Sugar and Spice Cupcakes

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of. Since this week I made cupcakes for a friends baby shower, and she is having a girl, I thought, "what would be better than a Sugar and Spice cupcake?" I mean can you imagine a better cupcake for this special occasion? I think I did a little dance of joy when I finally thought of this.

I just couldn't fathom another occasion that would arise where I had a better cupcake idea that paired perfectly.

The cupcakes are like a spice cake and vanilla cake combined. If a spice cake and vanilla cake had a child, these cupcakes would be the end product. Just to give you a slight idea of the amazing flavor of these little beauty's.

And the first time you open the oven door to take these gems out, your showered with a heartwarming, cinnamony sugar, ooo lala smell. YUM!

This also gave me an excuse to buy these cute mini cupcake wrappers and picks on amazon.com. Too perfect for words I tell ya.

Anyways, since this week Thor (my guinea pig) and I travelled over the mountains and through the woods to my parents house we went, I had no stand mixer. I didn't realize how thankful I am for that little gem to be in my life until I was making these cupcakes. I swear I kissed that thing when I came home after the weekend. It really is my savior.

I found this recipe on Bake Space where I changed the amount of spice in the cupcakes. I didn't want the cinnamon to be the main focus of the spices, I wanted them all to shine through the same. I mean I wasn't making sugar and cinnamon cupcakes, but sugar and SPICE. And when mixing the dry ingredients together, a "pinch" didn't seem to be enough. They smelled like cinnamon.

Plus, everyone's pinch is different. So I put the plastic lids back on the top of the jars and just dashed the nutmeg and cloves to give the cupcakes a little more spice. And let me tell you, that was the best decision I could of made. I believe that's what made these cupcakes. I felt like Emeril. 

So these cupcakes are pretty simple to quickly throw together. Literally.

combine all the liquid ingredients in one bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients in another, then mix the wet and dry ingredients together and scoop into the cupcake liners. BAM!

When I started making the frosting for the cupcakes, I really started missing my stand mixer. I really don't know how I didn't have super strength arms before when making the frosting with an electric hand mixer. That was a work out.

Now I know I said something recently about how I was going to try to refrain from making a cream cheese frosting for a while. But I couldn't help myself. I swear I'm in a relationship with cream cheese frosting sometimes. But it really was the perfect frosting for these babies. I almost tried to make a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, but the regular was the right choice.

I mean everything goes great with cream cheese frosting.

P.S. Thanks to my wonderful mother for taking these photo's since I was running late to the baby shower and for helping me put them together and getting them ready to go! 

Sugar and Spice Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes, or 3 dozen mini cupcakes

• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• large dash nutmeg
• large dash cloves
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium size microwave safe bowl, then mix in the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla until fully combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until no lumps remain. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full and bake for 15-20 minutes (8-10 minutes if you make mini's) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack and let cupcakes fully cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 block cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and fully combine. Add in the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, fully beating each time until all ingredients are fully combined. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Since Tuesday was Valentine's day, or St. Valentine's day, I decided to make some red velvet cupcakes. Ok, more then some. 5 dozen to be exact, and that's if you don't count the first batch where I accidentally forgot the eggs, which help leaven the cake. Rookie mistake. Whoops! 

Anyways, I justified making so many however because 3 dozen of them were minis (as you can probably see from the picture). 

When I was trying to think of the perfect valentine's day cupcake, red velvet was the first thing to come to mind. I mean honestly. It truly is the perfect Valentine's day cupcake, at least in my eyes. And since this year I was my own valentine, I didn't want to feel guilty for diverging myself in a sea of cupcakes (hence the minis, I don't feel so guilty for eating them, and using all of my weight watchers points). 

But while on the topic of valentine's day, I just want to go into some quick history, since everyone seems to believe valentine's day is just a made up holiday by hallmark just to suck more money out of our pockets. 

Well people, your wrong. 

Believe me, I thought the same. Until, I did a little research valentine's day eve wanting to know about all of the hustle and bustle over this one day. And let me tell you what I found out. 

It's a real holiday! For all of you non believers, look here. 

Apparently St. Valentine's Day was originally a catholic holiday. St. Valentine had fallen in love with his capture's daughter, who went to see him every day in his cell. When he was sentenced to execution, he wrote here a love letter signed your valentine. 

Believe me now? Ok enough with the history lesson, back to the cupcakes. 

I still don't fully understand the hype over red velvet cupcakes. They are vanilla cupcakes with a hint of chocolate heavily dyed with food coloring. At least now a days. 

Ok maybe just one more quick fact. 

Red velvet started at the waldorf hotel when chocolate was being rationed for the war. To help give the cake moisture and color, they used boiled beets, which is what turned the cake red. It wasn't originally made with tons of red dye like it is now. However, these ones are pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

The traditional frosting to sit atop red velvet cake is a cream cheese frosting, and honestly makes the cupcake (I know I've been making a TON of cream cheese frosting lately, I just didn't see a way to get away with not using cream cheese frosting for these cupcakes).

Ok so I know putting distilled white vinegar in cupcakes might seem odd to some of you. 

However, the reaction between the vinegar and buttermilk helps the cupcakes have such a bright red color. The buttermilk also helps give the cupcakes moisture, just like sour cream would in a cake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes

• 1/2 stick butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 1/2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, then add the egg, making sure to fully beat in.

In a seperate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food coloring, and vanilla until no lumps remain. Add cocoa mixture to butter mixture and fully combine, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl so all of the red food coloring is evenly distributed.

Add in half of the buttermilk, fully mix, then add half of the flour, and fully mix. Repeat until all of the buttermilk and all of the flour is added to the batter.

Finally, add in the salt, baking soda, and distilled white vinegar and combine.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way and bake for 15-20 minutes (even if you make minis, bake for the same amount of time) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack until room temperature.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 block cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer. Add in the vanilla and fully combine. Add in the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time. Mix until frosting is light and fluffy, yet able to be piped on to the cupcakes. 

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Never have I ever been a fan of anything spicy. I am probably the biggest baby when it comes to hot foods out of almost everyone I know (mild salsa burns the dickens out of my mouth) but for some reason I have been wanting spicy food lately for the first time in my life! Hot and Spicy Cheez-It's, craving some Drunken Noodle from Sugar Thai (the local Thai restaurant, I ordered it at a spice level of 2 and I didn't have enough soda to outweigh the spiciness of the dish, even though it was heavenly) and when I saw a recipe from Write Meg! for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, well, I couldn't stop myself.

The only problem was, I've never really been a fan of hot chocolate. I mean growing up I would be more than thrilled to drink it when it was snowing outside. One year after playing in the snow with the neighbor kids across the street their mom made us all hot cocoa and something made me laugh so hard that it shot out of my nose. Kind of gross, I know, but one of the many memories of cocoa I remember from my childhood.

However, I think the number one time I drank hot cocoa was on the 3rd of July each year after watching the fireworks at my grandparents with my cousins. I still remember when we would all pile up on the party boat and sit in the middle of the lake covered in our blankets and jackets trying to stay warm during the show, me always falling asleep halfway through, then getting back to the house and grandma making hot cocoa for all of us.

Now even though I don't really enjoy the chocolaty drink anymore, I thought what the heck. Why not try something new. I mean ALMOST everything is good in cupcake form right?

So walah! That's how these cupcake were born! A little bit of spicy chocolaty goodness in a little bite of heaven (I made them mini's instead of regular cupcakes) topped with cream cheese frosting to help give a little sweetness to the bite. Yes, bite.

Needless to say, I am in love with these cupcakes. Yes, I love these cupcakes. I love the kick of the cayenne combined with the chocolate (I was eating them like a crazy women without ANY frosting on top!) because it's something a little different from the norm, breaking the mold of what a cupcake should be. And, drum roll please, they are extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY simple to put together.

Dry ingredients in a bowl, combine, wet ingredients in the dry, combine. Ta da! Simple as that.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes, or 3 dozen mini cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or bowl with an electric mixer) combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. If you have a sensitivity to spice, go easy on the cayenne pepper.

Next, add the vegetable oil, water, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar to the dry ingredients and fully combine using a stand mixer or electric mixer to make sure all ingredients are fully combined. If using a stand mixer, make sure to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl and give the batter a quick mix.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way and bake for 15-20 minutes (even the mini's take 15-20 minutes) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack until room temperature.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 block cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in the vanilla and mix until fully combined. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and mix until stiff and creamy.

Samoas (Caramel Delight) Cupcakes

Growing up, I always looked forward to Girl Scout cookie time. But I mean, who didn't? Except instead of being excited to indulge in incredibly decadent, sinful, cookies to drool over, I was excited to sell cookies and get the fun "incentives" provided for selling a certain number of boxes. Don't get me wrong, peanut butter on a cookie covered in chocolate? Heaven on earth in my book. And over the years I have grown to LOVE caramel so Samoas (or caramel delights and they used to be called where I'm from) are more than ok in my book. But I still remember receiving all of the plush toys and "cookie credits"; almost like a gift certificate for the Girl Scout Store. I can honestly say however that I do NOT, repeat NOT miss standing out in the freezing cold repeating "Would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?" and half the time being completely ignored or being told "Oh but I just bought some from the little girl's the other day." I mean it was already hard enough to be entering my teen years and being a girl scout, without the help of the little girls making it impossible to sell cookies. For this reason, I make it a point to try to buy from the older girls at booth sales. 

Anyways, the whole reason why I decided on these cupcakes for the week was for my roommate's 21st birthday. When I asked what kind of cupcakes she wanted for her birthday, she had first decided on funfetti cupcakes (which I will be making later on in the year for someone else's birthday) until I told her I had found a few recipes for Samoas cupcakes. Of course, since they are her all time FAVORITE girl scout cookie, she changed her mind. When we were talking about her birthday/super bowl party (which is why the cupcakes are in a carrier), she had mentioned something about how she wasn't fond of chocolate cake. Unfortunately, most of the recipes I had found were chocolate or chocolate coconut. So since it was her big 2-1, I made it a point to find a recipe that was NOT a chocolate cupcake. That's when I came across this lovely recipe from Java Cupcakes. It's a coconut cupcake with coconut extract (I used imitation because I couldn't find anything else on my quick trip to freddies), coconut flakes, and coconut milk (which is slightly difficult to find, it was down the ethnic food's isle). I am not really a fan of coconut, but according to my roomie, the batter was perfectly coconuty and delicious. The salted caramel frosting was adapted from The Novice Chef, which was one of my original cupcake recipe choices (except it is chocolate!) then rolled in toasted coconut (some had drizzled chocolate underneath the toasted coconut) which was AMAZING!! After these cupcakes were made I literally sat there eating the left over toasted coconut straight out of the container. The frosting is a little on the softer side, only because my roommate is not a big fan of a lot of frosting on top. But without further ado, the recipe!

Triple Coconut Cupcake

Makes 24 cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed 
• 1/2 cup pure cane sugar 
• 1 ½ tsp imitation coconut extract 
• 4 large eggs at room temperature 
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes 
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• ¼ teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup coconut milk

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a bowl with a hand mixer) cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and creamy looking.
2. Add in the coconut extract and give the batter a quick beat.
3. Next, add in the eggs, one at a time, making sure to fully combine after each egg is added.
4. Add the coconut flakes and mix until fully combined.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
6. Add in 1/4 of the flour mixture and fully combine, then add 1/3 of the coconut milk. Keep repeating this process until all ingredients have been combined.
7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.

Salted Caramel Frosting

• 2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature 
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
• 3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar 
• 1 1/3 cup caramel 
• 1 teaspoon salt 

Cream the butter and vanilla extract until light and fluffy looking. Add in 2 cups of the sugar and fully combine. Add in the caramel and beat until fully combined then add in the rest of the powdered sugar and salt. The frosting will be extremely soft and unable to pipe since I was making this frosting to spread over the top of the cupcake. To make the frosting stiffer, and pipeable (is that a word?) decrease the powdered sugar to about 2 cups and decrease the caramel to 1/3 of a cup.


For the toasted coconut on top, I placed a few handfuls of sweetened coconut on a cookie sheet and baked at 375 (under the cooking cupcakes) for 10 minutes, stirring every 1-2 minutes. After frosting the cupcakes, I melted chocolate and drizzled it on top then proceeded to roll the cupcakes in the toasted coconut flakes. For a GREAT caramel recipe(and cheaper than buying ice cream topping caramel!) and the caramel I used for this recipe go to A Year of Slow Cooking. Easiest way to make caramel I have ever seen! I hope you all enjoy!