Blue Velvet Cupcakes

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the velvet cupcakes, but I simply adore them.
So far I have only seen 4 of them and they are all amazing . You can find them in red, pink, blue and green.

Every time I have seen a velvet cupcake I was so impressed and now,  finally, I decided to try one of them.

I have to tell you that my favorite it's red velvet and I think that this is the most known.
This is the one I was planning to try first, but because  my order from amazon with my new food dye was delayed, I had to go for blue, cause this was the only one I had at that moment.

The recipe is truly amazing. It's definitely going in top 5 for me!
I found it on this site www.sprinklebakes.com

Of course that I have adapted it like I do every time :D
For this one I have replaced the buttermilk with yogurt and I put less sugar (as usual).

Advice:  If you decide to try this cupcake recipe,  buy the best food  dye in order to have a great bright color. It will guarantee you a real success.

As you can see in my photos, because I used dye powder,  the color of the cupcakes is not too bright. Although I liked it, I will definitely try it again with the new dye to see the differences.


Ingredients 


For cupcakes:
2 cups sugar
½ pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon royal blue gel food coloring
1 small dab of violet gel food coloring
2½  cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar


For frosting: 

I made this frosting http://lovecupcakesrecipes.blogspot.ch/2013/03/buttercream-frosting-recipe.html

But instead of vanilla extract, I used almond extract. The result is great and makes the hole cupcake more special. 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 C. 

Prepare cupcake pans with paper liners.
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, mix until light and fluffy. 

Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. 

Mix cocoa and food coloring together to form a paste, and then add to sugar mixture; mix well.

Sift together flour and salt.

Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.

Blend in vanilla.

In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. 

Batter will be thick! 

Pour batter into cupcake papers. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting. 

 Envoy!

Eton Mess Cupcakes

And the second cupcake from my to do list is Eton Mess Cupcakes - Yellow Cake with Cream, chewy meringue, and fragrance strawberries. Who wouldn't fancy that?

This is a traditional English dessert, very simple and easy to make recipe. 

  Even if the recipe is simple,  the homemade meringue convinced me . I haven't made it in a long time and I got really excited. I had fun making all those tiny meringues.
At first you'll think that you won't use all of them, but once you start to decorate the cupcakes, they will just... disappear.  The hard part was to put them on the cupcakes because they were a little bit sticky; I guess I should have left them longer in the oven, but I loved that they were so chewy.

If you want, you can add some fresh chopped strawberries in the batter or even jam.

In the original recipe, the cupcakes were decorated with whipped cream, but I don't like the idea. You can use it only if you serve the cupcakes right away and they have to be cooled down (otherwise it will melt). If you want to serve them in a few hours, the whipped cream won't resist and will transform in a watery thing that will ruin your cupcakes.

What I used for my cupcakes was a vanilla icing, made from cream cheese, confectioners sugar, a splash of milk and some vanilla essence  It has a great taste and works perfectly with this recipe. The great part is that you don't have to use lots of sugar, you can make it as sweet as you like ;)

Another thing that I like about these cupcakes is that you don't have to put a lot of effort into make it look perfect.  They have to have a ''messy'' look , as the name says.

And now the recipe for 12 cupcakes.


Ingredients

For cupcakes:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup milk

For meringue:

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt

For topping:
whipped cream
chopped  fresh strawberries

My new colorful measuring cups

Directions:
In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy. 

Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and eggs. 

Add milk and flour mixture alternately while still mixing. 

Pour the mixture into lined cupcake pan. 

Bake at 350F/ 180C for 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let them cool completely decorating.

To make the meringue:

Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks.

Gradually add sugar and vanilla and beat until mixture is stiff and glossy. 

Using knife or pastry bag, make meringue shapes on parchment or aluminum foil.

 Bake at 225F/110C until shapes are crisp and firm. 

Frost cupcakes with whipped cream, and pile with strawberries and meringue as I did in the pictures.

For a splash of color I added some fresh mint. Cause was mint to be ;)

Envoy! 

Espresso Fudge Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Here I am, as I promised, with the first cupcake recipe from the 33 to do list.
It's sounds delicious and it's truly a very delicious cupcake. Cafe lovers will fall instantly for it. 

It has a very creamy and puffy texture. 

I am not a coffee drinker, so for this recipe I replaced the amount of espresso needed with cappuccino.
Smart, right? Even if you're not a coffee drinker, I think that you enjoy from time to time a nice cup of cappuccino. So you can try this recipe with it. It's really worth trying :)

Now, I have a confession to make. Every cupcake recipe that I make seems to have a high amount of sugar in it  (in my opinion) and every time I post the original recipe, but I never use that amount. And some of them still seem very sweet. 
Now it's up to you if you want to cut the sugar or not. I will tell you later, in the directions, the amount that I used and I guaranty you it will be perfect.
I also adapted the icing, more cream cheese and less sugar :D

The recipe is for 12 cupcakes, more or less, depending on what kind of tin you use. 
For example, I wanted to make only 6 cupcakes, so I used only half of the ingredients and I ended up with 8.


Ingredients: 

For the cupcakes:
1 cup - 125 g flour 
1/2 cup - 59 g cocoa
2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup - 114 g butter
1 cup - 225 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup - 24 tsp milk
1/2 cup - 60 g chocolate chips

For the icing:

4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tsp cocoa
splash of milk

Prepare the cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/ 180 degrees C
In a bowl mix flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium, until light and fluffy. I used only half quantity of the sugar.Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and egg. 
Add milk and flour mixture alternately while still mixing.
Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into lined cupcake pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out almost clean.

Let them cool completely.

Prepare the icingIn a bowl mix cream cheese and vanilla at medium speed until creamy. I added 2 extra tsp of cream cheese. 
While beating, add sugar, cocoa, and milk gradually. Here I used less than half of the sugar quantity. I also reduced the cocoa to 1,5 tsp, because I wanted to have a lighter color.
Spread on cooled cupcakes with icing spatula.
Top with chocolate chips or coffee beans.

I named my cupcakes '' the naked cupcakes'' because I haven't put them in any paper after I baked them in the silicon forms. They looked so nice like that :)

Photos by Emi Trasnitu

  

33 Gourmet cupcakes - On my to do list

      Today I was searching for a new cupcake recipe, when I was suddenly enlighten by a picture that I pinned a few days ago.

There are sooo many delicious cupcakes that I want to try, but every single time I'm looking for a new one it's so hard to decide on what to do next.

But today I found the solution, at least for the next 33 recipes.
And here is how the list looks like. 

YES, problem solved! 

Can't wait to start tomorrow with cupcake number 1 from the list, Espresso Fudge Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing.

 I will share all the details with you ;)

Thank you, Ming Thompson! 


See ya!

Lemon - Limoncello cupcakes

I have seen lots of lemon cupcake recipes, but I never tried one.
I think that this kind of cupcake is perfect for summer. Just imagine yourself laying in the sun with a  glass of iced tea or a cold lemonade and enjoying a lemon cupcake... hmm...I crave for this imagine! I can't wait for summer to be here!

I always liked how lemon cupcakes look, that bright yellow color of the frosting or even the batter, topped with a fresh slice of lemon. And I decided to go for it :)

The recipe that I have tried sounded sooo delicious that instantly made  me wanna do it. Also seemed very simple to make.
Luckily for me I had a bottle of limoncello bought long time ago and I thought that it's time to use it. Perfect timing ;)

And here is it! 3 levels of lemon flavor combine to create the perfect taste.
We have lemon zest, lemon juice and limoncello in the batter, a delicious homemade filling of lemon curd, and the final touch, a cream cheese frosting with a slight touch of limoncello.
Imagine all that together! It's like a little piece of heaven in your mouth! ;)

Next time I think I'm gonna try this recipe with orange instead of lemon, just to see the difference between them. This is my little curiosity :D

My little surprise is... that I have made bite sized cupcakes and they looked so adorable! The problem with them was that I didn't have any special tin and the paper got wider with the batter inside. But they looked good after all ;)

The recipe is for 12 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS:

For the cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons limoncello
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup lemon juice
zest of one lemon
optional lemon essence

For the lemon curd:
Zest of 2 lemons
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk

For the cream cheese limoncello frosting:
2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon limoncello
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare the cupcakes

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/ 180 degrees C

 In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until light and creamy, 2-3 minutes.

 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

 Add the limoncello and beat an additional minute.

 On low speed, add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. 

Add the lemon juice and zest and mix on low speed just until incorporated.

 Divide the batter  in the cupcake tins.

The cupcakes before going into the oven

 Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. 

And out of the oven

Let cool completely.

2. Prepare the lemon curd.

 In a heavy medium saucepan, stir together the lemon zest, juice and sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat. My advice here is to use less sugar, preferable half of the needed quantity.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and egg yolk for 2-3 minutes with a fork. 

Whisk the lemon mixture into the eggs to temper them. 

Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium heat, whisking constantly until it thickens, about 5 minutes. 

Remove from the heat, and let cool completely.

3. Prepare the cream cheese limoncello frosting.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. 

Add the limoncello and beat for an additional minute.

 Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

To assemble the cupcakes you'll need to cut a hole into each cupcake and fill each cavity with the lemon curd. 

To decorate them pipe cream cheese limoncello frosting onto each cupcake. You can also add a slice of

lemon, if  desired. 
I used different kinds of  citrus, such as lime, lemon and Kumquats ( teeny-tiny oranges) that were just perfect for my teeny-tiny cupcakes.

Envoy! :) 

The citrus that I used to decorate the cupcakes