Recipe: Vanilla Birthday Cupcakes!

Quick & Easy Vanilla Cupcakes

When Facebook remembers your friends’ birthdays before you do

You know those ordinary days when you’re ready to watch The Bachelorette and have your dinner and maybe check your email, then you inevitably migrate to Facebook to see who’s engaged or who’s self-righteously status-updating about Super Serious Issues, and when you’re done scrolling through pictures of kittens, grad ceremonies, and Obama, you happen to look in the upper right corner and discover simultaneously that,

A) It’s been your friend’s birthday for 14 hours and you haven’t called them

B) Facebook is a better friend than you

This didn’t happen to me because I’m an amazing friend all the time forever. But just in case it does happen to you (you’re only human), here’s a quick and easy cupcake recipe you can whip up and give to your pal if you don’t have time to buy/can’t afford a gift.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Preheat oven and line your muffin tin first. Then mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.

In separate bowl or stand mixer, beat butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy.

Add egg, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste, mixing thoroughly.

Add the flour mix, alternating a few times with milk. End with flour mix, making sure you whisk only until combined.

Spoon batter into liners about 2/3 full. If you over-stuff, the batter will rise up over the liner and deflate once cooled.

Bake 350F (325F Convection) for 20 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

In stand mixer or using hand beaters, mix cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until soft and fluffy–about 3 minutes.

Add confectioner’s sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly and scraping down sides of bowl often.

If you are going to add colour to your frosting, do this about half-way through the mixing process.

Pipe frosting onto completely cooled cupcakes and top with sprinkles or candy!

I found these cute little single cupcake packages at Scoop N Save. Great for gifting baked goods.

Recipe: Vanilla Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup soy bean oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/2 cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven 350F or 325F Convection. Line muffin tin.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in separate bowl.
3. In standing mixer, beat butter, oil, and sugar together. Add egg and vanillas, mixing until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl.
4. Alternate dry mix and milk, mixing after each addition and ending with dry.
5. Spoon into liners, filling 2/3 full. Bake for approx. 20 minutes. Cupcakes are done when toothpick inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then remove them from the muffin tin and set aside.
6. Makes roughly 1 dozen cupcakes

Recipe: Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Instructions

1. In stand mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until smooth and fluffy (3 minutes)
2. Add confectioner’s sugar 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down sides of the bowl with each addition.
3. Depending on the weather, you may need to add more or less confectioner’s sugar to get the right consistency of frosting. This recipe can be made without butter, but I find it adds a bit of lightness and cuts down the tang of cream cheese. Just don’t melt the butter. Otherwise you’ll get weird soup.
4. Add any colour you like to your frosting about half-way between mixing.
5. Make sure cupcakes are completely cooled before you pipe.

Eat yourself or give to a friend as a belated birthday present.

Easter Cupcakes

Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes

(It’s an Easter egg hunt in a cupcake)

I was rifling through Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes and found a recipe for brownie cupcakes with a York Peppermint Patty filling. But Easter is upon us and I was looking for something more festive, so I thought of using Cadbury Creme Eggs instead of the mints.

It was a journey that would put the very fibre of my soul to the test. Like Jonah traveling to the furthest reaches of the whale’s belly, I too would undertake the hero’s journey.

So I searched inside myself and asked  the question: Could it be done? COULD IT?

As it turned out, I didn’t need to go on the hero’s journey to find out if you can bake a Cadbury Creme Egg into a cupcake, because every single blogger in western civilization who likes to bake has already done it.

Recipe

I used Martha Stewart’s Brownie Cupcakes recipe, but you can use ANY kind of cupcake recipe you want. I thought these would be good because they aren’t frosted–the creme eggs alone are enough sweetness that icing would’ve been lethal.

Once you’ve picked your recipe, you just need to find mini Cadbury Creme Eggs. The regular-sized ones are too big for this–even though they’ve been noticeably down-sized in recent years (Cadbury, you cheapskates).

From reading other people’s experiences, I learned you want to freeze the eggs before hand. This helps them keep shape rather than crumbling and bleeding their gooey deliciousness into your batter.

Directions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recipe I used called for a cup of chocolate. I bought a bar of Lindt’s 70% Cocoa rather than baker’s chocolate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a double boiler, melt butter and chocolate together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whisk in sugar and salt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whisk in eggs–quickly so they don’t scramble in your warm chocolate mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add flour and dutch process cocoa powder, stirring just until combined so as not to over-mix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full (brownie mixes don’t rise like regular cupcakes). Place frozen egg on top. Gently press into the batter. Use a spatula to urge the batter over top to hide the eggs.

Bake, turning the pans around half-way through. Make sure you test them with a cake-tester. I pulled mine out too soon and had to stick them back in for another ten minutes because they were completely raw inside, even though the tops were nicely hardened and cracked.

Cool and serve. Decorate however you like!

 

Note: I used both Creme-filled and Caramilk. Some people hate the traditional ones.

Some blogs that were helpful:

My Baking Addiction

Sweet Tooth

 

Recipe: Banana Blueberry Muffins

Healthy Recipes for Spring

Banana Blueberry Muffins made with Coconut Oil

I originally bought extra virgin coconut oil because I read it’s good for your hair, but I read you can replace oil and butter with coconut oil in your baking recipes. So my “miracle hair treatment” found some real estate in the pantry.

Coconut oil does tend to flavour your baking, so if you’re not a fan of coconut (what’s wrong with you?) then just use butter. The ratio is pretty 1:1, but you might use less coconut oil than butter.

Nutritional Info:

130 calories, 3g fat, 2g fibre per muffin

Before you start: Preheat oven to 325F on convection (350F if you don’t have convection). Line or spray your muffin tin. Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

• 3 large bananas, mashed
• 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract)
• 1 cup All-Purpose flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

Directions

1. In stand- or hand-mixer, cream together brown sugar and coconut oil.
2. Add egg, mixing until frothy.
3. Mash bananas in a separate bowl before adding to mixture.
4. Add applesauce and vanilla (You can use vanilla extract–I just ran out so I substituted with bean paste.)
5. Combine dry ingredients with the exception of the blueberries in a separate bowl, mixing thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Add to wet mixture, mixing just until combined and scraping down sides of the bowl.
6. Fold the blueberries in by hand.
7. Fill the liners 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes. The muffins are done when you can apply light pressure to the top with your finger and it bounces back.

Cream together brown sugar and coconut oil.

Add egg, mixing until frothy.

Mash your bananas, then add to the mix along with applesauce and vanilla.

Got disgusting, ugly brown bananas? Stick em in the freezer til you’re ready to make some muffins. A few minutes on the kitchen counter will thaw them out.

Mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in another bowl before adding to mixture. Stir in blueberries.

Choose a cupcake liner and fill about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. I had to keep sticking mine back in.

I found the muffins to be tres moist, but they also had some nice texture from the oats. Also they didn’t taste too much like coconut, but the oil definitely gives them a different flavour.

Happy Baking! For some information on the benefits of using coconut oil in your kitchen adventures, check out Simple Organic for the run down.

 

Recipe adapted from The Healthie Foodie‘s Banana Bread

How to Make Muffins in 5 Minutes

Remember Easy-Bake Ovens?

Those were stupid. Unless you like “just add water!” cake mixes you can bake with a light-bulb. You’re probably thinking, “But I loved my Easy-Bake Oven!”, by which you mean, “I used it twice and then it sat in the back of my closet for three years.” I loved my Easy-Bake Oven the one time I used it, too. But I’ve found something better. Something adults can use, but that’s just as cute–nay–cuter than the Easy-Bake Oven.

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It’s called the Babycakes Cupcake Maker and it’s like a waffle iron, except instead of waffles you bake cupcakes and it’s tiny and pink and I almost crapped my pants when I saw it at the store. Bed Bath & Beyond, indeed.

I’m not much of a gadget person, but you should definitely make room for this in your kitchen. It makes eight cupcakes or muffins at a time, which take about 5 to 8 minutes to bake. Seriously awesome, right?

I’m not suggesting you try catering a wedding with it or anything. But remember that scene in Bridesmaids when Kristen Wiig’s character bakes herself a single cupcake in the middle of the night?  Haven’t you ever just wanted to do that? Well now you totally can, and you don’t have to worry about preheating your oven or washing pans or waking everyone in your house up with a bunch of nonsense in the kitchen, because the Cupcake Maker is portable and tiny, like one of those purse dogs. You could even bake cupcakes in the bathroom if you wanted.

Author’s Note: Please don’t bake cupcakes in your bathroom. That’s weird.

I was so pleased with my my new pink and shiny little friend that I tried it out as soon as I could, which actually was in the middle of the night. The whole process took me about half an hour. I made Blueberry Green Tea Muffins, and they turned out perfectly. I highly recommend this to anyone who bakes as a hobby.

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Blueberry Green Tea Muffins

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup milk

2 green tea bags

1 1/3 cup unbleached flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Dash salt

2/3 cup small blueberries

1. Heat the milk and steep the 2 teabags in it.
2. Cream together softened butter and sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs until blended, then pour in the green tea/milk mixture slowly and gradually while you blend the mixture on low speed. If your milk is still hot and you add it too fast, you’ll end up making scrambled eggs that taste like tea.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients with a spoon. Add them to wet ingredients and blend just until combined.
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Fill liners 3/4 full. If you happen to have the Cupcake Maker, they take about seven minutes to bake and you don’t need to preheat it (awesome, right?). If you didn’t immediately run out and buy one after reading my amazing blog, then these muffins will bake normally in a 375F oven for 15-20 minutes.
7. Cupcakes are done when you can apply light pressure and it bounces back.

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Happy Baking!