Churro Chex mix

Every winter, my friends on Long Island throw a huge party.  Each year, as of late, it has had a theme.  Two years ago?  It was a summer themed party (remember these Piña Colada cupcakes I made for it?), last year was Oktoberfest themed (my desserts did not match the theme at all), and this year it's Cinco de Mayo themed.  Since Cinco de Mayo themed desserts can be pretty awesome (tres leches...churro....Mexican chocolate...margarita....Yes, to all of them!), I figured it would be easy to arrive to the party with an arsenal of delicious Cinco de Mayo treats!

First up?  Churro Chex mix.  I guess technically they're muddy buddies, but I just like the sound of churro Chex Mix better.  This recipe actually came about by a serious of errors.  The recipe called for cinnamon chips.  I even had them!  See, I can't find them at my local grocery store, but they sell them at -- of all places -- the Hershey's Store in Times Square.  So if I ever find myself in that touristy area of the city, and if the line isn't too long, I pick up a bag or two.  Unless it's swamped with tourists and has a long line, in which case, I skip it.  Which is precisely what happened when I was there the past two times.  But I digress.  I had 2 bags in my cabinet, and even though it was past the "best by" date, I figured I try them.  Simply put?  They did not work.  But as they were not melting, I noticed that they were probably cinnamon flavored white chocolate chips.  So I set up with batch number two, this time using white chocolate chips and a heaping half tablespoon of cinnamon.  This time, though, the butter and white chocolate wouldn't fully combine, so instead of tossing batch number two, I poured off as much of the butter as I could.  Problem solved!  (If you don't feel like going though the task of melting -- and then disposing of -- a stick of butter, you can skip that step and look for the cheat in the recipe below).  The result is a cinnamon-y delicious addictive Chex mix!

Churro Chex Mix (aka Triple Cinnamon Chex Mix)
adapted from this recipe from Oh, Sweet Basil

Ingredients:

1 regular sized box of cinnamon chex (about 8 cups)
2 cups of white chocolate chips
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powered sugar
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

Place the cereal in a large bowl.
Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a saucepan over medium heat, add the butter and begin to melt it down halfway.
Add the chocolate chips.
Stir until combined.
Add a heaping 1/2 Tbsp of cinnamon.
Drain any butter that is not incorporated.

*Alternately, you can melt 2 Tbsp butter with the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring inbetween, until fully incorporated.  If you do this, I would add 1 tsp of ground cinnamon instead of the heaping 1/2 Tbsp. *

Meanwhile, gently stir together the powdered sugar, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl.
Set aside.

Once the chips are all melted (and the butter drained), pour over the cereal.
Fold with a rubber spatula to coat.
Then add half of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Continue folding to coat.
Spread out on the cookie sheet and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar mixture.
Toss to coat.

All to cool on the baking tray before packaging up (if there's any left....have I mentioned how addictive this it?!).

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.

Churro cupcakes

I've been a bit delinquent lately, given the move and the (somewhat lack of) unpacking and my dad's birthday party a week ago, but I decided to jump right back into baking and blogging with some festive cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo!

In the past, I've made a few treats for Cinco de Mayo, like these margarita cupcakes (with adorable sugar toppers!) and a daiquiri bunt cake, but this time I decided to veer away from the lime-and-alcohol flavored treats and go with something a little more "traditional."  Namely, churros.  There is something about that cinnamony deliciousness that called me to these cupcakes, and the mini churro on top?!  OMG, too cute!  (I actually considered frying them up like actual churros, but lets face it, with the decadence that is these cupcakes, why add to the insanity?  Plus, I've never made anything fried like a fritter, donut, or churro before, and figured that at this point it wasn't worth starting to try while I was baking cupcakes).

B seemed interested in these when I mentioned them, and since I worked an hour earlier than usual on Monday, I figured I'd bake them after work.  And when our evening plans got canceled, I figured it was a sign and I needed to make them!  Plus, he can bring them to work today (on Cinco de Mayo) and I could slowly start feeding my new doormen my yummy baked goods!

In the end, I ended up skipping the actual churro on top, simply because I had a napping roommate (I needed the food processor to make the dough) and I was baking another Cinco de Mayo treat (which you will hear about very shortly....).  It didn't really matter -- these cupcakes were delicious and B was a huge fan!

Churro Cupcakes
from the Baker Chick

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

2.5 cups flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2.5 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the icing

2 sticks unsalted butter, soft (I use room temperature)
4 oz cream cheese
3-5 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the cinnamon sugar topping

1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp ground cinnamon

For the churros (if making)

4 Tbsp butter, cold
3/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line two muffin tins with cupcake liners.
Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, allowing each to be incorporated before adding the next.

Stir the vanilla into the milk.

With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk/vanilla, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
Mix until just combined.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way.
Bake for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
All the cupcakes to cool completely, on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are baking, combine the "mini churro" ingredients in a food processor for 1-2 minutes or until a ball is formed.
Roll dough out on a floured surface to 1/8" thick.
Cut into strips, 1/2 inch wide, and cut 2 inch-long pieces on a diagonal.
Twist the dough pieces and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake at 375F for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon.
Set aside.

When the mini churros have cooled, gently toss them in the cinnamon sugar mixture until well-coated.
Return to the cookie sheet until ready to use.

Make the icing.
Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
Mix in the vanilla.
Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
Start with 3 cups and add more depending on how stiff you want it to be.

When the cupcakes have cooled completely, dip the top of each one into the cinnamon/sugar mixture, giving each a light coating.  Mine didn't stick, so I steamed them a little in a hot oven and then dipped them to allow the cinnamon-sugar to stick.

Pipe the frosting onto the ucpcakes and dust with more cinnamon sugar.
Top each with a mini churro (if you aren't lazy like me and skipped the step).

Enjoy!  And Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Margarita cupcakes

Cinco de Mayo is here!  I pinned a margarita cupcake recipe over two years ago, but never made it, and it's been nagging at me ever since.  I guess the past two years I didn't make it to any Cinco de Mayo festivities, but this year is different...trivia night at my friend's bar just happens to be on May 5th, and so I figured why not bring some festive treats?

I had also been eyeing these adorable sugar decorations that I was sure would be cute on any Cinco de Mayo treat, and so I actually thought ahead and placed the order ahead of time (that was the same order that resulted in my 6 pounds of rainbow sprinkles and these adorable rainbow cupcakes).  Honestly, how cute are these decorations?

So the only thing I had left to do was bake up some margarita cupcakes and decorate them with these beauties!  One might assume that this was a lofty goal, considering there is currently a lime shortage (did you know that?  There's a legit lime shortage right now.  You can read about it here and here...I know I already mentioned it in another post, but this is a big deal, people!  Margaritas on B's roof deck this summer may be in jeopardy!).  But fret not, I was able to obtain a few limes and the cupcakes went along without a hitch (except for the icing, which was totally my fault...see below)!

 

Margarita Cupcakes
(Cupcake recipe from Tide and Thyme)

I got 26 cupcakes from this recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes:

3 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temp
3 limes, zest and juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup tequila (or half tequila/half orange liqueur, optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F
Prepare muffin tins with paper liners or baking spray.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar on high until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes(
Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next.
Add the lime zest and lime juice.
Add vanilla.

Turn the mixer to low.
Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches.
Mix only until just incorporated.
Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 cup full (I bought a new cupcake scooper the other day and it was SO perfect at filling the cups evenly, with the right amount, and without a mess!)

Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached (mine took 22 minutes).
Rotate the pans at the halfway point (I always skip this step).

Allow cupcakes to cool completely in the pans before removing.
While the cupcakes are still warm, brush the tops with tequila (or the tequila/orange liqueur mixture), if desired.

Margarita (Tequila-Lime) Icing

(I am SO embarrassed to say that I tried making the icing that the recipe originally came with, but I was distracted and never changed from the whisk to the blade attachment and my icing fell flat.  Since I had little time and nowhere near enough ingredients to make a second batch, I doctored up an old vanilla buttercream recipe and made it into a margarita/tequila-lime icing.)

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (NOT melted)
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp table salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 Tbsp tequila
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2-4 Tbsp milk or heavy cream (I used heavy cream since, believe it or not, I didn't have milk in the apartment)
Food coloring, optional (I actually debated using green food coloring, but decided against it last minute)

Directions:
Bear the butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed (I used a hand mixer, since my stand mixer bowl was dirty from the botched icing recipe).
Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn the mixer to the lowest speed until sugar has been incorporated with the butter.
Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla, tequila, lime juice, salt, and 1 Tbsp of cream and beat for 3 minutes.
If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar; if it needs to be thinned out, add the remaining milk or cream 1 tablespoon at a time.

Decorations: 

lime zest and wedges, for topping
or really cute cinco de mayo sugar decorations
fleur-de-sel, for garnish

Assembly:

Frost the cooled cupcakes with the buttercream as desired.  I used a new tip I bought the other day, an Ateco 828 tip.

Garnish as you see fit: the original recipe recommends lime zest, lime slices, and fleur-de-sel.  Or you can use cute little sugar decorations (see above).

* I chose to decorate half with fancy salt and lime zest (I left off the lime wedges since I was afraid they may affect the icing since they were sitting for 24 hours), and the others with the sugar decorations. *  

Personally, I thought they came out pretty cute!!

Daiquiri (rum and lime) bundt cake

I wanted to make some Cinco de Mayo-themed cupcakes, but after a long stressful day of work a week before Cinco de Mayo, it was too soon to bake them.  So in keeping with the theme, I decided I'd make a cake beforehand, and save the actual cupcakes to serve on May 5th (stay tuned for that in about a week :)).

I had the great idea (if I do say so myself) to make a margarita bundt cake.  I thought it would be pretty tasty.  I even stopped by the grocery store and picked up some limes (there's a lime shortage, and I wanted to make sure I was able to grab some.  Did you know about the lime shortage?  It's been in the news.  You can read about it here and here).  Only problem?  I had no tequila in my apartment!  But I did have some rum, so my margarita cake became daiquiri cake (I would've made it a mojito cake except I didn't have any mint).

But when I got to baking the cake, I had another problem....I only had 3 eggs!  But, amazingly, 3 eggs was exactly half of the eggs that I needed for the recipe.  So I halved the recipe, which might explain why my bundt cake doesn't look as tall as you'd imagine given the amounts of the ingredients listed below.

Daiquiri Cake
Based loosely on this Key Lime Pound (Bundt) Cake Recipe and the glaze adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:
(these amounts are for the original recipe, the cake I made halved the ingredients)

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups of butter (3 sticks), softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk)
1/2 cup rum (or if you wanted to make a margarita cake, tequila)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lime zest (I added way more than that....I wanted the lime zest flecks to show up in the cake, but even with all that I added, that really didn't end up happening)
1/4 cup lime juice

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 Tbsp rum
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
lime zest (I zested a lime and used about 2/3 of the zest in the glaze)

Additional lime zest to sprinkle on top.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325F.
Grease and flour a 10-inch/12-cup bundt pan (or use Pam for baking, like I did).

Beat butter until creamy.
Gradually add sugar, beating at medium until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Mix the rum and buttermilk in a 1 cup measuring cup.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternating with the buttermilk-rum mixture, beginning and ending with the dry mixture (I did dry, liquid, dry, liquid, dry).
Beat on low speed just until blended after each addition.
Stir in vanilla, lime zest, and lime juice.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 325F for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a long wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes.
Remove the cake from the pan and place it on the wire rack.

Make the glazw.
Whisk together the powdered sugar, lime juice, rum, and vanilla.
Add in lime zest.

Place a piece of foil or wax paper on the counter underneath the wire rack beneath the cake (the glaze will drip).
Immediately brush the glaze over the top and sides of the cake.
I sprinkled mine with a little bit of lime zest.

Allow to cool completely (about 1 hour).