Sunflowers

So you know those cuppy's I made in the last post, those were samples I made for the bride to see and try and here is the real deal! This was the first wedding I have ever baked for!! I was super happy with the outcome! Poata (my hubby) built me this cupcake stand, he is amazing!

Birthdays and Weddings!

~My son's first birthday was last week! His party was "construction" themed. I made him a 3 tier chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and german chocolate coconut pecan filling.  I also made some billy's vanilla cupcakes. The chocolate cake recipe I used was the last one that I posted for chocolate cupcakes. The butter cream was really good and held up to the heat. The recipe is:
 chocolate buttercream:
2 sticks butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 cup milk depending on your desired consistency
6-7 cups powdered sugar
1/2-3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder depending on how rich or dark in color you desire
directions:
beat butter for about 3 minutes and it is smooth and cream. Add vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar and cocoa powder. The mixture will be very thick. Add milk, start with 1/4 cup and add more if you want it to be more spreadable.

~Then it was my brothers birthday two days later soooo I made VANILLA  cupcakes AGAIN! I seriously love that Billy's vanilla recipe. And so does my brother. But I forgot that his favorite was the coconut haupia cupcakes, next time.

~I am baking for a wedding this month and their theme is "sunflowers" so I made some sample cupcakes for the bride to see and try and she loved them.

New Fav Recipe: Chocolate Cupcakes

                                          (The pink ones are yet another batch of billy's vanilla cupcakes and the  turquoise ones are made from this recipe of chocolate cupcakes)

I know I have a lot of chocolate cake recipes on this blog so far but what can I say? I'm a chocoholic! But these are by far the easiest to make and the best! They are really chocolatey and rich and super fluffy and moist! Gotta love um! Makes 24. Recipe courtesy of bakingbites.

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional but I didn't use them)

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in 2-12 cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until thoroughly mixed.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Whisk into flour mixture until all of the ingredients are mixed in and no streaks of flour remain. Add in optional mini chocolate chips, if using.
Fill muffin cups evenly with the prepared batter.
Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, or with only a few crumbs.
Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Vanilla Doesn't Have To Be So Vanilla...

I will say it again, I love Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake recipe! It is sooooo super good! Here are a few ways I have made/ decorated these. You can have so much fun with them! And they are always a crowd pleaser! Some people don't like chocolate (CRAZIES if you ask me) but most people do love vanilla.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband is not a fan of cookies. He usually won't even eat the cookies I make (not because they are yucky- I promise but probably because I always make peanut butter cookies and he hates peanut butter. More for me I guess =) ). These on the other hand... GOBBLE gobble GoBbLe! We stop at cookie corner here and there when we at at the mall or whatever and he always gets a couple of the double chocolate cookies with walnuts so I figured that I could make them for him, and mine were better! He said so himself!
recipe courtesy of food network.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) *I used 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly.

For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack

Best Chocolate Cake Recipe I Have EVER Tried!

I have been on a non-blogging roll lately! But here is by far the best chocolate cake recipe I have tried! It's incredibly moist and decadently rich! I made this cake for my husband Poata's birthday, hence the happy birthday Poata on the cake ;) For the frosting I actually used 3 different kinds. Between each layer of cake are a layer of cream cheese frosting (recipe in previous posts), a layer of chocolate ganache (recipe also in previous posts) and then the frosting on the outside of the cake is a super rich and thick fudge like chocolate frosting (recipe follows). This recipe makes A LOT of cake!!

 Chocolate Cake:
2 sticks butter-melted
2 cups warm water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


Melt Butter, add the water and oil. Set aside. In a large bowl (at least 6 quarts) add flour, sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk until there are no lumps. Add butter, water, oil mixture and mix until just blended. This will be very thick. Then add the eggs one at a time. Pour in buttermilk, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Mix until you have no lumps. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. I made 6 layers but this could also make 3 thicker layers (bake for about 35 minutes at 350) or 36 cupcakes (bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350)

Fudge Frosting:
2 sticks butter, softened
12 oz. chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
6 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
3 tablespoons coffee
1/2 cup milk or cream
In your electric mixer cream butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Melt chocolate chips in microwave, if there are still little pieces unmelted stir until they melt so that you don't burn the chocolate in the microwave. Add the chocolate to the butter and beat until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder slowly, the mixture will be VERY thick. With your mixture on low speed add the coffee and milk or cream, I used cream. Beat about 5 additional minutes. Add more or less milk depending on the consistency you desire.

Enjoy!

Tips and tricks #1

Okay first of all I need to apologize for being the worst blogger ever! I haven't posted for a while!! But I have been baking a WHOLE LOT!! So I will be posting some recipes soon! But for now here is a little tip. I hate buying cake flour. I don't know about you but at my lame grocery store (foodland) they only have a tiny box of it and it's way more expensive than all pupose! And I buy a huge bag of all purpose so I would like to just use it for all purposes! So I do! So to turn all purpose flour into cake flour this is what you do: for every 3/4 of a cup of flour add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. That's it! It's that simple! No more buying expensive small boxes of cake flour! Yipeee!

Coconut Haupia

Do you love it as much as me when a cupcake recipe yields more than 24 cupcakes? I think it's pretty awesome, the more the better! Especially when they are this good! This recipe makes 30. These are coconut cupcakes with haupia (Hawaiian coconut pudding) filling, topped with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut. I think these are a unanimous favorite among my family and neighbors.

Cupcakes:

Coconut Cupcakes (adapted from Ina Garten and dobetter)

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

In a large bowl mix the oil and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla and almond extract. Turn the mixer on low and add the flour, one cup at a time. Then add the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on medium until well combined. Turn the mixer back to low and pour in milks. Then mix in shredded coconut.
Using a cupcake scoop, fill a prepared cupcake pan. This makes 30 cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then cool completely on a cooling rack.
You can fill the cupcakes with the haupia (recipe follows) two ways. The first time I made them I used the cone method and I think I prefer that way because you get a nice big dollop in the middle and when you bite into it it's pretty amazing. The second way to do it is to use a piping bag and just insert it to each cupcake and squirt as much haupia as the cupcake can handle (which isn't very much) and release. This way is definitely quicker which I like but I think the cone method is worth the extra time. You don't get a very full center of haupia but nonetheless it is still mouth watering.

Haupia: (via about.com)

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp vanilla (if desired)

Directions:

Pour one cup of coconut milk into a saucepan. Combine sugar and cornstarch stirring into coconut milk. (Add vanilla is desired) Heat over low stirring consistently until thickened. Add remainder of coconut milk and whole milk and continue to heat until thickened. Let cool completely to room temperature but do not chill (it will harden and you won't be able to pipe it into cupcakes). Fill each cupcake with about a little more than a tablespoon of haupia.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 package (8oz.) cream cheese (room temp.)
2 sticks butter (room temp.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup toasted sweetened shredded coconut for garnish

Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy about 3 minutes. Add Vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar. Beat an additional 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Top each cupcake with a big swirl then finish with toasted coconut.
Enjoy!

Super Yummy Mango Bread

This recipe makes two loafs of bread, maybe... After trying this bread I contemplated scarfing an entire loaf to myself before my husband got off of work and lying to him, telling him that the recipe made only one loaf and I hadn't tried it yet. But I was a good little wifey and did not lie, but I did scarf half a loaf! And it was delicious! Moistest best bread ever! My mom has a mango tree in her yard that is bearing way more mango's than anyone can consume so lucky little me got a couple of buckets full! I obviously couldn't eat a couple of buckets worth of mango's and I didn't want them all to spoil and I was planning on making banana bread the day she brought over the mango's so change of plans, swap the banana for the mango and viola... mango bread. The first time I made this bread I topped it with coconut and the second time I baked it with crystalized ginger, I couldn't tell you which one I prefer, they were both de-lish. I will say the coconut added a whole other aroma to my house. I love when you bake it makes the entire house smell amazing! Anyways here is the recipe.

Best mango bread EVER!: (That's actually the way I have it written down in my little recipe notebook)
 Adapted from a pillsbury banana bread recipe.
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups ripe mango's pureed (about three medium sized mango's cut and then pureed in a blender)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of sweetened coconut flakes or 1/2 cup diced crystalized ginger
Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans. Mix sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add mango, mix. Add buttermilk, mix. Add vanilla, mix. Slowly add flour then baking soda and salt, without over mixing. Pour into prepared pans and sprinkle the tops of the batter with coconut or if using ginger, fold ginger into batter before pouring into pans. Bake for 55 minutes.

* mango can be substituted for banana and is almost as delicious. If you use banana you can add 1 cup of walnuts or chocolate chips or both.

Enjoy!

The Parent Trap

Okay so have you seen the movie "The Parent Trap" but the one with Lindsay Lohan? Of course you have! Who hasn't? But I doubt you remember when she first meets her twin and they are at that camp and they go in the cabin and pull out an outrageous sounding snack that they both just so happen to love! Well... I remember that part. And that outrageous sounding snack is super delicious! That outrageous sounding snack is oreo cookies dipped in peanut butter. So... I made oreo cookie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. A-mazing! The cupcakes are super moist, they aren't the chocolatey-est thing in the world but they are just chocolatey enough, not too sweet but sweet enough. Super soft. PERFECT.  The frosting is pretty heavenly as well!
(Makes like a ba-zillion* cupcakes! so you might want to cut the recipe in half if you don't need a ba-zillion!) *ba-zillion= 36 regular cupcakes AND 36 mini cupcakes!

Cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups canola oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups freshly brewed, extra-strong hot coffee
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups crushed oreo cookies. I used the mini's and saved some for garnishing.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with liners.
2. Place flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low to combine. Keeping the mixer on low , add oil, buttermilk, then eggs one at a time. Add hot coffee in a thin stream, pouring down the side of the bowl.  Batter will be very thin. Add vanilla and mix until batter is smooth. Stir in oreo cookies. Divide batter into pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool in pans for at least 20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 package (8oz) cream cheese
2 sticks butter
6 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter

Beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add Vanilla. Add powdered sugar, cup by cup, beating well between each cup. Add peanut butter and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Tahitian Vanilla

For this recipe, I used the same vanilla cupcake recipe I posted previously but instead of Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract I used Tahitian vanilla extract as well as the paste like I did before. I actually made a double batch of these because we had a farewell pot luck party to go to and I had an order for vanilla cupcakes for a dr. suess themed party. For the dr. suess cupcakes I used a vanilla buttercream and for the farewell party I used a lemon cream cheese frosting. And this frosting was lick-the-bowl good. In fact it was lick-the-bowl-the-spatula-and-the-pastry-bag good!! I'm pretty sure the recipe I gave is what I threw in there. Try it! and enjoy!

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8oz.) Package cream cheese
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 to 1 1/2 pounds confectioners sugar
wiltons pink food color gel (optional of course)

Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add extracts and zest and beat until incorporated. Slowly add confectioners sugar until consistency desired is achieved then continue to beat for about 5 more minutes or until light and fluffy.

Enjoy!

LOVE CAKE

These cupcakes are extra moist and decadent, easy to make and easy to eat! I had the hardest time deciding what to bake yesterday, there are so many recipes I want to try! I am super glad I made these. They also got me major brownie (or should I say cupcake) points with the hubby! There is a cake at Haleiwa Joe's called the "Love Cake' that we literally order every. time. we. go. and it is really similar to this but has a raspberry sauce instead of frosting. I am glad I can recreate it when we are on a budget! And I might even venture to say that mine is better! I might. Their sauce is pretty damn good though!
Recipe adapted from joy of baking.

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) water
1/3 cup (80 ml) corn or canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream Cheese Filling: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until creamy and smooth. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Set aside while you make the Chocolate Cupcake batter.

Chocolate Cupcakes: In a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mix the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until nice and smooth. Evenly divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Then spoon a few tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the center of each cupcake.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until the cream cheese filling is a little brown and the cupcakes feel springy to the touch (a toothpick inserted into the chocolate part of the cupcake will come out clean). Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

The cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 - 4 days.

Makes 12 large cupcakes (I doubled the recipe to make 24 because 12 is just not enough. so the frosting recipe will frost 24)

Raspberry buttercream frosting:

1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 stick vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons red raspberry preserves
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 pound confectioners sugar

With your mixer beat butter and shortening until very smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add raspberry preserves until incorporated. Add vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your preferred consistency. Beat until fluffy about 3 more minutes.

ENJOY!