15 Peaches and Cream Cupcakes

I offered to bake for the soup and bake sale at my church. This was an opportunity for me to not have to bake a ton of cupcakes and get to use a recipe that I would normally avoid for this reason. I flipped through my cupcake books and I just couldn't settle on any of the recipes, so I hit my ultimate cupcake resource, the Internet. I searched and searched and eventually set my heart on peaches and cream cupcakes.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of "high quality jam with lots of real peaches" or 1 cup of "peaches and cream mush". I'm not going to lie, but I didn't even read the recipe for the mush and I figured it would be a lot easier and of course less work and less mess so, I just went out searching for this jam. I ran to the closest grocery store and all they had was cheap peach jelly that look like a jar full of solid orange-y squish so I wouldn't consider that "high quality". Off I was to the next nearest grocery store. I searched all over this store since I wasn't too familiar with where everything was. When I came across the jelly I found myself in a predicament once again. I saw the same cheap peach jelly, a jar of peach jam for close to $5, and a jar of peach and apricot jelly for $3 and some change. I figured I could still keep my integrity intact if I go a tiny bit cheaper and buy the peach and apricot jam. Since the jar looked to be about the cup that I needed for the cupcakes without any left over for the icing, I also bought a jar of the cheap peach jelly. Then, homeward bound!

My plan was to save a few tablespoons of the good jelly for the icing, so to make sure too much didn't get used, the first thing I did was scoop out 3 tablespoons of good jelly and one of the cheap stuff. Then, I continued on with the recipe like I usually would. When I got to the part where I needed to add the peach jelly, I scraped every bit of the high quality jelly out of the little jar into a one cup measuring cup. It proved to be a sticky affair. I used the cheaper jelly to completely fill the measuring cup.

The recipe tells you to divide the batter into 12 cups. Do Not Do This! I made 15 cupcakes and each cup was full. You could probably get 2 dozen cupcakes comfortably. A bunch of the cupcakes baked over, not ideal for making pretty cupcakes for a bake sale. After they were done baking and sat for a little, I took the cupcakes out of the pans to cool. I picked some of the baked over cake off the pan to taste it. Whoa! Right that second my life changed. These cupcakes were incredible and they didn't even have icing on them yet.

Onto the icing. Now the recipe says to use vanilla bean paste, which, from my understanding, is like a vanilla liquid with bits of vanilla bean in it. Not only is it apparently hard to find, but it's also expensive. I didn't even try to look for it. I just used regular old vanilla extract and everything was fine. The jelly that I saved worked out pretty well too. The chunks of peaches in the icing look really good and it also gives it a peachy tint. When I tried the icing, it was perfect. The actual icing was the "cream" in the peaches in cream. It was overly peachy that would make it just a peach icing.

These cupcakes are absolute winners. As I peeled off the cupcake liner from my cupcake, it reveal a chunk of peach and a sticky looking cake. It had a pineapple upside-down cake kind of appearance. Although sticky, the cake was ridiculously delicious. I was speechless. The little bits of peach from the jam in the icing made the cupcakes one entity instead of just a cupcake with just icing on top. The pile of icing on top was not too sweet, not too thick. Simply perfection. I am officially in love with these cupcakes. I can't wait until the summer to make these again! I talked my mom into making fresh peach jelly.

Peaches and Cream Cupcakes Ingredients
1 1/4 c four
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream
1 c peach jam **high quality jam with lots of real peaches

Cupcake How to
1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and sugar for 2 minutes or until well blended.
3. Add butter and vanilla and beat on low speed for 1 minute, or until well blended.
4. Beat in dry ingredients on low until blended.
5. Add sour cream and beat until smooth.
6. Add peach jam.
7.Divide batter evenly among 12 cupcake liners.
8. Bake at 350 for about 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean and tops are firm.

Frosting Ingredients
3 c powdered sugar
1 c butter
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
4 Tbsp peach jam

Frosting How to
1. Mix together sugar and butter until they are blended and creamy
2. Add vanilla bean paste and continue to beat for a minutes
3. Mix in peach jam until just combined.


recipe from cupcakeproject.com

22 Moscato Cupcakes

Another very happy birthday for one of my best friends. My friends are getting very vague about what they want. They just say whatever. Since it's near Valentine's day and these cupcakes were on my poll, I went with the Moscato cupcakes.

All I needed to do was make a trip to the liquor store to pick up my cheap bottle of wine. I spent about $7 on a normal sized bottle. They also had little 4-packs of Moscato if you're worried about having a practically full bottle of wine open. You may also have to pick up a pack of strawberries if you choose to garnish your cupcakes with some fresh fruit.

Dry Ingredients

 

These cupcakes are really easy to bake. It's the usual add wet ingredients to dry ingredients thing. Now if you don't have buttermilk around, don't worry about going out and buying some. You can substitute it with stuff I'm sure you already have. All that it takes is a tablespoon of either lemon juice or white vinegar and then add enough milk to make it a full cup. I know that the recipe only calls for 3/4 cup of buttermilk, but missing out on a quarter cup of milk is a lot cheaper than having to buy buttermilk for one recipe. Just let buttermilk mix sit for about 5 minutes. I made it first, before I did anything else with these cupcakes. All the wet ingredients mixed together look like a crazy science experiment. I just poured a little of the wet ingredients into the dry just so the powdery mix didn't poof all over me, then I  just let the mixer turned on low and slowly added the rest of the wet ingredients.

 

Science-y Wet Ingredients

The recipe says that it will make 12-18 cupcakes and that you should fill them 3/4 full. I could tell when I spooned out the batter that these cupcakes were going to be dense. I under filled my cupcakes since I was planning on bringing them to work and that small number of cupcakes simply would not feed the masses. If you're not planning on feeding a whole staff then go ahead and fill up those cupcakes! The ones that were a little more full than others baked up perfectly. They didn't spill over, only domed up beautifully. Even though I made more cupcakes, they still baked longer than what the recipe called for. I had them in for and extra 8 minutes or so.

I mixed up the icing according to the recipe. I was afraid that it wouldn't be enough for the extra cupcakes I baked and tasting it, I thought it was too buttery and not sweet enough. I added about a 3/4 cup of extra powdered sugar. This made the icing really thick, but I just spread it on the cupcakes as it was. I could have used another teaspoon or so of Moscato to thin it out so it would be easier to pipe. Lastly, I garnished these cupcakes with colored sugar sprinkles. I put each cupcake, one by one, on a Styrofoam plate and spooned the sugar over them, I shook off the excess, then when I was all done, I dumped the extra sugar back in the container.

As predicted, these cupcakes were really dense. Although they weren't fluffy like I usually want my cupcakes, they were still delicious. You could faintly taste the Moscato in the icing. I should have added more but hind sight is always 20/20. There was very little of the wine taste in the cupcakes as a whole, but the cupcakes were still a hit.

So after all that, if you're left wondering what to do with your leftover Moscato, it goes well with cheeses, cured meat, and perfectly enough, sweets!

Moscato Cupcake Ingredients
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 c sugar
1 c canola or vegetable oil
1/3 c Moscato
3/4 c buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp white vinegar
Strawberries or sprinkles for garnish

Cupcake How to
1. Preheat over to 350. Put cupcake liners in 2 cupcake pans. This recipe should make 12-18 cupcakes depending on the size of your pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar, and whisk together. In another bowl, combine oil, Moscato, buttermilk, eggs, and vinegar. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until it is just blended.
3. Scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake pans, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting with Moscato vanilla icing.

Moscato Vanilla Icing Ingredients
8 oz (1 c) butter, room temperature
3 Tbsp Moscato
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Icing How to
In a large bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth and fluffy. Add in the Moscato and vanilla and continue mixing until combined. Add the icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until smooth and light. Frost the cooled cupcakes and garnish.

from brooke-bakes.blogspot.com

24 Apple Cider Cupcakes

So handbell season has started up again, and the choir needed some cupcakes. I got this new recipe book for Christmas so I flipped through the pages to pick just the right cupcakes to bring to my good little ringers. I narrowed it down to a couple choices but when it came down to it I chose this one. They're easy enough, because they use a box mix and only a few other ingredients. Perfect for something quick to whip up.

The only ingredients I needed for these cupcakes were the spice cake mix and the apple cider. They sell the small jugs (which is what I wanted to get, but the store I went to didn't have any) of apple cider and since you only need about 2 cups of it, this size would be perfect. If you like apple cider, go right ahead and buy a half gallon and enjoy the left overs.

When I mixed the batter it was really easy. Another case of just following simple directions. We had some left over chopped walnuts. Just throw them in the food processor and they're perfect. There wasn't 2 cups of walnuts, but it was close enough. I split all the batter between 24 cupcakes and put them in the oven for 20 minutes and they came out perfectly.

The icing was easy too. I'm not sure if the butter wasn't softened enough or what happened, but the butter never really mixed with the cider to what I would consider to be "blended" like the recipe says. I just mixed it for a while, and then slowly added the powdered sugar. I piped it onto the cupcakes in a zigzag and that was that. All done! Since I ran out of walnuts, I didn't garnish them. Apple chips would make a good garnish too if you make them without the nuts.

Not very blended icing

Everybody loved these cupcakes. I heard there were fights for bites of these cupcakes. People who brought them home from handbell practice missed out on their last bites to a family member or had to wrench them out of the hands of a cupcake hungry spouse. The cake was nice and moist. The finely crushed up walnuts are all throughout the cake. You can taste the nuts in every bite. Finally, the cider in the icing and the cupcakes was emphasized by the spices in the cake mix. All the flavor of a great cupcake and only about a quarter of the work. Some times I hate to do it, but you can occasionally get away with using a boxed cake mix.

Apple Cider Cupcake Ingredients
1 package (about 18 oz) spice cake mix
1 1/4 c apple cider
1/3 c vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 c coarsely chopped walnuts, plus additional for garnish

Cupcake How to
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 standard (2 1/2 in) muffin cups with paper baking cups.
2. Beat cake mix, apple cider, oil and eggs in medium bowl with electric mixer at low speed until blended; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in 2 cups chopped walnuts. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
4. Prepare Apple Cider Frosting; frost cupcakes. Garnish with additional chopped walnuts.

Apple Cider Frosting Ingredients and How to
Beat 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter and 1/4 cup apple cider in medium bowl with electric mixer at low speed until well blended. Gradually beat in 4 cups powdered sugar until smooth. Makes about 3 cups.


from the Cupcake Bible