Buttermilk Cupcakes

I'm going to exercise all of my patience, good nature and positivity today.  It's imperative.  Because if I give in to the "dark side" of my mood things can go very bad, very quickly.  (Can you tell I just watched the newest Star Wars?)

There are some big wheels turning right now that determine the future of my family and they are just turning WAY TOO SLOW for my liking.  It's time for the next big move thanks to the Navy and we know where we are going but the when, how and how frustrated we will be along the way is still up in the air.  The simple act of moving is difficult as it is but throw in three kids, an international move, moving our furnishings into storage, passports, visas and a month in the States in between and you can see how I might be just the tiniest bit stressed.

So instead over obsessing over things that are completely out of my control, I'm making cupcakes.  Simple, light, vanilla scented ones.  I've made these a few times recently and I'm happy to say that they always turn out just right and are easy to play with if you want to go beyond basic.  The first time I baked them I made these sweet little butterfly cupcakes like my Nana used to make.  You just cut a cone-shaped piece of cake from the top, fill the hole with something delicious (I used jam and lemon curd this time, but Nana used to use pastry cream), slice the cake cone in half and nestle it in the filling to look like butterfly wings.  My kids loved them and I was reminded of hanging out in Nana's kitchen as a little girl.  If anything was going to make me forget a mountain of stress, that was it. 

Thanks, Nana.

Buttermilk Cupcakes
Makes 1 dozen standard cupcakes.  Adapted from this recipe by Martha Stewart.
For the printable recipe, click here. 

This is a simple, basic cupcake that you can do in one bowl by hand without having to pull out (or clean!) a big mixer if you don't want to.  It just takes a little elbow grease to whisk the eggs and sugar but it's totally do-able.  That kinda makes it perfect in my book.  The other bonus with this cupcake is that you really can leave it simple or jazz it up any way you want.  I've made them with mini chocolate chips for a birthday topped with buttercream and left them plain for a quick treat.  Add some lemon zest and blueberries, warm spices like cinnamon or cardamom or even bits of toffee or nuts to make them completely special and different.  What you do with the cupcakes is up to you but they are bound to become one of those recipes you keep coming back to time and again.

2 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk
4 tbs butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line the cups of a standard cupcake tin with cupcake liners.  Set aside.

Place the eggs and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer.  Whisk on medium high until the mixture has thickened, lightened in color and forms ribbons on the surface that hold for a few seconds before disappearing. (Alternately, you can do this by hand with a whisk and a large bowl).  Reduce the speed to low and slowly add in the flour and baking powder.  Mix just until incorporated.

In a small saucepan, warm the buttermilk and butter just until the butter melts.  With the mixer on low, slowly add the buttermilk/butter mixture to the batter until it is smooth.  Add in the vanilla and mix until just incorporated (if you want to add anything to the batter such as chocolate chips or berries, add them now).

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake cups.  Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cupcakes are lightly golden on top and the tops spring back when pressed gently and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let the cupcakes cool in the tin on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.  Remove from the tin and cool completely on the rack.  Cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.

The World's Easiest {And Best} Chocolate Cake

 My oldest son turns 7 this week and we had his birthday party on Saturday.  Just like every other mama out there, I can remember his birth like it was yesterday and wonder at how 7 years has passed so quickly.  He was such a wonderful baby, quiet and thoughtful, quick to smile, and the world's best sleeper.  My mother took one look at him and pronounced him an "old soul".  He was one of those babies that makes you wonder why all those other mothers are stressed out and exhausted (don't feel too jealous, our younger son is more than a handful).  I was definitely lucky.  And I still consider myself lucky as we celebrate another year gone by.  My sweet little one has grown into a kind, intelligent, thoughtful, mature and all-around-wonderful young man.  I am so thankful that he came to join our family 7 short years ago.

 

The cupcakes that I made for my son's party are an old family recipe.  My grandparents used to have a small Italian bakery and one of their specialties was a frozen chocolate mousse cake.  I can remember slabs of frozen chocolate cake in my grandmother's freezer that would find their way onto the dessert table at all sorts of family gatherings.  I looooved that cake.  It was super moist and had the best chocolate flavor.  So when I started baking, it was one of the first recipes I asked for from my grandmother.  It wasn't until recently that I found out that the recipe I had been using for years and thought was my grandmother's was actually my Mom's!  Sorry Mom!  But regardless of the source, I still use it, love it, and even carry on the tradition of having some stashed away in my freezer for a rainy day (or any day I just want a piece of chocolate cake).

The World's Easiest {And Best} Chocolate Cake

Seriously, this really is an easy cake.  You can't screw it up.  And it's extremely versatile as well.  It works equally well for cupcakes or layered cakes.  Try it as a cake with a thick layer of chocolate ganache poured over it or with a light chocolate mouse or caramel frosting in between 2 layers.  I made a quick cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes I served at the birthday party and they complemented the cake perfectly.  Or keep the cake plain and put a scoop of your favorite ice cream over top.  Can you tell that the possibilities are endless?

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes, 2 8-inch round cakes or 1 10-inch square cake

1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
1/2 cup light flavored oil such as canola or vegetable
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup boiling water

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda.  Add the milk, oil, vanilla and eggs and stir to combine.  Carefully pour in the hot water and just as carefully stir it into the batter.  That's it!  See, I told you it was easy!

If you are going to make cupcakes, line the cups of two standard cupcake/muffin trays with liners and fill each liner to about 3/4 full.  Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  If you bake both trays at once, it's a good idea to rotate your pans top to bottom and back to front halfway through for even baking.  Once the cupcakes are baked, let them cool on a baking rack in the pan for a few minutes and then remove them to cool on the rack completely.  The cupcakes can be kept in an airtight container for a few days if necessary or individually wrapped and frozen for several months. 

To make a cake, butter or spray your cake pan with non-stick spray, then cut a piece of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan and lay it in.  Butter or spray the top of the parchment and then you can either coat the inside of the pan with flour or, as I like to do so that I avoid the edges of the cake looking gray from the flour, coat the pan with a dusting of cocoa.  Pour the cake batter into the pan to fill it about 3/4 of the way.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  The cake will have puffed in the center and feel firm to the touch (be gentle).  A toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.

Cool the cake completely on a baking rack before removing it from the pan.  To remove from the pan, run a butter knife or thin offset spatula around the edge of the pan.  Place a plate over the cake and, one hand firmly on the bottom of the cake pan and the other firmly on the bottom of the plate, flip the pan over so that the cake rests on the plate.  Peel off the parchment paper and the cake it ready to use.  Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap if you don't intend to use it right away.  Like the cupcakes, you can wrap and freeze the cake for several months if you wish.

Happy Birthday Pumpkin!!!!

Chai Tea Cupcakes with Honey Vanilla Bean Buttercream

I do some of my best thinking in the shower.  And I'd venture to guess that I'm not the only one out there who can say that- please tell me that I'm not.  Please?

Back when I was teaching, I used to walk into my teaching partner's classroom first thing in the morning and start off with "so, I was in the shower this morning and...".  He always smiled and waited for me to finish the "brilliant" idea I had to connect some social studies lesson of his with my science unit or some new way to teach our 7th graders to get along.  To this day, I'm still not sure if he was just humoring me or if my shower epiphanies really were useful.  I always think of that when my husband walks into the rooms and says "You know, I was thinking..." and I know a new house project is about to begin.

So you might be wondering what on earth my shower brilliance has to do with cupcakes.  Well, the idea for these cupcakes came to me while washing my hair one morning last week (of course!).

My birthday was Saturday and I was having some friends over and wanted to make cupcakes for the occasion.  I thought about what I wanted to make for weeks, even testing out some new recipes trying to come to some conclusion as to what flavor my guests would enjoy the most.  Then it hit me- it was MY birthday and I should make something I would enjoy and be happy to celebrate with.  One morning, as I was contemplating popping into Starbucks for my favorite chai tea while sudsing up with the shampoo, it occurred to me that those flavors I love about the tea- the cinnamon, cardomom, cloves, nutmeg and ginger- would all be great flavors in a cupcake.

So thanks to both Starbucks and Martha Stewart (whose recipe I used), I served these beautiful little cupcakes at my party and they were a big hit. The frosting was especially good, it tasted almost like a cream cheese frosting with the unexpected flavor of the honey.  I love tea with honey and thought it would be the perfect match for the tea-infused cupcake.  Thanks to my shower epiphany, I had a cupcake that both myself and my guests enjoyed.

Chai Tea cupcakes with Honey Vanilla Bean Buttercream
Both recipes slightly adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book
Makes about 12 cupcakes (I got 14 from one batch)

For the cupcakes:
3/4 cup milk
2 bags black tea (use a boldly flavored tea if you want it's flavor to come through, I actually used my favorite chai tea to bump up the spices a bit)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
4 tbs softened butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs

For the frosting:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup softened butter
2 tbs honey
seeds scraped from half a vanilla bean (I had one left over from making ice cream so I used it, you could add a tsp of vanilla extract if you didn't have the vanilla bean)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake tins with paper liners (these from Sur la Table were the best ones I've ever used- no sticking to the cupcakes or color fading).

In a small pot, bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat.  Remove from the heat and add the tea bags.  Let steep for 15 minutes then squeeze the bags over the milk and remove.  Let the milk cool completely.

In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and spices.  Set aside.  With a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk until you have a smooth batter.  It may be necessary to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to get all the ingredients fully mixed in.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 of the way.  Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, for about 15 minutes.  The cupcakes should be firm to the touch and golden grown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake should come out clean.  Let cool completely on a baking rack before frosting.

Make the frosting while the cupcakes cool.  In a bowl of a mixer, beat together all the ingredients (start on low so the powdered sugar doesn't fly everywhere!).  Once all the ingredients are mixed together and smooth, give the frosting a few more minutes on a medium high speed.  It will get very fluffy.  Frost the cupcakes as soon as they are ready.  You can refrigerate the frosting if you need to, just be sure to bring it back to room temperature before trying to use it.  A few minutes in the mixer again doesn't hurt either when trying to bring it back to life after being in the fridge.

Serve the cupcakes with a swirl of frosting.  To really gild the lily, you can sprinkle a bit of cinnamon sugar over the tops.