I Steal Great Recipes: frosting

Showing posts with label frosting. Show all posts

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche filling and Dulce de Leche Buttercream

I volunteered to bring a dessert for our neighborhood Spanish Immersion family potluck. My neighbor friend Kiri throws a mean party. There were about 6-8 families with 18 children running around. Yikes! We all brought foods for the feast.

Dulce de Leche translates to sweetened milk, I think. I made the dulce de leche from evaporated milk- a few hours in the oven and it was caramel goodness! You can buy canned dulce de leche from the Hispanic aisle in the grocery store but that's no fun! I do admit that I bought a can just in case. I did end up using a bit when I ran out of my homemade stuff.

The third recipe I have linked below used canned dulce de leche and a different cake recipe. Like I said, I wanted to make my own dulce de leche, and then I found the cake recipe to be too fussy. I didn't have the opportunity to make vanilla sugar (this takes days/weeks) so I found an alternate cake recipe. It turned out well! The cake was moist, fluffy, and so beautiful with its vanilla bean specks.

I scopped a small amount of cake from the tops of each cupcake and filled them with the dulce de leche. My little guy had lots of fun stealing cake bits when I wasn't looking. (Really, I saw. I ignored!)

The buttercream was piped prettily on top of each cupcake. I'm getting pretty good with that pastry bag!

It was nice to try some new recipes! I think sometimes that I have lost my baking mojo. Let's hope it comes back in full force in summer, when I have much more time to experiment!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Vanilla Bean cupcakes.

Click here for the stolen recipe for the Dulce de Leche.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Dulce de Leche buttercream frosting.

Posted with Blogsy

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Vanilla Latte Cupcakes

It is one of my work bestie's birthday this weekend and we are celebrating tomorrow! She is a coffee lover too so I'm hoping these Vanilla Latte cupcakes will go over well! It is a surprise!

The recipe is from Annie's Eats, so it was sure to be a good one. The cake has espresso powder AND brewed coffee in the mix (I skipped the Kahlua, since it was for WORK. BOO!) and the frosting is a Swiss Meringue frosting. Half of the frosting got a concentrated espresso powder boost and it was piped prettily in a swirl. The vanilla bean flecks are just lovely! I just LOVE fresh vanilla.

The cake was moist and fluffy, with just a subtle coffee flavor. I expected it to be a heavy flavor and I was very glad it was not. The frosting is one of my favorite kinds- the Swiss Meringue has to be cooked in a double boiler, and then ultra whipped by my KitchenAid mixer for a good eight minutes into stiff peaks and to cool down. It is a silky, lovely, not-too-sweet frosting. YUM.

Thumbs up!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Vanilla Latte Cupcakes.

Posted with Blogsy

Friday, June 1, 2012

Graduation Cupcakes

My baby asked for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. He is a little man of simple tastes :)

This recipe is the best- it comes straight off the back of the Hershey's cocoa tin!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Gluten Free Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

I wasn't sure these would turn out. My husband did declare them "very good" though!

It was the most unusual cake batter. It was runny one moment, as I prepared the cupcake pans, and then suddenly the flour was absorbed by the liquid and it was scoop-able.

The coconut flour was so fragrant! I could sniff it all day! I've never made anything with coconut or almond flour. This was a good experience for me.

I needed to experiment with this recipe before I make them for a wedding shower this weekend. The bride-to-be is gluten free. I read a bit about gluten free baking and I think I was very careful with NOT cross-contaminating my ingredients and bakeware.

So how did they taste? VERY MOIST. I think the coconut really came through too, which wasn't mentioned in the recipe. They were also pretty sweet, so it was amazing that there is no sugar in this recipe, but honey. A natural sweetener, I suppose!

So I do think these will work out for the shower. I'm hoping to make some candied lemon peels for a garnish and pipe the buttercream prettily. I just slathered the frosting tonight due to a long work day.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Gluten Free Lemon Cupcakes.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Angie's Famous Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Who is Angie?! I know, but this recipe has been passed around from blogger to blogger from someone who originally knew Angie. Angie must have created this recipe. We thank Angie! It's a moist, fruity sweet cupcake with the most delicious creamy whipped frosting. The frosting even has strawberry puree/chunks, which was simmered with a tiny bit of Cointreau (I didn't buy the strawberry liqueur, others declared it unnecessary).

I was home with my sick son so I didn't notice that I didn't have many mini cupcake liners to choose from in my cabinet. I made do with the creepy spiders! These mini cupcakes are for Bosses Day at my school. My boss is NOT creepy!

I made mini cupcakes because there will be a spread of food for the Bosses. Minis are easy to grab, for a quick taste. I'm expecting my work friends to provide an assortment of bars, cookies, dips, and other goodies for our Bosses.

My diet can't handle the madness!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Angie's Famous Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

I made this cake for Easter. I've had this recipe bookmarked for a long, long time and I finally decided to try it.

There's a lot of frosting on this cake. Cream cheese frosting. Very sweet! I think this was okay because the cake wasn't overly sweet. It was almost pound cake-like.

Here's James' sighting of the CAKE. I missed the moment that he stuck his finger in the frosting and declared it "GOOD!"

The cake was made in a very deep cake pan. I couldn't find one locally so I used my springform (cheesecake) pan and it worked well. The batter was pretty thick so I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't leak through the bottom. To my great relief it was fine :) The cake was then sliced in half lengthwise for these layers.

A traditional strawberry/sugar mixture also was layered into this beauty.

And lots of frosting!

Good stuff! It was a heavier dessert than I had hoped for but delicious! I guess if I wanted lighter I should have gone with an angel food cake. Oh, that reminds me of the chocolate angel food cake I used to make. I need to find that recipe!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cake.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches

OMG! I might be just in a really good cookie mood or these were just ridiculously good!

I am home on a snow day (!!!!!!!) and had the dough whipped up before 8:30am. How lovely to have all of these ingredients on hand (: The dough had to chill a bit before you roll it out, which makes it fussier than I like but I had the time today. And you're welcome to my husband for doing the dishes in all of my spare time too!

But the dough ripped apart easily when I tried to roll it out between waxed paper sheets, which is my preferred method, so I ended up making traditional peanut butter cookies with the criss cross pattern I'm top. I'm sure my cookies are thicker than the recipe's and it will make fewer cookie sandwiches but oh well.

I ended up baking the cookies for even less time than the recipe states (about 14 minutes) so I don't know what's up with that.

I posted on Facebook that there isn't much better than peanut butter cookie dough... But I might have been wrong- this peanut butter filling is the bomb diggety!

Can you believe my little son refuses to try even a bite or a lick of peanut butter "frosting"?! Crazy kid.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Key Lime Cupcakes with White Chocolate Coconut Frosting

Staff potluck. I signed up to bring cupcakes. I knew there would be tons of food so I figured mini cupcakes would be manageable on a buffet plate.

Oh and it was a tropical theme so I thought something fruity was in order. Key limes were available so I was on the search for a recipe that included key limes. I did find one and I was amused that it is a Paula Deen recipe.

The hardest part of the whole recipe was peeling the zest from these little %#@*$%&!!! I think I spent 25 minutes doing this. Oh and then squeezing the precious juice from them. Honestly, I think I just need a new zester.

The cake was light and fluffy, not too heavy on the lime flavor. The white chocolate frosting was very sweet. Too sweet? I don't know. I think I've shocked people before by saying this but I'm not really a frosting fan. I put a substantial amount on cupcakes for others (who do enjoy it) or to make the cupcakes look pretty but I'm never offended if someone is tempted to scrape off half the frosting. It's a personal preference, yo, and I want to do the same thing myself.

Toasted coconut makes it pretty too. It's really the only coconutty part of the cupcake. I was tempted to make coconut cupcakes originally but I know not everyone is a fan. I had a better chance with the key lime!

This isn't even all of them! Mini cupcakes are 1/3 the size of regulars, and this was a larger than normal cake mix so I ended up with darn near 100 minis. I guess the other time consuming part was the 4 batches of cupcakes to bake, piping the frosting on each mini, and then carefully arranging the coconut on top. I love to bake though (:

I didn't really get to see anyone enjoy a cupcake. I went home sick that day from work so I asked a few of my coworkers to replenish the smaller plate of cupcakes on the buffet table. Oh and to take home the extras. I did find the empty baking pans when I returned Monday so I'm hopeful they made it into some bellies!

I joke that I rarely repeat recipes unless they have salted caramel... But would I make these again? Yes, especially if someone requested something with key lime. Fruit cupcakes aren't a special favorite so maybe these are special occasion cupcakes!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Key Lime Cupcakes with White Chocolate Coconut Frosting.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

There is no better time to make cupcakes than when you have no reason! I had ALL the ingredients for these so why not??

2+ dozen cupcakes... I hope I find some people at work to share these with....

The frosting was very sweet so I piped little stars instead of a big mass of sweetness.

I tried another pastry bag tip.

And also, when there is no occasion I can mix and match my odds and ends. I had blue cupcake liners, white, and light pink.

The pumpkin and the greek yogurt made these very moist. There is a hint of pumpkin, but it's mostly chocolate goodness. The buttercream is a bit grainy from the brown sugar but I think I like it. I strayed away from the recipe by NOT using shortening. I've had enough shortening in the last month, thank you very much. I am now a firm believer that buttercream should have butter and not shortening.

I just used another 1/4 cup of butter.

My husband is so sweet. He tells me my cupcakes (these and last weekend's) are better than a bakery's! We've tried several cupcakes from cupcake specialty bakeries but they've been disappointing. Do they not find the BEST cake recipe and make them fresh? Doesn't seem like...

Me = CUPCAKE SNOB

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream. (Remember, I didn't use the shortening. It worked just fine.)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes for Dad

When James and I have a secret we used hushed voices and whisper loudly to each other, within Jim's earshot, "Shhhhh!!! Don't tell him the secret!" So it would be pretty hard for Jim not to know that something is in the works.

We made James' Daddy some special birthday cupcakes. Of course James thought they should be Star Wars cupcakes and they should be chocolate.

I did most of the measuring and running around. James got to stand on his stool and smile prettily :)

Jim took this picture, so obviously he's on to us.

James rolled his head around like the mixer. Faster faster!

A good chef always tastes as he goes.

Yum. Cake batter. (But not too much.)

The cupcakes need to cool. Time to play for a bit.

Later, frosting.

Decorating. "This one is for Daddy."

I have these SW stencils. They didn't work so well on this sticky frosting. The stencil stuck to the frosting and didn't lift off well. I should have known. I'll use the stencils next time on a firmer frosting, like buttercream.

James prefers his cupcakes plain so we didn't decorate all of them.

Jim was a good sport and walked into the kitchen covering his eyes.

"Surprise!"

James is so proud of himself. Good work!

And mellow, fluffy and moist chocolate cupcakes with simple white frosting.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Fluffy Vanilla Frosting.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Cupcake Surprise

I couldn't resist this Cupcake book at Target. And then I thought of the neat recipe I had bookmarked for One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two. While James was occupied with his TV show I whipped up these easy cupcakes, and then half a recipe of (easy) vanilla frosting. I hid my work and then surprised him with the book first.

It's a cute story of a vanilla cupcake who is sad that he is so plain and ordinary. An ordinary birthday candle tries to help him with different toppings to make him special, but in the end they join forces to become a special birthday cupcake.

I brought out my box of sprinkles and things and told James we could decorate some plain cupcakes to make them special for us.

Excuse the dirty, wrinkled up face but he was clearly excited about something!

A loose sprinkle.

James' Special Cupcake, a little heavy on the sprinkles.

The cupcakes were good! These ordinary cupcakes could be customized in so many ways- by adding chocolate chips, cocoa powder, fruit, etc. It's nice to just make TWO cupcakes whenever you need them! (Haha. NEED cupcakes. I mean, WANT.)

Now I just have to tell James that he doesn't get cupcakes EVERY TIME we read this book!

Please click here for the stolen recipe for One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two.

Please click here for the stolen recipe for Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting. I found this frosting recipe in my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. THREE ingredients. So very easy.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Wedding Shower Cupcakes

I was asked very nicely to make cupcakes for a wedding shower for two teacher friends. I asked each bride to request a cupcake flavor.

Sandy chose Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Naomi chose White Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream.

These weren't new recipes so I am going to link to my existing blog posts. Naomi's choice was a bit different, mixing and matching from different recipes for her perfect combination.

Click here for my post about the Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Click here for my post about the White Cake. (It's actually a very flavorful, fluffy almond cake.)

Click here for my post about the Salted Caramel Buttercream.

Happy Weddings!!!

I Steal Great Recipes