A Bakesale for Two Amazing Little Girls

Dad forwarded me an email the other day from a colleague of his with a very sad story. Her name is Alice, she's only 1 year old but she had Non Ketotic Hyperglycinemia. This disorder is apparently extremely rare and Alice is currently the only survivor of it in New Zealand. Her parents were told that at 3 months old she wouldn't live much longer but she's still fighting! They are trying to raise money to fund research into the disorder and also to help another family with a child who was in their son's daycare class before she was diagnosed with cancer. At 3 years old she faces what many adults struggle with, being constantly sick and in hospital. Her name is Brianna and her parents are really struggling with her cancer and may have to sell their house if they can't raise enough money. This is such a sad story and I am amazed at the Underwood family who have so much compassion that they are trying to help another family with their sick daughter when their own daughter has such a rare disorder. I can't imagine what these people go through on a daily basis, and when dad asked if I could contribute by baking something for the bake sale I was happy to help in any way I could. It's part of "The Big Family Day Out" fundraiser for the children which is going to have lots of raffles and auctions and the like so go along to the Ngatitoa Domain tomorrow at 11 if you're keen to help out (or buy some baking!). I decided that a good, kid-friendly thing to bake would be some cookie dough and cupcakes mixed together! They turned out really well, even though I nearly forgot to put the cookie dough in!  Luckily I remembered. Hopefully they're a hit tomorrow!

PS: If you want to read more about the girls or make a donation, click here.
PPS: The recipe came from Recipe Girl.
PPPS: (Last one I promise!) This photo was published on FoodGawker! :D

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes (makes 24)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4t baking soda
1/4t salt
115g butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
4T white sugar
4T milk
2t vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate bits

230g butter, softened and cut into cubes
100g dark chocolate bits
1 cup dutch-processed or other dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1t baking soda
1 1/2t baking powder
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2t vanilla extract
1t table salt
1 cup sour cream

350g butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
4 1/2T milk
3t vanilla extract

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to stir together the butter, sugars, milk and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips. Refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes, or until the cookie dough is firm. Scoop out dough in 2 tablespoon scoops and place it on a cookie sheet. Freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes. (You could also make the cookie dough ahead and freeze for a couple of days. Just take it out of the freezer when you make the cupcakes and it should thaw to the right temperature.) Also, the amounts of this part of the recipe made enough for me to make 24 balls of cookie dough and 24 mini cookies for garnish, which as you can see I ended up slicing because they were still too big. If you wanted small balls like I did (about a teaspoon of dough or less) and no mini cookies, then halve this part of the recipe.

Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line standard-size muffin pan with cupcake liners. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. (Alternately, you can microwave the mixture at a lower power, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted. This is what I did.) Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of the flour, baking powder and baking soda over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is and thick. Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Plop one ball of cookie dough in each cupcake and push down a little until it sinks to level with the surface. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 30 minutes.

Cookie Dough Frosting:
In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Mix in the flour, milk and vanilla and continue to mix until all is well combined.

Looking After My Boy!

Third batch of cupcakes in a week! I was really keen on baking this week, and I kept seeing things that I wanted to bake. Cue Nutella Cupcakes, stage right. I've always wanted to try doing two-toned frosting but I in fact ended up trying three-toned frosting. Personally, I don't think it needs the vanilla. If you increased the measurements for the other frosting flavours by 1.25 then you would have enough for all of the cupcakes and they'd still look just as great. Still, Cam loved these! Probably not a great move on my part, I left 19 at his house. While he's there alone. Still looking for a job. Hm... I may have to steal a few tomorrow so that he doesn't eat them all... Not that I can blame him, because they were fantastic! They came from Good Life Eats and just wow. Just nutella wow. Make them.

PS: Notes on how to do the three/two-toned frosting are at the bottom of this post.

Nutella Cupcakes with Nutella, Peanut Butter and Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients:
2/3 cup nutella
1 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (or just 2 1/2 cups plain flour)
1 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2t baking soda
1t baking powder
3/4t salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups buttermilk

150g cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2T butter, softened to room temperature
2 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
2t vanilla extract

150g cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2T butter
1/2 cup nutella
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1t vanilla extract

150g cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2T butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups, sifted
1t vanilla extract
NB: You may need a little bit of milk to bring the peanut butter frosting together.

Directions:
Line 2 standard 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake liners or grease using non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, until it is pale and thick. Add in the butter. Mix until combined. Add in the nutella. Now, add in the buttermilk. Beat until well incorporated. Add the flour mixture in 3 increments and beat until smooth. Divide batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake. Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Frosting:Cream the butter and cream cheese in the large mixing bowl of a stand mixture. Add the vanilla. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar as you continue to cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed until fluffy and smooth, adding milk or additional sugar (if needed) to reach desired consistency.

Nutella Frosting:Cream the butter and cream cheese in the large mixing bowl of a stand mixture. Add the nutella and vanilla and continue to cream. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar as you continue to cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed until fluffy and smooth, adding milk or additional sugar (if needed) to reach desired consistency.

Peanut Butter Frosting:Cream the butter and cream cheese in the large mixing bowl of a stand mixture. Add the almond butter or peanut butter and vanilla and continue to cream. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar as you continue to cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed until fluffy and smooth, adding milk or additional sugar (if needed) to reach desired consistency.

Doing multi-coloured frosting:
Lay your colors or flavors out in different containers to keep them separate. Fill three bags with the three different flavoured frostings. You will not add a tip to any of these bags. Just the bag and the frosting. Twist the tops of the bags and cut about a half inch of the ends of each filled bag. Then, you’ll take a fourth bag. Add your favorite piping tip to the bag. Now, load all three frosting bags inside the fourth bag with the piping tip. Twist the top of the fourth bag so nothing escapes and pipe as usual. I usually do a couple of test pipes on a napkin until all three frostings are evenly coming out and any air has passed.

Getting Drunk Off Cupcakes?

I really like new flavour ideas and when I find something cool I just have to try it. Of course anything with chocolate is always fantastic, but when I saw these cupcakes, the non-chocolatey-ness really caught my attention. I think the best mojito I had was actually at Evie's 18th birthday party, as weird as that may sound! I asked her about it the other day and she said that they had this apple and lime or apple and mint juice or something and they used that as the base, which is why they tasted so good! I tried making one the day I bought the ingredients for these cupcakes actually... Didn't turn out so well. I think they needed to be sweeter. And have more flavour. But oh well! That day was actually a few weeks ago now and the buttermilk was about to go off so I thought I better get cracking and actually make these! Luckily, my intuition was right and these cupcakes taste fantastic. It's like eating a mojito-really yummy! I used Becca's piping bag again too and I'm totally going to get one. They're amazing. Just like these cupcakes, which, btw come from Brown Eyed Baker. Enjoy!

PS: This photo was accepted on Tastespotting! :D

Mojito Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mint leaves, bruised
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2t baking powder
1/4t salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
Zest and juice of 1 1/2 limes
2T white rum (e.g. Bacardi in New Zealand)
1t vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups icing sugar
2T lime juice
3T white rum


Directions:Combine the buttermilk and the ½ cup mint leaves in a small saucepan over medium heat. Warm until just starting to steam (do not simmer), then remove from the heat and cover. Let steep for 15 to 30 minutes. Once finished, strain the milk into a bowl using a fine mesh sieve. The milk may appear curdled or clumpy, but don’t worry, it will come back together. Press on any milk solids and mint leaves to extract all the liquid possible. Give the milk a quick stir to smooth it out and set aside. While the mint is steeping in the milk, preheat the oven to 160°C. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla extract and rum. Mix until combined. (The mixture may start to look curdled at this point, but don’t worry, it will all come back together, power on!) Reduce the mixer speed low. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated, using a rubber spatula to give it one last mix by hand. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until just slightly golden and a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached, rotating the pan at the halfway point. Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. Set the cupcakes aside to cool completely before frosting them.

Lime and Rum Frosting:To make the frosting, whip the butter on medium-high speed of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl until all is incorporated. Give it a mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add the lime juice and rum and mix on medium-high speed until incorporated and fluffy. If the frosting appears a bit too soft, add some additional sugar, one spoonful at a time until desired consistency is reached.

A Cupcake Competition

I've been in this new (ish) job for about 3 and a half months now and I've gotten to know some of the people pretty well. Us data entry girls seems to have a sort of running competition of who can out do each other with the IT boys whose office is on the other side of the wall from ours. One of them, Tristan, decided he'd like to rubbish my baking and was going on about how I burn things all the time (which I don't!!) and when I found out he could bake too, well. It was time for a little competition! I challenged, he accepted and we decided that cupcakes would be a fun thing to make. For mine I used the dark chocolate cupcake base that has become my go-to and fav and added graham crackers and a toasted marshmallow frosting. I didn't realise that Tristan had never made cupcakes before, so his were really pretty good for a first try! But, alas, I came out on top... His were actually really nice and I think it was a pretty good fight! Till next time ae?

PS: I actually made double the recipe this time because I wanted to have extra and it worked out to exactly 24 cupcakes, but this one makes 12. :)

Tristan's cupcakes-vanilla with lime buttercream frosting

Fierce competition...

Mine :)

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting a.k.a S'Mores Cupcakes

Ingredients:
115g butter, softened and cut into cubes
50g dark chocolate bits
1/2 cup dutch-processed or other dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (or 3/4 cup of flour and no graham cracker crumbs. Or digestive biscuits)
1/2t baking soda
3/4t baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1t vanilla extract
1/2t table salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Chocolate bits
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (or digestives)
40g butter

• 8 large egg whites
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line standard-size muffin pan with cupcake liners. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. (Alternately, you can microwave the mixture at a lower power, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted. This is what I did.) Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and baking soda over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is and thick. Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Sprinkle chocolate bits and graham cracker topping over the batter, making sure you get the graham cracker topping right to the edges so that you can see it once the cupcakes are frosted. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 30 minutes. I used Becca's piping bag fitted with a large open star tip instead of my usual piping bottles because the frosting is quite thick. I think I shall have to invest because I have seen the light of piping bags again! It was so easy and her one is amazing. Sigh, I'm going to go find one next week. So after piping the frosting on, either broil them in the oven on the highest setting until the frosting turns brown (I didn't do this so I'm not entirely sure how it would work out...), or use a blowtorch to lightly brown the frosting. YUM.

Graham Cracker Topping:

Melt the butter and process the graham crackers in a food processor until they are just crumbs. Then add the melted butter and process again until mixed.

Marshmallow Frosting:

The quantities of this recipe for the frosting are for 24 cupcakes, so adjust them accordingly.

Place egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer bowl to electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix until combined. Use immediately.

Tupperware cupcake taker, isn't it cool??