With or without? These eggnog cupcakes are definitely WITH!

My favorite bookstore is the Bunch of Grapes bookstore on Martha's Vineyard and one of my favorite traditions of this bookstore is that they always serve their customers eggnog on christmas eve. The infamous (at least, it seems infamous to my family) question that you are asked upon entering the store is, 'with or without?'. I always answer, 'with', meaning that I like my eggnog to include alcohol.

Unlike my husband, I'm not a huge eggnog fan. I like the taste, sure, but it is way too rich for me and I can only drink it in small amounts. I am, however, a fan of spiked eggnog around the holidays. I am also a fan of cupcakes (duh!). This recipe is the best of both worlds - eggnog cupcakes with nutmeg, rum, and an eggnog/rum buttercream frosting. They are sweet, rich, and are a perfect holiday treat.

I found the recipe at the Loves To Eat blog.

Sadly, I'm out of practice with the whole blogging phenomenon (Sorry! It was much easier to maintain my blogging schedule when I was unemployed!) and forgot to take pictures of my progress.
However, these cupcakes are coming to work with me tomorrow so I'll have to remember to take photos of my colleagues enjoying their deliciousness... and post for all of the internet to enjoy.

Now, on to the recipe (with a few of my modifications).

Ingredients

Cupcakes:
¼ cup white rum
1 cup eggnog
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg <- I use whole nutmeg that I grind (instead of pre-ground stuff)
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt

Frosting:
¼ cup butter, softened
3 tbsp. eggnog
1 tbsp. rum
generous pinch of nutmeg
2 (or more) cups confectioners’ sugar

Cinnamon sticks

Directions

Cupcakes:- Preheat oven to 350° F. 

- Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. 

- In a small bowl, mix together the rum, eggnog, vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract. 

- In a large bowl, mix together the nutmeg, sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

- Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. 

- Divide evenly between prepared muffin wells.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. 

- Cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

- Cream together the butter, eggnog, rum, nutmeg and confectioners’ sugar. 

- Add in more confectioners’ sugar if needed to make the frosting stiff, but spreadable. 

- Frost the cooled cupcakes. 

- Sprinkle with cinnamon and garnish with a cinnamon stick. <- I broke the cinnamon sticks into smaller pieces to stick in the cupcakes

The end result are delicious, ridiculously sweet (maybe a little too sweet) eggnog cupcakes. With the cinnamon and cinnamon sticks on top, each cupcake looks like a little mug of eggnog.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!!!

Oranges and Lemons and Limes, Oh My!

I'm a fan of citrus flavored cakes and have already made some successful lemon flavored cupcakes, but when I saw this Triple-Cirtus Cupcake recipe with a Citrus Glaze on Martha Stewart's website, I just knew I had to try these.

One thing that was nice about this recipe was that the citrus glaze could be added when the cupcakes were still warm. Since I was making these in a time crunch, this was a huge time-saver. Plus, I got to deliver a batch of cupcakes that were fresh from the oven. Yum.

It was also nice that the recipe makes 32 cupcakes. This was enough to bring one batch to dance, one batch to work, and still have a few left over for bartering* and for Sam.

*Cupcakes are great for bartering. :) I traded two of these cupcakes for two giant fresh cucumbers. Not too shabby!


Here are the pictures:

Like I said, this recipe makes a lot of cupcakes!

There is no baking powder or soda in the recipe so they don't rise much.

Some of these could have used a little more batter in the baking cup.

The recipe says to dip the cupcake in the glaze.

I did this for one and then decided that it would be easier to just spoon the glaze on.

Not the prettiest of presentations, but the glaze got all melty and delicious!

Mmmmm... melty glaze.

I was also supposed to put some lime zest on top.

I zested the lime to do so, and then forgot about it. Oops.

The cake was dense and delicious. Especially when warm.

Overall, these cupcakes rocked!

Here is the recipe:

Makes 32 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (from 3 lemons)
3 tablespoons finely grated orange zest (from 2 oranges)
3 tablespoons finely grated lime zest, plus more for garnish (from 3 limes)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
9 large eggs, room temperature

Glaze

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon finely grated citrus zest, such as orange, lemon, or lime
3 tablespoons fresh citrus juice, such as orange, lemon, or lime

DIRECTIONS

Cupcakes

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. 

- Whisk together flour and salt.

- With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl every few minutes. 

- Add citrus zests. 

- Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla. 

- Add eggs, three at a time, beating until until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. 

- Add flour mixture in four batches, beating until completely incorporated after each.

- Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full; tap pans on countertop once to distribute batter. 

- Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. 

- Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Glaze

- Whisk all ingredients until smooth and combined. Use immediately.

- To finish, dip tops of cupcakes in glaze, then turn over quickly and garnish with zest. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are glazed; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

*These cupcakes are 6 points.

Cupcake Abuse

Check these out.

They look delicious, don't they? These are peach cupcakes with a peach buttercream frosting. I bought the peaches at the Davis Square Farmers' Market and was extremely excited to give this recipe a try. For the record, I'm a huge fan of peaches.

Well, these cupcakes really disappointed me.
The peach flavor of the cake was really really faint and the frosting was way too sweet. The whole combination also had a weird aftertaste.

Now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that the last time I didn't like my cupcakes (the pistachio/raspberry cupcakes), I got nothing but rave reviews from everyone who ate them. So, clearly the problem is just in my head and not actually my baked goods.

Well, I brought this batch to one of Sam's company picnics and came home with almost the entire batch... no one wanted any.

I'm not sure where I went wrong. Were the peaches bad? Did I bake them wrong? Was the universe punishing me for taking a whole week off from baking cupcakes?
Whatever happened, the result was a batch of delicious-looking cupcakes thrown in the trash. :(

That's right folks, I committed cupcake abuse.

Back From Short Hiatus With Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cupcakes

Wow, it has been over a week since the last time I baked a cupcake!
My excuse for the cupcake hiatus: I was tired! The 3-Day really wore me out (like it does every year) and I just couldn't sum up the energy to bake.

So, after a week of excessive laziness, I am attending an intensive dance workshop this weekend - a perfect opportunity to distribute some cupcakes.
I didn't, however, do any grocery shopping in preparation for my return to baking. So, I had to find a recipe where I had all of the ingredients already. The recipe I chose was this Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting recipe from mydiversekitchen.com.

These cupcakes are light and subtly flavored. The frosting is a little too buttery for my taste, but overall, not bad. :)

Here are the pictures:

These kept the shape of the batter - rather amusing. 

Usually, the cupcakes even out as they bake.

A lovely side view.

I should have doubled the frosting recipe. 

There was barely enough to go around.

One delicious little cupcake.

The cake was nice and airy.

Here is the recipe (with my modifications):

Makes 11 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted and then measured

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

100 gm butter, softened (about 1 stick)

3/4 cup demerara (or light brown) sugar, packed

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cups milk, at room temperature

Frosting

2 egg whites

1/4 cup fine granulated sugar

pinch of salt

75 gm butter, cut into cubes, softened (about 3/4 stick)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

Cupcakes

- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. 

- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, cinnamon and sugar till light and fluffy. 

- Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

- Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of milk. 

- Beat after each addition, just enough to combine the ingredients and do not overmix. 

- After all the additions, beat for just one minute.

- Divide the batter equally between paper lined cupcake tins so that each one is 2/3rds full.

- Bake the cupcakes at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes till done or a skewer inserted in them comes out clean.

- Cool for 10 minutes and then turn out and cool completely.

Frosting

- Put the egg whites, sugar and salt in a heat-proof bowl. 

- Place this bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.

- Constantly, whisk the mixture by hand till the sugar has dissolved and the temperature on an instant thermometer reads 70C (160F). *I don't have a thermometer so I just whisked until all of the sugar had dissolved.

- Remove the bowl from the heat, and using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on high speed till they’re glossy and fluffy and the bottom of the bowl feels cool to touch.

- Turn down the speed to medium and add the butter, 2 tbsps at a time, beating well after each addition

- Add vanilla and beat on high speed till smooth.

*This is a 7 point cupcake.

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake Cupcakes!

I know what you are thinking.
You took one look at the title of this post and thought to yourself, 'those sound awful!'.
No worries... I won't take offense. Honestly, I thought exactly the same thing.

So, why did I choose to make a gluten-free, dairy-free cupcake? Because I needed a breakfast cupcake to eat before the 3-Day that all of the members of my team could enjoy (one of which has a gluten-free, dairy-free diet).

Here is my AWESOME 3-Day team, Buses for Busts.

Sam, Me, Bryan, and Naomi after closing ceremony on Sunday.

Shameless plug: we're still collecting donations at www.the3day.org/goto/2010shelleywestover

So, report time for Crew members on Friday morning of the 3-Day is 4AM which means that we had to wake up at 2AM and leave the apartment by about 3AM. Also, once we get to the event, there is no breakfast available; we are responsible for feeding ourselves before we arrive.

I decided that this would be a fantastic opportunity to make another breakfast cupcake to not only feed the Buses For Busts members, but also bring for the entire Gear & Tent crew team.

I found this Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake recipe at grouprecipes.com and substituted out all of the dairy products.

I have to admit how surprised I was at how well these came out. They tasted absolutely amazing! I wouldn't have known that they were gluten-free or dairy-free if I hadn't personally made them. I will definitely be trying this recipe again... maybe next time with dairy products, maybe not... I don't think that their absence made a difference (except in price of ingredients).

Here are my photos:

You would not believe how good these smelled fresh from the oven!

They rose perfectly and didn't burn to the pans at all.

Also, notice that I used pink wrappers once again. 

3-Day cupcakes MUST have pink wrappers!

Doesn't this look delicious!

Here is the recipe (with my modifications):

Makes 18 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes

1 cup softened butter or margarine *I used a Vegan baking 'butter' that I found at Whole Foods Market

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream *I used a Soy Sour Cream substitute that I found at Whole Foods Market

1 teaspoon gluten-Free vanilla Powder

Zest of two medium lemons

juice of one lemon

2-1/2 cups gluten free flour mix

1/2 heaping teaspoon xanthan gum

2 1/2 teaspoon gluten-Free baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

Topping

1 cup chopped pecans *I used walnuts

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin tins with paper liners.

- In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar.

- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

- In a small bowl, mix sour cream, Gluten-Free Vanilla Powder, lemon zest and lemon juice. 

- In another bowl combine gluten free flour mix, Xanthan Gum, Gluten-Free Baking Powder, soda, and salt. 

- Alternately add flour mixture and sourcream mixture to creamed mixture, about a third of each at a time. 

- Stir in blueberries. Dough will be fairly stiff.

- Fill paper liners half way with batter. 

- Combine topping ingredients, sprinkle half of topping mixture over dough. 

- Carefully spread remaining dough on top of topping. 

- Sprinkle with remainder of topping.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes.

Coconut Raspberry Cupcakes 4 A Cure!!!

This weekend will be my 4th time participating in the Boston Susan G Komen 3-Day For The Cure event (my 3rd time serving on the Crew as a member of the Gear & Tent team!) and I'm getting all excited for Crew Day to begin!

*Shameless plug: if you'd like to make a donation, please visit my website (www.the3day.org/goto/2010shelleywestover). Any amount would be GREATLY appreciated... and, if you live close enough, I will bring you a cupcake as a token of thanks! :)


Of course, I had to bake cupcakes for my fellow teammates and once Sam found out that I was going to be giving G&T cupcakes, he wanted me to make some for Route Safety as well. So, this evening I baked Coconut Raspberry Cupcakes that I found at ericksonblog.com.

Now, this recipe was weird in that there were ingredients on the list that weren't in the instructions, there were instructions missing (at least, I'm assuming since if you followed the instructions the cupcakes wouldn't turn out like the picture), and some of the instructions just seemed wrong (for example, the recipe said to bake these cupcakes for 30 minutes... um, no. That would be bad!).

So, I tweaked the recipe a little bit. While they came out great, I will probably make more changes when I make these again (the coconut flavor got lost, I think a buttercream frosting would be better, and more raspberries are needed!).

Here are my pictures:

The directions said to bake these for 30 minutes.

I baked them for 25 and they were still a little bit overdone.

Only the edges were a little crispy; the cake itself still came out really well.

You can see here how the edges burned to the pan slightly.

These look adorable all decorated. I love the powdered sugar-coated raspberries on top.

Also, I made the frosting pink! :)

I learned that the method of dipping the frosted cupcake into a bowl of coconut shavings doesn't work (at least it didn't for me). All of the frosting just fell off of the cupcake and into the bowl of coconut. So I sprinkled the coconut on top. I think they came out well.

Notice the pink wrapper too!

If I had known the dipping wouldn't work, I would have used a decorating tip to apply the frosting.

Now I know...

These really are tasty! There is a raspberry in the cake, I just hadn't found it by this bite.

By the time I did get to the raspberry, the cupcake couldn't 'stand' up and the photo op was ruined.

So, you'll have to trust me that there is a raspberry in the cake itself. :)

Here is the recipe (with my modifications):

Makes 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

Coconut Raspberry Cupcakes

- 5 large egg whites

- 1/2 cup 1% milk

- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1 tsp coconut extract

- 3 1/2 cups cake flour

- 2 1/3 cup sugar

- 4 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 sticks unsalted butter (8oz.) at warm room temperature

- 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

- 2 cups fresh, washed, and dried raspberries

Frosting

- 1 lb cream cheese at room temperature

- 3/4 lb (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp coconut extract

- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

- Red food coloring

Decoration

- 2 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

- 24 fresh washed raspberries

- 1/4 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

Coconut Raspberry Cupcakes

- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line a 24- or two 12-hole muffin tins with paper cupcake cups.

- Put egg whites in a small bowl and whisk slightly. 

- Add the 1/2 cup of milk and the vanilla, and whisk to mix thoroughly. 

- In a large mixer bowl, combine the 3 cups flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, beat dry ingredients to break up any lumps. 

- Add the butter and coconut milk on low speed and beat just to combine. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. 

- Add the egg white mixture in 2 or 3 additions, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition.

- Spoon batter into each muffin tin, almost to the top but leaving about a 1/8 inch so the batter does not overflow.

- In a separate bowl, toss the raspberries with the 1/2 cup of cake flour. Place 1 coated raspberry on top of batter for each cupcake (raspberry will sink to the bottom during baking).

- Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake taster inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

- Allow the cupcakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes. Then place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting and Decorating

- Combine cream cheese, butter, and confectioners’ sugar using a mixer.

- Add vanilla and coconut extract. 

- Cream until smooth (add red food coloring to make pink frosting).

- Spread a generous amount on each cupcake.

- Sprinkle shredded coconut on top of cupcakes.

- Toss the 24 remaining raspberries in granulated sugar to coat (*oops... I used confectioners' sugar).

- Top each cupcake with one sugar-coated raspberry.

- Serve to group of fabulous volunteers gathering together to put an end to breast cancer!!! :)

Don't you wish you were on the Crew as well? ;) 

*BTW, I'll be doing this again next year (WOOHOO 5th year!) so if you are feeling bummed for missing out, you can join us next summer. :) Just let me know and I'll send you all of the info.




*These cupcakes are 10 points each.

My First 'Eh' Cupcake.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, with all the cupcakes I've been baking, that I would bake one that I'm not really thrilled with. Today's cupcake is just that. I don't think it is bad, per se, just not good... if that makes sense.

*Update: These cupcakes went over so well at dance (I was shocked!) that I *had* to update this post.

So, today's cupcake is a Pistachio Cupcake with Raspberries and a Cream Cheese Frosting. The cupcake recipe is one of Martha's and the frosting came from simplyrecipes.com.

Here are the reasons I'm not wild about these cupcakes:

1) They are too dry and overcooked.
I actually questioned the recipe a little. Practically every recipe I've made so far called for the cupcakes to be baked at 325 degrees for about 22-25 minutes. This recipe was 375 degrees for 28 minutes. When I read that, I thought, 'hmmmm, maybe it has something to do with the consistency of the batter'. Turns out they overcooked. :/ If anyone reading this blog decides to try this recipe... go with 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes.

2) They are too salty.
Now, this is entirely my fault. I bought lightly salted pistachios because I couldn't find any unsalted ones. :(

3) They didn't rise.
The recipe said to fill the papers only 1/2 full and top with raspberries and pistachios. These didn't rise all the way to the tops of the papers.

4) The paper is difficult to peel off.
This may have something to do with the overcooking.


Here are some of the things I love about these cupcakes:

1) Each cupcake has one raspberry in it and that berry tastes amazing!
The berry mixes really well with the saltiness. If anything, this recipe could have been salvaged with more raspberries. It has inspired me. Tomorrow, I may try a raspberry cupcake recipe. :)

2) The frosting.
I chose the frosting recipe... the cupcake recipe wasn't paired with a frosting (not even a suggested type). So, I give myself props for making a good frosting. :)


I don't think I'll ever make this recipe again, which is too bad because it certainly sounded delicious from the recipe. Because of this, I'll include the links to the recipes I've used, but I'm not going to spell out the recipe like I normally do.


*Update: As mentioned above, when I brought these cupcakes to dance, everyone loved them. I was so surprised! I figured, that since they did go over so well, I should include the recipes (with my suggested edits) in this post.



Here is the Pistachio Cupcakes with Raspberries recipe:
Makes 15 *I made 18, but probably could have fill all of the paper cups a little more.


INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup whole unsalted pistachios, plus 1/4 cup slivered or chopped *I used lightly salted pistachios
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups fresh raspberries

DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  *I would recommend 325 degrees!

- Process whole pistachios, sugar, and salt in a food processor until finely ground.

- Add butter, vanilla, and eggs, and process until smooth.

- Add flour, and pulse until just combined.

- Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each halfway.

- Sprinkle with raspberries and slivered or chopped pistachios.

- Bake until firm and pulling away from liners, about 28 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks. *I would recommend 22-25 minutes.


Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
- 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
- 2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS
- With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

- Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness.


Here are the pictures:

You can see how they didn't rise to the top of the papers.

Otherwise, they do look rather tasty.

I bought some decorating tips and played a little.

Next time I'll try to decorate with some kind of fun design.

For my first time with tips, I think these came out looking really nice.

This little guy is quite deceiving. It looks so tasty... and then you taste it. :( Oh well.

You can see where it was overcooked and really stuck to the paper.

Also, the cake was so dry. 

The frosting, however, was great!

I'm nervous about bringing these to dance tonight. Normally, I wouldn't want to share them because they aren't perfect. But, I also think that everyone will understand since I'm hardly a professional baker.

Also, who knows, these may not be my cup of tea, but someone else might really love them.

*I shouldn't have been nervous!

I do feel bad, however, that I made these specifically for a friend's birthday. Sorry Amy - I wish they had come out better! I will try another pistachio cupcake recipe sometime and bring them for you.

*Amy didn't show up for her birthday cupcakes. :(

*Note: this is an 8 point cupcake.