Chocolate Devils Food Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

I'm following in my same trend of buttercreams!  These were for a friend of Timm's birthday.  I used a devils food cake mix and to it I added chopped up milk chocolate chunks and chopped up semi-sweet chips.  The little fine crumbles I saved for sprinkling on the cupcakes later.  Other than that I followed the directions on the box of the cake mix.  Once the cakes were cooled I made a peanut butter buttercream frosting.  I used all sorts of crazy designs for the frosting on these and then sprinkled some of them with the left over chocolate shavings.  Hope the birthday boy likes these!

Peanut Butter Buttercream

1 1/2 sticks sweet cream butter

3/4C peanut butter

1/3C 1% milk

1tsp vanilla

1/2tsp salt

4-5C powdered sugar

Beat the butter and peanut butter with vanilla until

smooth.  Slowly add in the powdered sugar with

the salt until you reach a stiff texture. Add milk and

 or more sugar until you reach the consistency you

desire. 

ps I always make about 8 mini cupcakes

so that I can taste test them before I serve them!

Also its nice to have some samll bites arounds.

Mixed Berry Cupcakes with Mixed Berry Buttercream

So...I am obsessed with homemade buttercream frosting!!  This time was for the Super Bowl party.  I started again with a cake mix, this was a strawberry flavored mix that I added real fruit to.  I had frozen mixed berries in the freezer so I thawed them out and added them to the mix along with the required ingredients (3 eggs, 1 1/4C water and 1/4C oil).  To make up the water I drained the berry juice and added water to reach 1 1/4C so the cakes would have extra berry flavor and not too much artificial strawberry flavor.  I reserved about 1C of the berries for the frosting.   After mixing the cake batter I gently folded in the thawed fruit so I didn't break up the berries too much.  I then scooped the batter into 24 prepared cupcake liners and baked for 20 min at 350.  Once they were done I let them cool completely before I made the frosting.

To make the frosting I thawed the remaining berries in the microwave for about 2 minutes.  I drained them and discarded the juice.  I placed the berries in a sieve over a small bowl and used a spatula to smash them through.  I wanted to get as much pulp from them as possible.  There were black berries and raspberries in my mix and I didn't want those giant seeds in my frosting.  Similar to my green tea frosting I creamed the berry puree and butter before adding in the powdered sugar. 

These turned out so pretty and yummy! 

I don't think I will ever buy canned frosting again-and I'm out cupcake liners!

Green Tea Cupcakes with Green Tea Buttercream

I wanted to make this recipe for a friends birthday and the idea just popped into my head. I found several recipes online, but I opted for the easier way out and didn't make the cupcakes from scratch. These were a hit with everyone, even the guys who tend to not like things they dont know about.

Cupcakes-makes 24 large cakes:

1 box of white cake mix and ingredients required on box (3 egg whites, 1 1/2C water and 1/4C oil)

3-4T Matcha green tea powder (instant mix, found in asian food stores and online here: http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/ ) I added 4T because I wanted the flavor to stand out more, for a more subtle flavor use less.

butter flavored cooking spray

24 cupcake liners

Preheat oven to 350, prepare cupcake pans with liners and I spray each one with a little butter spray.

I mixed the water with the tea powder and then combined the ingredients for the cakes and scooped them into the prepared pan and cooked for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Once the cakes are done, let them cool completely before frosting.

Green Tea Buttercream:

1 1/2 sticks softened butter

3T green tea powder

3T milk or water

5C powdered sugar

Mix the water and the green tea powder to make a paste. I used my stand mixer and put the butter and the green tea paste in and mixed them until combined. Gradually add 1C of sugar at a time until you read your preferred consistency. I wanted it stiff so I could pipe it out. Once it is all combined load it into a prepared piping bag with the type of tip you want.

I looked for advice online on how to frost cupcakes and found some tips to keep the frosting/piping bag still and move the cake in a circle starting on the outside and working your way in. I found for me it was easier to hold the cake and sort of twirl it around and move the frosting around the cake in an outside in fashion. I also wanted to use some cute decorator candies to embelish.

Also I have to say these turned out such a pretty green color. They may not show it in my pictures. I'm still working on my photography skills.

Hungry Girl Fluffy Lemon Squares

This is such a great swap for fattening lemon bars! The flavor is great and really lemony. When taking the picture I remembered some of the pointers I'd read about shooting food pictures. I used low light and contrasting colors, found that adorable pink lemon plate at Target last year. I just threw in the 200 under 200 book as a cute backdrop. Let me know what you think.