Stephanies Kitchen

Raspberry Cupcakes w/White Chocolate Buttercream

June 13, 2011 By Steph 4 Comments

I have filled my calendar for the summer so we can keep busy and sane. It’s working so far, thank goodness. Summer weather has finally arrived and as usual, I am already ready for fall. Never happy I tell ya!

These cupcakes have an amazing flavor and texture. Love them! Go buy some sweet juicy rasperries and make these cupcakes now!

Raspberry Cupcakes w/White Chocolate Buttercream
makes 2 dozen

3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

White Chocolate Buttercream

5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups white chocolate chips, melted
2-3 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest and work the zest with your fingers until the sugar becomes moist and fragrant. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix. Add the almond and vanilla extracts. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk until combined well. Carefully fold in the raspberries. Line 2 cupcake pans with cupcake liners and evenly distribute the batter between the 2 pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until baked through. Let cool.

To make the buttercream, using your mixer, cream the butter until soft. Add about half of the confectioners’ sugar, the milk and the melted white chocolate. Mix until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the remaining sugar and mix until smooth. Add any more sugar or milk you might need to get a good frosting consistency. Smooth or pipe on top of the cooled cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: cakes, cupcakes, desserts, fruit

Strawberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes

May 9, 2011 By Steph 2 Comments

Hello friends! Need something sweet? I have got just the thing for you. Strawberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes. My. Oh. My. These are divine. I used my Mini Cheesecake Pan that I bought from Williams Sanoma a couple of years ago, but if you don’t have one (you need to go out and buy one right now!) just use your mini cupcake pan, a regular cupcake pan or just make one big cheesecake. So tasty. And cute. Happy Monday!

Strawberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes
makes about 18

For the strawberry sauce:
1 16 ounce container of frozen strawberries, thawed, in syrup
2 teaspoons corn starch

Place strawberries and corn starch in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. Place in a small saucepan over medium heat and heat until it boils. Stir until thickened and then take off of heat and let cool.

For the crust:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Mix all together and press 1 tablespoon of mixture into a greased mini cheesecake pan, (or mini cupcake pan, or regular cupcake pan (use 2 tablespoons for that) or press entire mixture into a regular sized springform pan). (Remember to spray pans well) Pat down firm and bake at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. (More if you are using larger pans) Just until lightly golden.

For the cheesecake:
2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon

Cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Mixture should be smooth and creamy. Fill already baked crusts with 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese batter. Top with 1/2 tablespoon of the strawberry sauce and using a knife, gently cut the strawberry sauce into the cheesecakes. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until centers are set. Cool for 10 minutes in pan and then gently take out and let cool completely. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Top with remaining strawberry sauce.

Filed Under: cakes, cupcakes, desserts, fruit

Chocolatey Pirate Cupcakes

April 29, 2011 By Steph 3 Comments

My sweet little boy turned 4 on Wednesday. Time has flown by soooo fast. These are his Pirate Birthday Cupcakes. He is incredibly obsessed with Pirates right now. It might have something to do with my Husband letting him watch Pirates of the Caribbean a while ago. My 6 year old girl had nightmares for weeks and my son begs to watch it everyday. Different than night and day those two.

I thought I would post both a simple Chocolate cupcake recipe and a simple Vanilla cupcake recipe since I get requests all the time for just that. I have a couple of recipes for both deep in the archives, but these two are recipes that I have tweeked and perfected over time. Perfect go-to recipes that will turn out every time. I have mentioned this before, but these recipes call for Cake Flour. I never buy cake flour. I simply add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch per 1 cup all purpose flour and voila, cake flour! A little tip from me to you!

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for the Belgian Chocolate!!! Simply post a comment (before May 2nd) on the Giveaway Post (click here). (Not on this post, the previous post!!!!) I will announce the winner Monday, May 2nd. You don’t want to miss it!!

Onto the recipes:

Chocolate Cupcakes
recipe makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour (or use all purpose flour and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch per 1 cup flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups oil
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup sour cream

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cocoa and sugar. Set aside. Using a mixer, mix together the eggs, vanilla, oil, water and sour cream. Slowly add the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Scoop into 24 muffin cups lined with papers. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Vanilla Cupcakes
recipe makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour (or use all purpose flour and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch per 1 cup flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or use a vanilla bean)
2/3 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the milk and mix until well incorporated. Scoop into 24 muffin cups lined with papers. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Have an awesome and delicious weekend!

Filed Under: chocolate, cupcakes, desserts, giveaway

Banana Cupcakes w/Caramel Frosting

April 19, 2011 By Steph 8 Comments

Welcome to the new Stephanie’s Kitchen! I am so excited to have this all done and show you guys! It has been so much fun to see it come to life. It took a while for the whole process to be complete and then with all of my fabulous luck that I was born with, someone hacked into the server that holds the website! Can you even believe it? It threatened everything that had been done on it, but I do have some luck because I am married to a computer genius and he was able to save it. Yay! So drama behind us, here we are.

Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments this last week. And just so everyone knows, my daughter is doing perfect, the dog is doing great and everyone is happy (at the moment).

So onto the cupcakes. These were amazing! I had never had caramel frosting before, but had heard of it recently so I decided to try my hand at it. It was so tasty and the perfect addition to these light and fluffy cupcakes. So if you have some ripe bananas sitting on your countertop like I do all the time, give these a try! Don’t tell anyone, but I didn’t frost half of them and fed them to my kids for breakfast. After all, cupcakes without frosting are just muffins, right?

Have a great week everyone!

Banana Cupcakes w/Caramel Frosting
makes about 2 dozen

2 1/2 cups cake flour (or just add 1 tablespoon cornstarch per 1 cup of all purpose flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup milk
1 cup mashed ripe banana

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Mix in the vanilla and milk. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until smooth and creamy. Fold in the mashed bananas. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners. Equally distribute the batter between the muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes. Frost with caramel frosting, add mini chocolate chips to the batter before baking or just eat plain.

Caramel Frosting

5 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

In a medium saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the milk. Let sit to cool for about 30 minutes. Whisk in the confectioners’ sugar and mix until smooth. Add more sugar if needed to get a frosting consistency.

Filed Under: cupcakes, desserts, fruit

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes w/Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

March 23, 2011 By Steph 37 Comments

My kids have been running around the house like chickens with their heads cut off. Tornados really. I don’t know if it is because we got our usual winter snowstorm in early spring, or if they are just tired of being in the house. Maybe a combination of both. Maybe because they are anxiously awaiting their very first trip to Disneyland that is just around the corner. But whatever the reason, it is driving me MAD!

So what does a Mom do when her kids are running around screaming and beating each other with wooden spoons and spatulas? Bake Snickerdoodle cupcakes, of course. Because when is baking any more fun? (insert sarcastic chuckle here)

We love Snickerdoodle cookies at our house. So these of course were a big hit. And the combination of the moist cinnamon-y cupcake and the creamy cinnamon-y frosting is to DIE for. Literally.

Have an awesome week. And I will try to gain some of my sanity back.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes w/Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
makes 18 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour (or add 1 tablespoon cornstarch per 1 cup all purpose flour to make your own cake flour)
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup milk

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla. Slowly add the flour and milk, alternating between the two until well incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl whenever needed. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. You will need 18. Evenly distribute the batter between the cups. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-20 minutes. Top with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and sprinkle a bit of cinnamon-sugar on top for extra prettiness.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
4 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream the cream cheese and butter until creamy and smooth. Add half the sugar, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix until smooth. Add remaining sugar and beat until light and fluffy and creamy.

Happy Baking!

xoxo,
Steph

Filed Under: cupcakes, desserts