Cupcakes Galore

I'm a fifth of the way there!  To-date I have made 6 different flavors of cupcakes.  You've seen three so now I present you with three more.  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Sugar Free Lemon, and Snickers.

Let's start from the beginning.  At Steffanie's request I was making Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes to bring to her and Joe during my short pad crashing visit for the Mt. Rainier Duathlon.  Request heard.

For the cupcakes I used the same moist cupcake recipe from my S'mores cupcakes.  Then, instead of spending MORE time making up cookie batter I opted for the Tollhouse pre-made cookie dough that easily separates into individual squares.  Slacker, I know, but deal with it.  Cupcake batter in, cookie dough plunked on top, and on to baking.

Once the cupcakes had cooled I whipped up a bit of cream cheese frosting.  Now I'm too lazy to type up the recipe here but there are many fine recipes via Google.  Oh yeah - and I bought a piping bag so now I can start making fancy designs with the frosting as opposed to the dollops that are created from a Ziploc bag.  Very exciting.  To top the whole thing off, a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips.  Delicious!

Next up, Sugar Free Lemon Cupcakes.  So you may have noticed that one of my '30 While 30' items is to go sugar free for a week.  I figured, after devouring the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake, that the following week would be 'THE' week (more on this in a post to come).  And, because I like sweets and more importantly my co-workers love me bringing sweets, I decided to test out a sugar free cupcake.  

Of course...sugar free really means no 'refined sugars' so these cupcakes were made with honey.

Recipe:

Honey Lemon Cupcakes - 

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

Zest and juice of one lemon

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk 

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs 

Lemon Frosting -  

Sugar free instant pudding mix (small 1.4 oz packet)

1 3/4 cup milk (or more depending on the thickness desired)

1 packet of cream cheese (8 oz)

1 container of Cool Whip (8 oz)

Prep:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Sift together dry ingredients
3. In a small bowl, combine lemon zest and juice, sour cream and milk; set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Add honey; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time.
5. Add half of the reserved dry ingredients to the butter mixture; mix on low until just combined. With mixer running on low, slowly add the lemon mixture.
6. Add remaining dry ingredients until just combined.
7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
8. Bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

9. Combine pudding mix and milk in a bowl and whip until thick.
10. In a separate bowl mix cream cheese until smooth then add pudding mix.
11. Add Cool Whip.

Note about frosting: I found it to be a rather thick so I thinned it with more milk.  I also added a bit of lemon juice to thin it out and give it more of a natural lemon flavor - the pudding flavor was a bit of an overkill.  I think next time I would use vanilla pudding.

Lastly, the cupcakes looked a little boring and overwhelmingly yellow for my taste so at my Dad's suggestion I added crushed almond slivers.  Of course I spiced that part up a bit by roasting them for a few minutes to give them a nice golden brown coloring and drizzled them with honey.  I think an even better option would be to salt them a bit.

I have to say, these turned out pretty good but not my favorite of the bunch.  But the kicker...since these cupcakes were made after the Royal wedding weekend I decided they should really be called the 'Queen Elizabeth Cupcake'.  I mean just look at the picture below - I see the resemblance, do you?

Alright moving on.  Between all the baking madness I stumbled on a cupcake competition in my own backyard of Anacortes.  I talked my friend Sarah into making the evening trek down there to see what the hubbub was about.  We arrive at the designated time at a restaurant along the waterfront.  We awkwardly make our way to a back room where everyone turns to look at the 'new people'.  It is obvious that this is a small town thing and that we are definitely outsiders.  But we spot trays of mini cupcakes and we are committed.  We pay our 3 dollar judging fee and proceed to load up our trays at which point we promptly get yelled at - 'We haven't started yet!'.  My dumbfounded and awkward response - 'Should I put it back?'.  Ha!  We then sat meekly at a table until they were ready to start, which happened to be only a few minutes later.

The verdict - 6 different vegan mini cupcakes, 2 standouts, 1 clear winner.  There isn't much more to say.  

Okay, back to baking.  Now that my coworkers have become accustomed to my cupcake treats every other Monday I didn't feel right letting them down.  So the weekend brought Snickers Cupcakes.

Recipe:

Malted Vanilla Cupcake - 

1 1/2 sticks butter softened

1 1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs

3 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cups vanilla malted milk powder
1 cup milk

Caramel filling - 

1/3 C heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1/2 C corn syrup (I used light corn syrup which is not high fructose corn syrup)
1/2 C water
4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 1 tbsp pieces

Chocolate Ganache Icing - 

9 oz dark chocolate

1 cup milk (or heavy cream)

Prep:

Cupcakes -

Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Add dry ingredients in batches and alternate between dry and milk mixture (mixing milk and malted milk powder together beforehand).  Pour cupcake batter into liners until about 3/4 full and bake for 25 minutes at 350.

Caramel - 

In a small bowl, mix the heavy cream and salt.
In a small heavy-bottomed sauce pan on low heat, mix the sugar, corn syrup, and water with a whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved. 
Raise heat to high and boil mixture. Do not stir during this time.  But do watch your pot VERY closely.
Remove from heat and swirl the pot gently. At this point if the temperature is right the mixture will start to darken...mine did not and I didn't really care because it tasted good.
Drop the butter pieces into the pot and whisk vigorously until the butter is incorporated.
Pour in the salted cream and again whisk until blended.
The caramel will thicken as it cools, but it should remain soft and gooey at room temperature.

Once the cupcakes cooled I cut them in half, spooned on the caramel, crushed a few peanuts on top, added another dollop of caramel and slapped the top back on.  Then I made the ganache using a heat proof bowl sitting on top of a pot of boiling water - melting the chocolate in hot milk.  When that was completely melted and cooled a bit I drizzled the ganache over the top of the cupcakes.

These cupcakes were way to sweet even for me.  I think in the future I'd nix the malt and go with either a straight vanilla cupcake or a lighter chocolate cupcake (maybe a malted chocolate cupcake).  I would also substitute brown sugar for the corn syrup in the caramel to lighten that up a bit and have it solidify a bit more before drizzling on the cupcake - the cake absorbed a lot of the caramel and thus was a bit much.  And lastly, I think I'd dunk the entire thing in chocolate.  None of this 'drizzling' business.  I'd stick with dark chocolate though just to add a bit of bitterness to the sweet caramel.  Just my two cents in case you plan on making these.