For a family gathering to celebrate my Grandpa’s birthday/1 year anniversary of his death (I know, crazy), I made root beer cupcakes. Weird I know, but root beer was one of his favorite things.

Despite the large amount of root beer, this doesn’t have a really strong root beer flavor – but I was trying to come up with a recipe that didn’t use extracts. It’s still a great cake just the same. I topped it off with my variation of the Baked cookbook’s Chocolate Root Beer Frosting. I think Grandpa would have loved it.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups root beer

Chocolate Root Beer Frosting (recipe here)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract.

Now pour yourself a big glass of root beer and drink it. Oh wait. No, ready your root beer – I find that A&W has the right amount of sweetness for baking.

Alternate the flour mixture and the root beer until you get a nice smooth batter.

Fill your prepped cupcake pan (should make 24 cupcakes) about 2/3 full.

Bake for 15-17 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled, frost with Chocolate Root Beer Frosting.

I also topped them with edible white and little Valrhona chocolate pearls. I thought it looked ‘bubbly’. Even if you aren’t the world’s biggest root beer fan (What. We can’t be friends anymore.) you can’t deny that this is one tasty cupcake.

This is my variation of the Baked cookbook (a FANTASTIC book) Chocolate Root Beer Frosting. It’s nice and thick and chocolatey – with just a hint of root beer, you’d probably not even notice it if I didn’t tell you. Either way, this makes a great frosting for cakes, cupcakes…or just to eat with a spoon. But don’t tell anyone.

ingredients:
2.5 ounce bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2/3 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons root beer
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter and the cocoa powder until combined. It will be thick.

Add in the melted bittersweet chocolate. I really love the smoothness of Scharffenberger. It adds just the right chocolate-y flavor.

Add the salt, then alternate the root beer and the powdered sugar. Once you get everything in there and combined without making a giant mess (it’s hard to do) crank your mixer up to a medium high speed and whip it up good – just a few minutes – until you get a nice light chocolate-y consistency and you’re ready to use it!

This was part of the ‘Cajun Birthday Lunch’
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I LOVE pralines. It’s that brown sugar-y sweetness that I just can’t resist. I wanted to put that into a cupcake, yet that wasn’t quite enough…I decided to top it off with a PRALINE COOKIE. Oh. Yeah. What have you got to lose, right?

ingredients:
1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped pecans

vanilla buttercream frosting
praline cookies (recipe here)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time. Then the vanilla.

Alternate the milk with the dry ingredients until combined.

Now I am sort of anti-nuts in my desserts, but these little chopped pecans add SO MUCH to this cake. It’s scrumptious, seriously.

Stir in the chopped pecans, then pour into prepped liners.

Bake 17-20 minutes depending on your oven.

Let cool on wire racks.

When cool, frost with vanilla buttercream. You could stop there. You…could. OR…

…you could make a batch of Praline Cookies!!

Just add a praline cookie on top and you’re good to go! Totally unecessary? YES. But it looks so good and you get a cookie AND a cupcake. Hooray for overload.

First birthdays are the best – over the top fun! I made 100 cupcakes for the Sweets Table and what a sweet table it was – look at that candy!

Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting dipped in lavender and soft green sanding sugars – to match the birthday colors of course – and some in lovely folded parchment cups with just a few lavender sugar pearls on top. Divine.

Can you believe it was storming torrential rain as I drove up with these? Poor little cupcakes. They survived though!

Happiness to the birthday girl!

I saw this recipe in the Martha Stewart Cupcake book and thought I’d change it up a bit. The real kicker here is I added cinnamon chips which made everything just sing. Talk about flava!! I also added a Wookiee, but if you don’t have one you can just make do.

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Once combined, add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

Alternate the flour mixture with the milk until combined. This will look like cookie batter!

Cinnamon Chips are hard to find, but so worth the hunt. They are made by Hershey’s and as far as I can tell in the Los Angeles area they are only sold at Alberton’s. So weird! If you can find them – get them, you won’t be disappointed. They add a whole new dimension to baking. Plus wookiees love them. Just look at him, he can’t wait.

Now fold in the chocolate chips and cinnamon chips.

Fill your liners about 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick test says they’re done! Let cool on a wire rack.

These are pretty addicting, I’m not just saying that. I’ve had people eat one and then immediately ask for more. Not one more, like TWELVE MORE. This is why Chewbacca is keeping this one all for himself…

Yesterday I attended the L.A. Cupcake Challenge – I’ve passed on it before, thinking that the price tag was a little steep, but after today I think it was totally worth it. It was so much fun and soooo much sugar!

There were 20 bakeries, all of whom had 2 cupcake flavors a piece…do the math that’s around 40 cupcakes to taste. Good lord. I went with the Food Librarian and we were good to go starting out, collecting each one, talking to the bakeries, finding out about them…

It seems we were totally unprepared as everyone (who was smart) brought their own tupperware or boxes! Wow. Even if you were taking them home it sure made it easier to carry your cupcakes around. No, the two of us just toted our wobbly little dessert plates and hoped for the best.

I was a fan of the simple Chocolate Vanilla Swirl from Sweet E’s, and the fancy Little Miss Shortcake from Cupcakes Couture. I also loved the inventiveness and display of the ‘Naughty’ cupcakes from Two Parts Sugar.

I also loved the BEAUTIFUL (and delicious) Salted Caramel from Tavern, though anything with a macaron on top has the edge for me. I will be visiting them soon.

Kristin from Meringue Bakeshop was there with her cute display. She had a cool raffle that included some of my “Bacon Love” stationery and why…? Because her cupcakes had bacon in them! And I have to say her ‘Pigs on Tap’ – Chocolate Stout Cupcake with bacon and whiskey bourbon buttercream was one of my favorites. It used bacon in the right way, and together with the frosting just made the perfect flavorful bite.

I talked to a few of the bakers and they said they had to make over 1400 cupcakes (!!) just to feed the massive crowd. Amazing! To be crowned King (or Queen) of the Cupcakes, I suppose it’s all worth it!

By the time we made it to our third trip around the room, sugar fatigue was setting in. I found it difficult to think and felt suddenly depressed. So we sat. And didn’t move. Instead we made a list of what we’d bring with us next year to be more prepared.

Some of the best parts of the day was getting to see friends – I got to chat a bit with Shari from Bonnin Designs and Clara from I Heart Cuppycakes. I also stopped to talk to Tara from When Tara Met Blog and Nichelle (who I last saw at the Martha Stewart cupcake show in New York!) from Cupcakes Take the Cake – both judges for the contest – talk about hard work!

It was a nice break from, well, cramming my face with sugar. There were some amazing bakeries there and we powered through and tasted about 30 cupcakes. It was not easy – but it was so much fun and I’d recommend that everyone go next year just to experience the craziness.

In the strangest coincidence ever – this is what we saw as we walked to the parking garage:

Right now I just need something salty. And a nap. zzz.

I love Valentine’s Day because I love pink and I love hearts – it’s also a perfect time for sweets. This year I made some old favorites with a twist:

I made my Neapolitan cookies but used TEENY cutters and cut out little hearts. They look so good in the pan but unfortunately they spread like crazy…

They are still cute but it makes me want to use a miniscule cutter next time to see how small I can really get these things.

I also made up some M & M cookies but used the ‘Valentine’s mix’ which means pink, red and white. Cute idea but the M & M’s don’t show up that well. Doesn’t matter, they were still delicious.

Then I made mixed boxes of red velvet cupcakes and chocolate ganache cupcakes. I just love how the white and brown look together with the little hearts.

Who knows if people appreciate all this work, but I had fun making all of it. Now what holiday is up next…?

Neapolitan cookies recipe, here.
M&M cookies recipe, here.
Chocolate Ganache cupcakes recipe, here.

A while back when I asked, ‘What desserts would you love to see at a luncheon?‘ Well I got so many neat responses, however I should have specified that it was an office luncheon, because I’m not sure a chocolate fountain would work for an afternoon meeting in the conference room, though that’d be hilarious!

A lot of people suggested mini things. Mini cupcakes. Mini cookies. Things you can grab and go. Also, you guys REALLY like Key Lime Pie. So many of you suggested that, I’ll have to try that next time.

I ended up making mini versions of my Carrot Cake Cookies:

Which turned out so cute bite sized, now I think I’ll do it this way all the time! It’s the perfect cookie to cream cheese filling ratio. Also since they are so small…you can eat ten of them.

I also made mini Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes, though because we are on Stormwatch here in Los Angeles, the ganache didn’t really set, which really ticked me off. Still, they turned out cute!

I could make mini desserts all day there are so fun but man, so time consuming! Is it possible to get carpal tunnel from scooping cookie dough? I think I’ve got it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, hopefully the office enjoyed their treats before heading back to work!

Mini Carrot Cake Cookies recipe, here.
Mini Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes recipe, here.

So for the Kid’s birthday he said he wanted “Chocolate cupcakes. Vanilla frosting. That’s it.” Then gave me that look like, “Don’t fancy it up, mom.” Sheesh! Fine, fine – but if I’m going to do it, it’s going to be GOOD. I took the same concept at the Very Vanilla cupcake and used some good ol’ organic chocolate milk.

Since it was a knight- themed birthday I added little swords on top. Don’t poke your eye out folks, cupcakes is dangerous business.

ingredients:
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then add the vanilla.

Two very important notes – One: When I bake I only use Valrhona cocoa powder. I accept nothing less. It is the best and brings so much life to your desserts you’d wonder why you ever used that canned junk from the supermarket in the first place. The people eating your desserts WILL notice the difference. Two: Chocolate milk makes this extra chocolatey – you can just use regular milk if you have no choice. Enough preaching — now alternate milk with the dry ingredients until combined.

Spoon the batter into prepped liners, bake 15-17 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

The Kid was right – I actually like this paired with a vanilla buttercream rather than a chocolate frosting. Something about the two flavors working together. Chocolate on chocolate is sometimes over the top. Anyway – frost with a vanilla buttercream and serve. Swords optional.

I came up with this recipe for O.G.’s birthday. Not only did I use a hefty amount of vanilla, but also vanilla sea salt AND even vanilla milk. The Kid LOVES this flavored organic milk. He can’t get enough so I pack it in his lunch everyday. Wait til he finds out I snagged the last one for this recipe. Oops.

I think I accomplished the vanilla-ness of these cupcakes TO THE EXTREME. Vanilla Ice would be proud.

ingredients:
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
1-3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla sea salt
1 cup VANILLA milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla

vanilla buttercream
vanilla sea salt (for sprinkling)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and seasalt in a bowl. Set aside. Now here’s the thing. I know not everyone has vanilla seasalt, seeing as how this salt cost me $12 for 2 freakin’ ounces. So regular old seasalt will do ok. Don’t sweat it.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then add the vanilla.

Now alternate milk with the dry ingredients until combined. This flavored organic milk is fantastic but it does scare me that they sell it on the shelves NOT REFRIGERATED. Supermarkets: you are just playing with my food bacteria paranoia.

Spoon the batter into prepped liners, bake 15-17 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

I like to top these with a simple vanilla buttercream and a sprinkling of vanilla sea salt. Oh yeah, a little sugared heart hanging off the edge of the cup doesn’t hurt either.