Thanksgiving Cupcakes

So today is the last day to get a cupcake in for October's Cupcake Hero: Squash. So I made pumpkin spice cupcakes with molasses cream cheese frosting and toasted pecans. That would make far too long of a name. So I'm calling them Thanksgiving Cupcakes because on Sunday, in my never ending quest for turkey leftovers, I'm having my mom and stepdad, sister M., and Grandma down for a Dinner of Giving Thanks. Dinner of Giving Thanks should not be confused with Thanksgiving Dinner. This is just a small dinner with a big turkey so that I can have my favorite November lunch: A turkey sandwich on white, nutritionally negligible, bread, with Miracle Whip. Yes, it's plain. It's also the only time of the year where I will buy either Miracle Whip or fluffy white bread. I'm so excited.

Oh my, I've gotten way off track here.

So my little cupcakes. It's been sort of a hellish week. I've had something due in every class. One class I had a test AND a paper. So yesterday afternoon, the project due in that class was something we were doing in class, I whipped up these cupcakes. They were yummy! The molasses complimented the pumpkin cupcake and the toasted pecans just took it over the top. My class really enjoyed them.

Meanwhile the Brain stayed home and passed out Halloween candy. Why would our little town, and lots of other little towns across the Ohio, celebrate Halloween on the 30th? Because the 31st is a pagan holiday and they don't want to celebrate it. Does this make sense to anyone? I celebrate Christmas on the 24th. Does that mean I'm not celebrating Christmas? Ugh.

Thanksgiving Cupcakes

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves in a small bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and pumpkin butter. Add the eggs one at a time and allowing each one to be absorbed before adding the next one. Beat in the milk. Then slowly add the dry ingredients, making sure they are fully incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly among cupcake wells. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs. The center should also spring back when lightly pressed.

Cool pan on rack for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. package cream cheese

3 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp molasses

4 cups powdered sugar

Beat together the cream cheese and butter. Beat in the molasses. Slowly add the powdered sugar. If the consistency is to soft, add more powdered sugar.

Pecans:

1/2 cup pecan chips

Place the pecans in a dry pan over moderate heat. Toast the pecans just until they start to smell.

Assembly:
Frost the cooled cupcakes with molasses frosting. There will be leftover frosting. Sprinkle cupcakes with toasted nuts.

Study Break Cupcakes

When you're in class for 4 hours a night for 4 nights a week you get a pretty clear idea of things that would make these classes go by a little easier. Cheetos come to mind. But really other than Cheetos, coffee, booze, and sugar are probably in the top 5. So imagine my happiness when this month's Cupcake Hero was Baker's Choice. Baker's choice meant that we get to pick at least two of the previous Cupcake Hero challenges and combine them into our entry for this month. Conveniently booze, and coffee were two past challenges. Sugar is pretty much a standard cupcake addition, but if I'm going for truly comforting sugar, I'm going for marshmallow fluff. Nicely, marshmallow is yet another past challenge. And being that my cupcake is made from coffee we had in the house and the Brain took all the regular coffee to the office, I was left with Pumpkin Spice coffee. So I made it a coffee spice cake. And of course with a spice cake, cloves then enters the cupcake, yet another past challenge.

I didn't go hog wild though. I left out the jalapeno.

And the Cheetos.

Study Break Cupcakes

an original Shazamer recipe

Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature and cut into small pieces

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp Kahlua

2 large eggs

1/2 cup Pumpkin Spice flavored coffee at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Place paper liners in 12 cupcake wells.

Whisk flour, baking powder, allspice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping the down the bowl occasionally. Beat in vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time and scraping the bowl between eggs. Mix in one half the flour mixture. Then beat in the cooled coffee. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat briefly until well combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcake wells and bake for 18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely on a rack.

Marshmallow Frosting:

1 cup marshmallow fluff
4 Tbsp softened unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk
pinch of salt

Mix together fluff, butter, extract, sugar, and salt. Add milk to create the right consistency frosting. You may need more or less depending on how thick you prefer your frosting.

Spicy Spice Cupcakes

Yes. It's time for Cupcake Hero again. Laurie over at Quirky Cupcake is still taking a break from hosting the Hero, so this month's guest hostesses are Rachel of Tangerine Tart and Teri of the 90/10 rule. And oh boy, they did pick a challenging theme. Jalapeno. Yes. Those green hot peppers.

Actually, this Cupcake Hero was a learning experience for me. It turns out that all along I'd been using Serrano peppers instead of jalapeno peppers when cooking. I just didn't know the difference. Now I know that Serrano peppers are skinnier and hotter and jalapeno peppers are fatter and still pretty hot.

This Cupcake Hero was hard because I kept coming up with different sweet tastes that go well with jalapenos, but couldn't come up with how to put them into a cupcake and make it taste great. I finally started thinking about Indian food and how some sweet curries have raisins and cinnamon along with the curry powder. That's when it occurred to me that a spice cake may be the way to go. And frankly I just love molasses.

I also decided to mince the jalapenos so that they're tiny little morsels in the finished cupcake. I felt sort of like I was being an Iron Chef at this point because I felt like I wanted to keep the integrity of the jalapenos rather than hide them as a single hot (spicy) element in the cupcake. I really think the jalapeno flavor comes out here. I seeded mine and cut out the ribs, but I think they'd be even better if the ribs were left in, but they were still seeded. Oh and the creamy frosting with it's twangs of buttermilk and molasses is the perfect complement to the Spicy Spice Cupcakes, but if it's too creamy for you add some more powdered sugar or chill it to thicken.

Spicy Spice Cupcakes

an original Shazam recipe

cupcake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup pumpkin butter

3/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup olive oil

3 large eggs

2 Tbsp unsulfured molasses

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup dark raisins

1 jalapeno pepper finely minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin butter, applesauce, buttermilk, olive oil, eggs, molasses, raisins, and jalapeno. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Divide batter among muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until tops bounce back when gently pressed.

frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp unsulfured molasses

1 Tbsp buttermilk

Blend cream cheese and butter together. Add powdered sugar, molasses and buttermilk. Whip until fluffy.

to assemble:

Once cupcakes have cooled completely, frost with frosting and keep in a cool, dry place.

Red, White, and Blueberry Cupcakes

This month, the Cupcake Hero competition is guest hosted by two of my favorite bloggers, Clara at I Heart Cuppycakes has got fun tidbits, creatively decorated cakes, and seriously delicious cupcakes. She's cohosting with the equally wacky and delicious Nikki of Crazy Delicious Food. And wouldn't you know it. For two such fabulous food bloggers, they came up with what I think has been the hardest yet Cupcake Hero challenge. Red, White, and Blue. Ah, you scoff, how hard can that be? Well maybe I should add they didn't want us to use food coloring for the whole thing.

Then it hit me. No food coloring means that I would have to, gasp, use fruit. Mostly because blueberries are the only naturally blue food I could think of. Good thing I like blueberries. In case you're new here, I don't like the majority of fruit. I'm trying very hard to eat it lately. I figure it's not a good idea to completely dismiss an entire food grouping. Unfortunately, the red fruits posed a problem. I tried some cherries and discovered that I didn't completely mind them fresh. Fresh cherries are way better than that gross super red kind of cherry flavoring type pseudo cherries. But still they had pits. Raspberries are ok, but I had a feeling they'd bleed on the frosting, and call me a little nutty, but I just couldn't deal with that. I thought about maybe a raspberry sauce, but I really wanted to limit the amount of heat going around in my tiny little house. So I started thinking about semi sturdy red fruits and came up with the dreaded strawberries. blecch. (Yeah, I'm probably one of the very few people in the world that doesn't like strawberries.)

So for this month's Cupcake Hero I decided to go way simple and scream summer. I made my favorite basic yellow cake cupcake recipe, topped with an easy meringue buttercream recipe and decorated with fresh fruit. That's red and blue fresh fruit. Well, I made some just with blueberries, because that's how I would like them.But then I packed them all off and gave them away. I figure although cupcakes definitely enhance the taste of fruit, it's not the best way to get some fruit in my diet.

Red, White, and Blueberry Cupcakes

Yellow Cupcakes (from A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place paper liners in 16 muffin cups.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down after each addition, allowing each egg to be absorbed before continuing. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternately with the milk. Begin and end with the flour mixture, and beat briefly until smooth on low-medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake wells. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs. The center should also spring back when lightly pressed. The cupcakes might color a bit around the edges, but they will not brown.

Cool completely.

Easy Meringue Buttercream (The recipe is on a recipe card that is mighty well loved and I have no idea who to attribute the original recipe to. Sorry!)

4 large egg whites

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

12 ounces (3 sticks) unsalted butter very softened

Place egg whites, sugar and salt in medium sized heatproof mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently until egg whites are hot (140°F.) and sugar is melted, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whip by machine until thick and cooled, about 5 minutes. Beat in butter and continue beating until buttercream is smooth and spreadable.

To Assemble

handful of blueberries

handful of strawberries

Frost cooled cupcakes with a layer of buttercream. Decorate the tops of cupcakes with an assortment of blueberries and strawberries.

Summer Cantaloupe Cupcakes

Yeah, it's Cupcake Hero time again. This time the Cupcake Hero Staff are on summer vacation and the lovely April of Abby Sweets is hosting the event. The theme for June is melon. Any kind of melon we want. The sky's the limit. There's only one small problem.

I don't like melon. Any of it. It all falls squarely on the I'm Not Eating It list. This was going to provide one heck of a challenge for me. So I started thinking of which melons I don't dislike as much as the others. Honeydew ranks at the bottom for me. And I'm not at all a fan of watermelon. I'd rather go hungry. But I did have a cantaloupe salad once that I sort of thought was okay. So I narrowed down the melon theme to cantaloupe.

Then I started thinking some more. There's a small town in North Central Ohio, not far from over here in Nowhere, Ohio. And every Labor Day Weekend they have the Milan Melon Festival. Mostly they pack a lot of food vendors in the town square, they have a 5k race and it's your standard small town festival. The thing about the Milan Melon Festival though is that Toft's Dairy out of Sandusky makes a cantaloupe ice cream specifically for the festival. And if you get there on Labor Day, chances are they've run out. And they don't make it any other time of the year. The crazy thing is that I actually really like the cantaloupe ice cream. Bizarre.

So with the melon salad I had once and the ice cream in my head, I called around to see what other people like about melon. My sister, Super G, told me that "even people who like melon, don't like it warm". She was a little put off by the idea of a baked melon cupcake. She told me she liked melons that are cold, juicy and sweet. The Queen Geek, told me she likes that melons have very few calories. She sees them more as a vehicle for berries in fruit salads.

Thus the Summer Cantaloupe Cupcake was born. I tried to keep the lightness of the melon and not overpower it's subtle flavor by making it a white cake with just a hint of ginger. I knew from that one salad the one time that ginger and melon go well together. Then I decided to get fancy and create a melon curd. I didn't know it could be done. But I did it. Hooray! It's actually pretty good. And adding that to the center of the simple white cupcake contributes to the juicy factor of melon that Super G likes. Then I topped the whole cupcake with a cantaloupe cream cheese frosting which has a subtle flavor that reminds me of that ice cream at the melon festival.

I have a feeling if you like melon you will really like this cupcake. Because I don't think it's too bad.

Summer Cantaloupe Cupcakes
an original Shazam recipe

Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in 16 cupcake wells.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.Whisk egg whites and milk together in a small bowl to combine; set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternately with the egg white and milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture and beat briefly until smooth on medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake wells. Bake for 20 minutes, or until edges turn light golden brown; a toothpick inserted in the center will show a few moist crumbs. Set aside to cool completely.

melon curd:
1/2 cantaloupe peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 cup sugar1 Tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
1 Tbsp unsalted butter

Puree the first 4 ingredients in processor, scraping down sides of work bowl occasionally. Add yolks; puree 15 seconds longer. Strain through sieve set over large glass bowl, pressing on solids with back of spatula to release as much puree as possible. Discard solids in sieve.

Set glass bowl over sauce pan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water); whisk puree until thickened and thermometer registers 170 degrees F, about 12 minutes. Remove from over water. Whisk in butter. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 (8oz.) package Neufatchel cheese
6 Tbsp Cantaloupe curd

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and beat well. Add cantaloupe curd and beat well.

to assemble:
Once cupcakes are cool, with a paring knife cut out a cone from the top of each cupcake. Level off the top of the cone to create a space on the inside of the cupcake. Fill the space with a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half of curd. Replace the cupcake top. Pipe the frosting on top. If the frosting is soft chill for 20 minutes or until firm enough to pipe.

Lavender Cocoa Cupcakes with Blueberry Frosting

Have you ever seen that Planters nuts commercial where the not so pretty lady has all the men chasing her because she dabs a cashew behind her ears and in her decolletage? (It's a fancy word for cleavage, but as we're doing a post about some mighty upscale cupcakes here today we'll use the word decolletage.) I am very tempted to do that with the Askinosie cocoa powder that arrived in the mail yesterday. It smells unbelievable. Chocolaty and full bodied and Oh. My. God. I want to bathe in the stuff. Honest.

Seriously, for a brief moment in time I thought my nose was on overdrive. I've never opened a package of cocoa powder and thought oh boy that smells delicious. I had to go and smell my Hershey's in the pantry to see if I was just being weird (or weirder than normal). Both the regular and the special dark. They smell like a chocolate cake. vaguely. Nowhere close to what the Askinosie stuff smells like. The Askinosie cocoa powder makes you think of lush tropical rainforests and sex and love and everything good in the whole world. Forgive me, I've been sniffing it all day.

So yeah, it arrived yesterday in the mail. And for most of yesterday, I just looked at it. It's in some pretty cool packaging. Unfortunately, I can be a little clueless and I may have had a ridiculous time trying to figure out how to get to the cocoa powder. Fortunately I have a brilliant husband, the Brain, who's birthday it was yesterday, and he helped me open the container.

Today, I thought I'd make something standard, like a chocolate peanut butter cupcake to give this Askinosie cocoa a whirl. I didn't know how special it is. I mean, sure Tempered Woman has a kilo (so very jealous), and Laurie at Quirky Cupcake has been going on about it for a while, but I didn't get it. Now I do. This is not the cocoa you use to bake standard cupcakes for a bunch of preschoolers or hungry sports watching men. This is the cocoa you use for more refined affairs. Cupcakes for people who will taste the cupcake instead of just smearing it on their faces or inhaling it in one bite.
So mid cupcake I switched plans. The new cupcake, although WAY more complicated, is as refined and elegant as the cocoa powder. And yeah, I believe I mentioned before that Askinosie cocoa powder is the theme for this month's Cupcake Hero. Judged (in case you forgot) by the lovely TW, Laurie, Joy and Leigh. I know I already entered it here, but see I REALLY want that shirt. And oh, yeah, Askinosie is giving a prize too. And I want it. And I'm willing to get fierce over it. And if i have to make myself fat(ter) to get it I will. Oh yeah.

And although I'm sure the fair minded ladies, TW, Laurie, Joy and Leigh, will taste the Cocoa Cupcake with Marshmallow Frosting and realize that I have mad skills, I'm padding my chances (and my behind) with these decadent Lavender Cocoa Cupcakes with Blueberry Frosting. They're dark. They're luscious. They're in serious danger of being eaten solely by me. Good thing my mom and step dad and the Queen Geek (who now has a really cool blog, go check it out here) are coming into town tomorrow and more than likely will make me share.


Lavender Cocoa Cupcakes with Blueberry Frosting
an original Shazam recipe
makes 18

Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Askinosie cocoa powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp dried lavender flowers

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to break up lumps and set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring the milk and lavender flowers to a simmer. Turn off the heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Carefully, using an immersion blender, blend in pulses until most of the flowers have been chopped and milk is frothy. Let sit for another 5 minutes, then strain out the lavender solids and let cool to room temperature (about 20 minutes)

In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time, making sure they're incorporated. Add the flour mixture in 4 parts alternating with the now room temperature milk. Beat briefly for 30 seconds to make sure the batter is completely homogeneous.

Split batter between 18 prepared cupcake tins. Bake for 22 minutes, or until tops are springy and a toothpick inserted into cupcakes comes out fairly clean.

Cool cupcakes completely.

Frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup blueberries*

Simmer blueberries on stove until most of the berries burst and release their liquids. Mash gently with a wooden spoon and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until cold.

Cream butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract and chilled blueberries.

* I used frozen berries, but I'm sure fresh would also work. Depending on the amount of liquid derived from the berries, you may want to adjust the powdered sugar level to ensure that the frosting is of a spreadable consistency.

Assembly:
cocoa nibs
lavender flowers

Pipe Blueberry Frosting onto Lavender Cocoa cupcakes in decorative swirl. Sprinkle each cupcake with cocoa nibs and lavender flowers. Being careful not to overwhelm the cupcake with either nibs or flowers.

*UPDATE!- The brand of lavender I used was The Spice Hunter. If you check the website there's a handy way of searching by state to see where you can get it near you!*

Cocoa Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

It's that time. Yes, I am trying again to win that T-shirt. No, my beautiful wormy cupcakes didn't get picked for the April Cupcake Hero. Although thanks to that post I did learn a whole lot about how Nalgene bottles can kill you, Brita filters are not recyclable in the US (sign the petition here), and about saving the earth in general, so it wasn't a total waste. Well and my nephew thinks I'm awesome. As you can see by the round up the better cupcake won. So because I'm nothing if not tenacious, I'm trying again. For those of you who may be somehow unaware of what Cupcake Hero is, it's a monthly contest where several bloggers, including Steph of A Whisk and A Spoon, who's always turning in fantastic cupcakes, (in fact if you found someone who's taking bets, she'd be the one to put your money on) turn in a cupcake recipe based on the theme of the month. Cupcake Hero is the brainchild of Laurie at Quirky Cupcakes. She's been joined by the Cupcake Hero staff which includes the always lovely Tempered Woman, the talented Joy the Baker, and the fabulous Leigh of Lemon Tartlet. These beautiful women bake up a select few cupcakes and pick the winner. They're really great ladies and please check out their blogs. (note, I'm not above sending multiple links their way in hopes of swaying their judgment. I figure it's better than jumping up and down shouting "pick me! pick me! They wouldn't be able to see that.)

May's Cupcake Hero theme is cocoa powder. I'm not saying in my post which kind I used, but Laurie at Quirky Cupcake highly suggests Askinosie cocoa powder. Askinosie chocolate is a cool chocolate company started by a guy who was formerly a criminal defense attorney. If you go to his website here, you can check out all about the company and how they give back to the community (which is way cool). I would have liked to have ordered his cocoa powder, but my budget was stretched a little bit tight this month. We got the hospital bill for my surgery and saw just exactly how not fantastic our insurance is. Ouch.

I found cocoa powder to be a difficult ingredient this month. Because I usually try to capture the essence, if you will, of the Cupcake Hero theme of the month, cocoa powder had me stumped. How do you bring out the chocolaty-ness of cocoa powder without having it somehow make you think of some other form of chocolate. Really I have no idea. So I started thinking of things traditionally made with cocoa powder and the best I could come up with was hot cocoa. Hmmmmm with marshmallows.

So that's what I did. But then I started thinking that just a plain chocolate cupcake, albeit one made with cocoa powder, might be considered just a bit boring. And one thing of learned from the judging styles of Laurie, Tempered Woman, Joy, and Lemon Tartlet is that they don't really appreciate boring. So I made mine have a subtle little zing. I added ginger and black pepper. Blame it on a care package that arrived while I was stuck on the couch that had a multitude of chocolate bars in it, but I was feeling frisky with chocolate flavorings. Then I baked one in one of my coffee mugs (to make sure the cup was oven safe). I would have baked all of them in coffee mugs except then this recipe would only make about 3 cupcakes and it was almost too much to eat the one cup of cocoa cake with marshmallow frosting. Almost. So I baked the rest in the cool party cups that Clara sent me from I heart Cuppycakes because of these cupcakes and this contest. See I have won other cupcake contests. Clara has some fantastic looking cupcakes on her blog. Go check them out too.

I thought they were totally delicious. Yeah, they're all gone. And the marshmallow frosting is the first frosting in a long time that I licked the bowl. I was downright sticky when they were done. Now if I could only remember where I put my brace (that I'm supposed to wear all the time) so that I can go to the gym. It's not lost. I just don't remember where I put it. I'll find it. Or I'm really in trouble.

Cocoa Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

original recipe by me

makes regular cupcakes

Cupcakes:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder (preferably Askinosie cocoa powder)

3/8 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

large egg

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, ginger and black pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue beating for about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and egg and continue beating until smooth and incorporated. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Then add half the milk beating until smooth. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by the remainder of the milk. Again scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat for 30 seconds. Distribute the batter between 8 prepared cupcake cups. Bake for 22 minutes.

Frosting:

1 cup marshmallow fluff

4 Tbsp softened unsalted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp milk

pinch of salt

Mix together fluff, butter, extract, sugar, and salt. Add milk to create the right consistency frosting. You may need more or less depending on how thick you prefer your frosting. Do not leave out the salt in the frosting. I think it really makes the frosting go from good to great!

To Assemble:

Once cupcakes are cooled, pipe marshmallow frosting on top of cupcakes. Remember a little goes a long way with this particular frosting. Then dust lightly with cocoa powder (preferably Askinosie brand.)

Vermicompost cupcakes

Vermicompost cupcakes? Ewww. Not really. (It's not real vermicompost.)

Actually it's that time of the month again. Time for me to hopefully submit my cupcake to the Cupcake Hero contest to Laurie and TW et al and patiently wait for the results knowing that I have a consistently good cupcake, but that someone out there has made one better than me. And then I get sad and I drown my sorrows in leftover frosting. OK, that's not actually true. I make a point of getting leftover frosting under running water as soon as possible after frosting the cupcakes so I'm not standing in the kitchen at midnight eating frosting out of the freezer with a spoon. So here we go again.

This month's theme is Earth Day, picked by the lovely TW! Now that's an odd theme for a cupcake. But I was pretty excited about it. There's all sorts of little things we can do to help the environment. By now, most of us are bringing our own bags to the grocery. (If you can't find bags, I know that both Walmart and Meijers sell them for 99¢. I've bought them and they're pretty great. Nice and roomy and the Meijers one has a little pocket in front and inside wine holders.) And if you're not bringing your own bags, why not? They're a great and easy way to do something good for the environment. And they hold a lot more than regular plastic or paper bags. So you can end up with 2 bags instead of 17.

Another easy way to help the environment is to say goodbye to bottled water. I know. I know. Bottled water is an easy way to get healthy. Water is good for us. That's all true, but there's a better way. Roughly 40 million plastic water bottles find their way to the trash can every day or become litter. You could argue that you can refill plastic water bottles and reuse them. That's true only for the first 3 times. Each time you use a plastic water bottle little cracks form in the plastic and after 3 times they are a bacteria breeding ground. ick. So what's a person who wants to drink healthy water to do? Buy a cool reusable water bottle. I got mine from Dick's for less than $10 (it was on sale).

You can also order them online from a variety of sources. I like the Life is Good line myself. What if you have really undrinkable tap water like I did in Indianapolis? Then buy a faucet water filter like this one from Brita. They are easy to install, inexpensive and last for 100 gallons. I would even bet that the cost of the filter and the replacement filters as well as the reusable bottle over time, even end up being cheaper than buying all that bottled water. But I couldn't figure out how to make that into a cupcake so consider it a public service announcement.

*It has been brought to my attention that In Europe the filters are recyclable while here in the US they are not. There is grass roots movement to encourage Brita to create a recycling program. To sign the petition go here. For a much better explanation go to Fake Plastic Fish.

*Make sure you wash your water bottle by hand and don't store water in it for longer than a day to keep harmful chemicals from leaching from the plastic into the water bottle. Apparently the water bottles also need to be recycled once they get pretty old and beat up. I've also heard there are stainless steel water bottles out there.

So what cause that is good for the environment can I make into a cupcake? Vermicompost! Vermicompost is a system of breaking down food scraps, into a rich fertilizer for houseplants and your garden. OK, it's worm poop. But it's really good for plants and it keeps all that junk from going to landfills. And the fertilizer is a completely organic way to have your plants (and vegetables) grow big and healthy. I can't seem to convince the Brain we should do it either. But my parents have a vermicompost system in their basement. You can read about theirs here. It's pretty odorless really. Kinda cool. I've convinced them to come "help" me plant my vegetable garden this year and maybe they'll transport some of the compost down here too! If you're interested in vermicomposting I highly suggest the book, Worms Eat My Garbage. I got it out of the library. It's easy to read and has some nice illustrations. Also here's a video with Martha Stewart and David Hyde Pierce (aka Niles Craine from Frasier) demonstrating how to do it.

So yeah. Here's my Vermicompost cupcakes. They're a rich dark chocolate cake studded with caramel bits and walnuts because really dirt isn't smooth and homogeneous. Then they're topped with dark chocolate frosting and "vermicompost" with coconut "newspaper strips". The newspaper strips are very important for worm composting (as shown in the video). Then I carefully piped red wiggler worms on top. Red wiggler worms are actually the best worms for composting. I read the book. Also, if you'll notice, my little vermicompost systems are in they're very own little Rubbermaid tubs. OK here I'm totally lying. These are silicon cupcake holders that my mom bought me and are really fun. They also can be reused so they're pretty good for the environment too. (Well OK, I sent a dozen off to my nephews and those weren't in the silicone holders. You know how boys are. They like worms, but i didn't want my square cupcake cups to get lost.)

Vermicompost Cupcakes

makes approximately 20 with leftover vermicompost

cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup Kraft premium caramel bits

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place paper liners in wells (or silicon cups).

Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.

Combine walnuts and caramel bits in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl with a hand mixer beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in eggs one at a time making sure each egg is incorporated before moving on. Add the flour in 4 additions alternating with the milk. Begin and end with the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl and beat for an additional 30 seconds.

Divide batter evenly among the cups, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the tops spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes back clean.

Cool completely.

Dark Chocolate Frosting:

6 Tbsp butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa

4 Tbsp milk

Beat butter and sugar together with cocoa powder. Add milk one tablespoon at a time until spreading consistency. Set aside.

"Vermicompost" mix:

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup Kraft premium caramel bits

20 fudge sandwich cookies (I used the cheap kind, but fudge filled Oreos would work)

1 cup coconut

Pulse walnuts, caramel bits, and sandwich cookies in the food processor until crumbly looking. The caramel bits won't get chopped up hardly at all, but that's OK. Think of it as organic food waste particles. Stir in coconut to resemble newspaper strips. The leftovers of this would be great on vanilla ice cream.

Red Wiggler Worm Icing:

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp milk

1 cup powdered sugar

Wilton's Aster Mauve Concentrated Icing Coloring (or a combination of food colorings to achieve pinkish purplish worm color.)

Blend together butter and powdered sugar. Add milk to achieve very thick consistency. Add food coloring to achieve proper worm color.

To Assemble Cupcakes:

Transfer "vermicompost" mix to a wide shallow bowl. Frost cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting. Then turn cupcakes upside down into "Vermicompost" mix. Your frosting should be completely coated in "vermicompost". Transfer Red Wiggler Worm icing into a piping bag fitted with a #4 tip. (Or you could just stick it in a small Ziploc bag and cut one corner off to make a little hole.) Pipe worms onto cupcakes. These worms aren't going to want to stick to well, but that's OK it just adds to the randomness of what worms look like.

Marshmallow Here and There and Oh Yeah Over There Too...

Sometimes, when I'm all by myself, playing in the kitchen, I like to imagine that I'm one of those women that are all together. My kitchen is clean and my dishes are piling up as I use them in the sink. There are times when I even have all the rest of the dishes done by the time whatever it is comes out of the oven. I just don't like messiness terribly much when I'm cooking. I even have trouble kneading bread because I have to keep washing my hands because of all the goo stuck to them.

Normally I at least feel like a Martha in training. An almost, but not quite. Good, better best, never let it rest. Till your good is better and your better is the best! For better or worse that little sing song-y phrase is implanted in my head. It has been since childhood. So I drive myself a little nutty trying to be the best I can be.

These cupcakes were an episode in humility. What started as an attempt to fill my cupcakes with homemade marshmallow and bitter caramel, swiftly turned into minimizing the stickiness of my kitchen. I had marshmallow in my hair, maybe a little caramel too. There was marshmallow all over the counters. Caramel all over the stove. Marshmallow on my toes. Sprinkles on the floor. Marshmallow underneath my sweatshirt. By the time I finished these cupcakes I was in desperate need of a shower, the floor needed mopping, and the counters needed scrubbing. AND I had to do laundry. Actually it was pretty impressive.

I also have to let you in on a little secret. This was my second attempt at this month's marshmallow cupcake hero. Yes, Laurie, and TW picked the super challenging MARSHMALLOW as the secret ingredient. Totally off topic, my sister M's first word was marshmallow. The first try at this month's cupcake hero, I tried to infuse a yellow cupcake with the subtle flavors of lavender and honey. But the cream cheese frosting completely overpowered the entire marshmallow experience. We ate them, but they didn't seem right.

But these cupcakes, (once I blacked out the memory of my sticky sticky kitchen) were delicious. They were marshmallow yet grownup. The bitter caramel balanced the sweetness of the marshmallow. And the hint of orange elevated it to a new level. The marshmallow heart on top, which were formed after I gave up on trying to make peeps (that could be how I got marshmallow in my ears) turned nice and crispy. I could have just eaten a bunch of those hearts with the spot of caramel. Except after two tries at marshmallow cupcakes, I'm really done with marshmallows for a while.

Bitter Caramel and Marshmallow Cupcakes

by me

Cupcakes:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

grated zest from one orange

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), at room temperature cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp orange extract

6 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 18 cupcake cups with paper liners

Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and zest together and set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed beat butter until creamy, about 4 minutes. Add sugar gradually until fluffy, another 4 minutes. Beat in orange extract. Then add eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl before adding another egg. Add the flour in 4 additions, beating just until smooth on low medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among the cupcake wells. Bake for about 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs.

Cool cupcakes in pans for about 1 minute. Then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Marshmallow:

2 Tbsp gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

3/4 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

colored sugar

Soak the gelatin in the cold water until it has taken up all the water. Boil the sugar and water to the soft-ball stage (238°F). Add the vanilla and salt to the gelatin. Pour the syrup slowly over the gelatin, beating constantly with an electric mixer. Continue to beat until marshmallow has cooled and is thick and white. Put half of the marshmallow in a oiled gallon sized Ziploc bag. Spread the other half of the marshmallow thinly on a well buttered cookie sheet that has been generously coated with colored sugar. Don't worry if the marshmallow doesn't go all the way to the edges of the pan. Just try to get a smooth, fairly thin sheet of marshmallow. Generously coat the top of the marshmallow with more colored sugar.

Bitter Caramel Sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp Triple Sec (or Grand Marnier)

1/4 cup light corn syrup

3/4 cup whipping cream

juice of one orange

Combine sugar, 1/2 cup water, triple sec, and corn syrup in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and boil without stirring until mixture turns a deep amber, almost brown color, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully add cream. Stir sauce over low heat until any caramel bits dissolve and sauce is smooth. Add juice and stir again until smooth.

Bitter Caramel Buttercream

2 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) room temperature butter cut into small pieces

3 Tbsp bitter caramel sauce at room temperature

Place egg white, salt and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer over a simmer pot of water and whisk gently until sugar is dissolved and mixture reaches a temperature of 140°, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whip by machine until thick and cooled. Beat in the butter a little bit at a time, continuing to beat until creamy and smooth. Beat in the caramel sauce until combined.

Assembly:

Using a small paring knife cut a cone out of the top of each cupcake being careful to set the tops aside in an order such that you can put the top to each cupcake back on it's original bottom. Fill each cupcake hole with a scant 1 tsp caramel sauce. Have a partially filled glass of water nearby and snip a corner of the Ziploc of marshmallow with kitchen shears. Allow excess oil to drain out. Then using like a piping bag, fill each cupcake hole with approximately 1 1/2 tsp marshmallow. Use the kitchen shears wetting them in between cupcakes to snip the marshmallow so that you don't get strings of marshmallow going from cupcake to cupcake. Once all the cupcakes are filled replace the tops on the cupcakes. It may be necessary to cut the bottom of the cone off so that the top lies flat. Spread with buttercream to cover. The buttercream will cover any marshmallow strings or uneven tops. If you are going to pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcakes you will need to make a double batch of the buttercream. About now you will really feel the urge to have a drink or scrub yourself, but resist the urge because you aren't done yet.

Take a small heart shaped cookie cutter to the thinly spread colored sugar covered marshmallow and cut enough marshmallow hearts to have a 1:1 ratio of hearts to cupcakes. Place one heart on each cupcake and add a drop of the bitter caramel sauce to the center of each heart.

Now go clean the kitchen and take a shower.

Tomorrow is another Chardonnay

So this month the lovely Laurie at Quirky Cupcake and her lovely cohost Tempered Woman are hosting Cupcake Hero Liquor. I believe I've mentioned this already. Yes, yes, I've already entered the oh so delicious Blackberry Cabernet Cupcakes. And although massive butt-kissing can't possibly hurt my chances of being declared the next cupcake hero, I really have more humanitarian motives. Although Quirky Cupcake and Tempered Woman are really great blogs and you, yes I'm talking to YOU there, should go check them out.

It occured to me last weekend at a family gathering where my one sister in law sat there drinking her white wine while the rest of the women drank red. Some women do not like red wine. Some women actually prefer a WHITE wine. This got me to thinking. It became clear that I would just have to buckle down and make a Chardonnay cupcake. I had a 4 pack of Chardonnay at home. But what goes with Chardonnay. Besides fish. and chicken.

It took me a long time to think of it, but finally I persevered. I decided I would have to do a fruit and most of the fruits that I thought of would fall under the "yucky fruit" list: mangoes, kiwi, strawberries. Finally I decided on pear. pear falls decidedly below apples and blackberries, just above oranges, and is way way better than kiwi. I would make Pear Chardonnay Cupcakes!

They turned out delicious! The wine taste mingled with the pear taste and the resulting cupcakes turned out lightly fruity. In a good way. When I gave them to testers, they spent some time trying to figure out what the flavor was exactly. They were also impressed that I could make a tasty cupcake out of a fruit I don't really like, and a wine I don't drink often. Interesting enough I have a mostly full jar of pear juice that the Brain isn't terribly fond of either if anyone wants it, or can suggest a good use for it.

Today is also my mom's birthday. She's 65 and a lot of fun. She has 7 kids and 5 grandkids. She's working on 3 different quilts right now. In fact, she's in the other room quilting away. She's a really intelligent great lady, so this batch of cupcakes went to her instead of birthday cake. She really likes them. OH yeah and check out her blog over here. It's pretty funny and very short. Happy Birthday Mom!

Pear Chardonnay Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup Chardonnay
1/2 bosc pear, peeled and chopped small

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, mix butter sugar and eggs until smooth and creamy; add the vanilla and mix well.
In a small bowl, mix baking powder and flour; add to creamed mixture.
Add white wine and mix well, but be carefull not to overmix. Add chopped pears.
Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool completely on wire racks

Frosting:
1/2 cup pear juice
1/4 cup Chardonnay
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 oz. cream cheese
4 c. powdered sugar

Mix the pear juice, Chardonnay, and dark brown sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer uncovered until mixture is reduced to 1/4 cup and is thick and syruppy. Set aside to cool.

In a mixing bowl cream together butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar carefully and beat well. Pour thickened pear Chardonnay syrup into mixing bowl and beat until well combined. Frost cupcakes and enjoy.

Red Red Wine.....

It's Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, and Pancake Day! Yay! So that means we get to eat like pigs and stuff ourselves silly so we have enough fat storage to last through the next 40 days until Easter. OK, so maybe that's not quite how it's supposed to be and certainly misses the point of Lent. Lent is supposed to be a season of abstinence to bring ourselves closer to God by understanding that Jesus suffered in his 40 days in the desert. Or something like that.

Anyhow, Laurie over at Quirky Cupcake, lovely lady, lovely blog, this month chose liquor as the theme for this month's Cupcake Hero. She's being helped out this month by the also lovely Tempered Woman. Because February has the oh so fantastic made up holiday that pressures couples to prove how much they love each other and makes single women feel inept. Yes, I'm talking about Valentine's Day. It's kind of fitting it falls right smack dab in lent.

For my liquor cupcake contribution, I went with the drink I go to most. The drink that Renee Zellweger chugged while lip-syncing "All By Myself" at the begining of Bridget Jones' Diary. The drink that my friend T used to sip while sitting in her Jacuzzi bathtub while avoiding her husband. I'm beginning to think it's the drink of women everywhere. It's red red wine. Just like the song.

I based this cupcake on my favorite flavor of ice cream. Well sorbet really. Ciao Bella's Blackberry Cabernet sorbet. Super yummy. I found a recipe, that I seriously tweaked for a German Rotweinkuchen (red wine cake). I also had on hand a 4 pack, ok 2 left from a 4 pack of Funky Llama cabernet little bottles. I happened to run across some beautiful (and cheap) blackberries at Trader Joes when my friend S was in town. It was like these beautiful little cupcakes were meant to be. The cupcakes really turned out delicious. Plus by the second day, the red wine flavor came through better.

Blackberry Cabernet Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbsp Hershey Special Dark cocoa powder

125 mL (1/2 cup) cabernet sauvignon + 2 Tbsp

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix butter sugar and eggs until smooth and creamy; add the vanilla and mix well.

In a small bowl, mix baking powder and flour; add to creamed mixture.

Add red wine and mix well, but be carefull not to overmix. Add cocoa powder.

Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool completely on wire racks.

Brush all of the cupcakes with cabernet. (Uses about 2 Tbsp total)

Frosting:

1 cup blackberries

about 1/2 cup Cabernet

1/2 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar

milk

Place blackberries and cabernet in small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce until blackberries mash easily and wine is syrupy. Strain, pressing on seeds to extract all the liquid. Blackberry Cabernet sauce should equal a little less than a quarter cup.

Beat butter in mixer until creamy. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk until a semi thick spreading consistency is reached. Add Blackberry Cabernet sauce. The frosting should be a little on the soft side.

Assembly:

Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with the Blackberry Cabernet frosting. Place one firm blackberry in the center of each cupcake. Sift some Hershey Special Dark cocoa onto the cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Cupcake Hero Coffee

The theme for January's Cupcake Hero is Coffee. Piece of cake. I thought. I like coffee. I like the deep rich taste of coffee. I like the aroma of coffee. I do NOT like sugar in my coffee. or cream. Suddenly I realized this was going to be very difficult to make a coffee cupcake without liking cream or sugar in my coffee. I do like a plain old nonfat latte sometimes. But how to make a milk flavor in my not sweet coffee cupcake?

I was stumped.

I couldn't really think of a coffee flavoring that wasn't a Starbucks flavor. And I didn't want to do that. Basically I wanted a cupcake that tasted like a cup of coffee. So, I took a not too sweet cupcake recipe added a ton of espresso powder and mixed and stirred and frosted it with a little bit of plain white fluffy buttercream icing. I was going for the "foam" look. Then after a sample, I decided it was just too sweet and looked too plain. Then I hit upon it. I dusted the tops of these simple cupcakes with instant espresso powder. Now when I took a bite, the espresso powder stayed on my lips and gave that unmistakable coffee flavor. Followed by sweet icing. Followed by coffee flavored cake. I was still a bit unsure so I took them to my volleyball team.

I think the volleyball team keeps me around because I'm tall and for the first game of the match the other team can be intimidated by me as I crowd the net somewhat oxen like. But then they discover that I can't seem to serve over the net most nights and that if I actually hit the ball it may or may not go over the net (or in the direction I want it to go). It's a good thing I bring cupcakes.

The aroma of these cupcakes hit as soon as I opened the box. They smelled like a latte. That was a good sign. And the girls gobbled them up and gave their seal of approval. I would say it made them feel better about losing, but we've lost all but 10 games, so we're pretty OK with it right now. We have fun. Yes that's 10 games won and many many many losses. It's not like there's a trophy or a prize or anything.

So I'm sending them over to Quirky Cupcake with Happy Birthday wishes to Jaos!

Espresso Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup instant espresso powder

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, espresso powder, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in large bowl. Add eggs, milk and vanilla and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed in electric mixer. Beat in butter for 1 minute at low speed. Scrape the bowl. Beat for 1 1/2 minutes at medium-high speed. Scrape the bowl again. Beat for 30 seconds on low speed.

Fill 12 cupcake molds with batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tester inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean.

Buttercream Frosting

2 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

12 oz (1 1/2 sticks) of butter softened

Place egg whites, sugar and salt in medium mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently until egg whites are hot (140 degrees) and sugar is melted, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Remove from heat and whip by machine until thick and cooled (about 5 minutes). Beat in butter and continue beating until buttercream is smooth and spreadable.