Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups


It took me longer to get this up then I wanted, but here it is. We had a potluck at work two Fridays ago, so what did I bring? Cupcakes, of coarse! I thought mini cupcakes would be perfect for a potluck since it’s a small bite (or two) and other people would also bring dessert. I also wanted to add a little something more then normal and I recently found this blog – bakeitinacake.com – and so I thought I’d try it. Recently I made mini chocolate cupcakes (I got the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) with peanut butter frosting for a friend and I thought it would be perfect with a mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup inside! (My hubby got me the ones without a wrapper.)

I spooned in about 3/4 of the batter into the cups and then added the mini Reese's.

Then I covered the Reese's with a spoonful of batter. I am not sure this was really necessary because the candy just sinks to the bottom (see photo at the end). I saw this posted on someone's facebook page. It looks like the candy stills sinks towards the bottom, but maybe not as far as without it.

This frosting is the BEST. It tastes like a nutter butter. Soo good!






Peanut Butter Frosting (enough for 24 mini cupcakes)

1 stick unsalted butter; room temp
1/3 cup peanut butter; room temp
~1 tsp vanilla
1 - 2 cups sifted powdered sugar (I always like less sugar)
~ 2 tbsp heavy cream

Beat butter and peanut butter until creamed together. (I like using a stand mixer.)
Mix in vanilla. Sift powdered sugar into bowl and mix until well combined. Add heavy cream to desired consistency.



Monday, August 1, 2011

Chai Latte Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

So I have to start by saying that finding time to write this blog is a bit harder then I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think it would be easy…but it takes me longer then I thought. I guess I focus too much on trying to make it perfect when I should really just be myself, but in writing. Harder said then done, that’s for sure. Anyways, here’s my next entry – chai latte cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I love chai tea. Hot or cold, it’s my favorite drink. The absolute best I’ve had is the vanilla chai tea from Bolthouse Farms. It has just the right amount of spice and is perfectly creamy. This is one of those things I think I could live on. These cupcakes capture the drink perfectly. And I added cream cheese frosting, which makes everything better!

The cupcake recipe is pretty straight forward and you can find it in the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. (I haven’t found a recipe from here that I haven’t loved.) The batter may be a bit more time consuming then others because you have to make tea, but if you plan it right it really doesn’t take too much longer. I usually make the tea and let it steep and work on the rest of the batter.

Brought the soy milk to just barely boiling and put the tea bags in to let them steep.


Combined all the dry ingredients.

This is what the milk looks like after 10 minutes of steeping.

Whisked the wet and dry ingredients.

Fill the cups (these are mini ones) and bake for 10 - 11 minutes at 350F. (When I make full sized cupcakes I bake them for 20 minutes.)


I cut up the butter and cream cheese and put them in the mixing bowl when I started working on the cupcake batter so that they would soften up faster. (The recipe is below.)



I sifted the flour right into the bowl and mixed in.


Then I added the vanilla and neon blue food coloring. (These were for my coworker and her children so I like to make the frosting colorful and fun.)



Here I wanted Earl to take photos of me frosting the cupcakes, but as you can see it didn't work too well...better communication definitely needed.

I made two other cupcake recipes since I last posted...hopefully I will get the mini chocolate-peanut butter cup cupakes up tomorrow. :) Happy Cupcaking!