Recipe Tuesday :: Hummingbird Cupcakes

Everyone has a favorite cupcake and I would have to say mine is carrot cake, which isn't what this post is about.  It's about Hummingbird cupcakes, which no one really knows what they are.  My best description is carrot cake, minus the carrot.  So...pretty much, delicious!  Whenever we go over to Seattle and get treats at Trophy Cupcakes I always pick Hummingbird.  I just love the spice cakey-pineapple moistened-cream cheese topped goodness.

Since it was a potluck week at work and not someone's birthday the flavor was my choice and I'd been itching to try my hand at a Hummingbird cupcake recipe.  Enter this recipe from A Spicy Perspective.  And it is AHmazing!

The cake isn't overly sweet, but flavorful and moist and dense in the way homemade cake should be.  I ended up topping it with the classic cream cheese frosting recipe I use instead of the sour cream frosting she has in the recipe.  (Cream Cheese Frosting = 2 bricks of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, 2 Tablespoons heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, bring butter and cream cheese to room temp and then beat it all in a mixer until it stands up as frosting should adding more or less powdered sugar as needed.)  I will definitely try her frosting the next time.  I'm never averse to adding sour cream to anything...

I also topped the cupcakes with raw sugar instead of sprinkles, not that they are very different, but because it held with the "rustic" nature of the cupcake.  All in all, the best cupcake yet in my humble opinion.

Recipe Tuesday :: Salted Caramel Cupcakes

So I totally know it's Wednesday, but it was about 15 minutes before I was going to bed yesterday when I remembered it was Tuesday.  And I had promised on my Instagram photo that there was a recipe coming soon.  So here it is....Salted Caramel Cupcakes!

This was actually the first cupcake recipe that I haven't just tried from a Pinterest find, but put together myself.  And it wasn't too bad!  I found them a little too sweet for my taste, but everyone else liked them, so I guess they weren't too sweet after all.

I do recommend that if you are going to sprinkle them with sea salt on the top, like I did, do it right before you serve them.  I did it the night before and by the next day it looked like little craters in the frosting where the salt had been.  Kinda like your sidewalk in winter after you've salted it.  There was salt in the caramel too, so if you're not into topping them with more salt, I get it.  Mom requested one without salt because she's just not into these crazy fads we kids go through.  :)

I also like to think of these cupcakes as a study in inverted frosting.  After I scooped out the middles and put the caramel sauce in, it slowly started to soak into the cupcake.  Not that that's a bad thing, it was DE-licious, but I probably should have scooped out less cupcake.  So that left a little hole in the middle and to frost them I went around the disappearing caramel and then filled up the hole with frosting.  I quickly realized that there wouldn't be enough frosting to do all the cupcakes if I made my usual tall topping of amazingness, so the frosting ended up kinda flat.  But it was probably just as tall as usual, just in a downward sort of fashion.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong black coffee (just brewed and still warm)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the caramel sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp sea salt

For the caramel frosting:
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with baking cup liners.  In the bowl of the mixer, stir together all the dry ingredients for the cupcakes, the sugar through the salt.  Whisk them together well, then using the paddle attachment, add in the eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  The batter will be thin.  You can use a measuring cup with a pour spout or a batter scoop to get the batter in the cupcake papers and fill them 3/4 full.  Bake at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the caramel sauce, melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.  Stir in the brown sugar and salt and heat the mixture until boiling, stirring constantly.  Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved.  Stir in the cream and return to a boil, stirring constantly.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.  Cool about 30 to 40 minutes in the refrigerator, stirring occasionally.

To make the caramel frosting, start the same as the sauce, melting the butter over medium heat.  Stir in the brown sugar and salt and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Cook over low heat for 2 minutes then stir in the milk and return to a boil, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool to lukewarm, about 30 to 40 minutes at room temperature, stirring occasionally.  Pour the caramel into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Let it sit about 5 minutes without mixing to stiffen up.  Transfer frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a 1M tip and pipe frosting in a spiral onto the cupcakes.  Garnish with sea salt if desired.

Now go and eat delicious cupcakes!!

A Baby Shower and the Roots and Vines Festival

I am quite late with this post, but after a very busy May I spent the first few weeks of June trying to relax again.  Other than reinventing Red Velvet cupcakes as Blue Velvet ones for the last recital ever at my old dance studio I also don't have a Recipe Tuesday post.  So instead you get to see my adventures in May.

At the very beginning of May, Mom and I went to visit family and go to a baby shower for my cousin Erin.  Lucky the shower was so early because not two weeks later she had her beautiful baby girl who was a bit early.  Now Holly is a month old!  So this is all old news indeed.  We had a great time, especially because all of my cousins were there and it's hard to get everyone in one place now that we're all old.  We played plenty of games which is always the entertaining part of a shower.  There was the measure-the-belly game, where we all guessed too high and the kiddo that had a piece ripped off for her was the closest.

And the poopy diaper game, which was Erin's favorite!  A variety of chocolate candies were melted in baby diapers and then you had to guess what they were from sight and smell.  This provided the best picture opportunities...

I think her face says it all --->

There was also guess the number of candies in the bottle...

And a game where you had to close your eyes and pull out as many safety pins from a bowl of rice as you could in a minute...

And then the shower of presents began.  Erin got lots of lovely clothes and baby items that will help her with her beautiful baby girl.

And then two weeks later she got this!

A few weeks after the shower, Mom and I went to the first ever Roots and Vines festival.  There were two stages playing Americana music by the likes of Hillstomp, Polecat, Blake Noble, John Dunnigan, and Fruition.  It was a 21 and over event and you got a commemorative glass at the entrance and then after buying tickets you exchanged those for a taster (1 ticket) or a glass (2-3 tickets) for the alcoholic beverage of your choice.  Our hands down favorite was the Cherry Cider by Tieton Cider Works.  It is soooo good!!

Plenty of friends showed up and the weather was pleasant.  There was great food provided from the restaurants close by.  Mom had some chicken and rice dish from The Carousel restaurant and I had wood fired pizza from Russillo's.  Later I went and picked up some gelato because how else you would end such a capital day?

There were also some great characters there!  This guy was a kick, dancing around as free as a kid, without a care in the world.  He was so entertaining he even had his own paparazzi.

So it was a busy but eventful May!  Let's see how June goes.  We're already half way through after all!