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It has been quite some time since I last baked (and blogged about) cupcakes. October of last year, to be exact. That’s entirely too long for one to go without cupcakes!

To put an end to the cupcake dry spell, I wanted to bake something special. I had the idea for these cupcakes while shopping at Bath & Body Works. Weird, yes, but stay with me here. See, every year they have a few holiday scented body lotions and this past year, they had one called Yuletide Pear Vanilla. After smelling it, I declared, “Hey, this smells good enough to eat!”.

The result? Pear Vanilla Bean cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream frosting.

The cupcakes are very moist and flavorful thanks to the fresh pears. Add in a bit of vanilla bean and it gets even better!

For more of a vanilla flavor kick, I used pure vanilla bean paste. This is the first recipe I’ve used it in and I have to say, I’m a fan! I love this stuff! It has a thicker consistency and is flecked with vanilla bean seeds. You can use it 1:1 in place of vanilla extract or vanilla beans.

I had originally planned to use vanilla beans for these cupcakes, but I just couldn’t justify spending around $7 for two beans. Thankfully, I stumbled upon vanilla bean paste. It is much more economical and much easier to use!

To shred the pears, I first peeled them using a veggie peeler. Then, after slicing the pears in half lengthwise, I used a melon baller to scoop out the seeds. And finally, I coarsely shredded them using a box grater.

The Bosc pears I used were very juicy, so to avoid a gushy mess of what was supposed to be cupcake batter, I added a touch more flour to even out the moisture.

To top off these babies, I frosted them with Cupcake Project’s Vanilla Bean Buttercream. Just a note, the recipe only made enough frosting to frost about 6 cupcakes, so you’ll have to up the amounts to frost all of the cupcakes.

Had a slight wrapper malfunction. I was trying these new (to me, anyway) greaseproof cupcake liners but when they came out of the oven they had completely separated from the cupcakes. They looked odd, so just took them out. Less work to do before they get eaten!

Pear Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste
4 cups coarsely shredded pears, such as Bosc (about 1 3/4 pounds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 standard cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add in vanilla paste and eggs. Reduce speed to low; mix in shredded pears. Add flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter among lined cups, filling halfway. Bake cupcakes at 350°F for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are springy to the touch. Remove cupcakes from the tins and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting: Vanilla Bean Buttercream (from Cupcake Project)

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Bonfires always mean one thing to me… S’mores. Yeah, spending quality time with great friends is nice and all… but we’re talking about s’mores here people. Chocolate, graham crackers and toasty marshmallows.

I’m not sure what I enjoy most, toasting the marshmallows (and almost burning them), squishing them between the chocolate and graham cracker or enjoying the ooey-gooey goodness of the whole experience.

Thing is, bonfires don’t work so well indoors. So this is the next best option – S’mores Cupcakes. Toasted marshmallow and a Hershey’s bar section sandwiched between two layers of a graham cracker cupcake.

To make S’mores Cupcakes you’ll need:

Graham Cracker Cupcakes (see recipe link below)
2 huge Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars
16 oz bag of Marshmallows

The graham cracker cupcake recipe is really quite simple to make and the end result tastes so delicious. The recipe comes from Garrett at VanillaGarlic.

Instead of using cupcake liners, I buttered and lightly floured the cupcake pan to get nice even sides.

To assemble the s’mores, first slice the cupcake in half.

Wow, that was hard. Next….

Get your chocolate pieces ready to go by breaking the big Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars in to 8, 2-piece sections per bar. For some reason, I didn’t look at the wrapper to see how many ounces these bars were, but I found them in the candy aisle at the grocery store. They are a lot bigger and thicker than the normal ones that are 1.55 oz. The king size bars are the same thickness as the ones I used, so if you can’t find the big bars, those should work. Also, the cupcake recipe makes 12-14 cupcakes, so you might have a few chocolate squares left over.

To toast the marshmallow, I tried two different ways. For the first try, I cut a few marshmallows in half horizontally and placed them cut side down on a sheet of parchment and set the oven to broil. They took literately seconds to brown on top. A few problems with this method; They browned on the top only and there wasn’t enough marshmallow-to-chocolate ratio on the cupcake. The second try I placed a whole marshmallow on its side. This worked much better as it browned more evenly. You could also use a kitchen torch if you have one. If you toast them in the oven on broil, please be extremely careful. It doesn’t take long (30 seconds, max) for them to go from slightly brown to “OMG! The oven is on fire!!”. Trust me on this one.

Place the chocolate squares on the bottom half of the cupcakes before toasting the marshmallows. That way, the marshmallows are still warm and slightly melt the top of the chocolate. Squish the top half of the cupcake down on the marshmallow just until it starts oozing past the edge of the chocolate square.

Voilà!

Here’s the link to the cupcake recipe in case you missed it: Graham Cracker Cupcakes

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The fall season means a lot of things to me but one stands out as my favorite. Out with the summer afternoon thunderstorms and in with the cool breezes that blow through the huge oak trees and spanish moss. While fall has officially begun, here in Florida, I have yet to see any significant sign of said season.

83% humidity. Check. Heat index in the high 90’s. Check.

So I decided to take matters in my own hands and bake a fall-ish cake. The recipe comes from Paula Deen’s Best Desserts magazine I picked up a few months back and I couldn’t wait to bake it. It’s a perfect start to my autumn baking spree. Oh yes, I love, love, love fall!

The cake has the deliciousness of sweet potatoes, cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg, drizzled with a rum glaze and garnished with walnuts. Let me just say, this was a really, really superb cake!

Hidden inside, layered between batter, is a mixture of brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon. Yum!

But wait… there’s more! I had the urge to make this cake into cupcakes. Jumbo cupcakes actually. I already had the jumbo liners so obviously I couldn’t just let them sit there and feel left out. That would be rude.

I prepared the batter the same as I did for the cake. I filled each one with just under 1/4 cup of batter, sprinkled with brown sugar/walnut mixture and topped with remaining batter.

I think I will make these for Thanksgiving. Everyone really liked them and plus I just need reason to bake them again. Thanksgiving isn’t that far away… I think I can make it. Maybe.

Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Cake (and cupcakes!)
adapted from Paula Deen’s Best Desserts

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato (about 1 medium)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cook and mash the sweet potato, set aside. I did all my measuring of ingredients while it was cooking.

Spray a fluted (bundt) pan with nonstick baking spray. Combine the brown sugar, walnuts and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.

Combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl. With an electric mixer, beat at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Stir in sour cream, sweet potato and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture.

Pour half of batter into pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar/walnut mixture. Spoon remaining batter evenly over brown sugar. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Spoon rum glaze (below) over the cooled cake. I wanted the glaze to run a bit on mine, so I drizzled it on while it was still slightly warm. Garnish with chopped walnuts, if desired.

Cupcakes

Prepare batter same as above.

Arrange jumbo cupcake liners on cookie sheet. Fill each one with just under 1/4 cup batter. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture evenly. Top each cupcake evenly with remaining batter.

Bake at 350°F for 23-25 minutes or until a pick inserted comes out clean. Makes about 15 jumbo cupcakes. When they are completely cool drizzle rum glaze on top, garnish with walnuts (if desired) and enjoy!

Rum Glaze

Whisk together 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream and 3/4 teaspoon rum extract until smooth.

Check out all the great recipes from Paula Deen!

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My dear mom’s birthday was earlier this month. I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up a cake at our favorite local bakery or if she wanted something different this year. She gave me very specific instructions…

Cupcakes. Chocolate.

Since the bakery doesn’t have cupcakes (I know, weird isn’t it? They have every dessert, except cupcakes.) I offered to make her some. After some recipe hunting I decided on Devil’s Food Cupcakes. The recipe made somewhere around 32. Thats a lot of cupcakes for a small party so I decided rather than having a ton of cupcakes of the same flavor I would spice things up a bit. Two of her favorite things are coffee and raspberries, so I filled half of the cupcakes with raspberry jam and the other half with an espresso buttercream filling.

I first baked the cupcakes then let them cool completely. While they were cooling I made the espresso filling. The recipe I found was a bit too sweet for me but everyone seemed to love it. I found the recipe here. I had tried different methods of filling cupcakes before so this time I wanted to try to just pipe the filling in. For both fillings, I used a wilton #12 tip, just poked it in and squeezed gently as I pulled upward. I clearly overfilled the first one. It was oozing filling out the sides. That’s okay though, it still tasted good.

For the top of the mocha cupcakes, I made Chocolate Ganache Frosting and topped them with a Starbucks Mocha Truffle. Man those things are good! It was all I could do to put them on the cupcakes, not in my mouth. They can be a bit pricey if you have a lot of cupcakes but I found some on sale for about $3 dollars off. They have other yummy flavors also like espresso, vanilla bean and milk chocolate chai truffles. Update: I just heard that Hershey is no longer producing the Starbucks chocolates. This is very sad news indeed..

Mmmmm… the cupcakes were perfectly moist and the espresso filling with the ganache was to die for. Chocolate paradise!

I frosted the raspberry filled cupcakes with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I had a minor change of plans with this frosting. I really wanted to use fresh raspberries to flavor it. I bought a container at the grocery store, got home only to realize the middle of the package was completely moldy. So plan B, I took the left over jam and added it by tablespoons until I had the right amount of raspberry flavor. I also dropped in a bit of red food coloring to make it pink because the jam wasn’t really adding much color; it was more of a murky reddish-grayish color.

I’m not sure which was my favorite. I really love mocha, but the raspberry tasted so fresh and summery. I think I will just call it a tie. But the most important part… Mom loved them! As did everyone else.

Recipe Links:

Devil’s Food Cupcakes
Espresso Buttercream Filling
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

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First, let me just say, this is a pretty basic post. Nothing fancy, just a simple cupcake. Now, on with the show…

I have a list of cupcake recipes I want to try and occasionally I’ll pick one when I feel like baking or need a quick dessert. Last night I picked Snickerdoodle cupcakes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. The reason… I had to test out my brand new, shiny, super cool, Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer!! I had been looking at getting a mixer for quite awhile, so when my local store sent me a 20% off coupon in the mail, I no longer had any excuses. Plus, Kitchen Aid has a $40 rebate right now, so I saved somewhere around $100. Not bad, huh?

Here she is. I still need a name for her. Any suggestions? Yes, I name appliances. I’m just weird like that.

And.. it’s pink. My favorite color. But its not just any pink, it’s Komen Pink.

This color means a lot to me, like so many other people.

My grandmother is a 15+ year breast cancer survivor. I remember going with her on her weekly trips to the cancer center. She always made sure that I learned something on way. I loved those trips, even if I didn’t fully understand the significance at the time.

I love the fact that Kitchen Aid donates $50 for each mixer to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. So far they have raised $7 million. That’s pretty darn awesome.

So, the minute I got home with my new mixer, I set out the butter and opened the box. In that order.

The snickerdoodle cupcakes were on my list and I happened to have everything to make them on hand. Using the mixer was so much easier and faster than the hand mixer I had been using.

I even made pale pink seven minute frosting!! For me, that’s an accomplishment. You see, I have a love-hate relationship with frosting. I could never get it to work quite right. Cream cheese frosting wasn’t so bad, but I don’t know how many times I have had to throw out batches of buttercream and swiss meringue frostings. They just never worked. Until last night. Yay!

They were so moist and fluffy! De-lish!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

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Everybody has their favorites when it comes to cupcake flavors and lemon is definitely one of mine. With that being said, I was super excited when I found an awesome recipe for Lemon and Lavender cake. I had never tasted the two flavors together so I was eager to try it for my second IronCupcake Herbs entry this month.

Now, I know lemon and lavender is a popular combo but there is a reason… It’s because they are outstanding together. In this recipe, the lemon taste hits you first, followed closely by a subtle hint of lavender.

To top it all off, these cupcakes were a breeze to make. Just dump all the ingredients in the bowl, mix and bake. How simple.

While they were still warm, I drizzled some lemon-sugar syrup on each cupcake (recipe below). It kept them extra moist and added a bit more lemon flavor. So if you aren’t really crazy about that much lemon you could skip this step.

Rather than pairing them with a fancy frosting, I opted for a plain cream cheese icing. I didn’t want to do anything that would detract from the lemon and lavender.

Also, I had a bit of batter left over, but not enough for another pan of regular size cupcakes, so I made some mini cupcakes. I actually wish I would have made more mini sized cupcakes because they were just so darn adorable!

Voting for the IronCupcake:Earth Herbs challenge begins Tuesday, July 28th and will be open through Wednesday, August 5th. You can use the icon on the right side of the page or the link below to vote for your 3 favorite cupcakes.

VOTE!

Also see my first entry for the Herbs challenge, Peach-Rosemary Filled Pound Cupcakes.

Etsy Prize-Pack:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by insanejellyfish
• A delicious treat from circlemonkey
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend CAKESPY who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!

Corporate Prize Providers:

• Head Chefs by Fiesta Products
• Hello Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
• Jessie Steele Aprons
• Taste of Home books
• A t-shirt from Upwithcupcakes.com
• Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers

Learn more about IronCupcake:Earth and join the fun at www.ironcupcakeearth.com

Lemon & Lavender Cupcakes:
adapted from here.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

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