cupcakes

Peeps Cupcakes

I do actually do quite a lot of scratch baking, but for the sake of speed I used a lot of boxed mixes for the Death of Peeps projects.

I’ll let you in on a secret: there was a Death of Peeps party. In order to get all the Peeps murdered in time for my guests, I used a box cake mix for these cupcakes. By all means, use a scratch recipe for the cupcake base. And I bet these would be awesome with those homemade Peeps I keep seeing all over Pinterest.

I like to match the color of the Peeps to the cupcakes, so either dye a white cake or use one of the fruit flavored cake mixes that are out now.

*…Just…because this has been a problem with some of these projects, none of these cupcakes went minors. I mean, there’s no reason they can’t be a kid food, these just haven’t been. Consume your Peeps in moderation.

1 box fruit flavored cake mix (or the fruit flavored cup cake recipe of your choice, one that will make 16 cupcakes)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

16 Peeps

1. Prepare the cupcakes following the back of the box and adding 1/2 tea vanilla.

2. Fill lined cupcake trays to 2/3 full.

3. Bake following recipe or box directions, subtracting 3 minutes from the total baking time.

4. When the cupcakes are 3 minutes from finished, pull the trays out of the oven. Put a Peep on top of each cupcake, press down just firmly enough that they won’t fall off. They won’t stick but they should stay (mostly) upright while you put them back into the oven.

5. Bake 3 more minutes.

6. Remove from the oven carefully. Each Peep should be upright and whole, but puffy. Some may have fallen over slightly. Be careful, they’re going to be wobbly.

7. Take a butter knife and gently tap each Peep. They should pop and deflate.

8. Let cool. The marshmallows will be quite warm.

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Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes

My mother was town all weekend. I look forward to these visits. I’m a cliche hermit-lone wolf-antisocial book loving fiber nerd but I get excited as a four year old at Christmas to see my family. I like living where I do but country’s in my blood.

Because I was seeing my mom all weekend, I didn’t get a chance to bake or make anything new for Sweet Month-but Peeps, people, Peeps and Pinterest, I have ideas for next month and April.

Here’s a recipe from the archives. This cake will probably bake up denser than what you’re used to in a cupcake but I know for a fact that 2 men at all 12 cupcakes in the space of 2 hours. I’m not going to argue with a result like that. They’ll eventually get a nice, new pretty photo now that we have the Nikon-but again, my mom’s more important that food photography.

Priorities.

Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes

1 cup plain yogurt

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup milk

1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tins.

Cut butter into thin slices and cream with the sugar.

Add yogurt, milk, and vanilla and beat until just mixed.

Adding eggs one at a time, beat until just mixed.

Add dry ingredients and beat until combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill liners and add jam.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Makes 18 cupcakes

The Bakery

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Empty Your Jars: Spiced Orange Cupcakes

The reaction I get most often about my canned oranges is they look great. What do you do with them?

I started canning oranges because I don’t like not knowing what’s in my canned products, and I dream of this orange cake I used to get while I was in college that was studded with manderin oranges. It was also a funny shade of orange not known to any food that ever came off of a plant.

Anyway. I did use a cake mix for this recipe because I’ve found that unless I’m making a yogurt cake, I get better cupcakes from a box. Feel free to use a scratch recipe in its place-just remember that you’re using the canning liquid as part of your water content.

*Since I’m using my spiked oranges there may be a trace alcohol content in each serving. You can either use a spiced canned non-acoholic batch or substitute a conventionally canned orange product and up the cinnamon a little more since Fireball is a cinnamon whiskey.

Spiced Orange Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix (I used Aldi’s)

1 half pint jar oranges canned in whiskey, drained and liquid reserved

3 eggs

1/4 cup oil

1 1/4 water-add the liquid from the oranges to a measuring cup, add water to 1 1/4 cups

1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (or to taste)

In a large bowl, add all ingredients and stir until wet. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes further. Fill cupcake trays with liners, and bake at 350 for 16 minutes, or until baked through. Frost with favored frosting.

**I used my Kitchenaide Pro-I mixed on the stir setting until just combined and wet, then mixed on level 4 for 2 minutes.

Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes

I have an odd emotional attachment to Chobani greek yogurt.

I don’t particularly like greek yogurt, it feels like wallpaper paste in my mouth. But there’s a large Chobani plant about 5 minutes from where I grew up that’s really supporting the community out there. That’s saying a lot- there’s not exactly a lot of industry there.

The first yogurt cake I made was The Pioneer Woman’s Whiskey Pumpkin cake, minus the whiskey. I love what plain yogurt does to a cake. Strawberry swirl cupcakes are a straightforward yellowish cake base made with yogurt and strawberry jam. They’re yellowish because they have egg yokes, so they can’t be a white cake, but they have too few eggs to be a true yellow cake.

I used Wegman’s organic strawberry jam, because I had it and it’s alreay sort of runny. I also left it on the oven while it preheated to get slightly more runny.

In-between-ness.