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Strawberry Frosting Chocolate Cupcakes

On Saturday we attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Andrea. It was a fun party that ended up looking a lot like a wedding reception with lots of dancing and karaoke. I made some chocolate cupcakes for the party  to go with the blueberry and lemon frosting cupcakes I had made the day before.

As I said before, I've been working on finding a chocolate cupcake recipe that satisfies my deepest chocolatey cravings and I feel a step closer after tweeking my last recipe. I didn't want to get too crazy with the recipe since I was going to be feeding them to a room full of people I didn't know, but I felt fairly certain that my changes would make an awesome cupcake. And I was right. It was very moist and had a more sweet chocolate flavor, where as the previous cupcakes I had made were more of a strong, dark chocolate flavor. It went perfectly with the strawberry frosting, which nicely fulfilled my berry cravings.

I decided that I want to start baking for every event possible and taking my camera everywhere. I want to do everything I can to sharpen my baking and photography skills. So now my friends can expect me to shove a cupcake in their face at every opportunity and then take a picture of them eating it. Sounds fun, right? Everyone wins. 


Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

(makes about 16 cupcakes)


Ingredients:

• 1 cup steaming hot cappuccino (regular ol' coffee would work too)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line your cupcake tray
2. In a small bowl, pour the hot cappuccino over the cocoa powder and mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
4. In the bowl of your mixer (or in a large bowl if you don't have a mixer), beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
5. Add eggs, on at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract
7. Add in the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
8. Add in the cocoa mixture and mix well until smooth.
9. Fill cupcake tray evenly (each cup about 3/4 full).
10. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Strawberry Frosting Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons  fresh, pureed strawberries (about 3-4 strawberries with tops cut off)

Directions:

1. Cream butter in the bowl of your mixer or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer
2. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar
3. Add in the pureed strawberries, one tablespoon at a time and mix well

Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

I happened upon an article on MarthaStewart.com about spring dessert recipes when we had our lovely, too-short-lived warm days a week ago. All I can think about now are cherry pies, peach cobbler, and lemon cake. I want to feel a cool breeze coming through our open windows as flour flies everywhere and I feel right at home in my kitchen with my apron and rolled up jeans. Oh, spring. I miss you so.

My dear friend Melissa had surgery last week and I wanted to bring her some treats. Since I was just itching for a reason to make something springy and sweet, I decided to make her some blueberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream.

Lucas said they tasted like heaven. Either he's overly sweet or these cupcakes are divine. My own taste buds are leaning towards divine.

I iced the cupcakes for Melissa, then refrigerated the icing to frost the rest of the cupcakes later. Unfortunately, while sitting in the fridge, the butter in the icing stiffened up and the lemon juice just sort of separated. So, when I squeezed it out of my icing bag, it was less than pretty. But, as you can see in the pictures, I smoothed out the icing with an offset spatula and it worked out just fine. Plus, it still tasted awesome. That's all that really matters anyway, right?

We took the leftovers to our friend's surprise birthday party. On the way there we stopped at a grocery store to get more blueberries to top them off. They looked really cute with the berries on top, but I forgot to take a picture of them. Fail. Just take my word. They were stinkin' precious looking. Later this week I'll tell you all about the other cupcake I made for the surprise party:]

Blueberry Cupcakes Recipe

Makes about 14 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 oz (about 3 cups) fresh blueberries
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line cupcake pan with paper liners
2. Coat washed blueberries in the 5 tablespoons of flour in a medium bowl
3. Sift together the 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl
4. Cream butter and sugar together in the bowl of your mixer
5. Mix in sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
6. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
7. Add in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
8. Gently fold in blueberries
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 22-25 minutes.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
• 5 cups powdered sugar
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice from one lemon (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons water
• pinch of salt
• 1 drop yellow food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. Cream butter until light and fluffy in the bowl of your mixer
2. Slowly add in powdered sugar until fully mixed
3. Beat in heavy cream
4. Add lemon juice and mix well
5. Add water and salt and mix thoroughly
6. Add food coloring
7. Frost your cooled cupcakes!

The end!

Daydream Believer

EEK. I've been slacking on the blogging. My brain is fried and my to-do list is out of control. But things are going down. Good things. I finally got all of my crafting supplies organized and bought some tubs to organize them. I spend (waste) my mornings daydreaming about how beautiful my crafting station will be when it's done. We've talked about getting a window in our bedroom, and I imagine it being a very tall window with a little bit of a ledge for me to sit on and look outside for inspiration. I sit and I daydream in the morning as I listen to the birds singing outside, knowing that they want spring to come just as badly as I do.

 

Speaking of spring, look forward to some springy recipes. Those two days of warmth we had last week made my berries and citrus cravings kick in.

Heart-Shaped Spritz Cookies

My darling husband got me a fancy pants cookie press for my birthday. He did a lot of research, including seeing what Ms. Martha Stewart had to say, and got me the best cookie press ever. It's Italian. And I love it. The Europeans call it a "biscuit" press, which I also love. It's stainless steel and comes with a ton of plates to make various cookie shapes.

He also got me a new paddle attachment for my KitchenAid mixer (also recommended by Ms. Stewart) which has little rubber scrapers on the sides. The paddle scrapes down mixes as it goes, which saves a lot of time since I don't have to stop and scrape it all down myself. I love it.

I finally had a proper excuse to use my cookie press (not that I need an excuse to make cute cookies) for the Valentine's Day tea party we had a couple weeks ago. I used my heart-shaped plate to make these little cuties:

The plate is a sort of "Y" shape that molds the dough into a heart. It took a little practice trying to get cookies that didn't just look like "Y"s or a big mushy mess.

This may sound crazy but I thought the creamed butter and sugar looked so pretty.

It gets so fluffy and lovely.

Yeah, I think butter and sugar are pretty. I'm weird like that.

I used Spritz cookie dough to make these guys. They were deeelicious. I'm excited about experimenting with different shapes, especially the floral shapes, and decorating them with icing and candies.

Notice the flour everywhere? Yeah. I'm a messy baker. And I'm too stubborn to use the splash guard (which is sitting conveniently right next to the mixer, sigh).

Spritz Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter until creamy
3. Mix in sugar and beat until fluffy
4. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated
5. Add in the salt and gradually add in the flour until fully incorporated
6. Either press out the cookie dough in your cookie press, roll out the dough and cut out shapes, or drop cookie dough 1-2 inches apart.
7. Bake 6-9 minutes

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Valentine's Day?

I'll be honest, I'm not really a fan of Valentine's Day. I don't want to go to a crowded restaurant or have my husband spend a ridiculous amount of money on roses that will just soon die and be thrown out. I don't even like roses. I'm just not that kind of girl (not that being that kinda girl is a bad thing, it's just not for me). And I don't like the pressure put on couples on this particular holiday to be overly romantic. But, I'll tell you what I do like... I like hearts and heart-shaped decorations, I like following cute themes (especially in relation to baked goods), I love spending time with my husband, and dressing up for him, just to stay home and sit on the couch.

So what did we do on this Valentine's Day? I made this little heart garland out of wrapping paper that I saved from one of our wedding gifts (it was too pretty to throw away). I'm happy that it's simple enough to keep up year-round. Then, I busted out my heart-shaped pancake mold to make cute (in theory) pancakes. They didn't want to come out of the mold. I like how curly the bacon turned out. I got a pretty nasty grease burn/blister on my arm due to my typical clumsiness. Lucas ran to my aid with aloe and a band-aid. Then, after dinner, we watched Bruce Willis kick some major booty in the movie Red, and ate the heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies I made for Lucas while he was at work.

It was Valentine's Day, but that didn't matter. It was just a typical day in the the Walther home, being in love with my husband, baking cookies, and finding a new way to hurt myself while cooking.

Creamy Chocolate Cake

"Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me."

Audrey Hepburn

I'm weak in the knees for chocolate. Chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate truffles. Chocolate candy bars. Chocolate ganache. Hot chocolate. Chocolate brownies. Chocolate milkshakes. Chocolate ice cream. Chocolate gelato. Chocolate shavings. Those little crunchy chocolate bits in the middle of a Carvel ice cream cake. I'll take it anyway I can.

But I don't think anything can beat a rich, creamy, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. When I first lived on my own I would run to the grocery store to buy a slice of chocolate cake from the bakery whenever my craving would kick in. Now, being a little older and a littler wiser (and a far better baker than I once was), I can make my own cheaper version of chocolate cake. Cheaper, but just as delicious. AND, I get to have an entire cake instead of just one measly slice. Though, that may not really be a good thing. I do have my husband here to help me eat it, though. So, I'm only eating about 3/4 of it by myself :]

I've made chocolate bundt cakes before, but somehow the chocolate cupcakes that I made for the little Valentine's Day tea party this past weekend were the first for me (at least the first from scratch). I'm now on a mission to test out different chocolate cake and chocolate frosting recipes and see which one most fulfills my chocolatey desires. I have hopes of a more rich, sweet chocolate cake with matching frosting- but I really liked the cupcakes I made this time around as well. The cake itself is made with cocoa powder which gives it a strong chocolate flavor. I was rushing around the morning of the party trying to make the frosting, and took my eyes off the melting chocolate too long as it started to burn. -Insert sad face here-. I was majorly bummed. But, then I had a stroke of genius (or desperation) which thankfully turned out pretty darn good. I used up the last bit of German chocolate I had (which wasn't much) then added a little punch of that same cocoa powder that I used in the cupcake batter. I added just enough to be noticeable, but overall left the frosting as a buttercream. Lucas dug it (he's always my tester) so the panic subsided and I stuffed my little frosting bag and went to town.

The girls took leftovers home with them as well. I see that as a sign of success. Chocolate for the win!

(Oh and you better believe that my quest for the perfect chocolate cake means that more recipes are coming your way soon!)

Chocolate Cocoa Cake Recipe

(makes about 16 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup and 1 teaspoon (for frosting) cocoa powder
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line your cupcake tray
2. In a small bowl, pour the boiling water over the cocoa powder and mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
4. In the bowl of your mixer (or in a large bowl if you don't have a mixer), beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
5. Add eggs, on at a time, mixing well after each addition.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract
7. Add in the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
8. Add in all but one teaspoon (reserved for frosting) of the cocoa and mix well until smooth.
9. Fill cupcake tray evenly (each cup about 3/4 full).
10. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 2 oz. German Chocolate (you could use unsweetened chocolate for a more dark chocolate taste)
• 2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (reserved from cake batter)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Directions:

1. Melt the German chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside to cool.
2. Cream butter in your mixer
3. Add powdered sugar to butter and mix until smooth.
4. Add in cocoa mixture (reserved from cake batter) and mix well.
5. Add in vanilla extract and mix well.
6. Add in melted German Chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined with frosting.