Cookie Dough + Cupcake?

"The-the aves! I'm looking at the avians!" JP said, gesticulating wildly. I smirked and shook my head. The other team would never guess the answer. 

"Bird watching!" Peter yelled, just as the buzzer went off. Team One groaned collectively at Team Two's unexpected victory. 

This was the environment in which I worked. Ridiculous games of Catchphrase intermingled with profound conversations, sprinkled with witty banter. I've grown so much to love this place. And I wanted to show my love with cookie dough cupcakes.

Yes, they are as amazing as they sound. A ball of half baked cookie dough encased in a fluffy yellow cupcake. Yay! These taste great without frosting, but they're hideously ugly, so if you're going to bring them to a party or something, hide their deformities. I had them at my graduation party last summer, topped with chocolate frosting, and they were awesome. 

Ugh, this is a really bad picture. Sorry. It just looks like a pile of polenta, haha. 

Cookie Dough Cupakes 

from All Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
•  
• 1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3 eggs

Directions

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.
2. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
3. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Weirdly Blue-Berry Muffins

Um. I've been making things and not posting. I guess every food blogger does that, right? I made these for Valentine's Day, and didn't take pictures. They were weird. I feel like red velvet is weird in general, but also delicious.

Cooooooool!

 My sister complains rather frequently that I only make weird stuff that she doesn't like. Hey! I...resemble that. But not ALWAYS. 

Much of the time when she accuses me of this, I make her blueberry muffins. I've tried a ton of recipes, and this one is the best I've found. It always works. Since I didn't have any fresh blueberries, I used frozen. Which turned the batter a weird grayish purple. 

Unappealing?

But, they baked blue! Hooray! If you're lazy like I was feeling, you can just sprinkle sugar on the tops. Mm, crunchy. If you're feeling ambitious, make a streusel-y top. I'll show you! 

Blueberry Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg, almond extract and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups close to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Sorry...

I'm lazy. Go ahead, say it, throw things at me, whatever you deem an appropriate punishment. I'm sorry for abandoning you. I baked a lot, I swear. 

Can I make it up to you? With bacon cupcakes? I know they sound weird, but be adventurous and try one. 

I love bacon. Especially when it's really crispy. I like when you can snap it apart. None of this floppy stuff. Bacon and chocolate is a magical pairing. The bacon adds a bit of salt and smokiness to the cake, and toffee bits provide some crunch. And maple cream cheese frosting is...simply delicious. 

...Don't be afraid.

Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I like the dark stuff)

1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-1/2 slices cooked bacon cut into chunks
1/3 cup chopped chocolate covered toffee

1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2 Add egg and beat until well combined.
3. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
6. Gently fold in the bacon and toffee chunks.
7. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2-2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Frost when cooled, and keep in the fridge.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 pound cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons maple syrup

  

Beat the cream cheese and butter together in a large bowl until well combined; add confectioner's sugar and maple syrup and beat until smooth. Store in refrigerator until needed.

A Most Delightful Combination.

Pretty much immediately when I got home from school the other day, I began rummaging in the cabinets, looking for ingredients. I was aiming for something quick and delicious. 

I remembered my friend Molly over at Secret Shelf Life (check her out, she writes lovely book reviews) made some awesome brownies from my favorite food blogger in the world, Joy the Baker. 

Mm, this is such a good combination. I wish I could have been the first person to think of it. The salty-ness goes really nicely with the dark chocolate and peanut butter (especially if you use natural). 

Yeah, I'm weird.

If you leave these in the fridge for a while, they'll pretty much turn into a dense, chocolate peanut butter torte. Mm. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

from Joy the Baker

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon  salt

coarse sea salt for topping

For the Peanut Butter Filling:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, I prefer natural peanut butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

large handful of pretzel sticks

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.  Grease an 8×8-inch baking pan.  Line with parchment paper so that it overhangs on two sides and grease the parchment paper as well.

Boil two inches of water in a medium saucepan.  Combine butter, unsweetened chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and coffee powder in a heat proof bowl and place over the simmering water.  Stir until chocolate and butter are melted.  Use a pot holder to remove the bowl from the double boiler and let mixture cool slightly.  Stir in the vanilla extract.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk granulated sugar into the chocolate and butter mixture.  Make sure the chocolate mixture isn’t too hot and whisk the eggs in the mixture one at a time.

Fold in the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and spoon into prepared pan.

To make the Peanut Butter Filling, whisk together peanut butter, melted butter, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract until smooth.

Pour the peanut butter mixture on top of the brownie batter and use a butter knife to swirl the two together.  Arrange pretzel sticks on top of the brownie batter in whatever pattern makes you happy.  Top with a few sprinkles of coarse sea salt.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes our mostly clean… maybe with just a few crumbs.

Let cool for about 30 minutes before slicing and enjoying.

Marble Cupcakes

Hey all. I'm so tired. If I write anything particularly weird, it's probably just the Nyquil talking. 

Last summer, I worked in my father's office a few times a week, and brought baked goods to share pretty much every time I was in. This earned me the moniker Cupcake. 

Well, the office staff misses Cupcake while she is away at school (speaking in the third person is weird...). So I decided to surprise them with a batch of these. 

You've probably learned by now that making things pretty isn't my strong point. It's hard to marble a cupcake, okay? Whatever the case, they turned out great. You can pretty much top them with whatever you like, powdered sugar, a simple milk glaze, or frosting, if you're like me and of the opinion that uh, cupcakes should be frosted. 

Marble Cupcakes 

from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and cream.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.

3. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

4. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a cake tester (i.e. toothpick) inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.