Tag Archives: cupcakes

Mini Chocolate Chip Cakes

Posted on by
Reply

Saturday night I babysat two of my little cousins. Our fun night included making dinner, baking and watching the movie Soul Surfer. Moni & Pili love helping out in the kitchen. We sang along to the Justin Bieber station on Pandora while I made them “Asian noodles”. When I asked them what they wanted for dinner they told me Chinese food. I improvised by I taking a package of cooked wide spaghetti noodles, tossing it with a honey ginger sauce and sliced beef. (I would have loved to add veggies but I lost the argument). The sauce I used was very simple to make. I just combined olive oil, garlic, ginger, salt, honey, rice vinegar, water and cornstarch in sauce pan and cooked until it thickened up.

We had a silly photoshoot. 

 

For me, babysitting nights = treat nights. I have very fond memories of my aunts babysitting us when I was little. I loved it. They were teenagers when I was in elementary school so it was cool to hang out with them. They would bake cookies with us, let us say “bad” words, drink soda, smoke chocolate “cigarettes” and stay up late. Now that I’m living in Houston and surrounded by my younger cousins I try to return the favor to my aunts. I know I was very spoiled since I was the first born- I suppose that means I owe my aunts a lot of babysitting time!

Anyways…for dessert we made individual chocolate chip cakes. The batter was a basic vanilla cake with chocolate chips. We divided the batter into a cupcake pan but all of the chocolate chips sank to the bottom. When I flipped the cakes out of the pan I realized they looked better upside down. We ate the cakes with powdered sugar while they were still warm. We couldn’t wait :)

Mini Chocolate Chip Cakes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 8 oz chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Line 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
  3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
  4. Put butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until pale and fluffy.
  5. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla.
  6. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the milk.
  7. Stir in chocolate chips.
  8. Spoon batter into each muffin cup. (The cakes won’t rise like regular cupcakes so make sure you fill it up all the way).
  9. Bake until pale golden, about 20 minutes.
  10. Flip the cupcakes onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
  11. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

The girls bought me this flower plant. They are adorable.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes.

Posted on by
1

I’ve always been a vanilla over chocolate kinda girl. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate. But given the choice between the two I usually pick vanilla.

Vanilla ice cream > chocolate ice cream

Vanilla frappuccino > mocha frappuccino

Cookie > brownie

The one exception is cake. Chocolate cake > Vanilla cake.

I usually find vanilla cakes to be boring. The vanilla flavor doesn’t come through and it tastes bland. I am always disappointed with vanilla cakes. In fact, I never even make vanilla cakes. Yesterday everything changed.

You see, today is my good friend/soon to be cousin-in-law’s birthday. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to make him cupcakes. When his fiancee (my cousin Sofia) asked me to make vanilla cupcakes I immediately thought, “oh…vanilla, really?” I was dreaming of salted caramel filled chocolate cupcakes, or these cookie dough stuffed ones. Once I got over my initial disappointment I realized this was a good opportunity  to find a GOOD vanilla cupcake recipe. Vanilla bean popped into my head and the rest is history.

This is not my recipe, so I can’t take credit for it. However, the cupcakes are amazing. The cake itself is light and airy, you can really taste the vanilla bean. And the frosting tastes like melted vanilla bean ice cream! (I should know, I ate my weight in frosting).

One thing to note: the recipe does require vanilla bean paste and it is worth it. I would not use vanilla extract to substitute because you will not get the same flavor result.

Original recipe here.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

3/4 cup egg whites (6 egg whites)
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened, cut into pieces

Vanilla Bean Frosting

2 sticks butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 tablespoon cognac
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 cupcake pans with paper liners.

For the cake:

Combine egg whites, milk, almond extract and vanilla paste in a large bowl. Mix very well.

Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. Add butter and beat on low speed until mixture resembles coarse sand.

Add half of the milk mixture and beat until completely mixed. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl.

Divide batter into cupcake cups until 3/4 full . Bake on center rack for 20 minutes.

Let cupcakes rest in the pan for about 5 minutes, remove them, and let them cool on a rack.

For frosting

Mix together the butter and powdered sugar. Mix in the vanilla bean paste, cognac, and milk. Beat on high until light and creamy, scraping sides of bowl. Add more milk depending on consistency you want.

Makes 18 cupcakes