Martha Cupcake Challenge #18- Pumpkin-Brown butter cupcakes

Spooky!!! These are pumpkin-brown butter cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Since it's so close to Halloween, I wanted to start making festive cupcakes with my holiday liners and sprinkles. These make my place smell amazing!
The batter starts with browned butter, which is just melted on the stove until golden and delicious. It has a nutty smell, very warm and fall-like. No mixer required either! The ingredients come together easily, since the butter is melted.

Here they are right out of the oven. The tops seemed a bit spongy still, but I knew after cooling for a few minutes they'd firm up, and they did. One thing I found odd, this recipe did not call for vanilla, which I love, so I added it. I think it gives a great flavor to any recipe, and always add a little bit no matter what.
I frosted these with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, even though the recipe book calls for a brown butter glaze. I tried to use stencils to make designs with the sugar, but I think the frosting is too sticky, because they didn't really come out well. The stencils will work better on an unfrosted cupcake with powdered sugar, or on a harder frosting, like a ganache.
So I just ended up using pretty colored sugars all over.
This recipe made exactly 15, as it said it would. just enough to share with a few friends :)

Martha Cupcake Challenge #17- Applesauce spice cupcakes

So, I only have photos of this one unfrosted, they got eaten up too quickly! These are applesauce spice cupcakes, with pecans inside.
They were eventually topped with cream cheese frosting. These are made with unsweetened applesauce, and lots of fun spices, like cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg (which I omitted since I hate nutmeg). They made the whole apartment smell so good! I have used applesauce in recipes before, when trying out some vegan alternatives to eggs. It certainly makes any baked good super moist and delicious! A great recipe all around.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #16- Mocha cupcakes

In honor of National Chocolate Cupcake Day, I endeavored to make Martha's mocha cupcakes, since mocha = chocolate + coffee. I upped the amount of coffee in the cupcakes, using not only 3/4 cup of brewed espresso, but also a packet of Starbucks VIA Columbia roast instant coffee, and also A tablespoon of instant espresso powder. These don't have that much chocolate in them, only 2 tbsp, but it's enough to get that great mocha flavor.

Here they are fresh out of the oven, smelling soooo delicious! The recipe says it makes 24, but I only got 20. The batter was quite liquidy, and these cupcakes are moist and delicate. Chocolate has a tendency to be dryer than others, but these will not have that problem.

Now, on to the frosting. It's a 7 minute frosting, flavored with coffee. It calls for coffee extract, but I couldn't find that, so I just used the instant espresso powder to make a very strong 1/4 cup of coffee. I have made this frosting once before, for the coconut cupcakes (Cupcake Challenge #4). I ran into the same problems as last time. Although I did have a working candy thermometer, it seemed like the sugar mixture took a very long time to come up to temp. Also, I had to beat the frosting on high for 25-30 minutes, not on medium for 7 minutes, to get the glossy peaks I needed. I did some searching on the internet and found lots of other recipes that use a double boiler. I may try that next time, this is too time consuming.

This is how much frosting I had left over. Could have used another dozen cupcakes! And unfortunately, you can't save this for later, it must be used immediately, so it was either eat all that frosting myself or throw it out. (I threw it out)
So, cupcakes A+, frosting C. I am also going to submit this recipe on Starbucks.com, since they are having a contest to use the new VIA coffee. Since I don't drink coffee, this is how I use it.

Martha Challenge #15- Zucchini Spice cupcakes

Here is my latest attempt at continuing the Martha/Tania cupcake challenge. These are zucchini-spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I figured I'd better get to these before zucchini was harder to find, as it's getting a bit colder now.


Here they are fresh out of the oven. These are kind of like carrot cakes, but with grated zucchini instead. They are also super filled with yummy warm spices, like cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, perfect for a chilly rainy day. They made the house smell super good. No problems with baking this time, I merely skimped a little on the leavening and they turned out great.

I topped them with a cream cheese frosting. One thing I must say, this recipe made 24 cupcakes, and when I made the frosting recipe to go along with it, I had enough left over for maybe another dozen. I wish cookbooks would match the frosting to the cupcakes a bit better. Now I have to make even more cupcakes to use up the frosting!
These went over very well, I had my husband take them to work, all 24, and by the end of the day there were only 2 left. He said the first dozen disappeared in minutes! :) So I guess everyone liked these!
Next is mocha cupcakes I think, which I hope to get to soon. Enjoy!

Martha Challenge #14- Chai cupcakes/The Beatles

So this is a 2-part post. First up- I made Martha's Chai cupcakes. Her recipe calls for minis, but I made regular sized.
Here they are fresh out of the oven. The smell is fantastic! It's perfect for fall, which it technically is now. This recipe called for a bunch of spices, of which I only had a few, and to steep the tea in warm milk, to be used in the batter. I have made chai cupcake before, simply adding the contents of a chai tea bag or two into the dry ingredients. This was a different approach. Since I didn't have all the spices needed, I also added a chai tea bag into the dry mix, in addition to the chai milk added later. These turned out great, light and fluffy with nice domed tops. No altitude issues here!
The second part of this post, is the reason why I made chai cupcakes. I wanted to make and decorate cupcakes in honor of the release of the Beatles Rock Band, and I couldn't figure out a flavor. So then I decided on chai, because the British drink a lot of tea :).


I made a plain vanilla buttercream, and lightly covered the tops of each cupcake for a blank canvas. I then tinted 3 batches red, blue and black, to make the designs I needed. As you can see, it took a bit of practice to get the lettering and designs down. But I love the results! I didn't even attempt to portray each Beatle's likeness correctly, but you get the idea with the mop tops. These were super fun, I haven't done piping like that in a while.
Now I'm off to play more Rock Band, and I'll stop to have a cupcake if I need a break :)
Cheerio!

Martha's Cupcake Challenge #13- Chocolate Chunk Cookie Cupcakes

So, I finally got back to my Martha Challenge! This one actually turned out by accident. I was planning to make chocolate chip cookies for my husband, since they are his fave. But instead, I figured I'd make Martha's chocolate chunk cookie cupcakes. These are a cross between a cookie and a cupcake, with tons of chocolate chunks. I used both chocolate chips and chopped chocolate, both semisweet of course.
Again, I ran into some altitude problems. The chocolate bits sunk to the bottom of the cupcakes. I believe this is a density problem, and I know how to solve it next time. You must first dredge the chunks of whatever in a little bit of flour, which will (hopefully) suspend them in the batter while it bakes. Also, they got very dark very fast. The recipe called for a high temp, and the recommendations I read for high altitude baking say to increase the temp, so that's probably why they browned too much. It didn't affect the taste, though! I chowed down on quite a few of these myself.
Here is the inside, with the chips at the bottom. Live and learn, I guess! These were a huge crowd pleaser, and I kinda wish I had one right now :) Also, my sister made these a few weeks ago for some friends and had great results too. I can't wait to try the Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcakes!
But next week, stay tuned for some Beatles themed cupcakes, in honor of the new Rock Band and box sets (which I have both pre-ordered)

Peaches and Cream cupcakes

Last Sunday we were kindly invited to dinner, so I offered to make dessert (shocking!). Since this is peach season in CO, I made peaches and cream cupcakes.
These were vanilla cupcakes with chunks of peaches inside, topped with a mascarpone frosting. Although the cupcakes turned out great, all the bits of peaches sunk to the bottom. Also, the bottoms of the cupcakes got a lot browner than the rest of the cupcakes, which I think is due to my (crappy) oven. Oh how I miss my convection oven!!
Anyways, The frosting was made of mascarpone and whipped cream, with a little bit of sugar. It was very creamy and light, not too sweet. I topped these with orange sugar to indicate the flavor. I had a ton left over, so I also sliced some peaches to top them off.
These were not very sweet, which I think was partly due to the peaches not being ripe enough. Next time I may try pureeing the peaches and adding that to the batter, to impart a more peachy flavor throughout. All in all, this was a great summery treat.