Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I randomly found snickerdoodle milk in the grocery store and I just knew there was a cupcake to be made there. I picked it up and promptly forgot about it. I just noticed that it was reaching the end of its shelf-life so I used it to bake up a batch of cupcakes real quick. Then the frosting and the cookies, not so quick ;) Plus K.C. got me a Kitchenaid stand mixer for Christmas so a batch of cupcakes + frosting + cookies was the perfect opportunity to break it in! Yes that means I've been burning up hand mixers making my cupcakes all this time :)

For the cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup Snickerdoodle milk (or regular milk and add cinnamon)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

Mix it up and bake the cupcakes at 330.

Here is the milk I found.

For the frosting:
I used this recipe.

I was afraid it would be grainy (because of the granulated sugar), but once I got it mixed up real good it was fine. And it tastes pretty good too. A lot lighter than buttercream.

For the cookies:
I used this one.

No, mine are not super light and fluffy like they are supposed to be, but they still taste great. I'm sure it's because I used the wrong flour. I had self-rising so I left out the baking soda. Guess it doesn't work quite like that. But would you look at that tiny little cookie on top of the cupcake??

I've probably said this before, but I think this is my favorite cupcake ever. The flavors work really well together! In fact this cupcake was so good that halfway through it I thought "I need to put this on the blog NOW. People need these in their lives." And so I did, before I even cleaned up the mixing bowls.

-Happy Baking!

Eggnog Cupcakes

It's starting to feel a bit Christmas-y around here. We've got our trees up, the Christmas playlist is back on my ipod, and of course the stores have been acting like it's Christmas since June. But mostly it's just that I've finally started buying Christmas presents and baking Christmas-y cupcakes.

So we've got eggnog cupcakes with eggnog cream cheese frosting. I got rave reviews from everyone who tried these, and I also thought they were pretty yummy.

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
1 1/4 cups eggnog
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Mix it all up and bake it. I may be late to the game on this but I've noticed they turn out a lot better if I bake them at like 325 or 330. Still don't keep track of time though :)

For the frosting:
1 stick butter
1/2 block cream cheese
1/4-1/2 cup eggnog
powdered sugar

First blend the butter and cream cheese and then add the eggnog. Start adding powdered sugar until you get a good consistency. I wasn't doing anything too fancy with the decorations on these so I left it pretty soft. Frost all the cupcakes and then use the green decorating icing pipe on leaf like shapes and top with a couple red cinnamon candy "decors."

And if I haven't mentioned it before, I'm always open to suggestions. I like a challenge so if you have an idea, please let me know!!!

-Happy Baking!

Churro Cheesecake Cupcakes

I just got back from a cruise to Mexico where we had a great time and ate lots of amazing food. Anybody know how to make Mayan pumpkin salsa? Or warm chocolate melting cake? I'm serious! Anybody?? No, ok then.. How about some Churro Cheesecake Cupcakes?

These have a secret ingredient, which is also one of my favorite breakfast cereals. Cinnamon Toast Crunch (or the Walmart off-brand which I bought).

For the Cake:
1 white cake mix
1/3 cup oil
1 1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 cup crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch
a dash of cinnamon

Mix it all up, adding the cereal last. Bake the cupcakes at 350. No idea how long (as usual). When they are baked core the centers. Once I cored the cupcakes I decided to put a couple pieces of whole cereal into the bottom of each hole.


For the Filling:
6-8 oz whipped cream cheese (I bought the 12 oz tub)
1 cup powdered sugar
vanilla and cinnamon to taste

Fill the holes in the cupcakes with this mixture. What is left over will go into the frosting.

For the Frosting:
remaining filling
1 stick softened butter
remaining cream cheese (from 12 oz tub)
2 tsp vanilla (more or less to taste)
1 tbsp milk
powdered sugar to reach right consistency
cinnamon to taste

Pipe on cupcakes to cover the filling. Sprinkle with a light dusting of cinnamon over the top. Since these were intended to be Mexican cupcakes I decorated them with Spanish sayings and mustaches. These little conversation bubbles were $5!! I considered making my own but buying them was so much easier!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

It's that candy corn time of year! Cooler weather (ha! We got a whole 2 days of it), county fairs, and pumpkin everything! I'm not making any guarantees for or against a pumpkin creation showing up on the blog but my goodness Pinterest has been on pumpkin overload for about 2 months now.
Have you noticed how this time of year there are so many good baking flavors to use? Pumpkin, pecan, cinnamon, apple, not to mention fair food inspiration. Any good suggestions you'd like to see me try?

I've got a cute candy corn cupcake for you today. I'll tell you what I did, and give you a suggestion for what will probably be an infinitely easier way!

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix and required ingredients
1 bag candy corn (about 1 cup for the cake, 1 cup for the frosting)
red and yellow food color (1 drop red, 2 drops yellow)

What I did: Melted the candy corn (with oil to keep it soft) and mixed it in with the other *warm or room temp* ingredients. This was mostly a disaster. Candy corn melts great, but it is less than great at staying that way. As soon as it hit the other ingredients we had a solid lump of candy corn goop. So I mixed the mess out of it and got it to workable sized chunks.

Probably a better option: Mix either whole candy corn or chopped candy corn pieces into the prepared batter. Honestly not sure why I thought the other way would be better!

For the frosting:
Since the melted candy corn didn't work out for the cake I decided not to attempt that route for the frosting.
1/2 Crisco bar
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbsp milk
powdered sugar
red and yellow food color

Mix butter and shortening then add other ingredients. If you want to spend a little more time on it you could separate your frosting into 3 bowls and color one orange, one yellow, and leave one white. You could then frost the cupcakes to resemble candy corn. But since I topped the cupcakes with candy corn and mellowcreme pumpkins I opted for just orange frosting.

- Happy Baking!

Pomegranate & Papaya Cupcakes

Pomegranate. Papaya. Both weird fruits that are kind of fun to say. So I decided to throw them together in a cupcake. And it was delicious!

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
ingredients listed on box, sub milk for water
2 tsp pomegranate flavor
1/4 cup diced dried papaya
Mix it all up, pour in cupcake liners & bake for about that long.

For the frosting: *NOTE* this is a fairly small batch of frosting. I had enough to do about 18 cupcakes, and I didn't put a ton of frosting on them.
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
juice from removing pomegranate seeds (mostly for color)
I also added 1 tsp pomegranate flavor
powdered sugar to reach desired consistency
Mix all this together, frost, and top with pomegranate seeds.

To get your pomegranate seeds (and juice) slice your pomegranate crossways (not through the stem) and whack the back of each half with a spoon. Your seeds will fall into the bowl along with the juice. I suggest straining the juice through a paper towel or something because there will be some little pieces you don't want.

You should try these. They are pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

-Happy Baking!

Cardiology Cupcakes

I just finished up my 3rd rotation. Getting closer!! This month was at the VA Hospital with a cardiology team. Of course I had to make cupcakes for them and I wanted something cardiology related. There aren't very many ideas out there for cardiology cupcakes though. I was thinking EKG or something, but then I decided to check chocolate molds online. I found one on amazon with anatomical hearts. Score! I opted for a red velvet cake with cream cheese buttercream.

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
Red velvet bakery emulsion

So the easiest thing to tell you is to follow the box instructions. I did not measure anything so I'm of no help on this one. I did use the red velvet bakery emulsion (I found it at Hobby Lobby) thinking it would be easier than food coloring and cocoa powder. It was not. I used almost half a bottle and still had to add cocoa powder. Or I guess you could just start with a red velvet mix :)

For the frosting:
1 stick butter
8 oz whipped cream cheese
2-4 tbsp milk
powdered sugar
vanilla & almond flavoring

You know the drill. Mix it all up, add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Vanilla and/or almond are optional. I used just a tiny bit of each.

For the hearts:
red, blue, and milk chocolate candy melts
candy mold

First I painted the blue in the mold, just randomly across the veins for a little color and at the top for contrast. Then I painted a layer over that with red candy melts. Make sure you allow time for each color to set before starting with the next one or they'll start running together. I filled the rest of the cavity with milk chocolate just for taste. I don't think the vanilla melts taste very good so I always fill in with chocolate. These little hearts would also be good for Halloween which is right around the corner!

-Happy Baking!

Nuts & Bolts & Cupcakes

Wow guys, I really suck at this. Sorry I haven't posted in basically a year (1 month, 5 days to be exact). So to get you up to speed- I've been in South Dakota for the month doing a rotation with Indian Health Services in Ft. Thompson. I absolutely loved it! But I am 15 hours from home and I've really missed KC. But today is the last day here then I'm heading home! So it'll take me a couple days but still. In honor of finally seeing KC again here are some cupcakes I made for him ages ago.

When I came across the nuts and bolts candy mold on amazon I knew I had to have it. KC works for Fastenal so nuts and bolts are his daily life. When doing these cupcakes, I tried to stick with Fastenal's colors as well as I could and still make them in KC's favorite flavor, mint chocolate.

First for the nuts, bolts, and letters I melted white chocolate melts with a little bit of black chocolate melts to get a light gray color. I painted the inside of the molds with the gray chocolate. It looked best with two coats of chocolate. After letting that set I filled the molds the rest of the way with milk chocolate. Once the chocolates were completely set, I painted them with pearl dust. To do this I mixed a few drops of vodka with the pearl dust to get a paint consistency then painted it onto the chocolate. Don't worry, the vodka evaporates! (I think)

The cupcakes-
Pretty boring this time chocolate cake mix, couple drops of mint flavoring. End of story.

The filling-
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup marshmallow cream
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
creme de menthe flavoring oil to taste

Melt chocolate chips and mix with marshmallow cream and condensed milk. Add creme de menthe oil as desired. After the cupcakes cool completely, core them and spoon in this filling. Save about 1/2 cup for the frosting.

The frosting-
remaining filling
1/2 cup shortening
1-2 tbsp milk
creme de menthe flavoring oil to taste
powdered sugar

Mix it all up to the desired consistency and frost those babies!

-Happy Baking!