Cupcake Madness

I wondered about posting this as a recipe because I didn't make the cupcakes, but I think our hard work should be documented. For Caitlin's roommate's wedding, she was commissioned to make over 200 cupcakes, and I served time as her sous-chef (I made the frosting). Because of this, the frosting recipe will forever be etched in my mind. I'm not sure if Caitlin wants to share the cake recipes, but if she does I will post those later. There were three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. All had vanilla frosting.

Frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks of butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

April Fool's Day Cupcakes

Don't these cupcakes look delicious? I mean, check out that tasty swirl of smooth whipped frosting! I bet it will be soooo sweet and creamy.

That's what my coworkers thought too, until they bit into them and discovered they were:

Recipe # 22: Meatloaf cupcakes with cream potato frosting

Here they are straight out of the oven:

These cupcakes were created for our company potluck, which happened to fall on April Fool's Day. It was my way of getting back at my coworkers for the disaster of the first potluck. For the first potluck I made some tasty vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and berries (below), and NO ONE ELSE BROUGHT ANYTHING. I made three dozen cupcakes, and the others couldn't even manage to pick up a veggie tray or bag of chips. But, that didn't stop them from gobbling up my tasty treats.

Regardless, I got to play a nice trick on my officemates. Unfortunately, one of my favorite people in the office (who also happens to be one of the nicest ladies ever) was the first person to bite into my creation. I had told them they were carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. My coworker got a bite ready on her fork, and said, "I'm so excited for these! I love carrot cake, and you always do a good job baking." I felt guilty as she put the bite in her mouth, then proceeded to immediately spit it out in her hand.

The next person who fell for the trick is the guy in the office who will eat anything. He's sort of a human garbage disposal. He ate a bite, made a weird face, then ate the rest of the meatcake like it wasn't a big deal.

After the secret was out, people microwaved my treats and enjoyed them as mini-meatloafs. They were actually pretty tasty, and I might use the recipe for a full-sized meatloaf in the future.

Here is recipe #23, Moist Vanilla Cupcakes (I'm not going in order, obviously), the cupcakes from the first potluck.

I topped these bad boys with cream cheese frosting and berries. Ironically, my "moist" cupcakes came out a little dry, but the toppings made up for it. I am pretty sure this is my own fault though, because I overbaked them a bit. Since this recipe was so easy and I usually have all the ingredients on hand, I will probably try it again and see if it becomes my go-to cupcake recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Recipe # 20: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

This is yet another recipe I made before I got sick--only about 4 more to post until I'm all caught up!

Do you love chocolate chip cookie dough, but don't like the idea of eating raw eggs? If so, this is the recipe for you. For the record, I am not afraid of eating raw eggs; I heard it's more likely to get salmonella from unwashed vegetables anyway. Plus, I'm hardcore.

These cupcakes were super sweet, so if I make them again I will leave out the filling. And, it's a pain to core the cupcakes. The frosting tastes exactly like cookie dough, and the cake tastes like a baked cookie. I fed them to my nieces, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, then took the rest to work. The consensus was that while they were very tasty, they were very sweet and rich.

This message brought to you by my recent purchase.

Recipe #12: Neopolitan cupcakes
Recipe #13: Golden Brussels Sprouts.

Matt and I have a rule that every time we go to Costco we make a stupid purchase. In the past, the stupid purchases have been treats of some sort. Ex: cream puffs, frozen cookie dough, a case of muffins, a frozen cheesecake sampler, and the case of Tootsie Pops that currently resides at my desk.

But today, we really outdid ourselves, and purchased something I've been wanting for years.

Here we are together. Isn't she lovely? I only wish I had this beauty when I baked 12 dozen mini-cupcakes as Christmas gifts.

Naturally, I had to break in my new toy by making a batch of cupcakes. Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I made some Neapolitan cupcakes--vanilla/chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

The cake part is from two box mixes--one chocolate, one vanilla. Using a boxed mix in a new mixer is sort of lame, but I was feeling a little lazy. I was more excited about making some frosting!

This may sound conceited, but my frosting is the shiznit. There's nothing special about it, but whenever I make it people ask for the recipe. I think it's because they're used to the canned frosting.

My recipe is based on this one, but I usually end up adding one more cup of powdered sugar. 

For the strawberry frosting, I just added about 3/4 cup of pureed strawberries to my trusty buttercream recipe and an extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and the result was a smooth strawberry frosting that tasted like strawberry ice cream. I contemplated adding some strawberry JELL-O to give it the strawberry flavoring. The Utard (Utahan? Utahite?) in me likes JELL-O with a little vodka in it. (Fun fact: JELL-O is the official "state snack" of Utah.) If it's good enough for Bill Cosby, it's good enough for me. But, in the end I decided to go all purist on these cupcakes, and used real strawberries. 


I wrote this recipe out myself, so forgive me if it sounds like a third-grader wrote it.

Strawberry Buttercream
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream (I think this is about right; I just sort of poured some in until I liked the consistency)

1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pureed strawberries

Cream butter using mixer. Slowly add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add the cream, the vanilla, and strawberries. Mix well. Add the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more cream or powdered sugar until it is the consistency you like.

After Matt ate five cupcakes (this is not an exaggeration), I decided to make some dinner, since it's not acceptable to eat cupcakes for every meal. Besides, everyone knows cupcakes are a breakfast food.

As my dinner sidedish, I decided to try my hand at cooking some Brussels Sprouts. Brussels Sprouts, or B.S. as I like to call them, get a bad rep at the dinnertable. Many a child has whined about eating them, but I actually think they are pretty tasty. Plus, you can pretend you're a giant eating heads of lettuce while eating them. No, I'm not drunk right now. 

I read up a little about B.S., then decided on this basic recipe: Golden Brussels Sprouts. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on mine while they were cooking in the pan, because I like to live dangerously.

The result? Tasty B.S. with a carmelized side, sprinkled with fresh parmesan. I accidentally cut mine the wrong way, so they looked like little roses.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe #11: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

For Christmas, my mom made the most amazing red velvet cake. So, I took the recipe she used (from Cook's Illustrated), and made them into cupcakes. While they tasted delicious, they looked horrible. They didn't raise for some reason, and were completely flat on top. A couple were even a little sunken in. Luckily I'm a frosting lover, so I just swirled on a ton of cream cheese frosting, and no one noticed, or if they noticed, they were all too polite to say anything about it. I even checked my baking soda and made sure it wasn't expired.

 

All of the comments I received about the cupcakes were positive, but the real affirmation came when people went back for a second (or third, or fourth) cupcake.