Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns Cupcakes

Cupcakes are my best friend. They give you all that cake can give you and you avoid what I like to call the Matilda scenario where a craving hits and you dive in headfirst with no shame, inhaling more cake than should be humanly possible. 

Cupcakes are so unassuming. Cute. Perfectly portioned. 

Unless you eat like five. Then it defeats the entire purpose. Dang it. 

Two of my favorite food bloggers, Shelly from Cookies and Cups and Kristan from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, are hosting a Creative Recipe Contest in which you are supposed to take one of their recipes and add your own spin on it. 

The other day I came across Shelly's Banana's Foster Cupcakes and thought them to be the perfect template. 

Shelly and Kristan occasionally host a Ben and Jerry's Week in which they spend the week concocting recipes that incorporate the flavors of various Ben and Jerry's ice creams. I decided to throw some Ben and Jerry's action into the mix as well and make some Cinnamon Buns Cupcakes. 


I used Shelly's brown sugar cupcake recipe from her Banana's Foster Cupcakes, swirled some of her delicious Cinnamon Buttercream on top, and finished each cupcake off with some drizzled caramel and a piece of cinnamon roll. I made my caramel from scratch (it's super easy and quick), but you are more than welcome to use jarred caramel and it will still taste amazing. I used refrigerated cinnamon rolls from a tube for the cinnamon roll garnish. You can make them from scratch, but since they are just a garnish I went the easy route. I ain't gots that kind of time, people. Nap time is not that long.

Cinnamon Buns Cupcakes

Ingredients

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, room temperature

   1/2 cup brown sugar 

   1 tsp cinnamon

   1 lb powdered sugar (4-5 cups)

   1/2 tsp vanilla

    3-4 Tbsp milk or cream

Garnish

Caramel

Baked cinnamon rolls

    Directions

    Cupcakes

    1.    Preheat oven to 350°

    2.    Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.

    3.    Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

    4.    Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.

    5.    Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

    6.    Measure out milk and vanilla together.

    7.    Add about a third of the dry mixture and half milk mixture in alternating portions beginning and ending with dry mixture until incorporated and smooth.

    8.    Bake 15-20 minutes until cupcake springs back when pushed or toothpick comes out clean.

    9.    Let cool before frosting cupcakes.

Frosting and Garnish

1.    In bowl of stand mixer beat butter and brown sugar together for 2 minutes. Turn mixer to low and add in cinnamon and powdered sugar.

    2.    Finally add in milk and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

    3.    Fill a pastry bag with frosting and pipe onto cupcakes.

    4.    Drizzle caramel onto each frosted cupcake.

    5.    Cut baked cinnamon rolls into pieces and top each cupcake.

     Adapted from Shelly’s Banana’s Foster Cupcakes

     

(I am entering these Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns Cupcakes in the Creative Recipe Contest hosted by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups)

You’ve got to try these cupcakes. They have Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns goodness in every bite! If you’re like me, you’ll probably eat too many and it'll end up being just as bad as if you'd made a whole cake and stuck your face in it. But cupcakes are still cuter. So there’s that.

Creepy Eyes

          When Sydney was about 3 1/2 and Hayley was about 15 months old, they had this funny game where Sydney would put hats on Hayley. The hats were always way too big, covering Hayley's entire head so you could only see her eyes if she tilted her head backwards. Hayley would chase Sydney around the house and Sydney would happily yell, "Creepy eyes, creepy eyes!" and laugh uncontrollably. They both loved it. When Hayley turned about 2, she decided that being called "creepy eyes" was offensive and we made Sydney stop. Now recently, Hayley's totally cool with it again and they now use some homemade beanies my mom made them and play the same game. Tying this together, I have had a dozen unfrosted cupcakes in my freezer for the past few weeks that I haven't known what to do with. We have a church trunk or treat tomorrow and though I know a dozen cupcakes will last only about 2.4 seconds there with so many kids around, I figured at least they'd get eaten and enjoyed by somebody. So I scrounged around in my cupboards to see what I had to make some Halloween-inspired cupcakes. I have seen these "eyeball" cupcakes circulating through cyberspace for the past few years and realized that I had the tools to make some! It was super easy. I just melted some white chocolate coating and dipped the tops of my cupcakes in it. Make sure to let the excess chocolate drip off or you'll have globs of extra chocolate coating on your cupcake (I like to rotate the cupcake as I allow the excess to drip off so it drips off as evenly as possible). Once the chocolate coating hardened (takes only a couple minutes), I cut some green gum drops in half (hamburger-style) and "glued" them onto the centers of the cupcakes by dabbing them with a little melted chocolate coating and then pressing them on. I then used some leftover black decorating gel I had on hand for the pupils, though you could also use black sprinkles, black frosting, etc. Lastly, I used some red decorating frosting to pipe on the bloodshot veins for the eyes. The girls had a blast watching me make them and got even more excited when I called them "creepy eyes." Such a super fun and fast Halloween treat! Try it!

Creepy Eyes

Mama and Baby Duckie Cake

          So I am helping throw my best friend a baby shower this weekend. Congrats Aubrey! She is having a little girl and I am so excited! Once the baby comes, Aubrey will be staying at home with her, meaning we will be able to get together and hang out more often. Yay! And our girls will grow up to be best friends. The end. ANYhoo, I decided that I wanted to try and make her a super cute cake for her shower. The theme is mama and baby farm animals, so I thought a mama and baby duckie cake would fit the bill. I still consider myself quite an amateur when it comes to cake decorating, but I'll just keep practicing! I have learned that having any type of hobby that may require a little time or concentration is pretty much pointless when you have three little kids running around. I had to stop making this cake literally every ten minutes or so to deal with "Mom, my pee sprayed out of the toilet," or "Rosalie is calling someone on your phone Mom," or "I'm starving, can I have another snack even though I've already had a bajillion today?" Ok, so I might have exaggerated that last one a bit. Not by much though. Anyway, long story short, I believe it is an amazing feat that I finished this cake at all. Whew. Anyway, moving on . . . So, this is a 9x13 double-layered cake. I crumb-coated the entire cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and then tinted some blue to frost a layer for the water and tinted some green to make the grass. The "flowers" on the grass are daisy sprinkles. I just couldn't make Aubrey a baby shower cake without representing some baby girl colors--hence the purple and pink star piping around the sides of the cake. In case you're wondering--and you probably are-- the ducks are made from mini brownie bites that I rolled into balls and covered in white melting chocolate. The feet and wings of the baby ducks are daisy sprinkles, their eyes I drew on with an edible black marker, and I piped on their orange beaks. The mama duck has a piped-on orange beak as well, but I also piped on her feet because I think using the daisy sprinkles like I did for the babies would have looked too small to scale. Maybe not. I don't know. Too late now. For the mama duck's wings, I cut two mini marshmallows into triangle shapes and adhered them with a dab of white melting chocolate. So that's mostly the breakdown! I really hope I can drive this cake to the baby shower on Saturday without it getting destroyed on the drive! Wish me luck!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

     Yesterday I decided to make the women I visit from church a Halloween treat. I have struggled over the past few years to find a sugar cookie recipe that I just love. I tend to like my sugar cookies soft and chewy rather than thin and crisp. A lot of sugar cookie recipes I have found (especially ones for cut-out cookies) are meant to be crisp. I have also found that several sugar cookie recipes I have tried just don't have a lot of flavor. I have finally found one that tastes great and creates deliciously soft and chewy sugar cookies! For instructions and ideas about how to use this sugar cookie recipe for cute Halloween cut-out cookies, try here. My only complaint with this recipe is that the dough was quite sticky when I tried to roll it out and shape the cookies. I had to use a lot more flour than I expected and was worried all the extra flour would dry the cookies out. Well, once I added the necessary amount of flour to roll out and shape the cookies, it was fine. The cookies baked up flavorful and moist! I think this is my go-to sugar cookie recipe from now on. FINALLY! I also decided to try a new method of cookie decorating: decorating with royal icing and the "flooding" technique. I was a little intimidated but it actually wasn't too bad. It takes some time to use the toothpick and "flood" the cookies with the thinned out icing, but it was surprisingly relaxing and fun. I just love this technique because it makes such a smooth and clean decoration for cookies, making them look a lot more professional than if you just slathered on some regular icing. The royal icing also hardens up nicely. This was my first attempt at decorating cookies this way, so I had to cut myself some slack. One thing I learned is that you CANNOT pick up a cookie that you just flooded with royal icing until it is COMPLETELY dry (an hour or two should do it). I made this mistake and ended up crinkling the icing because it wasn't set all the way yet (as you can see with my pumpkin cookie in the picture above). On the whole though, this was a new baking experience and it was fun and not as daunting as I imagined. I will definitely be trying this again for Christmas cookies! Santa will be pleased.

Hayley's Fish Tank Cake

          My daughter Hayley turned 3 years old last week! I can't believe it. She saw this cake online when we were searching for a cake she wanted and she just had to have it. I can't take credit for the idea; I found this cake here: http://www.parenting.com/article/how-to-make-a-fish-tank-birthday-cake. The instructions were very easy to follow. I had to make a few minor adjustments as far as decorations go. I couldn't find spearmint candies for some of the seaweed so I used these sour candy strips called "Rips." I also couldn't find praline crunch ice cream topping for the gravel, so I used some cinnamon pecan ice cream topping I found at Walmart and it gave the same effect. It took a little assembly time, but the look on Hayley's face when she got to see it and eat it made it all worth it! I made the cake and frosting from scratch as well (sooooo much better that way). For the cake, I used this recipe from CookingLight.com (minus the frosting part of the recipe): http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/yellow-sheet-cake-with-chocolate-frosting-10000001054821/. The cake itself was simple, moist, and tasted great. I used a Betty Crocker recipe from a cupcake book I own for both the vanilla and chocolate frosting and they were scrumptious. If you have a fish-loving family member or friend, this cake really takes the cake!

Tip: 
          The instructions suggest you use a plastic zip-top bag with a cut corner to pipe the chocolate frosting onto the cake for the edges of the fish tank. I did that, but as you can see, the piped frosting isn't perfectly straight and is a little wavy because it's hard to maintain a consistent pressure with a plastic bag with an unevenly cut corner (and if you push too hard, the frosting will burst out of the bag, which has happened to me before and it's extremely annoying). I would suggest, if you have one, using a pasty bag with a small round tip to pipe the frosting on for a more solid, smooth piped line of frosting.

Ultimate Chick Food

          Cheesecake just shouldn't be allowed; it's that good. I had a few girls over for a movie the other night and decided I'd make us the ultimate chick food: Chocolate Cheesecake. I always get nervous when I'm making a cheesecake because they are notoriously temperamental. You do the slightest thing wrong and it's ruined. After much trial and error, the cheesecake I made this weekend at least proves I'm learning something. It turned out perfectly silky, smooth, and rich! I can't say as much for my first several cheesecake attempts. It just takes some patience and practice. And believe me, it's worth getting good at because then you can make and eat a  homemade cheesecake whenever you want! I have to end up giving about half of every cheesecake I make away though because I'll make myself sick eating too much! Worth it. Try it.

Chocolate Cheesecake

• 
  
• Ingredients
• Crust:
•      1 cup packaged chocolate cookie crumbs (such as Oreo)
•      2 tablespoons sugar 
•      1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine, melted
•      Cooking spray 
• Filling:
•      1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
•      1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk 
•      3 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
•      4 (8-ounce) blocks fat-free cream cheese, softened 
•      1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened 
•      1 1/2 cups sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
•      2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•      4 large eggs 
• 
  
• Directions:
•      1. Preheat oven to 325°.
•      2. To prepare crust, combine first 3 ingredients; toss with a fork until moist. Press into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.
•      3. To prepare the filling, combine cocoa, milk, and chocolate, and stir well with a whisk. Beat cheeses at high speed of a mixer until smooth. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar, flour, and vanilla; beat well. Add chocolate mixture; beat well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
•      4. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until almost set. Cheesecake is done when the center barely moves when the pan is touched. Remove cheesecake from oven, and run a knife around outside edge. Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours. 
• 
  
• Tips:
•           Grease the springform pan well. This ensures that when you remove the cheesecake from it, the sides of the cheesecake don't rip apart.
•           I can't stress this enough: use room temperature cream cheese! If you use cold cream cheese, you'll get a lumpy cheesecake batter. Been there done that! To soften cream cheese, let it sit out at room temperature for an hour or so or pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Use room temperature eggs too. It helps the ingredients incorporate better when you mix. If you forget and use cool cream cheese anyway and get lumpy batter, all is not lost: when you're done making the batter, pour it through a fine sieve, mash up the lumps that are left over, and reincorporate into your batter.
•           Bake your cheesecake in a water bath. Follow the recipe as normal, but wrap the bottom of your springform pan tightly with aluminum foil to prevent water leaking into the cheesecake. Place the springform pan onto a jelly roll pan and pour hot water into the jelly roll pan, about a couple inches deep. Bake as usual. Using a water bath ensures that the cheesecake bakes evenly (so the edges don't brown and overbake while the center is still mush). 
•           Check on your cheesecake about 10-15 minutes before the recipe's given bake time. Depending on your oven, sometimes it's done sooner than the recipe suggests it is and it's very easy to overbake a cheesecake. There are a few ways to tell if your cheesecake is done (this is the tricky part!). If the cheesecake is mostly set but still jiggles a little (but not liquid-y), it's probably done. Some people stick a knife into the cheesecake (about an inch from the center) and if it comes out clean it's done, but I've found that I've had perfectly done cheesecakes in which the knife did not come out clean and if I'd kept baking it it would have overbaked. The most precise way which I have not yet tried is to stick an instant-read thermometer into the center of the cheesecake (the ideal internal temperature for a cheesecake is about 160-165 degrees).          
•           Allow the cheesecake to cool COMPLETELY before putting it in the fridge or freezer. If you don't, the condensation from the plastic wrap you cover the cheesecake with will make your cheesecake soggy and gross.
•           If you want to speed up the chilling process, wrap the cooled cheesecake with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for about an hour before then putting it in the fridge to continue chilling. Or, you can leave it in the freezer (wrapped with both plastic wrap and aluminum foil) for about 2 months and thaw in the refrigerator when you're ready to eat it.
•           For clean and pretty slicing, dip a thin, sharp knife in warm water, dry it off completely, and slowly cut into the cheesecake. Wipe the knife clean, dip it back in the warm water, and dry completely before you cut each slice.

A Taste of Canada

          Now that I'm married to a Canadian, every time I taste or smell pure maple syrup the Canadian maple leaf pops into my head. I have come to learn that those Canadians are sure proud of their maple leaf. Brandon of coarse LOVES maple-flavored almost anything, so I knew he would love this Maple Upside-Down Cake. You can have it prepped for the oven in just 20 minutes and it looks like you took a lot longer to make it than you really did (my kind of recipe!). As you can see, the very middle of my cake didn't release from the pan all that well when I flipped it over. But the rest came out beautifully! The pears were juicy and tender and the maple syrup caramelizes the top of the cake wonderfully. Try this cake for an extra-special breakfast or a dessert -- you won't be disappointed!

• Ingredients:
•      1/3 cup maple syrup
•      3 peeled Bartlett or Anjou pears, each cored and cut into 8 wedges 
•      1 cup all-purpose flour
•      3/4 teaspoon baking powder
•      1/4 teaspoon baking soda
•      1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
•      1/4 teaspoon salt
•      2/3 cup sugar 
•      1/3 cup butter, softened 
•      1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
•      2 large eggs
•      1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• Directions:
•      1. Preheat oven to 350°.
•      2. Bring syrup to a boil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; arrange pears in pan in a spoke-like fashion. Place pan over medium-high heat, and cook until syrup thickens (about 4 minutes), gently shaking pan frequently.
•      3. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (flour through salt); stirring well with a whisk. Place sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended (about 2 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
•      4. Pour batter evenly over pear mixture in prepared pan; wrap handle of skillet with foil. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Run a knife around outside edge. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Place a plate upside down on top of cake; invert onto plate. Serve warm.

Tips:

• Make sure to use real, pure maple syrup. That imitation stuff won't work well with this recipe (and it doesn't taste NEAR as good!).
• Watch the cake carefully while it bakes to avoid over-baking. I always set the timer for 10 minutes less than the recipe instructs, checking it every couple of minutes after that. I have saved quite a few baked goods from over-baking doing this!