Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

These were created for my mom to include her two favorite flavors - lemon and coconut.

Cake

I used a standard yellow cake mix.

Filling

JELL-O Lemon cook and serve pudding works great.  Be sure to stir constantly otherwise it will scorch. 

To fill cupcakes, use Wilton tip #230.  Insert tip about 1/2 way into the cupcake and slowly push the lemon pudding into the cake.  You'll know when the cupcake is filled based on the pressure.

Frosting

Standard Butter Cream - see Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake for recipe

Candied Lemon Zest

Ingredients
Fresh lemons
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
wax paper

Using a lemon zester, or a potato peeler, remove the yellow part of the peel from the lemon(s).  Each piece needs to be about an inch long and relatively thin.

Bring water to a boil in a small pan and add lemon zest.  Let boil for approximately 5 minutes.  Remove peels from water and add the 2 cups of sugar.  Bring mixture to a boil while sugar dissolves.  Add lemon peels.  Let boil until peels become transparent.  They will curl naturally as they are in the sugar water.  Place zest on wax paper and sprinkle with the additional sugar.  Allow to cool.

Decorating

Frost cupcakes with buttercream frosting and top with coconut.  You will only be able to frost a few cupcakes at a time before you need to add the coconut, otherwise the frosting will become stiff.  Once coconut has been added, top with a piece of candied lemon zest.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake

Cake

For this cupcake I used a chocolate cake mix.

Note: If you're going to do the chocolate cake from scratch make sure it's a light and fluffy recipe, dense cake will not work when filling cupcakes.

Filling

Ingredients

Fresh or frozen raspberries - about a cup or so

Sugar - a few tablespoons at most

Lemon - 1 tsp

Corn starch - 1-3 tablespoons

In a small sauce pan, on low heat, stir the raspberries with a tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice until the mixture becomes a smooth-thin substance.  Taste.  Add sugar and additional lemon juice until desired taste is found.  Add corn starch a tablespoon at a time until desired consistency forms.

Or... you could just use raspberry jam.  That works too.

Frosting

Chocolate Butter Cream

Recipe to be added later

Decorating

Using a Wilton tip #18 start on the outside edge of the cupcake and swirl frosting around to center.  top with a fresh raspberry.

Author's Note

Disclaimer

I suppose I'm a little late in doing this, but I thought it would be best to put a disclaimer on here just in case there was a critic out there that wanted to turn up their nose at me...

This blog is for entertainment purposes only.  I am not a professional pastry chef, nor do I pretend to be; however, I do love baking, decorating, and food in general.  If you're looking for a 100% "from scratch" blog, this is the wrong place.  Most of the recipes on this blog are borrowed or variations of recipes already in existence.  I regularly use boxed cake mix (Duncan Hines, in case you were wondering) and borrow recipes for frosting from the Domino Confectioners Sugar box and the Hershey Cocoa Powder box.  I feel like as long as you're being creative, being 100% from scratch isn't all that necessary.  I mean, let's face it, hardly anyone is churning their own butter these days or making wheat into flour.  It's all relative.

I started posting in order to share my creative outlet and if you're checking out my posts, I hope that you find something worth re-creating on your own.  My goal is to make it possible for anyone reading  to be able to replicate what I've done. 

When it comes down to it, I'm all about presentation.  My goal is for everything that I make to taste good and look pretty.

Superbowl Party Cupcakes

Superbowl Cupcakes

Cake
Chocolate cake - Recipe to be added later

Frosting

Standard Buttercream frosting dyed green (see other posts for recipe)

Decorating

Using wilton tip #233 use short squeezes to make a grass like design.  This tip requires a lot more pressure than most, so make a note of this when making your frosting.  Too thin won't keep the design, but too thick makes it difficult to use this tip. 

I used gold foil wrappers and topped each cupcake with a cut-out football.  They were actually appetizer skewers, but I cut off the ends and stuck them in the cupcakes. 

Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcake

Cupcake

Ingredients
Classic Yellow Cake mix
Eggs
Vegetable oil
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can pineapple slices (rings)
1 jar maraschino cherries
1/8 cup brown sugar
2-3 tbs butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350.

Drain crushed and sliced pineapple, reserving juice in bowl.  Cut each ring into thirds and blot excess juice from the slices.  Set aside.

Cut 12 maraschino cherries in half, blotting excess juice from the fruit.  Set aside.

Prepare cake mix as instructed on box replacing all water with reserved pineapple juice.  Add approximately 1/2 cup of the crushed pineapple to the batter and mix thoroughly.

Fill 24 cupcake cups with the batter.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and place a cherry in the center and a slice of pineapple to the side.  Return to oven, baking for an additional 4-5 minutes.

In a microwave safe bowl (or small sauce pan on the stove) melt butter.  Add brown sugar until a glaze has formed.  Place approximately 1 tsp of glaze on top of each cupcake. 

Keep refrigerated.  Store for no more than 2-3 days or fruit will go bad. 

Note: I warm these up before serving

Valentine's Day Cupcake

Cake

I cheated and used a box of red velvet mix. Follow the directions and they'll turn out just fine.

For mini cupcakes, bake for 12-14 minutes. To test if they are done, lightly tap on the top of the cake with your finger tip while they are still in the oven to see if the cake "springs back". If it does, they're done. The top of the cupcake should feel dry to the touch. Cool as instructed.

Frosting

Cream cheese frosting is a classic to go with red velvet cake.

3 tbs cream cheese

1/4 cup margarine or butter (1/2 stick)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 cups powdered sugar
Food coloring

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar gradually. Add food coloring several drops at a time until desired color is achieved.

Note: for these cupcakes I multiplied the frosting recipe by 1.5

(4.5 tbs cream cheese, 3/4 stick margarine, 1.5 tsp vanilla and 4-5 cups powdered sugar)

Decorating

These are mini cupcakes, and even though you can't tell, the wrappers are white with tiny red and pink hearts along the sides of the wrapper.

Frosting Design: I always use Wilton decorating tools - bags, tips, etc. For this cupcake I used the Wilton Round Tip #12, swirled the cream cheese frosting around the cupcake starting with the outer edge and then topped with a large heart sprinkle.

Tiramisu Cupcake

Cake

Ingredients

Classic yellow cake mix

Eggs

Vegetable oil

Dark Rum

Kahlua

Lady finger cookies

Preheat oven to 350. 

In a shallow container (think cookie sheet as long as it has a little bit of an edge) place approximately 12 lady fingers in a single row.  Add Kahlua to the lady fingers until they are thoroughly soaked.  About a tablespoon of Kahlua per lady finger, add more as needed.

While the cookies are soaking, prepare the yellow cake mix as instructed on the box, replacing some of the water with rum.  Note: I replaced a 1/2 cup of the water with rum.  Basically, you're replacing the water with rum to your taste preference.  I'm not a huge rum fan, so I like it to "hint" rather than "smack you in the face" with rum flavor.

Place approximately 1 tablespoon of cake batter in the bottom of all 24 cupcake cups.  Add 1/2 of a Kahlua soaked lady finger to each cup. Cover the cookie with the remaining cupcake batter.  Be sure all cups are evenly filled and not overflowing.  You may have some extra batter.

 

Bake for 18-21 minutes.  Baking time may increase depending on how much rum was used.  Cupcakes are done when they are dry to the touch and "spring back" rather than "sink" when you touch the tops.

Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Coming soon!  As soon as I figure out how I made this...

Decorating

Using a Wilton #1M decorating tip, start from the outside and swirl the frosting towards the center.   Dust with cocoa powder.

Keep refrigerated until serving.

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake

Cake

I cheated and used a box of strawberry cake mix. 

Once cooled, I filled these cupcakes with strawberry jelly (jelly, not jam - jelly is smooth and jam has lumps - in order to avoid having your kitchen have strawberry filling all over it, definitely stick with jelly when filling cupcakes)  I used Wilton round tip #230 to fill the strawberry cupcake with strawberry jelly.

Frosting

Classic Butter cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar (1 box)
2-3 tbs milk

Beat the butter and vanilla together.  Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk until desired consistency is reached.  When using decorating tips, frosting should have a slightly thicker consistency, otherwise it will look melted on your cupcakes.  Note: if you end up with frosting that is too thin, just add more powdered sugar. 

For this recipe, I multiplied the frosting recipe by 1.5
(3/4 cup butter - 1 stick plus 1/2 stick, 1/5 tsp vanilla, 6 cups powdered sugar, 4-5 tbs milk)


Decorating

Wilton drop flower tip #2D.  Start from the outside of edge and swirl the frosting to the center.

Clean fresh strawberries.  Slice in half and dry the berry with paper towel.  Place a 1/2 strawberry on top of each cupcake.

Note: Add strawberries right before serving.  The juice from the berry will make the frosting look mushy and melted if added too long before serving.