Chocolate Orange Cupcake

Hello everyone! I had a recipe to post last week, but never had time to take some pictures through the process--soo I re-made the recipe tonight to share with you all. I made these last week in a jar to send to my husband. One of his favorite things to eat is a chocolate orange. Anything that has the flavors chocolate and orange in it, he's trying it. I searched for weeks for a recipe worth trying and finally settled on one. The batter tastes absolutley amazing. It's hard to believe because there is no butter and are no eggs involved! That was what threw me off of the recipe because it's very rare you see one without those two key ingredients. It turned out though and you can actually taste the orange. I was surprised. The tops of the cupcakes came out a little hard both times but once you put some frosting on them, it really didn't matter. I've never zested anything before, and I don't own a zester. Thanks to youtube, it talked me through the process of zesting with a potato peeler. You just have to use a paring knife to scrape off the extra white pieces of skin off of the orange. After you do that, you just chop the peels up into very small pieces. The pictures I'm posting aren't as much as the whole recipe makes--I halfed it and got seven cupcakes out of it! So for a small family, I recommend doing that. For the frosting, I doubled the recipe. Hope you enjoy :)



Chocolate Orange Cupcake Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/2 cup cocoa powder
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
*1/4 tsp salt
* 3/4 cup orange juice (you can get 3/4 cup if you squeeze all of the juice out of the 3 oranges used for zesting)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 tbsp orange zest (I used three oranges to make sure I had enough zest for the frosting and cupcake)

Orange Zest Buttercream Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup butter, softened

* 2 cups confectioners sugar

* 1 teaspoon orange zest

* 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice (if you don't have enough from the oranges, you can just use your preference of orange juice)

NOTE: for an extra orange kick, add orange extract 1 teaspoon at a time until you have your desired taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Zest and juice oranges.

This is right after peeling the orange. notice the white--use a paring knife to slice it off



 After peeling the white off

All chopped up

This is how much juice I got squeezing out the three oranges. Just enough for the cupcake batter!!

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa power, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together orange juice, vegetable oil, vanilla and orange zest.

4. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.

5. Distribute batter evenly.

6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before frosting

Orange Zest Buttercream Directions:
1. Cream together zest, vanilla, orange juice, butter, and confectioners sugar. If the confectioners sugar isn't mixing well, add 1/4 cup butter until it is combined. I doubled the recipe and added 1/2 stick butter extra. For the extra orange kick, add orange food coloring!

THIS IS FROM LAST WEEK: CHOCOLATE ORANGE CUPCAKE IN A JAR:



Brownie Sundae Cheesecake

Since my husband isn't around to eat my creations for now, I'm taking this time to make things I know he won't eat! For example, anything with fruit or cream cheese in it. I had full intentions of making something else today, only to discover I didn't buy dark brown sugar--so I was out of luck. I then went to the second option on my list. My mom sent me this recipe about a month ago and I've been waiting to try it out! It was really, really easy to make. You can distinctly taste the brownie in this cheesecake as well! I just took a quick bite of it, but it's only been in the fridge for about 4 hours so it isn't the full effect yet. I expect by tomorrow all of the flavors will be perfect and the temperature will be right!

Ingredients:

I forgot to put the syrup bottle in this picture...so it got it's own special picture.

For the Brownie:

* 1 box of brownie mix and whatever the mix calls for

Crust:

* 1 1/2 cup crushed vanilla wafers (about 45 cookies)

* 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder

* 6 Tablespoons powdered sugar

* 1 stick melted butter

Cheesecake:

* 4 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, room temp

* 1 cup sugar

* 4 eggs

* 1 teaspoon vanilla

* chocolate syrup

Directions:

Brownie:

1. Bake brownies according to the box. Let cool.

Crust:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.

2. Put vanilla wafers into a blender and grind to a crust consistency.

2. Add cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and melted butter and mix it together.

3. Press mixture into a 9 inch springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes and let cool.

Cheesecake:
1. Beat together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.

2. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each time.

3. Pour half of the mixture onto the crust.

4. Cut brownies into small pieces. You'll only use about half of the pan of brownies.

5. Push brownies into the mixture. When it looks like you can't fit anymore, that's when you know to stop! If the brownies in the middle of the pan are too fudgy to take out, cut small squares on the opposite side of the pan and use those.

6. Spread the rest of the cheesecake mixture over the brownies.

7. Pour chocolate syrup on the top and then swirl with a butterknife.

8 Bake for 50-55 minutes. When you take the cheesecake out, let cool for about ten minute. Cover it and then put it in the fridge for atleast 4-5 hours, if possible leave it in the fridge over night.



*adapted from Just A Pinch

Peanut Butter Pie For Mikey

After reading around on some blogs this week, I noticed a lot of people were baking things 'for mikey.' Things like a peanut butter cheesecake cupcake, peanut butter cupcake, and peanut butter cookies 'for mikey.' I finally saw a blog that posted the link to what all of this was about. There is a lady named Jennie who is asking everyone to bake a peanut butter pie in rememberance of her husband mikey. Mikey died very sudden and from what I gather, he died from a heart attack. He left behind a wife who he was married to for sixteen years, and a very young daughter. She had posted on her food blog a longer story of what had happend, but recently cut half of it out. Mikey died a little over three weeks ago. I was very touched by this story and wanted to honor her wishes by baking a peanut butter pie for Friday night. It is very tasty and I recommend this for anyone! Chris hates cream cheese and even thought it was good! Feel free to read Jennie's post at http://www.injennieskitchen.com/2011/08/for-mikey.html.

Ingredients:

* 8 ounces (1 cup) chocolate cookies (it took me about 15-17 oreo's to get one cup)
* 4 tablespoons butter, melted
* 4 ounces (1/2 cup) finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 8 ounces cream cheese
* 1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
* 1 cup confectioner's sugar
* 1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice


Directions:
1. Add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. (I added 1/4 cup more cookie crumbs and 2 tablespoon's more butter to have a little more crust)

2. Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well. Press mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

3. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. (I would've liked a little more chocolate, so if you're like me and always like a little more, I'd add about 1/4 cup more chocolate chips)

4. Pour over bottom of cookie crust and spread to the edges using an off-set spatula.

5. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the melted chocolate. Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

I took a handful of peanuts and grinded them in a blender.

6. Pour the heavy cream into a bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form.

7. Transfer to a small bowl and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

8.  Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in a deep bowl. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.

9. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar.

10. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth.

11. Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream). Fold in the remaining whipped cream.

12. Pour the filling into the prepared springform pan. Drizzle the melted chocolate on top, if using, and refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving.

I then went to drizzle on some chocolate...I melted some more instead of trying to take some from the prior steps. I got a little carried away drizzling it on top, but the letter's ended up turning out nice. I just wrote out 'for mikey' on top of parchment paper and let it set for about 10 minutes and then transferred it over.

*courtesy to In Jennie's Kitchen







Mini Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago, my parents came back from visiting Kentucky. They helped my grandma and aunt go through a bunch of storate items from my grandma's old house. My parents surprised me by bringing me a bunch of my great-grandma's baking supplies. Two mini cupcake pans came with it all. I've made mini cupcakes before and didn't have much luck with them. My small scoop wasn't the proper size to make the perfect amount of batter in the paper wrappers and neither was my moms. I've been itching to use the pans though. More and more on Cupcake Wars I've seen some of the people pipe their batter into the cupcakes. In my head I can't figure out why--because I know my scoop for normal sized cupcakes makes them come out perfect everytime. Well, I finally decided to try their technique with the mini cupcakes today. IT WORKED! The cupcakes came out to the perfect size. I did this out of boredom and wanting to use my pans. Since I'm in a wedding this weekend, I figured I'd just send these cupcakes with my husband to work. They turned out much better than expected. Also, I've been wanting to draw with ganache on top of cupcakes for a while, and now seemed like the perfect time to do so. These are a great snack to freeze and put into your child's lunch for school. You can get 72 mini cupcakes out of one boxed cake mix.

Ingredients:

Cupcake:

* 1 boxed yellow cake mix (you can use any type of cake mix, I just happend to have a yellow one and didn't feel like making my own batter!)

* ingredients needed to make cake

Vanilla Frosting:

* 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

* 1/8 teaspoon salt

* 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

* 1/2 teaspoon milk

Chocolate Ganache:

* 1/4 cup heavy cream

* 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Make the cake according to the box.

2. Pipe the batter into the cupcake wrappers. I piped them a little less than half full.

3. Bale the mini cupcakes for 11 minutes.

4. Once removed from oven, let the cupcakes sit in the pan for about 3-5 minutes. Remove and then put onto a cooling rack.

Frosting:

1. Beat butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Aprox. two minutes.

2. Reduce speed to low, gradually add confectioners sugar. Beat until incorporated.

3. Add vanilla and milk and beat until smooth and creamy.

*Add additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, if frosting doesn't have spreadable consistency

4. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I tried out three different tips and was short frosting for about 10 of the cupcakes. I just put some extra ganache on top of those and it worked out fine!

Ganache:

1. On a double boiler, pour heavy cream into a pan (mine was dirty so I opted for a sauce pan) and bring to a boil. if you notice the cream to start to harden on the top--take it off imediatley.

2. Once the heavy cream is removed from the heat, pour chocolate chips into the cream and let sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

3. Stir the chocolate and cream until you get to a smooth consistency. If there are some lumps you can't get out you can just put the pan back onto the double boiler and stir until the lumps come out.

4. Let the chocolate cool for about 10 minutes and then let the fun begin!

5. I added a dot that was apart of a sprinkle set I had..I got tired of messing with them after about ten cupcakes though.

*courtesy of Georgetown Cupcake, Sprinkles