Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Submitted by Heather

Raise your hand if you're one of those people who would rather eat the cookie dough raw than bake it?  Really?  I must admit that I do my fair share of snitching dough, always ensuring that I scoop up a number of chocolate chips to make it worth my while.  But while I do really love cookie dough, I'd rather bake it into cookies.  These cookies make it so that you don't have to choose - they give you a little of both worlds.  You get a delicious, golden cupcake filled with cookie dough (eggless!) and then topped with tasty cookie dough frosting.  What's not to love?

My kids sure couldn't answer that question.  They loved these cupcakes.  They weren't difficult, but you do have to plan ahead so that you have time to make all three components.  And I didn't even make the fourth!  If you're really ambitious (or just have some cookie dough laying around) you'll make a batch of mini chocolate chip cookies for a garnish.  Don't be thrown off by the frosting.  It's supposed to be a little bit grainy so that it mimics real cookie dough.

You won't be sorry you made these babies, and neither will anyone around you.  Enjoy!

Yield: 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

For garnish:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies
Mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total). In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake. Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.

Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

SOURCE: annies-eats.com

Anglefood pineapple cup cake

Such a simple recipe!  If the pineapple scares you , don't let it.  The cake is just moist and light and you can't necessarily tell it is from the crushed pineapple.  A great spring/summer dessert!

(one tip though...I would recommend putting the pineapple into a food processor.  The little chunks of pineapple were too much for my husband and the kids...but they liked the parts that didn't have chunks in it)

Source:  My friend Karen ...she got it from a friend...you know how it goes!

Ingredients:

1 angelfood box mix

1 can crushed pineapple

Directions:
*Pour the mix into a bowl, empty the can of crushed pineapple in and stir until all is moistened.  Bake as directed.


Top with a light butter cream frosting or cool whip for an even lighter dessert.

Ginger Cupcakes

I needed to make some mini cupcakes for a wedding reception and these turned out really nice.  Very good flavor and with the cream cheese frosting (  vanilla bean cream cheese frosting )  they were a huge hit.  I put a piece of candied ginger in the center and it looked like a little flower.  It was a nice finishing touch with the added benefit of a bit of texture.

I found this recipe on www.marthastewartweddings.com  (her recipe uses a rose glaze to top them)

Cupcake ingredients:

3/4 c all purpose flour
3/4 c cake flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter room temp
1 1/4 c granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 c milk
2 tbsp crystallized ginger chopped

Directions:
1.  preheat oven to 350.  Line standard muffin tin with paper liners.  Sift together flours, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
2.  With a mixer, cream butter and sugar until pale, about 4 minutes.  Beat in eggs one at a time until incorporated.  Beat in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with milk *beginning and ending with flour*.
3.  Stir in crystallized ginger until mixed in.
4.  Divide into cupcake liners filling halfway.  Bake until golden and set, about 20 minutes.  Transfer to rack and cool before frosting.

Vanilla bean cream cheese frosting

**I made them into mini cupcakes, cook for less time depending on oven, 

maybe check them at about 12 to 14 minutes**  

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Submitted by Heather

Have you ever had Red Velvet Cupcakes? You should try this recipe, whether you have or have not.  They're hard to describe, except to say that they're delicious. They have a tiny bit of cocoa, but they're not supposed to taste like chocolate, so don't expect it. They're a little tangy, though that doesn't sound quite right either. They're just good, so try them.

As crazy as it may sound, I never had a red velvet cake until about 2 years ago. I'd never heard of it before and wasn't really sold once I tasted it.  Maybe that was because it was store bought.  Since then, I've had a few more chances to taste red velvet cake and have definitely become a fan. Just a bit of advice -  stay away from the red velvet cake mix.  It's no where near as good as homemade and actually tastes kind of strange.

So, on to the recipe. I got this from a great food blog called annies-eats.com. She has lots of great recipes, but I particularly liked that this recipe had been tested against at least 4 other red velvet cupcake recipes to see which was the best (this one).  I also posted this recipe on my friend Lara's blog, Recipe Shoebox, after she very kindly asked me to do a guest post around Christmastime.  Check out her blog - she's got some wonderful recipes.  After you make these cupcakes, give most of them away so you don't eat them all. They have a lovely, unique flavor that's hard to resist!

**Before we had this little blog, I guest posted this recipe on my friend Lara's blog - Recipe Shoebox.  I put a lot more pictures of the steps on that post, so go check it out if you'd like to see more process steps. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2½ cups cake flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring*

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting (you may want to double this):

8 oz. cream cheese

5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.  It's important to sift, since I've found that cocoa sometimes doesn't break up with a whisk and you're left with little brown chunks in your batter.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. My favorite way is to put the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large star or circle tip.  It gives it a fancy look.

*If you're using gel food coloring, you're going to just have to eyeball the quantity.  I would suggest, though, that you mix the gel coloring in a small bowl with some of the batter, so that you don't get any gel chunks in your batter.  Not that that happened to me or anything.

Recipe Source:  Annie’s Eats