Girl Scout Cookie Inspired Cupcakes

It is Girl Scout cookie season! Catalogs to pre-order your favorite cookies were floating around the office a few months ago, and I finally received my order!

To resist the urge of eating an entire box of Samoas and Thin Mints in one sitting, I have been saving them until I had an excuse to bake again - and this happened to be for a co-workers birthday. By the way, saving these coveted cookies took immense willpower. Ok, fine, being honest here - I ate a cookie, or two.

I wanted to make these mini cupcakes with layers of flavors that best represents the cookie itself - taste testers agree that this was a successful effort. The star of these morsels of happiness were the different buttercream flavors.

First up, were the Samoas cupcakes - don't they look divine? I actually made two batches, one with a vanilla butter cake, and the second with the chocolate cake base. The vanilla butter cake was frosted with a caramel buttercream, and topped with toasted coconut. Although delicious, it was not as "coconutty" and "chocolately" as I would have liked. Taste testers agreed - the chocolate version was on point.

For the second version, I made a coconut Italian meringue buttercream. Topped them with toasted coconut, drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and ganache, and garnished with a wedge of cookie. Oh man - delicious!

Chocolate cupcake recipe can be found here (Yields: 48-50 mini cupcakes) 

Piped with Jumbo round tip

Coconut Italian Meringue Buttercream:

• 150g egg whites (I use pasteurized eggs whites because its more convenient then separating eggs by hand)
• 200g sugar
• 50g sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (optional - I use this because of the humidity in FL)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (this is more for my taste, you can reduce the amount if you want it less sweet, but it really isn't that sweet) 
• 3-4 sticks butter at room temperature (If you like a strong buttery flavor, add 4 sticks)
• 1/2 cup shortening at room temperature (optional - if you are baking in hot weather and need stability, omit and add other stick of butter instead)
• 2 tsp coconut extract
• 1-2 Tbsp vanilla

Candy thermometer
Medium sized pot/saucepan
Stand mixer is recommended, unless you want an arm and shoulder workout - go ahead with your hand mixer.

1. Make sure all utensils and equipment that is going to touch your egg whites are whipped down with vinegar or lemon juice to remove any residual oils. This will help ensure your egg whites will turn into a meringue.
2. Measure out your egg whites in mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Measure out 200g sugar and 1/2 cup water in saucepan and place on medium heat. I like to wait until the sugar is fully submerged in the water and starts to dissolve before I start cooking it, about 5 minutes. Clip on your candy thermometer. Resist the urge to stir or swirl!
4. You want the temperature of the sugar syrup to reach 245 F, so watch carefully. When the temp gets to about 225 F or 230 F, start whipping up your egg whites. 
5. Whip your egg whites on medium speed until it has passed the frothy stage and the volume has increased a bit. 
6. Add 50g of sugar slowly, and allow the sugar to get incorporated. Add your cream of tartar (optional)
7. Increase to high speed and allow the meringue to form into stiff peaks.
8. Your sugar syrup should be approaching 245 F at this time, so keep an eye, once it hits that temperature remove from heat. 
9. Once your meringue is ready, slowly pour the hot sugar syrup while your mixer is on medium speed. Be sure not to pour the syrup onto the side walls of the bowl, it should be going right into the meringue. 
10. Mix on high speed for about 5-10 minutes until meringue is glossy and has stiff peaks. 
11. Reduce speed to low, add powdered sugar slowly until well incorporated. 
12. Add in your butter and shortening, I just throw in the whole sticks - and increased to medium speed. At this stage your buttercream will look soupy, then curdled, and then magically fluff up. 
13. Once the buttercream is fluffy, add in vanilla and coconut extract, mix until well incorporated. 

Chocolate ganache (also used for thin mint cupcakes):

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 heavy cream

1. Place both in microwave safe bowl. Heat in 10 second increments and whisk in between until smooth. 
2. Let cool to room temperature (if too hot, it will melt your buttercream!)
3. Place in piping bag or use spoon to drizzle over cupcakes. 

Caramel sauce:

• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine butter, sugar, and cream in small sauce pan on medium heat.
2. Whisk slowly until well combined, butter and sugar is completely melted and should not be grainy. 
3. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.
4. Let cool to room temp, and drizzle over cupcakes. 

Toasted Coconut:

• 1 cup sweetened coconut

1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees F
2. Place coconut evenly spread on a cookie sheet and place in oven. 
3. Check every 5 minutes until evenly toasted - stir around if needed. 
4. Once coconut is mostly an golden/amber brown, remove from oven and allow to cool to room temp. 
5. Sprinkle over cupcakes

For the thin mint cupcakes (which I LOVED), the chocolate cupcake was frosted with vanilla mint buttercream, topped with a chocolate chip thin mint cookie crumble, drizzled chocolate ganache, and garnished with a thin mint cookie wedge.

Just the right balance between chocolate and mint, the mint frosting was perfectly sweet and refreshing. So good!

Piped with large closed star tip

Vanilla Mint Buttercream:
Follow same instructions as above.

• 150g egg whites (I use pasteurized eggs whites because its more convenient then separating eggs by hand)
• 200g sugar
• 50g sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (optional - I use this because of the humidity in FL)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (this is more for my taste, you can reduce the amount if you want it less sweet, but it really isn't that sweet) 
• 3-4 sticks butter at room temperature (If you like a strong buttery flavor, add 4 sticks)
• 1/2 cup shortening at room temperature (optional - if you are baking in hot weather and need stability, omit and add other stick of butter instead)
• 2-3 tsp peppermint extract
• 1-2 Tbsp vanilla
• 1-2 drops kelly green food coloring gel

Chocolate chip Thin Mint cookie crumble:

• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 3 thin mint cookies

1. Pulse in food processor until smal crumbs form
2. Sprinkle over cupcakes

I don't know what it is about these cookies, maybe its just the sweet nostalgia of having these treats every year since childhood - but these cupcake versions were a fun way to change up a tradition of eating my favorite cookies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This Valentine's day, there was a whole lotta love in the kitchen. 

Two kinds of mini chocolate cupcakes: Strawberry Cheesecake and Nutella Cheesecake 

*Swoon*

The frosting is an Italian meringue cream cheese buttercream, flavored with strawberry preserves and Nutella. The chocolate cupcake recipe can be found here. To make cream cheese Italian meringue buttercream, you need the following:

• 150g egg whites (I use pasteurized eggs whites because its more convenient then separating eggs by hand)
• 200g sugar
• 50g sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (optional - I use this because of the humidity in FL)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (this is more for my taste, you can reduce the amount if you want it less sweet, but it really isn't that sweet) 
• 3-4sticks butter at room temperature (use high quality butter - like Land O' Lakes)
• 1/2 cup shortening at room temperature (optional - if you are baking in hot weather and need stability, omit and add other stick of butter instead)
• 6 oz plain cream cheese at room temperature, add 8 oz if you like strong cream cheese flavor
• 1 Tbsp vanilla

Candy thermometer
Medium sized pot/saucepan
Stand mixer is recommended, unless you want an arm and shoulder workout - go ahead with your hand mixer.

1. Make sure all utensils and equipment that is going to touch your egg whites are whipped down with vinegar or lemon juice to remove any residual oils. This will help ensure your egg whites will turn into a meringue.
2. Measure out your egg whites in mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Measure out 200g sugar and 1/2 cup water in saucepan and place on medium heat. I like to wait until the sugar is fully submerged in the water and starts to dissolve before I start cooking it, about 5 minutes. Clip on your candy thermometer. Resist the urge to stir or swirl!
4. You want the temperature of the sugar syrup to reach 245 F, so watch carefully. When the temp gets to about 225 F or 230 F, start whipping up your egg whites. 
5. Whip your egg whites on medium speed until it has passed the frothy stage and the volume has increased a bit. 
6. Add 50g of sugar slowly, and allow the sugar to get incorporated. Add your cream of tartar (optional)
7. Increase to high speed and allow the meringue to form into stiff peaks.
8. Your sugar syrup should be approaching 245 F at this time, so keep an eye, once it hits that temperature remove from heat. 
9. Once your meringue is ready, slowly pour the hot sugar syrup while your mixer is on medium speed. Be sure not to pour the syrup onto the side walls of the bowl, it should be going right into the meringue. 
10. Mix on high speed for about 5-10 minutes until meringue is glossy and has stiff peaks. 
11. Reduce speed to low, add powdered sugar slowly until well incorporated. 
12. Add in your butter and shortening, I just throw in the whole sticks - and increased to medium speed. At this stage your buttercream will look soupy, then curdled, and then magically fluff up. 
13. Once the buttercream is fluffy, add in your cream cheese and vanilla. 
14. Split the batch to make different flavors; Add a couple tbsp of strawberry puree or preservers to taste, in the other batch add your Nutella to taste. 
15. Frost your cupcakes and enjoy! This recipe yeilds enough to frost 48 mini cupcakes or 12-14 standard sized cupcakes

Hearts made with red candy melts and heart mold
Gold sprinkles
Edible mini sugar heart confetti
Piped with large round tip, and large star tip
(All purchased at Michaels)

Low Carb Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

A "candy" that is low carb, lower in sugar, and gives me a dose of coconut oil? Yes please!

These are super easy to make, and you can get creative with your flavors. Even if you are not going for low carb - these are just as delicious and may make you rethink why you ever ate a Reese's - well, maybe.

This recipe yields: 16-18 servings

Serving size: 1 cup

Calories: 77 calories

Fat: 8.6g

Sodium: 11.4mg

Carbs: 1g

Sugar: 1g

Protein: 1g

Ingredients

3 tbsp dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)

1/4 cup organic coconut oil

3 tbsp natural peanut butter (Skippy's had lowest carb)

1/4 cup organic coconut oil

1. Combine chocolate chips and 1/4 cup coconut oil in a pourable measuring cup. Heat in microwave for 30-45 seconds and stir until smooth.

2. In a mini cupcake pan, pour in your chocolate mixture - in about 1/4" layers

3. Place in freezer for about 2-3 minutes, until relatively solid.

4. Melt peanut butter and the other 1/4 cup coconut oil in microwave for 30-45 seconds and stir until smooth.

5. Take our your cupcake pan, the chocolate should be solid. Then pour peanut butter mixture over the chocolate in 1/4" layers.

6. Place back in the freezer for 10 minutes.

7. Once completely solid, you can flip over the cupcake pan and lightly tap and they should fall out easily.

8. Store in an airtight container in the freezer.

Mix it up with different fruits and nuts:

Raspberry cups and cashew cups: 1.5g carbs per serving

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

This isn't anything new. For those of you who have been on the gluten free, or low carb train - you conquered this a long, long time ago. Yep - I am late to the cauliflower party.

But! I wanted to try something new. Sometimes, I crave pizza - in non-traditional pizza flavors, so this weekend it was Thai chicken pizza, with a Thai peanut sauce base, and homemade sweet Thai chili sauce.

To make a basic cauliflower crust:

1 cauliflower head, or approx 2 cups cooked cauliflower
2 cups parmesan cheese
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Pulse your cooked cauliflower (about 5-8 min in boiling water) in a food processor until it has the consistency and size of rice. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes.

3. Place pulsed cauliflower in a large bowl and pick out any large pieces, you can chopped them up and add them back into the bowl.

This is actually "broccoflower" (green cauliflower) - it was all that was in the grocery store so I figured, hey why not?

4. Add parmesan cheese and egg, until well combined.

5. On a baking sheet with parchment paper, spread out cauliflower mixture about 1/4 inch thick.

6. Bake for about 20 minutes.

7. Add your toppings and bake again for about 10-15 minutes.


Thai peanut sauce base:

1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp sesame oil

Combine in a small sauce pan on medium heat until sauce thickens. Remove from heat, and spread on the crust.

Sweet Thai Chili Sauce (Low carb version - less than 1g carb per serving)

1/4 cup water
1/4 rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp gelatin powder or xanthum gum
1-2 tsp chili flakes (or add more if you like it really spicy - I used 1 tbsp)
1-2 tbsp stevia or splenda to your desired sweetness

1. Combine everything in a small sauce pan (except for stevia/splenda) on medium high heat.
2. Allow to simmer until liquid is reduced by half (takes about 5 minutes and wil have a thicker consistency)
3. Remove from heat, allow to cool for about 10 min.
4. Add in stevia or splenda to taste.
5. Drizzle on pizza right before serving/eating.

Thai chicken pizza, with roma tomatoes, olives, avocado, green onions, and cilantro

Added some arugula on the side

Chocolate Raspberry Champagne Cupcakes

Happy New Year!

What a busy 2013 it has been! Besides blogging - My biggest accomplishments this year has been my promotion at work, building up and coaching a first year girls lacrosse program, traveled to California (twice!) for the first time, tasted beer I actually really liked! (Thirsty Bear - Panda Bear brew), made my first wedding cake, and met new people that have enriched and brought very special meaning in my life.

There were lots of challenges and growth involved this year - but overall - I feel so blessed. I hope in the New Year, I can continue to improve myself, and provide a positive impact to my life, those close around me, and to the community.

For today's festive occasion, I made dark chocolate cupcakes filled with raspberry preserves, and frosted with a whipped white chocolate champagne ganache - can't forget the bubbly!

Click here for the chocolate cupcake recipe; then fill with homemade or ready made raspberry preserves.

To make the Whipped White Chocolate Champagne ganache:

10 oz.  High quality white chocolate (Not candy melts)
90 g Heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup champagne

1. Place white chocolate in a bowl
2. Heat up whipping cream and champagne in a saucepan on medium heat until it begins to simmer
3. Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir until smooth
4. Allow to cool in the fridge for 3 hours - the consistency should be a little thick and run off the spoon.
5. Whip on high until ganache is pale in color and fluffy
6. Pipe onto cupcakes!

To add some shimmer and glam to the cupcakes - I used gold food coloring spray and gold sprinkles, and also garnished with some fresh and chocolate dipped raspberries.

Have a wonderful, blessed new year!

Holiday Macarons

This holiday, instead of cupcakes - I tried tackling my nemesis - Macarons.

My first batch I used the French method, which you make the meringue and fold in the almond/powdered sugar mixture. Some had feet, most didn't, and lots of cracked macarons - was a sad day of many macaron casualties.

My second batch, I use the Italian method, which I read provided more consistent results. With the Italian method, you make a sugar syrup and pour it into a soft peak meringue. For some reason, this creates a much more stable meringue - but I am no expert at this and of course everyone has their own preference on which method works best, but with this second batch, while I am sure not *perfect*, they all had feet and no cracks!

This doesn't mean I have given up on the French method - I will definitely try it again. What I have found, is that there are many different versions of macaron recipes because different methods, techniques, environmental factors, and experience all factor into the end results. Macarons may seem very intimidating at first, or even discouraging the first couple of failures, (the last time I tried making macarons was a year ago!) but if you keep practicing and trying new recipes, it helps narrow down the method that works best for you.

The fillings I used:

Gingerbread Buttercream

(Brown sugar buttercream** with 1 tbsp vanilla, 2 tbsp molasses, 1 tsp each of ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Buttercream

(Brown sugar buttercream** with 1 tbsp vanilla and 1 cup mini chocolate chips)

Egg Nog Buttercream, fresh grated nutmeg

(Vanilla buttercream with 4 tbsp eggnog, 1 tsp nutmeg)

Chocolate Ganache and marshmallow cream

(8 oz semisweet chocolate, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tbsp butter)

Chocolate Ganache and crushed peppermint candy

(8 oz semisweet chocolate, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tbsp butter, 1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy)

Matcha Buttercream 

I made this flavor with leftover macaron cookies and vanilla buttercream

(Vanilla buttercream with 4 tsp matcha powder or more to taste)

**To make brown sugar buttercream, simply substitute brown sugar for the white sugar in the Swiss meringue buttercream recipe.**

The recipe I used to make macarons is from The Baker Chick -  she also has great photos and detailed instructions and troubleshooting tips, so I didn't reinvent the wheel on this post :) I did make one modification to adjust to humid Florida weather - yes, even in December, its averaging about 75-80 degrees here. Ew.

To get the recipe, click on this link. If you are attempting to make macarons in humid weather, add 4 tsp of cornstarch to your almond flour/sugar mixture to help the macarons dry and develop a nice shell.

Resting Macs - rested them for an hour, meanwhile, I got my buttercreams/fillings ready and cleaned my kitchen.

I cooked in the oven propped open with a wooden spoon to avoid the temperature getting too hot.

We got smooth shells and nice little feet!

Gingerbread, Hot Cocoa, Green Tea, and Chocolate Peppermint (not pictured, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Egg Nog)

This was full of 65 macarons - within the hour this is what was left. By the end of the day it was completely empty.
Win!

Butter Pecan Cupcakes with Maple Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I made cupcakes for Thanksgiving for the first time this year - not that we really needed it, since there was going to be plenty of dessert!

But nevertheless, I hauled my mini cupcake pan and my Cuisinart Mixer up to Maryland - I bet TSA did a double take when scanning my luggage. 

Anywho - I love pecan pie, and I love butter pecan so I took those flavors as inspiration for this cupcake. A vanilla butter cake base with maple Swiss meringue buttercream, candied pecans, and maple butterscotch sauce. 

Buttery, caramel, pecan maple goodness going on here!

Vanilla Butter Cake - this recipe is *gasp* a doctored up cake mix recipe modified for my taste - you can find the original recipe by clicking here. This recipe is great when you are in a pinch, and it never fails.

This recipe can yield:

72-75 mini cupcakes

48-50 standard cupcakes

3 eight inch cake layers

1 box white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker brand)

1 cup all purpose unbleached flour - sifted (I use King Arthur brand)

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup water

4 egg whites ( or 3/4 cup pasteurized egg whites - much easier!)

1/2 stick melted butter

1/2 tsp LorAnn vanilla butter bakery emulsion (optional)

1 cup sour cream

1 Tbsp vanilla

Let's Bake!

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, prep your cake pans or cupcake pans
2. Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl
3. Add water and egg whites and mix on medium speed until well combined. 
4. Add melted butter, vanilla and mix well. 
5. Mix in sour cream on low speed. 
6. Fill your mini cupcake pan 2/3 full
7. Bake cupcakes for 10-12 minutes or until comes out clean with toothpick check. 
8. Remove from oven, and remove cupcakes from tin and and let cool to room temp. 

Maple Brown Sugar Candied Pecans

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 stick butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

Let's Cook!

1. In a sauce pan, melt butter on medium heat.
2. Add brown sugar and whisk until sugar is no longer grainy. 
3. Add in pecans and continue to stir frequently until the sugar mixture is bubbly and the pecans smell toasted. 
4. Remove from heat, stir in maple syrup and vanilla.
5. Allow to cool to room temp. This sugar will crystallize and make a delicious crunchy shell on the pecans. 

The maple Swiss meringue buttercream is vanilla buttercream with about 4 tbsp pure maple syrup added in - the buttercream recipe can be found by clicking here.

The maple butterscotch/buttery caramel sauce recipe can be found by clicking here, and then add in 2 tbsp pure maple syrup in the end after taken off the heat.

To assemble the cupcakes, pipe the buttercream, top with pecans, and drizzle with the butterscotch sauce. Enjoy!