Banoffee Cuppies

Banana cupcakes with chopped caramel in cake, topped with cream cheese frosting and drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and finished with a homemade piece of pecan toffee. Let me hear you say "MMMMM". Totally worth blowing my diet today for this baby.

I was really happy with the way this turned out, 'cept I think the cuppie can be alot more moist, so I will try again this weekend.....stay tuned.

Please vote for me

My cupcakes are Sandi Oh's Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Almond Joy.

Voting will begin no later than Sunday, March 29 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Friday, April 3 at 12 noon.

Sandi Oh's Drunken' Cuppies

Man, I wish I would have entered these chocolate ones in the Iron Cupcake: nuts and seeds. I think they turned out awesome, and they look great too! They are my best devils food recipe cupcakes with a scoop of almond paste in the middle with a very yummy amaretto buttercream frosting and chocolate covered almond to top it off.....MMMMMM!

Devils Food Cupcakes

(I found this on the internet some time ago, I'm sorry but I do not remember where I found it) - note: I have since discovered that this is the Hershey's recipe.

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar (not packed)

1 3/4 cup flour (AP)

3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used the Hershey Special Dark)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk (I always use whole)

1/2 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water (for this recipe I used 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water and 2 Tbsp Amaretto)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pan (I got 24)

Sift dry ingredients into large bowl. Mix eggs, milk, oil and vanilla into separate bowl then add to dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes (at this point I put the water onto boil). add the boiling water and beat until well blended. (Don't worry it's supposed to look runny).

Now mix 3/4 cup of the batter with 7 oz of almond paste (that has been grated into bowl) and mix well. fill cupcake liners up 2/3 full then add a scant tablespoon of almond paste mixture into center of batter. Bake and enjoy!!!

Amaretto Buttercream

(by me)

2 sticks butter

6 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp almond extract

6 Tbsp amaretto

2 Tbsp heavy cream (or to texture).

Cream butter, add half of sugar, salt, extract, 3 Tbsp amaretto and a Tbsp of cream. Beat until well blended. Scrape down and rebeat. Add remaining sugar, amaretto and cream. rebeat. scrape down. Beat for 2 minutes (at this point you can add more cream if you find it too heavy).

Now the vanilla cupcakes are the White Chocolate Pound Cakes from my previous post and today I frosted them two ways:

First I used a white chocolate ganache flavored with Bacardi Limon Rum (yum) and topped with various color buttercreams.

The second ones I frosted with a Bacardi Limon Rum lemon buttercream and vanilla buttercream. The lemon buttercream was so amazing. It was so strong of lemon that it overpowered the cupcake, so I had to actually remove some of it, so it wouldn't be so strong. But no matter, that frosting is frickin' good, and I'll make it again (although I won't use alot).

Bacardi Limon Lemon Buttercream:

(by me)

2 sticks butter softened

6 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/8 tsp salt

zest of 2 lemons (probably less than a teaspoon)

juice of 1 lemon (probably about 3 1/2 Tbsp)

2 Tbsp Bacardi Limon Rum

cream sugar, add half of the sugar, salt, half of zest, juice and bacardi. beat, scrape down then beat again. Add remaining sugar, and the rest of the bacardi. beat, scrape down then beat again. check your consistency, if you need more lemon juice add it, otherwise dont. rebeat for another 2 minutes.

Bacardi Limon White Chocolate Ganache

17 oz white chocolate chips

6 oz heavy cream

1 1/2 Tbsp Bacardi Limon

candy food coloring (oil based)

put chocolate into clean, dry stainless steel bowl. Put cream into small saucepan and bring to boil. Pour into bowl with chocolate and let it sit for one minute. stir chocolate and cream together carefully, then add rum (make sure it is room temp) and however much food coloring you want. Let sit to cool, or dip cupcake tops into ganache (make sure you hold each cuppie upside down to let the excess drip off). I put my cuppies into the fridge to let the ganache set.

for the Taylors Falls fire department

I made chocolate Guiness cupcakes (see previous blog) with a whipped ganache frosting. I'ld never whipped ganache before, just used it as a glaze. It's very thick and fudgy - I added a tablespoon of Baileys Irish Cream to it. Next time, I think I'll just use it as an accent or filling - just way too much.

The vanilla cuppies are white chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. Very dense, moist and yummy. I topped it with my regular vanilla buttercream.

White Chocolate Pound Cake

recipe from A Baked Creation blog

2 sticks of unsalted butter (room temp)

8 0z of cream cheese (room temp)

1 1/2 cups sugar (I used superfine)

2 Tbsp of sour cream

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs (I had mine at room temp)

2 1/4 cups of cake flour (sifted for me)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 oz of melted white chocolate

1. preheat the oven to 35o degrees F and have all ingredients at room temp.

2. using an electric mixer (I used my kitchen aid), beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and continue mixing at high speed. Add the sugar and mix until it is light and fluffy again.

3. Add the sour cream and the vanilla extract, mixing at medium speed.

4. add the eggs one at a time ensuring that they are mixed well before the next addition.

5. in another bowl, mix the cake floour, baking powder and salt together. then add the dry ingredients with the wet mixture. Mix on low until smooth.

6. Fold in the melted white chocolate. Pour into pan and bake the cupcakes for 25 to 30 minutes (mine took 24 minutes). Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes before removing them.

Spring?????

It's time for my other obsession - gardening. Started a bunch of seeds this weekend.
alot of pansies for on top of my cuppies.

Coconut cupcakes are from Vanilla Garlic:

3/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temp

1 1/4 cup sugar

3 eggs, room temp

1 cup of canned coconut milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup sweetened desiccated coconut

coconut cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup butter softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 - 1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup sweetened desiccated coconut

preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream til light and fluffy again, scraping down the sides halfway through to ensure even mixing.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds each to ensure mixing. be sure to scrape down the sides after each egg to ensure even mixing.

combine the flour, salt and baking powder in one bow. In another add 1 cup of well mixed coconut milk and a teaspoon of vanilla. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix, then add 1/2 of the wet ingredients. continue alternating with the wet and dry mixtures, ending with the dry. stop mixing once just as the ingredients become incorporated; do not overbeat.

fold in the coconut. Scoop into cupcake papers about one half to three-quarters of the way full. bake 18-22 minutes.

Frosting:

cream butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes, scraping down bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar, tasting as you go to desired sweetness ( I ended up adding 2 1/2 cups for a thicker frosting). Fold in coconut and frost cuppies. add more coconut to top if desired.

I also made the chocolate-guiness cupcakes which I think are absolutely divine. It's a chocolate cupcake with Guiness in the batter, topped with a chocolate ganache and accented with Baileys irish cream buttercream frosting. The recipe is from the cupcakery blogsite at http://www.the-cupcakery-blog.blogspot.com

Today I made 3, actually 4 different cuppies. I made coconut, guiness, vanilla and cherry almond. I wanted to make the cherry almond for another entry into iron cupcake - but they did not turn out well - I wasn't really following a recipe so they were dry and not very sweet...I didn't even bother to frost all of them.

I'm not going to have time before St Patricks day to make any more cupcakes, so I made these from the Cupcake Doctor, sans Baileys (Kids...). I used whipped cream and pistachio pudding for the frosting.

New entry for Iron Cupcake Earth; Nuts and Seeds - check it out at http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/

Sandi Oh's Brown Sugar Pecan Cupcakes

Brown-Sugar Pound Cupcakes ( adapted from Martha Stewart)

3 cups sifted
AP flour
2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
21/4 cups packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temp
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup chopped pralines (see recipe below)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tin (recipe made 22 cupcakes for me). whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one a time, beating after each addition.
Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the dry. Fold chopped pralines into batter.fill each cup approx 3/4 full, and bake for 25 minutes


Pralines
(courtesy of Emeril Lagasse)
1/2 pound light brown sugar (I ended up with 1 cup and 1 Tbsp)
pinch of salt
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp butter
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix sugar, salt, milk and butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until sugar dissolves. Stir in pecans and cook over medium heat until mixture reaches the soft ball stage. (234-240 degrees F on candy thermometer; if you sppo a drop of boiling syrup in to a cup of ice water, it will form a soft ball that flattens easily between your fingers.) remove pan from heat and stir rapidly until mixture thickens. Drop pralines by teaspoonfuls, 1 inch apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets; let cool completely until firmed up. Store in airtight container. Yield: about 1 dozen ( I got 2 dz, because I made them smaller).

Penuche Frosting
(from the Cake Doctor)

1 cup packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. place the brown sugar and butter in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring constantly, until well combined, 2 minutes. Carefully pour in the milk, stirring, and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and cool slightly.

2. place the confectioners' sugar in a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot brown sugar mixture over the confectioners' sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the frosting is smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. use immediately (while still warm) to frost the cake of your choice or the frosting will harden. If it does harden while you are frosting the cake, simply place the pan back over low heat and stir until the frosting softens up.

Brown Sugar Pecans
(from recipezaar)
16 ounces pecan halves
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1. arrange pecan halves in a foil lined 13 x 9 pan.
2. melt butter in saucepan over medium heat and add brown sugar,vanilla and salt.
3. stir one minute and remove from heat.
4. continue stirring, until brown sugar dissolves.
5. pour over pecans, stirring to coat.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes; stirring every 10 minutes.
7. remove from oven and spread on wax paper to cool.
8. store in an airtight container.

To assemble cupcakes:

make cupcakes and let cool. Make penuche frosting and dip cucakes into warm frosting. Chop Brown Sugar Pecans and sprinkle onto cupcakes immediately before frosting sets.

this months cool prizes.......

Our March ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:A Bunnycake Easter Plushie by DOGBONEART, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21636297.A whimsical piece by CAKEASAURUS, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5729584.as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.a collection of all new printed cupcake liners, 200 in all from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ . And as a special thank you, we would like to once again thank DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270 for her participation in the February challenge. An incorrect link was posted and we want to be sure that she gets the recognition she deserves. Thanks again Diana!

Well, after considering my options for http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/ nuts and seeds challenge, I automatically had thoughts of almonds and chocolate together....and then of course my thoughts went to a liqueor....and well then my thoughts drifted elsewhere. But this is one of the cucakes I came up with. It is a very rich almond and coconut cupcake (with almond paste and coconut milk in the batter) with a dark chocolate ganache, Disaronno amaretto (OMG - that stuff is good!!!) buttercream frosting, candied almonds (see previous post) and toasted coconut.

I took these to work after making them, and they were gone pretty fast. I think they liked them, especially the buttercream.....

Coconut Almond Pound Cake cuppies (from odense.com)

1 7oz box almond paste, grated
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter at room temp
6 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, prep cupcake pans. Beat grated almond paste and sugar on low speed until combined into small cumbs. Add butter and beat on high until well mixed. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add coconut extract and beat on high for 3 minutes.
In a medium sized bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add coconut flakes and mix until combined.
Add coconut milk and flour to almond paste mixture. Mix on low speed until just combined. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for approx 18-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Ganache frosting:

12 oz chocolate chips (I used a mixture of milk, dark and semi-sweet)
1/2 cup heavy cream

Melt over double boiler until chips are melted.

Amaretto Buttercream:

1 stick softened butter
1/4 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
3 Tbs heavy cream
2 Tbs Amaretto

Cream together butter and salt, add half of sugar and cream, blend some more. Scrape down bowl and then add the rest of the sugar and extracts. Cream together the add Amaretto. beat 2 -3 minutes more until light and fluffy.

Check out the iron cupcake challenge at http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/

with cool prizes.......

Our March ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A Bunnycake Easter Plushie by DOGBONEART, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21636297.
A whimsical piece by CAKEASAURUS, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5729584.
as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
a collection of all new printed cupcake liners, 200 in all from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ . And as a special thank you, we would like to once again thank DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270 for her participation in the February challenge. An incorrect link was posted and we want to be sure that she gets the recognition she deserves. Thanks again Diana!

Sugared Almonds for the garnish on my Almond Joy cupcakes for iron cupcakes tomorrow.

I took 2 cups of slivered almonds, mixed them with 6 Tbsp of sugar. In another bowl, I whisked one egg white until foamy and then stirred it into the nuts. I baked them at 300 degrees for about 25 minutes until the almonds were dry. I think these will sit pretty nicely with some toasted coconut atop my amaretto buttercream. mmmmmm.....

Brown Sugar Pecans

(from recipezaar)

16 ounces pecan halves

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1. arrange pecan halves in a foil lined 13 x 9 pan.

2. melt butter in saucepan over medium heat and add brown sugar,vanilla and salt.

3. stir one minute and remove from heat.

4. continue stirring, until brown sugar dissolves.

5. pour over pecans, stirring to coat.

6. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes; stirring every 10 minutes.

7. remove from oven and spread on wax paper to cool.

8. store in an airtight container.

Man, these were divine....I mean these were freakin' good.

Today I'm working on the nuts for tomorrows iron cupcakes. I'm making pralines for a brown sugar pound cupcake. I used Emeril Lagasse's recipe from the FoodNetwork.com.....these little babies are very tasty.

Pralines

courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

1/2 pound light brown sugar (I ended up with 1 cup and 1 Tbsp)

pinch of salt

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp evaporated milk

1 1/2 tsp butter

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix sugar, salt, milk and butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until sugar dissolves. Stir in pecans and cook over medium heat until mixture reaches the soft ball stage. (234-240 degrees F on candy thermometer; if you sppo a drop of boiling syrup in to a cup of ice water, it will form a soft ball that flattens easily between your fingers.) remove pan from heat and stir rapidly until mixture thickens. Drop pralines by teaspoonfuls, 1 inch apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets; let cool completely until firmed up. Store in airtight container. Yield: about 1 dozen ( I got 2 dz, because I made them smaller).

Amy Sedaris Vanilla Cupcakes

cream together

1 1/2 stick unsalted room temp butter
1 1/2 cup sugar

then add

2 large eggs room temp
2 tsp vanilla

sift together:

1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cup cake flour

mix dry ingredients into butter mixture, alternating with 1 1/4 cup room temp milk.
Bake at 375 degrees for approx 20 minutes. ( I baked at 350 deg).

Mocha Buttercream (From Taste of Home)

3 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
3 Tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup butter softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 to 2 Tbsp brewed coffee

Melt chips in microwave, add butter; beat until blended. Gradually beat in sugar and coffee.

I'm not going to post my recipe until I've perfected it.

Today I tried two different vanilla cupcake recipes. The cupcake with the chocolate frosting (actually mocha buttercream) was the Amy Sedaris recipe, and the cuppies with the vanilla buttercream was a recipe of my own creation that I've been working on for awhile. Amy's cupcake had great texture, but I thought it tasted kind of boring and it was a little dry. My recipe had great taste and was moist, but the texture was off. I guess I'll have to continue on my quest for my nirvana vanilla cupcake.

This should be fun, I'm gonna love having an excuse to make cupcakes. This week I plan on trying new vanilla recipes to further my quest for a nirvana yellow cupcake, and almond pound cupcakes to potentially enter Iron Cupcake.