Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Oreo Frosting

   Today we had a baby shower for two ladies in our church. Both having boys. I have been wanting to make these cupcakes for a while so I decided to make them for the shower. Mint Oreo Frosting with Chocolate Cupcakes! YUM! And indeed they were.

    For the frosting I just bought cream cheese in a tub then oreo's, I crushed them and mixed with the frosting. I couldn't find a recipe for oreo frosting so i had to experiment, it turned out great! I probably could have crushed them more but I think it was fine.

  For the cupcakes I used a homemade recipe that I have posted before. These cupcakes pretty easy, you just have to pay attention. And they taste great!

Chocolate Cupcakes:

2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup hot water

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

3/4 shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1.  Heat oven to 350*. Place baking cups in cupcake pan.

2.  In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder; set aside. In small bowl, mix hot water and cocoa until dissolved; set aside.

3.  In large bowl beat shortening with mixer on medium for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl every once in a while. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Beat in vanilla. On low speed add flour mixture( a little at a time). Then add cocoa mixture slowly, beat a little while longer so it is well blended.

4.  Divide the batter into the pan, fill each about 2/3 full.

5.  Put in oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:

2 tubs of cream cheese frosting

1 box of oreo's(I used mint)

1.  Crush Oreo's and mix into icing.

2.  Ice cupcakes as intended.

Happy Baking!!

                                                                                             Madi-Cakes

Apple Pie

  Yes,  I know its been a while but I have been a little lazy(not going to lie). So today I am going to show you something simple and easy yet tasty and perfect. A traditional Apple Pie. Yes, quite simple but it still is good for a dessert to bring over or just staying at the house.

     Now on the top layer you can do anything you want, a full layer, strands, or tore up pieces like I did. On the bottom to go fast just keep adding the dough till it is high enough on the sides and thick enough on the bottom. When you have covered everything i usually add cinnamon and sugar to the top, I think it adds flavor.

   I really like this recipe because it is fast and simple. There isn't a lot of hassle to do this. I usually use the apple stuff from the can, just because all the work you have to put in to make them homemade is tome consuming. 

Dough Recipe:

2 cups of flour
1/3 cups of milk
2/3 cps of oil

1. Mix all the ingredients together and lay one layer t the bottom before adding your apple filling.
2. Put the oven on 375* and bake for about 15 min. (If it needs more put it in for however long).


Happy Baking!!


              
                                                    Madi-Cakes

Messy Dallas Cupcakes

    For these cupcakes I wanted something different, something I got bits and pieces from. So the concept came from Carmel Frappucino Cupcakes from ericasweettooth.com . Then since I am addicted to Red Velvet I decided to do those. Now since it is Spring Break, I was lazy and I made it out of the box again. I know, is cheesy but still very tasty.

   Now I wanted it to be like coffee but with a twist, something original. After coming up with the cupcake I had to think of a background, so I gathered the colors and remembered the coffee mug I got for my parents with the name of the city we live in on it. ( The one in the picture). While thinking of that I came up with an original name and that's when I came up with this one. 

      Now, I had many ideas to go with these few flavors, to satisfy that I made different types. The first was the one in the photo above. For this one just make and frost the cupcake, then drizzle the chocolate and carmel on top. This will get messy.

 For the one above you fill the middle with carmel and cover the mess with your frosting. It is a mix of your simple regular cupcake with a little sweetness. With the next cupcake it is just a regular red velvet cupcake. If you don't want both chocolate and carmel on the cupcake you can put one or the other.

   For the cupcakes you will need these items:

- Chocolate syrup

- Carmel syrup

- Red Velvet cake mix

- Cream Cheese frosting

- And a frosting tip of choice

Follow the directions on your cake box. Then frost your cupcakes and add drizzle. If you are filling the middle with carmel then follow the steps from picture.

Happy Baking!!

                                                                                                   Madi-Cakes

Peanut Butter High Hat Cupcakes

 Saturday I made these cupcakes for a get together my church was having for the college students. These cupcakes are totally not the prettiest my totally amazing and the melt in your mouth! Now if you don't like peanut butter or chocolate( or them together) then I suggest you don't make these. They are very strong tasting of peanut butter.

   Now, the batter is like a sugar cookie so when it bakes it rises and is rounded at the top( like a hill). My first batch didn't do this because my ovens are breaking, so I had to change the temp setting. Also instead of using the star tip I used you should use large tip #1. I got this recipe from The Big Book of Cupcakes, you'll be seeing a lot of recipes from this book. I love it!!

   Now, you will notice that these aren't that pretty but they are very good! There is 3 things you have to make so if you don't want to make the chocolate just peanut butter is still VERY good!

Cupcakes:  

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup milk

Frosting: 

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 creamy peanut butter

1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme

3 cups powder sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Chocolate Coating:

3 cups milk chocolate chips

6 tablespoons oil ( I recommend slowly putting that in because you may not need all tablespoons)

Cupcakes:

1. Heat oven 350 degrees. Put baking cups in pan. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In large bowl, beat 1 cup butter and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in 2 teaspoons vanilla. On low speed add flour mixture, a little at a time. Divide batter among baking pan.

3. Bake about 20-24 minutes or until toothpick is clean. Then cool.

Frosting:

1.  In large bowl, beat 1 1/2 cups butter and the peanut butter with electric mixer on medium until smooth. Beat in marshmallow creme. On low speed,gradually add powdered sugar until blended. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla; beat 3 minutes longer to get well blended.

2.  Then frost.

Chocolate Coating:

1.  In a saucepan, melt the chocolate chips and oil. stir as needed. Let it cool down when finished and make sure clumps are out.

            

                                                                                                              

Happy Baking!

                                                                                                   Madi-Cakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with White Truffle Frosting

  We had some old friends get together, everyone was supposed to bring an item for us to eat. Being my speciality I decided that I would make cupcakes! I choose this flavor because one of the children that was coming is allergic to some things and this I knew would be fine.

I am sorry that the picture is sideways, I can't get it to turn. :)  I got this recipe from my new book The Big Book of Cupcakes by Betty Crocker. I am in love with this book, it has everything I could possibly think of!! These cupcakes also make up for my messed up Valentine's Day cupcakes.

I made this cupcake homemade for the first time. I was so proud when they came out nice. Of course, they didn't come perfect. the tops were not smooth, I don't know why... But if they tasted devine then that's okay!

 

As you can see the tops are cracked. Thats okay though! Here is the recipes for the frosting and cupcakes!

Cupcakes:

2 cups flour

1 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup hot water

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

3/4 shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1.  Heat oven to 350*. Place baking cups in cupcake pan.

2.  In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder; set aside. In small bowl, mix hot water and cocoa until dissolved; set aside.

3.  In large bowl beat shortening with mixer on medium for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl every once in a while. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Beat in vanilla. On low speed add flour mixture( a little at a time). Then add cocoa mixture slowly, beat a little while longer so it is well blended.

4.  Divide the batter into the pan, fill each about 2/3 full.

5.  Put in oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean. Frost with desire! ( I used #21)

Frosting:

1 cup white chocolate baking chips

1 container of ready to spread vanilla frosting

1.  In a microwavable bowl put in the chips. Microwave for about 30 seconds or until well melted. Then mix into your frosting. (You may have to microwave the mixture for 20 seconds, also make sure it doesn't get hard before you are finished so frost immediately!)

   Happy baking!!!

                                                                                     Madi-Cakes  

Valentine's Day Strawberry Cupcakes

    Today, I will show some Valentine's Day cupcakes. These are the cupcakes that I messed up on but were still very good! This was my first time making strawberry cupcakes from scratch, and when I printed the recipe I didn't double space it. Although I looked over the recipe many times before I still didn't see the right amount I needed.

    I got the strawberry cupcake recipe from tideandthyme.com and the ganache from allrecipes.com. The batter for the cupcakes will be very thick, or mine was at least, and since i was going to dip them in the ganache I decided to fill them more than half so they will rise high. The mistake I made was not putting in enough flour, but they came out wet and still tasted fine.

       As you can see in the second picture they have fallen in, but that what happens when you mess up.. For the chocolate hearts, I went to Michael's and got the chocolate wafer candies. if you melt these for about a minute then put them in a Ziploc bag, and cut a very small hole in the end like a decorating bag, you can make shapes of any kind. In this case I made hearts. Put them on wax paper and in the fridge to harden.

          
      For the cupcakes:



-  1 cup butter

-  2  1/2 cups sugar

-  3 eggs

-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-  1 teaspoon red food coloring
-  1 & 1/4 cups pureed strawberries
-  3 cups cake flour, sifted
-  1 teaspoon baking powder
-  1 teaspoon baking soda
-  pinch Salt
-  1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners and set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar for 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, food coloring and strawberries, beat for another 3 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients and add to butter/egg mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
Fill cupcake tins 2/3 of the way up. Bake for 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the Ganache:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 
  
• In a heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips with cream over low heat. Remove from the heat. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally.
• 
  
• For a pourable ganache, cool until mixture reaches 85 degrees F-90 degrees F and is slightly thickened, about 40 minutes. Pour over cake, allowing some to flow down the edges to completely coat. Spread ganache with a spatula if necessary to evenly coat, working quickly before it thickens. Chill until set.
• 
  
• For spreadable ganache, chill until mixture reaches a spreadable consistency. Spread over cake. Chill until set.

* for the Ganache I would recommend not using semi-sweet, I would use regular chocolate. This makes it more tasty.  




                                                                            

 My wonderful Aunt's birthday was today and I told her I call making the cupcakes! Since our favorite flavor is red velvet I made those. This time I just made them out of the box, but she taught me to add a package of chocolate pudding mix into the batter. This makes them moist and delightful!

 The tip I used was #104, this is used to make roses but I did this pattern instead. When you do the flower you will move in a circular motion around the side of the cupcake, then do it again around the second layer. If you go to you tube you can find the video to see this by hand. Search making a flower out of icing, this will give you many ways and you can choose.

As you can see I move in a up, down movement. This creates a sunflower pedal. I do a lot of flowers, I do have 2 sisters,and 2 girl cousins.. I will do sport cupcakes soon. But when you do this you will do a section then you will have to turn your cupcake in order to keep your wrist even.

  

This cupcakes are a perfect idea for a young girl's birthday, Easter, and many more! I hope you love these as much as I do!

               Madi-Cakes