Funfetti Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Woke up the other morning to the baby asking "We bake today, sounds good?" Of course, how was I to deny the adorable asking of a two year old who enjoys "helping". Naturally I was fresh out of nearly everything required in the cake making process so we took a quick run to the store where I realized "man... I'm really lazy, we'll just make cupcakes out of a box." Clearly he wasn't caring either way as long as he got to be a "helper."

I let him pick the flavor and ended up with one that I had honestly never tried before, a "Funfetti." Flavor, which is at least what the box says. I used my super awesome skills to deduce that the "Funfetti." In question must be a fun-confetti type of concoction. I believe I was correct, perhaps, maybe.

I hadn't made cupcakes from a box in a while and forget how much faster it was than from scratch, although not nearly as tasty. All in all I think he liked the decorating part the best because that's where he could lick off all of the frosting that mysteriously kept ending up on the table as we decorated.

Kahlua Cupcakes with Kahlua Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs [separated]
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup kahlua
2 1/4 cup ap flour
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt.

Cupcake Directions

• Cream together butter, cocoa, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Add egg yolks and beat for four minutes.
• Mix water and Kahlua in a small bowl.
• Combine Dry Ingredients [Flour, Baking Soda and Salt]
• Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with Kahlua mixture. Mix until fully combined.

In seperate bowl, beat egg whites on high until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining sugar to make a meringue. With a rubber spatula, fold meringue into cupcake batter.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 350.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 Stick butter
1/4 Cup Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Powdered Sugar [sifted]

Frosting Directions

• Beat butter until light and fluffy, scrape down bowl
• Add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat until fluffy.

I was totally heartbroken when I glanced through the oven door and saw that at around eighteen minutes the cupcakes were already fallen. I questioned what possibly could have happened to have such a annoyance occur and make the poor cupcakes collapse within themselves. The only conclusion that I came up with was that possibly the baking soda was bad, then I thought, can baking soda really go bad?

Then after thinking it over for a while, I realized that it was my own idiocity that caused the cupcakes to fail. My grandma always has a conniption about spillage falling into the bottom of the oven, so I thought that I would be a genius and put a baking sheet on the bottom of the oven to catch any spills, of course at that point I neglected to realize about how the air rotates in the oven and with the pan blocking the air from the bottom, it couldn't circulate around the oven properly. I also failed to realize that you can't put a teflon pan on the bottom of the oven because it would melt to the oven.. oops.

It was a bummer that I was fresh out of chocolate, otherwise I could have thrown together a quick ganache and plop them on the fallen arches of the cupcakes and then smooth the frosting on top. [I saw that on a blog once, I forget where but big props to the person that thought of that] So instead i just settled for plopping the frosting on top, even though it had gotten pathetically flat.

I was slightly annoyed and irritated already at the point of frosting, so I conferred with the baby about what color frosting that he wanted to use and let him help me with the frosting. At least he had a blast.

Cupcake Deco

One of my favorite managers had their last day with us today, so we planned a little lunch party at work for which I volunteered to provide the cupcakes. I made Chocolate Cupcakes with a coconut buttercream frosting

I was totally stoked with the way that the decorations came out and can't wait to make my next batch!

Whoa, featured on a cupcake blog.

Imagine my surprise when I was browsing my favorite blogs the other day and skimmed past a picture that looked exactly like the most recent batch of cupcakes that I had made. Then, more of my surprise when I realized that they actually were the most recent batch of cupcakes that I had made.

A huge thanks to the most awesome people at Cupcakes takes the cake for featuring my slightly askew cupcake creations. Hopefully I will have much more presentable things to show in the future.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients
3/4 Cup Butter (1 1/2 Stick)
2 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
2 Cups A.P. Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Cocoa powder
1 1/2 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla

• Line muffin tins and preheat oven to 350
• Beat Butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Measure Dry Ingredients [Flour, Baking Soda, Salt and Cocoa Powder] in small bowl. Mix well.
• Measure Milk and Vanilla into bowl

• Add 1/3 of Dry Ingredients to butter/sugar mix, beat to combine. Add half of milk and Vanilla. Alternate wet and dry ingredients, ending with dry.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Cups Powdered Sugar [Sifted]
1 1/2 Cups Flaked Coconut
1 Tsp Vanilla

• Beat Butter until light and fluffy, scrape bowl.
• Add sifted powdered sugar and Milk. Beat until smooth.
• Add coconut mix until combined.

I lessened the ammount of vanilla to 1/2 tsp and added 1 tsp of coconut extract, which made the frosting entirely too sweet. Next time I'm going to go half and half on both the vanilla and the coconut extracts.

I also burned the first batch of Coconut that I was toasting for the toppings. I placed the tray under the broiler and left it while I went to frost a couple of cupcakes. I kept hearing this popping sound that was unfamiliar, but didn't think anything until I smelt the burning of the coconut. The lesson learned was to stay right by your coconut while under the broiler. Luckily I had another bag of coconut to try again with.