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Cupcakes

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Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter-Chocolate Frosting. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare a muffin tin with paper liners. For the cupcakes, in the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla and cream until combined. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and partially mix. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins. To make the frosting, combine the butter, sugar and milk in the bowl of a standing mixer. Frost the cupcakes and garnish with a banana chip. Enjoy! Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. I can’t remember if I mentioned to you our little jaunt to Georgetown over the summer. I don’t think I did, did I? In any case, we descended on Georgetown with the sole purpose of taste testing cupcakes.

Our first stop was naturally Georgetown Cupcake, which is featured on the TLC series “DC Cupcakes”. After struggling to find a parking spot and then standing in a 30-minute line on the hottest day of summer (I think the temp topped 110 that day), we finally got to place our order. We decided to get a 1/2 dozen of assorted cupcakes – vanilla/vanilla, chocolate/chocolate, chocolate/ganache, salted caramel, vanilla/chocolate, and chocolate/peanut butter.

From there, we headed to a different area of Georgetown to check out Baked and Wired. This is a great combo of cupcake and frosting, and both are super duper easy. Red Velvet Cupcakes. Really good red velvet cupcakes are elusive to many. Some are dry, some are TOO fake-red red. And what’s the story behind red velvet cake (and cupcakes) anyway? After doing a little research, I found that while foods were rationed during war time, bakers used boiled beets to enhance the color of their cakes and to retain moisture. Red velvet cake was a signature dessert at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel during the 1920s, and was also well-known in the restaurants and bakeries of the Eaton’s department store chain in Canada during the 1940s and 1950s. So now, on to my history with red velvet. The next step, of course, was to make a great one at home. Good any time of year, especially around Valentine’s Day.

One year ago: Soft Cheese and Pepperoni Bread. Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Frosting. You’ll be happy to know that I have recovered from my epic kitchen fail, the oven is sparkling, and to celebrate I give you these amazing mocha cupcakes with espresso buttercream frosting. Plus, it’s Friday. And cupcakes are a perfect way to welcome the weekend with open arms. It’s been a crazy, messy, stormy week, and you deserve one. I might even go so far as to suggest that you should just skip your morning cup of coffee or trip to Starbucks and have one of these instead. The cupcakes themselves strike a subtle balance between light chocolate and a hint of creamy coffee. Not overwhelming on either end of the spectrum, and the combination results in a smooth, clean flavor, which is perfect for topping with espresso-spiked buttercream. Now, back to my baking disaster (sort of) for a moment. If you’re in the mood for more cupcakes you may want to send summer out in style with these Lemon-Limoncello Cupcakes, and then usher in fall Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!

Margarita Cupcakes. Happy Cinco de Mayo! The one day a year when we can stuff ourselves full of chips, salsa, guacamole and margaritas. It’s a little bit of a foodie nirvana. Of course there is historical significance to the day, which I shared in my homemade restaurant style salsa post. But like most holidays that celebrate a heritage, people enjoy celebrating Cinco de Mayo with authentic food and drink. Tequila and lime? They say you should only cook with wine that is good enough to drink, and I hold the same belief when it comes to liquor and baking, so I decided that these cupcakes called for Patrón Silver tequila. I did some web surfing to see what I could find in the way of margarita cupcakes, and unfortunately came across a ton of recipes that used a box cake mix. Except for two things: there wasn’t any tequila actually in the cupcakes, and the frosting was a Swiss meringue buttercream (I don’t like fussy, complicated frostings – butter, sugar and added flavors do me just fine).