A Cupcake Craving - Revisiting Cookies and Cream Filled Cupcakes

I am on deadline. Need I say more? 

That means there's not a whole lotta cooking or baking going on around my house right now. Which really stinks when you suddenly get a craving for something and don't have the time to make what it is you're craving.

What's a girl to do?

Revisit that recipe so all of you can crave these delectable cookies and cream filled cupcakes right along with her. :-D

* * *

A couple of weeks ago, that mischief-inciting Yank, aka Ruthy, introduced us to a wonderful little gadget called the cupcake corer (you can see that post here). Since I love cupcakes, I immediately had to have one. And, once it arrived, my youngest son immediately wanted to make cupcakes. Lucky for me, school work kept him busy for the week, but by the weekend, all bets were off.

It took me a while to get across to him that you just don't make cupcakes and then decide to fill them. If we're going to do this, we at least need to have a plan. I knew the cupcakes would be chocolate, but it became his mission to decide what we were going to fill them with. And when the dust cleared, he'd come up with something I think you're going to love.

Cookies and Cream Filled Cupcakes

I started with my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. You can find that recipe here. Then we took turns playing with the cupcake corer, giving all the cupcakes big belly buttons. You can see our fun little tool hiding there in the back.

For the filling, you will need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
• 4 oz. butter, salted or unsalted (I only had unsalted, so that's what we went with)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 12 Double Stuff Oreos, pulverized

First, to take care of those Oreos. And no, that does not mean eating them. The recipe only calls for 12, so there are plenty left in the package for eating. Preferably with a nice cold glass of milk. :)

I put the 12 in my food processor and pulsed them until they were where I wanted them. Nice and crumbly, but not powdered. If you don't have a food processor, a zip-top plastic bag and a rolling pin can achieve the same results. Not to mention remove any pent up frustrations you might have.

 

Next, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add the vanilla. Then the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Fold in the crushed cookies.

Sample the fruits of your labor.

Mmmmm....

Now the recipe says to use the filling immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. Of course, if you do this, it will thicken. Since our cupcakes were waiting to have their tummies filled, I spooned the filling to a disposable decorator bag with the tip cut off to give me an opening that was just the right size for the holes I was filling. This didn't take long and got the job done with no mess at all.

However, once they were filled, I had to figure out what to frost them with. I mean what kind of frosting goes well with cookies and cream filling. My son suggested cookies and cream frosting, but I asserted my veto power. Instead, I opted for the chocolate frosting Ruthy touted in her post. (recipe here)

Yet for as wonderful as the frosting was, it was a little overpowering for the filling. Next time, I think I will just dip the tops in a simple layer of ganache. Because, after all, the filling really is the star of the show.

* * *

Don't these look divine? Don't you wish you had one right about now? Me, too. 

Sigh.

However, I am rapidly closing in on that deadline, so I just might have to make these--SOON.

Now it's your turn. 

What's your favorite cupcake?

Black Forest Cherry Cupcakes

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a tasty little treat this week. We've had such a great time this week in our little valley. Everything is coming up... delicious!

 Behold,  a little of our 70 lbs of blueberries (Darrow and Olympia, not mixed) These are mostly eating berries, but you can cook with them if you want. Sweet, healthy, organic, and 1.50 a lb! You just can't beat that. We try to eat as locally as possible, living a sustainable lifestyle (not buying things that are shipped out of state or country when we can buy them locally) and summer is THE TIME to get all our food stocked up for the long, cold winters. We've shared about half of them, but the rest are in the freezer, ready to be used in muffins and such right around January!

Yesterday, we went to pick blackberries. Some years, we don't get much. It's a wild patch on the banks of the river near our house. This year? Crazy! Big, plump berries and so many of them! We got about 3 gallons. And I fell in the bushes. Backwards. Hubby fished me back out, but my backside looks like I've been fighting cats. We've shared them, eaten a bunch, made a double batch of cobbler, and the rest are (yes, you guessed it) put up in the freezer for winter.
                                       
Now, we did make some cherry pies this year, but we didn't get any canned, so for this recipe, I had to buy a can of cherry topping. This sort of thing always makes me a little leery. I mean, sure, it's got cherries, but this can't be good for us, right?
But then I remember that it's meant for chocolate cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes are not high on the list of the most natural, antioxidant-rich food, either, so I just shrug and plop that can into my cart.

After you open that can, mix it in a bowl with 1/2 tsp of almond extract and 2 TBS sugar. Don't skip the almond, this is important because it gives us that rich layering of flavors and smells divine.
                                 
Poke a hole in your cupcake (after cooking- I'm assuming you call can make cupcakes, so we'll jump to the chase) and hollow out a little space. Just enough for about 3-4 cherries and a little goop. (There's probably a word for the stuff, but not sure what it is.)
                              
 The cupcakes are looking fancier already!

 A whole bunch of them, waiting to be topped.

 You can use whichever frosting you like, but since the cherries were so rich, I thought we'd just use whipped cream. It's not so sweet, nice and light, and still covers up the cherries. I topped that with a little toasted almonds.
                                                            
I won't post any picture of the eating, because frankly, it was sort of gruesome. All that moaning and red smears. *shiver* Like a bunch of zombies devouring cupcakes. But I'll cut one open so you can see how nicely the cherries look in the final product.
I've never made this recipe before, but it's definitely going in the "classic" file. It's easy, interesting, just a bit sophisticated, and absolutely delicious.
Until next time, my friends!

Cookies and Cream Filled Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago, that mischief-inciting Yank, aka Ruthy, introduced us to a wonderful little gadget called the cupcake corer (you can see that post here). Since I love cupcakes, I immediately had to have one. And, once it arrived, my youngest son immediately wanted to make cupcakes. Lucky for me, school work kept him busy for the week, but by the weekend, all bets were off.

It took me a while to get across to him that you just don't make cupcakes and then decide to fill them. If we're going to do this, we at least need to have a plan. I knew the cupcakes would be chocolate, but it became his mission to decide what we were going to fill them with. And when the dust cleared, he'd come up with something I think you're going to love.

Cookies and Cream Filled Cupcakes

I started with my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. You can find that recipe here. Then we took turns playing with the cupcake corer, giving all the cupcakes big belly buttons. You can see our fun little tool hiding there in the back.

For the filling, you will need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
• 4 oz. butter, salted or unsalted (I only had unsalted, so that's what we went with)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 12 Double Stuff Oreos, pulverized

First, to take care of those Oreos. And no, that does not mean eating them. The recipe only calls for 12, so there are plenty left in the package for eating. Preferably with a nice cold glass of milk. :)

 

I put the 12 in my food processor and pulsed them until they were where I wanted them. Nice and crumbly, but not powdered. If you don't have a food processor, a zip-top plastic bag and a rolling pin can achieve the same results. Not to mention remove any pent up frustrations you might have.



 

Next, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add the vanilla. Then the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

 

Fold in the crushed cookies.

 

Sample the fruits of your labor.

 

Mmmmm....

 

Now the recipe says to use the filling immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. Of course, if you do this, it will thicken. Since our cupcakes were waiting to have their tummies filled, I spooned the filling to a disposable decorator bag with the tip cut off to give me an opening that was just the right size for the holes I was filling. This didn't take long and got the job done with no mess at all.

 

However, once they were filled, I had to figure out what to frost them with. I mean what kind of frosting goes well with cookies and cream filling. My son suggested cookies and cream frosting, but I asserted my veto power. Instead, I opted for the chocolate frosting Ruthy touted in her post. (recipe here)

 

 

Yet for as wonderful as the frosting was, it was a little overpowering for the filling. Next time, I think I will just dip the tops in a simple layer of ganache. Because, after all, the filling really is the star of the show.

 

I'm curious, how many of us were lured by Ruthy's post and bought a cupcake corer? If so, have you played with it yet? Or are you still mulling over the endless possibilities? I'd love to hear what combinations you've come up with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filled Cupcakes with my Friend: The Cupcake Corer!!!!

We had a triple birthday celebration on Friday... Delightful young ladies, two with summer birthdays and one from October, so we did a "Birthday Extravaganza" at Ruthy's Place!!!

Which meant...

Baking Party in the Kitchen!!!!  (cue the dance music!!!!)

Some like yellow cake. Some like chocolate. And everyone likes cupcakes! So I used two of my fave mixes, Duncan Hines yellow and Dark Chocolate (oh, that just SOUNDS wonderful, doesn't it???)

I baked the cupcakes exactly like you'd do normally, only this time I DIDN'T BURN THEM.

Not one.

So then there's this:

Recognize it? No?

It's a Cupcake Corer... Who knew???? This little bad boy takes the core out of the cake, allowing me to STUFF IT with some kind of amazingly wonderful goodness.


YOU CAN BUY IT HERE!!!!

Today I used this:

I used to make all my own jams and jellies and maybe I will again, but right now, McCutcheon's products rank right up there with my homemade. And I buy them at my friend Kim's farm store, she's a woman farmer and baker very much like Piper McKinney in "Falling for the Lawman"!!!!

Oh, you don't know what "Falling for the Lawman" is??? It was my fall release with Love Inspired (huge shameless plug grin here!!!) and yes, you can still buy it HERE!!!!!  I love Farm Lit books, I love country/rural/small town settings. It's so much fun! (and youse know I'll be saying the same thing about cities next week when I'm plugging "Love Finds You in the City at Christmas" right????)  :)

Half will be filled with frosting or raspberry filling.... 

And here is a shot showing the amazing Cupcake Corer device in action!!!! You simply twist it in and pull and out comes:

PLUGS!!!!

The kids gobbled these up for dessert after lunch, when I cleverly put them all down for nappy-naps...

Pretending it was for THEIR OWN GOOD, of course!!!

(Insert fiendish laugh!)

And then I filled the cupcakes:

Frosted them: using the Hershey's Chocolate Frosting recipe I talk about all the time!!!

BEST CHOCOLATE FROSTING EVER!!! Dark, Rich, Glossy! 

The only thing I do differently with the chocolate frosting is to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per batch. I love the background taste of salt-to-sugar and it adds a zest that is just plain fun.

My Mama always did that back in the day. I kind of hate that they forgot about the blend for so long, and now???

Guess what's hot at every chocolate selling store in the world????

Chocolate Salted Everything.

:)  Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

(This logic should NOT be applied to 70's or 80's fashions. For the love of all that's good and holy in this world, please. Stop yourself before re-creating a dreadful faux pas AGAIN.)

The cupcakes filled with raspberry have a dot of raspberry on the top. The ones with a white buttercream center have a ... Yes, you guessed it!!! A white buttercream star on top.

Oh, happy day! 

Oh, glorious day!

Fun and frolic was had by all!!!!

Happy birthday, Skylaar!!! And Happy Un-birthday Dianna and Aubree!

We love you, girls!

Here is that link again:

http://amzn.to/18Gyh8t