39 Egg Nog Cupcakes

My First Encounter With All Things Eggnog
 

 

Another birthday and another round of cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes. I wanted to make these before Christmas, but January 5th is close enough for me for all purposes.
 

 

I went into these cupcakes blind about anything and everything eggnog related. I've never tasted it. I've never smelled it. And in all reality, I was fine if I never did any of that stuff. But for cupcakes' sake and for being willing to try something new, I would give these cupcakes a try. I would, at the very, eat a cupcake.
 

I started mixing these up, sort of on the fence about whether I would make a double batch. The recipe says it will make 18 cupcakes. Since I was making these for a Saturday night, I didn't think that 18 would be enough to bring to work, but I also wasn't sure if I had enough eggnog. I began following the directions. First step: mixing all the dry ingredients. Second step: cream together the butter and sugar. Third step: add the eggs. It took me until this next step to realize I was going to make a double batch of cupcakes. I had enough eggnog! So I threw more dry ingredients in the one bowl. Then, I added more butter, sugar, and eggs all at once to the already started mixture. After this, I accidentally got off the beaten path of the recipe. I got so caught up in the excitement of having enough eggnog. So instead of having the eggnog and the vanilla together, I poured the eggnog and the rum together, and since it was a double batch it was a lot. I continued on to mixing the dry and wet ingredients together. It only took me until I made a huge eggnog-and-rum-splashy mess to realize that somewhere I made a mistake. I just kept mixing everything up the way I started it and threw the vanilla in last. I kept a dish towel over the mixer to prevent an even bigger mess. It worked pretty well. Finally, I just added the cocoa and that was that. The batter was perfect. Not too runny and not too thick. I filled up the cupcake liners just like the recipe instructed and into the oven they went.
 

Eggnog and Rum Mixed Together
Ooops

 

The recipe suggests checking the cupcakes at 15 minutes. Don't worry about it. After I unnecessarily checked them, I set the timer for 4 more minutes. They came out so perfect! I'm always so happy when they come out domed and beautiful. Not a single one baked over. While they cooled, I ran to the store to get some more powdered sugar and dark rum for the icing.
 

So Many Cupcakes

 

Normally, I will have a ton of icing left over no matter what I do. So I decided to just make a single batch of icing and see how far it took me. The recipe calls for 6 ounces of cream cheese, but just to make it easy and so I don't have to throw a way a tiny bit of cream cheese, I just use the 8 ounces that comes in a block. I added a little extra powdered sugar, and I let the mixer rip while I helped my mom take the ornaments off the Christmas tree for 3-5 minutes. I spread the icing on every cupcake. I plopped plenty of it on and I still had some icing left over. It might be some kind of curse that's on me.

 

Then it came time for the taste test. My mom reluctantly was the first taste tester. After she told me that she didn't like eggnog, I still insisted that she tried one. She took a bite, and then another, and handed me the other half of her cupcake. She said it was very strong, which I already expected after tasting the icing. I ate my half of the cupcake. All I tasted was the rum. Then I realized, I didn't even know what eggnog tasted like to even start to look for the flavor. So I had a tiny bit left in the bottom of the bottle. I went into the fridge and grabbed the eggnog. I opened it up and smelled it. It smelled like Christmas, like cinnamon and nutmeg and those appropriate holiday spices. I nervously put the bottle to my lips, and slowly, slowly, slowly tipped the bottle back. And that's when it happened! I actually drank eggnog! I expected to instantly drop dead from it. But! It wasn't so bad. It has the consistency of a good chocolate milk, like the kind you get out of the carton already all mixed up, and it tasted kind of like Christmas, like gingerbread and yummy tastiness. It's not something that I need to buy every year when Christmas comes around, but if I was offered, I wouldn't not drink it. I think it's just the fact that you're drinking eggs that freaks everyone out. Anyway... after I knew what eggnog tasted like, I took another bite, just of the cupcake, and somewhere in there, I could taste the eggnog. The spices came out well in the chocolate, but was still slightly overpowered by the rum.

 

When I got these cupcakes out at work, after all the busy-ness was over, everyone asked my what kind of cupcakes I brought. All I would tell them was "They're rum, it doesn't matter what else is in them, the rum is all you taste."

 

Eggnog Cupcake Ingredients

1 1/4 c flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

8 Tbsp butter

1 1/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 tsp vanilla

1 c eggnog

1/2 c dark rum (or rum extract)

1/2 c cocoa

 

Cupcake How to

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line cupcake pans.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

5. Combine the vanilla and eggnog in a large liquid measure.

6. Add 1/3 flour mixture to the butter, then 1/3 of the eggnog mixture, beating slowly until well incorporated. Add another 1/3 flour mixture, followed my 1/3 of the eggnog. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour  mixture, followed by the remaining eggnog mixture, and beat just until combined.

7. Add the rum and mix.

8. Add the cocoa powder, beating on low.

9. Fill cups 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes (start checking at 15 minutes)

 

Rum Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

4 Tbsp butter

4 c powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

6 oz cream cheese

1/4 c dark rum

 

Frosting How to

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix all ingredients for 3-5 minutes, until frosting is light and airy.

 

 

from the cookbook Sweet Celebration



27 Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

A friend of mine requested cupcakes for her son's birthday (in addition to a regular sized cake she asked me to bake). So, since these cupcakes were on my poll and I needed something kid friendly to bake, these were the natural choice.

The only thing I had to buy to make these cupcakes were the pre-made cookie dough. I've read a lot of recipes where you need to freeze the cookie dough first. Although for this particular recipe, you don't have to. The recipe calls for a tube of cookie dough. I bought the ready-to-bake dough that's already cut into little squares. The stuff that you just pull apart and place onto a cookie sheet and just throw into the oven. The pull apart stuff worked just fine, if not better, but the option is up to you.

This recipe was awesome. It had everything that my ideal chocolate cake recipe had: sour cream, coffee and pudding. Instead of using the instant coffee, I just used 1/2 of coffee we had left over from the morning. You could tell that the pudding was mixed in. The cake batter looked really pudding-y. I would not filling these as much as the recipe said, because most of mine baked over. If you divide the batter between only 24 cupcakes, they're already pretty full and then you're supposed to add a ball of cookie dough into that, they end up super full. I made 27 cupcakes, but you could probably manage 2 more cupcakes.

 

Since I used the pull apart cookie dough, it turned out pretty simple. I cut one square of dough in half, then I rolled it in between my hands into a ball. I just dropped it into the middle of the cupcake batter and used a spoon to cover it up completely and voila! That was that. I put them into the oven to bake. It took a little longer than the minimum 18 minutes, but if you make your cupcakes a little less full, it might just be enough time.

Oh No! The Cupcakes Baked Over!!

 

After this, I rolled the remaining cookie dough into little cookies. The recipe warns to stick the cookies on top before the icing hardens so I figured this would be the next appropriate step. It takes just as long to bake little cookies as it does big cookies... go figure.

Mini Cookies All Ready

I didn't particularly care for this icing. I followed the directions and it was a huge powdered sugar mess. And no matter what I did, it stayed super thick. I was afraid that it would be difficult to pipe. It was easier than I anticipated, but not how I would normally like my icing. After all that work, it just tasted like a normal butter cream icing. The cream cheese gets lost in all the powdered sugar and butter. Next time I would just stick with mixing the fail safe butter cream (2 sticks of butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, a capful of vanilla, and hot water to thin it out).

Weird Icing

These cupcakes were awesome. Because the chocolate cake had all the secret-y ingredients that I love, it was super moist. The cookie dough settled to the bottom and was a crunchy surprise after sinking your teeth through the soft cupcake. The icing went well with the cupcakes, not necessarily worth all the work though. And the tiny cookie on top of everything was adorable and an extra little treat. This cupcake was two very tasty desserts all kept together in a simple, white paper cupcake liner.

Chocolate Chip Cupcake Ingredients
1 package Devil's food cake mix
1 package chocolate pudding mix
1 c sour cream
1 c vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp instant espresso
1/2 c warm water

How to
1. Preheat 350. Line muffin tine with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, and vanilla in a small bowl. Combine espresso granules and warm water, stirring until dissolved. Add to cake batter and stir until fully incorporated.
3. Using a large cookie scoop, distribute batter between 24 muffin wells; about 3 tablespoons of batter per well.
4. Measure .4 oz balls of cookie dough (about 1 tsp) and drop a ball of dough into each cupcakes. Be sure to use a spoon to completely cover the ball with batter.
5. Bake in oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Remove cupcake from muffin tin and allow to fully cool on a wire rack. Once cupcakes are cool, prepare your frosting.

Frosting Ingredients
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 pounds powdered sugar
4-6 c heavy cream or milk

How to
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Slowly add in sugar and continue until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk. Blend on low until moistened. Add on additional 1-3 tablespoon of heavy cream or milk until you reach desired consistency. eat at high until frosting is smooth and fluffy.

For the Garnish
1. Garnish your cupcakes with mini chocolate chips and a mini cookie.
2. To make mini cookies, measure out 24 .4 oz (about 1 tsp) balls of dough and baked them according to the package direction (about 8-10 minutes). Allow mini cookies to cool completely before adding them to the cupcakes.

**NOTES**

• If you are choosing to garnish cupcakes, make sure you do this immediately after you frost your cupcakes. Once the top layer of butter cream hardens, nothing will stick to the frosting.
• If you do not have instant espresso powder, you can simply omit it from the recipe. You can typically find this in the coffee aisle of most supermarkets

from mybakingaddiction.com

27 Pumpkin and Spiced Rum Cupcakes

'Tis the season for baking, baking, and more baking. For the past few years, my mom has been baking and selling trays of baked goods and every year at Christmas time the orders pour in. She gets a bunch of cookie orders for this one, some variety trays for that one, and cupcakes for someone else. My mom asked me for some help with some cupcakes, telling me that I'd be able to put them on my blog as incentive. I'm not really sure who they're for or what the occasion is, but I'll take the opportunity to bake cupcakes.

Luckily for me, my mom has made these before and also did all her shopping for her baking marathon so everything was already here to whip these cupcakes together. If you need to go out and buy some spiced rum because you don't have any on hand, don't spend the money on buying good booze if it's only for cupcakes. The recipe suggests using Cruzan 9. If you're going to drink it, then go ahead and spend the extra bucks on something nice for yourself, but otherwise, save a little money and buy whatever is cheap. Now, my mom needed 2 dozen and the recipe only make 12 cupcakes, so I obviously just doubled all the amounts.

After I had mixed the ingredients as the recipe instructed me, I realized a much easier way to do it all. So to save you the hassle, I'll give you the foresight. First, I would mix the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl to the stand mixer. Obviously, don't use the beater to mix them. I normally use a fork. Next, I would mix the pumpkin and other wet ingredients in a large liquid measuring cup. Then, I put just a little of the wet ingredients and turned the mixer on low just so the dry ingredients didn't fly everywhere. Then, I added the rest.

All the Wet Ingredients
and my Bunny Whisk!

I get a little weary when the recipe says to fill the cupcakes 3/4 full. I'm always afraid that they'll bake over. Only one did really bad and 2 baked over just a little. But overall, they all turned out nice.

Since I made the icing a few days ago, it was a breeze this time around. For a double batch it made a ton of icing. I might make a batch and a half next time I need to make that much.

These cupcakes would be really good for around Thanksgiving time. The rum flavor isn't too strong, so you could bring them to share with all your family at all kinds of holiday events. The cake is moist because of the pumpkin in it and the cinnamon in the icing with the cinnamon in the cupcakes is just right. It isn't overwhelming at all. The taste of these cupcakes will evoke memories of pumpkin pie and family get-togethers from the past and maybe become a tradition.

Pumpkin and Spiced Rum Cupcakes Ingredients

1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c sugar
3/4 c canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 c canola oil
1/4 c spiced rum

Cupcake How to

All the Dry Ingredients

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, spices, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Stir to combine.
2. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk pumpkin, eggs, canola oil, and rum.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir just until combined. 
4. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. (You'll fill each cup a slid 3/4 of the way full to make 12 cupcakes.)
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 c butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Frosting How to

1. Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. beating well after each addition. Fold in vanilla and cinnamon with last 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.
3. Beat until smooth.
**Refrigerate any leftover frosting