Banana Toffee Dulce Cupcakes

This is a banana cupcake with Heath milk chocolate toffee bits folded into the batter.  The cupcake is frosted with a Dulce de Leche cream cheese frosting.  Prepared Dulce de Leche is extremely hard to find!  I searched in all the local grocery store, and finally found a sauce made by Stonewall Kitchen.  I have heard that you can make the sauce using a can of sweetened condensed milk, boiling water, and possibly a pressure cooker - I haven't tried that method yet.  The cupcake is drizzled with more Dulce de Leche and is topped with a chocolate covered banana sprinkled with the milk chocolate toffee bits.  Yum!  This recipe is adapted from a Food Network Cupcake Wars recipe.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel: A Pretzel Crust and Chocolate Cake covered in a Ghirardelli Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate covered pretzels are delicious.  There is something about the combination of salt, chocolate, and crunch.  This cupcake has it all!  The cupcake has a baked pretzel crust topped with a chocolate cupcake and dipped into a Ghirardelli dark chocolate ganache.  My first ganache!  According to Wikipedia, "ganache is a glaze, icing, or sauce made from chocolate and cream.  Ganache is normally made by heating cream, then pouring it over chopped dark semi-sweet chocolate. The mixture is stirred or blended until smooth, with liquors or extracts added, if desired."  This recipe is from my very favorite cupcake blog - The Cupcake Project by Steph.

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream: Happy Valentine's Day!

Greek Yogurt and Honey Cupcakes: A tribute to my study abroad

I called Stephanie that morning to tell her that I had searched far and wide for match powder to no avail.  She was planning to come over that afternoon to make green tea cupcakes (coming soon!) , but I couldn't get my hands on the matcha powder, so I decided we would make these cupcakes.  I had all the ingredients, since I eat chobani vanilla yogurt every morning.  She was a little skeptical, as you might be.  These are a Greek yogurt and honey cupcake topped with only chobani vanilla yogurt and honey!  When you bake this many cupcakes, sometimes you have to do a healthier version!  The cupcakes turned out fantastic.  The soft and warm honey cake paired beautifully with the cool, creamy yogurt.  The yogurt got a kick of sweetness by the final honey drizzle - yum!  Now, Stephanie is hooked on Chobani yogurt and these cupcakes!

Philipi

Monemvasia with Brittany, Me, and Erin

I strongly dislike this picture of myself, but I had to put it up.  This was the place where we had the most delicious Greek yogurt drizzled with honey as our dessert.

The Acropolis

Canoli Cupcakes: Inspired by our week in Boston

Nate and I recently spent some time in Boston.  The Coast Guard base 9where we can get parking) is perpendicular to Hanover Street-the little Italy of Boston.  Naturally, we found ourselves eating canoli and learning of the feud between Mike's and Modern Pastry.  We decided to join in the fun and do a taste comparison ourselves.  We tried canoli from both places and the winner is...Mike's Pastry!  Well, all this canoli eating inspired me to make a canoli cupcake!  I am so proud of these cupcakes.  To me, they are truly a work of genius.

The process:
1.  Baking vanilla bean cupcakes.  I used a real vanilla bean for the first time, thus making me feel legit. 
2. Using "the cupcake plunger" to make holes for filling.  I was a little confused by the little contraption at first, but I got the hang of it.
3. Dip canoli shells in chocolate.
4. Put a piece of canoli shell and chocolate chips at the bottom of the cupcake filling hole.
5. Pipe ricotta canoli filling into the cupcake.
6. Add more chocolate chips.
7. Pipe more ricotta canoli filling onto the top of the cupcake.
8. Garnish with a chocolate dipped canoli shell.
9. Eat and be amazed.



Here is the final product!  I made a few with whole canoli on top!

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting: One of my top three

In my quest to out-do myself and impress Nate, I made these chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.  I am trying to make a cupcake that Nate likes even more than the cookies and cream cupcakes, but I am still unsuccessful.  This is one of my top three favorites, though.  My top three, in no particular order, are Chai Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream (my best buttercream to date), these chocolate brownie cupcakes with peanut butter cream frosting, and my canoli cupcakes.  So, how did these cupcakes earn a spot in the top three.  Well. each part of the cupcake is delicious on it's own.  Especially that peanut butter cream frosting.  The frosting recipe I have always makes extra frosting, so I keep a jar of it in my refridgerator and snack on it all by itself!  I also use Ghirardelli chocolate chips in this recipe, Ghirardelli is my favorite chocolate.  And, lastly, chocolate and peanut butter is just always a delicious combination.

 

Decorated with a cupcake topping a cupcake - an idea from "Confessions of a Cookbook Queen"

Lemon Cupcakes with Whipped Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: An early anniversary cupcake

Nate and I were married in May of 2011.  Our wedding color was yellow and, therefore, our had a little bit of a lemon theme going.  For our favors we gave out Trader Joes lemon curd.  Generally, no one had any idea what that was, but when our guests tried it on toast, yogurt, ice-cream, and cheesecakes, they fell in love!  We had some extra lemon curd and one day I looked at the label and realized it was about the expire!  So, I had to make our anniversary cupcakes a little early.