Super Bowl Sunday: Seattle and the White Mocha Caramel Frappuccino Cupcakes

Every morning I drive 45 minutes to work anxiously awaiting pulling into the Starbucks parking lot a few blocks away and finally getting ready and alert for my day (hmm, maybe I should do that before driving 45 minutes, but it's so darned close and convenient!).

With Seattle in the Super Bowl, it only seemed fitting to pay proper salute to my go to latte, the white mocha, and Starbucks' signature "Yep, I'm just gonna give up on my day" drink, the Caramel Frappuccino, with an epic cupcake mixing as many sugar laden flavor bombs as I could imagine. The result was an extremely powerful blast of caffeine and flavor that almost perfectly mimicked my ideal start to a day.

White Mocha Caramel Frappuccino Cupcakes
Adapted from Smells Like Home
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Time: 2 hours

The syrup should be liquidy

Caramel Syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup very hot water

Cupcakes
3 cups cake flour
1/2 cup white mocha powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 tbsp espresso powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs

While the drizzle is thicker

2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup strongly brewed espresso or coffee

Whipped Cream Frosting
2 1/2 cups cold whipping cream
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp powder sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Colorful cut straws for decoration

Caramel Drizzle
1/2 cup sugar
5/8 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

The latte tasting batter is clearly full of super caffeinated espresso, much like me on any given morning.

How to make tasty espresso on the cheap

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Make the caramel syrup by putting the sugar in a medium saucepan and heating over medium. When the sides starts to melt, gradually mix the sugar around until all of it is liquified. Let it keep cooking until it turns a dark amber then remove from heat and slowly poor in the hot water while whisking constantly until smooth. If at any point it clumps up, just let it keep going on medium-low heat until it's fixed. Set aside to cool.
3. Whisk the cake flour, white mocha powder, baking powder, salt and espresso powder together in a large bowl and set aside.
4. Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. 
5. Add the eggs one at a time until well incorporated.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract and caramel syrup.
7. Alternate adding in the dry ingredients and brewed espresso while mixing at low speed until just mixed (dry->wet->dry->wet->dry).
8. Fill lined cupcake tins 2/3 full with batter and bake for 16-20 minutes or until the toothpick test comes back clean.
9. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
10. Make the caramel drizzle by following the same steps as the caramel syrup but using a mix of the heavy cream and vanilla extract in place of the water. Be careful because this will bubble and steam quite a bit when you add the cream. Again, be sure to heat it up to take care of any solidifying. Set aside to cool completely.
11. Make the frosting by beating the whipped cream over medium-high speed with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until firmer peaks develop.
12. Pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes and top with the caramel drizzle. Make sure everything is cooled completely first so the whipped cream doesn't melt. Place a cut straw on each for decoration.

I think this can count as my morning coffee and muffin. Double win!

Ever since Robin got me my wonderful little stovetop espresso maker, I have been busy perfecting the art of the Sunday morning latte. This typically involves some white mocha powder and a dash of caramel syrup. The stovetop espresso manages to avoid the horrible burnt/no taste of my Coffee Bean pod machine and has really elevated my barista game. These cupcakes epitomized everything I look for in my milky coffee treats from the powerful espresso base to the sweet finish from the beautiful union of the chocolate and caramel. Seriously, from the smell to the taste, this was exactly what I was looking for. The only recommendation I would make is to maybe add a little more to the wet ingredients (perhaps a dash of milk) to help balance out the addition of the white mocha powder. Originally that was not present, and adding it made the cupcakes a little drier than I would have liked (although, apparently I was in the minority on that opinion), but they were still incredible. This really was an espresso lover's dream worthy of Seattle and their Super Bowl Champion Seahawks.

My inability to properly pipe the whipped cream may have led to me having choice words with my piping bag, but no one seemed to mind once it hit their taste buds.

Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Since I made the frosting look spiky, I obviously didn't need to do any other decoration.

Halloween is a glorious time of year where you get to dress funny and accept candy from total strangers (owners of windowless vans rejoice!)! This year I wanted to commemorate the glory that is a caramel apple by forever immortalizing it in a cupcake. The result was a teeth bustingly good combination of salty and sweet that will become a staple of my Halloween repertoire for years to come. (See, we're totally catching up to the present with these blog posts. Last week was Labor Day and now we're practically in November!)

Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes
Modified from Cupcake Wars
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Time: 45 minutes

2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and chopped
2 Fuji apples, cored, peeled and chopped
Salted Caramel (recipe follows)
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Your house will deceptively smell like apple pie, leaving you longing for pie and eating to cope.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. Combine the sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla extract in a stand mixer at medium speed.
3. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and mix over low speed until just incorporated.
5. Stir in the apples.
6. Fill lined cupcake tins 2/3 of the way with batter and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cupcakes spring back when touched (the toothpick test is a little tricky because of the apples). 
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
8. Top with salted caramel and let cool.
9. Pipe on the cream cheese frosting.

The apples may have hurt the structural integrity of the cupcakes, but they really bursted with flavor.

The cupcake itself is fantastic even without the toppings (trick your friends into believing they're healthy muffins!). Any time you can combine apples, cinnamon and butter, you are instantly transported to the magical land of apple pie, and that is always a good thing.

Salted Caramel

Previously seen in Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

From Bakingdom.com

Time: 15 minutes + cooling

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp corn syrup

1/2 cup cream

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Sadly, attempts to bob for apples in the caramel were a colossal failure that wreaked havoc on my beard.

1. Stir the sugar, water and corn syrup together in a medium-sized sauce pan (make sure there's plenty of extra room to avoid scolding hot sugar).
2. Bring to a boil and occasionally swirl (do not stir).
3. Remove from heat when the mixture gets a hint of amber color to avoid burning (it will rapidly change once it hits amber).
4. Carefully add the cream in a slow, steady stream and stir with a long wooden spoon. Wear a cooking mitt and be wary of the steam.
5. Stir in the butter and salt then let cool to room temperature.

Whenever a recipe calls for caramel and I'm not feeling overly lazy, I always rely on this salted caramel to deliver a winner. The delicious smooth caramel is perfectly sweet and gooey, while the bites of sea salt make it unforgettable. 

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Modified from Cupcake Wars

Time: 5 minutes

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

8 oz cream cheese, room temp

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

All my frosting pictures may look the same, but I guarantee they're all uniquely delightful.

1. Beat the cream cheese with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer over medium speed. 
2. Add the butter and vanilla extract and  beat until well mixed.
3. Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt until smooth. 

I then proceeded to lick the tops of each cupcake. Trick or treat indeed.

This unassuming looking cupcake may not win any costume contests, but it'll hold a special place in your party guests' hearts. That cinnamony apple goodness and vanilla cream cheese provide a wonderfully sweet combination that is balanced beautifully by the salted caramel. When I set out to make a caramel apple cupcake, this is exactly what I was hoping for. Stick around to find out if this apply delight reigned supreme over my other act of cupcakery, The Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcake, on All Hallows' Eve.

Dulce de Leche Apple Pie

After a two month hiatus that was almost too much to endure (I needs my pie), Robin and I teamed up again to deliver another tasty take on a traditional pie. Having already made among the most delicious strawberry-rhubarb and cherry pies known to man (and I'm sure whatever alien species may exist as well), we decided to bake a good old fashioned apple pie. Except, this apple pie would have the gooey amazingness known as dulce de leche to separate it from your grandma's. Despite almost ruining my microwave, we still managed to deliver one fantastic pie worthy of your favorite diner.

Dulce de Leche Apple Pie
Adapted from RecipeGirl.com
Servings: 1 pie
Time: 150 minutes

Despite the weird taste from cornstarch, Robin kept eating it.

Pie Crust (recipe here)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
2 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
1 braeburn apple, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp apple cider
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

This seemed like a fitting top to our Apple pie.

But I forgot the image would be flipped when we actually placed it on...

1. Get your pie crust prepped. You can find the recipe in the link provided or just buy frozen crust. The crust needs to sit in the freezer for an hour, giving you lots of time to make the filling and dulce de leche.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
3. Make the dulce de leche. We made ours in the microwave, which tasted great but had somewhat of a weird consistency. Just microwave the condensed milk on medium power lightly covered in two minute increments until it reaches the desired thickness (about 10 minutes). Be sure to stir well between each round. Also be careful that it may overflow and get all over your microwave and cause your plate to stick to the rotating microwave tray (not that that's what happened to us or anything...). You can also make dulce de leche in the oven or on the stove which will give a much nicer consistency but will take about 5 times longer at least.
4. Mix the sugars, cornstarch and spices together in a small bowl and set aside.
5. Toss the apples, dulce de leche, cider and vanilla extract together to cover the apples. 
6. Coat well with the dry ingredients.
7. Cover a 9" pie tin with half of the rolled out crust and fill with the apple mixture.
8. Top with the other half of the rolled out crust and sprinkle on brown sugar. Make sure to cut some vents into the top.
9. Bake for 30 minutes. If the crust begins burning, cover with aluminum foil (either as a collar around the ends or completely covering the top).
10. Drop the temperature to 375 and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
11. Let cool for at least half an hour (preferably longer if you have that kind of crazy willpower) to let the filing set.
12. Top with vanilla ice cream and serve.

You can't help but feel wholesome looking at that.

After anxiously sitting in front of the oven waiting for the pie to finish, we were treated to a wonderfully gooey dessert that kept things interesting. Nothing quite beats having that warm apple pie meet the cold ice cream to make your taste buds grateful. This was a fairly straightforward pie, aside from the dulce de leche. After we finally cleaned up the microwave, we were able to get a delicious, but far too thick dulce de leche to mix in with our apples. Due to its highly viscous (read: solid) nature, it didn't evenly spread throughout the filling, so we were left with delightful little pockets of dulce de leche that were a nice treat when found (think of it like finding the baby in a king cake except everyone ends up a winner and no one chips a tooth).

If the dulce de leche, takes on a weird consistency just whisk it like crazy (and watch it get stuck to the whisk).

Three pies in to our amazing pie odyssey, I'm ready to declare our baking venture a massive success (it always ends in me eating pie, so really there was almost zero chance for failure) and apply for the necessary small business loans to start up our own pie shop (writers, please send in your best pie puns for naming consideration). Next up, we need to start experimenting with different crusts (even though our current one is perfectly flaky), so we can mix things up a little. Any suggestions for the next pie we should tackle? 

Now that looks like a sweet baker you would gladly buy pie from.

But before long her true pie devouring intentions shined through.

Recipe Revisited: Junk Food Cookies

I swear the drizzle looked really pretty up until taking the picture.

Often times when you add things like potato chips and pretzels to cookies, you lament the fact that you didn't put more delicious fattiness per bite. The first time I made these Jimmy Fallon Late Night Snack inspired cookies, they spread out too much and the full salty vs. sweet impact wasn't felt. They also seemed to be missing something that was holding them back. Thanks to my sister's sophisticated palate, it was determined that that something was the oh so indulgent salted caramel.

Junk Food Cookies
Original Post
Servings: 9 cookies
Time: 45 minutes

The proper amount of pulverizing

1 cup and 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
6 tbsp granulated sugar
6 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Potato chips
Pretzels
Salted Caramel, Recipe Here & Here

The ratio of junk to batter should be highly favorable on the junk spectrum.

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Make the salted caramel as instructed in the links above (I figure it doesn't need to be posted a third time).
3. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Using the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugars and vanilla at low to medium speed. 
5. Add in the egg until fully incorporated.
6. Pour in the dry mixture slowly over about 3 turns. Use low speed and be careful not to overmix.
7. Crush the potato chips and pretzels in a plastic bag. You don't want them to be too small or it'll just taste like tiny bits of salt. Also, they shouldn't be so big that you risk stabbing the roof of your mouth.
8. Stir in the chocolate chips, pretzels and potato chips by hand. The batter should look like it's as much junk as it is batter.
9. Place 1-2 tablespoon sized masses on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to turn halfway through. Let them cool on the sheet for 2-5 minutes to let the bottoms harden slightly.
10. Once cooled, drizzle on the salted caramel.
11. Immediately brush teeth after eating.

I have issues with leaving enough room for cookies to spread. 

All the proper adjustments were made to truly send these cookies into the upper echelon of desserts. The larger potato chip and pretzels chunks (as well as using more of them in the batter) really help bring out that amazing salty and sweet, and the salted caramel drizzle hammers home the tremendous interaction of the two perfect foils. Another change I made was that I increased the amount of baking soda, so the cookies rose more and didn't spread as much, helping make sure each bite was just as concentrated with sugary/salty goodness. In my opinion, these are the perfect cookie. For just a few extra minutes, you can turn boring old chocolate chip (ok, who am I kidding. Chocolate chip cookies are still fantastic) into this unusual but delightful treat.

Even though the originals (right) were more traditionally circular, the taste winner is clear. 

Cupcake Saturday Part Deux: Chocolate Caramel

Remember to remove the giant sugar decoration before trying to eat the cupcake in one bite.

For the second cupcake of our epic day of baking, Jenny and I decided to balance the fruit cupcake with some chocolate. We had previously made a devil's food cupcake topped with a ganache that was good, but a little too one note since it was just chocolate on top of chocolate. To fix this we made a cupcake that contained the gooey severe burn hazard caramel and a cream cheese and caramel frosting.

The following recipe yields 28-30 cupcakes.

Salted Caramel
From Bakingdom.com
Time: 10 minutes + cooling

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp sea salt, crushed

Progression of the caramel. 

1. Stir the sugar, water and corn syrup together in a medium sized sauce pan (make sure there's plenty of extra room because scolding hot sugar is not something you want touching you).
2. Bring to a boil and swirl occasionally (do not stir).
3. When the mixture gets a hint of amber color remove from heat (see picture). It's very easy to burn the caramel. It will rapidly progress once it hits this color (even after you remove it from the stove).
4. Very carefully add the cream in a slow but steady stream and stir with a long wooden spoon. The mixture will steam and grow, so you might want to wear a cooking mitt on your hand that is adding the cream.
5. Stir in the butter and salt then let cool to room temperature. You should cover it with a paper towel, since anything that lands in it will get stuck.

The finished highly viscous treat also works great as a hair gel.

This is a great caramel recipe. The only change I would consider making is either adding a little more salt or use a coarse sea salt to really bring out that salty/sweet contrast that I love so much in desserts like Pizzeria Mozza's Butterscotch Budino.

Sugar Decorations
From Bakingdom.com
Time: 10 minutes + cooling

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sater
1 tbsp corn syrup

We're quite artistic when it comes to randomly dripping hot sugar.

1. For the decorations, you just need to follow the same procedure as the caramel without adding any of the cream, butter or salt.
2. Quickly drizzle shapes onto a sheet of parchment paper and let them harden.
3. Remember to remove the drizzling tools from the mixture as they will become stuck.

Like I said, remember to remove the spoons from the sauce before it thickens...

Once you've made the caramel, making these sugar decorations is a snap. Plus, it's super fun. The Bakingdom site also recommends making spiral shapes by lining a rolling pin with parchment paper, but we weren't quite up to that decorating challenge. Try to use parchment paper that isn't too waxy. If it is, the caramel designs will roll and break apart.


Chocolate Cake
From Anne Thornton's Recipe
Time: 15 minutes prep + 25 minutes baking

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Mmm chocolatey

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugars together in a mixer on medium until light and fluffy.
4. Add your eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
5. Mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla well.
6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk at low speed (1/3 dry -> 1/2 buttermilk -> 1/3 dry -> 1/2 buttermilk -> 1/3 dry). Scrape the sides down after each cycle and be careful not to over mix.
7. Scoop the batter into a lined cupcake pan. Fill each division 1/2 to 2/3 full to avoid muffin tops.
8. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until the toothpick test comes out clean. Make sure to rotate halfway through.
9. Let cool in the pan for 1 minute then remove to a wire rack.

Originally, we tried the cupcake recipe from Bakingdom, but we were not happy with the results. The cupcakes tasted fine, but they had a very strange, gooey consistency with caved in tops. The recipe calls for 2 cups of liquid and applesauce instead of eggs, so the combination of that probably led to our problems. Not to be deterred, we embarked on Anne Thornton's recipe that I previously used for whoopie pies. It was far too cakey for the whoopie pies, but perfect for our cupcakes. 

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

From Bakingdom.com

Time: 10 minutes

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

5-6 cups powdered sugar

Salted caramel sauce (see above)

Sugar decorations (see above)

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer.
2. Add in the vanilla.
3. Mix in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Stop when you reach the desired sweetness.
4. Glaze the cupcakes with the caramel sauce or add it as a filling in the middle.  You may have to microwave the caramel if it has hardened too much. Go for 15 seconds at a time at medium power.
5. Drizzle the inside of a piping bag with caramel then add the cream cheese frosting.  Pipe on the frosting.
6. Garnish with a sugar decoration.

Glazed wins out over filled because you get caramel in every bite.

The caramel swirls in the frosting added a great element of color and flavor. Even though both of our frostings today were cream cheese based, they actually provided some nice variety. The sugar decorations add a nice crunch, so you should also make some small dot shaped ones that are easier to eat.

At last a cupcake Rorschach test! I see a dancing lizard.

We preferred the glazed cupcakes over the filled ones, but the filled ones were like a super awesome Hostess cupcake. I'm starting to think that every cupcake should have some sort of delicious glaze or drizzle on top. Everything came together for one great cupcake that is definitely my favorite chocolate cupcake so far. 

It was a fantastic day of baking with Jenny that will hopefully be followed by many more. Now, I just need to finish convincing her to put up a baking blog, so my stomach can live vicariously through it.