Samoa's Cupcakes

Based on the Samoa's Girl Scout Cookie:
Chocolate Coconut Cupcake, with a Salted Caramel Buttercream, Topped with Chocolate Drizzle and Toasted Coconut. 

When I was little (and actually a Girl Scout) I hated coconut with a passion. Therefore, I never ever ate any of the Samoa's Girl Scout cookies. I was always a sucker for Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos...hmm, next cupcake? But as I grew up and my tastes expanded, I found coconut to be tolerable and OK in certain situations.

I had my first Samoa a couple of years ago....the first Girl Scout season that Sean and I were dating. He loves them, and I found myself actually liking them too.

I made these for him to take to work with him. I wasn't that impressed with these, but that may because I still am not too fond of the texture of coconut. But Sean like them, so that's all that mattered as these were for him.

I came across this recipe from Spice is Nice, but I don't like thin batters, so I searched for another Samoa's recipe and decided on the cupcake from Damn Delicious. But the frosting looked like it involved too much work....so I decided to combine the two recipes.

Chocolate-Coconut Cupcakes (from Damn Delicious)
(makes 24)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature (I never get eggs to room temp, not sure what that does for the recipe, as my cupcakes always come out great)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (I had never bought coconut before, so it took me forever to find it in the grocery store!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined.
5. Beat in vanilla until well combined.
6. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and the milk alternately in 3 parts, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated.
7. Stir in the coconut flakes.
8. Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray.
9. Place into oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Lots of Coconut

Salted Caramel Buttercream (From Spice is Nice)

(made just enough to frost 24 cupcakes....it is rare that you have just enough icing. It seems I mostly either get way too much, or not enough)

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup caramel topping
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (the recipe originally called for a whole teaspoon, but I don't like my salted caramel to be so salty...so I halved it)

1. Cream butter until fluffy.
2. Add in vanilla extract and caramel topping. 
3. Add powdered sugar and salt and mix until smooth.

To toast coconut for garnishment: Place coconut on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 350 stirring frequently until it looks brown, This took 6-8 minutes for me. 

Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Garnish with toasted coconut. Drizzle melted milk chocolate chips on top. 

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes with an Actual Oreo on the Bottom!

I made these once before for my brother's high school graduation (before I had my blog). They went like crazy, everyone loved them! I just made them again, and they are just as delicious as I remember. 

The only issue is they have to be chilled, which makes it hard to serve them at a long party, or take them with you on a 5 hour road trip, which is what I am going to do with this batch. Hopefully they make the trip!

Flipped one over so you could see the Oreo 

They are also kinda messy, maybe I didn't cook them long enough, or maybe they are just that soft. Either way, they still tasted great. Maybe I even ate one for breakfast this morning.... There's just something about eating cupcakes for breakfast that makes me feel good all day long : )

My breakfast...yummy!

They are pretty easy to make, doesn't take too much time. The recipe came from on of my favorite cupcake books: Martha Stewart Cupcakes. 

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

(makes about 30)

• 42 Double-Stuff Oreos (12 for crushing and 30 left whole) - 2 packages
• 2 lbs cream cheese (room temp)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs (room temp and lightly beaten)
• 1 cup sour cream (full-fat)
• pinch of salt

Yummy Batter

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. I know, its very low!
2. Line cupcake tin and place 1 whole Oreo in each one
3. In the mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth
4. Gradually add sugar and beat until combined
5. Beat in the Vanilla
6. Slowly drizzle in eggs while beating
7. Beat in Sour Cream and Salt
8. Fold in the crushed Oreos
9. Fill cups almost all the way full. 
10. Bake 22 minutes
11. Refrigerate in tins for at least 4 hours or overnight. 

Filling the Cupcake Tins

A Cupcake for Cookie Dough Lovers

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, Filled with Cookie Dough, Topped with Cookie Dough Frosting and Mini Chocolate Chips.

 

If you love eating raw cookie dough, you will love this cupcake! This is the second time I have made it and it has been wonderful both times. The recipe is from the Cupcake Project, and it uses egg-less cookie dough, so it is completely safe to eat raw.

This cupcake does involve some work, as you have to brown the butter, and make cookie dough as well as cupcakes. The batter of this cupcake was incredible, I could have had a few more cupcakes, but we ate so much batter! I also decided the cookie dough wasn't sweet enough and added some extra sugar to make it perfectly sweet.

My boyfriend took them to work with him and the response was the same as what everyone said the first time I made these. "I have never had a cupcake like this!"

The Brown Butter Cupcakes (original recipe)
(makes about 12 cupcakes)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter 
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, or more to taste. 

1. Melt butter over medium-heat in a small skillet or heavy-bottomed pot.
2. Continue to heat the butter, stirring periodically, until it turns brown (10-15 minutes). You know its done when the bubbles get really small. It took closer to 15 minutes for me. Your kitchen will smell amazing afterwards. 
3. Remove butter from heat and cool to room temperature.
4. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. In medium-sized bowl, whip egg whites until light and frothy.
6. Slowly mix sugar into the egg whites.
7. Mix cooled browned butter and vanilla into the wet mixture.
8. Alternately mix dry ingredients and milk into the wet mixture.
9. Add in the chocolate chips.
10. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
11. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until cupcakes bounce back when lightly touched.

The Egg-Less Cookie Dough Filling (original recipe)

(you only need 1/2 of this for one batch of cupcakes)

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 3/4 C unsalted butter, melted
• 1 C packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 4 T milk
• Mini Chocolate Chips to taste, I think I added about 1/3 cup.

1. Mix all ingredients except for chocolate chips in a big bowl.
2. Remove 1 cup dough and place in separate bowl. 
3. Mix in chocolate chips (to the bigger batch). 
4. Use a cupcake corer or a paring knife to remove the center of the cupcakes
5. Insert a ball of cookie dough into the center, make sure to put enough to be level with the top of the cupcake.

The Cookie Dough Frosting

1. Add in 1/4 cup heavy cream to reserved 1 cup of cookie dough. If too thick, add in additional cream 
2. Spread onto cupcakes and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. 

These are best after chilled, pop em in the fridge for a bit before enjoying. 

The Finished Product

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Gingerbread Cupcakes with a Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream, Topped with a Little Gingerbread Man Cookie

So when my little brother (who is not so little at 6'5"), heard about my plan to make eggnog cupcakes for Christmas, he told me no one likes eggnog (soooo not true!) and that I should make something else.

Then he proceed to ask me why I had not made a second attempt at shipping him cupcakes (see my first attempt). As you can see from my first attempt, shipping cupcakes to Texas did not prove as easy as expected.

I did however, attempt to ship cupcakes a second time....they just didn't make it to the shipping part! I had this great idea of making Mountain Dew cupcakes, because what college freshman doesn't live on Mountain Dew and video games? But I ended up with just an OK cupcake with a blob of melted mountain dew frosting. I guess the carbonation from the soda destroyed the icing's ability to hold it shape and look pretty. Needless to say, I tried to forget this failed cupcake and did not blog about it, much less ship it!

Anyways....when I began listing off other Christmas themed cupcakes I could make, he settled reluctantly on gingerbread. Probably because all the others were just as bad as eggnog in his eyes.

Well, I am so glad I decided to make a second cupcake!

So here it is:

The Gingerbread Cupcake (from Tidy Mom)
Made 14 cupcakes.

• 1/2 cup canola oil 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1/2 cup molasses 
• 1 egg, room temp and beaten 
• 1-1/2 cup flour 
• 1/2 tablespoon ground ginger 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1/2 cup boiling water 
• 1/2 tablespoon baking soda 


1. Preheat oven to 350° and line muffin tins with baking cups.

2. In mixing bowl, using whisk attachment, combine oil, sugar, and molasses; then add beaten egg until well mixed.

3. In a medium bowl whisk flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and cloves. Whisk into molasses mixture until well combined.

4. Boil water and remove from heat. Add baking soda and whisk into batter.

5. Fill baking cups 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Set aside to cool.

6. Top with brown sugar butter cream. Garnish with gingerbread man cookie.

The Cinnamon Brown Sugar Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter (softened) 
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed 
• 1 pinch of salt 
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 3 cups powdered sugar 
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk butter and shortening until fluffy. Add brown sugar, salt, vanilla and cinnamon. 
2. Continue mixing until well blended. Gradually add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Until you have a very thick gooey mixture. 
3. On the highest speed of your mixer, stream in the heavy whipping cream pouring nice and slow until desired consistency. 

The Little Gingerbread Man  (from food for my family)
This makes A LOT of dough, I halved it and still had twice as much as I needed!

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup molasses

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream together brown sugar and butter in a stand mixer for 2 minutes. 
3. Add in eggs and molasses and stir until combined. 
4. Mix in flour and spices and mix until a soft dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated. 
5. Split the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
6. Lightly flour a flat surface. Roll out gingerbread dough and cut into shapes and then place on a baking sheet. 
7. Preheat oven to 350º F and chill the dough on the baking sheet while the oven preheats. 
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges just start to brown. Allow to cool completely. 

I have to say these were AMAZING! I wish I made more of them! The cinnamon brown sugar frosting complimented the gingerbread perfectly!

Taking a Short Break from Cupcakes

It's time for Christmas Cookie Baking....YAY!

Although recently, I have been feeling somewhat guilty whenever I make something that is not a cupcake....sorta feel like I am betraying my blog.

Oh well, Thanksgiving Pies and Christmas Cookies are just going to have to be an exception : )

The Array of Cookies This Year:

1. Bon Bons
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Cranberry Cheesecake Bars
4. Pecan Crescent Cookies
5. Dark Chocolate Mint Cookies
6. Gooey Butter Cookies (Chocolate, Vanilla, Red Velvet, and Funfetti)
7. Peanut Blossoms (PB cookie with a Hershey Kiss in the center)
8. M&M Cookies
9. Reese's Peanut Butter Temptations
10. Snicker's Surprises
11. Snowball Cookies (White Chocolate and Cherry)
12. Triple Chocolate Cookies
13. Butterscotch Oatmeal

We calculated it out and needed about 7 dozen of each kind, which makes over 1,000 cookies! It took us 2 full days this year.

Eggnog Cupcakes are on my agenda for Christmas eve!

Bon Bon Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcake Stuffed with Chocolate, Frosted with Almond Buttercream with a Chocolate Swirl on Top.

It's getting closer to Christmas-time, so I've got cookies on my mind... Can't wait for tomorrow when I start to bake them! My mom needed cupcake for a work party tonight, so I decided to make on of my favorite Christmas cookies into a cupcake.. the Bon Bon. 

A bon bon cookie is a ball of dough around 6 chocolate chips which is baked, then glazed with a pink almond glaze and swirled with chocolate. They look like this:

The Amazingly Delicious Bon Bon!

I think my cupcakes are pretty close! And they taste surprisingly similar to the cookie version.

Vanilla Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart)

(makes 12) I halved Martha's recipe

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened

3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 plus 1/8 cups milk 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well.
5. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to medium.
6. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk.
7. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds.
8. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Place a piece of chocolate into the batter and bake for about 17 minutes. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes.

the inside

Almond Frosting (from Little Lady Cakes)

(makes enough for 24 cupcakes)

1/2 C. Shortening
1/2 C. Room Temperature Butter

1 T. Almond Extract

2 TBS. Heavy Whipping Cream 

4 Cups of powdered sugar

1 TBS. Meringue Powder 

1. cream together shortening, butter, and almond extract. 
2. Sift together the sugar and meringue powder. 
3. Mix in the dry ingredients. 
4. Add cream and beat at medium speed.

Chocolate Swirl:

6 T Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Combine and melt in a double-boiler or microwave. Let stand 5 minutes.

Spread frosting onto cupcakes and pipe a swirl with chocolate.

The Finished Product

Christmas Party Cupcakes

Vanilla Frosted Vanilla Cupcake Garnished with a Mini Tree Cookie

My company's annual Christmas Party is happening this weekend, so I decided to make Christmas cupcakes (only because my traditional Christmas cookies are not baked yet and I made a bunch of pies last week for Thanksgiving).

Well, I calculated that I would need about 75 cupcakes (its going to be a big crowd this year!). I don't have the energy to make them all complicated cupcakes, so I originally decided to keep it simple. I was just going to do vanilla with vanilla buttercream.

Then I got bored after work this week ....and made little tree roll-out cookies and iced them with green colored color-flow icing. The next day, I was bored again after work and decided to whip up a batch of buttercream so I could pipe garland and ornaments onto the tiny trees. I debated also putting a little star sprinkle at the top, but I didn't have enough of them and hate going to the grocery store!

I made this recipe from allrecipes.com:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F . Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart cookie sheets. (I never leave that much space, they don't spread out hardly at all)
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes, mine took closer to 6 mins.

Icing - follow the instructions that come with the color-flow mix, you can get it at Michael's or here.

Finished Little Tree Cookies

I made the Cupcake Project's Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing. The recipes are re-posted below(with my edits because I don't like using real vanilla beans). This recipe is Amazing, the best vanilla recipe ever!

Vanilla Cupcakes (from Cupcake Project)
Yield: 16 cupcakes

• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• 1 T vanilla bean paste 
• 1 3/4 cake flour 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 2 large eggs, room temperature 
• 1/3 cup full-fat sour cream 
• 1/4 cup canola oil 
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 
• 2/3 cup whole milk 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and vanilla bean paste

3. Mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. Add the vanilla sugar and mix until well combined.

5. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes.

6. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.

7. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.

8. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined.

9. Fill cupcake liners 1/4 of the way up. Place a mini-cupcake on top, cover with additional batter.

10. Bake for 14 minutes

11. When the cupcakes are done, remove them immediately from the tins.

Vanilla Frosting (from Cupcake Project)

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar (add more until it reaches your preferred consistency) 
• 1cup unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 4 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (add more to taste) 
• 2 tablespoon milk 

1. Mix together sugar and butter until they are blended and creamy.

2. Add vanilla bean paste and milk and continue to beat for another minute.

3. If desired, add more vanilla bean paste to taste, or more confectioners' sugar to make it stiffer

All the cupcakes on display for the party!