Orange Chocolate Almond Cupcakes

Tonight Kelly and I made Orange Chocolate Almond Cupcakes. We made 2 dozen regular sized cupcakes and just under 2 dozen minis. They're quite interesting. Chocolate cake with an orange and almond butter cream frosting. The reason for the almond in the frosting was to cut down on the sugar, and it worked. Plus, it also gave the frosting a lovely speckled look. The almonds were basically a powder, so I used a lot of that to off set the powder sugar. The frosting was very rich and just a little sweet. I didn't have any oranges so I zested grapefruit to add a little kick to the frosting. The cupcakes have a chocolate covered orange candy piece inside (from Trader Joe's of course!).

Toffee crunch, malted milk ball, and marshmallow cupcakes, oh my!

This is Kelly! She's fun, as if you couldn't tell from the photo?! Anyway, NO that's NOT her glass of wine in the picture, it's her hubby's. She doesn't drink. Guess that means more booze for the rest of us.

Anyway, last week Kelly and I made three different types of cupcakes: toffee, malted milk ball, and marshmallow. I forgot to take pictures, so no photos of these bad boys, I apologize. They were quite good though.

The toffee cupcakes were minis, and the toffee and chocolate chips were mixed into the batter. It of course all sunk to the bottom of the cupcake, but that's ok, they were good, good, good! The frosting was a rich butter cream with almond flavoring. These were a hit.

The malted milk ball cupcakes were the regular size. After filling the liners with batter I plunked a malted milk ball into each cupcake. Frosted these fellas with the same almond butter cream frosting and topped with a malted milk ball. Quite yummy. The "baked" malted milk ball tasted great.

The marshmallow cupcakes were, um, interesting. Just like above, placed batter in liners, plopped in marshmallow and baked away. The marshmallow basically blew up in the oven, but fortunately didn't make a mess. When removed, the marshmallows deflated and cooled to become a little crispy on top - in a most wonderful way! But these guys were so sticky I put them into little glass containers then frosted them. They were beautiful and the sweet crunchy flavor imparted by the baked marshmallow was fabulous. I want to try this again, and tweak it a bit. Not sure how to avoid the stickiness of it, perhaps coat the cupcake in coconut? I don't know, I"ll figure something out.

Next time I'll try to remember to photograph them.

I had some left over toffee batter so I made this itty-bitty cake. Technically not a cupcake, but at least you have an idea of what the toffee cupcakes looked like.

Spicy Little Devils

I'm not one for spicy, usually, but these are really, really good. I made them for the hubby since he likes things hot! These are the mini-cupcakes.

• Box of devil's food cake mix, follow the directions listed
• Container of Trader Joe's "Dark Chocolate Chipotle Hazelnuts"
• 24 ounces Cream cheese (3 packages)
  
• Powdered Sugar (2 pounds)
  
• Almond or hazelnut extract, liqueur, creamer - whatever liquid you have that's a nutty flavor - 1 to 2 ounces total
  
• Chipotle spice - ground
  
• Cinnamon
• Cocoa

Once you're little devils are in their backing cups drop in a TJ's Dark Chocolate Chipotle Hazelnut (or two or three - depending on the size of your cupcakes). Bake according to the cake mix directions. While those bad boys heat things up in your oven, get your frosting groove on!

Cream cheese (room temp, or nuke it a touch if it's chilly-willy) and mix on low in a KitchenAid stand mixer. Once it's very creamy add in some powdered sugar, slowly and completely incorporate before adding more. Add to taste, if you like it sweet like I do, go crazy and put in two pounds worth or so. Once it starts getting a little stiff add some of your liquid (almond or hazelnut extract, liqueur, creamer whatever you have that's flavored, have fun with it, this is not an exact science! But do be careful, a little liquid goes a long way! Add only about 1-2 ounces). Once the frosting is rich and creamy add the cocoa, chipotle, and cinnamon to taste. I added a lot because the cream cheese really balances it out and I wanted to have this frosting smack me upside the head - just a little, I didn't want to be knocked unconscious, but a bit of kick is good.

Now the fun part! Once your devil cakes have cooled off, cover the bottom of a container with frosting, plop in the cupcake and add more frosting to cover. Drop a few Dark Chocolate Chipotle Hazelnuts for garnish and viola! Something spicy to heat up your night!

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

These were good, but I still need to figure out how to make them better. Standard box of chocolate cake mix, then before baking I snuggled a chocolate covered caramel in the the batter within the cupcake. The frosting is a coco-cream cheese. Very rich, and very sticky! Due to the cream cheese frosting I stored these in the fridge. I think at room temp they'd be easier to eat. The chocolate/caramel melted and settled on the bottom of the cupcake and was very chewy. Aside from that, they're great! I'm not sure how to keep the chocolate covered caramel in the middle of the cupcake... everything always sinks to the bottom. Oh well, still darn tasty.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

These were my favorite that Kelly and I baked. Again, just a standard box of chocolate cake mix. Then once the batter was in the mini cupcakes we plopped a peanut butter cup into it. After they cooled we frosted them with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting - sounds a little odd, but really works! Good stuff. The hubby complained that these cupcakes were "too rich." Bah, as if that's possible?! I thought they were damn good.

Cherry chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes

Kelly and I made these cherry chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes. It was a "Thanks!" for watching our knuckleheads while we were out of town for a wedding.

Just a basic box of chocolate cake mix then we added the chocolate chips and cherries to the batter before baking. The frosting is cherry cream cheese. I used some of the syrup for flavoring and color, the rest is just cream cheese and powdered sugar. They were quite good.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I've been a baking fool as of late. I made orange creamsicle cupcakes, that even I liked. Usually I just enjoy making and decorating the cupcakes, I leave the eating of them to others. This time however I ate my fair share! They're very simple to make, especially if you cheat like I did.


Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• zest from 2 large oranges
• juice from the 2 large oranges you just zested the life out of
• orange soda combined with the juice of the oranges until you have 1 and 1/2 cups of total liquid (I didn't have orange soda so I used Tangerine Lime from Trader Joe's - good stuff)
  
• 2 egg whites
• Mix the above bad boys together until smooth
• pour into a muffin tin and bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes

While these fellas are baking make some frosting!

• 1 pound of warm butter (room temp is best, but hey, go ahead an nuke in the micro if you haven't planned ahead)
• 2 pounds of powdered sugar
• zest of one orange (not from above, you'll want a whole another orange)
• 2 ounces of Grand Marinier

Hope you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, as it makes this next part really easy. Mix butter on low and slowly add some of the sugar, once that's incorporated, add a little more sugar, keep on incorporating until it starts getting stiff. You can add the orange zest at any time, just keep the mixer on low. When the frosting starts getting stiff slowly add the Grand Mariner and keep mixing until it's very creamy. If you go crazy and add more liquid than you intended, just add more powdered sugar until it's all better.

Before frosting the cupcakes I injected them with vanilla pudding (I used instant pudding and just followed the directions on the box). The pudding's your secret weapon to really making these cupcakes outta this world. I have a Bismark tip that I use to fill the cupcakes with. The disposable clear piping bags work great for this, but if you run out of them like I did, you can resort to a large zip lock bag. It's a bit difficult to work with and I had to use tape to keep the tip firmly in place, but it did get the job done. Once you've filled the cupcakes frost and enjoy!