Cookie Cupcakes!

My 18-year-old daughter Tasha, asked me to make her 2 dozen cupcakes to take to school for a friends birthday.
Kellee is jealous, because in the public grade school you are not allowed to send home-made treats. There are no rules like that when you get to High School.
So of course, I saw this as an opportunity to try yet another one of Martha Stewarts cupcakes. I did not make the tops look like a peanut butter cookie as the recipe suggested, but I topped them with chopped peanuts. These were so good, I have already been asked to make them again…soon! I recommend pairing this cupcake with a large glass of milk. Enjoy!

What a Combo!

How about this, birds and cucpcakes, two of my very favorite things!

Chai-Tea in a cupcake

Both of my girls love Chai Tea, so when I ran across this recipe in Martha's cupcake book, I knew I had to try them. Lots of wonderful spices needed to get that good Chai Tea flavor. My high altitude adjustments are in italics.

Makes 46 mini muffins (and this is true! I tried to stretch it out to make 48 and it just wouldn't go there!)

Cupcakes:

¾ cup milk plus 3 tablespoons

2 bags of black tea

1 cup all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons

1 cup cake flour (not self-rising) plus 2 tablespoons

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder less ¼ teaspoon

½ teaspoon coarse salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

¼ teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamom

Pinch each of ground cloves and ground nutmeg

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup packed dark brown sugar less 1 tablespoon

2 large eggs, room temperature plus 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350^O. Line mini muffin tins with paper liners. Bring milk to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat; add tea bags, and let steep, covered, 15 minutes. Remove tea bags, squeezing the bags over the pan, and discard. Allow milk to cool completely. Whisk together both flours, baking powder, salt, pepper and spices.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of tea-infused milk, and beating until just combined after each.

Divide batter among lined cups. Bake rotating halfway through, until tops spring back when lightly touched and are pale golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

To finish, dip top of each cupcake in icing, then turn over quickly, and let set. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are glazed. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Condensed-Milk Icing:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (7 ounces)

Pinch of coarse salt

¾ cup confectioners' sugar

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together butter, condensed milk and salt until smooth. Whisk in confectioners' sugar ¼ cup at a time, until combined, then whisk on high speed until thick and smooth. Use immediately.

Epic Fail

To steal a line from Dad's book, "I don't even know what that means." But I am pretty sure after looking it up it very accurately describes what happened to the cupcakes I made this afternoon.

4. epic fail - Complete and total failure when success should have been reasonably easy to attain

Please turn to page 64 in your January/February issue of the FNM. See the fabulous Mini Peanut Butter Cupcakes? Well, mine looked nothing like that thanks to the thin Colorado air.

So I did some more research, came up with WHY my cupcakes were a failure and am now ready to try again. Well, maybe tomorrow.

Cupcakes and More

A few months ago, I purchased Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook. It finally cried out to me and last week I made TWO kinds of cupcakes. I made the Pumpkin Brown-Butter cupcakes for Bible study on Thursday, (yes, I am a week behind again). These cupcakes didn't last a day! A few days later I made the Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes. We were invited to dinner and asked to bring dessert. I made only half a batch (15 cupcakes). These were easy and very, very good.

Pumpkin-Brown Butter Cupcakes-

¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for tins
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ granulated sugar
2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 3250 . Brush 15 muffin tins with butter; dust with flour, tapping out excess. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Continue to cook, swirling occasionally until butter turns golden brown. Skim foam from top and remove from heat. Pour into a bowl to stop the cooking, leaving any burned sediments behind; let cool.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, both sugars, eggs and brown-butter mixture. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined.
3. Divide batter evenly among buttered/floured cups, filling each about ¾ full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
4. To finish, dip top of each cupcake in brown-butter icing, then turn over quickly and let set. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are glazed; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Brown-Butter Icing

½ cup unsalted butter
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk, plus more if needed

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally, until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 2750. Line 30 standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place one whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowls as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand. Divide batter evenly among the cookie filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Everyone Loves Cupcakes

Laura's daughter Tasha had her 18th birthday party on Friday night and of course we had to go all out. Tasha picked the colors, green and purple and the theme, cameras/ photography. Here is what we came up with for the cupcakes, which were funfetti with cream cheese frosting.

More than one use for TLH