Lemon Cupcakes—Baking Chez Moi—Tuesdays With Dorie

These cupcakes were so fun to make and were a hit with everyone who ate one.  Wish I would have doubled the recipe.  It made exactly twelve cupcakes and the frosting was the perfect amount.  Dorie’s recipe was for Limoncello Cupcakes and since that is an alcohol, I made them just using fresh lemon juice in place of the limoncello.  An option was to put lemon (or orange) marmalade in the middle of the cupcakes, but I decided not to do that.  The cupcakes out of the oven are brushed with a lemon syrup.  To make sure the lemon flavor was kicked up enough, I poked holes over the tops of each cupcakes with a toothpick while they were still hot so the syrup seeped into the cupcakes more. 

The frosting was simple and delicious.  Again, I replaced the limoncello with lemon juice and also used a little milk to get the consistency I wanted. 

The cupcake batter has a bit of cardamom added, which was a great little addition.  Dorie also suggested in place of that some black pepper.  Both just make you ask, “Hmm, what is in there?”  I received quite the compliments on these cupcakes and even though I didn’t taste them and they didn’t have chocolate (ha), I will use this recipe when I need lemon cupcakes again.

Want the recipe?  Get Dorie’s book, Baking Chez Moi.  I’m loving being a part of Tuesdays With Dorie again.  Good times.  Great recipes and yummy treats to share.  Check out the Tuesdays With Dorie link to see everyone else’s cupcakes this week.

Best Homemade Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and Chocolate Fudge Frosting and Split Pea Soup with Mushrooms—The Secret Recipe Club

Could you just look at and drool over this cupcake all day?  I could.  I practically did the day I made them.  Proud to say I didn’t even taste a cupcake.  Proud and sad.  I am not currently eating gluten and sugar, as many know, but I love making things with those ingredients for others.  And I will admit, I tasted the frosting.  It needed to be done.  Quality control, you know. 

This recipe for these awesome, perfect Best Homemade Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and Chocolate Fudge Frosting is from my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment this month.  I had the pleasure of having Angela’s blog, Spinach Tiger this month.  I got to make something from her blog last year, too, as I filled in for someone at the last minute who wasn’t able to do so.  Last October I was in a hurry to pick something to make and made her delicious Banana Bread.  This month, since her blog was my “real” assignment, I spent a lot of time looking through all her posts and trying to decide what to make.  I actually chose her Split Pea Soup with Mushrooms.  It was on my list to make for a few weeks.  Then I noticed one of her more current posts for Shaved Raw Brussel Sprout with Raw Beet Pesto.  I had everything to make that salad except the Brussel spouts.  So I went out and got the sprouts.  And I haven’t had the chance to make the beet pesto and salad yet—but don’t worry—I WILL.  Everything about it sounds so good to me. 

I have been a little low on energy lately and all the sudden was freaking out last week that I still hadn’t made the soup or salad from Angela’s blog.  What did I do about that?  Instead of just making one of those things, I looked through her blog again for more ideas.  I’m so silly that way—or am I?  While checking out her desserts, since that is really what I love the most, I ran into these cupcakes and can’t believe I missed them before.  I eat quite healthy, tons of fruits and vegetables, very little meat and only gluten free, refined sugar free desserts, but I really do prefer to make, bake and post desserts.  Maybe it’s because I feel like I get better pictures of things like cupcakes and cookies and photographing a bowl of soup just doesn’t do much for me.

I decided to get to work and make what Angela has claimed as the “Best Homemade Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and Chocolate Fudge Frosting”.  I am so happy I did—see, not so silly.  Now I have a perfect chocolate cake recipe that was simple and I had all the ingredients on hand and most often do have them.

Since she mentioned that the recipe made a lot of cake, I decided to cut it in half.  The half recipe still made 20 cupcakes.  I made the full recipe of frosting since she also mentioned you can never have too much frosting.   The day I made them, I only frosted nine cupcakes.  I froze the rest of the cakes and have refrigerated the frosting to use next week.

“One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?”

(Remember this song from Sesame Street?)

If you guessed the cupcake in the middle, you’d be right.  Why would anyone want to eat a cupcake with such a small amount of frosting?  Only if you’re my husband who doesn’t really care much for cake and really doesn’t like frosting.  So that was his cupcake and I frosted eight more the correct way for the boys (they each got two).  The cupcakes and frosting were a big hit with the boys and the little bit of frosting I tasted was delicious.

Besides cutting the recipe in half, I didn’t change a thing about Angela’s recipe.  So if you’re looking for a great chocolate cake recipe, run, don’t walk to go get it on her blog--Best Homemade Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and Chocolate Fudge Frosting.

These baked perfectly in 18 minutes and came right out of the pan (sometimes if a little of the top of the cupcake went over the sides, it sticks with other cakes I’ve made).  That did not happen here. 

The only thing I would mention about the recipe, which is silly of me to have not done completely is to always use room temperature ingredients—including things like buttermilk.  My butter and eggs were room temperature, but I used cold buttermilk, which I was worried about when I saw the butter kind of chunk back up a bit.  Never fear—this recipe is also so easy that you just mix all the ingredients and beat them like crazy (in a mixer) for 3 minutes.  Though I was still worried about the little bits of butter I saw in the batter, I baked them anyway and there was no trace of unincorporated butter in the cupcakes.  (Yay!)  I would still suggest to make sure to use all room temperature ingredients.  I made sure all the ingredients for the frosting was room temperature and that is some delicious frosting!

Angela suggested for the frosting to begin with 3/4 cup of cream and to just use enough until you like the consistency of the frosting.  I ended up using 1/2 cup before I was satisfied.  The half recipe made 20 cupcakes and I made the full recipe of frosting.  After frosting eight cupcakes, it will be enough to frost the remaining dozen when I get them out of the freezer in a few days. 

So the cupcakes were/are awesome!  A couple days ago, my ten year old stayed home from school sick (just a little cold).  I mentioned to him that I’d been really wanting to make split pea soup.  When I told him it has mushrooms in it he was no longer interested.  I made the soup anyway, but instead of adding the mushrooms, I just left them to spoon into my own bowl.  He got what he wanted, soup, split pea soup, with no mushrooms and I FINALLY got to make Angela’s Split Pea Soup with Mushrooms.

I halved this recipe and wish I wouldn’t have so I’d have more to eat.  I’m usually the only one here who will eat split pea soup.  Taylor (the one who was sick) likes all kinds of soup and was excited to try this (minus the mushrooms).  He really liked the soup, even without mushroom and croutons (they were gluten free) and asked me when I was going to make it again.  The half recipe was just enough for the two of us for lunch and for me to have for dinner the next day.

Angela mentioned that her mother said you should never eat split pea soup without croutons.  I don’t think I’d ever eaten it WITH croutons.  I was excited to have the end piece of some gluten free bread I’d made left.  I cubed it up and toasted it in a sauté pan with a little olive oil.  After they’d nicely browned on each side, I sprinkled a little garlic salt on them.  Awesome.  My soup (in the photo) had the sauteed mushrooms in it and was topped with croutons and some shavings of parmesan cheese.  It was a great vegetarian soup.

Split Pea Soup with Baby Bella Mushrooms and Croutons, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Angela at Spinach Tiger

1 cup dried split peas

4  1/2 cups water

1 small shallot, finely chopped

1 medium sized carrot, finely diced

1 rib celery, finely chopped

1 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

juice and zest of about 1/4 of a lemon

8 ounces baby bella mushroom, chopped

dash of crushed red pepper

half a bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

parmesan cheese, for top of soup

In a soup pot, add the olive oil and over medium heat, sauté the carrots, shallot and celery until soft.  Add the split peas, water, basil, bay leaf, lemon juice and zest.  Simmer for 35 minutes.  Add some salt and pepper and taste and adjust seasoning.  Remove the bay leaf.  You might want/need to add a little water here.  I added about 1/2 cup.

While the soup is simmering, sauté the mushrooms in a little olive oil.  Let them get nicely browned.  Add a little salt once they are done.  You can add them all to the soup when it is just about done, or add them to individual bowls if you are feeding some who don’t like mushrooms. 

Make croutons by toasting some cubed bread (I used some homemade gluten free bread) them with a little olive oil in a sauté pan.  Move them around and flip them on to each side until they are browned.  Sprinkle them with some garlic salt. 

Serve bowls of soup with croutons and shredded or shaved parmesan soup. 

Delicious food over at Spinach Tiger.  Check out Angela’s blog.  I will make that Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Red Beet Pesto SOON!

Guiltless Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting—Secret Recipe Club

Nope, feeling no guilt here.  But doesn’t that cupcake look decadent and delicious.  I know you’re dying to sink your teeth into it.  I was.

These cupcakes are low in fat and have a brown sugar I made with natural cane sugar and molasses in them.  They are also made with whole wheat flour, unsweetened applesauce and a carrot puree (instead of grated carrots).  I decided to make these for some of the Easter desserts we had with family when I saw them on my assigned Secret Recipe Club blog this month.  I was assigned Miranda’s blog, Biting Life.  I had not heard of her blog before and enjoyed looking through it.  Besides lots of yummy recipes, she also blogs about reviews on books she’s read, and all the things going on in her life. 

She made these Guiltless Carrot Cupcakes and used Splenda for the sugar substitute.  I decided to use cane sugar, which I also used for the brown sugar in the recipe and made my own brown sugar with cane sugar and molasses.  I love doing that!

I just took half a cup of cane sugar and added 1/2 teaspoon of molasses to it and kept mashing it together with a fork until it was all combined and looked just like brown sugar!  You can also do that with regular granulated sugar.  If you’d like a dark brown sugar, add a little more molasses.  The recipe also only had egg whites and instead of breaking open three eggs, I used some powdered egg whites that I have a couple big cans of and need to use more often.  The egg powder is just mixed with warm water and whisked until it is the consistency of egg whites.  Love it!  I have never been able to tell a difference and have even used it for some meringue cookies!  It’s perfect for times when I don’t want to have egg yolks with no use and I hate just throwing them away.  Also in Miranda’s recipe, it calls for regular skim milk, but I decided to use lowfat buttermilk.  So the only fat in the actual cupcakes is from the little bit of lowfat buttermilk.  You really wouldn’t even know they are so low in fat.  Especially after you top them with a cream cheese frosting—that of course, I made a little lower in fat with the 1/3 less fat cream cheese, just a little butter, and skim milk. 

Yep, I am calling these pretty guiltless!

I was happy with how these baked.  I wasn’t sure since they have so many different ingredients from regular cupcakes.  Then I was a little worried that they would also stick to the cupcake liners.  But after they were totally cool, they came off the papers great!

Guiltless Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Miranda at Biting Life

1  1/4 cup (150 grams) whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

3 egg whites (I used powdered egg whites)

1/2 cup brown sugar (I used homemade with cane sugar and molasses)

1/4 cup cane sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

1/2 cup plain unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake pan with paper liners (or spray the pan with cooking spray if you aren’t using paper liners).

Boil carrots in saucepan with water covering them for about 10 minutes, until tender.  Remove from heat and drain.  Put the carrot in the bowl a food processor and pulse to mash the carrots into a puree.  Let sit while you prepare the rest of the cupcake mixture.

Combine in a bowl the whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  Whisk to sift together.  Stir together in a separate bowl the egg whites, sugars, and vanilla. 

Add the applesauce and buttermilk to the carrot puree and pulse to combine.  Add the carrot mixture to the egg white mixture and whisk together until all combined.  Stir in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until well combined.   

With an ice cream scoop, fill each cup with batter.  Bake for 20-30 minutes (I forgot to write down how long they baked, probably around 25 minutes.)  Remove from oven and let cool in cupcake pan for a few minutes.  Then move each cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.  Pipe frosting on to cupcakes.  Makes 12.

Less Guilt Cream Cheese Frosting, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 tablespoon softened unsalted butter

2 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2-3 cups powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons skim milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and cream cheese.  Beat until smooth.  Add the vanilla, salt and powdered sugar.  Start the mixer and add a tablespoon of milk at a time until frosting is desired consistency.  You can start with just two cups of powdered sugar and add more if you’d like. 

Sweet Potato Spice Cake with Cinnamon Honey Glaze—Secret Recipe Club

I made this delicious cake after pouring through my assigned blog for March for the Secret Recipe Club.  The decision on what to make wasn’t easy—I could not decide.  Check out Kate’s blog, Food Babbles.  She is truly a gal I can relate to with a love of baking, sharing and writing.  I loved reading through her About Me page all about her love of baking, photography and writing and hearing about her family.  She’s married and has two cute little girls.  (Guess that’s where we differ with my husband and I having four boys.) ;)  I love her weekly post called The Weekend Whisk as she does a run down of what has happened during the week.

I also like on Kate’s blog that she and another blogger have a group called First on the First where on the first of every month they bake/make and post a newly challenge recipe/concept/idea.  Look at the cute cake she just made (on the link to First on the First.  You would never see the flaws, but she keeps it real with the challenges she had and learning new things.  This month was all about decorating a cake.  She made a white cake with raspberry lemon filling (yum!) that has some cute little bees on top and is so nice looking with flowered chocolate transfer sheets.  I have never worked with those, but now I want to try.

I seriously couldn’t decide what to make from her blog.  And I actually started with her Lemon Biscotti.  She dipped the bottoms of her in melted white chocolate.  I drizzled mine.  They were good!

I could have just blogged those, but was looking through her blog again another day and found this Cinnamon Crusted Sweet Potato Bundt Cake with Honey Glaze she made and well, there were two reasons I decided to make the cake.  One, she made it on my birthday last year, November 15, which just happens to also be National Bundt Cake Day.  Two, every time I’d gone in my pantry over the last couple weeks, I saw 3-4 sweet potatoes I had that I was neglecting (not sure why, since I love them).  So I was inspired to make her sweet potato cake.  I knew I’d like it and for that reason, I halved the recipe (portion control)!  I changed a few things, but really not too much.  Just to make myself not feel so guilty when I ate some, I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.  I also added some cinnamon to the cake batter and the honey glaze (as well as the streusel, which she included in her recipe).

After making the batter, I put it in a six inch round cake pan and still had enough batter left to make four cupcakes.  I made the cupcakes with just streusel on top (no glaze)—delicious!

The cake was good, too!  No one here at my house had a clue I used whole wheat flour and I didn’t even tell them it had sweet potato in it, just told them it was a spice cake.  They would have turned their noses at sweet potato in a cake.  (Tricked them!)

Sweet Potato Spice Cake with Cinnamon Streusel and Cinnamon Honey Glaze, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (adapted from Kate at www.foodbabbles.com)

For the Streusel:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

6 tablespoons whole wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the cake batter:

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cooked and pureed sweet potato (about 1 large)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 6 tablespoons whole wheat flour (165 grams)

pinch of allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

6 tablespoons fat free milk

3 tablespoons apple juice (or cider)

For the glaze:

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon fat free milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Butter then flour a six inch round cake pan a line muffin tin with 4 liners (or you could just make an 8 inch round cake or all cupcakes—which was actually my favorite with the streusel on top).

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon for the streusel.  Drizzle with the melted butter and mix well with a fork.  Set asides or refrigerate until needed.

For the cake batter, in the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Add the pureed sweet potato (previously cooked in the microwave with fork piercings for 3-4 minutes until soft all the way through, then cooled enough to remove skin and puree’ in a food processor until smooth).  In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, spices, baking powder and salt and whisk together.  In a cup, combine the milk and apple juice.  Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk/juice beginning with some of the dry ingredients, then half the milk mixture, ending with the dry ingredients.  Beat into the batter until well combined.  Pour half the batter into the prepared cake pan and/or lined muffin tin.  Add a good amount of the streusel to the top of the cake batter, then top it with more batter.  Scoop the rest of the batter into the muffin tins and top with the remaining streusel.

Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (The cupcakes baked for 21 minutes and the six inch cake baked for 37 minutes.)  Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack. 

For the glaze—In a small bowl, combine the honey, powdered sugar, milk and cinnamon and stir until smooth and no lumps of sugar remain.  Drizzle over the cooled cake. 

Check out Kate’s blog, Food Babbles if you haven’t already!

Zucchini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Almost to the end of my zucchini!  My mom recently told me about a cake she made that used up some of her zucchini.  I decided it sounded and looked really good.  So I made the cake into cupcakes and used my own version of cream cheese frosting.  And the cupcakes were really good!

My mom found this recipe at Tiffany’s blog, Eat At Home.  I adapted it with different amounts of flour and sugar.

Zucchini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 1/4 cups (270 grams or 9 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups (355 grams or 12 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups finely grated zucchini (270 grams or 9 1/2 ounces)

1 cup finely grated carrots (80 grams or 2 3/4 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.  I got 20 cupcakes.  Set aside.

Add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs and vanilla until well blended.  Stir in the zucchini and carrots.  Bake for 24-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean.  Cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Frost the cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (This can be doubled, but since some people around here don’t like frosting, I don’t make a full batch.)

4 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar (220 grams)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Cream together the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Add the salt and vanilla and combine.  Then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and beat well until desired consistency.  Put the frosting in a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes if desired.  (This made enough to frost about 14 of the 20 cupcakes. 

These cupcakes are perfectly moist from the zucchini and carrots and nicely spiced with the cinnamon.  But the best part is definitely the bites with the cream cheese frosting in them! ;)

TWD—Basic Marbled Loaf Cake (Cupcakes)

Our recipe today for Tuesdays With Dorie was the Basic Marbled Loaf Cake (page 230-231) in Baking From My Home to Yours.  I halved the recipe and made eight cupcakes. 

The marbling doesn’t look too bad on the tops of the muffins, but once cut open, it isn’t that great.  I found it hard to do because the half of the batter with the added melted chocolate was sure thick.  So though the marbling isn’t the best, the cupcakes were still good.  They were dense and moist.  Dorie gave many suggestions for playing around with this cake, but I went with the basic chocolate/vanilla swirl.  I did make a few slight changes. 

 

For the half recipe, it called for 3/4 cup butter.  I used 1/2 cup Bestlife butter and 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt.   I used 2% milk instead of whole milk.  And I didn’t half the vanilla extract.  The recipe is easy and would be fun sometime to play around more and try other flavors.  Once the cupcakes had baked and cooled, I sliced one open to see that I was right—not the greatest marbling.

I know the loaf cake isn’t frosted or anything, but we thought these needed a little something. 

Hmmm, what is that on top?

NUTELLA!  Good stuff.

Scott chose to have one his way---

He prefers peanut butter!

Want the recipe?  Check out  Carol’s blog, The Bake More for the recipe and see her nicely marbled loaf cake!  You can check out all the other marbled-cakes over at the Tuesdays With Dorie site.

TWD—Chocolate-Break Muffins

It’s no secret that I don’t drink or use coffee.  So when I saw this week’s chosen recipe for Coffee-Break Muffins (page 15 in Baking From My Home to Yours), I knew exactly what I would do to adapt them and it actually worked great. 

Get ready for it, wait, wait—I used chocolate!  Surprise.  not.  If figured I’d use hot cocoa in place of the coffee.  Try it.  Makes a pretty darn good muffin.  I even used some gingerbread cocoa that I have, which only added well to the spice that is already in the recipe.  Along with the cinnamon in the recipe, I also added a little more ground ginger and a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg.  So in place of the one cup of coffee, I used the gingerbread hot cocoa mix. 

I couldn’t stop there with the chocolate, so I added four ounces of chopped Lindt 70% Excellence dark chocolate.  This recipe made 12 regular muffins and four minis.  

While I thought the muffins were good, I really didn’t think I could eat all of them.  Well, I suppose I COULD, maybe that I shouldn’t eat all of them.  You see, I knew the boys wouldn’t eat them if I said, “Here, have a chocolate gingerbread muffin.”  So I sort of told them a little fib.  First I decided they WOULD eat them if they thought they were cupcakes.  So I called them cupcakes.  But cupcakes need frosting.  So I made a frosting for them. 

I made a chocolate ganache with 4 1/2 ounces of chopped chocolate and 1/3 cup heavy cream.  I pour the  boiling cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute, then whisked it together until it was smooth.  I LOVE ganache.  I dipped about half of the “cupcakes” in the ganache, then I thought it would be fun to make frosting with the rest of the ganache.  So I added two tablespoons of butter to the ganache and beat it in the electric mixer for a few minutes, then I added 3/4 cup powdered sugar and let it beat for a few minutes. 

Frosted fake cupcake gingerbread cocoa muffins--

And the boys ate the cupcakes.  These muffins have a nice kind of crisp outside and are moist and flavorful on the inside.  Want the real recipe?  Rhiani at Chocoholic Anonymous chose this week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie recipe.  You can find the recipe on her blog.  Check out the other TWD blogs and their cupcakes muffins. ;)