Post #30: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Sometimes I feel like the only things worth blogging are totally homemade.  100% from scratch, or I'm not impressed.  But!  I always have a box of cake mix or brownies in the ol' pantry, just in case I get a craving and don't have time to from scratch it.  Today is one of these stories. 

I had just put in my morning workout, had a yummy lunch, but something was missing.  Something...sweet.  But, I didn't feel like messing up the kitchen for the 543498573495th time in 2 days, so I went for my boxed cake mix.  Milk chocolate.  I had no frosting.  Crap.  Well, I'll make the frosting from scratch then.  No fuss, no muss!  Then my eyes saw this little box of strawberry creme pudding mix that I had to buy because I'd never seen it before.  Then the wheels started turning.  I could do something with this.  And so I did.  :o)

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

For the Cupcakes:

1 box of your favourite chocolate cake mix.  Prepare according to the cupcake directions.  (A really dark one would work nicely!)

For the Filling:

1 box of Jell-o strawberry creme pudding mix.  Prepare according to directions.  I did half heavy whipping cream, half milk.  Creamy, rich, and wow!

For the Frosting: 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream (the love of my life!)

1 - 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip these ingredients until nice and fluffy in your mixer.  Easy as that.  This makes a crap ton of frosting, fyi!  Also, this is the best buttercream I have ever made, hands down! 

To Assemble:

 Make the pudding filling while the cupcakes cool.  When it has set up, it is time to fill!  I have a handy dandy Wilton cake decorator with a filling tip.  It injects right down into the center of your cupcake, fills it up, and leaves nary a trace that the cupcake was ever disturbed.  If you do not happen to have one of these (they are $12 at WalMart, so why the hell not?)  you can do this the slow poke way: take a knife and cut a circle out of the top of each cupcake.  Keep the "lid" you have just created, and remove a small amount of cake from the middle.  Proceed to spoon the filling into your little crater until it is full, then replace the "lid" and you're good to go! 

Top with the frosting, and serve these bad boys.  They are SO yummy!  I was impressed fo sho.  Easy too.  Start to finish, less than 1 hour.  How sweet it is!

Post #23: Coconut Lime Muffins with a Lime Glaze

I almost never have limes in the house.  Never.  But I needed one the other day, and couldn't find the singles on sale, so I bought a giant bag, removed the one I needed, and gave in to the fact that I would probably just throw the other 37 limes away.  I just hate wasting food.  So then I figured I'd keep them to put up a show that I would use them, wait for them to rot, and be like "oh man!  I really wanted to use those!  Shucks!"  Then I'd smile as I tossed them into the trash, feeling like a tried, but failed.  Har har har...

But, I decided to do an internet search.  After sifting through about 5 million recipes for key lime pie, and another 5 million chicken with lime glaze recipes, I found this gem.  This muffin really brings the business.  Not too limey, not too coconutty - this recipe really meshes the two flavours well.  The original recipe did not call for a glaze or frosting, but I really hate a dry muffin.  A simple lime glaze was just the ticket. 

Coconut Lime Muffins with a Lime Glaze

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup key lime juice (I just used regular limes.  Not sure what difference it makes!)

1 -1 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Directions:

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine milk, eggs, oil and Key Lime Juice.

Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients just until all are moist, do not overmix.

Spray Large muffin tins lightly with cooking oil.  Large.  Like this recipe only makes 6 muffins large.

Layer batter and coconut by filling tins 1/2 full with batter, then 1 tablespoon of coconut, then fill to about 1/4 inch from top with batter and top with 1 tablespoon of coconut.  (My suggestion here would be to push the coconut topping into the batter a little - it browns fast!  I ended up picking off some burned pieces.  Not a huge deal, but after 20+ minutes in the oven, that coconut is pretty darn toasty!)

Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, until tops are brown and the coconut is toasty; a toothpick inserted in the center should come out almost clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, run a knife around the muffins and place on serving dish or store in airtight container. 

For the lime glaze: squeeze the juice of about one lime, and add powdered sugar until it become somewhat thick, but still able to drizzle.  Then, just dizzle it over the top of your muffins and enjoy!