Apple Cupcakes w/ Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, I know! Judging from the title of this blog, an apple recipe is long overdue! So to honor the fall season I made these cupcakes. The cake is moist and has a great apple taste. The icing comes from this recipe. I have used it with other cakes and it is always a winner. (NOTE to Blogger- uhh whats up with the tiny pic??)

For the apple cake I used a DH yellow cake mix,used the ingredients on the box, added 2 lrg chopped apples, 1 pkg cheesecake pudding and a little extra oil. In place of the extra oil you could use 1/2 cup applesauce. In place of the liquid, you could use apple juice or even cider for a little extra tang. I also added about 1 tbl of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg.

Enjoy the fall!

Coconut Cupcakes

Those little pillows are Coconut Cupcakes filled and topped with coconut cream. I used the wedding cake recipe and added coconut flavoring instead and made a Mock Whipped Topping and added coconut pudding to it. So dang good!

Wedding Cake

1 box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teas. salt
2 eggs or 4 egg whites
1 1/3cups water
2 Tbls. vegetable oil
1 cup (8oz carton) sour cream
1 teaspoon clear vanilla flavor

1 teaspoon almond extract ( I used coconut)

Mix all dry ingredients by hand using a whisk in a very large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees until done (approx 10 min for cupcakes)

Mock Whipped Cream

3/4 c. milk
3 tbsp. flour
6 tbsp. butter
6 tbsp. shortening
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
(Added 1 box Coconut Cream pudding and another 3/4 c milk at the end to give coconut flavoring)
Cook milk and flour until thick. Make sure there are no lumps. Cool. Beat butter, shortening, and sugar for 4 minutes in a bowl. Add flour and milk mixture. Beat 4 minutes. Add vanilla and salt.

Top with coconut!

Lemon-Up Cupcakes

Browsing the cookbooks at BJ's last week I came across one which looked to have lots of great ideas in it. So I bought it. It is called Ultimate Cake Mix Book from Publications Unlimited. I was going to put a link to it, but couldn't find it easily online. There is another book with the same name by Betty Crocker. But this one is different.
Anyway, one of the recipes is called Lemon Up Cake, but it was actually made as a cupcake. I sorta followed the recipe, and I used a different icing. The same icing was used recently by my buddy Bunny. It is a wonderful Lemon Cream Cheese Icing from Epicurious. I changed it up a bit by using lemon extract instead of lemon zest and adding a bit of yellow food coloring for effect. I topped some with crushed Lemonheads.
The cupcakes baked up very nicely. I finally used my square cupcake pan for half the recipe. These were so delicious (baked and unbaked!!). Bowl licking good!
Lemon Cupcakes
I box Butter Recipe Golden Cake Mix
1 box lemon instant pudding
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
zest from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix according to directions on box, adding the pudding and substituting the lemon juice for 1/4 c of the water. Beat according to the instructions on the box. Batter will be thick. Scoop into 24 cupcakes. (I use an ice cream scoop.)
Bake 18-23 minutes until light golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool.
Ice as desired.

Butterscotch Cupcakes

My oldest daughter is such a butterscotch lover that when I made pecan pie she would beg me to put butterscotch chips on the bottom of the filling. When my girls were growing up I didn't have much spare time or interest in baking. Occasionally I would make a pie. It was only after they were done with college that I began to pick up this hobby. (Poor deprived children!) So when she came to visit last week, I knew I was gonna indulge her with some BScotch Cupcakes.

A few months ago I found Mercken's Butterscotch wafers at the cake store. I am now using them in most of my recipes that call for butterscotch chips (except for Oatmeal Scotchies). They have a less "fake" taste than the chips, that's the only way I could describe them. They are sooo good!

The Northern Ohio summer day was quite warm and we were having a busy time but these were really easy since I used a boxed cake mix (doctored up of course). Actually, I used a Cupcake mix. Some people complain and wonder why anyone would buy a cupcake mix when its the same thing as a cake mix. Well, the reason I like it is that it is HALF the size of a boxed cake mix, which means if I just can make a dozen instead of 2 dozen cupcakes.

Anyway, these were ButterScotch all the way- BS cake, BS icing and BS glaze. Here's the blueprint-
Cake- Make cake according to box recipe, but add almost 1 box instant sugar free butterscotch pudding plus 2 tablespoons applesauce.
Icing- Simple buttercream with a bit of the BS glaze added.
Glaze- Heat a small amount of heavy cream, remove from heat and add enough wafers to make an almost ganache like glaze. (I'd guess I used maybe 2-3 T of cream and probably 1/3 C of wafers.)

Oh yeah, I added pecans to some of the batter and topped these with pecans.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I made these Chocolate cupcakes with PB chips and topped with PB buttercream and a Reese's PB Cup for a library cakewalk tomorrow.

Since I (like most people) have precious little time to bake in the summer I started with a box of Duncan Hines Dark Choc Fudge cake mix made according to directions, but I added a single serving container of unsweetened applesauce to add moistness. This little tip works so well!

Here is the PB Buttercream recipe

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened 2/3 c. Crisco shortening 3 Tbs heavy cream 2 lbs powdered sugar (about 8 cups) About 1/4 cup Reese's PB Ice Cream Topping a little at a time

Cream together butter and shortening until smooth. Slowly add 2 T. topping and 3 tbs. heavy cream. Gradually add the powdered sugar and scrape down the bowl very well once it's all added. Slowly add topping a Tbs at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Chocolate Cream Filled Cupcakes

Back in the winter, I posted my Famous Chocolate Cake. And dang, it sure is good. I have been wanting to make the recipe into cupcakes for awhile. Last week I finally made them for work.

This week, since I had left over ganache, I made them again for some workers who are here tearing out our garage floor and part of the driveway and replacing it. (Quite a job!)
Always good to bribe the workers! They seemed really happy and surprised to get cuppies. Of course I was glad to make them!

You can find the recipe for the cake here. Below is the recipe for the filling.

Cream Filling
2 T shortening
2 T Butter
1 C 10x sugar
3 T Hersheys Dulce LeLeche Dessert topping
Milk- to thin
In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening together until smooth. Blend in confectioners' sugar. Gradually beat in topping. Beat until light and fluffy. Add milk as needed to desired consistency. Fill a pastry sleeve and pipe into cupcake.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

My father in law is a big PUSD cake fan. So for Father's Day, I baked these cute little cupcakes for our cookout. They are great for a small taste!
My silicone cupcake pan worked great for this recipe. I used this recipe from Crazy Cupcake for the topping, but since I was also making 4 other kinds of cupcakes for the cookout, I used a boxed yellow cake for the cake part.
Sometimes I really think you can't tell it's from a box, depending on what recipe you are doing. Especially with this recipe, since the topping sinks into the cake somewhat.

Wilton Course 2 Finale- Banana Cupcakes

Ha Ha Had to post my cake! It actually came out not looking TOO bad.
I baked a banana cake and had to use class buttercream to ice it. I was burned out on chocolate and decided to make banana, but Mark hates bananas so I made just a little cake to decorate. But I chose to make a 3 layer 4 inch cake and make cupcakes to take to work. Yes there are 4 inch cake pans. HeHe So cute. The cake is pictured above.
Anyway, Mark told me no one would eat nasty banana cupcakes. He thinks no one likes banana. Of course he was wrong. I iced the cupcakes with buttercream I made using the recipe from the Opera cake, but flavored with bourbon vanilla. Fantastic! I took a dozen cuppies to work and brought home the empty container! Everyone had more than one! The cupcake and the buttercream combo was really a winner. Here are the recipes.
Banana Cupcakes

1 (18.25 oz.) box yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 oz.) box instant banana pudding
4 eggs
1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup mashed banana
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with papers.
2. In a large bowl combine cake mix and pudding mix. Stir together and create a well in the center.
3. Add eggs, banana, water and oil to the center. Use a mixer to combine. Scrape sides down, and mix for about four minutes on medium speed.
4. Pour batter into muffin tin, until about 2/3 filled with batter.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tests done.

French Buttercream

2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
½ cup (60 grams) water
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¾ cups (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
flavouring of your choice (a tablespoon of an extract, a few tablespoons of melted white chocolate, citrus zest, etc.) I used Madagasgar Bourbon Vanilla.
Combine the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225^◦F (124^◦C) on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the syrup from the heat.While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment.
Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass. With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny. At this point add in your flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes). Note-This buttercream will not hold up well in warm weather.

I'm Fixated here....Almond Buttercream plus more!

Do I detect some obsession here? Another set of cupcakes???!! Hmm, I am getting so many ideas for new flavorings. Here are the ones I took to my church picnic today. They were getting snatched off the table as I was putting them on! Squueeeeeee!!!
First up, Chocolate CC with my Aunt Mary's Almond Cream Cheese Buttercream. This is Mark's all time favorite combination. The recipe is below.

Next- Chocolate- filled with Choc. Hazelnut Creme -topped with Hazelnut Creme. The filling was made by mixing Nutella with Rich's Bettercreme, about equal parts of both. For the icing, I added Torani Hazelnut Syrup to taste to the Bettercreme. OH so yummy!

Last the flowered one is Chocolate with Choc. Chips topped with Malted Creme. This icing is like CRACK!!! It's so simple. Just add Hershey's Whoppers Malted Syrup to Rich's Bettercreme. Addicting!!!

Almond Cream Cheese Buttercream

4 oz Cream Cheese Softened
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 box (1 lb) 10 x sugar (may need slightly less)
1 tsp pure almond extract
Beat cream cheese and butter together till well mixed, add sugar in small batches and keep beating until fluffy and well blended, add extract and beat 1 more minute. ENJOY!
This tastes really good on your favorite chocolate cake.

Flower Cupcakes

I am on a serious cupcake buzz. I made these for Mother's Day a few weeks ago for my sister in law and mother in law. I found the decorating instructions here for flower cupcakes. I couldn't get the begonias to look right so I made all carnations. Very simple and fun!

I just used decorator's buttercream but the cake recipe is from Taste of Home.

Cupcakes for Carol

Last Tuesday, I baked these beauties and took them to work for my coworker,Carol's, birthday (yes, another May BD!). This was the first time I had made cupcakes in a long while and now I've got THAT bug! These Wilton courses are making me fat! HeHe!
I used a doctored Duncan Hines mix, cuz Carol is kinda picky and well dang, it was her birthday so I gave her what she likes. The icing is the recipe from the back of the can of Ghirardelli premium baking cocoa. It's really a good recipe- Mark thinks it tastes like fudge.
Everyone at work ate more than 1, so I will take that as a compliment!!