Neopolitan Cupcakes

Today, I am embracing my inner lazy girl and shamelessly plugging my cupcake idea using ALL MIXES.
Yep, I'm okay with it.

I needed to bring treats... and I was DOG tired.
I could have stopped for a Costco sheet cake, but that's not the same.

I had the Ghiradelli brownie mix (the big one with 6 mixes from Costco), a strawberry Duncan Hines cake mix and two tubs of cream vanilla frosting.

Here's what I did...
Brownie bottoms
Strawberry cake tops
Fluffy Vanilla icing

Make up brownie mix according to instructions.

First, a small scoop of brownie batter.  I used a 1 oz cookie scoop, but you could "eyeball" it.  It should be roughly 1/3 of your batter.

Make up strawberry cake mix according to instructions.
Next, top with your strawberry cake batter.  I used a 2 oz cookie scoop.

Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.  Set the time for about 10 minutes and rotate the pans, reset your timer for the remaining 10 minutes and check again.  Give it another 5 minutes, if needed.  If you have a convection oven, use that as your cupcakes will bake more uniformly.

NOTE- Make sure your cupcakes are cooked through.  Because I didn't rotate my pans mid way, I ended up with the top pan with some undercooked cupcakes.... bummer.
Let cool completely.

Whip up the tub of frosting until they are light and fluffy... you could use it right out of the tub, but it's kind of solid and too sweet.  If you whip it up, it seems not so sugary.  Or make your own frosting, I like this Stable Whip Cream Frosting.


Decorate with sprinkles, or even a slice of strawberry.

Need some other ideas for cake mixes?
German Chocolate Dump Cake

Marshmallow S'Mores Cupcakes

Cupcakes just make people smile.
Why wouldn't you want to contribute to someones happiness?
Don't hold back folks... let's use all our personality to make their day!
Go ahead, get started. It's not that hard.

I've been thinking of a S'mores cupcake for a while.
Ever since I saw a recipe for "marshmallow" frosting,
I've been thinking; what could be more appropriate for marshmallows than a S'mores cupcake?
Graham cracker crust, layer of melted chocolate, chocolate cake and marshmallow frosting.  All the fun without the bonfire smell in your hair!
It was even easier to do than I thought it would be.
A couple things about the frosting, I would suggest making it and serving it pretty soon after, as it does tend to deflate a bit over night..  The frosting is fluffy and does taste like marshmallows! In the graham cracker crust, I have added some salt... we just thought a little salty/sweet would make this cupcake perfect.... it's up to you!

I made cupcakes last night for a staff meeting to celebrate some birthdays today, and purposely saved a couple to take to the neighbor who left a surprise on my door step last week!  Everyone likes surprises, especially cupcake surprises.
I delivered them and was given a glass of wine in return.
Who's the winner here?  Me!
You give, and the natural side affects are nice. 

Don't hold back, make someone happy today.

Makes 20-24 cupcakes

Ingredients
Graham cracker crumb crust:
1 1/2 cup graham crumb, crushed
6 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt (optional)

1/2 cup Chocolate chips, or chunks (optional)

Mix the crushed graham crackers with the sugar and melted butter in a small bowl.  Add 1-2 Tbsp of the graham cracker mixture to the bottom of each cupcake paper liner and press down with a spoon firmly, you should have enough to fill about 24 cupcake liners.

Add 6-8 chocolate chips or chunks on top of each crust. Set aside while you make the cupcake batter.

Chocolate cupcake batter Ingredients:
(This is my basic Vegan recipe, no eggs, but works out beautifully!

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon vinegar, white or Cider 

Preheat oven at 350.
Mix together all dry ingredients, then the liquid (water, coconut milk, juice, soy milk, etc), oil and extract, then add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until uniformly moistened.  This batter is a bit more liquid than most batters, but it cooks up nice and moist! Top the graham cracker crust and chocolate with enough batter to fill to a bit over 3/4 of the way full. Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.


Frosting:

4 large egg whites
1 cup white sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients except the vanilla extract into a large metal bowl which you can place over a pot of simmering water. Whisk the egg white mixture constantly over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch. {It takes around 5 minutes}.

Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla while beating. After 3 minutes, the mixture will be lovely and fluffy.

Top the cupcakes and serve right away to get many, many smiles from your friends and family!

If you like cupcakes, here's some of my most popular recipes:
Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes
Junior Mint Cupcakes
Margarita Filled Cupcakes
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes with Molasses Buttercream
Reese's Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
 

Eggnog Latte Cupcakes

I limit myself to one Eggnog Latte every year, but dang it, I've had already had two eggnog latte cupcakes.  Yummm. The cupcake is moist and tastes like a latte with coffee and cream.  The frosting is super light and creamy and has all the egg nog elements; cream, rum, nutmeg and buttery sweetness

I'd been thinking of doing some type of cupcakes with egg nog frosting, but never thought of a coffee flavored cupcakes until the other day when I overheard people talking about how much they like this time of year because of the special seasonal espresso drinks.

This recipe is adapted from my Basic Vegan Cupcake Batter- Collection of Recipes... this one isn't vegan because I added the cream to it.  Please NOTE this recipe doesn't include any eggs... it is supposed to be that way.  It makes a very moist and tender cupcake, and I think it is terrific, which is why I always use variations of this recipe.

Ingredients:

Makes about 12 big cupcakes, or 18 'less tall' cupcakes

2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup strong cold coffee
1/2 cup cream, or whole milk
1 Tbsp Spiced rum, or 1 tsp rum extract

1 tablespoon vinegar, white or Cider

Baking Instructions for all cupcake recipes
Preheat oven at 350.
Mix together all dry ingredients, then the liquid (coffee, oil, milk or cream) and extract, then add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until uniformly moistened.  This batter is a bit more liquid than most batters, but it cooks up nice and moist! Line your muffin tin with papers and fill each one about 2/3 full.  I filled mine almost 3/4 full and got 12 cupcakes, and they didn't over flow when they baked.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

Frosting

1/4 cup butter, salted
4 oz cream cheese
2/3 cup brown sugar 
1 1/2 cups cold whipping cream
3 Tbsp Spiced Rum, or 1 Tbsp rum extract
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
a Pinch of salt

With a mixer, combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar until well incorporated.  Add the cream, rum and spices.  Beat well on a slow speed and then turn up the mixer to medium high until the whip cream is whipped and the frosting holds it's shape.  Use a pastry bag to pipe frosting thickly on each cup cake.  If you had left over frosting, you could use it for pumpkin pie topping or add it to your coffee.  Oh yeah...

Here's some other seasonal for cupcakes and other baked goods:

Boston Cream Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache
Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes
Basic Vegan Cupcake Batter- Collection of Recipes
Junior Mint Cupcakes
Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes with Molasses Buttercream 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes with Molasses Buttercream

Moist pumpkin cake, creamy cheesecake filling and fluffly, spicy molasses buttercream.
It was amazing, I only got a half of one, and I need more.

The bartering system is alive and well.
I actually traded cupcakes for New York steaks yesterday... oh yeah, I was happy.
I think I made the better deal, but as we made our "exchange", we shared one cupcake to ensure the quality of my goods was top notch.
It didn't matter that it was 10am... what, you can't eat cake that early? 
We pretended they were muffins, problem solved!

For some reason this recipe seemed to make only 12 cupcakes instead of my usual 18. It may be that I got too generous with the batter. You may have a bit too much leftover cheesecake filling after filling your cupcakes, I could't really reduce the recipe, because 1/2 an egg in a recipe just isn't done!.  You could use the extra filling on some graham crackers, in muffin paper liners and bake them while you are baking your cupcakes... now would that be a good leftover!?!

P.S. The decorations on top of the cupcakes is candied ginger from Trader Joe's.  It is my favorite thing, but might be too spicy for kids. 

(I only photographed the pumpkin cupcake ingredients...

Missing is cream cheese, one egg, powdered sugar, butter, molasses & cream)

Cheesecake filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
Mix filling together thoroughly with a mixer. Set aside.

Pumpkin Cupcakes
(NOTE: There are NO eggs in this recipe, there is no mistake!)
Makes about 12 cupcakes
Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon vinegar, white or Apple Cider

Preheat oven at 350.
Mix together all dry ingredients, then the liquid including the pumpkin, oil and extract, then add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until uniformly moistened.  Line your muffin tin with papers and fill each one about 1/2-2/3 full.  

Bake for about 8 minutes, then fill with cheesecake filling (above).  Using a pastry bag with a large tip, or even no tip, squeeze about 1 tablespoon into each partially baked cupcakes.

Return to the oven and back another 14-15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Molasses Buttercream
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 Tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon
1-2 Tbsp cream
3 cups powdered sugar

In a standmixer, or whip a hand mixer, beat butter, pumpkin pie spice and molasses together. Add one cup of powdered sugar, beat well. Add the additional 2 cups of powdered sugar slowly, using a tablespoon of whip cream to moisten the buttercream.  Beat for about 5 minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffly.

Here's what the cupcake looked like shortly before we shared it. 



Here are some other popular cupcake recipes:
Boston Cream Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache
Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes
Basic Vegan Cupcake Batter- Collection of Recipes
Junior Mint Cupcakes
Margarita Filled Cupcakes
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
Reese's Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Junior Mint Cupcakes

I like Junior Mints. I cannot lie.
But I don't even like peppermint, nope, I'm one of those spearmint people.
But I do like Junior Mints.

The cupcakes are dark chocolate and super moist, but the frosting is the thing.
The thing that you want more of.
The thing you want to eat with your fingers, a spoon, a bucket.
So light and delicious whipped cream frosting with a hint of peppermint. 
Cool and refreshing, and totally yummy!

I served these at a family function the other day, I had to make a double batch because I have a big family, and the last thing you want to do is to run out of cupcakes!  These were a hit, but a couple of us thought that you shouldn't eat the candy WITH the frosting, as the textures competed. The frosting is luscious and delicious and by comparison the candy seems waxy. 
It's an OK problem to have, I know, I know.
As we discussed this together, most people said they didn't have that problem  because they picked the candy off and ate it before eating their cupcakes...  Oh, I never thought of that! Probably because I ate half a box of these while making them!

With Cupcakes, I really do feel like it's all about the combining of ingredients, and not so much about the actual recipes.  I know many of you know that I like a certain Vegan Cupcake recipe, I think it's the bomb, therefore, I do not go looking for new recipes. So here it is again...

Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients:
Makes about 18 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon vinegar, white or Cider

Preheat oven at 350. Mix together all dry ingredients, then the water, oil and extract, then add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until uniformly moistened.  This batter was a bit more liquid than most batters, but it cooks up nice and moist! Fill each to about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake for 20 minutes.

Let cool completely... and I mean completely, or your frosting is going to melt right off!

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 cups heavy cream, very cold
1-2 big boxes of Junior Mint candies, or other peppermint patty candy

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and peppermint extract in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth. While the mixture is still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Scrape down the bowl as you go, if needed, whipping until the frosting can hold a stiff peak.

Here's more popular cupcake recipes!
Boston Cream Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache
Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes
Basic Vegan Cupcake Batter- Collection of Recipes
Margarita Filled Cupcakes
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
Reese's Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting