Bigger Isn't Always Better!

    I was sitting in bed a few days ago trying to figure out what kind of cupcakes I wanted to make for my next posting. I wanted to come up with something that was different from the other cupcakes that I have made for you so far. While my T.V was playing in the background, I was thinking about what flavour combinations that I like in sweets and baked treats. Next thing you know there was a Christmas add on the T.V, and while I was thinking up ideas, I drifted into thinking about all the delicious chocolates that I get around the holidays; like salted caramel chocolates ...............  Salted caramel chocolates??! Hey! What an idea!  And so as of that moment, thanks to a Christmas add, I decided what cupcakes I would make today, and they are mini salted chocolate caramel cupcakes! Who would have thought?!

   So after this terrific idea, I ended up actually finding a recipe for said cupcakes from the Martha Stewart  Cupcakes book. But, I decided to only use her recipe for the chocolate cupcakes. The icing I made is actually a recipe from TLC's Cake Boss: Buddy Valstro, and personally, I think it is THE BEST chocolate icing recipe ever! It tastes soooo good!

Mini Salted Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk
• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup warm water          

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 24-cup mini muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. Now add the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and water to the dry ingredients.
4. Beat the mixture together with an electric stand mixer or hand mixer until all the ingredients are combined.
5. Pour the batter into your lined mini cupcake pan, filling each cup about 2/3 full.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cupcake comes out clean.

       *Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book [8.]


Buddy's Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Makes enough icing for 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4  cups butter, softened
• 5 cups icing sugar
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder (Dutch cocoa powder is best)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp milk

Directions:

1. Place butter into a mixing bowl and beat for three minutes until creamy and light yellow.
2. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time, making sure that it is well combined after each addition.
3. Next, add the cocoa powder, salt and vanilla extract and beat on a low speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add the milk to the icing mixture and beat for another 3 minutes.
   
   * Recipe adapted from Buddy's chocolate fudge frosting recipe [2.]

Now to put it all together......
You will need:

• 24 mini chocolate cupcakes
• 1 batch of Buddy's chocolate frosting
• Some sea salt and kosher salt
• Dulche de leche caramel spread, (it comes in jars and is thicker than caramel topping. It is quite common in stores).
• A small melon baller or a round 1/2 tsp measuring spoon.

Assembly:

1. Start by taking your cooled cupcakes and scoop out the centre of each cupcake. Don't dig really deep into the cupcake when you do this; you only need to scoop out as much as the melon baller/ teaspoon measure will hold.
2. Next, take a small teaspoon and fill each cupcake hole with caramel spread so that the caramel is level with the top of the cup cake.
3. Take a small pinch of sea salt and lightly sprinkle the top of each cupcake with a tiny bit of salt. Sprinkle the salt over the caramel part of the cupcake; this will make it stick.
   
   
   
4. Ice the tops of the cupcakes. You can pipe the icing on like I did with a piping bag and a large star shaped piping tip if you want, or just simply ice the cupcakes by hand.
5. Lastly, when you are ready to serve the cupcakes, finish them off with a light sprinkling of some kosher salt, or any other salt that it a bit on the coarse side (pink Himalayan salt is great on chocolate, and makes for an extra special treat if you have some!) Do not salt the icing of the cupcakes until you are ready to serve them because the salt will melt if you do.

      And violà! You now have a batch of the yummiest and cutest cupcakes on the block!  These little sweets are perfect to serve if you are having a girls night in watching movies. I served them to my friends and they just loved them! You could make these as regular sized cupcakes if you want to (remember to adjust the baking time), but personally I think these cupcakes are perfect in miniature form. They are really rich, and so a little cupcake goes a long way!

Happy baking!

Matcha Mania

     So today I have made a cupcake that I have been wanting to make for ages! For those of you who are fans of green tea, green tea lattes (they are SO good!!), or milk green tea bubble teas you have got to give these Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes a try! I have modeled my version of these light green treats from my all time favourite hot drink: the green tea latte. For those of you who have not had the pleasure to try one of these wonderful drinks, I will try to share with you what they are like. Green tea lattes are made, not usually with a green tea bag that is steeped, but with a powdered green tea called matcha powder. This powder, plus some other special ingredients are steamed with milk to a mellow, slightly sweet perfection that has hints of green tea and sweet warm milk. The creamy latte foam on top of this steamy sipper adds all the more to the relaxing experience of this drink.
   Now having said that, I would like to think that my version of Green Tea Matcha Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing are something as lovely as the drink itself. Now I know that at first glance you wonder if these cupcakes have been pulled out of the bottom of your brother's hockey bag because of their green colour..... but don't let that turn you off. I really do recommend giving this recipe a try!

Green Tea Cupcakes*
*recipe from Allrecipes.com [9.]

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Matcha green tea powder is just as it sounds - it is a green powder that tastes like green tea, just not as bitter as true steeped green tea can be. It comes in jars and sealed foil bags and you can usually find it at any Asian supermarket. If you have trouble finding it, (sometimes the labels are not in english), just ask a store worker where the matcha powder is, they'll know where to find it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cups cake and pastry flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 8 tsp matcha green tea powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups sugar 
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper muffin liners.
2. In a large bowl, (or stand mixer bowl if you have one), mix together your flour, baking soda, matcha powder, sugar and salt until combined. Set aside.
3. In another medium sized bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: the oil, eggs and yogurt, just until combined.
4. Next add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Beat together until well combined and the batter is all one green colour.
5. Pour the batter into your muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full.
6. Bake in the oven for 16 minutes, or until a toothpick placed into the cupcake pulls out clean.
7. Place on cooling rack and let cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Icing
*Recipe adapted from a Canadian Living recipe [13.]

Makes enough icing to ice 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese 
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 vanilla extract
• Green food colouring (optional)
• 1 - 1 1/2 tsp milk or half-'n-half cream

Directions:

1. Place the sugar, and salt into a medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Add your cream cheese and butter to a large mixing bowl and cream together until smooth with a mixer.
3. Add vanilla and the green food colouring and mix in.
4. Next add 1/3rd of the icing sugar mixture to your butter mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this step two more times, adding the sugar to the main icing in two separate additions.
5. Lastly, add the milk (or cream) to the icing a few drops at a time, mixing after adding the milk each time. Add the milk a little at a go until you get the icing to be a smooth consistency.
   
   **Note: Since this icing has cream cheese in it, you either have to eat your cupcakes soon after you ice them or refrigerate until needed.

Vegantastic!

      So as promised, here is a recipe for some awesome tasting vegan cupcakes! I actually made these for a bake sale that I was helping out with today at school for peace week and a flash mob that's happening next week (I'm so excited! It's going to be fun).

I have quite a few friends that are vegetarians/vegans and one friend that's allergic to dairy, so I was interested to find a recipe for a chocolaty treat that they can eat.  Personally, a lot of the time when I see vegan or gluten free baked goods.... I always think they look dry or kind of ...well....yicky; and I know that some of the things I see really are nasty to eat because I have tried them myself. (I was allergic to wheat and milk when I was a kid). So after some searching I have found a recipe that actually does taste really good - you would never even know that they don't have eggs or milk in them!
They are super easy to make and if chocolate-mint treats are up your alley, then this recipe is for you!

Make sure to give these chocolate peppermint vegan cupcakes a try!

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes
*Recipe courtesy of marthastewart.com [10.]

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (cake & pastry flour works as well).
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place muffin cup papers into a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and beat with a mixer until combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Note that this batter is a lot more watery than regular cupcake batter - so if it looks like chocolate-coloured water, don't freak out; everything is O.K.
5. Pour the batter into the muffin pan; filling each cup about 3/4 full.
6. Bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until a toothpick poked into the centre pulls out clean.
7. Once cooked, transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and cool completely before icing.
   

Vegan Peppermint Icing

Ingredients:

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine (most are dairy free!)
• 4 tsp peppermint extract (**Note: if your extract is strong, use less. Add a little to your icing and then give it a try - and add more to taste if you need)
• Green food colouring (optional)

Directions:

1. Place icing sugar, margarine, peppermint extract and a touch of green food colouring in a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth.
2. If your icing is crumbly and dry looking, add a pinch of water and mix it in. Repeat until your icing is the consistency that you like.  **Remember:  only add a very small amount of water at a time, or else you might ruin your icing.

Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

Wow. So this post is LONG overdue! I have been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to update my blog; which is crazy!

So I know that it's past Halloween now, but I still want to share my creepy crawly cupcakes with you!
For these spooky treats, I didn't bother to make them  from scratch because I wanted to focus on showing you how to decorate them and the trick to making them truly Halloween-eqsue! (Just wait and see how!)

Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

What you'll need:

• 1 Vanilla or yellow boxed cake mix.
• Orange food colouring
• Black food colouring
• Toothpicks or wooden skewers
• Doughnut holes (chocolate ones work best)
• Chocolate cookie crumbs (such as Oreo)
• Shoelace licorice; black or purple
• 1 batch butter cream icing (recipe below)

Okay! So lets get started.

"Butter Cream" Icing

Makes enough icing to ice 24 cupcakes

   This icing recipe is for "butter cream" icing - it is not a true butter cream, since traditionally you would make a sweet sugar syrup and use it when making the icing. But that is time consuming and can be a bit difficult for beginners. This recipe is a nice, quick way to make icing that is very similar to the real thing- in fact, you'd never know the difference!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups icing sugar
• Orange and black food colouring (gel food colouring is best)
• 2 tbsp milk (see note)

Directions:

1. Place butter, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl. Beat together with a mixer until smooth, but not so smooth that it's runny. It needs smooth enough for you to easily ice the cupcakes, while at the same time thick enough so that the icing doesn't just slop off the cupcakes.
2. Seperate about 1/3rd of the icing into a seperate bowl. Add the orange food colouring to the larger  amount of icing and mix it in. Do the same with the other bowl of icing but with your black food colouring.
   
   **Note: When making the icing, you might find that it is too dry once mixed. If this happens, add a little milk to the icing. When making icing you ALWAYS add liquid a little at a time because icing can quickly go from stiff to liquid if you add even a drop too much liquid.
   
   Add milk a drop at a time and mix it fully into the icing. If you need more, add more.

Orange and Black Swirled Cupcakes!

My "swirled" cupcakes.. that didn't swirl so well this time! :P

1. Start by making the cake mix following the package instructions.
2. Once you have made the batter, divide the batter into 2 separate bowls. Add black food colouring to one of the batters and mix well until all the batter is black.
   
   **Note: If you have measures with pour spouts, I would use those instead of regular bowls. It makes the next few steps easier!
   
   Coloured batters
3. Add orange food colouring to the other bowl of batter and mix well.
4. Line two muffin pans with cupcake papers. 
5. Now for the fun part! - Take your orange batter and fill each muffin cup about 1/3 full with the batter.
   
   
   
   
   
   Orange batter layer before black is added.
   
   
6. Now take your black batter and top off each muffin cup with batter. You should fill the muffin cup up so that it is about 2/3rds full after you have poured both the orange and black batter into the pan.
7. Take your toothpick/skewer and swirl the batter of each cupcake around in circles. Remember that you are swirling the batter around; not mixing it all together (otherwise you will have muddy coloured cupcakes! :S )
8. Bake the cupcakes in the oven following the package directions.

Creepy Crawly Spider Decoration

1. Start by icing your cupcakes with the orange icing.
2. Next, if you have one, fill a piping bag with your black icing with a small sized round tip attached; saving some for icing your doughnut holes (about 1/4 cup). If you don't have a piping bag, you can also use a ziplock bag - fill the bag with your icing towards one corner of the bag. Twist the end of the bag to push the icing down towards the corner you chose, and while holding the bag, snip the tip of the bag off with scissors to make a small hole. 
3. Pipe spider webs on the tops of the cupcakes.
   
   
        
   
   Now we are going to make our spiders!
4. Place your cookie crumbs into a shallow dish.
5. Cut one end off of each of your doughnut holes. This will make the spider's body sit flat on your cupcakes.
   
   
     
   
   * When making the spider bodies, make each spider one at a time.
6. Ice a doughnut hole with the extra black icing you set aside earlier. You do not need to use much; just enough to coat the doughnut.  Then role the doughnut in the cookie crumbs to coat it.
7.  Sit your doughnut hole down on a flat surface and poke 4 - 6 holes into the doughnut ( 2 - 3 on either side). You are going to be putting your spider legs into these holes.
8. Place the doughnut hole on top of the centre of the cupcake and gently press it into the icing. 
9. Cut your licorice strings into pieces for the spider's legs (about 2 inches each)
10. Poke one end of a licorice piece into a hole that you poked into the doughnut. Then stick the other end into the cupcake to create a spider leg. Repeat for the rest of the legs.
11. Lastly, place eyes and fangs onto your spiders. I used orange and white icing to pipe mine on, but you could use anything you like - candies, icing or cake gel.

Phew! We're done! I know that this looks like a huge list of things to do, but if you make and ice the tops of the cupcakes one day, and then decorate them with spiders the next, it really isn't bad to do at all :)

These creepy spiders are perfect for kids parties, or even just for your own family or friends!

I hope you liked this spooky post! Stay tuned for my next sweet post: dairy and egg free chocolate cupcakes!