Cupcakes Cousin

So I know this is supposed to be a cupcake blog, but I didn't really have time this weekend to make cupcakes...so I made their cousin: muffins!

On Sunday we went to the farmer's market and got some strawberries. We still had some left in our fridge from the week before. I didn’t want to waste them so I needed a way to use. I remembered seeing a recipe for strawberry muffins on Two Peas and Their Pod blog (recipe here) and went back to find it. The recipe calls for Nutella, but we didn’t have any so I decided to leave that out.

I cut up all the strawberries and mixed the ingredients together and thought that the muffins needed a little something extra. Then I remembered my boss brought these amazingly delicious and moist strawberry-peach muffins. Luckily, I always have canned peaches in the pantry. They were the perfect addition!

I cut up 5 or 6 peach slices and threw them in the batter. I’m sure you could use fresh peaches, but these seemed like a better idea. I am not quite sure why…maybe it’s because they’ve been sitting in syrup and I thought they might make them a bit moister. Really it was just a gut feeling and it worked.

The batter was really thick – not quite as thick as cookie dough, but it made me think of it – so I thought I’d try adding a bit of the syrup from the canned peaches (maybe ~ 1 ½ to 2 Tbs). I wouldn’t add any more then this or it might get too liquidy.

The muffins came out great. They were the perfect combination of strawberry-peachy-muffiny goodness. Earl and I were going out to dinner basically right after these came out of the oven, but we couldn’t resist trying one. Best muffins ever!! I will definitely be making these again.

Recipe (adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

-makes ~ 10 muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

~ 1 – 2 tablespoons syrup from canned peaches
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
5 – 6 slices canned peaches; chopped
Sugar, for sprinkling on top of muffins

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper/aluminum liners.

2. Sift together the dry ingredients.
3. Mix the wet ingredients until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix, being careful not to over-mix. Fold in the strawberries and peaches.
4. Fill the muffin cups ~ 2/3 full. Sprinkle with sugar (turbinado is probably best, but I didn’t have any so I just used bakers sugar).
5. Bake at 350°F for 17-20 minutes.
6. Let cool for ~ 5-10 minutes and remove from muffin pans.
7. While waiting for the muffins to cool to an edible temperature try to act like you have patience and self control and then devour.

Espresso Crème filled Cappuccino Cupcakes

When I make cupcakes I usually bring them to work so I decided to ask some of my coworkers what they wanted. Coffee flavor was requested, so coffee it is. I found the recipe for these cupcakes in the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. My hubby (Earl) got this book for me quite a while ago and it sat around for at least six months before I tried any of the recipes. I finally tried one, then a second, and a third, and many cupcakes later I have to say this has become my favorite cupcake book. The cupcakes are always light, moist, and never too sugary. And everything in it is vegan! Though sometimes I modify the recipes to use what I have at home and so when I make them they aren’t always vegan.

This time I made Cappuccino cupcakes filled with Espresso Crème topped with a chocolate buttercream frosting. I got the cupcake and filling recipe from the book and then made chocolate butter cream from my own recipe.

I started by making the cupcakes (mine weren’t vegan because I used Brown Cow plain yogurt since I had that in my fridge). The recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes and they smelled sooo good while they were baking. It was like a coffee house baking in my oven.

The recipe calls for an espresso crème filling and at first I couldn’t decide if I was going to make it. Well, I decided to and am very glad that I did! This was the best filling I have had…so good in fact, that what didn’t end up in the cupcakes ended up in my stomach. Can you say yummy? ‘Cause I can! Looking back this probably wasn’t the best idea, but it sure seemed like it at the time.

I used a knife to cut out the center of the cupcakes. Then I sort of smushed the cupcake to the edges to make the holes a little bigger and filled them with the crème. (I am disappointed that “smushed” is not a “real” word…)

I took the tops of the cupcake pieces I had removed and put them back onto the cupcakes to cover the filling. I don’t usually do this, but I thought I might try it today. It adds a little more cake back and it was nice because it makes it look like there is a lot of frosting without actually having to put too much on. (You’ll notice there are 3 cupcakes without their pieces replaced because Earl had to try them….one by itself, one with the frosting, and one with the filling. He like them all. Does that count as three thumbs up?)

Then I piped the frosting (recipe below) on with a 2D piping tip. I like the way they turned out and so did Earl.

I haven’t liked any of the chocolate buttercream frostings that I’ve found in recipe books. So I thought I would try just making something and seeing how it worked. I liked how this turned out. It’s not too sweet and you can definitely taste the chocolate. It also has a nice creamy consistency. I used semi-sweet chocolate, but I think you should be able to use milk or dark chocolate (though I haven’t tried using them).

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter; softened

3 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

2 cups powdered sugar; sifted

2 tbs soy milk

1 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter in the mixer. Then add the cooled chocolate and cream together. Sift the sugar into the bowl and mix until well combined. Add the soy milk and vanilla and mix again. This recipe is enough for 12 cupcakes.