Chocolate Maple Bacon Cupcakes

We are in the second day of this Hurricane Sandy madness. Thankfully, we have not lost power or had any damage done to our home, though I know many people in town have no power and downed trees, etc. I had thought about buying cupcakes supplies over the weekend so I could bake while the wind and rain went on outside, but I didn't. Today, the sun finally came out and I ran out and grabbed some supplies.

We just got a phone call from the superintendent telling us that the town officials/National Grid has given them no word on any updates in town since last night, and last night there were 27 lines down.

Let's go back to last year at this time. We had a freak ice/snow storm that left us out of school for a week. That same week, my cheerleading teams had their league competition, which although most schools competing had no school, and many had no power and weren't living in their homes, they still held the competition. Yeah well....our league competition is on Thursday. As in 2 days from now. As in if we don't have school tomorrow my girls can't practice before Thursday. Seriously, this is our curse apparently.

Anyways, I finally packaged up some cupcakes individually this time as a run through. Once competitions are over (you know, in about 3 weeks or so), I may devote my Sundays to baking 3 different kinds of cupcakes and possibly selling some. I say that now but who knows....

These cupcakes are pretty fabulous. I've been meaning to make them for quite some time, but for some reason never got around to it. They're not ones I would make for an event unless I had a request...not too many people are keen to trying bacon on/in a cupcake. I however will eat almost anything...except eel, plain mayo, and raw tomatoes...unless they're drenched in balsamic vinegar. The cupcake recipe is my go to recipe for chocolate cupcakes, from Annie's Eats. When I found this recipe I had decided that I was going to use my chocolate cupcake recipe, so I was thrilled to see that this blogger used the same one I had planned on using. Seriously though, if you're looking for a chocolate cake recipe, go with this one. It may seem a little more time consuming than a standard chocolate cake recipe (you know with the melting of the butter, etc), but it's consistent and it always gets rave reviews.

The only difference I made was I did not add the bacon into the batter, I just sprinkled some on top before baking. I also added a little more (maybe a tablespoon) of the syrup to the buttercream, and I added a few drops or LorAnn maple flavored oil to the frosting as well. It needed a little more maple flavor and too much syrup would've changed the texture of the frosting. I also candied some bacon (instructions below) to put on top as a garnish.

Chocolate Maple Bacon Cupcakes
adapted from The Novice Chef Blog

For cake:
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
3/4 cup bacon, cooked and chopped

For frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 pound confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup pure maple syrup; plus more for drizzling as a garnish
1 teaspoon salt

4 drops of LorAnn maple flavored oil (can be found here) (optional)
candied bacon for garnish (See instructions below)

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth.
3. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined.
5. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
6.  Remove from stand mixer and gently fold in bacon.
7. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three- quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.

For the frosting:
1. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and pure maple syrup and combine well.
2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more maple syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar. This is where I added in the maple oil.
Garnish with chopped bacon, candied bacon, and a drizzle of maple syrup if you wish.

Directions for candied bacon:

3 or 4 slices of thick cut bacon (I used Trader Joes uncured Applewood smoked bacon)
1/2 cup (or so) dark brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325. Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with foil. Place a cooling rack over the sheet to lay the bacon on.
2. Spread the brown sugar onto a plate.
3. Take each slice of bacon and toss it in the sugar, rubbing it on both sides to coat nicely. Place in cooling rack on cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.
4. Move to wax paper to cool.

When I went to package my cupcakes I remembered that I had these little cocktail forks (that I've had for about 2 years). I thought they'd be cute to put in the cups with the cupcakes. I then decided to add some outside the cups, which looked better.

Cocktail forks!

Adorable!

White Russian Cupcakes

Life has been crazy. Between a sinus infection and cheerleading competition, I haven't had much time for some serious cooking. I did however, have time to squeeze in some cupcakes for my twin friends' birthday gathering Saturday night.

I gave them an option of five different cupcakes, and they chose White Russian. I was pretty pumped since the others required a little more time, and time was certainly short on Saturday. Unless I bring them to a large party, I always end up throwing away a couple of cupcakes after a few days, but not these. The 16 I brought to the party were gone in 5 minutes and the other 8 were eaten by Dan at home. Maybe that's the key to not wasting leftovers...make them with booze in them. The original recipe makes 12, my recipe makes 24.

White Russian Cupcakes
from Baked Perfection

For the White Russian cakes:

2.5 cups all purpose flour

2.5 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1.5 cup sugar

12 tablespoons butter, softened

2 large egg and 2 egg white

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1cup milk

1/4 cup Vodka

1/4 cup Kahlua

 

For the Kahlua Buttercream:

2 stick of butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

3 - 4 tablespoons Kahlua

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl or in a stand mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until combined. Add eggs and egg whites, one at a time. Then add the vanilla, Vodka, and Kahlua. Gradually add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions, ending with the flour mixture.

3.Bake 17 -20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcakes comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

4. For the frosting: Beat butter until creamy. Add salt. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until combined. Add Kahlua 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach desired consistency.

 

 

Pumpkin Bars

I've been meaning to make these bars for almost two weeks. Last week, I was exhausted and had headaches every day. Turns out, I have a sinus infection. I suspected once I had a migraine for 6 straight days that it might be a sinus infection, and then the seventh day, every part of my face hurt. I finally got to doc and got some meds, so I am on the mend. Though I still have headaches and some sinus pain. I've been lucky enough to have a boyfriend who knows I'm miserable when I'm sick and takes care of me as much as he can.
I made my shepherd's pie today, and tried a milk stout in the gravy this time. It came out just as fantastic as it always does. That gravy recipe is seriously fool-proof, any stout or porter you use still tastes great.

Funny thing is, when I went to go to the grocery store today, I asked my mom if she needed me to grab anything for her. She asked me to grab some cream cheese frosting for pumpkin bars she was currently baking. Seriously?! On the day I'm going to make pumpkin bars she beats me to it. I decided I would compare my bars to hers since hers were from a basic box mix. Hers came out firmer (which seems more like a "bar" to me), almost brownie-like. Mine came out super moist and cake-like, which almost makes me want to call these pumpkin cake squares, not bars. I think of bars as being firmer.

Anyways, if you decide to make these, follow my frosting recipe, not the original. The original calls for 4 cups of powdered sugar, which is wayyyyyyyyy too much sugar. My bars had a very thick layer of frosting and I threw a lot of leftover away.

Pumpkin Bars
from The Breadman's Wife

 Cake
2 cups of flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1. tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 and 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix!)

Frosting
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1/3 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. milk

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all dry ingredients (flour to baking soda) in a bowl.
3. Mix eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin together until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients gradually and mix until well combined.
4. Spread mix into a greased baking dish (I used a 13 x 9 inch dish). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. It took me about 35 minutes.
5. Let cool completely.
6. To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Mix in the sugar, vanilla and milk.
7. Frost the cake and serve.

There's no fancy pic to go with this. I frosted the cake, cut it immediately, put it on a paper towel and straight into my mouth. No time for plating, just time for eating.

Butternut Squash and Corn Soup

Fall is easily my favorite season. The temperature is better, the foliage is prettier, and the food is yummier. You can start making things like soups/stews, chili, pot roast, things with pumpkin and apple...

I randomly came home a butternut squash on my counter and my immediately thought:

Roasted Butternut Squash and Sage Lasagna

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Rigatoni with Butternut-Gruyere Sauce

Butternut Squash Lasagna

But we all know I always want to try something new, and I only had a small bit of squash, so I decided to try my hand at soup. This soup didn't come out how I wanted it to. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't what I wanted it to be (which was something similar to what Trader Joe's sells).

I veered off the recipe a bit, so maybe the original would be a little better? Also, my hand me down immersion blender did not work.

Butternut Squash and Corn Soup
adapted from Ezra Poundcake

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes (about 5 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 can sweet corn kernels, drained
1.5 tsp curry powder
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 cup milk or heavy cream (I used 2% milk)
pinch of chili powder
pinch of paprika

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large stock pot over med-high heat. Add the squash, onions and garlic. Cook for 6 minutes until onions start to become tender.
2. Add corn and curry. Cook for 2 minutes until the scent of curry becomes fragrant. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add broth and simmer for 25 minutes until squash is tender.
4. Blend half of the soup with a food processor, blender or immersion blender.(I blended all of it because I didn't want any chunks of corn or squash in my soup). Return to pot.
5. Add milk or cream and stir until soup is warmed. Do not boil.
6. Serve with chives, greek yogurt, or bacon on top.