Cupcakes - from SCRATCH!

These cupcakes are so delicious and easy to make, you'll never want to buy a box mix or can of frosting again! I've always wanted to make cupcakes from scratch, but every recipe I've found is so complicated. NOT this one. So, give it a try!

 

This recipe comes from Dave Ramsey's website. To see the original recipe, click here.

Cupcakes

Chocolate

3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Hersey's Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk
3 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate square (found in baking section), grated

1. Allow eggs to stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners. I like to use the foil liners because they are both decorative and sturdy. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat softened butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl; beat 2 minutes more. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
3. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low after each addition just until combined. Beat on medium to high 20 seconds more. Stir in finely grated chocolate. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. (If you have more batter than cupcake pans, cover and refrigerate remaining batter until ready to use.)
4. Bake cupcakes on middle rack of oven. Every cupcake pan, liner, and oven is different, so you should monitor your first batch of cupcakes closely. Check after 10 minutes of baking time to insure that your cupcakes are cooking evenly. You may need to turn the cupcake pans halfway through baking time to guarantee even baking if your oven cooks faster toward the rear of the oven. When done (inserted toothpick should come out clean), remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to a cooling rack and cool completely before applying icing.

Vanilla


6 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 2/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups buttermilk

1. Separate eggs. Allow egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes (reserve yolks for another use). Meanwhile, line cupcake pans with cupcake liners. I like to use foil liners because they are both decorative and sturdy. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add egg whites all at once; beat on medium-high 3 minutes. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture, beating on low after each addition just until combined (batter may look slightly lumpy). Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. (If you have extra batter, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.)
3. Bake cupcakes on middle rack of oven. Every cupcake pan, liner, and oven is different, so you should monitor your first batch of cupcakes closely. Check after 10 minutes of baking time to insure that your cupcakes are cooking evenly. You may need to turn the cupcake pans halfway through baking time to guarantee even baking if your oven cooks faster toward the rear of the oven. Mine were done at 17 minutes. When done (inserted toothpick should come out clean), remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to a cooling rack and cool completely before applying icing. Yield: 3 dozen

Buttercream Icing

Chocolate I divided ingredients in half and had plenty for 3 dozen cupcakes

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups of unsweetened Hersey's Cocoa Powder
2 (16-ounce) boxes of confectioner's sugar
2/3 cup of whole milk

1. Beat butter, vanilla and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
2. In separate bowl, whisk together unsweetened cocoa and powdered sugar.
3. Alternately add the cocoa/sugar mixture and milk to the butter mixture, beating on low after each addition until blended and smooth. Beat in an additional tablespoon of milk if needed for desired consistency.

Vanilla


1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (16-ounce) boxes of confectioner's sugar
6–7 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter, vanilla and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on low until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in an additional tablespoon of milk if needed for desired consistency.

Chocolate Chip (Pumpkin) Cupcakes

These recipe comes from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. I enjoy a lot of her recipes and like that she makes her food a little healthier by adding fruit and vegetable purees.

These cupcakes were okay. They were a little dry but I think it's my fault because I added more pumpkin rather than using both purees. Otherwise, everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup yellow squash puree

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

Put the pumpkin and squash purees in a large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar, water, oil, and vanilla and beat until well blended.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips, and mix until completely incorporated. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until the tops of the cupcakes are lightly browned and spring back to the touch, 20-25 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Frosting

1 (8oz) package reduced fat cream cheese

1/3 cup pure maple syrup]

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat the cream cheese with the maple syrup, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes. Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or wrap inidividually and freeze for up to 1 month.

Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes

I found this recipe at the Rachael Ray website and thought it looked intriguing. For the original recipe, click here. I ended up doubling the batter and using a small amount of cream cheese for the middle of each cupcake to make 3 dozen cupcakes. Also, I never have any luck with cooking egg whites so I ended up using a large can of cream cheese frosting rather than the recipe here.
Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes
12 Servings Prep 45 min Bake 25 min

Ingredients:
One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs, plus 5 large egg whites
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I used 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon all spice, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup light brown sugar (I omitted these next few ingredients and used cream cheese frosting instead)
Simmering water
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces and chilled

Directions:
Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking liners. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar for 3 minutes. Beat in 1 egg white and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
In a bowl, whisk the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, 2 eggs, granulated sugar, oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture.
Layer each muffin cup with some of the pumpkin batter, then the cream cheese mixture, then more of the batter. Bake until springy to the touch, 25 minutes. Let cool.

Frosting
Using the electric mixer, beat the brown sugar, remaining 4 egg whites and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Fill a medium saucepan with enough simmering water to reach a depth of 1 inch; place the mixing bowl on top. Whisk the mixture until it registers 160° on an instant-read thermometer.
Transfer the bowl back to the mixer and beat at high speed until fluffy; lower the speed and beat to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat at high speed for 5 minutes. Beat in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag; pipe large rosettes on top of the cupcakes. (No pastry bag? Fill a resealable plastic bag with the frosting, snip off a corner and pipe away!)

Peanut Buttercups with Peanut-Penuche Icing

There have been a lot of parties happening this week so that means lots of baking for me. That's okay because I've been wanting to try out some new recipes I've found on other blogs I've been reading.

If you haven't already guessed it by reading this blog, I really like peanut butter and chocolate. So this recipe for peanut buttercups with peanut-penuche icing from the Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats blog caught my eye.

This was a fairly simple recipe that tastes like a peanut butter cookie. I did have some difficulties that were probably my own doing. The chocolate in the middle of the cupcakes didn't really melt so it was a hard center of chocolate to bite into. I used a chocolate bar I had but mini chocolate chips or something that melts quickly would probably be a better idea.
Also, my icing wasn't very spreadable. I followed the directions exactly. Next time I might decrease the powdered sugar in the icing from 2 cups to 1 or 1 1/2 cups. For the original recipe, please click here. The recipe made just over a baker's dozen regular sized cupcakes.