Strawberry Key Lime Cupcakes

With the coming of spring, I was craving something light and refreshing. Sara Sara has some yummmmy super moist strawberry cupcakes, so I thought I'd try my own. Then, after sipping on a strawberry limeade from Sonic, I thought a lime frosting would go perfectly. I found two separate recipes and combined them for this:

Strawberry Cupcake:
18.5oz white cake mix
3 oz pkg strawberry Jello mix
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup oil
1/2 - 1 cup strawberries, sliced

Combine cake mix, jello mix, eggs, oil, and undrained strawberries. Fill cupcake cups, and bake at 325 for 18-23 min. Allow to cool, then frost with:

Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp key lime juice
1 tsp key lime zest
2-3 cups confectioner's sugar
Few drops green food coloring

Cream the butter, cream cheese, lime juice, and zest with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time. Continue beating until light and fluffy. Add a few drops of green food coloring, if desired.

The strawberry cupcake was super moist, maybe even a little too much if that's possible! And they rose quite a bit, so make sure you don't fill the cups too full! (maybe only about halfway). The key lime frosting was the BEST part of this recipe, it was so refreshing and good... tasted just like key lime pie! As yummy as these were, I felt like the frosting overpowered the strawberry flavor of the cake - all I tasted was the lime, and not much strawberry. So I added a sliced strawberry on the top, just for looks, to trick myself into thinking more about the strawberry :)

Green Velvet Irish Cream Cake Balls

I've been wanting to make this recipe for the last couple months. St. Patrick's day has been much anticipated for this reason alone! I love being festive, so I've been wanting to find a recipe for a green cake to make for the Irish holiday. I planned on just doing cupcakes, but then I heard about cake balls. Cake rolled up with frosting into a ball and dipped in almond bark. Yum! When I found this recipe from Bakerella and discovered it was really a red velvet recipe using green instead of red, I knew this was it. My only change was that I added some Bailey's irish cream liquor to make it just that much more festive (of which I may or may not have had a few glasses of over the last few days...). Green + Bailey's = St. Patrick's Day, all wrapped up in a little tasty ball. Oh boy!

As I was mixing the cake ingredients, I realized that I don't think I've ever made a cake from scratch. I've made cookies, pies, and breads from scratch, maybe even some brownies, but for cakes I've always just done a box mix.

So here is the cake recipe, courtesy of Bakerella, with a few alterations of my own:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup oil (this amount is actually reduced from the original recipe and even then it was still pretty moist, so you could probably reduce this a little more)
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 oz green food coloring
Bailey's Irish Cream liquor
1 tub cream cheese frosting
2 packages almond bark or melting chocolate

Grease and flour a 13x9 pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Gently stir eggs in medium bowl with wire whisk, then add remaining liquid ingredients until blended. Note - it is really, really green! At this step, I also added about 1/8 cup Bailey's Irish Cream liquor. In separate large mixing bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix for about a minute or until completely blended. Pour into cake pan, drop pans on counter a few times to release air bubbles, then bake for about 35 minutes.

When done, allow cake to cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then move to a cooling rack to continue cooling. Cut off any dry/hard edges (and eat them, of course!) and then break up the cake into another big bowl. Once cake has completely cooled off, crumble the cake up completely.

Stir in some frosting - I used about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tub of frosting, you don't need the whole thing. I also added another splash of Baileys at this step too :-). Stir it all together until well blended and smooth and it can be formed into balls that hold together on their own. Refrigerate this mixture for a few hours or overnight.

The next day, form the cake mixture into bite-sized balls and put on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Stick them in the freezer for another few hours to continue to harden up.

Using a double-boiler if you can, melt down the almond bark - I ended up using 1.5 packages. Oh and note: do NOT add more Baileys to the melted almond bark - it hardens it back up and it will not melt again. Frustrating. I had to go back out to the store to buy more almond bark. Also, don't add food coloring to it. I tried to dye some of it green to drizzle over the top of the balls as decoration, and again it clumped up.

Using whatever method works best (I tried toothpicks, tongs, spoons, and fingers - all messy, none gave a smooth pretty ball, but I think spoons were easiest for me). Dip each ball individually into melted almond bark and coat thoroughly, then set on wax paper to cool. This process was not nearly as easy as it sounds. You have to work fast though because once the cake balls warm up, they start to crumble.

Notice how mine did not turn out very pretty, it was a sloppy mess. Guess I'll just have to try again sometime...

So, these were a little bit of work. It took 2 evenings of baking and some frustration. Sipping on some Bailey's while baking definitely helped :-) This recipe was definitely a keeper, they turned out really yummy. And the best thing is that it can be modified so many ways - any cake mix, any frosting flavor, etc. Must. Try. Again.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

.

Mini Meatloaf Cupcakes

I've had this idea for a long time, and finally decided to make it. Basically just any old meatloaf recipe, but instead of making one big loaf, make smaller balls and put it into a cupcake pan. Then, put whipped potatoes on top as the "frosting."


When we made the meatloaf, we didn't measure anything or follow any recipe, we just guessed. We used 1 lb ground turkey, some flax meal and crushed garlic melba toast, 1 egg, a splash of milk, some ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, a little A1, diced celery, diced yellow bell pepper, green onion, sea salt, pepper, daddy hinkels (Chris's favorite steak seasoning)... and I think that's it.

Bake for about 45 min at 350, then put a blob of ketchup on each one and bake another 10min.

In the meantime, make your potatoes. You can do it from scratch, but I didn't want them lumpy so I used just a Betty Crocker instant creamy whipped potato mix (plus added some salt, pepper, and garlic powder). I loaded up the taters in my new frosting device and piped them on top of each mini meatloaf.

Served up with some corn and green beans and you've got a simple (and kid-friendly if that's important to you), nothing-fancy, yummy supper.

Ideas for cupcakes

I have lots of ideas for cupcakes I'd like to make. Some of these are similar to ones I've had before at various bakeries, others are ones I thought up that I've never seen anyone else make. However I have a problem - I don't really know the "rules" of baking proportions, meaning I have absolutely no idea how to create a recipe. I know how to make a box mix really well. And I can google recipes. So maybe I'll find somebody else's recipes online to try some of these? Or maybe I'll doctor up some box mixes? Not really sure yet. But here is my list (so far) of flavors I want to make someday:

Desserts:
Sweet-n-salty - dark chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, topped with crunched up pretzels - made this one, see previous post!
Luck of the Irish - vanilla cupcake infused with Bailey's, topped with a Bailey's milk chocolate frosting... and maybe some green food coloring or sprinkles somewhere?
Velvety red - red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting
S'mores - A layer of graham cracker on the bottom, then milk chocolate cupcake, followed by marshmallow fluff frosting, and topped with more graham cracker crumbles
Bananorama - banana bread cake with a light caramel and rum flavored frosting
Lil Punkin - pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, garnished with candied ginger
Oatmeal chocolate chip - a dense oatmeal cookie-textured cake filled with chocolate chips, topped with a sweet cinnamon glaze
Neopolitan - layered chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry cakes and one of those three flavors of frosting
Butterfinger - a peanut butter cake, milk chocolate frosting, and topped with crushed Butterfinger candies
Almond Joy - a coconut cupcake with dark chocolate frosting, topped with almonds
Key lime - lime cupcake, lime cream cheese frosting, and graham cracker crumbles
Banana Split Sundae - milk chocolate cake with creamy vanilla frosting, garnished with banana slices, multi-colored sprinkles, nuts, and a marachino cherry on top
Strawberry shortcake - a dense shortcake topped with creamy whipped frosting and fresh strawberries
Apple pie - caramel cake filled with apple chunks, topped with apple cinnamon glaze
Cookie dough surprise - either vanilla or chocolate cake, filled with a ball of chocolate chip cookie dough, either chocolate or vanilla frosting
Cherry cordial - dark chocolate cake with a cherry in the center, with cherry flavored chocolate frosting
PB&J - vanilla cupcake with a squirt of grape jelly in the center, topped with peanut butter frosting, crumbled peanuts, and another spot of jelly - see the ones I've tried already
Peachy keen - peach cupcake with a creamy whipped frosting and garnished with fresh peach slices
Grasshopper - dark chocolate cake with a mint frosting

"Breakfast" cupcakes:
The short stack - a buttery pancake/waffle-like cupcake topped with a maple syrup glaze
Cup-o-cereal - vanilla or yellow cake topped with creamy frosting, topped with various cereals such as Fruity Pebbles (see previous entry!), Cocoa Puffs, or any other of your favorite
Parfait - a cake made with lots of oats/granola, topped with a dollop of yogurt and fresh fruit
Cinnaroll - cinnamon cupcake with a very cream cheesy icing and more cinnamon and sugar

Drink-inspired cupcakes:
Margarita - a lime cupcake, frosting flavored with sweet-n-sour mixer, sprinkled with salt
Cherry limeade - a marbled cupcake of cherry cake and lime cake
Champagne berry - cake made with champagne with berries on top
Holiday egg nog - egg nog flavored cake with a creamy gingerbread and nutmeg frosting
Java - coffee flavored cupcake with light caramel frosting, topped with toffee bits

Savory non-cupcakes:
Quiche - egg baked with ham, spinach, and cheese
Meat and Potatoes - mini meatloafs, topped with whipped potatoes, drizzled with a little ketchup - I may make these soon, stay tuned!


And the list keeps growing in my head, so I may update this in the future.

Looks like I have lots of baking to do... either I'm going to get fat again, or I'm going to bring them to work/school/church/your house to pawn them off on other people and make them fat :-)

Fruity Pebble Cupcakes

For some reason, I've been having cravings for Fruity Pebbles lately. I have two bags full at home. The first few days I had them, I just had typical milk and cereal. Mmmm. Then I thought well they're good in milk, why wouldn't they be good in ice cream? So I bought some vanilla frozen yogurt, sprinkled with those yummy multi-colored fruit-flavored sugar flakes... tasty tasty! And then, Chris needed to take some sort of dessert to work for a meeting so I thought.... Fruity Pebble Cupcakes!

I just made cupcakes from a basic yellow cake mix (from a box because I had one I've been needing to use anyway).

Chris wanted them to have a cream filling, so we made some cheesecake Jello pudding, let it set up, then used my new cake decorator tool to inject a blob into each cupcake. Later we discovered that the pudding in each one ended up just absorbing into the cake, making it super-moist. This improved the taste and texture of the cupcake, but we lost the cream blob idea we were going for.

We l-o-v-e cream cheese frosting. I debated between buying both cream cheese and powdered sugar to make my own, or just being lazy and opting for a pre-made jar. I figured I'm already using box cake mix, so I caved and took the easy way out and got just a tub of whipped cream cheese frosting. But I thought white frosting on yellow cake would look a little boring. So I added a few drops of red food coloring - and I got the perfectly pink cream cheese frosting I was aiming for. :)

Finally, the best part - sprinkling each yellow and pink cupcake with the beloved Fruity Pebbles. They were pretty, yummy, and pretty yummy. Unfortunately, there was only one left over after the meeting, so that's all I got. Probably best for me anyway!