Apple Cinnamon Streusel Cupcakes

LAUREN:

So we are now officially not limited to 'Cupcakes' by Christabel something! My parents bought us this cupcake book because they knew that one book would not be able to sustain our love for these adorable mini cakes. Although I would still call the first book my favorite because of it's style and photos, this books recipes sound SO GOOD. There is a lot more variety and a lot more choices, the only letdown: not many photographs, and is sometimes worded weird. But all in all we really like this book and are looking forward to making more from it! It's titled 'Cupcakes!' (so different from the last book, right?!) by Elinor Klivans. Also maybe weirdest author name ever. But no matter! Today is Fathers Day, so I decided to ask my dad which cupcakes he wanted us to make for him, and these Apple Cinnamon Streusel Cupcakes were the ones he chose.

As we were mixing the ingredients for the batter, I had the greatest revelation, even though I had always known it, it just became extra clear: Cinnamon and apple is probably the best combination that has ever existed when it comes to food and cooking. I mean honestly, if someone was about to jump off a cliff, I would run over with some cinnomon and sugar-drenched apple pieces and would stick them up their nose--they would be fine! I am also going to write to Bath and Body Works asking for an Apple Cinnamon wallflower.. because right now there is only apple. And let me tell you, putting them together makes all the difference in the world.

So, to start these cupcakes off you grate the apple. We didn't grate ours very fine, but it doesn't matter all that much seeing as most of the apple melts in the batter while being cooked. Then you mix in 2tbs of cinnamon sugar mixture. You can stop right there. Okay maybe not. But really. I could eat that for hours. But it even tastes better once mixed with the wet and dry ingredients! As far as ingredients go for these cupcakes, it's pretty standard. We weren't missing anything (apart from eggs, which Kelsey brought), and it was all very simple to make. The only part that got a tiny bit complicated was the amount and layers of batter into the pans.

First you put in 2tbs of the batter into each cup. Then, you sprinkle on a half tsp of the cinnamon sugar. After this, you add more batter--the instructions weren't very specific as to how much, but we added the rest of the batter from the bowl and that turned out pretty well. Then you melt butter to put on top of the batter. The instructions told us to "brush on with a pastry brusher." Okay no that is not a direct quote because I can't remember what the name of the thing was, but still, how do you brush butter on batter? That is a sticky mess right there. Good thing my family doesn't own a pastry brusher so we never had to figure that one out. We just poured it right on, evenly on each cupcake. Let me just tell you now, that this butter (and the rest of the cinnamon sugar that you put on top of this) sunk to the bottom of the cupcakes after they came out of the oven--we had to wipe off the bottom of each one because it was so greasy! But this did not change or ruin the taste of the cupcakes at all!

These cupcakes were phenomenal warm, especially with a cold glass of milk! We gave them 10 minutes to cool and didn't do a fancy flip-over like the directions said, we get too impatient. Or maybe just me. But they were so good! My parents even loved them, which was the most important thing. As Kelsey pointed out, these cupcakes would taste great if baked in the morning so they'd still be warm, which I totally agree with. Not to mention, I laughed pretty hard when they came out of the oven because of Kelsey's comment, "They look like old people faces." It is true these aren't the most attractive cupcakes ever, but they are pretty up there on the tastiest list.

Another important point to discuss is our latest cupcake packaging! No Zoe, we will nay be selling our cupcakes at farmers markets, ha! These cupcakes are made because of the fun time we have making them, how good they taste, and how we can share those with people close to us! So we bought little white boxes and tissue paper to box them up all cutsie. Also, Kelsey made the best logos EVER, so now we are awesome and official. Not to mention it makes the cupcake boxes look even better, and it has a great color scheme!

Yes, and the picture right above wins best picture ever award.


Kelsey:

I do think that the boxes and stickers give it a more profesh style and a better overall taste to the cupcakes, and I can't wait until we get fancy paper liners. (Not that these need any help tasting better.) I don't think that anything will top the white chocolate chip cupcakes but these are my second fave. They both didn't have frosting so I don't know what that means, but these were so moist from the apple and tasty from the spices that I instantly fell in love. I did like this new book and instead of pictures they have mouth watering descriptions in front of each recipe, and they turned out very well. So pleased.

Zoe:
Once again I got the best of both worlds- I got to eat one of these marvelous cakes even though I contributed no work! Yay! These cupcakes were MY FAVORITE of ALL the cupcakes so far!!!!!!!!
I just loved everything about them. For frosted cupcakes, I still say that the Pretty in Yellow Cupcakes can't be beat in terms of frosting, but THESE were the BEST EVER in terms of tasty anything!!
My favorite part was that there was variation- they didn't taste or feel the same way all the way through. The top part had that sugary texture, a subtle crispness. So yummy! The middle part was just a really nice cake texture. Not too moist but not too dry. And the bottom part was delicious buttery goodness!!!
I don't really have anything to add. These were just so good!

Marble Cupcakes

LAUREN:

Yay, more cupcakes! And I am so happy to say, these cupcakes actually turned out so great with like no problems. Which is so nice, considering our last three batches had problems. The last two turned out okay, but it's just so nice to have things go according to plan!

Well besides this vanilla accident. Yes, Kelsey, everything is my fault. I know.
These cupcakes required the batter to be split into three parts when it's done, one part stays the way it is, one part you add cocoa powder too, and the other you add red food coloring to until it turns a dark pink color. Then you add a spoonful of each into each cupcake tin.
Also, another wise thing Kelsey said, is that the baking powder doesn't react with the wet ingredients until you mix the wet and dry together. And since we had to wait for Zoe to bring us butter on her bicycle.. we had to not mix them. Just a good thing to remember I think.

After these were baked (the recipe said 15 minutes, ours weren't done until after 19), we made the frosting. Again, we used warm whipping cream instead of warm water, and I think this made the frosting a lot creamier and thicker than if we had used the water, which makes it taste more like icing than frosting. Also, Kelsey added a splash of vanilla because he thought it tasted plain, even when both Zoe and I told him not to, but, it did make it taste better.

Now I apologize for the quality of these pictures, my camera literally had a spaz attack so we had to take these with my phone. This is what the cupcakes looked like once baked and before frosted. This one turned out a perfect mix of the vanilla, chocolate, and pink--most of them didn't. But once they're frosted it doesn't make a difference anyways! When swirling on the pink with a toothpick, make sure you do this right after you frost, otherwise the frosting gets hard and it doesn't look as good.

These cupcakes were DELICIOUS. Definitely up there on our list of good ones. It's also fun to psych people out because they immediately think the pink will taste like strawberries or cherries, but it doesn't. The color contrast made them look pretty, and the swirled food coloring on the frosting was such a unique technique and it really made them look finished. The consistency of the cake was just perfect too--not too muffin-y and moist enough to be a perfectly baked cupcake. I am also going to warn you NOT to listen to Siara if she reviews these cupcakes. Her opinion on cupcakes is based on first, chocolate, and second, sugar. These weren't sugary enough for her (she needs A LOT) and they weren't chocolate. So always take Siara's opinions with a grain of salt. Which is fitting, because salt is all she eats. Zoe, Kelsey and I loved them though, I can't wait to finish them off! I would definitely recommend these. Also, in the book photo they looked very flat--ours turned out regular, not flat at all. They taste great warm (although the frosting is a little runny if you frost them right off) with a cold glass of milk!!

Siara!: So i think something is wrong with me. Like my taste buds are gone or something. It may have been the raw onion or the pickles or maybe the tuna sandwich I ate today, but these cupcakes, BLECK. I spit out the first bite I took (ok that wasnt really on purpose but still) I would give them a 9 for looks, they were cute! Very deceiving though cause the swirl wasnt flavored like i was under the impression it would, it was just vanilla. It tasted dry and a bit like pure butter, but then i guess that would explained why Laur liked them. Just kidding. But I am sure the King Of Town would have enjoyed these cupcakes! (and yes, i do eat alot of salt lauren)

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Mint Slice Cupcakes

KELSEY :
 Speaking from the heart. the cake part of these sucked. Just make the most amazing mint middle and the great melted chocolate ganache scoop up each with a spoon and eat that because it is the best part. I tried one on the day we made it and didn't like it of the ones at Lauren's party. but i love the middle and topping. It was different making these without Lauren,, and it felt more of a chore rather then fun. I talked to Mrs. Roberts though and that was nice while I waited for Lauren to come back after being gone for a whole hour. I did all the dishes in silence, nay fun.

LAUREN:

Okay, so Mint Slice Cupcakes. Be prepared to read more of what Kelsey has to say about these cupcakes, seeing as I wasn't there for like.. almost the entire baking of these because I went to Emily's graduation party while he baked them at my house! I was around for the tail end though, I'll do my best to tell you what I thought.
The unusual thing about these cupcakes were that they had filling. And not just the filling you would put in the batter while cooking, but for these cupcakes you had to first; make the filling. Second; refrigerate the filling. Third; make the cupcakes. Fourth; Cut the baked cupcakes in half. And fifth: spread the filling on one of the halves and then stick them together. It's not that hard to do, but there are a few general rules you should stick by. It was very hard for us to get these cupcakes to look as good as they did in the book, they just looked messy and sticky. No matter what they look like, they taste delicious. But if you want them to look pretty too, make sure you give yourself plenty of time. The peppermint filling (which by the way only called for 2 or 3 drops or peppermint extract and we used like 8 because supposedly that made them taste more like 'junior mints'), is said in the book to be "refrigerated until using." Which we did, but that meant they were only in the fridge for the 25 or so minutes it took us to bake the actual cupcakes and have them cool. Once we did that and tried to spread the peppermint, it was extremely smooth and almost syrupy, so when the top half of the cupcakes was placed on, it would slide around and the peppermint filling would run all over the bottom of the cupcakes. All in all, not pretty, especially compared to the book's picture where it was a nice clean layer of white. Then secondly, the chocolate glaze stuff (I'm sure there is a better word for it out there) is supposed to drip over the sides. Ours didn't. It was way too solid instead of liquid, and we were also putting it on the cupcakes really frugally because we didn't know how far it had to go. The picture on the below is our first round of cupcakes without adhering to the following recommendations. This is what I would recommend for anyone making these cupcakes:

1. Make the peppermint filling either the day before, or make it the day of but let it refrigerate overnight before using. This makes it still spreadable but a lot more condensed so it would be drippy and messy.
2. Let the cupcakes cool, a lot. Even when ours cooled for 10 minutes, they were still a little crummy which made the crumbs fall into the peppermint filling. My recommendation would be to make the filling and the cupcakes one day, but them BOTH in the fridge (the cupcakes taste way better cold), and then frost them the next day.

3. However, you should put the chocolate glaze on them over top the day of the cupcake making, because that will solidify if you let it cool or sit out too long. So make the cupcakes, peppermint filling, and chocolate glaze one day. Cut the cupcakes in half that day too, and drizzle the chocolate covering on, and DO NOT be frugal with it, pile it on, or else it will not drip over the sides like it should. Then refrigerate the cupcakes and the filling separately and frost with the filling the next day before serving.

But aside from our learning experience, they turned out delicious! I hope those instructions weren't too confusing.. well never mind I know they were. Good luck deciphering those!! We frosted the rest of them the next day after being refrigerated and they looked just as good as in their photo. I served these at my graduation party on a long thin white plate with Junior Mints around them, and I got a lot of compliments on them! I thought they tasted so good; really refreshing and filling. I would definitely advise you serve them cold after being refrigerated: this dries them out just a little but in my opinion, they tasted way better cold!

Gingerbread Cupcakes

LAUREN:

This week we made two batches of cupcakes: Gingerbread Cupcakes and Mint Slice Cupcakes for my graduation party. First were the Gingerbread Cupcakes. We have been looking forward to making these since DAY ONE, because they're like the 3rd page of the book, and they looked SO GOOD in the pictures. The day started off with a trip to Safeway for Kelsey and I to get candied ginger, ginger powder, liquid glucose, and maple syrup. But we ended up only getting the candied ginger and the ginger powder, and this is why.
1) Liquid glucose--WEIRD. We didn't even know what this was, it's stored in the pharmacy section and kind of like a liquid sugar alternative. And it's super expensive. So we stuck with one that we found in our cabinet at home.. I will write the name later.
2)Maple syrup--also expensive. We were going to opt for regular syrup instead, ("Mrs. B will do!" -Kelsey), but we ended up just using molasses. Which smells HORRIBLE by the way.
Anyways, the process was pretty simple. It was different from our other recipes because you mixed all of the powder ingredients separately, and then made a well in the middle and poured in the wet and folded them together. I had fun whisking the dry ingredients together with a baby whisker. Which apparently is the same as sifting, so Kelsey tells me. But I don't believe it. Sifting is way more fun! Also, when we put these in the cupcake pan, we ended up with a lot of extra batter. We ended up baking like 19 instead of the 16 that were supposed to be made.

Now for the frosting.. the first time around, we made a lot of mistakes. Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes.
1)When it says add enough warm water to form a paste.. don't just add water. Which is what I did. YES KELSEY I KNOW EVERYTHING IS MY FAULT BLAHHH BLAHH. I added too much, but we fixed it by adding more powdered sugar and more butter and more ginger.
2)We left it sitting out after we had let it simmer over the water. And we thought we could just heat it up and it would be smooth again.. but nay. It turned all gross. So we ended up having to make it twice.
After you make the frosting (which you shouldn't do until you take the cupcakes out of the oven), use the doughnut technique and dip the top of the cupcake in the frosting, rather than frosting it with a knife, it works just as well if not better. Then powder with powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon to give them a little extra sweetness!

Super cute!! And they tasted very good. The only thing I would have changed is that we left these out while we went to Brenton and Lauren's graduation parties.. so they turned a little dry. But otherwise they were good! Well.. I only had a little bite. But from what I tasted, they seemed good! They were our first cupcakes to make that were actually different, apart from the standard ingredients, which was a definite step up for us. And a good one I think! I would recommend these cupcakes, definitely!

KELSEY:
Yes these were worth the wait. One of my favorites these would be perfect with some coffee by a fire in the fall, but they surpass that dream and should be enjoyed all year round. the spices worked well with the smooth frosting and the smell lightened anyone's mood. they were dry which only made them better with a nice drink.

Peanut Butter Mini Cupcakes

LAUREN:

Yes, the day has come where we have finally made chocolate cupcakes.
Not.
I thought these cupcakes would be so chocolatey. Note: The picture is misleading. Mostly because the cups are dark brown. This makes my mind think: CHOCOLATE. LETS MAKE THEM. But note, they are not. They are just peanut butter. Sorry about that tangent and my upsett-ed-ness. As you can probably tell from reading that, today was probably the most emotional day for everyone. It started off with Zoe doing something in the recipe that Kelsey thought was wrong, so he started fake yelling at her until I told them that these cupcakes had to taste like love and if they weren't okay with it they could leave. It was funnier if you were there. But after that went down, we were pretty much okay. It was probably the most interesting cupcake baking time we have had yet.

Note: The picture above was taken in response to me yelling "SHOW ME THE LOVE YOU NEED TO HAVE FOR THESE CUPCAKES" to them. They did pretty well.

The cake part was pretty easy to make. A lot of peanut butter and not very much sugar. I think we kind of unanimously decided that these cupcakes would taste better if there was more sugar in the cake part, it was kind of bland-ish compared to our frosting we made. Also it turned out very crumbly--I would've liked it if it was a little more cupcake-ish. Anywayssss.

The picture to the right is the result of me asking Kelsey to fill the teaspoon with salt. As you can see, I will NEVER ask him to do that again for me.
When making these cupcakes, also you should make sure that you separate them into the tins sparingly. They are called mini cupcakes, which for this recipe meant you still used the standard cupcake cups and baking pans, but you filled a lot less of the cup. If you use all the batter, each cup should only be about half full. We didn't know this so we ended up running out and then having to alter a bunch by taking some out and putting it in other ones.

Now I will go into another aspect of these cupcakes: the frosting. The recipe calls for 1/3c crunchy peanut butter and 1/3c hazelnut spread. Kelsey says hazelnut smells like dog pee, so he wouldn't let us use it. (yes I know, that doesn't even make sense.) So we didn't want to just use crunchy peanut butter because that wouldn't be sweet enough. First we added some brown sugar to taste. Then we thought we could chop up chocolate chips and throw those in too. At this point, it tasted pretty good. If you want to make our frosting, just add in the brown sugar and chocolate chips slowly and add more according to the taste you prefer. When chopping the chocolate chips, you should chop them pretty fine so part of it is pretty powdery. After tasting the frosting on the cupcakes, I think here is where we went wrong. We set the bowl of the frosting on the oven, which was a little heated on top from the cupcakes baking on the inside. This made the frosting melt, mostly the chocolate in it. I think it would have tasted better if it hadn't melted at all. But overall, it was pretty good for a recipe we made up in the moment.

Then this happened. This is me, eating away my sorrow at something that I found out, haha. I won't go into details but.. if you were there, you know what happened. And that is all that has to be said.

I love these pictures, Kelsey did such a great job! To quote him, "I did it because it looks like they're pine cones!" Wisdom indeed. So weird, but so cute. Also right after this he dropped the pine needles on these cupcakes so.. win lose.
I would have to agree with Zoe and say that these were good, not great. Definitely nothing compared to the ones we have made in the past. Granted, they probably would have tasted way better with the hazelnut spread frosting, but the consistency of the cupcakes was just weird. Maybe we cooked them too long, I don't know. I probably would nay recommend these, but only because we have made such better ones, like the White Chocolate cupcakes and the Half Moon cupcakes. Hopefully the next batch will be better!!

ZOE:
Peanut Butter = so good. These cupcakes were kind of crumbly which was not so nice, but they tasted pretty good. We invented our own frosting out of peanut butter, brown sugar, and chopped chocolate chips. It was very tasty, but very crunchy and tended to fall of the cupcakes. And I agree with Lauren that we shouldn't have left the frosting on the stove, it would have been way better if the chocolate hadn't melted into it so much. IN CONCLUSION: good, not great. Most of all, fun to make! Quote of the day: "THESE CUPCAKES HAVE TO TASTE LIKE LOVE, SO YOU CAN SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT!!!!"--Lauren

KELSEY:

So now that I have finished editing Lauren's post and everything is spelled correctly I can address the cupcakes. THEY SUCKED. Period. the best part was throwing them away a week after we made them because no one ate them. They were dry and good with milk. and looked like pine cones yes. But I had no funmaking them or eating them. I do nay recommend.