Cupcakes, cupcakes, and more cupcakes

I told you guys how I was going to be selling cupcakes at the local "trade days" for our little town.  Well....I stayed up all night finishing them.  They looked AH-mazing!  Then, we drove up there at 6 AM (well, it's technically, a hop, skip, and a jump in front of our neighborhood.), and it was raining.  There were about 3 of us at that point, who waited until about 7:30.  Then, it started raining harder and the thunder and lightning came, so I told Nate it was probably time to go home.  He was holding out that the rain would quit -- it didn't for the rest of the day.  His compromise was we could leave if we could go eat breakfast out.  So, we went and had a lovely breakfast at the Old West Cafe in Denton.

My mom came over and bought a bazillion cupcakes to take to my brother's house for his daughter's birthday.  Then we gave a couple boxes to the neighbors.  But, we still have about 3 dozen or so.  

Oh well, maybe next time. But I'll share pictures and recipes.

I found this idea on Pinterest for single cupcakes.  At Walmart, a bag of 40 of these plastic cups is a couple dollars, 100 pk of spoons is less than $2, a bag of 20 bags of these plastic bags was 97 cents, and the ribbon was 47 cents a spool.  And they are easy to stack together without ruining the icing.

I also made some cake plates with plates, candlesticks, and E-6000 glue.  Super easy and about $3 foe a tiered cake plate.

From left - Dreamsicle, Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel, Cherry Limeade, and Pumpkin Cheesecake. 

Cherry Limeade

Tart it up! Luscious lime cupcake drizzled in sweet lime syrup, topped with maraschino cherry buttercream frosting

Chocolate Peanut Butter with Caramel

Sweet & Salty! Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter cheesecake center, topped with salted caramel cream cheese buttercream frosting

Dreamsicle

Creamy orange and vanilla cupcake, topped with light and fluffy vanilla buttercream frosting

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Spicy pumpkin cupcake with cheesecake center, topped with cream cheese buttercream frosting

A couple of things I should mention:  

On the Cherry Limeade recipe, I used Key Lime Pie yogurt instead of plain.  I originally used milk and wanted to make it a bit more tart.  I also tried both cake flour and all purpose flour.  Nate felt the ones with all purpose were better.  Weird. 

On the Dreamsicle recipe, I used clementines.  I had 2 bags of them and no regular oranges and figured it would be a little twist.  I also added 1/2 cup of juice instead of the 1/4 cup in the recipe.  These were my favorite cupcake.  They were SOOO good.  My eldest daughter said these were her fave too.  

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting

I've been so busy lately, and it's just normal stuff.  Cooking, laundry, children, etc.  I stare longingly at my blog, but I just haven't had time to finish anything for it.

But, I have been creating new cupcake recipes this week.  My husband and his colleagues at work have been in love with my cupcakes for years.  In fact, he usually comes home with many people telling him I should sell my cupcakes because they are so good.  Well....I'm gonna do it this weekend.

We live in a tiny town - as in so tiny, we have no traffic lights.  The main road has one 4-way stop and that's pretty much it.  The city is trying to raise money to build a park right by our neighborhood.  They've instituted "fourth trade days" where the park is actually going to be built.  It's a flea market, farmer's market, craft fair, etc. kinda thing.  In fact, they even convo'd me on Etsy awhile ago to have a booth.  Since, it's only $10 to have a booth, we are going to try an experiment and sell my cupcakes - this weekend!

I'm not gonna lie.  I'm terrified, but I have my trusty husband to  be my wonderful salesman.  He is the one person who can talk me into believing I can do anything.

My plan of action is to make a few dozen cupcakes of 2-3 different flavors.  My first choice is my world famous pumpkin cream cheese cupcake.  I wasn't sure what other flavors.  I recently tried a Cherry Limeade -- not my fave, but my husband LOVED it.  I think that will be #2.  I'll share that one in a day or so on the blog.  But, #3 came out so wonderful, I had to share it asap.

(Here on out, I'm tired of writing "my husband," and he will now forever be known as Nate.)

It's a chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter cream cheese baked in the middle of it, then it's topped off with a Salted Caramel Cream Cheese frosting.  Nate really liked it -- and he REALLY REALLY REALLY liked the frosting.  I haven't figured out a short name for this one quite yet.  I wavered with adding a bit of coffee to make it more of a mocha flavor, but in the end, I didn't.  However, when you bite into this cupcake and get the frosting/cupcake taste explosion in your mouth -- I swear it takes like mocha.  I felt like I was eating a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate with a little bit of peanut butter thrown in.  So so good!

Now I love to make everything from scratch, but I was not in the mood to make caramel from scratch.  I made my frosting using Hershey's caramel syrup.  Maybe someday if I become a cupcake truck lady, I'll definitely be making it from scratch, but for now....meh.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Peanut Butter Filling
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
4 oz room temperature cream cheese
3 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tbs milk

Add all ingredients to bowl. Then, heat for 10-15 seconds in microwave. Mix until well blended and set aside.

**I found the PB mixture was just dry and sticky enough that I could roll it into semi formed balls and put in the center.  This might be easier than spooning it because it's sticky.

Chocolate Cupcakes
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Mix first 6 ingredients. Combine last 5 ingredients, then slowly add while mixing to wet ingredients. (Be prepared for it to seem to runny, it's fine and will come out deliciously moist.)

1. Full cupcake liners 1/3 full with chocolate batter.
2. Add a small spoonful of peanut butter filling to center of each.
3. Add more chocolate batter until liners are 2/3 full.

Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool. Then frost.

Easy Salted Caramel Frosting
2 sticks room temperature butter
8 oz room temperature cream cheese
1/2 cup caramel sauce
1 tsp sea salt
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese. Add caramel sauce and sea salt. Mix well. Then add sugar a cup at a time until it makes peaks. Then whip the frosting until its light an airy (about 2-3 minutes).

Pinterest for Dinner!

I could not think of anything for dinner tonight in my normal repertoire of recipes, so I went over to my Yum pinterest board and looked at the various things I've been collecting.

I had the ingredients for Pizza Cupcakes.  Everyone but my 13 year old liked them.  Even the toddler had seconds, which is a feat in itself.  For this one, since I read the original blogger's pizza dough was still raw in the middle, I decided to just use the picture as an inspiration and made my own recipe.  It's at the end of the post.

Then, I was still in a baking state of mind, so I finally whipped up the Reese's Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies for a late night stack.  Can I just say...OH MY GOD!  My girls and I had just had a taste test and I swear that is the best tasting cookie I've ever had.  Melt in your mouth, peanut buttery deliciousness!!  For this one I used the exact recipe, except I flipped the chocolate chip and Reese's Pieces amounts because I only had 1/2 cup of Reese's Pieces.  I also did not have a whoopie pie pan, so I just put scoops onto a cookie sheet.  One thing I liked better was not smooshing the dough down.  My first batch I did not, and I liked how they came out better.  The insides were all melty and gooey, while the smooshed ones were less gooey. 


Seriously...you gotta make those cookies.  You will think you have died and gone to heaven.  And, they are so rich, you really can only eat just one (with a tall glass of milk).

And now for the pizza recipe....



Pizza Cupcakes

2 rolls of Pillsbury pizza dough
1 jar of Ragu Robusto Garlic sauce
8 oz pkg of finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1 pkg of Hormel Pepperoni minis
1 pkg of Hormel beef crumbles pizza topping
chopped onions
olive oil
garlic powder
garlic salt

Yields 14 pizza cupcakes (in a normal cupcake pan, not jumbo)

Preheat oven to 425.  Mix 3 tbs olive oil with a teaspoon of garlic powder.  Coat each cupcake tin with olive oil/garlic mix.  Open the pizza dough rolls, but keep the dough in a roll.  Cut it into 7 slices (like when cutting dough for cinnamon rolls).  Take a slice, knead it out into a circle, then stuff into cupcake opening making sure to push sides of dough up along sides of cupcake.  Then, place a spoonful of sauce on each cupcake.  Next, add a big pinch of cheese.  We like ours cheesy, so I piled the cheese above the cupcake.  Next, add your toppings.  We used mini pepperonis, onions, and beef topping.   Because we are garlic lovers in this house, add a tiny pinch of garlic salt to the top of each. 

Bake for 13 minutes until golden brown and cheese is bubbly.

If you are baking in a jumbo cupcake pan, bake for 16-7 minutes, until golden brown and cheese is bubbly.

 

Enjoy!!