8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (sifted)
Using a stand or hand mixer, combine everything until light and fluffy. Start on the slowest speed then increase slowly. The longer you mix, the fluffier the frosting.
The end of Summer is near. While I am counting down the days when school starts again, I'm spending the remaining few days of summer vacation with them, testing and baking various cupcake recipes. When I say baking with my kids, I mean them licking the spatulas and bowls clean, and leaving a bigger mess for me to clean. Fun times.
The best strawberries are the ones you grow yourself. They taste incredibly sweeter than store-bought strawberries. The ones I grow are super tiny, but they are packed with great strawberry flavor. Every day during the summer, I harvest strawberries as soon as they ripen because I learned that if I don't get to them first, other critters will. Sometimes there are way too many strawberries to eat at once so I usually cook them down into a thick sauce and store it for future use in various desserts.
This beautiful frosting needs very little introduction. It’s a rich and silky frosting that’s not too overly sweet like so many frosting recipes, especially store-bought frosting. It also holds up great for intricate pipping designs too.
Super moist banana cupcakes, topped with a Swiss meringue peanut butter frosting. This meringue buttercream frosting is super light yet ridiculously creamy without an overpowering sweetness. If you have only tried store-bought frosting, you are going to be pleasantly surprised with this meringue buttercream.
This strawberry frosting is a Swiss Meringue Buttercream, made from egg whites and butter. They are light and fluffy from the egg whites and rich and creamy from the butter. They are not thick and overly sweet as in American buttercream, which relies heavily on butter/cream cheese and powdered sugar.
Swiss and Italian buttercreams take a bit more preparation, but the end result is so worth it. They are great as fillings and frostings on cakes. Because they are also so stable, they are great for intricate pipping.
For these apple pie cupcakes, I made a traditional apple pie filling with Granny Smith apples and a vanilla cinnamon cupcake batter. I initially planned on frosting the cupcakes but I loved the look of the apple pie filling poking out at the top. I omitted the frosting entirely and simply add a toasted walnut crumble to the top of the cake. The result? It was heavenly.
I love hiding vegetables inside sweet treats. These wonderfully moist carrot cupcake are topped with a rich cream cheese frosting. Here we can have our cake and eat our vegetable too!
This post requires little introduction. Fried chicken in cupcake form. For the love of everything holy why I would create such a monstrosity? Simple. Because I can. Mwahahaha!
The cupcakes were excessive and borderline crazy....but in a good way. It was one of the best cupcakes I made. The sweet brownie cupcakes came out perfect, and the center was filled with ooey gooey goodness of Reese's candy, peanut butter and marshmallow. To literally top them off, I made a rich and smooth ganache frosting. Pure heavenly bliss was all I can say.
Swiss buttercream is a classier and tastier version of the American buttercream. This buttercream has an ultra-silky, stable texture that spreads beautifully but most importantly, tastes heavenly.
Fluffy lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and topped with an ultra fluffy meringue frosting.
Incredibly easy chocolate cupcakes that are light, fluffy, moist and flavorful than anything out of a box.
A traditional cream cheese frosting with a bit of fresh lemon juice. The lemon juice helps to cut through the sweetness and provides a subtle yet lovely fragrance. To get the frosting super light, you will need an electric mixer. The more you mix, the fluffier it gets.
A Red Velvet Cake is essentially a vanilla cake (with a mild chocolate flavor), dyed bright red and frosted with a slightly tangy cream cheese frosting. You can spot a red velvet recipe if it calls for cocoa powder, vinegar, buttermilk, and of course, red food coloring.
These super moist and delicious pumpkin cupcakes are the perfect treat for a fall holiday party, Halloween, or for a cozy night at home. These are made with pumpkin puree and warm spices, and topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting and a dusting of cinnamon. This recipe yield 12 standard size frosted cupcakes.