Walnut Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

I made those cupcakes couple of weeks ago. We had company coming over and I had nothing sweet at home, so I opened up my "want to make it" folder and found this pretty easy and fast recipe. I whipped those in about an hour including cooling time. Ok, maybe and hour and fifteen minutes! :) The cupcakes were pretty tasty the same night, but I would suggest to make them at least one day ahead, they get more moist as they get older.

To make about 20 cupcakes you need:

3/4 cup grounded walnuts/pecans
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 TBS. lemon juice
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs

3 TBS. chopped walnuts for decorating

Beat eggs with sugar, oil/butter, lemon juice and lemon peel until combined. Add walnuts, and mix together. In a separate bowl mix flour with baking powder and baking soda. Add to the egg mixture and fold together to combine the dry ingredients with the wet ones. If the batter is too stiff add couple of TBS of buttermilk or milk.

Fill cupcakes liners with the batter to about 3/4 of a height of liners. Bake in 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool cupcakes and frost with vanilla cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

For this simple vanilla cream cheese frosting you need:

1 - 8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 TBS vanilla

Beat all ingredients until well combined and fluffy. About 5-7 minutes. Frost cupcakes, sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Strawberries are my favorite! I wish I lived somewhere closer to strawberry farms, I would eat fresh strawberries everyday. Living in Chicago is not giving me too many opportunities to get fresh farmed Michigan strawberries. Working full time is not helping either. So Thursday’s Farmers Markets on Daley Plaza downtown are basically the only option for me. During June, almost every Thursday I got couple of little baskets of those fresh, beautiful, red and juicy strawberries…

I love to eat them just by itself, but it's great to make something sweet - strawberry desserts are great. Strawberry-rhubarb crisp was one weekend, than cupcakes, and jam… yes, I did slave in the kitchen for couple of hours to make 9 pint size jars of strawberry jam – but that’s another post. Today, I want to share my recipe for those little moist and sweet cupcakes with whole strawberries inside. The recipe for the cake batter is very simple and you can make it in 9x13 pan, or 9” round pan, and pretty much put whatever fruit you want.

I made cupcakes with strawberries and powdered sugar on top. I frosted some with strawberry butter-cream frosting, but unfortunately I do not have any pictures of those.

Strawberry Cupcakes

5 eggs, yolks and whites separated

1 ¼ cup sugar

1 vanilla sugar or 1 tsp pure vanilla

½ cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour

2 heaping tsp baking powder

20-25 medium size fresh strawberries, washed, stem removed, and dried

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line cupcake form with paper liners. Separate egg yolks from egg whites. Beat egg whites until soft peaks and set aside. In a clean mixer bowl mix the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla until well incorporated. Add vegetable oil, mix for another minute. Fold in beaten egg whites. Mix the flour with baking powder andadd to the egg mixture about 3 TBS at the time, slowly folding in together.

Fill about ½ of each cupcake form with the batter and insert the strawberries in the middle. The strawberry does not have to be pushed in too far, the batter will rise up as it bakes and will cover the strawberries anyway. This should make about 20-24 cupcakes.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden. Cool completely before frosting or sprinkling with powdered sugar. Cupcakes are even better the next day, they get more and more moist as they get older…

For strawberry butter-cream frosting I used 1 stick of butter and about 1 ½ cup of powdered sugar. Mix it together until creamy. I made strawberry compote and added to the frosting. Compote: about 1 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries, roughly mashed with potato masher, added some sugar, not exactly sure how much, maybe ¼ cup, maybe more, just taste it and see if more is needed. Let it simmer on low heat until thickens. Cool completely before adding to the butter cream frosting.

You will only need about 2-3 TBS of strawberry compote to the frosting. I added 1 tsp. lemon juice to bring out the flavor of strawberries. {Instead of making your own compote you can just add about 2-3 TBS of low sugar strawberry jam.}

Key Lime Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

As seen on Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown couple of weeks ago. I really like the idea of those cupcakes, so I wanted to try them, as they received great reviews. Also I noticed that I am becoming obsessed with cupcakes... always researching new ideas and flavors.
This recipe calls for the key limes, but I couldn't find key limes in my grocery store, so I used regular limes.



Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 heaping teaspoon grated key lime zest
• 1 1/2 tablespoons key lime juice (bottled or freshly squeezed)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/3 cups loosely packed sweetened coconut flakes (3.5 ounces)

Frosting:

• 5 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped into small chucks
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted (I only used 2 cups of powdered sugar)
  
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon key lime juice (bottled or freshly squeezed)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Finely grated key lime zest, for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract, key lime zest and juice and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 5 parts total, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold the coconut into the cupcake batter.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners and fill each liner almost to the top with batter. A spring loaded 1/4 cup ice cream scoop works great for this and ensures the cupcakes are all the same size. Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops begin to brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer cupcakes to a baking rack to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling you can make the frosting. In a small heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, carefully and slowly melt the white chocolate. Remove from heat and let cool until just slightly warm. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar until well combined. Add the salt, vanilla extract, key lime juice, and sour cream and mix until very smooth. Add the melted white chocolate and mix just until incorporated.

Frost the cupcakes and garnish with a bit of grated key lime zest. Enjoy!

{The cake portion is very good, tasty, but the frosting is still little too sweet for me, even after I cut down the sugar, so maybe whipped cream frosting with a hint of key lime would be better... }

Here is the link to all the recipes from that episode of Ultimate Recipe Showdown. I know I will be trying few more of those, as they all look very appetizing.

Lemon Cupcakes

Those are like little rays of sunshine on a cloudy day... I found this recipe in my free subscription of Kraft Foods Magazine, it was a bright yellow cover with few appetizing cupcakes. YUMM!
So I finally decided to make those for a birthday party. I usually don't like to make semi-homemade stuff, but I didn't have much time to come out with the dessert so I figured why not?! Super easy ingredients and super easy to make. You'll need:

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding

1 cup water

4 egg whites
Lemon zest from 1 lemon (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Beat cake mix, pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick.) Beat on medium speed 2 min. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined 2-1/2-inch muffin cups.

Bake 21 to 24 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

I used my recipe for cream cheese frosting, the one that goes on top of my red velvet cake. But instead of finishing it up with almond oil and added lemon juice. It had nice, refreshing, lemony flavor.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 - 8oz cream cheese, room temperature (I use Philadelphia)
• 3/4 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 3/4 cup of powder sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 TBS lemon juice
  

Beat cream cheese with butter until fluffy, add vanilla and lemon juice, add powdered sugar in 3 batches, beat few more minutes to get desire consistency. Frost the cupcakes.

This is a great and fast dessert if you don't have too much time on your hands. Definitely worth a try! :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2009 to everybody!

To help us celebrate the New Years Eve this year I made my red velvet cake in form of cupcakes. What a great party dessert! It was everybody's favorite. Believe me this recipe is amazing! I love the hint of chocolate from the cocoa and the almond extract adds a different dimension to the cake. The cream cheese frosting is not too sweet, I only put 3/4 of a cup of sugar, you can still taste the cream cheese and it's lighter in calories (less sugar!). If you try this recipe, I guarantee you will never go back to your old, plain red velvet cake. Click here for the recipe.

{my pretty little red velvet cupcake}