Chocolate Vanilla Cupcakes

Torn between chocolate or vanilla cupcakes? Then go with the best of both worlds. These were made with my two favorite cupcake recipes which are basically doctored up boxed cake mixes. The vanilla frosting is an basic buttercream frosting while the chocolate is a rich cream cheese chocolate buttercream. Swirl these together and yum!

Two cupcake recipes makes a lot of cupcakes (approx 36 cupcakes). Therefore I had quit a bit of cupcake batter to play with. I went with making a pan of swirled / marbled vanilla and chocolate, a pan of plain vanilla, and a pan of plain chocolate. Then had fun decorating with different cake tips (Wilton Round 2A tip, Open Star 1M tip, and  French 4B tip)

Served up a mix  for a Saturday night teen girl sleepover. The girls loved them!

And there were even some leftover for the girls to bring home the next day.

Recipes for Cupcakes and Buttercream Frosting ...

Vanilla Cupcakes:

• 1 Box white cake mix
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, gently combine oil, egg whites, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla extract.
3. Sift in cake mix and stir.
4. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until and inserted knife comes out clean.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate  cake mix
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso granules dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In large bowl beat together the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla and espresso water mixture. Beat on medium speed until well combined, approximately 2 minutes.
3. Fill cupcake liners with about 3 tablespoons of batter.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched.

 
For Chocolate Vanilla Layered / Marbled Cupcakes: 

Fill each cupcake liner with 2 tablespoons of vanilla cupcake mix, then on top of each vanilla filled cupcake liner, add 2 tablespoons of chocolate cupcake mix. To make a marbled cupcake, lightly swirl the cupcakes with a knife. I chose not to swirl and just left them layered.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 1/4 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 to 3 cups (10 to 12 ounces) confectioners' sugar
• 2 to 4 tablespoons (1 to 2 ounces) milk

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Beat in the salt  and the vanilla. Add the confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons of the milk, and mix well. (Don't over mix). Adjust the consistency of the frosting as needed by adding more confectioners' sugar or milk.  Yield: 2 1/2 cups. 

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• milk if needed

Directions:

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until mixed well, about 2 or 3 minutes, scrape down bowl as needed. Add cocoa powder, vanilla extract and slowly add powdered sugar. If your buttercream becomes too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk. .

To decorate cupcakes, frost or pipe buttercream onto cool cupcakes using your favorite cake tip(s). For a great tutorial on cupcake decorating tips and tricks head over to Glorious Treats.

Enjoy!!

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Cupcakes

I love making multi-colored cupcakes. They look so hard to make but really they are easy and always come out looking fantastic. I found this Colorburst Cupcake recipe over at Our Best Bites. I've used this cupcake recipe for several occasions. One being St. Patrick's Day and another for my cooking club where the theme was "Music Mania" (I made these in reference to Judy Garland "Over the Rainbow" song).

Rainbow Cupcakes
(Adapted from Our Best Bites' Colorburst Cupcakes)

Note: Be sure to check out Our Best Bites website for a great tutorial on how to make these fun cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker's Vanilla cake mix)
2 eggs
1 C sour cream
1/2 C milk
1/3 C vegetable oil

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients until incorporated (about 30 seconds). Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on med-high speed for 2 minutes.

Divide batter according to how many colors you are using. I used 5 colors and it worked out to a little over 1 cup for each color, but each cake brand will be slightly different.

Use food coloring to color batter to desired intensity.

To get a layered stripe like I used, you’ll want to put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake one at a time. The batter is thick, so it won’t spread on it’s own. A great tip is to set out a little bowl of water where you’re working. Dip your finger in the water and then gently spread the batter out. The water will make it so the batter doesn’t stick to your fingers.

Note: This recipe and instructions are from Our Best Bites.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Mardi Gras Cupcakes for Four

I'm always looking to try out new cupcake designs but don't necessarily want to make a dozen or more cupcakes. I found a great recipe on Pinterest for One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two made by How Sweet It Is. It is a great recipe and can be doubled or tripled to make a small batch of cupcakes.

Today I made Mardi Gras cupcakes by doubling the recipe and coloring cupcake batter purple, green, and yellow. I came up with a buttercream frosting recipe that makes just enough to frost 4 cupcakes. This came out to be the perfect little treat for family to have tonight in celebration of Mardi Gras. I doubled the One Bowl of Cupcake for Two to make Four prefect cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes For Four

Ingredients: 

• 2 egg whites 
• 4 tablespoons sugar 
• 4 tablespoons butter,melted 
• 2 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2cup flour 
• 1/2 heaping teaspoon of baking powder 
• pinch of salt 
• 3 tablespoons milk 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Line a muffin pan with 4 liners
3. Divide Cupcake Batter into three equal portions and place in each in three small bowls. Color one portion purple, the second portion yellow, and then third portion green. 
4. Fill each cupcake wrapper with equal portions of colored batter so that you have all three colors next to each other. 
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. 
6. Frost with Buttercream Frosting (see recipe below)

Color one portion purple, the second portion yellow, and then third portion green

Fill each cupcake wrapper with equal portions of batter so that you have all three colors next to each other

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes

Buttercream Frosting for Four Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature 
• 2 tablespoons shortening, room temperature 
• pinch of salt 
• 1 to 1 1/4 cup cup powdered sugar, sifted 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 tablespoon half and half (or cream, or milk)

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter,shortening and salt until smooth with an electric mixer
2. Turn the mixer to low and add the powdered sugar
3. Add the vanilla extract and increase the mixer to medium
4. Beat in the heavy cream and mix on high until the frosting is fluffy, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. 

Red Velvet Holly Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Holly Leaves

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

For quite a few months I've been experiencing with a variety of cupcake recipes and decorating techniques for a variety of reasons (I'll post about that after that Holidays). I made these Red Velvet cupcakes for a Holiday gathering I was suppose to have this past Friday but things didn't work as planned so I saved the cupcakes for the next evening to share with friends and family to taste while we took photos of my son getting ready for his first-time high school dance.

These cupcakes were made with boxed Red Velvet cupcakes (I haven't found the perfect red velvet cupcake recipe yet so I went with a boxed cupcake) and made my own cream cheese frosting. To make them a tad more festive, I made chocolate holly leaves with red and green candy melts.

Chocolate Holly Leaves

To make the Chocolate Holly Leaves, I printed out a holly template from FreePrintables and then placed a sheet of waxed paper on top of the printout and piped melted chocolate following the template. I got the idea from when I made Turkey Feathers for some Turkey Cupcakes I made a few weeks back.

I have found it to be great fun to make cupcake toppers with chocolate motifs! Thinking up so new ideas to try soon.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2½ to 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.

Note: If you like a lot of frosting you may want to increase this by 50% for 24 cupcakes.

Turkey Cupcakes {Tutorial}

It's that time of year again .. gobble gobble 'til you wobble!!

Here is a quick and fun way to decorate your cupcakes for your Thanksgiving dessert table or to bring to your child's school party (Oh, I miss those parties, my kids are now 12 and 14 so no more school parties, but they still love special treats at home).

About two weeks ago I taught a cupcake decorating class and as part of the I wanted to demonstrate how to use other foods, candies, etc. to assist in your cupcake decorating. I adapted these Turkey Cupcakes from Betty Crocker.

The cupcakes were made with boxed yellow cake, Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting, Hershey Kisses Candy, and the turkey feathers were made from Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips, Reese's Peanut Butter Chips and Wilton Candy Melts. See below how to make the turkey feathers and how to assemble the turkey cupcakes.

For the Cupcakes, you will need:
Ingredients:

• 1 box of Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 can of Chocolate Frosting
• Hershey Kisses
• Chocolate Candy Turkey Feathers (see how to below)

Directions:
Bake cupcakes according to the package directions. For tasty cupcakes, don't over bake! Follow the directions below on to assemble the Turkey Cupcakes.

For the Chocolate Candy Turkey Feathers, you will need:
Ingredients:

• Wax paper
• Ziploc sandwich bag (or pastry bag)
• Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips
• Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
• White paper (such as printer paper)
• Wilton White Chocolate Melts*
• Orange food coloring*

Note: You may use Orange colored White Chocolate Melts but I was looking for a lighter orange color so I used food coloring to make them orange color I preferred. (add food coloring to the white chocolate melts immediately after melting, stir until color is incorporated).

Hand draw a feather template where the feather is 3 inches high by 2.5 wide. Next, hand draw a small feather template that is 2.5inches high by 2 inches wide. Here's a sample (where I have the large and small feathers drawn near each other)


Place approximately 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips in a microwave safe bowl. Micorwave until just melted (30-40 seconds. time will vary depending on your microwave.)

Spoon the melted peanut butter chips into a Ziploc sandwich size bag. Close the bag (remove as much air as you can before closing).
Cut a very small opening at the tip of the bag ...Place a sheet of wax paper over your feather template. And now begin to pipe the feathers following your template (use the SMALLER template for the PB feathers). After you've completed the first feather, slide your wax paper over template just enough so that you can pipe another feather. Continue to make 24 feathers (for 24 cupcakes). You will do the same for the Orange White Chocolate Feathers by piping over the smaller feather template. And the repeat the steps for the Milk Chocolate Feathers by using the LARGER feather template.

The photos below show you how to pipe using the smaller feather template:



Leave feathers on wax paper to harden (maybe 30 minutes). You can carefully place them in the fridge if you want them to harden faster. Once they have hardened, carefully remove them from the wax paper.Repeat the above for the Orange White Chocolate Feathers and for the Milk Chocolate Feathers (Use the LARGER template for the Milk Chocolate Feathers).
Note: We loved just eating the PB feathers so you may want to make a few extras for munching.
And Just for fun my daughter made a little chocolate turkey :)

To assemble Turkey Cupcakes:

Frost the cupcake with a generous amount of chocolate frosting:
Insert Milk Chocolate Feather into the frosted cupcake as such:
Insert Orange White Chocolate Feather:
(Do the same for the Peanut Butter Feather - Sorry I don't have a photo for that )

Place Hershey Kiss in front of the feathers:

Ta, Da!! ... Turkey Cupcakes!!
Gobble, Gobble and Happy Thanksgiving!