my sister (watch out! one day Cupcakeables! may become Two Sisters Cupcakery) we cranked out two dozen minis of the following: S'mores, Key Lime, Coconut, Mocha Frappuccino, Vanilla Almond, Chocolate Peppermint and Dannen O'Donnels (Pretzel Caramel). The four new flavors were Gingerbread with a Maple Buttercream, Oreo Surprise with a Cookies and Cream Buttercream and a White Chocolate Raspberry with a White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting in two varieties (one filled with white chocolate, the other with raspberry jam). Oh! And I made an Almond Cinnamon Vegan Cupcake with Cinnamon Glaze. Believe it or not, non believers, it was really good!

I rather like the minis. Most people, I'm finding, prefer them. They are bite size, you can have more than one flavor without filling up on a standard sized cupcake and you can get more for your buck. I may stick primarily with minis but also offer standards. The minis look pretty too with all the little decorations you can put on them.

Here are some photos from the party in Fort Lauderdale. I'll be having one in Ocala after the New Year! :)

Mocha Frapps ^

Gingerbread ^

Coconut ^

Dannen O'Donnells ^ aka Pretzel Caramel

Key Lime ^

Oreo ^

Peppermint ^

White Chocolate Raspberry ^ 1st Variety

Vanilla Almond ^


Pamphlets coming soon!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Lindt Hazelnut Truffle Centers and Lindt Stracciatella Buttercreme

Ok so I made these to enter a contest Lindor Chocolates is holding this year. The object is to create a dessert using their chocolates. I couldn't pass up a cupcake with my favorite chocolate. I want to visit Switzerland just to go see where they make all this fabulous chocolate!

I'm distracted.......anyhow. This is a simple Devil's Food Cake base to which I folded in chopped up Lindt Milk Chocolate Truffles. After the cupcakes are out of the oven, I pressed a Lindt Hazelnut Truffle partway down the middle while it was still hot. This makes the truffle melt. While they cooled, I made a simple buttercreme base, melted about 12 stracciatella truffles (they melt very fast) and then poured the melted truffles into the buttercreme base and mixed. Once the cupcakes were cooled, I piped the Stracciatella buttercreme on top and shaved some Lindt Dark Chocolate on top.



They were VERY rich. But they were also VERY good. Quite an expensive cupcake to make as you might know the truffles aren't really cheap. The three bags of truffles alone was close to $12.00 for about 10 - 12 pieces each. But I had fun and maybe I'll have my recipe featured on their site and win that $100 gift card so I can have all that decadent Swiss lusciousness I want!

Dannen O'Donnell Cupcakes

These were inspired by a character Kim created in her novel. I asked her if she were Dannen, what flavors would she like? The result was this monster. A chocolate cupcake with liquid salted caramel center topped with salted caramel buttercreme, crushed pretzels and salted caramel drizzle. Oh, the caramel was home made by the way. I used to hate making home made caramel but after a bit of practice, it comes out nice. I didn't add the buttercreme as the center because I thought it would be overwhelming. The caramel I did pour into the cupcake became absorbed by the cake. However it still worked. Will try next time to see if I can thicken it up.

Cut open. You can see the darker section inside the cupcake is where the caramel went. I wasn't so sure about the pretzels on the top but it really was good adding that crunch!

I hope to be making these again soon!

Mayan Chocolate Cupcakes with Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercreme

When I first saw chocolate with chilies in it I was like.....whaaaaaaaat?! Who the heck eats chocolate with chilies in it? ..... apparently the Mayans did. Yes yes I knew that just at the moment had forgotten about the long arduous history classes I've had to take to complete my degree.

So anyhow, once again I got this recipe from gimmesomeoven and tweaked it a bit. Yes this chocolate cupcake has a bite, a sting, a kick, whatever you want to call it. But the cool creamy buttercreme mixes so well with the heated chocolate. Although it all tasted good together (hello? it's chocolate!) I was not a huge fan of the cocoa cinnamon buttercreme ONLY because it tasted more to me like a royal icing than a buttercreme. So next time I will tweak the buttercreme a but more and hope to get a more buttercreme texture out of it.

The little white flakes you see in the photo is sea salt. I didn't have any really coarse sea salt and wish I had since....believe it or not.....this added immensely to the cupcake. Since I was skeptical, I didn't go out and buy coarse sea salt in case it failed taste wise to me. But alas, I was wrong. It was actually really good.

These cupcakes are good with regular Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercreme and Salted Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercreme.

* also decided I don't like that piping tip. Will stick to my 1M and 2A.

What's Coming Up!!

I try to do a cupcake a week...but sometimes life gets in the way. Boo life! So this is what I have planned (in the next few days) and hope to get them up to you soon!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercreme
Dannen O'Donnells with Salted Caramel and crushed pretzels
Mayan Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Cocoa Buttercreme
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Next week will be Pumpkin Cheesecake 'Cupcakes'
Tinkerbell Cupcakes the following week (for my daughter's birthday party)
Amnesia SparkleCakes Cupcakes the week following
and something Halloweenish the last week of October.

If you have a request, let me know either by the blog or email Cupcakeables@ymail.com

You can look at my list on the first blog or come up with something all your own :D

S'mores Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye

I didn't expect these to be the big hit they were! I found lots of recipes for S'mores cupcakes but decided to try my own. As long as I had graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow, I couldn't go wrong. The base of this cupcake is indeed crushed graham crackers. I tried the graham cracker in different ways (on top of the buttercreme, on top of the cake) but I loved this version better. The cake is of course chocolate. An option is to add a melted chocolate middle. I didn't do that on this batch but it would have worked just fine. The buttercreme is a true marshmallow buttercreme. I was worried it wouldn't come out right but I was oh so wrong. It came out perfect and had a wonderful marshmallow taste. Furthermore, it wasn't really sticky so I could pipe it. To decorate the buttercreme I tried a few things and decided that dusting it with graham cracker and sticking a piece of chocolate in the buttercreme was best. Another option is to actually toast the marshmallow buttercreme. Will have to try that next time. I know it works and I know it tastes amazing!

Pistachio Cream Cupcakes with Pisatchio Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye


So most people don't like pistachio as I'm finding out. But I promise you you'll like these. While on a cruise for my tenth anniversary, we went on a tour of the ship. While in the kitchen, the corporate pastry chef for Princess had made several desserts just for us to try. One of them was a dark chocolate with pistachio cream inside. It was heavenly! And so his creation is the inspiration for this cupcake. Not to mention my father loves pistachio. The cake is chocolate and I really don't think this would do well with a vanilla cake. The pistachio itself is sweet and the chocolate cake isn't overly sweet. So I think they work well together. The pistachio cream buttercream is dusted with ground pistachios.

Photo by Diana Fye

As you can see in this photo I filled the cupcake with a pistachio cream that I made. My father said it didn't have enough pistachio flavor, I think it was just fine. I don't like one flavor to overpower the other, the object is for you to be able to taste the chocolate too. I could do with or without the filling. I really like how this one came out. It was my first real "let's see what we can make out of these flavors" cupcake.