Vanilla cupcakes with blueberry filling and mascarpone frosting

Happy anniversary to my wonderful parents! They have been married for 32 long years. Through so many ups and downs that life has brought them, they have overcome them and raised three great children (the greatest being me of course ha!), and provided us with a great life. I am so proud to have them as my "mae" and "pai". Love you guys!
Now, my parents love fruity cupcakes, so much so that when I make chocolate varieties, my dad especially sort of wrinkles his nose... Really? Who doesn't like chocolate?! Anyways, due to my parents preference to fruits, I was inspired to make these vanilla cupcakes filled with a blueberry and lemon filling, and then topped with a light mascarpone frosting. How did I come up with that combo? It's partly what I already had at home haha!
The vanilla cupcake recipe I found on Pinterest, and have been dying to try it out. It came out nice and fluffy, with that pretty little dome you expect to see on a great cupcake. It's one I'm happy to try again!! Each of the locations I got the recipes from are listed below.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Yields about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp baking soda 
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line cupcake pan(s) with baking cups.

Sift and mix together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the yogurt, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Gradually add in the dry ingredients in 3 separate batches, alternating with the milk (start and end in dry ingredients). Mix until just incorporated.

Fill baking cups about 2/3 full (or a little less) and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack, and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting or serving.

Blueberry cupcake filling

Ingredients:
8oz frozen blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1-2 Tbsp lemon juice
A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and stir. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved and mixture has thickened.
2. With a paring knife cut cylinders out of the center of each cake and set aside. Fill with blueberry filling and “re-cap” with cut out cake. 

Mascarpone Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
8oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

Directions:
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Resources:
Vanilla Cupcakes inspired by Pastry Affair
Blueberry Filling inspired by Quarter Cup Kitchen
Mascarpone Frosting inspired by Martha Stewart

Mocha cupcakes

Recently I've been baking for different occasions/people, but then I forget to post it... Well, I certainly don't want to forget this recipe!
The "making" of this recipe started back last summer, when I was really supposed to come up with a chocolate/coffee cupcake combo for my brother-in-law (officially now!) for his birthday. I didn't get his treat made last year, so I promised him I would definitely make it this year.
So here is the promised cupcakes, and they turned out very well!!! The cupcake base is the famous Hershey's chocolate cake recipe, but I substituted the boiling water for hot coffee. All in all, it was birthday boy approved!

Mocha Cupcake
~Makes 24-30 cupcakes~

Ingredients:
-2 cups sugar
-1 and 3/4 cup AP flour
-3/4 cup cocoa powder 
-1.5 tsp baking powder
-1.5 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp salt
-2 eggs
-1 cup milk, room temperature
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 cup (very hot/boiling) brewed coffee

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two dozen-cupcake tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
Combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a separate bowl by sifting and whisking it all together.
In a stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla until well incorporated. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Stir in coffee (batter will be thin, that's ok!) and mix well until batter is even.
Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full and bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until inserted tester (usually toothpick) comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature before next steps.

Mocha Ganache

Ingredients:
4oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (or you could do 8oz total of just bittersweet chocolate)
1 cups plus 2 Tbsp of heavy cream
1- Tbsp instant coffee granules
Optional: 1 Tbsp coffee licquour (like Kahlua) -- if not adding this, add another 1/2 Tbsp of instant coffee granules. 

Directions:
Place chopped chocolate and instant coffee granules into a heat-proof medium bowl. Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate. Let stand for about 2 minutes (this step is important! Don't touch it at ALL for 2 whole minutes!)
With a whisk, gently stir the chocolate with the cream in small circles. Once chocolate is smooth, start adding 

Espresso Buttercream Frosting
Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2½ cups powdered sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons espresso powder

Directions:
1. Mix the espresso powder into the vanilla until dissolved; set aside.
2. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about a minute or two. Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high until it is completely incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.

Adapted recipes:
Chocolate cupcakes from Hershey's
Mocha Ganache from Annie's Eats
Espresso Buttercream Frosting from Brown Eyed Baker

Champagne Cupcakes

Hello everyone! So I've been wanting and wanting to make this recipe for almost two months now... every weekend I thought about making it, I ended up being busy with something else or not had the chance to just bake to my heart's content. The printed recipe and the bottle of champagne just sat in my kitchen, patiently waiting until the day I could bake... and that day, my friends, was today!! Hurray! With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I wanted to make something a little bit more "sophisticated" and grown-up, and I think these cupcakes fit the bill.
So what about these cupcakes? I found the recipe through Google from Sprinkle Bakes towards the end of last year. Her cupcake pictures were so cute and festive, and the recipe just sounded great. And 
I always love to make cupcakes that have a filling... the filling adds another layer of depth to the cupcake, and always surprises the person eating it, especially if they weren't expecting it. Okay, starting with the cake itself: it's a very fluffy and light cupcake, and you can't really taste the champagne in it. Now this filling: man, I couldn't get enough of it! There is a definite flavor of champagne, but not strong at all. And the frosting was very airy and "light" (if butter and sugar can ever be called light ha!) We had a little bit of the filling left over, and it was gone in a blink of an eye as we ate it with the extra cupcake cones and some strawberries we had at home. :) One quick note, I used Martini and Rossi's Asti Sparkling Wine as my "champagne", and I thought it turned out perfect. Asti is pretty sweet, so if you'd like something less sweet, then maybe the Prosecco type of champagne called for in the original recipe may be better. 
So hope you get a chance to make these cupcakes for your loved ones, I promise it will be a hit!

Champagne Cupcakes
Yields about 18 cupcakes

Cake ingredients: 
-1/2 cup butter softened
-1 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 3/4 cups flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/2 cup sour cream
-1/2 cup champagne, prosecco or your choice of sparkling wine


Cake directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.  
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix. In a 2-cup measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup champagne and 1/2 cup sour cream (mixture will fizz and bubble a little).  Add flour and champagne mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour.  Batter will be a little thick.
Fill cupcake papers with 1/4 cup level measures of batter.  Bake for 17-20 minutes.  Set aside.

Pastry Cream Filling ingredients:
-1/4 + 1/4 cup heavy cream (divided)-1/2 cup champagne
-2 Tbsp cornstarch 
-4 Tbsp granulated sugar
-1 whole egg
-2 egg yolks
-2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
-1 tsp vanilla


Pastry Cream Filling directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Combine the remaining heavy cream, sugar and 1/2 cup champagne in a saucepan; bring to a boil then remove from heat.Beat the whole egg and egg yolks into the cornstarch/heavy cream mixture.  Pour 1/3 of boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs do not cook.  Return the remaining champagne/heavy cream mixture to a boil.  Pour in the hot egg mixture into the simmering champagne/heavy cream mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla.  
Cut a divot into the top of each cupcake, using the cone method, and fill with pastry cream.  Trim the cut-out cake pieces flat to make a "lid" and place on top of the filled divot.

Champagne Frosting ingredients:
1 cup plus 1 tbsp. champagne or prosecco
2 sticks of butter softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Champagne Frosting directions:
Place 1 cup of champagne in a small saucepan.  Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons.  Transfer to a small bowl or condiment cup and allow to cool.In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream softened butter and powdered sugar together.  Once the frosting is thick and fluffy, pour in the reduced 2 tbsp. champagne plus  1 tbsp. champagne from the bottle and mix well.

Recipe originally from Sprinkle Bakes

Triple Lime Cupcakes

Hello everyone! Today's sweet treat was planned for a very special occasion: six years ago today, I married my best friend. It has been a very busy six years, with so many changes in our lives. Six years ago I had no idea that we would be where we are today... I feel so truly blessed to have my amazing husband by my side through thick and thin. 

Us on our wedding day - first dance!

To celebrate this occasion, I knew I wanted to make cupcakes, but I just had to figure out the flavor. He has been asking for something citrus-y for a little while, so I gave him the option of either lemon or lime. He chose lime! I think he would have preferred key lime, but in good ol' Indiana I haven't found a reliable fresh key lime source yet (if you know of any, please let me know!)
So I came across this recipe from She Makes and Bakes for a key lime cupcake, so I just adapted for regular limes. The cupcake itself though I used my recipe from Lime Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting recipe since I love it so much! The lime curd came out very creamy and with the right amount of tangy-ness. Since I didn't want a regular cream cheese frosting, I added 1 Tbsp of the curd that I made to it to give it just a hint of lime too. All in all, a very successful recipe, if I may say so myself!

 Look who I had eyeing my cupcake while I took pictures!

Now the recipe below made 24 cupcakes, plus an 8-inch cake (just a little on the thin side). I doubled the original recipe for the curd, and I still wish there was a little more. I may increase it a little more next time, and if I have extra I can always save it for some yummy toast! I also wish I had more frosting... so therefore the little cake I made especially for my husband and I to share is not covered completely in frosting (like I would want it to be). I filled it with half curd and half frosting.

Triple Lime Cupcakes
~makes 2-3 dozen cupcakes~


Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
Same cupcakes from my Lime Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting recipe

For the lime Curd:
1/2 cup lime juice (about 2-3 limes)
1 Tbsp lime zest
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened and cut into 4 pieces

For the cream cheese frosting:1 package cream cheese (8 ounces)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp of lime curd
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Bake the cupcakes according to the directions in my  Lime Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting recipe. Let cupcakes cool completely to room temperature before cupcake assembly.

To make the curd, whisk together the lime juice, zest, eggs, and sugar in a mixing bowl set on top of a saucepan with simmering water (this is the double boiler method). Add butter and whisk until thickened and smooth (a thermometer would read 160-170 degrees). Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap to chill. It will pipe into your cupcakes much easier if it's chilled. Once chilled, set aside 1 Tbsp of the curd for the frosting.

To make the cream cheese frosting, in your mixing bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the lime curd and salt and mix until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix until smooth.

To assemble the cupcakes, use an apple corer or a knife to cut a hole in the center of your cupcakes (cone method - for directions, check out this link). Fill the hole with the chilled lime curd. You can do this with a spoon, a pastry bag, or a sandwich bag with the corner snipped off. You don't need to place cake over the hole as the frosting will cover it (I'm sure you can find plenty of mouths to eat those cones!). Pipe frosting on top of the cupcake. 


Lime curd and frosting recipes adapted from She Makes and Bakes

Chocolate cupcake with an AMAZING vanilla frosting!

Hello everyone! We are finally in May, the month of graduations and celebrations! My wonderful nanny/babysitter's son is graduating from college today! She mentions how time has absolutely flown by... I probably will blink and be going to my own children's graduations soon (I don't know if I am ready for that yet...) 
To mark such a special occasion, I thought I'd make him a cupcake treat. I asked his mom what he would like, and she said: vanilla or chocolate (he is not an adventurous eater!). Well, I had been dying to have an excuse to make this intriguing frosting recipe I saw on Pinterest. Why is it intriguing, you ask? You use FLOUR in the frosting! AND you cook it! I was skeptical at first, and I had a backup plan just in case it didn't turn out well. But, I did follow through with it since the source of the recipe I saw is none other than Ree Drummond! Oh, for step-by-step picture directions on how to make the frosting (if you like that sort of thing like me...), go to this link. 
Now, I did already have a favorite chocolate cake recipe, but figured I'd also try Ree's chocolate cake recipe that I keep seeing pop up around the internet. Plus, when I saw her make this cake on her FoodNetwork show, I had to borrow one of my children's bibs for all my drooling! If you are a visual learner like me, I recommend you check out the link for the chocolate cake to see all her amazing pictures.

And, for my "garnish": a graduation cap idea from Skip To My Lou made of miniature Reese's cups, upside-down Ghirardelli chocolate squares, brown miniature M&M's, and melted white chocolate for the tassel. Also saw this idea on Pinterest (can you tell I'm on there a lot???)

Hope you enjoy these Jacob! Congratulations on all your accomplishments!

Ree's Chocolate Cupcakes
~makes 24 cupcakes~

Cupcake ingredients:
-2 cups AP flour
-2 cups sugar
-1/4 tsp salt
-4 Tbsp (heaping) cocoa powder
-1 cup (2 sticks) butter
-1 cup boiling water
-1/2 cup buttermilk
-2 large eggs
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp vanilla extract


Cupcake directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare muffin pans with 24 cupcake liners; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt; set aside. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Once melted, add cocoa powder and stir well together. Add boiling water, then allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds; turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture and stir lightly to cool.
In a measuring cup (I used a 2-cup measuring cup), add the buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Using a fork mix all ingredients well. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into each cupcake liner about 2/3 of the way full and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Once baked, allow cupcakes to cool on wire racks before adding the frosting.

Awesome Frosting


Frosting ingredients:
-5 Tbsp AP flour
-1 cup milk
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 cup butter (2 sticks), lightly softened
-1 cup granulated white sugar (not powdered sugar)


Frosting directions:
In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Be careful not to burn it. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. You can place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools if you are in a hurry. Stir in vanilla. This mixture must be completely cooled in order for the frosting to work.
While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat until it all combines and resembles whipped cream. Make sure you scrape down the sides every so often so that it all gets incorporated and whipped. If it's not looking like whipped cream, keep on whipping. This frosting is great for piping. Best served the same day.

-Chocolate Cupcake recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
-Frosting recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything, originally from Tasty Kitchen
-Graduation cap decoration idea from Skip To My Lou

Favorite Chocolate Frosting

Oh my, two posts in one day! :) I am trying to make up for lost time...
This post though is about a chocolate frosting that I have tried recently and made some modifications to suit my needs/wants. Whenever needing a plain chocolate frosting recipe, I've used this one recipe, which is pretty reliable. What I don't really like about it is how fast it sets! So you better be ready to frost your cake/cupcake when you are finished with the frosting or else it hardens and then you are out of luck.
So I figured it wouldn't hurt to try another recipe... and when I read this one from Annie's Eats, I knew I had to try. I tried, my husband tried, my brother-in-law tried... and our verdict was that, although nice and smooth/silky, it was a little too sour. So, second time around trying this recipe, I made it with heavy cream instead of sour cream. I like it this way much better! But both recipes deliver a nice not over-the-top sweet, very chocolate-y frosting :) This has definitely surpassed my previous frosting choice!
Oh, and a side note: do NOT skip on the sifting step of the confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder... I did that the first time and the frosting came out with little clumps... that got stuck when trying to pipe through a star tip. Second time around, I sifted both items and got much better results!
And a second side note: both cupcakes shown above (and below) were decorated with the same tip! If you start from the center and go outwards, you get the rose look (on the left in the picture below)... if you start making your "swirl" from the outside in, you get the ice cream cone-like piping (On the right in the picture below)... Neat huh?

Chocolate Frosting

Frosts ~2 dozen cupcakes


Ingredients:

9.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4 tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
Pinch of salt
2-3 Tbsp. heavy cream


Directions

Melt the bittersweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (make sure to not let the boiling water touch the bowl!). Set aside to cool until just barely warm. 

While the chocolate is cooling, in a separate bowl, sift and whisk together the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Gradually mix in the sugar/cocoa powder mix and add about 2 Tbsp of the heavy cream. Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate, until the mixture is smooth and well blended. If necessary, add another 1 Tbsp of heavy cream (depending on your desired consistency of frosting). 

Frost cupcakes immediately before the chocolate hardens and the frosting sets.

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats