Pumpkin spice latte cupcakes

It's early October in New York City, and despite last week being sunny and in the 70s, this weekend is utterly cold (last night it was below 50 degrees!) and rainy.  Doesn't help that there's a hurricane threatening to dump more rain and wind on us in the next few days.  So I figured a homemade cupcake version of the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte (which aficionados of the drink affectionately refer to as a PSL, I hear) -- which is synonymous to most people with fall -- was the perfect treat to bake today!

I'm not a huge pumpkin spice fan, but I decided to give these a go anyway.  Part of it was that they were perfect for this weather, and part of it is because I was less likely to eat them all.  Plus, I really really really wanted to try this cream cheese whipped cream frosting.  Because how awesome does that sound?!

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes
From Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:
Makes 12 cupcakes (I got 18) with extra icing

For the Cupcakes:

1 1/3 cups flour
4 1/5 tsp espresso powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cloves
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola, since that's what I had)
2 eggs
1/4 cup brewed coffee, for brushing

For the Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

For the Garnish:

Ground cinnamon
Salted caramel sauce
Coffee syrup (optional)

Directions:

Make the cupcakes.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
Set aide.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, both sugars, and the oil until completely combined.  Make sure to break up any clumps of brown sugar.
Whisk in the eggs, 1 at a time.
Add the flour mixture in 2 additions, folding with a rubber spatula (I continued to use my whisk) until no flour pockets remain.

Divide the batter between the baking cups, filling each about 2/3 full.  I opted to fill mine until they were 2/3 full and ended up with 6 extra cupcakes, although one was a bit small).
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18-22 minutes (mine were done at 18 minutes).
Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes.
Remove cupcakes and leave to cool on a wire rack.
While the cupcakes are still warm, brush the tops with the brewed coffee (next time I might try some coffee syrup instead).
Let each coat soak in before applying the next one.  I only did 2 coats each since I didn't want them to get soggy.
Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting.
On medium speed, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixer with the whisk attachment until smooth and completely combined, about 2 minutes.
Slowly add the cream and scrape the side of the bowl.
Increase speed to medium high and whip until stiff peaks form.

Assemble the cupcakes:
Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Drizzle with caramel sauce, coffee syrup, or both, if desired.

Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Tres leches cupcakes

I don't do things half way.  It's just not in my nature.   So when I decided to make cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo, I didn't stop at the churro cupcakes.  No.  I made these trea leches cupcakes, too!

I have to admit that I was obsessed -- obsessed!  maybe unhealthily so -- with the tres leches mixture that you pour over the cupcakes that I debated saving the extra for my coffee the next morning.  In the end, I didn't, but you can bet I had sweet dreams of sweet, milky iced coffee last night!

Tres Leches Cupcakes
From Taste and Tell

Ingredients:

6 large eggs, separated
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled (it didn't specify, but I used unsalted)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-oz can evaporated milk
1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
6 Tbsp powdered sugar
Cinnamon, for dusting
Strawberries, cut into slices or quarters, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325F.
Line 24 muffin tins with foil-lined cupcake liners.

Combine egg whites, baking soda, and salt.
Whip until soft peaks form.'
Add in the yolks and the sugar, and mix until combined.
Gently fold in the melted butter.
Add in the flour in 4 batches, folding in after each addition.
Divide the batter between the prepared muffin tins.

Bake the cupcakes until lightly browned and a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, combine the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 3/4 cup cream.

Remove the cupcakes form the oven.
Using a skewer or fork, poke holes all over the top of the cupcakes.

While the cupcakes are still a little warm, spoon the milk mixture over the tops of the cucpakes (You can ladle/spoon one spoonful of the mixture over each cupcake, and then repeat, until all of the milk mixture has been absorbed).

Allow the cupcakes to fully absorb the milk mixture, at least 30 minutes, but preferably overnight.

Make the whipped cream.
Beat the remaining 2 cups of heavy cream, slowly adding the powdered sugar.
Beat until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks.

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.
Serve with a slice of strawberry on top.

"Strawberry shortcake" cupcakes

The first thing you might wonder in seeing this post is why is strawberry shortcake in quotes?  Well because these aren't really strawberry shortcake cupcakes, but rather cupcakes based loosely on the idea of strawberry shortcake.  See I started off with my Fluffernutter Cupcakes.  Then I made the PB&J Cupcakes.  I was kinda on a roll when it came to filling cupcakes, and creating them, if I do say so myself.  So I had filled my PB&J cupcakes with strawberry jelly, and as I was looking at them I started thinking about what else might be good to top them with.  Then I took out the cream to make the icing and it clicked: whipped cream!  But then I thought that that's not really strawberry shortcake-like, with strawberry jam, and decided to fill the craters of my cupcakes with diced fresh strawberries and top them with some homemade slightly sweetened whipped cream and a few more pieces of fresh strawberry.

Then, I realized that it was July 4th this weekend, and figured that these would be perfectly patriotic!  I even debated making a blueberry whipped cream to top them, but decided that the strawberry-whipped cream combo didn't need anything added to it, and stuck with the plain whipped cream topping.  And I even dug up some July 4th cupcake liners for the occasion!

Confession: I love strawberry shortcake!  I mean honestly, what's not to love about fresh sweet juicy strawberries and light fluffy mildly sweet whipped cream?  I don't even eat the "shortcake" part, because the other two are so much better.  So I decided to use my go-to yellow cake cupcake recipe, because it's light and mildly flavored and I thought it would go deliciously well with the strawberries and whipped cream!

"Strawberry Shortcake" Cupcakes

Cupcake idea by yours truly, each component listed with it's source

Yellow Cake Cupcakes

From SmittenKitchen (and featured on the blog here, here, and here -- to name a few)

Ingredients:

4 cups plus 2 Tbsp cake flour (not self-rising)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon table salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Fresh strawberries, diced small
Blueberries or sliced strawberries for decoration (I only suggest blueberries if you're planning to make these for July 4th.  The blueberries with the white of the whipped cream and the red of the strawberries is very patriotic.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a cupcake tin with liners.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy.

Beat in vanilla.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. 

At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled).

Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Fill the baking cups about 2/3 of the way full.

Bang the pan against the counter a few time to let out air bubbles.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.

Whipped Cream Icing

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh cream
Powdered sugar, to taste.

Directions:

In a bowl, whip the cream on high with an electric hand mixer until soft peaks form.
Add in powdered sugar to taste and whip until stiff peaks form.
Add whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with the tip of your choice.

Assembly

Once completely cooled, cut a small crater in the center of each cupcake with a small paring knife or very carefully with a melon baller (these cupcakes are very fragile).

Gently spoon diced strawberries (about 1-1.5 teaspoons) into the newly cut hole in the center.  

Using the piping tip of your choice (I used a star tip), pipe whipped cream onto filled cupcakes. 
Top with a slice of strawberry (or cherries or blueberries for a patriotic twist). 
Keep cupcakes in the fridge until just before serving.

Ice cream cone cupcakes

The other day as I was meandering around the store (Target, naturally), I saw some ice cream cones.  And a delicious looking salted caramel sauce.  And maraschino cherries.  Perfect for an ice cream party.  Except I don't have any plans to have an ice cream party, and plus, ice cream doesn't transport well in this heat.  But somehow all of these ingredients ended up in  my basket.

See, I had a plan...a cupcake, that looked like an ice cream cone!  Complete with frosting "soft serve," chocolate or caramel sauce, sprinkles, and whipped cream....and even a cherry on top!

See, I had this memory of cupcakes baked in flat-bottomed ice cream cones from my elementary school bake sale days, and I figured I had to recreate it.  I'm sure the moms of my fellow schoolmates opted for the boxed cake mixes, but you know me well enough to know that that wasn't going to fly with me today.  Plus the ice cream cone cupcakes of my youth didn't actually look like a real ice cream cone, but I was out to change that :).

I went with my go-to yellow cake recipe.  I thought that since I used so little of the batter in the ice cream cones, that they'd bake up really quickly, but I was wrong.  It took 18-20 minutes for them to bake up.  But the plain cupcakes I baked at the same time took about 15 minutes.  Bizarre!  I digress.  But after they baked, I let them cool to room temperature.  Then I made some vanilla and chocolate buttercream icings.  I piped them onto the cupcakes with a star-tip to make it look like soft serve ice cream.  Then I drizzled either (store-bought....shhhh!!!) chocolate sauce or the salted caramel sauce I bought that day, topped them with some sprinkles, some whipped cream (I got lazy and used the canned stuff....but I also thought it would hold up better than homemade whipped cream in the heat), and the not-so-proverbial cherry on top!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Yellow Cake Cupcakes
My go-to recipe for yellow cake cupcakes from none other than Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients:

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken

24 flat-bottomed ice cream cones (I halved the recipe and had leftover batter when I made these....so I made some regular cupcakes, too.  If you wanted to make all ice cream cone cupcakes, you'll probably need 48+ cones)

Other things that you will need:

Icing (see below for chocolate and vanilla icing recipes)
Chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, or any other sauce you may like on your ice cream cone (I had thought of using a magic shell on top, but didn't this time....but would love to try it next time!)
Sprinkles
Whipped cream (from the can, or made from scratch)

Maraschino cherries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. 
Place one ice cream cone in each cavity of a cupcake pan.

Sift together the dry ingredients EXCEPT for sugar in a medium bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla.
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition.
At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled).
Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.


Spoon the batter into the ice cream cones.  I filled mine just to the top of the center cavity of the ice cream cone (NOT all the way up to the top -- the cupcakes rise and if you overfill them you'll have batter dripping out of the ice cream cone.  I ended up using a kitchen tablespoon [not a measuring tablespoon] and used about 1.5-2 of those to fill each cone).


Bake until golden on top and cooked throughout (the cupcakes took about 18-20 minutes).


Cool on a rack 10 minutes. 

Assemble the Cupcakes

First, decide which icing you want to use for your "ice cream."
I couldn't decide if I wanted mine to have vanilla "ice cream" or chocolate "ice cream," so I ended up going with both.  I used dark cocoa powder for the chocolate icing, and it came out a little darker than chocolate soft serve would look.  So if/when I do it again, I'd use regular cocoa powder.

Then, make the icing of your chosing.

Find the Chocolate Icing and Vanilla Icing recipes by clicking on the links.

Pipe the icing onto the cupcakes using a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
Pipe the icing on in a circular motion piling it up on itself so it looks like an ice cream cone filled with soft serve.
Drizzle the sauce of your choice on top, and sprinkle with sprinkles.

Put in the fridge for a few minutes.

Top with a dallop of whipped cream (you can be lazy like me and use it from the can, or make it from scratch) and a maraschino cherry on top!

Keep in the fridge until serving, removing them about 15 minutes beforehand so that the icing can come to room temperature.

Nutella cheesecake cupcakes

I'm a sucker for Nutella.  I think it's absolutely delicious.  I love the silky chocolate and the hazelnut flavor.  I get that it's not for everyone, but I'm a big fan.

So when I saw a recipe for Nutella Cheesecake Cupcakes (or as I've been calling them, individual Nutella Cheesecakes), I knew I had to make them.  Enter the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and the consistent cheesecake recipe conversations at work, and I knew now was as good a time as any to try out the recipe.  Plus, they have an Oreo crust.  And then they're supposed to be topped with fresh whipped cream, so basically it's triple yumminess in one personal little cheesecake!

The original recipe suggested topping them with chopped hazelnuts, chopped chocolate, and/or chocolate sprinkles. I, however, had my own ideas...a drizzle of slightly melted Nutella and some square milk chocolate flakes that I had bought a while ago.  I thought simplicity would work in my favor on this one.

Nutella Cheesecake Cupcakes
From Cooking Classy

Ingredients:

12 Oreos (regular, not double-stuffed), finely crushed
1 1/2 Tbsp salted butter, melted (I used unsalted butter and just a pinch of salt)
6 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
12 oz cream cheese, well softened (use full fat)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (preferable whole or 2%...I used cream since my milk was old)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Nutella

For the Topping:
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp powdered sugar

Chopped, toasted hazelnuts
Chopped chocolate
Chocolate sprinkles
Slightly melted Nutella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F.
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with papers.

Using a fork, blend together the crushed Oreos and butter.
Divide the mixture evenly between 12 muffin tins, about 1 heaping Tbsp in each.
Press crumbs into an even layer (I use the bottom of a shot glass).
Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool while preparing the filling.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and flour.
Add in cream cheese and, using an electric mixer, whip just until smooth.
Add in eggs.
Add in milk, sour cream, and vanilla and mix until just combined.
Add Nutella and mix until just combined.
Tap the bowl forcefully against the countertop about 30 times to release some of the air bubbles (I started doing this but found that it was noisy and that there weren't many air bubbles in my batter, and I stopped after about 10 times.).
Divide the mixture among the muffin cups, pouring it over the crusts and filling each cup nearly full, about 1/4 cup.  I had extra batter.

Bake in the 325 oven for 20-24 minutes until centers only jiggle slightly.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool to roomer temperature for 30 minutes.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap or foil and transfer to the fridge and chill 3 hours.

Make the sweetened whipped cream.

In a mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream on high with an electric hand mixer until soft peaks form.
Add in powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.
Add whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with the tip of your choice.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream, hazelnuts, chopped chocolate or sprinkles, or slightly melted Nutella.  Add the toppinsg within a few hours of serving.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge until serving.