Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes

So many things to talk about with this cupcake! Where oh where do I begin! 

First of all, shopping for the ingredients. This cupcake seemed extremely simple ingredient wise. Remember, I use the box mixes and for this one there were only two additional ingredients besides the box mix; malted milk balls (Whoppers) and malted milk powder. I had NO idea what malted milk powder was, but I figured I'd find it somewhere.  My first stop was Food Lion. I looked all over the baking isle. Flour, sugar, brownie mix, cake mix, powdered sugar, cocoa; every kind of ingredient that could be a powder was in this isle, but not malted milk powder (that would make too much sense!) I tried to do some research on my phone while I was in the grocery store, however , when the first website you pull up says you can buy malted milk powder at King Arthur's something-or-other website, I start to panic and thought I might only be able to get this stuff online. So, my creative juices started to flow and I thought, "I can just grind up the malted milk balls into a powder and BINGO; malted milk powder!" Sounds good, right? So, I left the store.  But then I realized that those malted milk balls have chocolate on the outside which probably wouldn't grind up so well into a powder. Hm...so I'm at home looking up substitutes for malted milk powder. Somewhere online I read that Ovaltine (the plain kind) is malted milk powder and if I could find that then I would be back in business! I also saw that Carnation made this malted milk powder and they even had a picture of it online. I figured the other local grocery store we have had to have at least one of these items. So, I ventured back out and started down the baking isle, again. Just like before I found shelf after shelf of powdery substances but no malted milk powder. I checked the spice section (yes, I was desperate). Nothing. Then I remembered the Ovaltine. All I had to do was turn around and I found the shelves with powdered drink mixes and then I saw it, "AHH"(insert angel appearance music here), Carnation Malted Milk Powder!! Thank you Harris Teeter!

After that whole search party extravaganza, the actual baking of the cupcakes was easy. You just crush up some Whoppers and throw them in the mix with some of the malted milk powder and ta-da! You have Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes. There was a tip in the book about putting the Whoppers in a freezer bag, and freezing them for about 30 minutes, then using a meat tenderizer to crush up the Whoppers. Super helpful tip. 

For the frosting, MAJOR drama. In my last post I complained about how much frosting the recipe made, well this one was almost not enough! Actually, it wasn't enough because I ended up adding some more powdered sugar during the mixing up of it all. The recipe only called for 2 cups of powdered sugar, some butter, some malted milk powder, some cocoa powder, and milk. I didn't have cocoa powder (but it only called for 2 teaspoons) so I just substituted more malted milk powder (hey, it took a lot to find it so I'm going to use it as much as I can!) The frosting was soooo runny! I started adding in more powdered sugar little by little. It started to become slightly more firm (not really, but I didn't want gallons of frosting again). The frosting technique on this one wasn't anything fancy since it calls for crushed up Whoppers on top. AND here is the final product!

Baker says?! The idea of this cupcake sounds super yummy to anyone who loves Whoppers and it is just as it sounds. Super yummy! Of course, reading about all of the ingredients in this recipe leads anyone to believe this cupcake is SUPER SWEET. I have to admit, I almost didn't make it through the one I ate. The frosting combined with the Whoppers IN the cupcake and ON the cupcake make it very, very sweet! As you can tell by the picture, the frosting is running off the cupcake and can make it a bit messy but the frosting can be easily corrected by playing with the ratio of milk to powdered sugar (but the extra sugar is probably what added to the super sweetness of this cupcake). 

I'm hoping to be able to give most of these cupcakes away to my neighbors. However, I did contact a local soup kitchen today and asked if I could bring some cupcakes by and she said they would really appreciate it. So at least now my little leftovers will have a home!

Here is the link to the recipe:

Malted Milk Ball Cupcake Recipe

Happy baking! 

Dried Cherry and Pistachio Cupcakes

I must first start off this post by saying that everyone that knows me is probably thinking, "What in the world?! That girl wouldn't eat those cupcakes! Why is she baking them?"  As I said in my very first blog post, I am following this book, The Big Book of Cupcakes (Betty Crocker, Wiley Publishing, Inc, 2011). Although there may be cupcakes that come up that do not wow my taste-buds, I am committed to baking each and every one of them and taste-testing them. 

As usual, I used the box cake mix (white) for my base and added pistachios and dried cherries. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of chopped pistachio nuts. Not sure about everyone else, but I do not like big chunky nuts in my cupcakes or cakes or brownies for that matter. I realize that nuts are an integral part to some recipes and yes, the flavor is yummy, BUT I'm a huge texture person and huge chunks...not my favorite. So, instead of just roughly chopping the pistachios, I actually ground them up pretty fine. I used my Magic Bullet. And I have to say, if you don't have a mini-chopper, the Magic Bullet is where it's at! It comes with lots of pieces that were useful during the making of this cupcake. I didn't appreciate it when I first got it, but now I'm grateful that I have it! So, I finely ground up a cup of pistachios. Apparently I read the recipe wrong and when I went back and looked over it (after I already added it into the mix) I realized that I added a half a cup too many ground pistachios! Oh well! 

Next up, the dried cherries. I had never eaten (or seen) a dried cherry before, so I wasn't sure what I was in for. Here's the deal with dried cherries, they are quite large. If you are used to eating raisins or craisins, dried cherries are WAY different. Well, maybe not WAY different in the concept, but definitely in the size. So, when I plopped the cup (yes, 1 cup..kudos for reading that step correctly!) in the mix, I soon realized that maybe using whole dried cherries was not the best idea.  I probably should have chopped those up a little smaller. I wasn't sure if grinding them in the Magic Bullet was the best idea because it might produce a lot of juice and turn the cupcakes red (which actually might be kind of pretty..hmmm). But, definitely somehow getting the dried cherries into a smaller size would have been a better route. (Unless you really like dried cherries, then leaving them full size is fine.) In all fairness, the whole dried cherry in the cupcake didn't bother me. I'm not a huge fan of cherries, but it wasn't so bad. Let me rephrase...the taste was delicious....but again, being a texture person the whole glob of a cherry in my mouth was not my favorite feeling. 

The frosting was vanilla buttercream frosting. I made this frosting myself this time and I have to tell you, they really think you are going to heap that frosting onto the cupcake. I had SO much left over frosting. The recipe calls for 6 cups of powered sugar, then butter, milk, and vanilla. Next time, I think I'm going to eyeball those ingredients so I don't end up with a gallon of it. 

On top of the frosting I sprinkled some more ground up pistachios. The book says to decorate with pistachios and dried cherries, but unfortunately I used the whole bag of cherries IN the cupcakes. Again, I ground the pistachios (score # 2 for the Magic Bullet!) due to the fact that I'd rather have them ground up and sprinkled onto my cupcake than chunked onto my cupcake. Personal preference. :-) 

I then delivered the cupcakes to my neighbors  The first neighbor to eat one said she liked them, and she commented about the size of my cupcakes, so I feel the need to share my little tidbit here about how I get the size cupcake that I do. Most cupcake books will tell you that the ice cream scoop is the best scoop for the perfect size cupcake. I don't use an ice cream scoop, but I do have a cookie scoop that I use and it is perfect. I actually use about a scoop and a half and the cupcake really does come out the perfect size. Especially for kiddos with small hands and mouths. 

My opinion: The cupcakes are good. Like I said at the very beginning, if I wasn't do this project I definitely wouldn't have made this cupcake by choice. However, I'm committed to trying and in the end, it's not so bad. The taste was pretty good, the consistency was pretty good, and overall not a bad cupcake. If you are into pistachios and dried cherries, this would be right up your alley. 

There was a neat little tip on this recipe's page that said freeze the cupcakes before frosting them. Then, take them out a few hours before you want to serve them and frost. Since I have given away as many as I could in my neighborhood, (and they aren't exactly my favorite cupcake) I decided to freeze the rest of them and hopefully I'll be able to use them for some kind of something soon. :-) I'm not sure exactly how long they will last in the freezer, and if they will even taste good when they have been thawed out, but I guess we shall see. 

My parents are coming this weekend, so I will test the freeze and thaw method on them and get back to you on how that worked out. 

Here is a picture of my Dried Cherry and Pistachio Cupcake:

Here is the link to the recipe online. (Just a note, the frosting I used was Vanilla Buttercream, and it was homemade. The frosting listed in this recipe is store bought.)
Dried Cherry and Pistachio Cupcakes

Happy Baking!!

Chocolate Whoopie Pie Cupcakes

Another day...another cupcake... today's cupcake is called the Chocolate Whoopie Pie Cupcake. It sounded super easy and it definitely wasn't. Well, it wasn't technically hard, but it had it's challenges. 

First of all, instead of frosting, this cupcake uses a "filling". But not a filling that we normally think in the sense of fillings. This one calls for cutting the cupcake in half and making a cupcake sandwich. So, no frosting on top. Interesting. 

Let's go back to the beginning.  I read in another cupcake book that adding either a gelatin mix, or pudding mix to most box cake mixes makes the cupcakes moist and just have a better overall consistency. I have used this technique before, and I agree, so I decided to try it again in this recipe.  The box mix I was using was Devil's Food and I added instant chocolate pudding mix to the bowl. Nothing special about these directions. 

The first funny part of this cupcake was half way through the first round I realized that since I will be unwrapping all of the cupcakes to frost (or fill) them, I didn't really need to bake them in the wrapper. In fact, I shouldn't have baked them in the wrappers at all because all the wrappers are now sitting in the trash can as we speak. Waste of money right there. But that's OK, that is what this project is for! Learning, learning, always learning (and wasting money...AH! Moving on...).   The next funny part was when I was watching the cupcakes in the oven they just kept growing and growing and growing in size. When they came out it was like "HOLY CUPCAKE!" But after they cooled, they all shrunk and not just back to a normal size, they shrunk about 1/8 of an inch in from the pan. Very odd. The next batch I decided to fill a little bit fuller. Again, in the oven they expanded. But this time, when I pulled this batch out they pretty much stayed large and in charge. They may have shrunk a tad, but not so much and definitely not noticeable in the pan.  Oh, and with this batch I used one of those fancy silicone pans. You know, the flimsy ones that you must use 2 Ov-Gloves to take out of the oven otherwise the pan will flop and spill your cupcakes all over the floor (yea...that's happened...). 

Alright so, cupcakes are baked..time for frosting! I used store bought frosting for this recipe just because it also called for marshmallow cream so I figured since the recipe called for it to be doctored up already, I would save myself some time. :-) I mixed the marshmallow cream and vanilla frosting together and to work, I went. 

It broke my heart to unwrap all of those cupcakes and throw away the wrappers. I mean, I know they are just wrappers, and they are not THAT expensive, but still...:-( (I know...get over it!)

I cut each cupcake in half, spread the "filling" in between the two halves and put the top back on. Now according to the recipe that is it. The cupcake should be finished. I don't know about you, but looking at a cupcake without SOMETHING on the top looks funny to me. So, I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top of each cupcake. The picture in the book looks like there might be cocoa powder or some other kind of chocolate powder on top of the cupcakes, but the recipe doesn't say anything about this and since I didn't have any cocoa powder in my house, the powdered sugar was the next best thing (and much prettier I think). AND a little trick my mother-in-law taught me (since I don't have a sifter) is to use a strainer to help sift ingredients. So I just plopped some powdered sugar in my strainer and shook it (like a Polaroid picture.. oh yea OutKast!) over each cupcake and it worked perfectly!

Now for the taste test. These cupcakes tasted pretty good. But, I have to admit the middle was a bit squishy. Not so squishy that I wouldn't eat them, and not squishy like they weren't cooked all the way through. But, just....squishy. ("I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy."  Gotta love Dory.... I digress..) I'm not sure if it's because I used the chocolate pudding and it made the cupcakes too moist, or maybe it was the filling (although it was only on the cupcake for a few minutes before I ate it). Or, maybe I should have used regular chocolate cake mix instead of Devil's Food Cake (even though that is what the recipe called for). Either way, the taste was good. Consistency, not my fav. 

Here is a link the recipe online.  Chocolate Whoopie Pie Cupcakes

And here are my photos! 

Happy Baking!!

New Year's Mimosa Cupcake

Today is the day I begin a new project! New year....new project...seems to make sense. My husband says, "We'll see how long this lasts....", I hope it does!

I was inspired by the movie "Julie and Julia" and I hope to have as much patience and commitment to my project as she did with hers. There are some bumps, however, in my road that I already know about. Therefore, I am not going to put a time limit on my project. Who knows, it may be indefinite depending on the fun cupcake books I come across. 

My project you ask? What is it? Well, it was so awesomely (is that a word?) named by my brother's partner, Brendan. The Cupcake Commitment. The day before Christmas eve I came across a cupcake recipe book at my cousin Holly's aunt's house (cousins through Hubs, but she's so awesome I call her mine! HA!). Anyway, as I looked through this AWESOME cupcake book I thought about the movie "Julie and Julia". Now since I am not exactly a "foodie"(actually I'm pretty damn picky when it comes to food) a cookbook challenge would not fit me. However, a cupcake challenge! Right up my alley! I love to bake and I like a good challenge. I decided that I was going to use this cupcake cookbook and make each and everyone of the cupcakes included in this book. No matter the flavor (most sound pretty delish), no matter the difficulty level (some of the decorations are probably WAY beyond my scope of creativity).   So, within the next few days I ordered the cookbook for myself, it arrived and viola! Here we are! 

My first thought was to start at the beginning and just make each cupcake in the order of the recipes in the book. BUT...the book has so many cool holiday cupcakes that I cannot skip those! So, I will most definitely be jumping around a bit, but when it's not a special occasion I will just start from the beginning and charge on through. 

What book you ask? Well, of course any good baker/writer/editor (yes I consider myself ALL three) knows you must give credit where credit is due: 

Betty Crocker The Big Book of Cupcakes, 2011, Wiley Publishing, INC.

Since today is New Year's Eve Day and tonight is New Year's Eve, I decided to kick off my challenge with a holiday themed cupcake, the New Year's Mimosa Cupcake. 

I am SUPER amped about these cupcakes! I followed the recipe exactly as it was stated in the book. However, I will go ahead and tell you upfront, I will follow the "Use a cake mix" option at the end of each recipe for my cupcake purposes. My feeling is that you can usually purchase those boxed cake mixes on sale for 4 for $5 or 10 for $10, and I'd rather save myself the headache of the dishes and mess and just use the boxed cake mix. Almost all of the recipes in this book call for some sort of ingredients that aren't in the boxes so you are never going to get a plain Jane kind of cupcake. 

Making the New Year's Mimosa Cupcake was fairly simple and I was able to find all ingredients  at the grocery store. However, I did go to the craft store and splurge a little on the decorations. I bought gold sugar crystals to go on top and gold cupcake liners to be a little more festive. I also purchased a icing tip to help me frost the cupcakes. I did NOT buy the icing bags because I thought I could use a Zip Loc bag, cut off the corner and stick the tip in the end of it. (I'm a little nervous about this because frosting and decorating have never been my forte, but we will see! Maybe by the end of this project I will be a pro!)

I shared these cupcakes at a New Year's party at my neighbors house. The overall consensus was great! Everyone really enjoyed them. I kept asking for feedback and I kept getting "Really good!" So much for constructive criticism. Maybe as the weeks go on they will become more critical. I will say that one person did mention the frosting being a little bit orangey and I had to agree. When I first made it I thought it looked a little stiff so the recipe said to add more OJ if this was the case. So, I added another tablespoon and the consistency turned out better, but the taste was a little strong. Maybe next time I will add more champagne!!! :-) 

Oh by the way...people were asking me for the recipe all night, and I am MORE than happy to share. But, I'm not sure about copyright laws and such posting all of the recipes on this blog. So, if you would like it, just leave me a comment with your email address and I will gladly pass it along. Also, if anyone knows the rules about posting recipes from cookbooks on blogs that would be helpful!

Happy New Year!!!