the cookin cutie: Holy Cupcake!

HOLY CUPCAKE!

Cupcakes are all the rage now. Everywhere you look, there are cupcake shops, cupcake wars on TV, and even Cinnabon cupcakes, yes, Cinnabon cupcakes! Who could even wonder why cupcakes are so popular? Perfectly portioned bites of sweetness! Not only that, they come in a HUGE variety of flavors and looks. You can find your traditional chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, or you can find a really funky flavor, like maple syrup and bacon (which I am planning on trying at some point!)

Last week, I decided to try my hand at making some of these yummy little treats. Aside from being a teacher, I also work at a restaurant called Dogfish Head Alehouse. One of the hostesses had to work on her birthday, so we decided to make her some cupcakes! I wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone, and I like variety, so I made a few different flavors.

Normally, I like baking sweets from scratch, but this time, I decided to cheat. I didn't have too much time to bake all of the cupcakes because I wanted them to be fresh, so I opted for a twist on the simple.

Safeway was having a sale on pre-packaged cake mixes and frostings - PERFECT! In my own typical way, I just prepared the different cake mixes and added my own twist. It was difficult to decide which flavors I wanted to try, so I definitely had to narrow it down a bit. I had thought about a pina colada cupcake, a smore cupcake, a banana nut maple cupcake, and a rocky road cupcake, just to name a few. I decided on a banana pineapple cupcake with coconut frosting, a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter chips and peanut butter frosting, and an espresso cupcake with hazelnut frosting.

Again, I don't have any recipes, I just eyeballed everything. For the Banana Pineapple cupcakes, I used the yellow cake mix. To give it that real banana flavor (I loathe almost anything that's made with artificial banana, except for those Banana Runt Candies!) I added 2 mushed up, super ripe bananas. I also added some pineapple juice, instead of using all of the water the recipe called for. I think I used about half pineapple juice and half water. This gave them just a hint of pineapple flavor.

I also decided to use those mini-cupcake pans. I love variety and wanted everyone to be able to taste a few different flavors, rather than just 1. Here's one of the cupcake tins, ready to go with the Banana Pineapple cupcakes. You can also see my peanut butter chip cupcakes cooling on the racks.

For the Espresso Hazelnut cupcakes, I used Devil's Food chocolate cake mix, but added in some instant espresso powder. I thought I added a lot to the mix, but when they were baked, they didn't have that rich coffee flavor that I wanted. So I added a bit of flair! I made a cream filling with mascarpone cheese, some sugar, and some Kahlua :) I mixed it all together in the stand mixer, filled a pastry bag, and just piped it in! It worked pretty well, but some of the cupcakes came pretty close to exploding with all of the yummy stuff inside.

The first picture is what they looked like after the hazelnut chocolate frosting and the second picture is what they looked like when they were stuffed, but sans frosting. I just used a plain white frosting and added yummy gobs of nutella. I love the combination of hazelnt and coffee... there's just something warm and comforting about it. So here they are! I had messed up a couple of them, so I just covered them in sprinkles so you couldn't see the mess ups!

Here's my setup for the Banana Pineapple Cupcakes. I used white frosting and added coconut milk to it. I couldn't add too much without making the frosting too runny, so to give it extra coconut taste, I dipped them in sweetened, flaked coconut too. This was a delicious trick I had used before! It makes the cupcakes look pretty and it's easy!

Here I am, dipping the cupcakes in frosting and then covering them in coconut! They were so delicious and reminded me of little snowy hills.

For the Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcakes, I used chocolate cake mix and just added in some peanut butter chips... pretty simple, huh? To make the frosting, I added peanut butter to the pre-made white frosting. They tasted absolutely fantastic! The combination really worked well together. Also, the peanut butter was really rich, so making them in the small size worked well. If something is too rich, I always have to take small bites.

(Hazelnut Latte Cupcakes!)

Overall, the cupcakes turned out really well. They didn't look like Georgetown Cupcake, but they tasted delicious and they were cute! Everyone from work seemed to like them, and they disappeared pretty quickly.