Happy St. Patty's Day!: Brown Sugar Poundcake Cupcakes

My mother is about three-quarters Irish.  What we inherited in the Irish is a propensity for heavy drinking, being loud, and getting rosy.  I have very little Irish pride.  Sometimes I’m told I look Irish, but I think that’s just the dark hair and freckles.  I don’t even have the light eyes that look Irish.  But on St. Patrick’s Day, what good is no pride?  So, I made some delicious cupcakes for the day. 

They were brown sugar pound cake cupcakes.  Pretty delectable.  It was a Bailey’s Irish Cream Frosting.  It was SCRUMPTIOUS.  (I ate some at work with Girl Scout Shortbread Cookies and graham crackers.)  All in all, I created a cupcake that I enjoyed whole-heartedly. 

I made a stencil.  Then Matt made a better one.  So I stenciled four cupcakes and dusted the rest with the sugar because I was much too lazy to try to do them on every cupcake.  ALSO, work.  It sneaks up on you sometimes (every Saturday) and I had to wash my hair (because I rarely do). 

My sister said that these were number two best cupcakes (with my sense of taste).  She likes the birthday Streusel cupcakes a little bit better.  Success!

(Do I employ the use of parentheses too much? It’s the way I think, I swear.)

Where'd you go to school?: Boston (Cream Pie Cupcakes)

I went to school in Worcester.  It’s what people from not Massachusetts calls Boston.  It’s not true.  Worcester is wonderful in its own way.  Worcester has Corner Grille, Evo, Park Ave, Main South, Clark University, Baba Sushi, wonderful people, and four years of my life (and lots of my money). 

Boston is also beautiful.  It’s where I wanted to go to school, but somehow, I didn’t want to apply to any of the schools there.  So when I visit, I enjoy it.  I like the T and the stores and the beers and the food and the people and the sights.  One thing that Boston also has is Boston Cream Pies.  So I made some into cupcakes because Martha said I could.

Do I like pastry cream?  No.  Do I love semi-sweet chocolate? Not really.  Was the batter delicious? OF COURSE. (Did I eat one? Nope.)

What's up, Doc?: Carrot (Cake) Cupcakes

I have a funny thing about carrot cake.  My best friend likes them a whole lot.  She loves them with cream cheese frosting. She thinks it’s hard to find a good one. It was the first “sweet” thing she ever ate, at the age of one.  She and I lived different lives. 

I like carrots.  They’re good for your eyes (beta-carotene for the win!). They are crunchy and sweet. If you eat a whole bag of baby carrots on a car ride, you want to vomit when you reach your destination. They can fill you up and make you less hungry. You can eat them with some sugar as a kid (for no reason at all).

If you cook carrots, I’m not a big fan.  If you make carrots into a cake, I am less inclined (READ: NOT INCLINED AT ALL) to eat the cake.  Add cream cheese… you’ve lost me entirely.  But alas, I am running out of cupcakes that I truly want to eat in the book, so I made these.

I think the coolest part is that Martha told me to “finely grate” and I was too lazy, so you can see the carrot inside! But maybe I’m just weird and don’t eat carrot cake and know that’s how it comes.  Anyway, these were the first week of March.  I’m behind.  

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! (to me!): Streusel Cupcakes

I turned twenty-three a few weeks ago.  I decided to open the restaurant in order to get out and drink a large margarita.  Why in the world would this ever be a good idea, you ask? It wasn’t.  I had forgotten my birthday was the weekend after a Tuesday Valentine's Day.  I had forgotten that it was February break in the Capital area. I had forgotten I WOULD NEVER GET OUT. But I made myself some breakfast cupcakes so that I could enjoy the cupcakes on my birthday.

Although I’m not German, these were delicious! The base was soft and moist, the top was crunchy and sweet and crumbly.  And if I had waited for the glaze to dry to take the picture, it would have been white and beautiful.  

They were messy in the pan because I didn’t give a butt at all.  My dad had come to visit for his and my birthday, so I had very little time. No one seemed to mind that they were messy.

 I was also given a donut to start the day from Lisa. With a candle. What a lovely human being.

And then some people from work made me a beautiful old-lady cake. It’s the thought that counts and I love them all.

And then Bomber’s gave me a free margarita! YUM! My sister even came out to celebrate with me.  She’s a champ because she woke up six hours later to save lives.

Also, I missed the week after my birthday for a party in MA.  These week’s cupcakes will be posted eventually.  J

Through the Candy Cane Forest: Marble Cupcakes!

This week I swirled and twirled and gumdropped (??) my cupcakes to marble the insides like a statue. I mixed the yellow batter with the chocolate batter and baked to perfection! I feel like an evil, mad genius Buddy the Elf!  (This paragraph makes very little sense...buuuut, cupcakes!)

I altered my cupcakes.  Many changes (just two).  The important things were making more and making frosting. I doubled the recipe.  It yielded only 16! How can a recipe only make 16?! I mean, I eat one (minus the amount of batter I eat which is approximately more than one…), leave two for sister and brother-in-law, possibly for more people that are in my house.  I would only bring 12 to work? Psht. So, I made 32.

 And even though Martha said, “Dust with powdered sugar and you’ll be fine.”

I disagreed.  I wanted frosting.  So I made Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting. 

I did not, however, allow for the frosting to get as stiff as I’d like (that’s what she said). So, it looks a little runny.  Maybe if it was a birthday of someone I really liked I would have dyed it their favorite color.  And worked a little harder.  Maybe I should have saved the cupcakes for another week, but I wanted to make something I liked.  So I did.

A few problems (just one really).  Unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa is pretty bitter.  But I can deal if it’s going to be so delicious! 

Two Worlds Collide: Mint-filled Brownie Cupcakes

Brownies are my friends.  They come from a box normally for me.  I like to add some love in the form of vanilla extract and possibly some chocolate chips.  I don’t like walnuts.  Brownies have been made for me not from a box, and they were the most delicious brownies ever.  Brought to me by one of the cutest girls I have ever met: Victoria.  Quite an appr-pro name for the victory she had over brownies everywhere. 

York Peppermint Patties are also my friends.  They come from my father quite frequently.  They taste like love.  They are dark chocolate and I always thought I hated it.  They have a mint paste that is white and not green.  They come in the shape of snowflakes sometimes.  They are small or large.  They are delicious.

Sometimes I don’t like my friends to meet.  I’m afraid I’m different people when I’m with one friend.  I sometimes think I like different things with different friends.   Sometimes I’m afraid that they’ll like each other so much that they’ll forget about me.  Sometimes I’m afraid I give them false hopes of how awesome they are.  Sometimes I think that it just won’t work.

But Martha told me that this one would be okay.  Brownies and York Peppermint Patties can meet.  She said, “Let them go and there will be good.”  Dang, was there good. 

The cupcakes were moist and delicious and minty in the middle.  Everyone asked me how I did it.  Bet said it was magic.  And you know what?  The cupcakes were magic.  They were chocolatey, minty magic.  So. Good.  Well done, Martha. 

Also, February is the month of birth for many of my loved ones!  So… I tried to make birthday hats.  They sort of looked cute?  Lisa went home to put it on Muffins, the cat. 

These are a few of my favorite things: Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes

There are something that are just plain wonderful.

·         January days that you can hang your sheets out and have clean sheets that smell like childhood.

·         Weekends where your dad shows you how hard it will be to find a man to marry.

·         Having milk to put into you black tea, especially when you thought you were out of it.

·         Having a friend bring in a delicious, wonderful cupcake on a Saturday.

·         Having a real meal for the first time in at least two weeks.

·         Warm apple crisp with your favorite vanilla ice cream. Again.

·         Chocolate mixed with peanut butter.

Sometimes all of these things can go wrong.  In order: it can be a real winter, you have to work when your dad comes up, the milk’s bad, the cupcake is bad, you hate the company you’re with, you don’t have ice cream, and you don’t read the recipe.  Now, on this list, the only thing that went wrong was the chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes. 

I failed Martha.  I did not listen.  First, I doubled the recipe.  I think this would have been fine to do.  Proportions worked out fine.  But then I neglected to read what she wrote! I did two tablespoons of chocolate batter with one tablespoon of peanut butter.  Then, a little more than halfway through, I read the directions thoroughly.  I made 9 of the 24 correctly.  They came out beautiful.  BUT! They also came out a little burnt.  How can I fail you twice, Martha?!  I’m so sorry. 

On a good note, all of the cupcakes were eaten.  I also brought in frosting.  Store-bought, so I couldn’t add it myself for my co-workers.  A lot of people didn’t add it anyway.  They were better with a glass of milk. 

I have to try them again.  Probably just one portion of them for the next round.  Make them correctly.  Swirl them more.  Make sure to not burn them.  Although I can’t deny the good ones came out lookin’ gooooood.