Vanilla Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Center and Almond Buttercream

These were pretty yummy too.

Back on the diet. I have been bad this week. I don't know about you, but the last 5 lbs. are the HARDEST!!

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

When cooled, fill with dulce de leche (you can put an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in the crock pot for 8 hours and it will "magically" turn into dulce de leche, by the way).

Almond Buttercream:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 8-9 cups confectioners' Sugar
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla ext.
• 1 Tsp. Almond ext.
• 1/2 to 1/3 cup milk

1.) Cream butter in mixing bowl until fluffy. Beat in confectioner's sugar 1-2 cups at a time with mixer. Add extracts. 2.) Add milk slowly until the desired "frosting" consistency is achieved.

YUM.
Ps. Stole the picture. I don't have any time to take pictures of the cupcakes I make and they're never as pretty, let's be honest :)

Lime Cupcakes

Another amazing recipe.

CUPCAKES•2 cups all purpose flour
•1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
•1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
•2 1/2 cup sugar
•4 large eggs (I actually messed up and only put 2 eggs in...and they STILL turned out great! Weird.)
•5 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I did less of this--like 2 Tbsp's because I filled the cupcakes with lime curd)
•2 tablespoons finely grated lime peel
•1/2 teaspoon neon-green food coloring
•1 1/2 cup buttermilk

FROSTING
•1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
•3 cups powdered sugar
•1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
•1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
•1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1-2 Tbsp. lime juice

LIME CURD FILLING
Can I just say I LOVE LOVE LOVE lime curd? I really love lemon curd...had never had lime curd, and it is awesome. This recipe is so simple and SO good.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
2 eggs, beaten

Preparation

CUPCAKES
•Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with 24 paper liners. Whisk both flours in medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then next 3 ingredients (batter may look curdled). Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions. Spoon scant 1/3 cup batter into each liner (an ice cream scoop is the perfect amount.)
•Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 18 to 25 minutes.(Mine always come out great at 18 minutes in my particular oven) Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.

FROSTING
•Beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth. Spread over cupcakes.

LIME CURD1.Place the sugar, butter, lime juice, lime zest in the top of a double boiler; stir over medium-high heat until butter melts. Mix 2 tablespoons hot lime mixture into the eggs and stir to blend.
2.Reduce heat to medium until water simmers. Slowly whisk egg mixture into the lime mixture. (Be careful, if the liquid is too hot, the egg will cook...like imagine hard egg white floating around!) Cook over the double boiler until lime mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly and spoon into a clean, glass jar. Cover and refrigerate.

So, I stuffed the cooled cupcakes with this delicious lime curd. Then I frosted them and added a sliced, sugared lime slice on top. Yummy and cute!

Recipe is from Bon Apetit. I doubled it though. And I tweaked the frosting to suit my needs :) I like it much better with lime juice and not just lime zest in it. And I found the lime curd recipe here.

My Version: Almond Joy Cupcakes

ANOTHER post NOT about the kids!!

So I've been doing cupcakes a lot lately. Funny that this post comes RIGHT AFTER the diet post lol :) But I do them on my cheat days, so it's OK. I could never open any kind of bakery though...being around baked goods 24-7 would mean 100 lb. weight gain for me, for sure!

So, today I made some chocolate cupcakes with almond...let's say "almond creme" (that sounds good) filling and coconut cream frosting. They were YUMMMM-O!!!

So I think I'll post the recipes, mainly so that I can find them later by tagging them as "recipes" and share the ones I have tried and tested with you so you can benefit (if you want to go to the trouble of making cupcakes :)

Anyway, here it is:



Adapted from Chockylit Cup Cake Bake Shop: (and I stole the picture online...I don't have time to take pictures of my cupcakes every time let's be honest... but these look about as yummy!)

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes
24 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven


3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powdered (I use the Hershey's dark chocolate version...much better)
1-1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
3. Measure the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and espresso powder into a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Measure the milk and vanilla into a measuring thing.
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
6. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2 to 2/3′s full (or they will overflow! I can do 34 cupcakes with this recipe). Bake at 350 degrees for about 18-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes outclean. (at 18 minutes, mine are PERFECT.)

This has become my go-to recipe for chocolate cupcakes. Super easy, nice and moist, but not too moist, and spongy enough to fill without falling apart.

Almond Creme Filling

Sounds so fancy with the title I just gave it! But it's not :) I just did:

3/4 can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup almond butter
1/4 cup milk

NOT sure how accurate these measurements are because I kinda just made it up and blended it together adding milk until it came to the right consistency. So, start with the almond butter, add as much sweetened condensed milk you want (til you reach the taste and texture you want) and then add regular milk until it thins out enough to fill the cupcakes. You don't want it runny, but you don't want people feeling like they're eating a chewy ball of almond butter either.

Coconut Cream Icing:

This I adapted from a recipe in Southern Living Magazine (I guess). I found it online here. It's YUM. I added about a cup of coconut flakes and lessened the powdered sugar.

½ cup butter, softened
3 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup coconut flakes (sweetened)
¼ cup cream of coconut (I didn't stir it up in the can...I just put the chunky part in and left the liquid, so then it didn't make the frosting too runny)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Increase speed to medium, and slowly add cream of coconut and vanilla, beating until smooth.

Yield: 3 cups


Again, I hope these measurements are right--just play it by ear lol.

Valentines

Had to post a few Valentine's things...



1. Valentine's Cupcakes. A MUST, don't you think? These are probably the best ones I've made EVER. SOOOO delish. I got the cake recipe here, the frosting recipe here (I have a secret crush on Bobby Flay (not so secret anymore I guess) and love his Throwdown show on Food Network), and the raspberry filling recipe here. The cake is probably the best cupcake recipe I have come across: not too moist, not too dry, not to light, not too dense. Just right.

2. Claire's outfit. Can you say Ca-uuuuuute???? I made the shirt, my mother-in-law made the leggings, and she bought the skirt to go with. So adorable. (I know, I'm not proud of my photography skills in these pictures...but she's 2...and was acting and wiggling like she was...2!)





3. Claire's hair. I have ARRIVED in the kid hair department!! My sister, Michelle, will tell you I was really bad at doing kids hair back in the day. I have since gotten better, right Michellie?



4. Valentine's Play Group. I attempted to get some fun pictures of Claire "playing." INSTEAD I got these:

Gotta love her. Even when it hurts (hurts= pulling your hair out multiple times a day). She has a tough time sharing. And letting go of the sprinkles. They decorated sugar cookies at the party, and pretty much the entire time, Claire had a small sprinkle shaker in one arm and a large one (I had taken it away already in the picture on the left--hence the face) in her other arm, hoarding them. She is obsessed with sprinkles.

(PS. SUPER CUTE headband in the picture TOTALLY made by Lenore (mother-in-law). Adorable. Too bad I don't have a happy, adorable kid to model it.... *sigh* Not today at least... maybe tomorrow?

5. And just had to include this pic of my two babies :)