Chocolate Cupcakes with Avocado Buttercream Frosting

Yes! My teaching certification portfolio is complete! I just have to go turn it in...but before I did that...I decided to reward myself. This is a special day that will go down in history texts everywhere -- the day I do not have continue to think about my teaching certification (at least until they decide if I passed in July...)So I needed to make some cupcakes, but not just any...chocolate with avocado buttercream. I saw something similar on Joy the Baker, so I figured, I'd try it. Although, her recipe was vegan, I un-veganized it. I'm a vegetarian, but I love my dairy products...

So the star of the whole thing was the avocado buttercream. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Seriously. By itself, it was like oh, okay, that's an interesting flavor, but with the chocolate cupcake -- awesome. So please, if you're worried about it, don't be. If you like avocados, you'll like this. Even if you don't like avocados -- you'll probably like this.

My oh my, what are those over there? Besides my shoes...

Oh...they're green, and chocolate-y

Good lord they're beautiful.

There were originally TWO plates. Yep, I need to go to the gym.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart

0.75 cups all purpose flour
0.75 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
6 tbsp buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3 tbsp hot water

Heat up the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

Mix the hot water and the cocoa powder in another bowl. This helps bring out the flavor of the chocolate (seriously). The add in the butter, and eggs, and whisk together. Then add in the buttermilk, and whisk.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly. After each addition of dry ingredients, make sure to mix well.

Then line a cupcake tin with liners. If you're using a regular size cupcake tin, bake between 12-15 minutes, depending on how moist you like them.

If you're using a mini cupcake tin (my new obsession), then bake for 7 minutes. They come out FANTASTIC.

Anyways, while they're baking, you get to make the avocado buttercream. I got the recipe from Alton Brown.

Avocado Buttercream Frosting

2 medium size avocados, pitted and scooped into a bowl
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 lb. powdered sugar, sifted (you don't want lumps)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 cup butter, softened

With an electric mixer, or whisk, cream the avocados until there are no lumps, and it looks creamy. Mix in the lemon juice and the butter. Cream until smooth. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until its completely incorporated. Then add in the vanilla, and mix. And viola! You have avocado buttercream. Don't worry -- it doesn't go brown.

Enjoy!

Cherry Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Cherry Almond Buttercream!

Better home and garden would be PROUD! So yesterday T- and I were sitting in Borders and doing that thing that's making them go out of business -- reading in their store without buying anything. I just bought myself an iced tea latte and when a cupcake book caught my eye...

My good lord, there were elephant cupcakes, cupcakes with ingredients I would never have thought of (orange creamsicle cupcake?), and then...these pink, lovely beauties caught my eye. Cherry...tasty, Vanilla...perfection for summer...and Almond...delectable.

Ergo, today I made them...and man alive are they good! Like...abnormally good. Like, I was actually reluctant to share these with my neighbors kind of good. Like I was eating buttercream frosting out of the pipping bag kind of good. Well, shoot me, I have self-restraint. Whatevs.

Make them. NOW.

Well hello ladies.

Has anyone ever told you you're beautiful?

Or tasty goodness?

Cherry-Vanilla-Almond Cupcakes (modified from Better Home and Garden)

Cupcake:

0.5 cup butter

4 egg whites

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

0.5 tsp. baking soda

0.5 tsp salt

0.75 buttermilk (this is super important...it's what makes the cupcakes fluffy-like)

0.33 cup Maraschino Cherry Juice

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

0.5 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350F

Let the butter and eggs come to room temperature so the mixture won't be so cold. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

Then cream together the butter, add in the sugar, then add in the vanilla and mix well. Add in an egg white at a time, beating well after each addition. 

In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk and maraschino cherry juice. 

Now add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in increments, mixing well after each addition. 

Bake for 15-18 minutes, stick a fork in 'em to make sure they're cooked. 

Meanwhile! Make the buttercream by taking:

0.5 cup room temp. butter

3.5 cups of powdered sugar

3 tblspn. maraschino cherry juice

0.5 tsp almond extract

Cream butter until its super soft. Then add in one cup of sugar, creaming it well. Add in the cherry juice and the almond extract and mix well. Then slowly add in the rest of the sugar. Make sure you're beating it really well because you want to get the butter-sugar mixture aerated so it gets fluffy. If you have an electric mixer...more power to you, make sure you're mixing it well. If you don't, well, it'll build your arm muscle!

Frost it with a 1M star tip, and add a maraschino cherry on top, and some pretty red sugar crystals and you're good to go.

Or well...no, take a glass of milk, put some ice cubes in it (since it's flipping 90 degrees here), get on your back porch with your stupid mutt whose trying to eat your cupcake and drink your milk at the same time, and take a big bite out of your work of art, and follow it up with a swig of milk. Now you're good to go ;-) 

Cupcake Decorations...

I was in the weirdest mood yesterday starting after 7th period. Floopy. floopyfloopyfloopyfloopy. I taught my 8th period all the material...but I was sliding...literally sliding my feet across the floor instead of picking them up. During practice time...I sat in my rolly-chair and rolled to all my students.

Crazy me, crazy. 

But the bell rang, and I decided instead of doing the logical thing which is -- go home, let the poor dog out who hasn't been out to pee in 24 hours, make pizza, and eat most of it myself before Tyler gets home...I was going to go shopping...

To Michaels. To buy cake decorating stuff. I have to make some cupcakes for a late St. Patty's Day party I'm going to...so I might as well get stuff to make them look pretty.

So I bought a bag of chips, went to Michaels.While nomming on my chips I realized I had no idea how to decorate cupcakes. So I whipped out my handy dandy phone and called my bestie S-...the queen of cupcakes. Surrrriously. She's the queen.

So here's what I learned: 

--You can pipe with a regular old ziplock bag if you buy the following:

--Pipping tips (99 cents at Michaels)

--Coupler Rings

Basically you just use the coupler rings in conjunction with the piping tips...and put the in a plastic bag that has a corner cut off...and it acts as a pipping bag! 

So after too many potato chips...I bought all the stuff I needed from Michaels, and you can see the product below!

Those are just my lime cupcakes...with green frosting on top...with green sprinkles and some coconut.

Ready for your close up?

My green goddesses

                                                     

 Tasty goodness                                                                         

Aren't they pretty? Get the tips, they're worth it, and just practice. The first few came out looking...a little funny, but after that, beautiful -- next up: yellow with purple sprinkles on top of chocolate cupcakes! Hopefully these will look even prettier. 

My First Recipe! Lime Cupcakes with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, so the title is a little bit of a lie. I didn't make the recipe, I modified a vanilla cupcake recipe from www.joyofbaking.com

I was bored of the sweet potato pie (that T- demanded I make every week with puppy dog eyes mixed with random growls -- honestly, I feared for my life), and I had done the crepes. So what next? Well, it's spring in Texas, so with the rain and the ominous waves of humidity that are creeping up on San Antonio, comes a strong desire for citrus...lemons, oranges, sweet lemons, clementines, tangerines, tangelos, and the long forgotten lime.

But I wanted cupcakes...I wanted citrus...and cupcakes...and citrus...and cupcakes, ergo...Lime Cupcakes! So I got some organic limes...zested them, juiced them...made some lime cupcakes with lime cream cheese!

Lime Cupcakes with the Lime Cream Cheese Frosting on the side

So before, there were twelve cupcakes...and now there are only five. I don't know how long they'll last. Me, T-, and his mother A- are going through them...and we gave the neighbor two of them...much to my chagrin. I'm planning to make them again for a St. Patty's Day party...and perhaps even add a little green dye? Who know...the possibilities are endless.

Lime Cupcakes: 

.75 cup of butter
.67 cup white granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 cups of all purpose flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
.25 tsp salt
.25 cup milk
Zest of two limes
Juice of 1 lime

Cream together the sugar and butter by hand or hand blender.
Then cream in one egg at a time.
Stir in the lime zest and add in vanilla extra.
Mix in the lime juice.
In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
Stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk.
Put the batter into pre-greased cupcake pans, or pre-lined.
Put in oven at 350F, for 12-15, or until toothpick inserted into the middle of one comes out clean

Meanwhile, make the Lime Cream Cheese Frosting.

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese frosting
1.5 cup confectioner's sugar (this is malleable, depending on how sweet you like it)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 limes worth of lime juice
2 limes zested

Cream together butter and cream cheese.
Add in zest and lemon juice and vanilla.
Add in sugar to taste, and mix it all together!

Close up of the cupcakes...you can see the zest flecks in the frosting

Frosting itself...it's really good to eat just with a spoon

And another cupcake picture

Trust me -- these go fast.