Pistachio Cupcakes



I made these for the daughter of a friend last year. They were soooo good. Everyone seemed to like them quite well. I ended up making her an awesome Twilight themed cake but that's another story I haven't yet posted.

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 oz.) pkg yellow cake mix
2 (3.2 oz) pkgs instant pistachio pudding mix
1 cup water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, combine dry cake and pudding mixes, water, oil and eggs. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Pour into a greased 9-inch or 10-inch fluted tube pan. Or in my case muffin tins lined with cupcake liners.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Adjust the baking time for cupcakes. I can't recall how long I baked these as cupcakes as it was last year when I made them. I would use the baking time suggested for cupcakes on the cake mix box as a guideline.

I topped the cupcakes with a pistachio buttercream. I used a standard buttercream recipe replacing the vanilla, almond and butter flavorings with pistachio flavoring instead.

Happy Baking,
~Kat~

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

So I made these cherry limeade cupcakes as part of our Mother's Day celebration. First recipe I've tried for the cherry limeade cupcakes. They turned out very pretty but I need to find a way to get more cherry flavor into the finished product. These are limeade cupcakes with maraschino cherry icing. I love the way they look but perhaps if I switch the flavors of the cake & icing they will have more of a punch of cherry taste. Enjoy!

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes:

Makes about 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup plain yogurt (you can use milk)

Directions:

Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and pwder and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter until smooth then add the sugar and cream together. Once the butter and sugar are creamed add in the limeade concentrate. Mix in one egg at a time. Add in flour mixture 1/3 at a time. When flour is thoroughly mixed, mix in the yogurt (or milk.) Batter will be slightly lumpy but should be smooth kind of like pancake batter. Divide the batter evenly into lined muffin tims and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, poke a few (5-ish) holes in the top of the cupcake, not quite to the bottom of the cake. Mix together the remainder of the limeade concentrate (about 3/4 cup.) Whisk the mixture well, so there aren't any lumps. Pour about a tablespoon of the syrup over the holes in the cupcake, slowly, so that the syrup absorbs into the cake. You can add more if you like, just go back over the cupcakes a second tiem if there is any syrup left.

For the icing I made a standard buttercream, but I used the maraschino cherry juice in place of the milk and vanilla extract. I added a little extra food colouring to the icing ot make it even more pink. Cupcakes are better when cold.

Help!

I need some feedback here. I want to try to make a "new" cupcake flavor. New for me anyway.  I'm borrowing some flavor combinations that sounded really good to me. My favorite is Cherry Limeade, but I'm also considering a chocolate malt cupcake and possibly a margherita cupcake. What does everyone else think?

Wish I knew how to set up a poll on here. That would be so much easier! LOL...one of these days I'll get it figured out.

Random Things of Happiness

Hello all! Sorry I've not posted much lately. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. It's the busy season for me at work, add stress and just personal issues to go along with that and I've not done much to blog about nor felt like looking at the laptop after working on a computer all day.

Here's a few little "somethings" that brought me some happiness during the past several weeks of craziness. Much love to my cousin M, my bestie SMD and my mom for being my rocks and anchors when I felt like the boat was sinking. I love you all.

This is my new apron my wonderful mom gave me. Isn't it just the CUTEST? Little, sparkly cupcakes all over. And it's reversible too. The other side has coordinating stripes like the ones along the bottom of this side and two cute little pockets. I love it! The glittery sparkles will probably come off in the wash a little each time it's washed, but it will still be fabulous, sparkely or not.

This is my souvenir my honey brought back for me when he went to a haunted halloween convention in St. Louis, MO a couple weekends ago. I love, love, love monkeys and he saw this little guy and knew it was perfect for me. Inside the rim it says "Have fun monkeying around." I very much enjoy having hot tea in the evenings and coffee in the mornings and this mug is the perfect size. It's lightweight and sooo adorable! Yep, he did good picking this out. It was accompanied by a pumpkin spice flavored lip balm. Pumpkin is one of my absolute favorite flavors. It's the best thing about fall every year.

My niece Kayla came to stay with us for several days while she was on Spring Break from college. We don't get to see her very often and I like to try to bake something with her when she's here. Usually she reaps the rewards of our efforts because we send her back to college with goodies. I reap the benefit of getting to spend time with her. These are Apricot Pecan Thumbprint cookies. They were simple to make, didn't take a lot of time and are really good. The recipe called for peach but I didn't have that, so I used apricot instead. I can't remember off the top of my head where the recipe came from. I found it online somewhere. Maybe Pillsbury's or All Recipes websites. I can't recall but they were delicious. We also made smokey four cheese mac-n-cheese which just lit her entire demeanor up. LOL...I've NEVER seen anyone that excited about Mac-N-Cheese. She had to text her friends about it. Don't worry, she took home a container full of the stuff.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more to post in the weeks to come. I'm wanting to make a second attempt at making cake pops. Last time I wasn't successful with making just the cake balls. I've learned a few things since then, things being done incorrectly, wrong amounts, etc. So I'm about ready to give it another go and see how well they turn out this time. Let's keep our collective fingers crossed they actually turn out this time!

Lots of love to you all and keep on baking! I'd love to see what's been cooking in your "laboratories!"