Peeps, jelly beans, and chocolate are often found in every child’s Easter basket. One of my favorite Easter treats is M & M’s and carrot cake. I found some cute cupcake ideas on Pinterest involving both and decided to make these moist and carroty cupcakes. I used a recipe from Food and Wine magazine for Carrot Cupcakes, and added toasted coconut and M & M eggs to make these cupcakes a perfect Easter dinner dessert.

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup canola oil (I used vegetable)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups finely shredded carrots

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tin.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl beat eggs and oil. Gradually beat in sugar until think. Beat in vanilla.

 4. Fold in dry ingredients, then fold in carrots.

 
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes and let cool. Transfer cupcakes to the freezer to chill before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting (This recipe made a ton of frosting. I am also making a carrot cake and needed a lot so I would cut this in half or a third.)

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened
2 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

1.  Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla.

2. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add until desired flavor and consistency.

Easter egg basket decoration ideas:

For the top of the cupcake, you can have your eggs sitting in a grass nest, or one that look like twigs. For grass, put coconut and green food coloring in a plastic bag and shake until coated. For twigs, toast coconut on a cookie sheet at 350 for 5-7 minutes. Be sure to keep a close eye on it and mix often, otherwise the coconut will burn.  

 

You can use jelly beans, peeps, or egg M&Ms to make you next complete.

 

Happy Easter!

Lucky Charms Cupcakes - They’re Magically Delicious!

As a kid, Saint Patrick’s Day was my dad’s birthday and wearing green to school. In college, it became green beer, green shirts, shamrock shakes, and State Patty’s Day (Penn State’s very own St. Patrick’s day).  This year, I decided to add to these Lucky Charms Cupcakes to my list of St. Patrick’s day indulgences. Lucky Charms cereal is a childhood favorite, and these cupcakes incorporate the cereal into the cake batter, the marshmallow frosting, and the decorations.  I modified a recipe from another baking blog found here. Instead of using a box cake mix, I made white cake from scratch and added the additional ingredients to keep the cupcakes moist (such as the sour cream).
 

 

Lucky Charms Cupcakes

Ingredients:

·         1 cup white sugar

·         1 ½ cups of flour

·         1 ¾ tsp baking powder

·         1/3 cup vegetable oil

·         ½ cup sour cream

·         ¾ cup milk

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp vanilla

·         ½ cup finely crushed Lucky Charms (cereal pieces only)

·         Green food coloring

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pans.

2.      In a large bowl, blend the sugar, flour, and baking powder.

3.      Add the vegetable oil, sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Blend until incorporated.

4.      Mix in green food coloring until desired shade of green.

5.   Gently mix in crushed Lucky Charms until combined.

Crush cereal with a rolling pin.

6.      Fill cupcake pan and bake for 18-23 minutes. (my oven took 18 minutes)

Marshmallow Buttercream

Ingredients:

·         4-5 cups Powdered sugar

·         1 tsp vanilla

·         1 cup butter, room temperature

·         1 container marshmallow fluff

·         Sprinkles and Lucky Charm marshmallows

Directions:

1.      In bowl, beat butter with mixer until fluffy.

2.      Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and marshmallow fluff.

3.      Beat until smooth.

4.      Add milk if the frosting becomes too difficult to mix.

Final Touches

Once cupcakes have cooled, it is time to frost! Pipe cooled cupcakes with marshmallow frosting. I used green food coloring on half of the frosting so half of the cupcakes have a light green frosting. You can decorate your cupcakes however you like. I chose to use green sugar and Lucky Charms marshmallows.

I am excited to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow with friends, and share my Lucky Charm Cupcakes! Don’t forget your green!

 

 

Brittany's Ombre Birthday Cake

Ombre Birthday Cake!

A few months ago I had a special request from a friend for an ombre birthday cake. Ombre is the kind of cake that goes from dark to light shades of the same color. The request was for a chocolate ombre cake and so my search began for recipes for cake that would not all appear dark brown. After many pinterest searches, I finally was able to find some ideas and recipes. The cake I ended up with is 3 unique layers of deliciousness, chocolate frosting filling between layers, and then a vanilla buttercream covering the cake. Of all the batter spoons I licked, the middle layer was my favorite!

 Base Layer - Vanilla White Cake

Ingredients:

·         1 cup sugar

·         ½ cup butter, softened

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp vanilla

·         1 ½ cups flour

·         1 ¾ tsp baking powder

·         ½ cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2.      In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3.      Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Middle Layer - Brown Sugar Cake

Ingredients:

·         1 cup flour

·         ½ tsp baking powder

·         1 tsp salt

·         ¾ tsp baking soda

·         1 cup light brown sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         ¼ cup vegetable oil

·         ½ cup buttermilk

·         ¼ cup sour cream

·         ½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with baking spray with flour. Spray or butter pan generously.

2.       In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3.       In a mixing bowl, beat brown sugar and eggs at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, approximately 3 minutes. Add oil and beat until combined. Set aside.

4.       In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla

5.       Add flour mixture to brown-sugar mixture, alternating with milk mixture

6.       Pour batter into pan and bake until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean, approximately 25-30minutes.

 

Top Layer - Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

·         ¾ cup cocoa powder

·         1 ½ cups flour

·         1 ½ cups sugar

·         ½ Tbsp baking soda

·         ¾ tsp baking powder

·         ¾ tsp salt

·         1 large egg

·         ¾ cup buttermilk

·         ½ cup vegetable oil

·         ¾ tsp vanilla

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa.

2.      Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 1/2 cups warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.

3.      Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter.

4.      Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.

Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream

Instead of posting the full recipe and directions, I will direct you to the links for the chocolate buttercreamand my favorite and vanilla buttercream.

Cake Assembly

It is important to level all cake layers before assembling. I also had some "over baked" parts around the edges that I carefully cut off. When assembling, it is easiest to use a cake board. Gently center your base layer on the cake board, cover the layer with chocolate frosting, and then gently center your middle layer on the base. Do the same thing for the 3rd layer (and more if you are making a multi layer cake).

 

 

Frosting and Decorating

Frosting cakes is my least favorite part, mainly because I am not that good at it! It takes me a long time and I get easily frustrated. This is probably why I prefer cupcakes J but anything for my friend Brittany’s birthday! I frosted the cake with the vanilla buttercream and chocolate chips.  I surrounded the sides of the cake with mini chocolate chips, to bring in the chocolate theme that she had wanted.

 

I think used the left over vanilla buttercream I had and, using food coloring, I made it pink (very bright pink).  I was pretty happy with the way it turned out! I hope it is as good as it looks!



Valentine's Day Cupcakes!

 

Valentine’s Day Strawberry Cupcakes

What better way to show someone you care then baking them strawberry cupcakes just in time for Valentine’s Day?

These cupcakes have a delicious strawberry taste in both the cake and the frosting. Fresh strawberries and strawberry extract give them their flavor.  I modified a recipe I found on the Simply Sweet Bakeshop blog. This recipe makes 18 cupcakes, so you have a few extras to share!

Cake Ingredients

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
2 tsp strawberry extract
1 cup pureed fresh strawberries

¼ cup sour cream

1 ½ cups cake flour (or make your own 1 ½ cups of flour – 3 TBSPs + 3 TBSPS cornstarch)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Strawberry extract can be hard to find in stores but can be found online.

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350

2.       In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add egg whites one at a time

3.       Stir in strawberry extract, pureed strawberries, and sour cream

4.       In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

5.       Add the flour mixture to butter, beating until combined

6.       Pour batter into cupcake pans

7.        Bake for 15 – 20 minutes (mine were closer to 18)

8.       Let cool before frosting

 

 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, softened

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

2 tsp strawberry extract (I only used 1 because I wanted the frosting to have more of a cream cheese flavor)

6 cups of powdered sugar

Pink food coloring (I didn’t use food coloring because the strawberry extract was colored

Frosting Directions:

1.       In a bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth

2.       Add strawberry extract

3.       Add food coloring until desired color (if needed)

4.       Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth

For frosting, I think no matter what the recipe calls for in terms of powdered sugar, you should add until the frosting is at the consistency you would like. Adding more will make a stiffer frosting, but it may taste sweeter then you would like.

Now it is time for the fun part – decorating! The cupcake wrappers I used are ones that don’t fade when you bake them. Often times, the wrappers color will change and won’t look as nice. These wrappers are lined in foil so there is no change. You can find them at any craft or baking supply store. I like using different frosting tips while I am decorating my cupcakes so there is a variety of textures. For these Valentine’s Day cupcakes, I used red and pink sugar and conversation hearts.

A great treat for anyone special in your life J