Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes

These cupcakes were inspired by Starbucks' caramel macchiato. They are chocolate flavored cakes with an espresso flavor Italian meringue buttercream frosting and drizzled with homemade caramel sauce. Enjoy! Happy Baking! :)

Servings: 1 dozens
Cooking time: 20 mins at 350 F


Ingredients:
1 C + 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 C cocoa powder (dutch processed)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C light brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 C vegetable oil
1/2 C buttermilk
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp vinegar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

2. Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl: flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.

3. In a separate mixing bowl mix wet ingredients on slow-medium speed:

• mix sugars together
• add eggs one at a time to sugars, then
• add vegetable oil, buttermilk, espresso powder, vanilla extract, and vinegar

4. Still on slow-medium speed, at the dry ingredients to wet mixture gradually, stopping to scrape sides of mixing bowl when needed. Increase speed to medium-high and blend ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Do not over mix.

5. Then, fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Place in over and bake for 20 mins. Let cool for at least 30 mins before frosting.


Caramel Macchiato Frosting recipe
Follow the recipe HERE  and add 1 1/2 tsp espresso powder.


Homemade Caramel Sauce recipe
You could also use store-bought caramel sauce.

Ingredients:
1 C granulated sugar
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp corn syrup (light)
1 C heavy whipping cream

Directions:
1. Make sugar syrup: In a sauce pan on medium-high heat mix sugar, water, and corn syrup until golden brown in color.

2. Add cream slowly, stirring as you add it. The sauce will bubble up so be careful. Make sure you keep stirring.

3. Let it cool completely before adding to frosting.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe




Before: My red velvet cupakes when I started baking :(

Now: Practice makes perfect!



This is my MOST popular flavor! And I am so delighted to share my recipe for it. It took me many tries to perfect the recipe. So here you go. Happy baking! :D

Servings: 2 dozens

Cooking time: 20 mins at 350 F

Ingredients:

2 1/4 C + 2 T all-purpose flour

1/4 C + 2 T cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa power

1 1/2 C granulated sugar

1/2 C instant vanilla pudding (powder)

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 C vegetable oil

1 C buttermilk

4 large eggs

1 1/2 Tbsp red food coloring

1 tsp vinegar

1 tsp Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract, or plain vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

2. Mix dry ingredients and sift them all together: flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, pudding, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix at medium speed the wet ingredients: oil, buttermilk, eggs, red food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla extract (do not over mix).

4. Then in low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until all ingredients are incorporated together (do not over mix).

5. Place batter in cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 20 mins at 350 F.

6. Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Serving: good for 2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 lb unsalted butter, softened (4 sticks)

6 oz cream cheese, softened and at room temp (very important that it's at room temp for a light and fluffy frosting)

3 1/2 C powdered sugar

1 tsp Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. At medium speed, cream butter first. Then, add cream cheese and cream them together.

2. Lower speed and add powdered sugar 1/2 C at a time waiting for the sugar to mix in before adding more.

3. Once all the powdered sugar has been mixed in, add vanilla extract.

4. Increase speed to med-high and whip until light and fluffy (the color of the frosting will appear light). If it's not whipped to that right consistency your frosting will lool like the top image above :(

5. Now it's ready to be piped onto the cupcakes!

Italian Meringue Buttercream Recipe

Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC) is great for cupcakes, covering cakes, cake decorating, and more. It has a different taste from regular buttercream based frostings because of its key ingredient: egg whites. IMBC is very tricky and complex to make, I think, because you have to get the sugar syrup at the right temperature in order for it to work. It took me a few tries to finally perfect it. But once you get it, you're gonna wanna keep make it! It's such a versatile buttercream and the flavors you could make with  it is endless! Below is a simple recipe of a vanilla IMBC.


Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream
Sugar Syrup:
1 C granulated sugar
1/4 C water

In a sauce pan, mix sugar and water on med-high until sugar thermometer is 245 F (between firmball and softball). It has to be at that temp when it's added to the merinue.While you wait for the thermometer to read 245 F, start on the meringue.

Meringue:
5 large egg whites
1/2 C granulated sugar
3 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Beat egg whites in high speed and add sugar GRADUALLY. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
2. Then, carefully, add the sugar syrup to egg whites, still on high speed. Continue beating until temperate of merignue is warm-cool (you could tell by touching the mixing bowl).
3. Once it's at the right temp, lower speed and start adding butter 1 Tbsp at a time. Then add vanilla extract.
4. Increase speed to high and continue beating until right spreadable consistency, about 7-10 mins.

**It might look thin and "liquidy" at first but that's okay. As it beats it will cool down completely and become more frosting-like consistency. If you get anxious (which I did the first time I made it), you could also put it in the fridge for 5 mins, take it out and continue mixing again on high speed to achieve that frosting consistency. Or, be patient and just let the mixer do it's job for 7-10 mins.

And viola! That's it. It's ready to go on top of cupcakes or cakes. You could always freeze it for future use and thaw it before frosting it on your cake.

For other flavor options:
Coffee/mocha/espresso: 1 1/2 tsp espresso powder
Chocolate: 2-3 oz of melted chocolate, cooled down per cup of IMBC
Raspberry: 1 tsp raspberry extract

Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes Recipe

You've been asking for it, so here you go--the recipe for my cookies n' cream cupcakes. These cupcakes are vanilla flavored cupcakes with Oreo cookie chunks in the cake and a surprise waiting at the botton of each cupcake. Happy baking! :D

Servings: 2 dozens cupcakes

Cooking time: 25-28 mins at 325 F

Ingredients:

2 3/4 C cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 C unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 C granulated sugar

4 large egg whites

1 tsp Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract (or plain and simple pure vanilla extract)

1 C buttermilk

2 packs of Oreo cookies (I like ALOT of cookies in mines)

Frosting: Cookies n' Cream buttercream frosting

1 lb unsalted butter, soften (4 sticks)

6 oz cream cheese, softened and room temp (*very important it's at room temp for a smooth fluffy frosting)

3 1/2 C powdered sugar

1 tsp Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract (or plain and simple pure vanilla extract)

Directions:

1. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liner and preheat oven at 325 F. Separate 12 Oreo cookies and place each half of cookie on cupcake liner (for totally of 24 cupcakes). Chop up Oreo cookies for batter (as much as you'd like to add to your cupcake). I like mines chunky :) Set aside for now.

2. Whisk together dry ingredients in bowl (cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). In a separate bowl with a mixer, blend butter and sugar; adding sugar gradually at medium speed. Once all the sugar has been added, increase speed to med-high and cream butter/sugar mixture until light and fluffy (it's ready when it looks light in color ivory to white)

3. Then set speed to low and add egg whites one by one, waiting for each to blend with mixture before adding another egg white (*don't over mix)

4. Once eggs are blended to mixture, add vanilla extract.

5. At low-med speed, add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk. Mix until all ingredients are blended together (*dont over mix)

6.Fold in slowly chopped up cookies in batter (**don't mix it or you'll lose air in the batter and your cupcakes will sink)

7. Place cookie-cake batter into cupcake liners about 3/4 full.

8. Bake for about 25-28 mins., and until toothpick comes out clear.

9. Let it cool. Top with frosting, cookie crumbs, and half an Oreo cookie (sliced in half).

How to make the frostings:

1. Cream butter in mixer at low-med speed.

2. Add cream cheese and continue mixing at low-med speed until butter and cream cheese are well blended together.

3. At low speed, add powdered sugar gradually.

4. Once the sugar is mixed in well, add vanilla extract mixing at low-med speed.

5. Increase mixer speed to med-high until frosting is light and fluffy.

6. Then crush Orea cookies into crumbs and fold it in frosting--saving some crumbs to top frosting (I don't fold or mix it in too much because I still like to see the white frosting in contrast to the cookie crumbs). And it's ready to be piped on cooled cupcakes. The tip I use is the Ateco 808.

Taking A Short Break...

Hi everyone! If you do not know yet, I am about to get married in August to the most amazing guy on earth :) It's getting to closer to the big day, and I'm getting pretty excited... and busy with the wedding preparation. So I just want to let everyone know in advance that I will be taking a short break from cupcake orders starting May 1 through the end of September. If you would like to order some cupcakes, April will be the last month I will be taking orders until I start up the shop again in November; just in time for the holidays!

Pink and Green Birthday Minis

These are the super cute mini cupcakes I recently made for a 1st birthday party, with 4 different flavors: red velvet, caramel mocha, white chocolate raspberry, and madagascar bourbon vanilla. The mom added the pretty "M" toppers (for Madeline) that she crafted together, which she did a really good job, and made these babies even more irresistible! :)

Photos by Robbie Soriano

Transformers Birthday Cupcakes

So I get a call from my sister asking me if I could make some Transformers cupcakes for her son's birthday party...and he wants Bumble Bee design. The birthday party was going to be in three days, so I didn't have a lot of time for preparation. I figured, the quickest way to have these cupcakes ready, and look fun and creative at the same was this:

The cupcake toppers I have on here are edible images of Bumble Bee on fondant. This was done by copying the images on edible paper at my local cake supply store (A & J, in Glendora). Once I got that done, I cut it out into the shape of the image and peeled off the back lining of the edible paper. I lightly moistened it with water and stuck it onto the fondant, and... voila! You have some eye-catching cupcakes the kids loved! :)

My nephew LOVES Bumble Bee from Transformers, and when he saw these, he was just amazed! The look on his face was unforgettable!