Yeah, I'd Bake That's Not Favorite Things Because That Name Was Taken But Items We Really Enjoy List! Part 1

Today we kick off our 2nd(!) Christmas season with Yeah, I'd Bake That's Not Favorite Things Because That Name Was Taken But Items We Really Enjoy List!

Let's talk about this title. I am not giving anything away so "12 Days of Giveaways" was scratched off the list, and I just didn't feel right using "Oprah's Favorite Things". "A December to Remember" is great if you can also say "Everyone's getting a car!" but sadly, not this year. YIBT that is in no way endorsed by Oprah, licensed by Hasbro, given special accommodations from any baking company, affiliated with Lincoln Motors, herein withto, ipso facto legal talk.

Favorite Cupcake of the Year: Vanilla Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

The rumors are true (because I'm the one who started them). Yeah, I'd Bake That is slowly getting back to regular postings. I can't officially promise a post a week like before, but we'll get there. Together.

I know it's a little bit early in the year to be picking "The Best Cupcake of 2012" but I don't care. I had no formal judging process. I didn't choose this one because it got the greatest reception (although it did) or because it was the easiest to make (it wasn't). My choosing this cupcake to share with you today is because I just liked it the best this year, damn it.

Birthday Red Velvet Cupcakes

We're backkkkkkk [bitches!]. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to use bitches like that because this blog is rated G for content, but it felt right. Just really right.

So after a prolonged hiatus due to the stressors of grad school, particularly the audacity of one professor who assigned us a 10 page paper for finals week, I'm back with a vengenace [insert karate kick sound here].  I've been holed up in an office for the past two weeks creating lesson plans for invisible students and writing papers and as soon as I was free I went straight to the grocery store to stock up on red velvet cupcake ingredients. For those of you who had these red velvet guys back in November, this is that recipe. Not only is it a great comeback gig, but Saturday was my birthday so I went all out here.

Red velvet cupcakes are fun to make for two important reasons. 1. There's so much red dye involved that you feel like you're recreating a crime scene from Dexter. It's fun to walk around the kitchen and say things like "yeah, the perp came at it from this direction". The second reason is that when you accidentally combine baking powder with white vinegar you get an awesome explosion! Who doesn't love that.

On the Road with YIBT: Apple Pie Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

You did it! You made it through Thanksgiving! With any luck your body has starting working against the tryptophan and the cranberry sauce that's coursing through your veins, and you can finally sit down and read something without falling asleep. I'm so proud of you.

This post is a special one because it's our first (say it in the Oprah voice) travel edition post! Yeah, I'd Bake That packed up (which is an understatement I will explain later) and hit the road to a bigger and better kitchen!

Last week I committed to making these apple pie cupcakes, and hit the grocery store to pick up some supplies. I thought I was being responsible, picking everything up ahead of time so I wouldn't have to run out when we got to Jersey. I was even going to measure out everything I was bringing from home, pack my icing gun and the new cupcake corer I had yet to use. It was a nice thought.

We were 5 traffic miles and 45 minutes away from the house when I realized that I forgot everything. EVERYTHING. Not only did I forget to bring all of the supplies, I had completely neglected to pack any of it. So when we got to Jersey I called myself an idiot the appropriate amount of times and went back to the grocery store.

These cupcakes were fun to make because I actually had counter space to work with. Real counter space. When I'm in my own kitchen I use the top of my dog's crate as part of my work space (which enables me to act like I'm a guest on a talk show, pulling out the ingredients or finished product from down below) but it's not ideal. In the Jersey kitchen (which I'll so fondly refer to it) I could move around and actually do things. So much room for activities!

This recipe is extremely easy. The actual cupcake parts tastes more like an apple bread than a sweet cupcake. The insides are filled with apple pie filling, and the icing is a light whipped creme icing that makes the whole cupcake taste like a real apple pie. I would HIGHLY suggest them, and they're perfect for the upcoming holidays.

Apple Pie Cupcakes with Caramel Icing

http://www.justputzing.com/2011/10/caramel-apple-pie-cupcakes.html

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 cup of milk

1 stick of butter

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 pinch of nutmeg

1 pinch of ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling: 2 cups of apple pie filling

Frosting:

2 cups heavy cream

3 to 4 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/2 cup caramel sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350. Put your cupcake liners in

2. Heat milk and butter in small saucepan or in microwave until butter melts

3. In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder cinnamon and salt together

4. In separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar until really thick for about 5 minutes. Add dry ingredients and mix until incorporated

5. Add the milk and vanilla mixture and mix until blended

6. Put batter in cupcake tins about 1/4 full

7. Bake 16-18 minutes. Cool in pans for 5 minutes and then move cupcakes to racks to cool.

8. When cool, use corer or knife to scoop out a hole in the center of the cupcake. Fill the hole with apple pie filling.

For the icing: Beat whipping creme and powdered sugar until thick.  

 Then you just have to drizzle caramel sauce over them!

Final products:

At the end of the day, I had a full batch of Apple Pie Cupcakes and a full batch of Red Velvet. I hadn't intended on making the red velvet ones, but I figured since I had the room and I was already buying the ingredients again I might as well. Red velvet is a post for another day!

If you were at the party and tried the cupcakes, leave a comment here and let me know what you thought! 

Source: Just Putzing Around the Kitchen

URL: http://www.justputzing.com/2011/10/caramel-apple-pie-cupcakes.html

There Will Be Cupcakes *Special Post

About a week ago I implored my scores of readers to keep on reading and pass the blog along to their friends so that when we passed 1,000 views I could post an awesome new cupcake that I'm almost positive we invented.  Well, the time has come my friends - we went over the four digit mark by about 30+ views, so I present to you... the 'There Will Be Blood' cupcakes.

So, I'll explain that.

A while ago spouse and I were at a mexican restaurant in an up and coming neighborhood in Philly. When I say up and coming I really just mean that everyone there had cut off jorts on and they were covered in tattoos. Generally, I think nothing in particular when I'm surrounded by these people - it just makes me feel significantly less cool. I'm okay with it. But in this restaurant, we were clearly sticking out a little - even though Kev had his best James Taylor tee on. (I suppose it would have been cooler if it was like an old Springsteen concert shirt? But that obviously just shows you how much I stuck out myself). When we wind up in places like these, we always do the same thing; we start scheming about grandiose situations. "Are these the same clouds that we saw yesterday?" "What if we became gentlemen farmers?" or on this particular occasion: "What if we had a cupcake truck?" At least that's how it started. But then it morphed into a whole new idea- if we had a bakery, what would be our hook? How would we make people notice our cupcakes? And then just like how we brushed aside the answer to the clouds question, we decided that the obvious answer was to make movie themed cupcakes.

Once that was decided, the ideas came fast and more ridiculous than the last. Forrest Gump cupcakes! Mrs. Doubtfire cupcakes with lemon meringue icing! Ghostbuster cupcakes that were filled with slime! They were all awesome. And as we sat there surrounded by hipsters in jorts, we created the "There Will Be Blood" cupcake.

Based on the movie "There Will Be Blood" starring Daniel Day-Lewis these cupcakes are vanilla with chocolate insides that make it look like there's oil in them there cupcakes when you cut them apart.

They're decorated to resemble Daniel Day-Lewis' character's mustache and that metaphorical milkshake from the great line "Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I'll end up drinking your milkshake".

Here's the video if you don't remember the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pik1hQsuJbA
^That line comes in around 11:33.

It's obviously a stretch, but an awesome one. We have a whole list in our brains of the kinds of cupcakes we'll make, but I had to start with this one. I always wanted to decorate a cupcake with a mustache.

I used a few different recipes to create the cupcakes. I'm going to give you the links and the recipes, along with my rag tag instructions to keep it all in one place. I used three websites all together.

For the chocolate oil insides I used the chocolate insides recipe from the Molten Chocolate Cupcake Recipe I posted last month.

The cupcakes recipe was from Tastykitchen.com: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/best-vanilla-cupcakes-ever/

The icing recipe was from The Girl Who Ate Everything: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/09/frosting-that-will-get-you-hugs-and.html


Chocolate "Oil" Insides Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

In a small saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium/high heat until it's hot but not boiling. Stir in the chocolate chips until they're melted and the texture is smooth. Put in the fridge for about an hour, stirring it every once and a while to make sure it thickens.


Cupcake Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/2 cups of All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 3 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 1 cup Canola Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Sour Cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line your cupcake pan with liners. The recipe said you'd get 24, I got 28.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Put aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thickened and the color becomes lighter. With the mixer still on, add in oil and vanilla. Beat until blended and then add the flour mixture alternating with sour cream.

4. Scoop batter into cupcake pans. **This is where I added a tablespoon of the chocolate mixture. I then added a little bit more batter on top of the chocolate. Bake at 350F for 18-23 minutes (mine were in for about 19) and let cool.

While the cupcakes were still in the oven, I tried a new icing recipe I found on the Girl Who Ate Everything blog. It was interesting because you have to cook the icing, but it promised that it would be the lightest, almost whipped creme like icing you've ever tried, and it would get you hugs. I started the icing early because it needs some serious time to cool. If you're looking for really whipped icing, this is definitely your recipe.

Whipped Vanilla Icing Recipe

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 Cup Butter
• 1 Cup Granulated White Sugar

1. In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and keep it over the heat stirring constantly until it thickens. Be super careful not to burn it! Remove it from the heat and let it cool to room temp. The mix has to be completely cool before you mix it with the rest.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy. Then add the milk/flour mixture and vanilla and beat it until it looks like whipped cream. Be sure to scrape the outsides of the bowl occasionally so that all of the icing gets incorporated. If it doesn't look like whipped cream at first, keep going.

I can't recommend this icing recipe enough, although since it's so warm I would move quickly when using it. It's not sweet, but paired with this cupcake recipe it's amazing.


So here they are, the "There Will Be Blood" cupcakes. They have a rough name sure, but these mustachioed and milkshaked cupcakes are keepers. If I ever had a bakery, these would be sitting right next to the dreamy Inception cupcakes. Or would they?

Check them out and let me know what you think!

Daniel Day-Lewis probably would approve this message.
But I didn't ask him.

Sources:
Molten Chocolate Cupcakes: Betty Crocker: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes: Tasty Kitchen: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/best-vanilla-cupcakes-ever/
Vanilla Icing: The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/09/frosting-that-will-get-you-hugs-and.html

Coming to terms, or Margarita Cupcakes

I've always been disappointed with myself because I don't like traditional margaritas. I love strawberry ones, I will partake in one of those any time, but something about traditional ones just turns me off. Or as my Dad says, makes me feel like I'm eating bathroom cleaner. He really has a way with words.

So I should have known that I would just love margarita cupcakes. Sometimes, my smarts even surprise me. This recipe was me coming to terms with this fault of mine.

The whole thing started because my sister Allyson was returning home from a trip to Mexico, and since she started galavanting across the border and back she's picked up an affinity for tequila. I am personally not a fan of it; it never ends well for me. You can put it right up there with Twisted Tea, gin, and shots of just about anything.

We had missed celebrating Allyson's birthday, and decided to celebrate when she got back into Philly about a month later. Baking with tequila sounds challenging at first (or the greatest way to mask a drinking problem), but I found a pretty great recipe and decided that even though I generally don't like margaritas, this would work and I would love them. Maybe I was inhaling too much powdered sugar.

The main ingredients.

The cupcakes turned out awesome. The batter tasted really good, it was accented with just enough lime juice and bits of lime zest. They made the whole house smell like Disney World.

The icing was probably the fluffiest icing I ever made, it's a great recipe. And I really liked it until I put the tequila and lime juice in. I have to mention that people actually liked these cupcakes (probably should have mentioned that earlier) -- it was me who didn't like them. Maybe because I poured the tequila in, I could taste it more than anything else... but people seemed to really enjoy them. I would suggest that if you don't like the margarita DRINK, these cupcakes are not for you. Even though they looked awesome.

See?

I used the icing gun to swirl around the icing for the tops of the cupcakes, and sprinkled more lime zest over the tops.

They look good right?

Here's the recipe if you want to give them a try: http://thefrostedcupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/05/margarita-cupcakes-for-cinco-de-mayo.html

^^That Frosted blog is awesome, by the way. I would highly suggest subscribing to it if you like this blog but wish that it was better maintained and more clever. That's the blog for you!

In other news, YeahI'dBakeThat is huge in Indonesia this month! I totally get that.

In other other news, we're quickly approaching four digit views, and to celebrate I've got a ONE OF A KIND cupcake coming your way. The parts themselves will be lifted from other recipes, but it's never been done before (that we know of). Once we break that viewing record, I'll bake them up and share them with the eagerly awaiting masses. If you want to see the recipe tell your friends to check out this blog already. Seriously, it's getting ridiculous.




Source: Margarita Cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo
Frosted! Gourmet Cupcakes, Cookies & Treats
http://thefrostedcupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/05/margarita-cupcakes-for-cinco-de-mayo.html

Cookies and Creme Cupcakes

When I first decided to start chronicling my baking ventures in a blog I promised myself that I wouldn't say things like "hubby approved!" and "kevin loves it!" Thats just not me. And if Kevin knew what were good for him he'd like everything I baked - which he does with the exception of anything with mint. (i rediscovered this fact when i made these) The reason I even mention it is because this story all started with a slip of Kevin's tongue. <-- that's the last time I'll mention him by name, I promise!

We were driving home from the movies the other day when my spouse said "i'm looking forward to your first real fail." This came at a break in the conversation, and while I first thought he was talking about general life fails, he was really talking about baking and my blog posts. There are a few things wrong with this sentence. 1. Why would you say that to someone?! Actually, that's about the only example I need. You just don't wish failing upon people spouse, you just don't.

So somewhere in the back of my mind, in a little cob-webbed corner I hid that thought away. But in reality, I was just waiting for it. It was only a matter of time. Spouse had cursed me, cursed me good.

I was making cookies and creme cupcakes for a friend's birthday, and was looking forward to trying out this recipe because there's oreos inside. Even the icing has oreos in it! The party was hinging around a game of frisbee golf, so I decided early on that I would make the icing look like grass and lodge one half of an oreo in the top of the cupcake to look like a frisbee. This is what I was going for:

It's not the clearest image, but it worked.

The plan was simple enough. The recipe for the cupcakes worked out great, and the icing was extremely complementary. The problem was that the recipe said you should just spread the icing on the cupcakes, and now that my icing was green there was no turning back from piping it to make it look like waves of grass. This is where the problems started, THIS is where my fail began.

Behind the cupcake you can see my icing gun - this thing does everything. I have about 6 different tips I can put on it that will make different designs. I opted for the second largest one because I wanted smaller pieces of grass. Fail. The cookies that were in the icing were getting lodged in the tip, so I put the bigger one on. Bigger fail. There was actually a minute where I thought of aborting the whole mission and throwing all of the cupcakes in the garbage.. because I have a temper.

It's these kinds of situations where I have to walk away and figure out why it's not working. But in this case- I yelled to my spouse that he better come to the kitchen and help me out of this jam because he jinxed me. Not the fun kind of jinx where we laugh and owe each other cokes - I was on the edge and had to finish 28 cupcakes with icing that just wasn't working the way I wanted it to. Fast forward an hour later, and we had iced them all one. at. a. time. We'd ice one, clean out the cookies and then move on to the next. An awful lot of work just to see one fail. I hope you're happy you who shall not be named.

In reality, this really wasn't a huge fail. It could have been a lot worse. The recipe is actually pretty great, and the cupcakes certainly tasted good. They were a little dry for my taste, but I'm chalking that up to the amount of crushed oreos that were inside. Not my anger.

You can find the recipe I used here: http://javacupcake.com/2009/12/cookies-n-creme-cupcakes-2/
There are a lot of other cookies and creme cupcakes I'd like to try, but this was a good beginner one.

Here's a few pictures of the final product:

Here's the pink cupcake stand I made.

I wanted to give a cupcake to my neighbor, and found these little cupcake boxes on Amazon. 

Give them a try! And if you have better results than me, just don't tell me.


Source: Java Cupcake: Cookies-n-Creme Cupcakes
http://javacupcake.com/2009/12/cookies-n-creme-cupcakes-2/

Molten Chocolate Cupcakes

In my long, long history of blogging for Yeah, I'd Bake That there hasn't been a post that has gotten more views or comments than the notorious Chocolate Dump Cake. Something about it has attracted and captivated..four or five people.

So in trying to recreate that same experience, I'm sharing a new super EASY recipe for Molten Chocolate Cupcakes. Let's face it- the best dessert any restaurant ever has is that chocolate cake that's all heated up and oozes out molten chocolate lava. In the kitchen of those restaurants, they just put a piece of cake in the microwave to heat it up and then watch as you 'ooh' and 'ahh' over it. (You can thank my previous work experience for that nugget of insider knowledge) This is exactly that, but in a more impressive way that you can make on your own. This recipe will make your friends think you're moonlighting as a part time pastry chef, and if they don't, then that's the last time you share your cupcakes with them! I mean, come on, could you give some positive feedback at least once if your life Karen?!

The recipe is from Betty Crocker, you can find it online here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes

I made this before I started the blog, so there's only one picture. After spreading the icing on the cupcakes I dusted them with powdered sugar, but they'd also be good with whipped cream and strawberries or vanilla bean ice cream. The one thing I should mention is that you shouldn't skip on the whipping cream for this recipe, it's a must!

Try it out and let me know how it goes! In the meantime, I've got a wicked recipe for cookies and creme cupcakes that I just finished and will be posting about soon. Here's a sample of what the post contains: oreos, self rising flour, and a failed attempt at streamlining (and possibly inventing?) cookies and creme icing. Discuss!



Source: Betty Crocker
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes

Snickers Cupcakes!

Second post. Less pressure. This weekend was our friend Christine's birthday, and I promised I would come bearing cupcakes. I went with snickers, raspberry & peanut butter. The snickers cupcakes are heart attack inducing but ridiculously good. I found the recipe on a site called Annie's Eats - she collected the ingredients from:

[[Cupcakes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, caramel sauce from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz, frosting adapted from My Baking Addiction]]

She does a better job of laying out the pictures and the ingredients than I ever could, so it's best to go there for the recipe. It's pretty easy to follow, just pretty time consuming. The carmel sauce alone will slow you down, but it's incredibly worth it. If you can measure success by high fives, than I think this was a good recipe to make again.

 I made the cupcakes and stuffed them with snickers at night.

I waited to ice them til the next day to make sure they still looked fancy for the party.

I was pretty happy with the final results:

I'll post the recipes for the peanut butter and the raspberry cupcakes another day. I actually ended up making a blackberry version of the cupcakes too, I'd say it was pretty successful baking venture. Definitely try these if you can. And make a dentist appointment too while you're at it.

First blog! Banana Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Icing

Welcome to my new blog, Yeah I'd Bake That! It's a blog about baking and love. But mostly about baking. Actually, all about baking. 

Be forewarned, I have no professional experience and no baking education, I just really like to do it. My problem is that I have no one to really bake for, no proper audience (and certainly not a house filled with children to eat it all) so I thought this might be a better venue. I'll still have to make people eat my baked goods, but this feels like a better outlet. I find the majority of my recipes online, so my plan is to highlight interesting recipes, photos of the process, and things I would like to bake but haven't yet. I'm open to challenges, so if you have something you'd like to see in particular, just let me know.

Now that we've gotten the exposition out of the way, let the first post begin.

For my very first blog entry, I'm starting with a ringer. Technically, or from my standpoint, you can't really go wrong with a recipe from Martha Stewart's website. Of all the ones I've made, the following one was definitely the easiest. It also helped that I had several bananas that had seen their day and were ready to serve their final purpose.

I found the recipe on Martha's site here. The cupcakes were super easy to make, and definitely didn't take very long. I do have to warn you that if you try them out - don't expect a sweet cupcake; these are almost passable for breakfast. The cupcake is banana based, and the icing is a mixture of honey and cinnamon. The icing is sweet, so it makes up for it.  

You can get the full list of ingredients and good stuff here: http://www.marthastewart.com/283233/banana-cupcakes-with-honey-cinnamon-fros

But here's a breakdown of how I made them:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

The recipe calls for 4 ripe, ultra smashed bananas.

You'll need to make a well in the center of the bowl to mix together the butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. You'll need to start folding in the flour mixture, but only a little bit at a time.

So it looks like this!

Divide the batter into lined muffin cups. When I made them, I got exactly 12.

My cupcakes were in for about 25 minutes.

I made the icing (only powdered sugar, butter, honey and cinnamon) in the mixer. I was a little short on the sugar, but it  didn't seem to matter.

On her website, the icing was white, but mine came out a lighter color of brown.

Since I had cleared my house of bananas, I couldn't top each individual cupcake with a banana slice like the site suggests. Instead, I sprinkled them all with cinnamon. Not too shabby right?