Cakes/Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago, my husband told me his office was having a potluck and wanted to bring some baked goodies. It’s way easier to bring a tin full of baked goodies vs. a crockpot full of mini sausages with BBQ sauce, so baked goods it was. At first we were thinking brownies, but hey, if you don’t act fast on those potluck sign-ups, the easy goodies get taken (like brownies). So those were out. Cookies were taken, and cake was being brought.

So, I thought…why not bring cupcakes? Sure, cake would be provided but we could bring a fun flavor. 🙂 Then, oreo cupcakes popped in my head. This was yet another recipe that has been forever starred in my Google reader, and now I had an excuse to make them!

There’s many ways that people make oreo cupcakes…some crush them up…some leave them in chunks. I wanted to leave them in chunks so people knew exactly what these cupcakes were, and of course, provide for a fun surprise in the cupcakes. 🙂

Of course, I tried one for quality control. I absolutely loved it. The frosting went perfectly with the cupcake and the oreo/cake combination was just really great tasting together. The next day, my husband told me they were gone by the end of the day, and he got tons of compliments from his coworkers. Guess I should make these again! 🙂

Oreo Cupcakes
Source: Beantown Baker

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups flour, plus 2 Tbsp for the Oreo chunks
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 pkg Oreo Cookies (~45 cookies)

For the frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese at room temp
• 1 stick butter at room temp
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. Twist apart 24 Oreos. Place the wafer with filling on it, filling side up, in the bottom of each paper liner. Cut other wafers in half. Save 24 halves to place in the frosting. Crush the other wafer halves, also for garnishing.
3. Cut the remaining Oreo cookies into quarters with a sharp knife. Toss with 2 Tbsp flour and set aside.
4. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and mix to combine.
5. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in the quartered cookies.
7. Fill the cupcake lines three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.
8. For the icing, cream the butter and cream cheese until fluffy.
9. Add vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. Stir in some of the leftover cookie crumbs (make sure they are well crumbled to avoid a clogged piping tip). To assemble the cupcakes, frost cupcakes (once they are completely cooled) and sprinkle with crushed oreos.

 

When I was researching recipes that St. Louis was known for, I remember consistently seeing gooey butter cake. I thought, gooey and butter? This has to be on the menu! It sounded like it would be a fabulous dessert for the party we held!

I have to admit, I was a little thrown because part of the cake involves yeast. I’ve honestly never baked a cake with yeast before, so I was worried about how this cake would taste. Yeast just screamed bread to me, and bread isn’t really what I would consider to be dessert. However, this cake wasn’t bread-like at all in the end! The bottom yeasty layer was more like a cookie with a warm gooey layer of sweet goodness on top. It was especially fabulous with a scoop of ice cream, and I think this cake would even be more amazing with summer berries!

Gooey Butter Cake
Source: Smitten Kitchen, from The New York Times

Ingredients:

For the cake

• 3 tablespoons milk at room temperature
• 1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the topping

• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• Confectioners’ sugar, for sprinkling.

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix the milk with 2 tablespoons warm water. Add the yeast and stir gently until the mixture dissolves. The mixture should slightly foam while mixing.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and salt in a mixer, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the egg. Once that is mixed in, alternate between adding the flour and the milk mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition. Once everything is well mixed, switch to a dough hook on your mixer and knead the dough for an additional 7 to 10 minutes.
3. Stretch and spread dough by hand into a buttered 9×13 glass dish. Lightly cover dish with plastic wrap or clean towel, put in a warm place, and allow to rise until doubled, which is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
5. To prepare the gooey butter topping, in a small bowl, whisk corn syrup with 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla. Cream butter, sugar and salt in a mixer until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the egg. Once the egg is mixed in, alternate between adding the flour and corn syrup mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.
6. Using a spoon, add the topping in large dollops over the risen cake layer, and use an offset spatula to gently spread it in an even layer. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until it has a golden brown top. The cake will still be liquid in the center when it is done baking. Once the cake is cool in the pan, sprinkle on confectioners’ sugar and enjoy!

So, my husband turned 29 last week. The big 2-9. I always joke around with him that he robbed the cradle (I’m 27), and now I can joke with him that he’s turning 30 next year bwahaha! 😛 (No offense to those of you over the age of 30…I really don’t think 30 is old!)

Every year, I offer to make him a cake, but usually, we meet up with his parents and they get him a cake from his favorite bakery. Double the cake just isn’t necessary. However, this year, we won’t be celebrating his birthday for a couple of weeks with his parents, so the opportunity opened for this baking addict to make him some birthday cake! I asked him what he would like, and my husband is very simple…he wanted a yellow cake with either lemon or pineapple filling.

So, the search for a good yellow cake was on. Of course, I had to refer to The Way the Cookie Crumbles first. Bridget posts these awesome recipe comparisons that take all of the guess work out of wondering which recipe would be the best, and thankfully, she already did the work of comparing yellow cake recipes!

I ended up making the recipe from Cooks Illustrated. I have to say, this cake came out great! It had a great, buttery flavor and were, as the recipe claims, very fluffy. It was also fairly easy to make, and I really think the whipped egg whites lend to the light texture that the cupcakes had. After they cooled, I filled them with lemon curd using the cone method and frosted them with easy vanilla buttercream.

Oh, and pardon the cupcake pictures. I made these cupcakes late at night, and the foil I wrapped them lightly in (or so I thought) ended up messing up the tops. Oh well..still yummy!

Fluffy Yellow Cupcakes
Source: Cooks Illustrated, found on The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups (10 ounces) cake flour, plus extra for dusting pans
• 1¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• 1¾ cups (12.25 ounces) sugar
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 large egg yolks plus 3 large egg whites, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake papers in the cupcake pan.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1½ cups (10.5 ounces) sugar together in a large bowl. In a 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.
3. In the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, gradually add the remaining ¼ cup (1.75 ounces) sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to another bowl and set aside.
4. Add the flour mixture to the now-empty mixing bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. With the mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in the butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape the whisk and sides of the bowl. Return the mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.
5. Using rubber spatula, stir ⅓ of the whites into the batter to lighten, then add the remaining whites and gently fold into the batter until no white streaks remain. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Lightly tap the pans against the counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.
6. Bake for about 15-18 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out cleanly.. Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack until cooled.

When I was a kid, I jumped at every chance to help my mom cook or bake. I found it so cool to be a part of making dinner or baking goodies, so I know one day when I have kids, they will get as many chances as I did to be a little sous chef.

Frigidaire has a website featuring a Kids’ Cooking Academy, which encourages families to come together in the kitchen and make the meal happen together. I think this is a great idea, since cooking can be such a blast for kids!

When I was an education major at one point in my indecisive college career, I realized how much kids LOVE color. They go crazy over colorful things. So, I wanted to share with you this  fun idea for rainbow cupcakes that will probably bring out the kid in you, and heck, if you have a kid, they would enjoy throwing these together with you, too!

I made mine in Valentine’s Day colors, but you can go all out with a full rainbow if you’d like.

I usually use this white cake recipe for cupcakes, but since I’m trying to lose weight, I used an old stand-by cupcake recipe that is pretty popular at Weight Watchers meetings. This also explains why my cupcakes are naked…buttercream isn’t very Weight Watchers friendly. 🙁

Diet Cupcakes
Source: not sure, but someone at Weight Watchers is a genius

Ingredients:

• 1 box cake mix (any flavor)
• 1 1/4 cup of diet soda (any flavor)

Directions:

1. Mix cake mix and soda together. Place in cupcake tins and bake as directed.