DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

Heres my little Taste of the cupcakes, a more detailed blog is going to be on the way soon :)

ND vs Purdue...

Alrighty, so the first big football game in my local area is coming quickly. SATURDAY!! The 4th already, I can't believe how fast fall is approaching.
<--If you couldn't tell by my huge hint, ND is my time. I have been born and raised a ND fan. (full blooded, yes I am that fan that says, next year, we'll get it next year) However thru the trials and tribulations Its still there.
Your probably wondering, what does this have to do with cupcakes well, I'm looking into doing Navy, Green and gold cupcakes, However Its proving to be quite difficult. Don't know if anyone has any good ideas for either a good "football flavor" that is kid friendly as well... :) I've looked into things such as soda cakes, and beer cakes... Can't seem to find that flavor that screams fall and football... lets see if we can put our blogger heads and thoughts together and see what we can come up with :) Thanks for any and all suggestions, i'm going to be working quite dilligently on this one, I'm Super excited to see what we come up with!!!
Thanks :) go IRISH!!!!!!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Kick....For the spice lovers...

Alright, These cupcakes were a HUGE test on my part. I took them up to my friends lake cottage for a get together so the gentlemen would have something sweet to eat without losing any manliness.. <--spelling however I'm sure you all know what I mean!!!! This is My Chili, Cayenne pepper Cupcake, with a spicy buttercream, topped with a bittersweet red pepper flake chocolate peice.
I tested this with my Dad, a great friend Kyle, and one other person, sorry I forgot his name, I believe it may have been the second time I've met him :)  Heres the recipe.


Basic Vegan Chocolate Cupcake,
from http://www.chow.com/recipes/10794-basic-vegan-chocolate-cupcake

1 C. Soy Milk
1 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
3/4 C. Granulates Sugar
1/3 C. Canola Oil
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp, Almond, Chocolate or more Vanilla Extract
1 C. All Purpose Flour
1/3 C. Coca Powder, Dutch processed or regular
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 t. Salt

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans


** Whisk together soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the Sugar, oil, Vanilla extract and other extact, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a seperate bowl sift together the flour coca powder, baking soda, baking powder and Salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain. (small ones are okay.)


Heres my tweeks....
In a small bowl add spices to your taste level of heat.
Put togeter, again no measurement is the right measurement this is strictly how you want the heat level, I'm only going to give you the list of the spices (I didn't measure either)

**Chili Powder, Cayenne peper, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and red pepper flakes (all these spices were already in a powder form, besides the red pepper flakes, I crushed them before adding to the mixture.***
After all thes ingredients are incorporated with the chocolate mix, put in about a tablespoon of The Infused Spicy Red Pepper Oil....Taste your batter to see if its at your desired heat level, if not add more. START SMALL and add more you can always add more not take out***

If your batter tastes the way you want a good spice level pour into muffin tins. and bake for 18-20 minutes. For a normal sized cupcake, i made these minis, and they took about 10-15 minutes.

While these are baking Prepare your frosting, again I got this frosting from:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10856-vegan-fluffy-buttercream-frosting

Vegan Buttercream Frosting

1/2 C. Nonhydrogenated Shortening
1/2 C. Nonhydrogenated Margarine
3 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar, sifted if clumpy
1 1/2 t. Vanilla Extract
1/4 C. Plain Soymilk or soy creamer

*Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined & fluffy, add sugar and beat for 3 minutes
* Add vanilla and soy milk beat for 5-7 minutes until fluffy
**I also added some chili and cayenne pepper to the frosting i did it more for a little kick and also some decorations :)

Minis...only about 10-15 minutes in the oven

I also was able to Pull out a cookie sheet, and line it with was paper.
Start melting chocolate in the microwave, after the chocolate is fully melted let cool to touch, place in piping bags and on the wax paper pipe out any design you want. Before the chocolate dries, make sure to sprinkle your red pepper flakes.

Assemble your Cupcakes, I know this is a lot but do your prep work and refridgerate things, makes time fly.
to assemble..
after cupcakes have cooled, ice the cupcake with a star tip, or your perferred tip, the top with the fully cooled chocolate pieces on top.

There is a lot of work in these cupcakes probably more then I've ever done before, but trust me when I say with the reviews I got on the kick level you won't be sorry, The guys really ate them up :)

2nd round of the French Toast Cupcakes....

Like I've mentioned in my last update, the Vegan French Toast cupcakes were extremly delicious. However I had originally wanted to add a few more tweeks, so I did, and since our family isn't vegan, we have opted to take the meat eaters, sweet toothers and combined one wonderful cupcake for everyone.

Bacon, french toast, and maple syrup in one bite...

For this cupcake, we use the origial French toat cupcake, and frostings, but this time around I fried up some bacon very haphazardly...as the bacon was cooling, I brushed the cupcakes with the melted syrup, and then iced. After the bacon was dapped off with towels and cool enough to handle, I laid them on top of that buttercream frosting, and drizzled it with extra warm syrup..
They are delicious...If you have a brunch coming up with someone who has the milk and egg allergy impress them with these super delicious cupcakes. I believe that they are better then baking with the milk and eggs. The bacon and extra little syrup on top make you feel like you just had one HUGE breakfast.... YUMMMYYY

Finally, The Vegan French Toast Cupcakes....

I got this recipe from http://bakeanddestroy.net/2007/11/vegan-french-toast-cupcakes/ 

I have wanted to try this for quite some time, and was finally able to get the courage to do it. The recipe would have been great the way she had it but I again added my own tweeks. (even an extra layer of yumm) If you wanted the original recipe to follow, the link is there.

Heres the Recipe W/ my tweeks....

Vegan French Toast Cupcakes

1 C. Soy Milk

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 C. Flour

2 T. Cornstarch

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 C. Canola Oil

3/4 C. Sugar

1 1/4 tsp. maple extract

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp maple syrup

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pans

* Whisk Soy millk and apple cider vinegar together in a large bowl and set aside to curdle

* In a smaller bowl, sift flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg

* Add oil, sugar, extracts and maple syrup to soy milk mixture and beat until mixed

* Add dry mixture to soy milk mixture and beat until until no large lumps remain

* Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

* Cool for 10 minutes, in this time look below and prepare frosting.

**Before Cupcake is completely cooled I melted about 1/4 C. maple syrup in the microwave and brushed them onto the warm cupcakes for a layer of sugary goodness and a flavor that can't be beat... YUMMM...

Vegan Cream Cheese

:::Can you see the little bit of glossiness (probably not a word)
that would be the maple syrup I melted and brushed on top::::

1/4 C. margarine

1/4 C. vegan cream cheese, softened

2 C. Confectioners Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp Maple extract.

* Cream together margarine and cream cheese

* Add sugar 1/2 cup batches to avoid mess mix in till creamy and smooth

* Add vanilla and maple extract and beat until smooth

These cupcakes were a huge hit among my Two girls, Natasha 3 and Eleanor 15 months, My wonderful neice Eliza 19 months, Cousin Cassandra 18, Celia 25, and I (24)...and needless to say they were YUMMY...the tweeks I made gave a little more of a maple flavor and the house smell of french toast and maple syrup, a few of my morning favorites. YUmm Yumm...

My husband is serveing in afghanistan as a marine and the deal was for me to learn to cook his moms special dinners, well i've learned only one out of the many he loves, and have decided to fill my kitchen with cupcakes and sweet aromas. Don't know what I'm going to do when he gets home...but i do know hes going to eat some great cupcakes. Enjoy. 

YUMMMMMMMM!!!! I ADORE the pictures I've taken with forks...dunno makes it look way yummy!!

The next Cupcake....

So I've been thinking a lot about the next cupcake, I know that the trend I've been running with is Vegan cupcakes, but this one I can't resist. Natasha yes, is allergic to milk and eggs, but shes not a full vegan, and nither are her dad and I, we've tried switching the lifestyle to vegan but it doesn't work for us. More power to the people who can. Natasha seems to love the vegan baking, however still my little meat eater. The next cupcake is going to be a non milk and egg cupcake just like i've been doing but this time around becuase of my cravings, we placed a few wonderful tweeks, one being bacon...check it out, and try them...You won't be sorry...

There are going to be two versions of this cupcake one without the bacon so you can have it that way, and one with.....

Vegan Red Velvet...not your traditional...

Cake

2 cups soy milk

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 ounces red food coloring

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

•Add vinegar to soy milk, and set aside to curdle.

•Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

•Add vegetable oil, food coloring, and vanilla extract to the curdled soy milk, and mix.

•Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix.

** before filling I added a hand full of chopped blueberries and strawberries. It gave them so much more flavor.***

•Fill cupcake liners ¾ full.
•Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Frosting

½ cup margarine, room temperature
½ cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar

* I added one more teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 teaspoons of almond extract the almond and berries along with the red velvet cake was delicious!

•Cream margarine, cream cheese, and vanilla extract.
•Slowly mix the confectioner’s sugar into the creamed sugar, and then beat until smooth and fluffy.
•Frost cooled cupcakes.

Yummm...Enjoy these great cupcakes, I know we did!!!