Funfetti Cupcakes

I have seen funfetti cupcakes posted on baking blogs for a couple of years now.  I've always wanted to make them but haven't made an effort till now.  They are simply a vanilla cupcake with lots of sprinkles mixed in.  They are pretty and lots of fun!  I just used a large handful of rainbow sprinkles but you can use any color you want.  The sprinkles that are called "jimmies" work the best and bleed the least.  The tiny little balls called non-pareils tend to bleed a lot more.  You just have to be careful to mix very slowly and for not very long after adding your sprinkles to the batter.  You will have minimal bleeding if you are gentle and brief with your mixing. The sprinkles are the very last thing to go into the batter.

My funfetti cupcakes are topped with a simple American buttercream consisting of powdered sugar, vanilla extract, butter, hi-ratio shortening, a touch of corn syrup and heavy whipping cream. And then I whip a looong time till it's nice and fluffy & smooth. I'm not including an icing recipe because I didn't really use one.  I didn't measure ingredients - I just dumped into the mixing bowl and whipped!  BUT, this icing recipe most closely follows the recipe I've linked below.  It's one of my favorites and I use it often.

Juniors Decorator's Buttercream

You can use any white cake recipe to make these, you can even use a white cake mix. This one is completely from scratch and it's pretty darn good. The best part is, it's super easy!  

Funfetti Cupcakes

3 1/3 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream (I used full fat sour cream)

1 1/2 cups milk (I used whole milk)

4 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used clear vanilla to keep my cake white)

About 1/2 cup sprinkles of your choice

Oven 350 degrees

In large bowl sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt.  Add granulated sugar to the dry ingredients & lightly mix. Add softened butter & oil and mix well (I used an electric hand mixer but you can use a stand mixer). At this point the mixture will look thick & clumpy & kind of sandy.  Add eggs & combine. Add sour cream, milk & vanilla extract.  Mix till smooth (but don't over mix). Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the pretty sprinkles!  Divide batter into cupcake liners (about 2/3 full) and bake till tops spring back when lightly touched. Don't over bake or your cupcakes will be dry so watch the oven carefully.  I started checking the cupcakes after 15 minutes passed. Remove from oven after they test done & cool on wire rack for about 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pans to cool completely. Ice & decorate the cupcakes when they are fully cooled.

Copycat recipe of Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have never had a Sprinkles cupcake but I hear they are fantastic - especially the red velvet ones.  Jaclyn from Cooking Classy blog came up with this copycat recipe.  I was not specifically looking to make red velvet cupcakes but just came across this recipe while browsing different baking blogs.  Sometimes recipes just jump out at me for no particular reason.  I was bored, I wanted to bake, I had all the ingredients, it looked like a yummy recipe and it received good reviews.  Ok!  I was in!  I did like this recipe alot but I have a couple of other red velvet cake recipes that I like just as well.  I kind of prefer the ones that have oil in them (in addition to butter) because it gives the cake a moistness not matched by butter only cakes.  The only change I made in this recipe was I sifted my dry ingredients together.  Oh, and Jaclyn mention putting the cooling cupcakes in an airtight container to continuing cooling to presevese moisture - I also didn't do that part - mostly because I didn't even notice that hint till just now as I was posting this!  This cake was super soft & delicate. Not dense at all. Very subtle chocolate flavor which is what a red velvet cake should be. My cupcakes did have a slight dome when they were first removed from the oven but they flattened as they cooled.  The photos show cupcakes that were in NON greaseproof liners.  I also baked some in greaseproof liners - really pretty decorative liners.  I don't know about you, but I do NOT have good luck with greasproof liners.  All of the cupcakes that were in greaseproof liners pulled away from the liners almost entirely. They looked horrible with little part of the cupcakes still attached to the liner and the ripped up cupcake sitting in the middle.  I do not know how to prevent that but it makes me not want to use them.  Does anyone have suggestions?  I've tried filling them a bit fuller so the extra batter would seal the edges but it didn't work.

But anyway, back to the cupcakes!  This recipe is very simple to throw together and that's always nice.  Make sure you use the vinegar when making a red velvet cake. It's an important ingredient in the texture of the cake.  I know it's a very small amount but it's crucial for the texture.  Everyone is always so in awe of the beautiful color of this cake.  It IS very striking and makes a gorgeous presentation.  I really don't know anybody that doesn't like red velvet cake!

Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes Yields 12 insanely delicious cupcakes

Cooking Classy by Jaclyn

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup salted butter, firm but not cold*
1 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon red food coloring

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda, set aside. In a separate large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time stirring after each addition. (Now stand back and change out of any nice shirt you have on and) Add red food coloring and vanilla extract and mix until combine. In a small mixing bowl (or in the measuring cup you used to measure milk), combine milk and 1 tsp vinegar. Add milk mixture and flour mixture to cupcake mixture, alternating in two separate batches, mixing until combine after each addition. Divide batter evenly among 12 paper lined muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven 20-23 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 2 minutes in muffin tin, then transfer to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to an airtight container to cool completely (this just helps them retain more moisture).


Chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate chip cookie dough icing

This combination of cupcake, filling & icing comes from a couple of different sources. The icing is my most recent favorite buttercream recipe from my Junior's Cheesecake cookbook (link below)

Juniors Buttercream

The cupcake recipe and chocolate chip cookie dough icing recipes comes from my new cookbook

The Cookie Dough Lovers Cookbook

This chocolate cake recipe is SO simple and really delicious.  It's the quickest from scratch cake recipe ever.  It's honestly almost as quick as a cake mix.  It does not make many cupcakes so I would double the recipe, which I did, which resulted in 21 cupcakes.

The filling I used was leftover from icing my last cookies.

 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing

  It's an icing recipe but works great as a filling.  The photos I show make it look like it's just white filling.  I happen to halve a cupcake that didn't have many mini chocolate chips in the filling so you can't see them.  But the filling DOES  resemble chocolate chip cookie dough.

This whole combination looks time consuming but it's really not.  They are 3 simple recipes.  To save time, you can simply fill your cupcakes with the icing and throw in a few mini chocolate chips.

Oh, and I purchased a new $5.00 little cupcake corer and it's works beautifully.  Yes, it's easy to use a knife but this little piece of plastic makes the whole process of coring cupcakes very quick and makes nice uniform holes.  I recommend it!

Cupcake Corer

Chocolate Cupcakes
The Cookie Dough Lovers Cookbook

1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

In large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, baking powder & salt.  Make a well in the center & add milk, oil, vanilla & eggs.  Stir until just combined.  Fill cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake 18-22 mintues or until test done.


For the filling:
3/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar, backed
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar, or more as needed
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips


To prepare frosting, beat together butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in flour and salt, followed by vanilla. Add 4 cups of the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add heavy cream, and beat until fluffy. Add more powdered sugar as necessary, 1/4 cup at a time, until frosting is thick yet spreadable.

Delicious white cupcakes with Chocolate Icing

Ok, here it is!  An AWESOME white cake recipe FROM SCRATCH!!  Yes! I thought I would never ever find one.  Up until now, my favorite white cake recipe has been a doctored cake mix.  This cake is just lovely.  It's fluffy, it's very flavorful, it's moist, it looks pretty and it's easy to make. I LOVE this recipe and will definitely make it again.  I came across the recipe on this blog:

The Cupcake Project

Everytime I come across a white cake recipe that sounds like something I haven't tried yet and they swear it's the best, well, I have to try it.  I'm glad I did.  If you are a white cake lover, then you must try this. It's perfect!!

The chocolate icing I used was an experiment.  I made a wonderful white icing the other week using my Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook. 

Junior's Decorator Buttercream

This time I needed a chocolate icing so I added some cocoa powder and some melted dark chocolate to the vanilla Junior's Buttercream.  It turned out really delicious. 

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
From The Cupcake Project BlogYield: 16 cupcakes

• 1 cup (225 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 3/4 cups (175 grams) cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup (75 grams) full-fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil (60 ml)
• 1 tablespoon pure (not imitation) vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. (For those of you who are new to using vanilla beans, check out this video to learn how to get the seeds out of the bean.)
3. Using the back of a spoon, move around the bowl and apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds and to better infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside.
4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.
6. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes. Because there is so little butter, you'll end up with a very fine crumb texture.
7. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
8. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
9. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined. The batter will be liquid. (Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. It's supposed to be that way.)
10. Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.
11. Bake for 14 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They are done when a toothpick comes out without wet batter stuck to it. The cupcakes should appear white with specks of vanilla bean. They should not turn a golden brown. If they are not done, test again in two minutes. If they are still not done, test again in another two minutes.
12. When the cupcakes are done, remove them immediately from the tins and leave them on a cooling rack (or just on your counter if you don't own a cooling rack) to cool.

Coconut cupcakes in tulip papers

This recipe started with "my now favorite white cake recipe".

http://heidibakes.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-now-favorite-white-cake-recipe.html

I had a party at my house on Saturday night and wanted to bake something with coconut in it.  My family does not like coconut so I don't often bake with it because I love it and I don't want to be the only person eating it!  I decided on coconut cake.  Then I remembered I had bought these darling pink tulip cupcake papers at Michaels the other week and my thoughts went to cupcakes.  My favorite white cake recipe uses a cake mix and I figured I could use that as a base recipe.  Yes, I do like to bake from scratch but this cake recipe that I had found on Cake Central years ago is such a winner that I wanted to start with it.  I changed the water it called for to coconut milk and instead of almond extract, I used coconut (along with some vanilla extract) plus I threw in a large handful of shredded sweetened coconut.  Then I made a cream cheese buttercream with a touch of coconut extract and sprinkled some more shredded coconut on top.  These cupcakes were sooo delicious.  You can easily cut this recipe in half but I made the whole thing and it made 24 very full cupcakes AND a double layer 8 inch cake.  I filled my 8 inch layer cake with a thick layer of raspberry jam then iced the outside with the cream cheese icing and sprinkled the whole thing with shredded coconut.  I love the combination of raspberry & coconut.  I'm thinking I could have pulled out a plug from the cupcake and put a teaspoon of raspberry in there before icing them...hmmm?  That would have been delicious.

But anyway, this was a lovely textured cake.  The shredded coconut made it a bit "shaggy" when you sliced it and you can easily leave out the coconut but the 1 teaspoon of coconut extract was the perfect amount. Very subtle flavor and I suppose you could up the amount of coconut extract to 2 teaspoons. 

If you are not opposed to using a doctored cake mix, then I highly recommend this recipe or the white cake recipe that I have linked above.  I don't think you'll regret it! Oh, and be sure you use the white cake mix that does not have the pudding already added, such as Duncan Hines.  That will give you the best result.

If you want tulip cupcake papers, I found these at Michael's Craft store but I also saw them at Joanne Fabrics & Crafts.  They came in lavendar & yellow also. I think they are Wilton brand and they come in a box of 24 papers. Aren't they just too cute?  Everyone at the party was ooohing and aahhing about them. Very spring like. Oh, and the pink flowers that are on top, I bought in bulk from http://www.cakedeco.com/. They are gum paste flowers.

Enjoy!

Coconut Cake


•2 boxes white cake mix

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 teas. salt

8 egg whites

2 2/3 cups coconut milk (I used a whole can then made up the remainder with water)

 4 Tbls. vegetable oil

2 cups (16oz carton) sour cream

2 teaspoon clear vanilla flavor

1 teaspoon coconut extract

1-2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Instructions

Mix all dry ingredients by hand using a whisk in a very large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees