Cupcake Creations

Today is my husband's 30th birthday!  In celebration, I made the best invention...EVER.  Cupcakes!!  I'm not one to make a cake mix, and be done.  Like always, I have to go overboard and try three new recipes. Like always, I modified and made some changes, based on what I had on hand, and what I thought would taste better. I don't remember where I found the original recipes...but I'll post them with the changes I made.

Justin's favorite type of cake is carrot cake with cream cheese icing, so that was a definite.

Ingredients:
1 lb carrots grated
3 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. good vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
zest of one small orange (about 1 TBSP or so)
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. all spice
sprinkle of ginger

(the original recipe called for cardamom--which I did not have, nor have I ever used)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake papers.
2. Whisk thoroughly: carrots, buttermilk, oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and orange zest.
3. In another bowl, whisk: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger
4. Fold the flour mixture into the carrots, but DO NOT over mix!! If you like walnuts or pecans, you could toast some and stir those in as well.  Justin doesn't like nuts in anything baked, so mine were sans nuts. 
5. Fill cupcake papers about 3/4 full and bake 20 minutes. Cool before frosting


Basic (but delicious) Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
16 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until well combined. Sift in the powdered sugar and mix. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.

Next, I tried French Toast cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.  Again, I found this recipe online (I have no idea where) and made a few changes as I went.  These smell divine!!!  They don't taste too bad either.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp maple flavoring (careful with this stuff...it's black and looks like it stains!)
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat to 350 and line muffin tin with 12 cupcake papers.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a mixing bowl.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, and eggs until combined. Then add maple extract.
4. Alternate between whisking in flour mixture and milk starting and ending with flour.
5. Fill cupcake papers about 1/2 to 3/4 full and bake 20-25 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Now...for the frosting! I actually just used the above recipe for cream cheese frosting, but added some pure maple syrup.  (You may have to add a speck more powdered sugar, if necessary.)  For decoration, I sprinkled these cupcakes with cinnamon sugar.

And....last, but not least...I made Cafe Mocha cupcakes with frappachino frosting!!  Is your mouth watering yet?  It should be!  And you should make these!

Ingredients:
1 (4 oz) Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate bar
10 TBSP butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. instant coffee dissolved in 1 TBSP boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tin with 10-12 cupcake papers.
2. Melt the chocolate bar in the top of a double boiler. Remove from heat just before completely melted so it doesn't scorch, and stir.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs. Stir in melted chocolate and cocoa powder.
4. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir. Then, stir in coffee.
5. Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full and bake 20 minutes. Cool before frosting. 

Frappachino Frosting:
7 TBSP butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp instant coffee dissolved into 1 TBSP boiling water

Beat the butter and sugar and coffee together until pale and fluffy. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes. Top with grated chocolate, chocolate covered coffee bean, or just a regular coffee bean (but you probably wouldn't want to eat it).  Unless you're my father in law who, as he's eating one, says "what's the crunchy stuff in the cupcake?"  Just a decoration! Reminder...warn people to take it off, unless they like munching on a coffee bean!

Enjoy...and EAT MORE CAKE! 

Chicken Spaghetti with a BIG ol' Kick!!

My husband is not one for pasta or casseroles...but he loved this.  He kept saying, "Man, this is really good."  I think it was the spice that did it.

The first thing you'll want to do is boil a cut up fryer chicken in a large stockpot.  Once your pot gets to a nice rolling boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer about half an hour.

Meanwhile, dice up one medium yellow onion and one red bell pepper.

Once your chicken is finished boiling, remove it and let it cool.  Do not discard the stock!  You'll want to remove 2 cups of the stock for later use. 

Break apart spaghetti noodles into three pieces (about 3 inches a piece).  You'll want about three cups of broken spaghetti noodles total.  Cook the noodles in the chicken stock for only 5 minutes.  (Don't forget to take out and set aside 2 cups of it.)  You want your noodles only about half cooked.  Very al dente!

Once your chicken is cool enough to handle, tear it in pieces from the bone.  Throw in a few small pieces of skin too for flavor. You'll need about 2 1/2 cups of cooked chicken.  Heck, I guess if you want your casserole super-chickeny you can use all of it.  I only used about 2 1/2 cups and am going to use the rest to make a chicken salad or chicken quesadillas tomorrow.  That's up to you, though. 

Now, in a large bowl mix the following:

• 2 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• half-way cooked noodles
• 2 cups cheddar cheese
• chopped onion
• chopped red bell pepper
• 2 cans of "Cream of Chicken and Mushroom" Soup
• 1 teasoon Lawry's Seasoning Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4-1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper--depending on how kicked up you want your dish. You could definitely use less if you're sensitive to heat.

Begin adding a little of your reserved stock and stirring your mixture. Keep adding your stock until you get a nice consistency that stirs easily but is not too watery.  I used 1-1 1/2 cups of stock and saved the rest.

Spread your chicken mixture into a casserole dish and top with 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.

Finally, bake casserole in a  350 degree for about 30-35 minutes.