Week 34. Nectarine Cupcakes

Carly brought me this delicious looking recipe...I think her mom tore it out of the Martha Stewart magazine. And I had been craving a fresh fruit cupcake!



Nectarine Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Salt
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 medium nectarines, peeled, halved, pitted, and finely chopped (1 1/4 cups)

FOR THE TOPPING
1 cup cold heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 medium nectarine, halved, pitted, and very thinly sliced

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cupcakes: Sift together flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir together milk and vanilla.
2.Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating twice with milk mixture.
3.Line a standard muffin tin with baking cups. Fill each with 1 tablespoon batter, 1 heaping tablespoon chopped nectarines, and an additional 2 tablespoons batter. Bake until edges begin to turn golden, about 25 minutes. Let cool in tin.
4.Make the topping: Whisk together cream, sour cream, and sugar to medium peaks. Top cupcakes with a dollop of cream and nectarine slices.

**Hannah's Hints**

* I actually used my Snickerdoodle icing for this because, well, it's the best!

* My favorite part of this recipe was actually the fresh nectarine slice on top! Oh delicious!!

Week 33. Happy Birthday, Caleb! Pop Rocks Cupcakes

It was Caleb's surprise birthday party this week and I wanted to make him a super duper awesome special cupcake. My dad suggested Pop Rocks and I took up the challenge!




Pop Rocks Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup boiling water
1 egg
1 cup sour milk (To sour your milk, add one tsp. lemon juice or vinegar to milk (low-fat will work fine) and stir. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes.)
1 tsp. (heaping) baking soda
3 cups flour (leveled with a knife to be exact)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup Pop Rocks

Mix the candy into the softened butter. Cream butter (with or without Pop Rocks) and brown sugar. Add boiling water, soured milk, egg and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour and baking soda, mixing well again. Spoon into lined cupcake pans and bake for 18-20 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Set cupcakes on a wire rack to cool, and when they have cooled completely frost and decorate. (See below for frosting recipe.)Yields 18 cupcakes.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat softened butter on medium high speed until creamy. Reduce speed of mixer and gradually add confectioner's sugar, beating until a pale, fluffy frosting forms. Add vanilla and beat until frosting is smooth.

**Hannah's Hints**

* Ok, so these only kind of worked...the pop rocks started popping the minute I added them to the butter. And continued to. But apparently there was still some pop when they were eaten.

* I waited till the very last minute to put the pop rocks on the top, and that was good. I actually bought dollar store pop rocks, so there were 3 or 4 different flavors. Exciting!

Week 32. Really Fruit-y Cupcakes

I've had this recipe in my binder for a while...basically just waiting until I got a blender! And then it worked really awkwardly..but I just did what I could.



Really Fruit-y Cupcakes

4 oz frozen fruit (I used raspberries)
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
1/8 cup sugar
3 squares of white chocolate

Puree raspberries in a blender and press through a sieve to remove seeds. Beat egg and sugar until white and foamy. Add raspberry puree and flour and mix on lowest speed for a few seconds to incorporate.
Grease and flour cupcake pan and pour batter in. Or use cupcake cups. Place one square of chocolate on top of each cupcake and press it inside with a toothpick.
Bake in a preheated oven on 200 degrees CELSIUS for about 7-8 mins.

**Hannah's Hints**

* Ok, this is the most awkward recipe ever. YES, it was all in metric making it very difficult to switch over.

* I put too many raspberries in because I approximated, but it was ok. Aaaand...I didn't put it through a sieve because I didn't care about seeds in the cupcakes.

* YES, this recipe does yield 3 cupcakes. Silly. I managed to get 4. But I chopped up the white chocolate squares so they weren't so big.

* These were surprisingly good, considering the craziness of them- very potent. Yum.

* I used the Snickerdoodle icing for these...because I love it:-)

I have no excuse. I'm just lazy.

It's been weeks since I've blogged. I promise I've kept up with the baking of cupcakes...but I'm certainly behind on my blogging. However, now that I've caught up I would like to present a few examples of things I might have been doing instead of blogging these past three weeks.


Mom and I went to Conway, Arkansas to visit one of our foreign exchange girls. In Little Rock, we went to Orange Leaf FroYo... I am obsessed. I had four kinds of froyou with amaaazing toppings. My favorites were gummi bears and fruity pebbles!


The boy had his birthday and I made his rainbow cake which he asked for. It was wonky at first, but once we cut into it, we loved it. Beautiful and delicious.


Playing with this sweet guy. I miss Duke when I'm in Cape, so I like to play with him lots when I'm at home.


Going vintage shopping. A lot. I have many new dresses and these lovely pink glasses!


I dyed my hair pink!! I'm in love with it. Totally depressed I only get to have it for two weeks! Who says I can't audition with pink hair?


Made these dough-knots...yuuuuuummm. I tried to make them again in Cape, but didn't watch them and ended up burning them. Wa waaaaa. Oh well, they're easy enough to make again.


Introduced the boy to bison jerky from Nature Girls health food store. Now, before I was a vegetarian, I used to walk to this little cafe from my Dad's store and get bison jerky. Like, every day. I miss it, sorta. It smelled and looked exactly the same- but worry not, I did not taste it again.

Week 31. Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes

I've had my eye on a few nutella cupcake recipes lately...so I thought while I was home I would utilize my parent's resources (let them buy the ingredients... thanks, Mom!) This recipe looked easy and yummy, so I went for it. Nutella is yummsters.



Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes

10 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup Nutella

Preheat the oven to 325°. Lined muffin pans with muffin/cupcake paper liners.
Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar together.

Do this until light and creamy. About 2 minutes or so.

Add one egg at a time.

Beat the mixture after each egg.

Add vanilla, then the flour, baking powder and salt. Continue to mix everything together until well incorporated.

The mixture would be sort of lumpy like it would be hard to pour. Don’t worry, that’s how it should be. As long as it’s not hard as rocks of course.

Use an ice cream scooper to fill up the cups with the batter. About 3/4 full.

Top each batter with 1/2 tsp of nutella.

Use a toothpick or a satay skewer to swirl the nutella in with the batter.

Make sure a little bit of the batter comes on top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Serve cool or a slightly warm.

**Hannah's Hints**

* It is fun to lick the nutella off of whatever you use to scoop it.

* If I made these again, I'd made sure the nutella gets swirled in through the whole cupcake, mostly because I looooved the tops of the cupcakes. But the bottoms didn't thrill me. SO...be a better swirler than me and you will get great satisfaction from your nutella cupcakes.

* Eat the rest of the nutella...I repeat, DO NOT WASTE GOOD NUTELLA. Eat it on toast. Eat it with fruit. Eat it with vegetables. Eat it with a fox. Eat it in a box. Seriously...don't let it just sit there. Nutella must be eaten.

Week 30. Best Ever Vegan Cupcakes aka Crazy Cake

This week, I wanted to make a cupcake that my cousins Adam and Joe could enjoy. It had been a long time since I've seen them...and I wanted them to think I was cool. Joe is allergic to everything, so I know he is denied a lot of yummy treats. And SO vegan cupcakes with carob chips made in a no nut factory! (See pictures below if you want to see the most adorable, most smartest little boys EVER!)



Vegan Cupcakes aka Crazy Cake
Recipe from Barbara Johnson

1 ½ cup flour
3 TB cocoa
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
4 TB oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 TB vinegar
1 cup water

Combine dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients over and beat well. Sprinkle on chocolate chips or mix them into the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes in a greased and floured 8 x 8 pan, or in 12 lined cupcake tins.

**Hannah's Hints**

* First of all, I know "most smartest" is not correct grammar. I was quoting Drop Dead Gorgeous which is a hilarious movie. See it if you have not. You will thank me. As I thanked Chris White who introduced it to me.

* In AP US History my junior year of high school, my teacher constantly made fun of me for being a vegetarian. Like, every day. So the last week of school, I brought these cupcakes for the class. After they tasted it, I revealed that it was vegan and he immediately apologized for making fun of me!

* I did one batch of these with chocolate/carob chips on top, and another with them mixed in. I would suggest mixed in because then you get yummy chips in each bite!

* These are so ridiculously easy...please, try to bake these. If you're like, "I can't bake, cupcakes are hard! All of these recipes are too involved!" MAKE THESE...you take the dry stuff and mix it with the wet stuff. Amazingly un-involved.

* When we served the first cupcakes, I forgot to take a picture. So, I suggested a posed picture. Naturally, Joe took this as an invitation for another cupcake. Adam is older and declined because he was full. But Joe was too excited about these cupcakes I made just for him. Who can blame him?

Week 29. "Rise and Shine" Orange Glazed Strawberry Cupcakes

I wanted something healthy this week...and to use up all the yummy fruit I bought, as well as the orange juice I had! These looked super great. And guess what? Pretty healthy too!



Orange Glazed Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg plus 1 large egg white
8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) orange juice
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Preparation
Make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt.

Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and egg white until well combined. With mixer on low, beat in half of flour mixture. Beat in 6 Tbsp. orange juice, then add remaining flour mixture and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gently fold in chopped strawberries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each until almost full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes.

Make glaze: In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and remaining 2 Tbsp. orange juice until smooth. If glaze is too thick, stir in additional juice, making sure to add only 1 tsp. at a time, until you reach desired consistency. Glaze should be loose enough to spread easily on cupcakes, but not so thin that it drips.

Remove cupcakes from pan and top evenly with glaze. Let cool completely on rack, about 1 hour. Garnish each cupcake with a strawberry half, if desired.

**Hannah's Hints**

* My first attempt at a glaze was a large failure...as you can tell from the picture, it didn't work. At all. It just was really soupy and got everywhere. Rude.

* Maybe next time I would put the orange juice and confectioners sugar in alternately so that I could figure out a better texture for the glaze.

* These had a more dense texture than most cupcakes, but they were still good. Not terribly sweet, which I like...and which was made up by the incredibly sweety-sweet glaze since I was desperately attempting to make it thicker by adding large amounts of confectioners sugar. Ha.

* Refigerate definitely because there are strawberries. And they are actually better just a little chilled, though you'll need them to thaw a bit or else they'll be really dense.

* Yummy for a healthy muffin-like snack...but not the best cupcake you'll ever make.