Category Archives: Cupcakes

Weight Watchers Recipes | Amaretto Apple Streusel Cupcakes

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Weight Watcher Recipes

Nutritional Information

Calories: 256 , Fat: 9g , Protein: 3.5g , Carbohydrate: 39.9g , Fiber: 0.8g, Points Plus = 7

Ingredients

Cooking spray
6.75  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
3/4  cup  granulated sugar
1/4  cup  (2 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/4  cup  butter, softened
2  tablespoons  amaretto (almond-flavored liqueur)
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
1  large egg
1/2  cup  reduced-fat sour cream
1/4  cup  2% reduced-fat milk
3/4  cup  finely chopped Gala apple
1  tablespoon  all-purpose flour

Streusel:
2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
2  tablespoons  brown sugar
1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
2  tablespoons  butter, chilled
2  tablespoons  sliced almonds

Glaze:
1  cup  powdered sugar
4  teaspoons  2% reduced-fat milk

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Place muffin cup liners in 12 muffin cups; coat with cooking spray.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon 6.75 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 6.75 ounces flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine granulated sugar, cream cheese, and 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add amaretto, vanilla, and egg to sugar mixture; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Combine sour cream and 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl; stir with a whisk until well blended. Combine apple and 1 tablespoon flour in a small bowl; toss well.

4. Add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until blended. Fold in apple mixture. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

5. To prepare the streusel, combine 2 tablespoons flour, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal; stir in almonds. Sprinkle streusel evenly over cupcakes. Bake at 350° for 27 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes on a wire rack, and remove the cupcakes from pan.

6. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar and 4 teaspoons milk in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over cupcakes.

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Today,  I’m sucking on the vitamin c drops and drinking lots of water. I developed a little cough yesterday and was so disappointed. I thought since I’ve been really good eating a lot of fruits, that I wouldn’t get one for awhile at least anyway. Bummer!

I bought the new Zumba Wii game over the weekend and I love it. It’s so much fun, and a great work out. The music is way better than the one Zumba work out DVD that I bought, and they do a better job at teaching you the dance moves.  I really want to try some more dance games like Just Dance 2 and The Revalation by Michael Jackson. Who needs to take a dance class when you can just learn how to dance from your Wii games?

Now, back to the cupcakes. Why is it than whenever I watch the show Cupcake Wars on Food Network, I crave a cupcake really bad? Maybe I should stop watching that show, because watching it made me want to make these. It’s also kind of funny to watch the judges on that eat those cupcakes. They use a fork and just pick at it. If I were a judge on that show, I’d be picking up the cupcake with my hand and shoving it into it my mouth!

The cupcake part reminded me of a cupcake, but the apple and streusel topping reminded me more of a muffin. They smelled so good baking in the oven with the amaretto, the whole entire house smelled like almonds and apples. I’d make these again but leave out the apples and find and amaretto butter cream frosting to go with these. That would be awesome!

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Five Spice Pineapple Carrot Cupcakes

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Ingredients from Janet Johnston
Carrot Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
3 large eggs
1 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups shredded carrots (about 3 to 4 medium-sized carrots)
Frosting, recipe follows
Crystallized ginger, as garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and Chinese five-spice powder.

In another large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, crushed pineapple, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract and carrots. Then slowly add the flour mixture and beat with an electric hand mixer until just combined, about 2 minutes.

Fill the cups 3/4 full with batter. Bake until the cupcakes are set, about 20 to 22 minutes. When they can be handled safely, remove them from the muffin tins and let cool completely on wire racks before frosting. Garnish with crystallized ginger.

Frosting:

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons Madagascar vanilla extract
2 teaspoons Chinese ground ginger
3 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, add the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and ginger. Blend thee ingredients with an electric hand mixer until a creamy consistency is reached, while slowly adding the powdered sugar

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Did anyone else catch the new Food Network show this weekend? It was on at about 8:30 in the morning and it was called Spice and Easy with Janet Johnston. I am a sucker for any new show on the Food Network. She owns her own spice shop and tries to explain the different spices she uses in her recipes. She made these Chinese Five Spice carrot cupcakes that intrigued me so, I decided to make them. Since they have carrots and crushed pineapple in them they’re considered healthy right? ;)

I loved the Five spice in the muffins and the cream cheese ginger frosting that goes on top. If you don’t have the Chinese Five Spice blend you can make your own. It uses all five flavors of sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty. From wikipedia the most common is bajiao (star anise), cloves, cinnamon, huajiao (Sichuan pepper) and ground fennel seeds.

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Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

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Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons), plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Lemon Curd

8 large egg yolks
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan; whisk to combine.
Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (be sure to scrape the sides of the pan)
, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, 8 to 10 minutes, and registers
160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

Remove saucepan from heat. Add salt and butter, one piece at a time, stirring until smooth.
Strain through a fine sieve into a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto
the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and set, at least
1 hour or up to 1 day.

Makes about 8 cups

Seven-Minute Frosting

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions

1. Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.

2. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.

3. As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.

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I love these Lemon Meringue Cupcakes‏ by Martha Stewart, and I had fun making them. I really did enjoy making the lemon curd because I’ve never done that before either and it was rather easy. Not to mention tasty as well. :) Someone could eat just the lemon curd with a spoon right out of the container. There was enough meringue left over for meringue cookies. That’s healthy right? Right.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the rest of life my lately. I really like photography, and baking. I also like creating websites.  Last night while I was making the lemon curd I thought that it would be really fun to work at a bakery. I’m not really sure if I want to sit at a computer the rest of my life which is what I’m doing now. It would be nice to get out there and actually do something fun.

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Strawberry cupcakes

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Martha Stewart’s Strawberry Cupcakes

Makes 34

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg white
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups finely chopped strawberries, plus small strawberries for garnish
Strawberry Buttercream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

2. Reduce speed to low. Mix any remaining wet ingredients in a bowl if needed. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

3. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks. Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to 3 days, unless otherwise noted.

Butter Cream

4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, pureed

Directions

1. Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Remove from heat, and attach bowl to a mixer. Whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking well after each addition.
3. Switch to a paddle attachment. With mixer on low, add strawberry puree, and beat until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

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Can I just say, that Martha Stewart’s website is really addicting? The first time, I found her website I was looking for ideas for my wedding coming up in October of next year. She has a lot of color palettes to look at, table decorations, cakes, wedding favors, invitations, and more. And more indeed, she has TONS of recipes. Especially cupcake recipes. This week on Tuesday night, I think I spent at least an hour browsing through most of them. Then I started looking at all of her other recipes and I plan on trying out two this week.

All of her cupcake recipes look so mouth watering. The first cupcake recipe of hers that I tested was her Strawberry cupcake, because strawberries are on sale  for 1.28. Not a bad deal. I also like taking strawberries and letting them sit in sugar for awhile and put that over ice cream. yum!  This was my first time making butter cream frosting too. Any recipe that calls for eggs being heating up, I always get nervous about because of the curdling. It turned out pretty well, except for when the strawberries were added to the frosting it separated. It was still a good frosting and I was proud of myself for making butter cream.

Fresh strawberries in the carton.

Just thought, I’d take a random picture of eggs, since they were used in the frosting.

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Red Velvet Cupcakes??

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What is the deal with red velvet cupcakes???? What makes a cupcake velvet??? I’ve been seeing a lot of different colored cupcakes online recently and they all have the word velvet in  the name.  Just because your cake is a different color doesn’t mean its  possibly “velvet.” I decided to google the history behind red velvet cupcakes and found this information about them. I”m beginning to think that people just call their cupcake “insert color here” velvet cupcakes just because they think velvet should be after the color. But is that really the case? Or does the cupcake have to contain the cocoa in order to be considered velvet? This is the part I’m completely baffled about. I hesitated to call my Rainbow cupcakes “Rainbow Velvet cupcakes” because there was no cocoa in it, and just because Ben said.

Here is what I found out about red velvet cupcakes

  • 1.) Cocoa contains anthocyanin, a red pigment found in foods like red cabbage. “When you cook foods like this with acid, the more red these pigments look.” – Harold McGee
  • 2.) Before more alkaline “Dutch Processed” cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name “Red Velvet” as well as “Devil’s Food” and similar names for chocolate cakes.
  • 3.) Recipes for velvet cake appear in numerous 19th century cookbooks, including the 1896 publication The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook and the 1885 book Good Things to Eat
  • 4.) A red velvet cupcake contains about 497 calories, 26.8 grams of fat, and about 1 gram of fiber.
  • 5.) Some have hypothesized that red colored cakes gained popularity during WWII, when homemakers may have substituted beets to replace white sugar, which was being rationed.
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Rainbow cupcakes

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Recipe (added after post)

  • 1 Box of Pillsbury Yellow cake mix
  • red, orange, yellow, green, and blue food coloring

Directions. Make cake as directed on box. In 5 bowls evenly separate the batter. Mix red food coloring in one bowl of cake mix until you get the desired color. Do this for the next 4 colors. Start with the red for the bottom layer and fill each muffin tin. I used about 2 tablespoons of batter for each color. Repeat with other colors until cupcakes are filled.

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These were so fun to make but they dirtied up a lot of dishes! I used a box of Pillsbury yellow cake mix,  and some red, orange, yellow, green, and blue Wilton food coloring. I took a cake decorating class last Spring so I have a lot of cake decorating tools. Then, I took six bowls and divided out the cake mix and put the different food colorings in them, and mixed them up until they were the color that I wanted. After that, all you have to do is make sure the different colors have an even layer in the cupcake tins and they come out looking like this.

I’ve noticed a lot of red velvet cupcakes on different websites lately. I’m like, what is the big deal with red velvet? All you do is make the cake batter red anyways. I kind of got this idea, because I had seen the neatest looking cake made with rainbow colored cake layers and thought it would be fun to make a rainbow layered cupcake. Since cupcakes seem to be so popular. Take that red velvet!

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