ice cream cone cupcakes

Do you know how much I love birthdays?  Do you?  Because it'd be pretty hard not to notice.  It'd also be pretty hard to match my enthusiasm.


Enter cupcake cones.

I asked my sister a while back if I could have the honor of baking my precious nephew's cake for his 2nd (!) birthday party this past weekend, and luckily, I was dubbed Queen Cupcake.  No, really.  Aidan has officially come to associate me with cake.  He'll ask me to pick him up, walk me to the counter where these bad boys were sitting, and say in his ever-so-sweet tone, "caaaaaaaake?"

Yeah, that's my nephew.  Should also be no surprise that I'm posting this specifically on my precious his actual birthday - Happy Birthday to you, Aidan Thomas!]

So when I was deciding which cake recipe to try, I wanted to challenge myself.  Bobby's recipe was great that one time, and definitely a different technique than what I was used to, but I wanted to aim even higher.  Cooks Illustrated level.  And man, did that pay off.  This cake is amazing.  So flavorful, perfect amount of moistness (even baked in the cones), and last but not least, fun to make.  I'll make this again in a heart beat!  Unfortunately, I can't take all of the credit for the ice cream cones idea - neither of us can tell you where, or when, but sometime in our childhood, Erin and I had these.  So naturally, I had to recreate them for my nephew.  Purely selfless, if you ask me.  Regardless, these turned out wonderfully.  Try them at your next birthday party - they won't be forgotten!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
Cupcake recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated; frosting recipe from yours truly

2 1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus more for dusting the pans
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool

48 cake ice cream cones

Two servings of your favorite frosting [I doubled my tried and true buttercream recipe]

1. Set oven rack in middle position. (If oven is too small to cook both layers on a single rack, set racks in upper-middle and lower-middle positions.) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place ice cream cones in cupcake pan liners and set aside. 
2. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into small bowl, and mix with fork until blended. 
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining. 
4. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer. 
5. Fill cones about 3/4 of the way, about halfway up the top inch of the cone. Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 23 to 25 minutes. 
6. Let cakes rest in cones and pan for 3 minutes. Gently remove cones from pan and set aside.  Since the cones don't get too hot, it's okay to place them on the counter. Let cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours, and then frost with your favorite frosting.

funfetti cupcakes [for two]

So, if you thought that all I made for Katie was a measly cookie sandwich, you underestimate me immensely.  As amazing as the Chocolate Chip Whoopie was, is it really a birthday without cupcakes?  No way, Jose.  The only problem was, Katie left for California bright and early this morning, and since my garbage disposal boyfriend is out of town, there was no way I wanted to make a whole batch of cupcakes.  So when I saw this post on my favorite blog this past week, I knew it was a sign.  

Jessica is my separated twin; I am certain of it.  Her every recipe and thought is my dream recipe and thought.  It's true.  Fate had us at our blogs.  This recipe is so easy, so quick, and so tasty!  I love that it all comes together in one bowl, which allowed me to whip these up fresh first thing in the morning before Katie and I went on with our day.  The only thing that I modified was adding sprinkles to make them funfetti - it's yet another tradition of Katie's and mine to make funfetti cupcakes, and not to mention, not too hard to just throw in a bunch of sprinkles to some cake batter.  And besides, I know Jessica would never discourage the addition of sprinkles to anything.  They don't call it funfetti for nothin'.

I couldn't have asked for a better recipe!  Jessica didn't specify the type of flour, so I used cake flour since I like my cakes very moist and airy.  But, since I only own giant muffin pans (insert joke here), these came out flatter than what you would normally get, but they were still great.  And you can see that I yielded one extra little guy since I was afraid of my normal-sized cupcake liners capsizing in the sea of the giant cupcake mold in the oven.  So give me a little leeway on the logistics here, people.

Although I had just tried my hand at the best frosting ever (also recommended by Jessica), I frosted these with a basic buttercream.  Perhaps next time I'll switch it up and see how the tastes pair.  There we go!  Another hypothesis to test.

Funfetti Cupcakes [for two]
Recipe adapted from Jessica at How Sweet It Is; frosting recipe from yours truly


1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup cake flour
1/4 heaping teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pan with 2 liners.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together egg white and sugar until well incorporated.  Add in vanilla and melted butter and whisk to mix.
3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until smooth. Batter should be quite thick.  Gently stir in milk.
4. Pour batter into cupcake liners, making sure to evenly divide batter.  Bake for 10 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1. Combine butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and beat until soft and whipped in texture.
2. Add milk slowly and continue beating for 2 minutes until desired texture is formed.
3. Add frosting to pastry bag and frost cupcakes, once cooled, and top with sprinkles.

pumpkin muffin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I am going to ignore the fact that the thermometer has lingered around the 80 degree mark for the past four days and tell you a little story about pumpkin.  And fall.  And how the two come together to create some magical things, including some that are more difficult to name than others.


This is the first fall in my life that I've ever enjoyed.  There have been an incredible amount of changes in my life, including the falling leaves, which makes me feel like I've been given a fresh start in a lot of ways.  One of which is my official promotion at work, which has been long awaited and much needed.  In short, I'm busier now than I've ever been in my life, and although sometimes it makes me crazy, I'm loving it.


One of the many great things in my life at the moment is Einstein Bagels' Autumn Roast coffee.  Sense no sarcasm here.  The joy I get from every sip of this heavenly, chestnut-y, cinnamon-y caffeinated beverage is incomprehensible to most.  It's best if you just try it yourself and report back.  It's kind of like a Jeep thing: if you don't have one, you just wouldn't understand.


And you know what pairs perfectly with fall-in-a-cup?  Pumpkin things.  Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin scones, and pumpkin muffin cupcakes.  Why am I calling them muffin cupcakes?  Just look at them.  Several famous philosophers bloggers have long since debated the difference between cupcakes and muffins.  I would argue that frosting alone does not a cupcake make, nor does density a muffin make.  But these things turned out to characterize both of these wonderous food groups.  Hence the name.  No arguments.


This recipe comes from my Dad, who has always made pumpkin cake during the holidays.  My grandma used to specifically request it at every Christmas gathering on his side of the family, and most of the people I know who have tried it always love it.  It's super flavorful, rich, and moist.  It's pumpkin.  And cream cheese frosting.  Few things make more sense in the world than this combination.

But, the thing is, this story has an interesting background.  My original intention with this particular baking extravaganza was not actually to make Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes.  What I was going to do was make pumpkin truffles to take to Dustin's place while we watched the Michigan game on Saturday.  What ensued from this idea was purely an epic disaster.  But luckily, as I was pouring the lovely pumpkin cake batter into my sheet pan, a thought popped in my head: maybe I should set some of this batter aside, and see how this batter would work in cupcake form!  I can't explain why I only had one good thought that night, but nonetheless, it truly was my only smart move the entire night.


I'll start with the positive, though.  The first thing about this recipe: a lot of spices go into it to make it as flavorful as it is.  I love the depth of flavor that goes into this, rather than just a store-bought pumpkin spice mixture.  

So, once you make your batter and place it in your baking dish (my dad usually uses a bundt pan, but since I was just going to have a field day with my childish pleasure of breaking the cake into smithereens, I figured there was really no point in making it look fancy just for my horrible oven.)  Here it is fresh out of said oven.  Baked well.  Looks normal, if not delicious.

Then came the disaster.  I started tearing the cake apart and putting it into the bowl with the frosting.  But I didn't have enough cream cheese to make my normal batch, so I didn't have the appropriate frosting:cake ratio.  But would I give up here?  Never.  It'll be okay, right?

Wrong.  That's the key to making these truffles: you have to have enough frosting to make them sticky and pliable.  In my ever-logical mind, I figured I was saving myself some calories and that it would be fine.  The cake has a cup of oil in it, Melissa.  Try that thought again.

I know, you totally want to submit this to Bon Apetit on my behalf right now, don't you?  But I still had shreds of optimism.  I made my cake balls.  I was lightheaded and a bit shaky, but I formed that whole bowl into what could be argued as ball formation.  Or rather, cake-balls-that-look-terrifyingly-similar-to-meatballs.

I know, I KNOW.  But, in my own defense, they actually taste pretty great, once you get past the appearance.


The next step is to dip them in chocolate.  Simple, right?  It's not like I haven't melted chocolate in a double boiler before.  It's also not as if I don't know how to do this.  Or that I just didn't care at this point because the cake balls were just so pretty as they were.  It's just that I was tired, and it was Friday night, and Morgan was over, and I just wanted to get these done before I passed out after a long week, and a long weekend of more work ahead of me.


I burnt the chocolate.  I tried "dipping" the balls in the grainy burnt chocolate mess.


Okay...I can't continue.  I couldn't bring myself to document this portion of the disaster with a photo.  Let's just call it a disaster (and me an optimist turned imbusile) and just focus on my success of the whole endeavor: four [yes, four. I told you how glad I was that I had one smart thought all night and saved some batter while pouring it into the sheet pan] Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes.


All things aside, though, these turned out pretty well.  I wouldn't say they make the best "cupcakes", since the cake has always been known to yield a pretty firm outer layer that is more well-done than I would prefer my cupcakes.  Also, I decided that I don't like my muffin/cupcake pan - the cups are far too wide and far too shallow.  But nonetheless, this recipe still makes for an excellent bundt or sheet cake if you desire.


Pair with a great cup of Einstein's Autumn Roast.  I am adamant that no other beverage will compliment this dessert as beautifully.

Pumpkin Muffin Cupcakes
from my dad

Cake:
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups white sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 lb pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Beat eggs and sugar together on medium speed until well incorporated. 
3. Beat pumpkin into egg and sugar mixture for 30 seconds on medium speed. Stir in oil.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix well to combine. 
5. Pour batter into a 9x13" pan or a regular size bundt pan, and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together for 3 minutes until fluffy. 
2. Stir in vanilla. 
3. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, while beating on low speed. Add more or less powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved.