Sourkraut’s Nutella Peanut Baklava Cupcakes!!

I had some leavening issues with the other recipe and they were not edible. So while this one won by default, it was VERY delicious. Excellent use of the ingredient, very sweet, but very yummy. It took quite some time to make but everyone who sampled them found them to be very scrumptious!

Congrats Sourkraut!!

The votes are in. The supplies are purchased. Which 2 cupcakes get to face off?!?

Voter’s choice is Galexi’s The Honeymoon

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What will I pick???

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I loved all the entries. It was so hard to choose! So I went with the cupcake that I thought best utilized the main ingredient.

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Drumroll please….

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Sourkraut’s Nutella Peanut Baklava Cupcake!

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Congrats to both entries! Both cupcakes will be baked this weekend. My panel of judges will assembled on the 30th. Winner will be announced on Halloween!! Good luck!

The super sweet Honey cupcakes are in! Now its up to you to decide who goes to the bake off for the chance to win the title of Cupcake Hero!!

Click to see all the entries. Vote at the right for your favorite! You can only vote once so make it a good one. Voting closes October 27 at midnight, CST.

Baking the Law’s Honey Plum

Honey Plum Cupcakes with Honey Swiss Meringue Buttercream

C&C Cakery’s The Dead Elvis Cupcakes

Vegan Honey-Banana Cupcake sprinkled with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and topped with Peanut Butter Frosting.

Galley Kitchen’s Toblerone Cupcake

Toblerone-inspired cupcake starts with a moist, dense chocolate cake, peppered with gooey Toblerone chunks. The cake is frosted with sweet honey buttercream, and topped with salty honey roasted almonds

Galexi’s The HoneyMoon

Vanilla Cupcake filled w/Honey Caramel Sauce and topped with Vanilla Honey Buttercream and garnished with a honey caramel sauce.

Sourkraut’s Nutella Peanut Baklava Cupcakes

A crispy phyllo dough base layered with melted honey and butter with a dusting of Nutella filled with a chopped peanut and almond combination mixed with ooey, gooey honey

Sugary Flower’s Sunny Honey Cupcakes

Warm and sweet, with the lavender playing a lovely fresh floral counterpoint

Seelensturm’s Spiced Walnut Cupcakes with Orange Blossom Water Frosting

Very Small Anna’s Burnt Honey Sesame Cupcakes with Sour Lemon Marmalade

October is here!! So what should our new ingredient be?? Pumpkin has already been done. Orange? Candy? Something spooky? Nah. I got something better in mind…

HONEY!!

I run a little cake biz named Honey Bee’s Cakes so it seemed appropriate for my month to host! Plus, those little gems called candy corn are know to contain honey! Put your thinking caps on and create some delicious honey flavored treats. I can’t wait to see what you dream up!

Here are the rules…

• Anyone can enter but international shipping addresses may not be able to receive the prize package from Clara.
• Create a cupcake using HONEY in at least one component be it the cake itself, frosting, filling, garnish etc. Get creative, people!
• Post the recipe for your entry on your blog (you must have a blog so that you can host the next month if you win) and then email your name, the link, and the name of the cupcake to me at misi23@yahoo.com with Cupcake Hero in the subject.
• Also join the Flickr group and upload 1-2 pictures per entry.
• Multiple entries welcome but separate email per entry.
• Deadline will be October 21st at 11:59 PM Central Time. I will post the roundup by the 23rd, followed by voting until October 27th.
• Readers will pick Finalist #1. I pick Finalist #2.
• I bake both Finalist cupcakes and assemble a focus group to help me decide the winner to be announced by November 1st.
• Any questions? Email misi23@yahoo.com
• For information on prizes, check out http://iheartcuppycakes.com/cupcake-hero/.

GET BAKING!

My poor, sweet, neglected blog! I’ve missed you!

I’ve been MAJORLY slacking on posting and it makes me a little sad. I’ve been busy with a lot of things. But Cupcake Hero drew me back!

This month’s Cupcake Hero secret ingredient was caffeine. All the coffee lovers in my life strongly suggested I do something with espresso. I am not a coffee lover by any means so I was hesitant. But I’m glad I did because these little babies are YUMMY!

The cupcake is cinnamon pear and oh so moist and delicious. The frosting is espresso buttercream. And the combo is spectatular! Some people thought it sounded a bit bizarre but one bite and I’ll have you sold!

What better time to make cinnamon pear cupcakes than the first few days of Fall. Ah, Fall. Welcome back, old friend!

Cinnamon Pear Cupcakes

1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
29 oz can of canned pear halves (you can probably use fresh but I didn’t know when I’d be making these so I got the shelf stable variety!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Drain the pears but reserve some of the syrup. Coarsely chop them. I popped mine into the freezer to firm them up before I added them to the batter.
3. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.
4. Combine dry ingredients and add to mixture. It will be very thick.
5. Stir in pears. The batter will loosen up a lot.
6. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full. They puff a lot.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Espresso Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
Pinch of salt
3 TBS pear syrup
4 tsp espresso powder
Powdered Sugar

1. Dissolve the espresso powder in the pear syrup.
2. Cream the butter and the shortening.
3. Add the pinch of salt and the espresso syrup mixture.
4. Add powdered sugar until the frosting is the consistency you like. I used about a full bag (I don’t measure all the time, I just go by the feel of it)

I don’t do crust. I have attempted crusts and have always epically failed at them. I do not like to attempt to get the butter and flour into the right combination of coarseness. I do not like the pressure of rolling it out, chilling it, rerolling it, and hoping you don’t overwork something in the process. I don’t do crust.

I did crust this week. It stressed me out a little. I expected the worst. And ya know what? It came out perfectly. I did crust!!!

So my friend Becky was showing me a recipe for sugar cookies that called for sour cream and she asked me if I thought it was weird that the cookies had sour cream in them. A little bell went off in my head and I remembered these little guys had sour cream in them too and it was far stranger to be in a pastry crust than a cookie, right? She wanted to try them and I was going to be watching the Bears game with her and some other friends that night so I figured I could bring these along. I cut it close. All the chilling time and prep time to roll and shape these things made me later than I wanted to be but not the last so it was all good. And everyone LOVED them. I was nervous because I took them straight out of the oven and over to the game so I had no idea what they tasted like. And I suck at crust so it could have ended disastrously.

I made half the batch for Sunday night and didn’t take any pics because I was so rushed to get to the game. And they all got eaten. So I made the other half today for pics (and I may have eaten some…). Sundays were cut into circles as Dorie suggested but I had a lot of scrap. I saw some other TWD posters did squares or triangles to eliminate scraps so I did both of those today.  I did not veer from this recipe at all and it was awesome. I think I will do some pear ones with my scraps for my parents. Yum.

For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or get it from Jules’ blog: Someone’s in the Kitchen.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

My friend Rachel is getting married in a few weeks and her bridal shower was last night. I wanted to make her an elaborate cake with the wedding colors but she is not having bridesmaids!! She told me her flowers were going to be sunflowers so I instantly knew sunflower cupcakes were in order!! They were surprisingly easy to do and she loved them!! Everyone was scared to eat them so I had my sister take the first one to get the party started. haha. Enjoy!

Field of sunflowers!

BOY WAS I WRONG. Nothing this delicious should ever be considered a waste of eggs! This was possibly the most delicious thing I’ve ever made. Its like a fudge brownie thats lighter than air. YUMMMMM. I will be making this for my Bible Study group when they come over at some point this year.  And maybe at other moments just to make it because its that good. My fav Dorie recipe so far. So don’t be scared of it!

I made no changes to the recipe and made sure to use high quality chocolate. I sprinkled the top with powdered sugar but it kind of clumped. I think I used too much or something. My edges got a little dark too and I’m not sure why but it was still delicious.  Let’s put it this way-my family and friends missed out majorly by not being in my house when this baby came out!

Thanks to Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic, who chose chocolate soufflé for TWD this week. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Susan’s blog.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!

OK, these were so incredibly delicious!! And I am not a coffee lover by any means. My dad, who is a coffee lover, was completely in love with them and ate most of them. Glad I pawned them off to his fridge and out of mine! The only thing I changed was the size of the pan. I only had an 8×8 so it baked a smidge longer.

So, I realize I am late yet again with my post. I work on the computer ALL DAY so I really hate getting on here when I’m not working so its sometimes hard for me to post on Tuesdays. I will get better at this!! I promise!! You may also notice I missed the Lime Cream Pie. Well, I didn’t really. I almost didn’t make it because I am not a pie eater but at the last moment decided to just make the cream and see how it tasted. It was GREAT! so great in fact, that I ate it all without taking any pics. So, yeah. Kinda failed that one. But I will make the full pie one day for a bake sale or something and then redeem my blog with pics of that one.

Thanks to Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell for choosing Espresso Cheesecake Brownies for TWD. For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Life in a Peanut Shell.  Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!