Cookie Dough Cuppycakes

I made these cuppycakes as a theme post on a baking community. They turned out yummy, but I think I can tweak them and make even better ones next time.

For this recipe, I had to prepare some cookie dough balls in advance. I bought a roll of pre-made cookie dough, divided 8 oz of it into 12 balls, and stuck them in the freezer for a couple hours. Next time, I will probably make my own dough from scratch because I have gotten to the point where using pre-made anything in baking makes me feel bad.

I used this recipe that I found on Lovin' From the Oven for the cupcakes. She says she found it at Cupcake Bakeshop, but I wasn't able to find the original post there.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar (I packed mine)
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
3. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
6. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
7. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
8. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
9. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
10. Place previously prepared frozen cookie dough ball (mine were fairly big) into cup liners, then fill about half to three-quarters full of cupcake batter.
11. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched. (Testing by using a toothpick would be insufficient because of the gooey cookie dough in the center).

For the frosting, I adapted a chocolate frosting recommended on The Cupcake Review. Then I made the eggless cookie dough recommended by both of these two blogs and (stupidly) tried to mix it in with my Kitchenaid mixer. What I got was a VERY delicious chocolate mousselike frosting that was completely not obvious it contained cookie dough.

Cookie Doh! (I guess next time I need to just stir the chunks in myself. It was late at night and I blame that for my stupidity. I spent all day packing and appliance shopping.)

Chocolate Frosting
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla

Beat butter and cocoa until smooth, then add sugar 1 cup at a time, beating with each addition. Add milk and vanilla and beat for about 3 minutes.

And here's the eggless cookie dough recipe...

Eggless Cookie Dough - from How To Eat A Cupcake

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Stir in mini chocolate chips (optional).
   
2. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
   

I personally thought that the eggless cookie dough tasted a little weird, but it was fine once it was mxed into the frosting. If I do this again, I might try another recipe.


A cuppycake in all its glory!


The inside of the cuppycakes. I think they need more cookie dough next time.

French Toast Cuppycakes with Bacon

I totally stole this recipe from The Busty Baker.



These cupcakes came out so delicious! The maple buttercream has a very smooth texture, like whipped butter. It's very different from the buttercream frostings I normally like to make (I usually favor a very thick, heavy buttercream). However, it works perfectly with these half-savory, half-cinnamon-rolly cupcakes. My husband and I are both in love with them.


French Toast Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
2 eggs
1 tsp maple extract
1/2 cup milk
10-12 slices bacon

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line baking pan with paper liners.

2. Cook bacon in batches by prefered method until browned, but still slightly flexible. Soak up any extra oil on paper towels and set aside to cool. Once bacon is cooled enough to handle, cut a couple slices of bacon into inch-long pieces. This will be the decoration on top of the cupcake, so make as many as you think you'll need. Set aside. Chop or tear the remaining bacon into tiny pieces. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Whisk in maple extract. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mix and two of milk, beating until smooth. Fold in small bacon pieces. Mix until evenly distributed throughout batter.

5. Scoop batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.






Maple Buttercream
2 cups confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
Pinch of salt

1. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add maple syrup, maple extract, and salt, and beat until well combined. Add confectioner's sugar, half cup at a time, and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

2. Frost or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Top with inch-long bacon pieces.

Wacky Cake

I had never heard of Wacky Cake until I met Mike (my husband). Apparently, however, it's a pretty common thing - I think it may be Southern. His mom makes it with this insanely sugary caramel topping, which seems to be somewhat unusual. But it's good that way.



According to this blog, Wacky Cake originated during WWII. Because butter and eggs were rationed, people came up with cakes like this one that didn't require these items. I haven't checked Snopes, so feel free to do so yourself if you want and be like, "Oh noes, Wacky Cake originated in Ming Dynasty China before eggs and butter were invented" or whatever. Really, I don't mind. :)

Yesterday afternoon, I asked Mike what I should bake this weekend, and he suggested Wacky Cake. I was surprised by this suggestion, but why the heck not? The only problem was that the recipe is written on an envelope in Mike's mom's sort of hard-to-read handwriting. It was pretty sparse in terms of instructions, so I have added my own embellishments, accomplished through research and, um, mistakes.

You can see from the strikethrough text below what mistake I made. Oops. The cake still tasted fine with the extra vanilla, though.

Dry ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
6 tbsp cocoa powder

Wet ingredients:
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp vanilla 2 tsp vanilla
2 cups cold water (some people sub one cup of cold coffee for one of the cups of water)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 for non-stick pans).

Sift dry ingredients together and place in a mixing bowl. Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13 x 9" cake pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out (almost) clean and the top springs back when lightly touched. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then run spatula along the edge of the cake and remove from pan to cool the rest of the way.

Caramel Frosting
2 cups brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 tbsp vanilla

In a pan, cook butter, brown sugar, and milk on medium-low heat until the mixture reaches the softball stage on a candy thermometer. Add vanilla and beat until thick. Spread on cooled cake.

The instructions I had were really vague and didn't indicate what level of heat to use when cooking the caramel for the frosting. I tried using low heat and it took FOREVER. Then Mike decided I need to crank it up to high. The caramel finished cooking faster that way, but it didn't seem quite as voluminous as I was expecting it to. Mike talked to his mom and said it's supposed to work sort of like fudge. Based on perusing some fudge recipes, I believe this frosting needs to be cooked on medium low heat. Will do that next time.

Because my frosting didn't fluff up as much as expected, I didn't have enough to cover the whole cake. I tried to make an extra half a batch, but I was almost out of vanilla. Sadly, I didn't realize this until the brown sugar and butter was cooking on the stove. Without enough vanilla, this batch of frosting came out crumbly and looking like the creeping crud. Sigh.



Might as well post my failures as well as my successes, right?

Mike says the cake is really good. He even said that after eating one of the creeping-crud pieces. Ah, true love.

I will admit that the prettier pieces of the cake are pretty darn tasty. Next time, Gadget.

Tres Leches Cake

I decided to branch out and bake something besides cupcakes. I made this cake (using Alton Brown's recipe) for Mike's birthday. It seems to have been a big hit.



The primary modification I made to this recipe was that I used White Lily all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. This wasn't a stylistic decision - I just couldn't find cake flour ANYWHERE for some stupid reason. Of course, yesterday I finally saw some in a store and bought it for next time. Sooner or later, I'll try this recipe using the cake flour and let you know if it makes a big difference.

The other change I made was to put the whipped topping on immediately (well, after the glazed cake had been in the fridge for about 15 minutes) and let the cake sit overnight with the whipped topping. I did this because saw reviews of the recipe on foodnetwork.com that said the flavors married a lot better that way than if you waited to put the whipped topping on. A couple reviews also suggested waiting 2 days before serving the cake, and I see why. It definitely tasted yummier after a day and a half than it did after 1. The sweetness had smoothed out and it was just delicious.


Ingredients

For the cake:
* Vegetable oil
* 6 3/4 ounces cake flour, plus extra for pan
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
* 8 ounces sugar
* 5 whole eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the glaze:
* 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
* 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 cup half-and-half

For the topping:
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 8 ounces sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour a 13 by 9-inch metal pan and set aside.

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and with the mixer still running, gradually add the sugar over 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F.

Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer or fork. Allow the cake to cool completely and then prepare the glaze.


For the glaze:

Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and the half-and-half in a 1-quart measuring cup. Once combined, pour the glaze over the cake. Refrigerate the cake overnight.


Topping:

Place the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whisk together on low until stiff peaks are formed. Change to medium speed and whisk until thick. Spread the topping over the cake and allow to chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Chocolate Malted Cuppycakes and Vanilla Cuppycakes with Butterscotch Frosting

(aka my first semi-professional cupcake gig)

I baked these for my Dad's 60th birthday party, which was last night. I was really happy with how they came out. As always, Mike piped on the frosting for me. I'm still too scared to use the piping bag.


Chocolate Malted Cuppycakes (topped with Whoppers candies)


Vanilla Cuppycakes with Butterscotch Frosting (topped with Butterfinger minis)

Chocolate Malted Cupcakes (originally from Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook)
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1-1/4 cup Carnation malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup sour cream (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 degrees if using a dark or nonstick pan). Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

1. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda & salt. In another bowl, whisk together milk and malted milk powder until powder is dissolved.

2. With mixer on Medium High, beat flour mixture, milk mixture and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Add sour cream and vanilla. Beat until just combined.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filled halfway (NOTE: I actually filled them about 2/3 full). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until until cake tester comes out clean or baked about 20 minutes.


Chocolate Malted Frosting (I stole the idea from a nice girl on LJ - see my previous blog post)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
6 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
3 oz Lindt 85% Cacao bar, melted
6 tbsp Carnation malted milk powder (I think it actually needs more than this)

NOTE: I updated this frosting recipe to use 6 tablespoons of malt instead of the 4 I used last time. It was much yummier this way.


Magnolia's Famous Vanilla Cupcakes (with a little help from me)
I have used this vanilla cupcake recipe before, and my only complete was that the cupcakes were a little too dry. This time around, I fixed that problem by substituting heavy cream for milk. The more I bake, the more evil and fattening my baked goods seem to become. But they are also becoming yummier! :)

1 ½ cups self-rising flour
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk cream and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full.

Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.


Butterscotch Frosting (adapted from here)
2 sticks of butter, softened
3/4 cup butterscotch chips, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
5 tablespoons cream
1/4 tsp salt

Melt butterscotch chips in the microwave along on low heat along with 2 tablespoons of cream. Mike and I did this by heating it for a few seconds, stirring a bit, and then heating some more. We originally tried melting it in a double boiler (which is how I melted the chocolate for the chocolate malted frosting), but it seemed to be melting too slowly and the first time we made this frosting we ended up with weird butterscotch chunks. Also, the frosting was a bit too sweet (so said my taste testers), which wasn't too surprising since (I failed to notice this initially) the original recipe did not include any salt. I do not believe in buttercream that does not include salt. Oh well.

In a bowl, beat butter, melted butterscotch chips, vanilla extract and powdered sugar with an electric mixer. It will be dry. Add cream 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time and combine. Continue adding milk and beating until you get your desired frosting consistency.

Chocolate Malted Cuppycakes

These were a test run for a cupcake recipe I'm hoping to use when I bake (OMG) 4 dozen cuppycakes for my dad's 60th birthday party in a couple weeks. I "borrowed" this recipe from a nice girl who I met in the "curiouscupcakes" LiveJournal community. The cupcake recipe came from Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook, and the frosting is a recipe she made up herself (which I then tweaked). The cuppycakes are topped with Whoppers candies.



I really liked the way the cake part turned out. So moist! And the frosting was yummy, too... though I think I want a stronger malt taste when I do the "real" batch of cuppycakes for my dad's party.

Here are a couple of pics of the cuppycakes pre-frosting and pre-Whoppers.






Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1-1/4 cup Carnation malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup sour cream (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 degrees if using a dark or nonstick pan). Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

1. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda & salt. In another bowl, whisk together milk and malted milk powder until powder is dissolved.

2. With mixer on Medium High, beat flour mixture, milk mixture and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Add sour cream and vanilla. Beat until just combined.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filled halfway (NOTE: I actually filled them about 2/3 full). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until until cake tester comes out clean or baked about 20 minutes.


Chocolate Malted Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
6 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt
3 oz Lindt 85% Cacao bar, melted
4 tbsp Carnation malted milk powder (I think it actually needs more than this)

Beat half of the sugar and all of the other ingredients on low until just combined. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and beat on low until combined. Beat on medium until fluffy and uniformly blended.

(NOTE: The girl from whom I borrowed this recipe made up this frosting recipe herself but didn't note the exact amounts of the ingredients she used. She just remembered that she used "powdered sugar, pinch of salt, 3 oz of melted chocolate, 2 sticks of butter, and a few tablespoons of malted milk powder." As I am becoming ever more adventurous with my frosting escapades, I decided to try to guess at the correct proportions.

The ingredients above are what I ended up using. I think that next time, I need to use 2 and a half sticks of butter because Mike said the texture was a little rough when he was piping the frosting. Also, I had to add milk because it was too clumpy without it. This probably means that I used more sugar than I "should" have, but I liked the frosting otherwise, so more butter it is.

I also want to add more malt next time. I feel that the frosting could be more "malty.")

4th of July Kool-Aid Cuppycakes

I stole this idea from this recipe on "Cupcake Rehab" but tweaked the frosting a bit. I am horrified by the idea of using 4-5 cups of sugar with one stick of butter to make buttercream - that seems WAY too sweet (nothing personal against the original baker - it's just a very strong personal preference). So I doubled the amount of butter and added just a little more sugar. Sorry, but here in the Evans household we do not DO low-fat. ;-D

I was really pleased with the way the frosting came out. I used a larger packet of the blue Kool-Aid than I did with the reddish stuff because it was the only size I could find and I was too lazy to try to weigh out an equal amount. I guess I could try using a larger packet of the red stuff next time to see how it affects the flavor and color.

The taste of the vanilla cupcakes was really yummy, but I feel like they could have been more moist. These cupcakes would be good candidates for using my silicone baking cups next time (I used paper this time around). I also might take them out a little sooner next time (I baked them for 18 minutes).

* Note: I have since found an idea on another blog (Cast Sugar) for making this cake recipe come out more moist. The solution is to use yogurt or sour cream instead of milk. Will have to try that next time.


MAGNOLIA’S FAMOUS VANILLA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups self-rising flour
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full.

Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.


CHERRY KOOL-AID FROSTING

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
6 ½ cups powdered sugar
¼ cup milk
.13 oz. packet KOOL-AID Black Cherry Flavor Soft Drink Mix
1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt
5-10 drops red food coloring (to make it less pinkish and closer to "red")

Beat half of the sugar and all of the other ingredients on low until just combined. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and beat on low until combined. Beat on medium until fluffy and color is uniformly blended.


ICE BLUE RASPBERRY LEMONADE KOOL-AID FROSTING

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
6 ½ cups powdered sugar
¼ cup milk
.22 oz. packet KOOL-AID Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Flavor Soft Drink Mix
1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt
5-10 drops "neon" blue food coloring

Beat half of the sugar and all of the other ingredients on low until just combined. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and beat on low until combined. Beat on medium until fluffy and color is uniformly blended.


Here are a couple more pics: