French Toast Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these a million days ago, but never got around to blogging about them.  With a 90% chance of rain all day and temperatures not getting higher than 40, I think I can make time to write about them.

These are another attempt to make a regular recipe into a GF-friendly recipe.  I took Bakingdom's recipe for French Toast Cupcakes and just substituted my Namaste GF flour blend for all flour in the recipe and voila! 

Spiced cake with cinnamon and nutmeg, a brown sugar streusel toppings, and maple cream cheese frosting.

I used maple extract for the frosting. Concentrated flavor without adding too much liquid to the frosting and thinning it.  

If you're not trying to make these GF, follow her recipe exactly. If you are trying to make them GF, I've found that measuring the flour by weight rather than cup for cup, makes the best conversion.  For instance, 1 cup=140g for GF mixes. So if the recipe calls for 3 cups of AP flour, weigh 420 grams of GF flour.  Make sense?

As I said above, instead of a maple buttercream, I did maple cream cheese frosting, because I love cream cheese frostings. 

Absolutely delicious and I'm pretty sure since "french toast" is in the name, these qualify as a breakfast option. Enjoy!

Head on over to Bakingdom for the cupcake recipe!  The maple cream cheese is listed below.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package cream cheese, room temp
2 stick butter (salted or unsalted), room temp
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp maple extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whip cream cheese and butter in mixer until smooth.  Begin to gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency.  Add extracts and whip thoroughly.  Add more powdered sugar, if needed.

Ginger-Molasses Whoopie Pies

I find most of my inspiration for things I bake in cookbooks, blogs, and of course now, Pinterest.  But let's not forget the "old-fashioned"way of doing things...like visiting a local bakery.  I spent the last few weeks in sunny California and visited a bakery there called SusieCakes.  Pretty much the most darling storefront ever.  Lot's of robin's blue and pastel pinks.  In any case, besides having a variety of cupcake flavors and layer cakes, they also had huge cookies, pies, bars, and my sister's favorite item...their Whoopie Pie.

SusieCakes Whoopie Pie was two large double-chocolate cookies with vanilla buttercream slather between.  It was pretty delicious.  Now I've made Pumpkin Whoopie Pies before, but they had more of a cake-like texture, and I've made Peanut Butter Oatmeal Pies, which is along the same lines of SusieCakes, but for Fall, I decided to try a new flavor mixup must more my style.  Remember, I'm not a huge chocolate fan.  

May I present, Ginger-Molasses Whoopie Pies!

Two ginger-molasses cookies with a cinnamon cream cheese filling.

I made these cookies last year and claimed they were probably my favorite cookie ever...that statement still holds true.  I always forget how amazingly delicious these cookies are.

This cookie sandwich is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy with a little creamy.  Cookie love.

Here's the recipe for the Ginger-Molasses Cookies.  The cookie recipes makes two dozen cookies or 12 cookie sandwiches.  My recipe for the frosting below makes a LOT.  I had some leftover in my freezer so you can either half the recipe or make a full recipe and freeze it for later! Enjoy :)

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 package cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp vanilla

6-8 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth.  Add vanilla. Gradually add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency.  Add cinnamon.  

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

It's that time of year again and I. am. so. excited.  I love Fall and Winter baking...pumpkins, apples, and lots of spice! 

My first "Fall" recipe this year is Caramel Apple Cupcakes.  I saw a picture from one of the local bakeries here in Austin for their Caramel Apple cupcakes and decided to try my own version.  Unfortunately, I can't share the exact recipe I used with you for the cake because of a secret project, but I've browsed a couple of recipes so that I can share links with you and hopefully you'll find a recipe you love!  

I started with an apple spice cupcake and topped it with homemade cream cheese frosting.  

After icing the cupcakes, I put them in the fridge for 2 hours so the frosting would harden a little.  I melted Kraft Caramel Bits according to package directions, then quickly dipped the cupcakes into the hot caramel sauce and placed back into the fridge to cool. 

For decoration, I cut candy lollipop sticks in half and tied a little twine bow around them.  Too cute!

Here are some links to some apple spice cupcakes recipes!
Caramel Apple Cupcakes from Juneberry Lane
Caramel Apple Cupcakes from justJenn
Caramel Apple Cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake

Happy Baking!

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 package cream cheese, room temperature
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth.  Add vanilla. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency.

Lately...

The heat in Texas makes for less than optimum baking weather...aka I haven't wanted to turn on my oven and warm up the house.  But a quick hello and to show you have a few things I have made lately...

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake
(same cheesecake recipe I used last year but added sliced strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate)

Another repeat, the hub's favorite birthday cake- Tres Leches.

 Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting to celebrate the discharge of one of my little ones---based on my favorite onesie that he wore.

Pistachio Cupcakes with Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

(need to tweek the recipe, but it will be up shortly)

And last but not least, Fall Cookies-my attempt to welcome the season!

Hopefully with cooler temperatures in the forecast, I'll find motivation to bring my pretty pink mixer back into action!  Will be back soon. :)

Rosette Cake

Last weekend was this crazy girl's third birthday...

You may remember that for her first birthday, I made her a very pink strawberry cake with whipped cream-cream cheese frosting and for her second birthday a cherry cheesecake.  

While I should probably learn how to make gourmet dog treats to celebrate her birthday, I usually just end up making her something pretty and tasty.  She We like pretty things.  This year, I had my heart set on finally trying to make a rose cake.  

Nelly approved.

I actually took a shortcut on the cake and doctored up a boxed red velvet mix.  I only had one day off this weekend and quite frankly didn't feel like buying ten ingredients for a cake, sifting it all together, etc etc.  So, there you have it.

It's recommended to use a sturdy, crusting buttercream for rosettes, but I really wanted a red velvet with cream cheese frosting, so I just added a little extra powdered sugar to the icing to make it a little thicker.  

Turned out pretty well and very tasty.  

I used the Wilton 1M tip to make the roses.

 Happy 3rd Birthday, sweet Nelly! :)

(For the record, I let her lick the icing off of the displayed cut piece.  But no cake since it was chocolate.  She thoroughly enjoys cream cheese frosting...don't judge)

Red Velvet Cake

(adapted from MyBakingAddiction)

1 box red velvet cake mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup oil

1 package instant chocolate pudding 

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine all ingredients in bowl and blend until thoroughly combined.  Split between two 8" cake pans or 24 cupcakes.

Bake for 30-35 minutes for 8"cakes or 18-20 minutes for cupcakes.  Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature

6-8 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter together in bowl until smooth.  Gradually add in one cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired sweetness and thickness.  Add vanilla extract and beat on medium speed 3-4 more minutes.

Frost and enjoy!

Lemon Cream Cake

This weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law's "not a day over 30"-th birthday.  For this special occasion, I made Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake---Tara style.  (Same cake recipe I used for the Lemon cupcakes) The original recipe is a very white lemon-scented cake with an 'egg-white' buttercream, layers of raspberry preserves, and covered in coconut.  I made a lemon cake with homemade lemon curd filling and a lemon-cream cheese-buttercream.  Mmmm....

I originally intended to just use the buttercream recipe that the cake recipe called for, but I wasn't a huge fan. So I added some cream cheese and a little powdered sugar and ended up with a delicious fluffy, whipped cream cheese frosting.  

The lemon curd recipe was from Ina Garten and it was absolutely delicious.  Tart and sweet.  I have the extra bit in a container in the fridge and have been eating it by the spoonful. 

Once again, didn't get good quality daylight pictures of the cake when we cut it, but you'll get the idea from the ones below.  

The frosting was very delicate so the cake needs to be refrigerated.  I brought it out about 2 hours before serving and you can already tell that it was getting pretty soft.  

I loved this cake.  The lemon-scented fluffy white cake with a fluffy white frosting that wasn't too sweet and the tangy lemon curd...YUM.  Will definitely be making this again.  If you don't want to go through the trouble of making the egg-white buttercream, I think just a traditional lemon cream cheese frosting would be great, as well. 

Lemon Cream Cake

(printable recipe)

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake 

from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp grated lemon zest

1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, room temperature

1/2 tsp lemon extract

Center a rack in the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 2- 8 inch cake pans.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the lemon extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Evenly distribute batter into cake pans. 

Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring cakes to cooling racks.  Cool completely before frosting. 

Buttercream (modified):

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks (12 oz) butter, room temperature

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (2 large lemons)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-8oz package cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

Put sugar and egg whites into large heat proof bowl and fit bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat until hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.  The sugar should be dissolved and mixture should look like shiny marshmallow cream.  Remove bowl from heat.

Working with the whisk attachment, beat the meringue on medium speed until cool, about 5 minutes.  Add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.  Once all of the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium speed until it is thick and smooth, 6-10 minutes.  During this time, buttercream may curdle or separate, keep beating until it comes together again.  

Modified version:

Add package of cream cheese to buttercream and blend until smooth.  Gradually add in 2 cups of powdered sugar or until desired consistency or sweetness. 

Lemon Curd (Ina Garten)

3 lemons

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 lb. butter (1 stick), room temperature

4 extra-large eggs

1/2 cup lemon juice, 3-4 lemons

1/8 tsp salt

To make lemon curd:

Removed the zest of 3 lemons and place in food processor with sugar.  Pulse until zest is finely minced with sugar.  Cream the butter in separate bowl, add in sugar/lemon mixture.  Add eggs, one at a time, until combined.  Add lemon juice and salt.  Place in saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly.  (about 10 minutes or 170degrees). Remove from heat and cool, then refrigerate in air tight container. 

To assemble cake:

Using a sharp serrated knife, slice each cake in half horizontally.  Put one layer or cake plate or cardboard cutout, spread layer of lemon curd, followed by layer of frosting.  Place 2nd cake round on top and repeat.   Continue until last layer then use remaining buttercream to frost top and edges.  Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Tall & Creamy Cheesecake

Happy November! We are one month closer to my favorite month of the year...December! I. can't. wait.  Meanwhile, I have a few recipes to share with you that I've made over the past few weeks.


Last week was my younger brother's 16th birthday!


Him then (10th birthday):

Him now:

Handsome, no?


Anyways, he's a wonderful little younger brother.  I really can't say little brother anymore, because he's 5 inches taller than me now.  This year, he threw me for a loop and asked me to make a cheesecake for his birthday.  I've never made a real cheesecake...just the no-bake kind that I love and adore...but, like the good sister I am, I agreed, and then got to work researching recipes.  I started to realize that:
1) cheesecakes can be pretty easy 
2) cheesecakes can also be very difficult
3) cheesecakes have an insane amount of cream cheese in them
4) the ultimate challenge is for your cheesecake not to crack
5) I had no idea what a water bath was


Rather than use a recipe off of a blog, I turned to one of my favorite cookbooks Baking: From my home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  She has a recipe called "Tall and Creamy Cheesecake: A Basic that looked promising. Plus, she had tons of tips and instructions for making this.  Let's just say I'm a big fan of her book.  


One water bath and 6 hours later, I give you this.

I was more than ecstatic that my cheesecake did not crack, was not overly brown, and did not stick to the pan!!! Small joys in this baker's life.  

Unfortunately, we didn't cut the cheesecake until after dark which makes for less than optimal photos.

The birthday boy makes weird faces when blowing out candles.

And I don't have a light box (yet) so I apologize for the pictures.  But it was delicious.  And creamy.  And delicious.  Did I say that already? And now I want to make another one in all sorts of flavors.  We drizzled our slices with melted chocolate chips, caramel sauce, and pecans.

I followed the directions to a T.  The only things I changed were that I cooked my cheesecake at 300 degrees because my spring form pan's directions (from Crate and Barrel) said to because of the coating and then I used half sour cream and half cream. 

The recipe really isn't difficult, just time consuming. So be prepared to spend the afternoon loving on your cheesecake as it bakes.  

Stay tuned for more of what I've been baking lately!


Tall and Creamy Cheesecake: A Basic
from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
(printable recipe)


For the crust:

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 stick (4 tbsp) butter, melted

For the cheesecake:

2 pounds (4-8oz boxes) cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or combo of two

To make the crust:  

Foil wrap up the outer sides and butter a 9-inch springform pan-one that has sides 2 3/4 inches high.  Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl.  Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist.  Turn the ingredients into the springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs over the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven. 

Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place the springform on a baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake

Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.  

To make the cheesecake:

Put a kettle of water on to boil or pot of water.

Working with a stand mixer, preferable fitted with a paddled attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until soft and creamy, about 4 minutes.  With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat for another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition-you want a well-aerated batter.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.  

Put the foil-wrapped spring form pan in a roasting pan that is large enough to hold the pan with some space around it.  

Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that there is nothing left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the pan.  The batter will reach the rim of the pan.  Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into it to come halfway up the sides of the pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top should be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just  a little above the rim of the pan.  Turn the oven off and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon.  Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup our of the oven, life the springform pan our of the roaster-be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil-and remove the foil.  Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours; overnight is better.

At serving time, remove the sides of the springform pan and set the cake on a serving platter. 

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

 Want to know a secret? I don't like pumpkin pie.  Never have, possibly never will.  Hate the texture, dislike the flavor, just. don't. like. it.  Sounds kind of like a treasonous statement, doesn't it?

Funny thing is....I like everything else to do with pumpkin.  Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin beer. Pumpkin pasta.  Pumpkin oatmeal.  And most of all, pumpkin cupcakes.

Like I said before, I refuse to buy and use pumpkin until at least October each year, then set it back up on the shelf around February.  It's reserved for a special time of year.  But I'm happy to tell you, it's that time of year!

 So may I present to you......Pumpkin Cupcakes!

Warning: these are dangerous.  Usually when I bake, I can try a cupcake/cookie/blondie then for the most part be done with it and ready to give it away.  But these...I wanted to keep all of them for myself.  They were that delicious.  The cake was fluffy and moist and paired perfectly with my favorite icing. Dare I say, my new favorite cupcake. 

Thank goodness for a groggy head early yesterday morning when I thought, "how great would it be to take these to work for everyone to enjoy!"  Whelp. Regretted that decision when clear headed self came home last night to no cupcakes.  Kidding...kind of.  

These cupcakes received rave reviews at work and by my professional taste tester.  I just tweaked my carrot cake recipe a bit and voila!  Make these. You won't be sorry.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Earlier this week I said I was trying to cut back on the baking, add in some "healthful" recipes, if you will.  Well, this morning I went to my usual Friday morning boot camp workout class.  And now I hurt.  I decided I sweat enough this morning to justify copious amounts of sugar this afternoon. 

Anddddd when the husband came home for lunch and said this guy from work's girlfriend was in culinary school and always sent treats to work for the guys, I felt a challenge coming on. (Not that I'm competitive or anything)

Conversation that took place over lunch:

Hubs:  This guy I work with has a girlfriend in cooking school and she keeps sending him to work with samples for us.  

Me: What did she make?

Hubs: Some sort of piece of chocolate?

Me:  Truffles?

Hubs:  I don't know. A round, soft ball of chocolate rolled in powdered chocolate.

Me: (rolling my eyes) That's a truffle. 

Hubs: They were really, really good.

Me: (Death glare)

Hubs: I mean, not nearly as good as anything you've ever made. Obviously.  Maybe you could make something for me to take to work.

Good save, Hubs. Good save. 

Moving on...recap from every other post I've written: I love all things with cinnamon.  That's all you need to know.

So today, I'm very excited to present:

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!!!

Yes, yes. I've finally made them and I couldn't be more thrilled.

I used Martha Stewart's Snickerdoodle Cupcake recipe with a few of my own added touches and my own cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

To start, batter was delicious. That's always a good sign.  Second, right after the cupcakes came out of the oven, I quickly dipped the tops in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.  Warning: cupcakes are very hot (obviously), be careful and don't burn your fingers, but try to do it while they're still warm so the sugar sticks.

I also tried experimenting with filling the cupcakes.  I was going for a "cinnamon swirl filling" so I mixed butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to pipe into the cupcakes.

This turned out to be slightly disastrous for reasons I won't go into, so I filled four and called it quits.  I need to invest in some squeeze bottles for this task. 

Then topped with my absolute favorite cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Oh, delicious yum.

Did you notice my new pink cake pedestal? I love.

If you love cinnamon even the slightest bit, make these.  And now I'm off to the hubs work to take those men some cupcakes!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes (makes 2 dozen)

adapted from Martha Stewarts Cupcakes

Cake:

1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, room temp

1 3/4 cup white sugar

4 eggs, room temp

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup milk

Sugar mixture:

3 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cinnamon Cream cheese frosting:

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla

4-5 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flours, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

2.  Beat together sugar and butter until pale and fluffy.  Add vanilla.  Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

3.  Slowly add in flour mixture, alternating with milk.  Mix until fully comined.

4.  Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

5.  Dip in sugar mixture on plate.

6.  Allow to cool on wire racks.

7.  For the frosting, with whisk attachment, beat together butter and cream cheese until combined. Add vanilla.  Begin adding powdered sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency.  Add cinnamon and mix until thoroughly combined.

8.  Frost and enjoy!