Bluebonnets & Brownies » cupcakes

Shiner Bock Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Amber — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:46 +0000

If you’re Texan, you know Shiner. Shiner, Texas, that is. Famous for one thing: Shiner Bock beer. Spoetzl Brewery, where Shiner Bock is brewed, has been in business since 1909, and is the oldest independent brewery in Texas.

Shiner Bock is Spoetzl’s flagship beer. Brewed since 1913, this dark and dangerous brew was originally considered a lent beer. Only about 30 years ago did Spoetzl start making Shiner Bock year round.

Now, we’ve discussed before that I’m not a beer drinker. But I sure can use it in a baked good. It makes me a very proud Texan to say just how amazingly diet-crash-worthy these cupcakes are.
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Post tags: baking, beer, Booze, chocolate, cupcakes, Desserts, Shiner Bock

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Chocolate Candy Cane Cupcakes

Amber — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:02:15 +0000

This is it, y’all. Crunch time. Normally I count myself in the few that has Christmas shopping done by October. This year? Not so much.

In fact, I’ll fully admit that not four hours ago, I purchased the last of the gifts we’ll give this Christmas, and I really hope it reaches my brother-in-law in time. But, since we sent him a bottle of booze, I’m pretty sure he’ll appreciate it, even if it arrives late.

I may have just spoiled the surprise, but something tells me my 21-year-old car-obsessed baby bro-in-law doesn’t read this blog too often.

So today and Friday, I’m going to give you guys some quick and easy recipes that you can make an hour or two before the guests arrive, and still look like a superstar cooking diva that’s kicking backside and taking names.
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Post tags: baking, chocolate, Christmas, cupcakes, Desserts, King Arthur Flour, peppermint

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Giveaway: Green Mountain Pumpkin Spice Coffee

Amber — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:38:53 +0000

Today marks the 3rd recipe I’ve created for Green Mountain Coffee’s blog, Green Mountain Cafe. As I sit here sipping my first cup of Pumpkin Spice (for the day, not the year – shoot, I’ve been drinking this stuff since it hit shelves August 15th!), I can’t help thinking how excited I am for you guys to see this recipe.

It’s a twist on a traditional spice cake, using Pumpkin Spice Fair Trade Coffee as one of its main ingredients.

To celebrate this beautiful coffee, and its ingredients, today I’m giving away a basket of Green Mountain Coffee. Much as I don’t want to part with even a single grind of the pumpkin spice, this basket includes 2 bags of Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice, 2 bags of Caramel Vanilla Cream (and oh my, when you combine them in the same brew!), and a Green Mountain Coffee travel mug for your very own!
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Post tags: Autumn, baking, cupcakes, giveaways, Green Mountain Coffee, Pumpkin Spice

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Secret Recipe Club – Malt Chocolate Cupcakes

Amber — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:00:34 +0000

It’s time for another Secret Recipe Club post! I’ll tell you, I really love how being part of the club forces you to get to know someone’s blog, writing style, and photography style. It can be too easy to hit the StumbleUpon button, like what you see, but then move on in your everlasting quest to get to the end of the Internet.

This month I was assigned Savvy Eats – All About Smart Food & Fitness. Written by Julie, she is passionate about living savvy – being smart about what you eat, how you exercise, and about continuing to learn. That’s something I can definitely get down with – I’m a firm believer that you should never stop learning!
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Post tags: chocolate, cupcakes, dessert, malt, Secret Recipe Club

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Guest Post: Lime-Coconut Cupcakes

Jamie — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:00:10 +0000

Jamie and I have been friends for a long time, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s an artist. The cupcake may be her canvas of choice, frosting her paint, but she knocks it out of the park with every creation. I’m so grateful to her for offering to cover B&B while I’m away. She’s one in a million. -Amber

Hey, Bluebonnets & Brownies readers, I’m going to fill in for Amber today while she is spending time with her family.

If you read My Baking Addiction, you may already know that I am a bit of a cupcake maniac. In my opinion, they are pretty much dessert perfection. Not only are the flavor combinations infinite, but they’re also kind of grab and go, which is always a plus when you’re entertaining a crowd. And that mound of frosting – oh yeah, I love me some frosting.
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Post tags: baking, coconut, cupcakes, dessert, Desserts

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Schoolbread Cupcakes

Amber — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:53:25 +0000

I have to know: Are James and I the only couple that have contests about who got the better food when you go out to eat? Usually, James wins at “Dinner”. I don’t know why that is, but he does. I, however, recently won at “Dessert”. It’s one of the biggest wins I’ve had in a while.

We strolled through EPCOT (that’ll be the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) in the days before my 30th birthday, enjoying the balmy Florida February. Oh, how I miss that weather now.

Anyone who’s been to Epcot will tell you, if you start in Canada, by at least Japan you’re going to want a nibble. The food at Epcot is one of the best things about that park. Because there are 11 countries to choose from, with native (or as native as it can be in Central Florida) food, you honestly can’t go wrong, no matter which country’s pavilion you choose to eat in.

One thing we’d never tried was Norway’s bakery, Kringla Bakeri og Cafe. We’d always chosen France’s Patisserie instead. Let me tell you what: it may have been a sleeper of a choice, but OH HOLY MOSES WOW.

Our first visit, James got the cream horn. It looked a whole heck of a lot like a cannoli. Tasted like one too. But I, I took a chance on something called Schoolbread. It’s a sweet bun, with vanilla custard running through the center, a sweet glaze and toasted coconut on top. I’m not ashamed to say that during our visit, I became slightly (okay, more than slightly) obsessed with it. I guess because it’s the first time I’d ever had cardamom in a baked good. Sure, I’ve had cardamom plenty of times in curries. But I’d never even held the basic spice in my hand, so it never crossed my mind that it would be good for something other than curries.

Upon return from Florida, my mind continued to wander back to Schoolbread. Could I make it at home? Maybe. But yeast breads have never really been my thing. James is much better at that sort of baking.

Now cupcakes. I can whip up a mean cupcake. What to do here: could I really put custard through the middle of the cupcake? What about icing? Glaze surely wouldn’t be enough to carry this new texture through.

I’m here to tell you: not only did it work, it. Is. PHENOMENAL. Flat out, one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever eaten. I don’t say that lightly.

I started with Martha Stewart’s Snickerdoodle Cupcake Recipe. We all know Martha makes a fabulous cupcake. But just this once, I thought maybe I could one up ol’ Martha. Using the Schoolbread recipe found on the DisneyFoodBlog, I sort of combined the two to make this flavorful and unique treat. You’ll have to let me know if I succeeded.

I did make fresh vanilla custard to fill the middle of the cupcakes. But in future, I may just use vanilla pudding. It’s quicker and easier, and I don’t think the taste would be much different.

Schoolbread Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Snickerdoodle Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper liners in a standard muffin tin. Sift together the flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon ground cardamom.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with milk in two portions, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

When cupcakes are cool, use a melon scoop to scoop out the middle of each cupcake, about the size of a quarter in diameter.

Leave oven on. Spread approximately 1 cup of coconut on a baking tray and place in the oven. Toast for about 10 minutes, or until you have both some brown pieces and still firmly white pieces of coconut. Allow to cool.

Vanilla Custard

(thanks to the Disney Food Blog for this recipe)

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon corn starch

Directions
In heavy saucepan bring milk to a boil. Set aside. In bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla until the mixture doubles by volume. Add the hot milk a few drops at a time to temper the eggs. Mix well after each addition. Place in metal mixing bowl and place over double boiler. Dissolve cornstarch in a little water and add in a thin stream while stirring constantly until it thickens to proper consistency. It must not boil. Cool by placing pan in ice bath.

When the custard is cool, use an icing piping bag, or small spoon, to fill the holes you created in the cupcake. Allow to continue to cool. I actually put the tray of cupcakes in the fridge overnight. If you used ready made vanilla pudding, you probably wouldn’t have to do this.

7 Minute Frosting

From Martha Stewart.com

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions
Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.

As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.

Fill a piping bag with frosting, and cover each cupcake face completely, including over the custard or pudding. Sprinkle with toasted coconut. Ready to serve!

I highly recommend sticking with a more light and airy icing. Using ready made icing, or cream cheese or butter cream frosting, would be too heavy for this cupcake, given it already has vanilla custard going through it. The 7 Minute Frosting offers just the right amount of sweetness to temper the cardamom but also give you the properly frosted taste and texture you want when you have a cupcake.

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Post tags: cardamom, cupcakes, Disney World, icing, vanilla custard

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Gaga’s Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Amber — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:08:33 +0000

I know what you’re thinking. Mayonnaise?! In cake? But I promise, it really is fantastic. A couple months back, I asked my Nan to pass me this recipe. It wasn’t hers, it was my grandfather’s. I hadn’t eaten it since before he died, three years ago.

When I first made it after receiving the recipe, I had an epiphany. This is the reason that all other chocolate cakes I’ve tasted fall flat with me. This cake recipe defines chocolate cake for me. Maybe because it was the chocolate cake of my childhood, or maybe because the mayonnaise and coffee marry to bring out the flavor of the chocolate in fantastic and unexpected ways.

All I know is when I’m craving chocolate cake, this is the recipe I will make, forevermore.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour (for cupcakes, add 2 extra tablespoons of flour)
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa powder – use a good quality like Scharffen Berger (for cupcakes, add 1 more scant tablespoon of cocoa powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup mayonnaise – no substitutes
1 cup cold coffee – I used Green Mountain Coffee’s Nantucket Blend
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Sift together dry ingredients – set aside.
In mixing bowl combine mayonnaise, cold coffee and vanilla – add sifted dry ingredients, incrementally. Beat until smooth – scraping sides of bowl often. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13 pan or 12 count muffin pan with paper cups. Bake in preheated oven 350 degrees. 25 to 35 minutes. Do not over bake.

Ganache Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream
2 1/4 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 1/4 tablespoons cold coffee
1 pound semi-chocolate chips
chopped pecans for garnish

Directions
In heavy saucepan over medium heat put heavy cream, butter and coffee just to boiling point – Do not boil.
Remove from heat and add chocolate chips and stir with whisk until smooth. Spoon or pour sauce over individual portions of cake and serve. Garnish with chopped pecans and heavy whip cream

Alternatively, make your favorite chocolate icing. Now, add 1 shot of dark rum to it, and mix well. That’s how we did it back in Texas.

P.S. A million thanks, credit, and love go to my dear East Coast Momma, Pam Anderson, for helping me alter the recipe to make a better cupcake.

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Post tags: chocolate, coffee, cupcakes, Gaga, mayonnaise

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Cupcake Decorating

Amber — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:31:52 +0000

Tonight I had the pleasure of taking a cupcake decorating class at the local high school. The class was taught by a local business woman that was inspired by a magazine cover, got some books, and started decorating. She now has a successful home catering company. Exciting!!

I learned how to mix colors in one bag so that as you twist around, the colors of the icing change, and how to make flowers on the cupcakes, among other basic techniques. And now I want a cupcake decorating book!

P.S. Gel food coloring? Yeah.. my fingers are still bright pink and bright blue.

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Post tags: cupcakes, decorating, fun with food

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