Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red velvet is one of my favorite types of cake. Despite what some people may say, it is NOT just a chocolate cake with red food coloring added. I firmly believe that red velvet is a classic example of a whole that is more than the sum of its parts, because seemingly small modifications (adding vinegar and buttermilk) make it much different (to me) from a chocolate cake.

Because I lovelovelove red velvet, I am painstakingly picky about it. As a result, I have always been afraid to attempt baking it myself. However, last week I finally sucked it up and gave it a shot.

I was making these cupcakes for a friend, so I did a trial run first (not pictured). For my trial run, I used this recipe. I chose it because it used a traditional cooked-flour frosting that I was curious to try (even though I was planning to use cream cheese frosting on the final batch, at my friend's request). I loved the frosting (though I think I need to mix the flour and milk together more before cooking next time because there were a few lumps). However, the cupcakes were a little on the dry side.

For my second and final run, I used a recipe adapted from the above recipe and this other recipe. As you can probably tell, the two recipes are very similar, but the first one has more cocoa and uses butter, while the second one has less cocoa and uses oil. I wanted the moistness of an oil cake recipe while keeping the slightly dense texture that comes from using more cocoa.

This second batch came out almost exactly the way I hoped it would. I still think I could increase the amount of cocoa slightly, which I may try next time.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 ounces red food coloring
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
Pinch salt
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 cup buttermilk (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 degrees if using a nonstick pan).

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Line two cupcake pans and fill about two-thirds full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.


Cream Cheese Frosting (I made a double recipe)

1 pound cream cheese (I always use it straight from the refrigerator)
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cuppycakes

I made these cuppycakes about 2 or 3 weeks ago for a community theme. However, having just moved to a new house, I have been crazy busy and never got around to posting them here. So here I am, squeaking in (hopefully) just before the theme deadline.



I stole this recipe from here, but modified it so that the jelly was baked into the cuppycakes rather than injected afterward. I stole that idea from another blog, which is here.

These cupcakes came out great! Mike says that they may be the best ones I have made yet. I personally think they could have used more jelly. I'd have to fill them a little less full to make that happen, because a few of them did explode a little bit.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Insert 24 liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat well. Mix in the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with the milk. Mix well.
5. Fill the cupcake liners 1/2 - 2/3 full, and make an indentation in the center of each one. Drop jelly onto the indentations (I used 1/2 tsp per cupcake). Then drop a little more batter on top of the jelly pocket.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops start to crack like peanut butter cookies (you can't really insert a toothpick in the center, but you can try to get near the center, I suppose). Cool cupcakes in the pan.


Peanut Butter Frosting

3/4 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons milk

Combine the peanut butter, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the confectioners sugar along with the milk, and beat until well combined.



The cupcakes before they were frosted.


One of the "oops" cupcakes that exploded a little.


A full tray of fully frosted cuppycakes! Nom nom.

Paula Deen's Spinach and Bacon Quiche

I have always seen myself as a good baker and a hopeless cook. However, joining some new baking communities recently has made me realize that I can use my baking skills to make meals sometimes, too. This weekend, I made my first attempt at a quiche. This is actually the second attempt because my husband liked it so much that I made another one! (The first one failed to get photographed because we had friends over).

I was so proud! I like baking because you put the ingredients together and then you're done. Whereas with cooking, you're standing there over the burner with your food about to turn into a blackened lump (if you're me) and wondering what to do right now.



Anyway, here is the recipe I used, courtesy of the Food Network and Paula Deen. No butter, but lots of eggs, cheese, bacon and heavy cream. Hmmm, wonder why I never seem to lose that extra 10 pounds. ;-)

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed
• 1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch glass pie plate

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender. Layer the spinach, bacon, and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set. Cut into 8 wedges.

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.