Red Velvet Cupcakes

What says Valentine's Day better than Red Velvet Cupcakes?
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting piped to look like a rose!

These cupcakes have a few steps to them, but if you really want to WOW your valentine, these cupcakes can't be beat.

I'll be honest, though. My husband doesn't get super excited about red velvet. I made these more for me than for him. With that said, he still thought these cupcakes were delicious!


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Ganache Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

Ganache Filling:
Note: I prepared my ganache the day before making the cupcakes, so it had time to firm up in the fridge overnight.

1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1 C semisweet chocolate chips

1. Place chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy whipping cream over low heat. Cook until bubbles just start to form around the edges of the pan. DO NOT bring to a boil. *You can do this in the microwave if you prefer, but it's impossible to see through the "window" of my microwave, so I always end up overheating the cream when I try.
3. As soon as the cream is ready, pour over the chocolate. Quickly cover the bowl with foil.
4. Let sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, mix the chocolate and cream mixture, using a whisk, until fully combined. The result will be a shiny, smooth chocolately ganache.
5. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cupcakes:
1 box Betty Crocker Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 1/2 C Water
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1/4 C Sour Cream
1 3.4oz package vanilla pudding

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix until well blended. Do not over beat.
3. Fill lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full each with batter.
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean, with just one or two crumbs.
5. Transfer cupcakes to wire rack to cool.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz Cream Cheese, softened.
1/2 C Butter, softened
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 1/2 - 4 C Powdered Sugar
1-3 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine cream cheese and butter. Whip for about 2 minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.
2. Add vanilla extract, and beat until combined.
3. 1 Cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Beat until combined after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl before adding more.
4. When powdered sugar is all mixed in, add the cream, 1 tbsp. at a time, until desired consistency is reached. If you will be piping, leave the frosting on the thicker side.

ASSEMBLY:
1. Cut a small hole in each cupcake.
2. Scoop a small amount of ganache into the hole.
3. Cover ganache with the removed cupcake piece.
4. To frost the cupcakes like a rose, fit a piping bag with a large star or flower tip. I used Wilton 1M tip.
5. Fill the piping bag with prepared frosting.
6. Starting from the center of the cupcake, slowly pipe a swirl of frosting on the cupcake.

DECORATIONS
1. For the decorations, I found some Red Velvet Candy Melts on sale after Christmas. If you can't find any, regular Red Candy Melts will work just as well.
2. Melt the candy melts according to package directions. Place the melted candy in a small zip bag or pastry bag. Cut a small hole in the end of the bag.
3. I found pictures of hearts online that I like, and printed them on regular printer paper. I laid a piece of parchment paper over the printer paper, then traced over the designs with the candy. I made WAY more toppers than I needed, knowing that some wouldn't look as good, and some might break if they are too fragile. For more fragile designs, it helps to go over it a few times to make the candy thicker.
4. Place a candy decoration on top of each cupcake.

Let me know if you make these. I'd love to see how yours turn out!

Strawberry Heart Cake

I've come to terms with the fact that there just isn't anything manly about Valentine's Day. Sure, they might sell giant gummy fish and Duck Dynasty Valentine cards now, but when you want to make your sweetie something yourself, it's pretty near impossible to have it represent both Valentine's Day and anything that isn't extremely girly.

So this year, I've decided to just embrace it.

I made this yummy Strawberry Cake with Marshmallow Crème Frosting. Is it manly? No. Did my man love it? Yes!

Strawberry Heart Cake with Marshmallow Crème Frosting

Cupcakes:
1 box Betty Crocker Strawberry Cake Mix
1 1/2 C Water
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1/3 C Marshmallow Fluff

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix until well blended. Do not over beat.
3. Fill 4" round cake pans about 2/3 full.
4. With remaining batter, fill lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full.
4. Bake 4" cakes for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean, with just one or two crumbs. Bake cupcakes for 12-15 minutes.
5. Transfer cakes to wire rack to cool.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting.

Marshmallow Crème Frosting:
1 C Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 C Butter, softened
3 1/2 - 4 C Powdered Sugar
1-3 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine marshmallow fluff and butter. Whip for about 2 minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.
2. 1 Cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Beat until combined after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl before adding more.
3. When powdered sugar is all mixed in, add the cream, 1 tbsp. at a time, until desired consistency is reached. If you will be piping, leave the frosting on the thicker side.

ASSEMBLY/DECORATING:
1. Level cakes with a bread knife or cake leveler.
2. Assemble the cake by placing one cake layer on a cake stand, then a layer of frosting, then cake, etc. Until all cake layers have been stacked.
3. Frost the top and sides of the cake.
4. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter as a guide, add sprinkles in the shape of a heart to the top of the cake.

Orange Nutella Swirl Muffins

Happy World Nutella Day, everyone!

Don't know what World Nutella Day is? It's a day set aside for the celebration of Nutella!

In honor of this grand celebration of chocolatey hazelnut spread, I made some muffins. But they needed more than just Nutella. The great thing about Nutella is it's influence on other flavors. It make them sing! And one of my favorite flavor combinations, particularly for morning foods, like these muffins, is chocolate and orange. So I made Orange Nutella Swirl Muffins. And they are delicious.

 

These muffins are extra great because of how easy they are to make. I've got a lot going on this month, so I didn't have time to slave away over some nutella treat. These muffins start with Bisquick, which means you have no excuse for not making them. In other words, go make them! You won't be sorry.


Orange Nutella Swirl Muffins
1/2 C Orange juice
Zest of one orange (about 2 tsp)
1/4 C Milk
2 Tbsp Vegetable oil
1 Egg
2 C Bisquick mix
1/3 C Sugar
1/4 C Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 400f.
2. In a large bowl, combine orange juice, zest, milk, oil and egg. Mix well.
3. Stir in sugar and Bisquick mix, just until combined. Do not over mix.
4. Prepare muffin cups by placing a cupcake liner in each cup, then spray with cooking spray. (Yes, both. Muffins have a tendency to stick much more than cupcakes)
5. Spoon batter into muffin cups, dividing evenly between 12 cups.
6. Place nutella in a ziplock bag. Snip off one end, and swirl on top of muffin batter. Drag a toothpick through the nutella to create a swirl.
7. Bake in preheated oven 13-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes

For my hubby's birthday last year, I sent these bad boys in to work with him. Let me tell you, they were a hit!

They were inspired by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen Cupcake Cupcake Toppers. I thought the peanut butter from the PB Cups should be carried through the whole cupcake, though.

 

Recipe:

 

Chocolate Cupcake:

1 box Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix

Ingredients called for on box

1/2 C Sour Cream

1 small (3.4 oz) box chocolate pudding mix

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake tins by lining them with cupcake wrappers.

 

Mix all ingredients together, just until combined. Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Place pans on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing cupcakes from pans.

 

While cupcakes cool, prepare peanut butter frosting.

 

Frosting:

1/2 C butter

1/2 C peanut butter

1 lb powdered sugar

1-3 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

 

Cream together butter and peanut butter. Slowly add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add heavy whipping cream, 1 tbsp. at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

 

Frost cupcakes and add sprinkles, if desired. Unwrap 24 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (or more, if batter yielded extra cupcakes; mine often does). Add small swirl of frosting to each PB cup, then place on top of a frosted cupcake.

Apple Coconut Banana Bread

I don't normally love coconut. Other than Magic Cookie Bars, I prefer my coconut on someone else's food. But this... This is some GOOD banana bread.

I was inspired by Our Best Bite's Lime Coconut Banana Bread. I used my favorite banana bread recipe, from my Betty Crocker Cookbook. I happened to have some cut up apple that needed used up, but thought it needed a little something extra. That's where the coconut comes in!

 

Recipe:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
1/4 C butter
1/2 tbsp. apple pie spice
1/2 cup coconut, plus 2 tbsp for topping

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar, whisked together with 1 tbsp apple syrup and 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 8½ x4½ loaf pans, or 1 9x5 loaf pan.

In a medium sauce pan, melt 1/4 C butter over medium heat. Once melted, add apple chunks and apple pie spice. Saute for 5-7 minutes over medium heat, until apples are just tender. Set aside to cool while preparing banana bread batter.

Combine sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Fold in apple and ½ cup coconut. Pour into pans. Sprinkle remaining 2 tbsp coconut over top of batter.

Check after 40 minutes, covering with foil is coconut is getting browned. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Drizzle tops of loaves with prepared glaze. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing.

Halloween Spiral Cookies

For ages, I have been wanting to make these cookies from Sprinkle Bakes. Something about the bright, colorful spiral just makes me happy! I decided it was time to get to it, and since it's October, I made them candy corn colors. I love how they turned out! 

Pop on over to her website for the recipe, they are just as tasty as they are beautiful. They aren't super sweet; they are more of a buttery cookie. They kind of reminded me of the Danish butter cookies you get in a tin around Christmas time. They are also super easy to make in a food processor. My only tip is to make sure they are very cold when you cut them. If you let them sit out at all, you'll end up with a squished spiral, which just isn't as fun. I also used a serrated knife to help prevent that. On one side, you can see the back and forth motion of cutting, so just make sure to put that side down, and you're fine! 

If you end up making these, let me know. I'd love to see a picture of how yours turn out! 

Halloween Cupcakes

Chocolate Graveyard Cupcakes!

These are super yummy. I used the Hershey's Chocolate Cupcake recipe (on the back of their cocoa powder box). The recipe is at the bottom, if you want it. Just a word of warning, when it says the batter is runny, they mean it! It is really, really runny. But don't worry, it's supposed to be, and they turn out delicious!

After making the chocolate cupcakes, I made a simple ganache (1.5 parts chocolate to 1 part heavy whipping cream) and used an injector to pipe it into the middle. Then I took a tub of cool whip, died it green and added just a little bit of peppermint extract. I frosted the cupcakes with that, and put some crushed up mint cookies on top.

Finally, I added a little gravestone for each cupcake. For those, I took some grasshopper cookies and cut them into the shape of tombstones (the extra parts I cut off worked out great for sprinkling on top), and wrote RIP on them. I happened to have orange frosting on hand, so that's what they got.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

2 C sugar

1 3/4 C flour

3/4 C cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 C milk

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 C boiling water

Directions:

1. Heat over to 3500F. Line 2 1/2 in. muffin cups with paper bake cups.

2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on med. speed 2 min. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans.

3. Bake 22-25 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 min.; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.