Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Today I took six more cupcakes out of the freezer from the box cake mix that I made last week.   I made the vanilla frosting from this recipe (but divided the recipe in half) and coated the frosting with sweetened shredded coconut.

And of course a bright red maraschino cherry sits on top.  Once again, you can use any chocolate cupcake recipe to make these cupcakes, and also any vanilla frosting.  It might even be a good idea to replace the milk in the vanilla frosting with coconut milk for extra coconut flavor.

Iron Cupcake Earth Voting Now Open

It's time for voting to begin for this month's Iron Cupcake Earth challenge.  This month the ingredient was cranberry and I created this amazing cranberry and green tea cupcake.

Voting takes places at No One Puts Cupcake In A Corner until December 5.

I'm A Winner!

I am so excited to be the winner of the Planetology cupcake contest!  My Jupiter cupcakes won me a copy of the brand new Planetology book from National Geographic.  Thank you, Victoria!

Review: Marsh Supermarket Bundt Cake

Last night my husband stopped at our local Marsh Supermarket to pick up some things we needed and he surprised me with a special treat - a bundt cake.  Because I think that our local Marsh makes some excellent sweet baked goods, I was looking forward to trying this cake.

The cake was officially called a "Rocky Road Creme Bundt Cake".  I have no idea why it would be called Rocky Road, though; the only resemblence it has to Rocky Road is the walnuts scattered on top.  Nor do I understand why it's a "Creme" cake.  Anyway, the cake itself is nicely zebra-striped inside.  The cake is super moist and soft.  In fact, the cake itself is so nice that I prefer to eat it without the chocolate glaze.

Oh yes, the chocolate glaze.  It is terrible.  It's sort of stretchy, too, which is an odd texture for a glaze to have, I think.  It's not too sweet, but it is definitely chocolately-tasting.  It's just not a great taste.

Overall, it is a nice cake and it will not be going to waste.  Marsh needs to work on that chocolate glaze recipe, though!

Chocolate & PB Cupcakes

I will start this particular post by noting that I am not of those cakers who vehemently abhor box cake mixes. While it is true that I would much rather bake a cake from scratch, I have no problem with a box cake mix.

And I did have a box cake mix sitting in the cabinet, due to expire on December 8.  I couldn't think what to do with it, so I decided I'd bake cupcakes with it, frost six of them and freeze the rest for when I need a quick cupcake fix.  Let me tell you that I needed a quick cupcake fix on Saturday, the day I baked these cupcakes.  I caught the cold that my daughter, son and and husband had last week and I could barely manage to eat anything; the only thing that sounded good was a cupcake.

So, I quickly mixed and baked two dozen chocolate fudge cupcakes.  On top of the six cupcakes I planned to eat, I evenly placed about 10 semisweet chocolate chips the very second I took the cupcakes out of the oven.  After a minute or so, the chips were melted and I took a knife to spread them into a thin layer on top of the cupcake.

After the cupcakes were cooled, I froze the leftovers and frosted my six with my favorite peanut butter frosting, which can be found in this post (except I made a little creamier with a little more milk).  Then I melted a small palmful of the semisweet chocolate chips, spooned the melted chocolate into a ziploc bag, cut off the corner of the bottom of the bag, leaving a very small opening, and piped a swirly chocolate circle on top of the six cupcakes.

As a note, of course you can make any type of chocolate cupcakes for these, it doesn't have to be a box cake mix.  The melted chocolate chip layer gives a nice sublte crunch to the cupcake, which I liked.  I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips - I think that they are softer than the average chocolate chip.  Another brand might give a harder crunch to these cupcakes.

Super Easy Fudge

When I was pregnant with my second child I had a huge fudge craving.  I looked up recipes but only found ones that required candy thermometers and I began rumors that fudge is temperamental, so I began to look in the grocery store for fudge and couldn't find any.  Too bad I didn't come across the following recipe back then, or I would have been eating fudge for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and midnight snacks!).

I found the recipe at Dozen Flours, and used Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips.  However, I noticed in the comments of that post that someone replaces the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips, which is something I also have to try!

This fudge is super delicious!  I'm keeping it in the refrigerator for a firmer texture; it's all I can do to keep away from it!  I think that this fudge, cut up into tiny squares, would make a great Christmas favor or treat, especially placed in individual mini treat bags (since it's getting to be that time, I am thinking of all kinds of things I can make for Christmas!).

A very similar version of this fudge recipe is listed on a mini recipe pamphlet that came on the can of sweetened condensed milk - marbled chocolate fudge.  There is a local cookie exchange happening early in December, where we can take cookies, bars, fudge, etc. and I think I'll be making this marbled fudge.  Stay tuned for that!

Earth Cupcakes

My second, and final, entry into the solar system cupcake contest is one dozen Earth cupcakes.

A section of our beautiful home planet is represented in cupcake form.  This edible Earth is a brown sugar cupcake, filled with two layers - a layer of chocolate ganache to represent Earth's solid rocky core and a layer of caramel cream to represent Earth's molten core.  The cupcake is then coated in a layer of chocolate ganche to represent Earth's crust.  On top of the "crust" on half of the cupcakes is a layer of ocean blue-tinted vanilla frosting to resemble Earth's oceans.  The other half of the cupcakes have been frosted in caramel cream and sprinkled with finely ground golden Oreos and green sprinkles to resemble Earth's land and vegetation.  The mountains, as well as the volcano, have been structured with the caramel cream and coated in regular chocolate Oreos and the snowcaps are made from melted white chocolate; a few orange sprinkles sit inside the volcano to resemble molten lava.  Marshmallows have been hand-formed to resemble clouds hanging above this section of Earth.

Recipes:

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

Makes 12-16

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Measure out milk and vanilla together.

Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.

Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched.

Chocolate ganache

Makes enough to fill and frost 16 cupcakes with a thin layer

4 oz semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

4 oz heavy whipping cream

Place chocolate and cream into a saucepan and heat on low heat. Stir until all the chocolate is melted and the chocolate and cream are fully combined.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature for 2 hours or until a spreadable consistency.

Fill the cupcakes by cutting a cone shape out of the top of the cupcake, and place a small amount (1/4 tsp, approx.) of ganache inside.

Caramel cream

Makes about 3 cups

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

Pinch of coarse salt

2 cups heavy cream

Prepare an ice bath; set aside. Cook sugar, water, and salt in saucepan over medium heat, stirring once, until sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking, without stirring, until sugar turns golden amber. Remove pan from heat; slowly pour cream down sides of pan in a slow, steady stream (it will spatter). Return pan to medium heat, and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

Transfer caramel cream to a mixing bowl set in ice bath; let sit until very cold, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Mixture can be refrigerated overnight. Before serving, whip the caramel cream until stiff peaks form. Use immediately.

Place a small amount (1/4 tsp approx.) on top of chocolate ganache layer inside of cupcake, then place the top of the cone shape back on top of the cupcake.  Use the rest of the cream to frost the "land" cupcakes and sculpt mountains.

Vanilla whipped frosting

Makes enough to generously frost about 16 cupcakes

1 3/4 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Put cream, sugar, and vanilla into the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until medium peaks form.  Use blue food coloring to turn the frosting an ocean-blue color and use a knife to kick up some waves.

*Use golden Oreos and chocolate Oreos with the cream fillings removed to sprinkle the "land" cupcakes - simply place them in a food processor until finely ground, or place them into a strong ziploc bag and roll a rolling pin over the bag until the cookies are finely ground.

*Use green sprinkles to resemble vegetation on the "land" cupcakes and a few blue sprinkles on the "ocean" cupcakes.

*For white chocolate mountain snowcaps, simply melt a couple squares of white chocolate for 20-30 seconds in a microwave, then use a spoon to place a small amount on the mountaintops.

Jupiter Cupcakes

These are Jupiter cupcakes for the solar system cupcake contest!

The cake is chocolate with a kick of cayenne pepper to represent the heat of Jupiter's core, and the center of the cupcake is filled with a soft whipped cream to represent the many layers of clouds on Jupiter.  The frosting is a cream cheese/chocolate buttercream swirl in colors similar to Jupiter's.  Hanging above the Jupiter cupcakes are the 4 Galilean moons of Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto, formed from homemade playdough.

Thank you Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting my Jupiter cupcakes on your blog!

Recipes:

Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large eggs

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Whipped cream filling
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chill stainless steel bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer in freezer for about 10-20 minutes.  Combine all ingredients in steel bowl and use whisk attachment at high speed until stiff peaks form.  Fill cupcakes when the cupcakes are completely cool.

Cream cheese frosting
Makes enough for 1-2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients
8 ounches cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add the vanilla and beat well.  Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate frosting for 2-3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.

Chocolate buttercream
Makes about 1 cup

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa powder.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

To make swirled frosting, spoon an amount of each color individually into a piping bag so that the colors are side by side.  Squeeze out the frosting over a bowl first until all the colors start coming out, then start swirling!

Iron Cupcake Earth: Cranberry

I'm going to admit first thing that I do not like the taste of cranberries, so I was a bit apprehensive about creating a cupcake for this particular Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge.  It didn't deter me, however, from my first entry into the cranberry challenge (I will submitting another entry this month); my green tea cupcakes, filled with cranberry cream cheese filling and frosted with cranberry buttercream with a drizzle of white chocolate.

I think the green tea and cranberry is a nice pairing.  The overall taste of the cupcake is very sweet; the cranberry taste of the frosting is very subtle, while the strongest cranberry taste comes from the filling.  I will also note that I used a small amount of red food coloring in the cranberry parts of the cupcake.

The Iron Cupcake: Earth prizes this month are from Etsy artists Lollipop Workshop, Cookie Sunshine, Lots of Sprinkles and Cakespy.  Corporate prizes are from Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jesse Steele, Cupcake Courier, and Taste of Home.  For this month only we have an added bonus from Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery and Cupcakery Supply.

Iron Cupcake: Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

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Recipes:

Green Tea Cupcakes

based on Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake, and the same cupcake recipe I used for my green tea cupcakes.  What I did differently was divide the recipe by thirds; I ended up with eight cupcakes.  For the green tea, add 1.5 teaspoons of green tea (matcha) powder to the flour mix.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients

* 1.5 ounces cream cheese

* 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce

* pinch of salt

* 6 ounces confectioners' sugar

Method

Soften cream cheese and cranberry sauce together in medium sized bowl.  Add salt.  Gradually add sugar, beating with electric mixer until creamy.  Add red food coloring, if desired, for a brighter color.

Cranberry Buttercream

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup cranberry juice

* 1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries

* 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

* 1 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, more if desired for firmer texture

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

In a small saucepan, combine the juice and cranberries.  Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until softened.  Let cool and either strain cranberry juice, pressing the berries until most of the juice is gone, or chop the cranberries finley.

In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy.  Beat in the cranberries.  Add more confectioners' sugar for a firmer texture, if desired.  Add red food coloring, if desired, for a brighter color.

White Chocolate Drizzle
 
Ingredients
* 2-3 squares Ghirardelli White Chocolate

Method
Melt white chocolate in small microwave safe bowl, microwaving in short bursts of 15 seconds, stirring after each 15 seconds.  Shouldn't take more than 30 seconds total.  Spoon into sturdy sandwich bag, or piping bag, cut off a small tip of one corner and squeeze white chocolate in a quick sweeping motion on top of frosted cupcakes.  Top each cupcake with a fresh cranberry, if desired.

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Before I begin this, you may notice that I baked pumpkin chocolate chip squares the day before yesterday.  I placed the majority of them in the freezer and can note that they are freezing well.  Now, I have leftover pumpkin and chocolate from that recipe and before the pumpkin went bad I just had to use it, of course.  In yet another pumpkin and chocolate recipe.  Don't you just hate Martha Stewart and her yummy unhealthy recipes!  :)

Anyway, I've seen these baked on a number of blogs lately - Martha Stewart's pumpkin swirl brownies.  Here are mine, on which I sprinkled leftover chocolate chips instead of nuts.  I like nuts, but not on any foods!

The main things I did differently, besides replace the nuts with chocolate chips were using semisweet chocolate chips instead of bittersweet chocolate; baking these in an 8x11-inch pan, which required a slightly longer baking time, I noticed (by about 10-15 minutes); using only 3 eggs instead of 4 because 3 was all I had.

Now, I did use the cayenne pepper and I personally think that 1/4 teaspoon is barely noticeable, and I'm very sensitive to such spices.  If you do really want to taste it, I'd suggest adding a pinch or two more.

Oh, and I've placed the majority of these in the freezer too.  They're too good and too unhealthy to eat all at once, so these should last us a while.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

I love the taste of chocolate and pumpkin together, so when I saw this Martha Stewart recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip squares, I had to bake it.  I was reluctant to do so, with 2 sticks of butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar!  Wow!  If you read through the comments on the recipe page there are a few substitutions to use to make it a tiny bit healthier, for example, the addition of applesauce to replace some of the butter.

Anyway, some things to note... I did not find pumpkin pie spice, so I used the recommended spice mix on the recipe page.  However I reduced the allspice to 1/4 teaspoon, as I would have done also for the cloves if I had had any.  In the comments section of the recipe page a few people also note that the addition of 12 ounces of chocolate chips was too much.  I could see why, so I only added a little less than 3/4 of a 12 ounce bag to the batter.

To get some nice chocolate chips on top of the cake/brownie/blondie/whatever, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of the batter right after you have spread it out in the pan.  Otherwise all the chips will be hidden in the batter after baking.

These babies are a gooey mess of pumpkin and chocolate!  So tasty, so unhealthy, so gooey!  They are definitely best cut into small squares because a big square is so rich it is likely to make your belly hurt!  And of course these need to be chased down with a tall glass of cold fat free milk!