Cupcake-palooza '15: Vanilla Buttermilk Nutella Cupcakes

Recently, I have felt strongly compelled to return to the humble beginnings of my baking dreams and reignited my love of cupcakery. In the month of April alone, I have managed to make as many cupcake posts (see also Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes and Hummingbird Cupcakes) as I did in the previous two years. While this resurgence of living a hard life of cupcaking is likely an attempt to assert my alpha maleness on my new city (bad bakers 4 life!), it has been a most welcome one amongst my friends and coworkers. This past weekend, we hosted a party for the residents in Robin's program and I knew exactly what baked goodness I needed to contribute to the festivities.

Vanilla Buttermilk Nutella Cupcakes
Modified Heavily from Martha Stewart
Servings: 36 cupcakes
Time: 45 minutes

Crazy thin batter

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Nutella (lots of it)
1 batch Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
Awesome sprinkles

As you can see, I was very scientific and precise with my Nutella spoonfuls.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix the eggs, water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract together in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in 2-3 increments. Mix until well incorporated.
5. Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 full with batter. Top with a spoonful of Nutella in the center.
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the toothpick test comes out clean.
7. Make the single greatest use of sugar in all of existence, Nutella cream cheese frosting. Stick to the lower end of powdered sugar if using actual Nutella. 
8. Sprinkle until your inner child is satisfied and enjoy.

The Nutella is practically teasing you with just a hint of its presence.

Nutella is the single greatest weapon someone could have to make simple desserts seem amazingly rich and complex. The vanilla buttermilk cupcakes themselves were nicely moist and bouncy (thanks to employing my current obsession of using oil over butter and the super aerating buttermilk), but they would have benefited from a little more vanilla. Fortunately the gooey Nutella center instantly catapults the cake into rarified air. Even with all those great components, everything plays second fiddle to the Nutella cream cheese frosting (which managed to entrap Robin in its Siren spell). This frosting is the stuff of dreams (to quote our friend Bridget), and has proven to yet again to be the best use of sugar that I have ever found (see Cafe du Monde Cupcakes). In the end, these cupcakes were essentially a grown-up flavor blasted version of everyone's favorite yellow cake with chocolate frosting that is sure to have you and your guests salivating for more.

If for some reason you do not have a cupboard full of sprinkles, feel free to improvise and use fruit instead.

Farewell Cooking Tour: Café du Monde Cupcakes

For my final Houston baking feat, I was going to have to return to the dessert that began it all- cupcakes.  Aside from raising the blood sugar levels of my coworkers, I was also hoping to give Minh a thank you for the awesome Bánh Mì Making Tutorial earlier in the week. The only logical solution was to turn Minh's famous Café du Monde Cake into convenient hand-held form.

Café du Monde Cupcakes
Modified from the Previously Seen Cake

Batter that doubles as coffee delivery system

Servings: 24 cupcakes
Time: 75 minutes

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, peeled and chopped well
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp Cafe du Monde coffee powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup brewed Cafe du Monde Coffee (you can add milk to get total volume)
1 Batch previously seen Chocolate Hazelnut Frosting
Nutella

It's clearly very important to be consistent with your Nutella scooping...

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Whisk the flour, well chopped hazelnuts, baking powder, salt, and coffee powder together in a large bowl. Set Aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add in the eggs one at a time until well incorporated.
5. Mix in the vanilla extract.
6. Alternate adding in the dry ingredients and brewed coffee in 2-3 batches until just mixed.
7. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
8. Fill each ~ 1/3 full with batter.
9. Add in a spoonful of Nutella.
10. Top with additional batter so the liners are ~ 2/3 full.
11. Bake for 14-18 minutes until the toothpick test comes back clean (be careful not to hit the Nutella center).
12. Let cool on wire racks.
13. Make the amazing Chocolate Hazelnut Frosting. If you're using Nutella, stay on the light side of added powdered sugar, because it already has a lot. If you use the hippie Hazelnut Butter that I did err toward the high side.
14. Find a skilled cake decorator to make up for your cupcake tips being in a box halfway across the country.
15. Frost the cupcakes and garnish with hazelnuts.

Sadly, despite already having what is essentially frosting on the inside, they still require topping.

Using my vast scientific knowledge to construct a shrinking ray to bring the Café du Monde cake to its tinier form was a success. The use of gluteny flour definitely proved to be quite the step up from the gluten-free cake I had previously made, which had a weird, falling apart consistency (but still tasted damn good). Once again, this perfectly mimicked the Cafe TH original's flavor. Sure it may have lacked the traditional ice cream scoop accompaniment, but it more than made up for it with the Nutella center of awesomitude.

Michaela's piping skills are second to none

I was worried that the cupcakes were going to have to impress with their taste alone. The great move meant a lot of my baking supplies were either donated or already sitting in Charleston, and shockingly Kevin does not have a single piping tip of his own. Fortunately he has excellent taste in girlfriends/decorators, and Michaela was able to make the best out of a just a ziploc bag with the end cut off.

The Nutella tends to sink toward the bottom, but it magically always finds its way to your mouth.

Between these cupcakes and the amazing Snickerdoodle Nutella Cookie Cake, I think I helped cement my legacy in Unipixel company lore. My last day was full of free good-bye coffee and lunch, as well as careful monitoring of the rapidly depleting dessert supply in between siting with my feet up on my cleaned out desk. I may have been slightly hurt that no one grabbed my leg in an attempt to keep me from leaving, but it was a great 3 years of entering the real world. Now, it's time to scour my myriad cookbooks  as I make use of my abundant free time until employment begins anew.

Despite being my favorite cupcake and a wonderful self-portrait, my coworkers neglected this cupcake to last due to lack of frosting goodness.

Farewell Cooking Tour: Eggless Snickerdoodle Nutella Cookie Cake

For my final day of work,  I needed to really hit my coworkers hard with the reality that I was leaving. One last time, I was going to have to delight them with my baked goods and really put the pressure on Kristina, the young, up and coming chemist/baker in the office (clearly I started a trend).

Since I had nothing to worry about the night before other than continuing my recent, improved Smash Bros. play, I decided to make two final delectable entries in my quest to cause our company's insurance premiums to go up. After much careful consideration, it was determined that Nutella was going to help me make it extra memorable.

First up was supposed to be my go-to eggless snickerdoodle cookies now filled with Nutella, but fate and my attention span had other plans.

Snickerdoodle Nutella Cookie Cake

Adapted from the Previously Seen Cookie

Servings: 1, 9" round cookie cake

Time: 35 minutes

Nutella Layer!

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar, 

1 cup dark brown sugar

4 tbsp sour cream

4 tbsp milk

2 tbsp vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2-3 tsp cinnamon

Nutella (lots)

Cinnamon Sugar combo for dusting

Failing to grease the pan may lead to structural damage 

1. Decide to make Nutella filled snickerdoodles. 
2. Give up after making one batch of cookies because it takes too long.
3. Have a eureka moment where you realize you can just make one giant cookie.
4. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
5. Cream the butter and sugars together in a stand mixer.
6. Mix in the milk, sour cream, and vanilla.
7. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon until thoroughly incorporated.
8. Spray a 9" round cake pan.
9. Spread half the mixture in a layer in the pan.
10. Add a layer of Nutella.
11. Spread on the remaining mixture for a second layer (try to keep it between 1/2 to 2/3 full).
12. Dust the top with cinnamon and sugar.
13. Bake for 18-24 minutes. This will be tricky to tell because the snickerdoodles will rise up high while in the oven. Following removal, they will drop back down for an extremely dense cake.
14. Let cool. 
15. Frost if this isn't enough of a sugar bomb for you.

The single batch of cookies that were made. They were just as delicious.

The decision to turn this into a cookie cake may have been the greatest decision I ever made at my old company. The Nutella and snickerdoodle combined for an awesome, gooey cinnamon explosion that just might have been the best cookie cake I have ever had (take that mall cookie stands!). The dense (in both weight and flavor) cake provided the perfect change-up from typical dessert fare to really get my final baking adventure off to a killer start. Icing the cake with the leftover frosting from my other dessert may have been overkill, but no one seemed to notice, as the cake was gone before lunchtime.

Frosting- perfect for covering up cookie cake deformities and for that morning pick me up

Stay tuned for the for even more sugary, hazelnutty sweetness with Cafe du Monde Cupcakes.

4 Ingredient Nutella Espresso Brownies

Concluding my lazy, ingredient deficient Sunday, I made 4-Ingredient Brownies to truly test my belief in everything Buzzfeed tells me. I was extremely skeptical that the mere 3 ingredients suggested to me could make anything resembling a delightful treat, so I added an extra for good measure.

Would an evening of baking without tons of time consuming steps be enough to please my sweet tooth, or would it leave me feeling flat, much like brownies sans baking powder?

Nutella Espresso Brownies
Adapted from Kirbie's Cravings
Servings: Thin 9" round worth of brownies
Time: 20 minutes

1 1/4 cup Nutella
7 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp espresso, finely ground
2 eggs

Is it actual batter or did I just spread Nutella across a baking dish?

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl until a smooth batter forms.
3. Stare at the mixing bowl confused that there aren't a bunch more things to measure.
4. Spread evenly into a lightly greased 9" round baking dish and flatten with a spatula.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the toothpick test comes back clean. Cool in the dish on a wire rack.

After sitting overnight they formed an actual structure instead of just oozing out delicious Nutella.

At first, I was completely disappointed in these brownies, and my faith in the internet was seemingly forever shaken. The brownies didn't quite set in the oven and even after cooling appeared to be a gooey mess of Nutella (which isn't all that tragic of an outcome if you think about it). Fortunately, I decided to bring my bastardized baking into work the next day instead of throwing it out, and it was a huge hit. Overnight, this started to resemble a more standard fudgy brownie. The hazelnut and espresso combo was a massive success (and it should be since it's a great latte). Still, I can't help but think these could have been better with a few more ingredients. A little baking powder and extra flour to help these rise would have been nice. It also would've masked the grainy nature of the espresso a little better, as the ground coffee stood out amongst the otherwise smooth Nutella base. Despite these minor shortcomings, you can't really beat having tasty brownies ready to go in under 20 minutes with minimal effort.

Pop Tart Cake

After months of sugar laden baking adventures (I really need to remember to schedule a dentist appointment sometime soon when I'm not deathly afraid of what they are going to find.), the Robin Farewell Baking Tour 2012 reaches its final stop. While it may have seemed fitting to go out on yet another perfect pie for the crazy pie train, we decided to instead make something completely different: homemade pop tarts! Fate smiled down upon our absurditude and yielded a most ridiculous dessert that would make even the most classically trained French Pastry chefs quiver in their aprons.

Pop Tart Cake
Adapted from A Golden Afternoon
Servings: 6-8
Time: 45 minutes

One of these things is not like the other

Pastry
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut
1 large egg (Plus one for brushing)
2 tbsp milk
Nutella
Fruit Preserves (I used strawberry and triple berry)

Icing
Powdered sugar
Milk
Vanilla extract
Almond extract
Crazy sprinkles in as many shapes as possible

If that picture doesn't scream buttery heart cloggingly gonna be crazy flaky crust, then I don't know what does (and I don't know why I have this tightness in my chest).

Killer swirls in the nutella are key

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl then cut the butter in using a pastry cutter, two forks or just smash it with your fingers until you have pea-sized pieces.
3. Pour in the milk and egg and mix until just combined.
4. Divide the dough in two and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick.
5. Cut both pieces of dough into 6 equally sized rectangles. 
6. Brush one side (we'll use this as the bottom) with the egg wash then distribute your toppings as you want.
7. Realize that the dough is too thin to come apart without tearing and decide the only proper thing to do would be make a very traditional cake.
8. Place the top sheets on to cover one at a time and press down with a fork to seal and create individual pockets so the fillings don't mix.
9. Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.
10. Let cool.
11. Make the icing by mixing copious amounts of powdered sugar with very small amounts of milk, vanilla extract and almond extract until a mildly thick and not too runny icing forms.
12. Spread on the icing and cover with sprinkles.
13. Revel in the beauty of the pop tart cake that surely doesn't look like it was made by several 8 year olds.

It's amazing how loads of sugar can fix anything. 

Buttery deliciousness doesn't begin to describe the spectacular pastry shell we crafted. This could easily become a go-to pastry recipe for future desserts. Most importantly, though, the pastry proved to be quite unruly leading us to ditch the idea of individual pop tarts in favor of one crazy confection. It was a perfectly silly and fun way to bring a close to our baking adventures (and as with most things in my life, I have butter to thank).

The dinosaur sprinkles narrowly beat out the dolphins for my favorite. Moons and stars were the most disappointing.

For the icing, we used my standard diabetic glaze (previously seen in Snickerdoodles and Sugar Cookies). This solidified the pop tart cake as a breakfast food as the sugary richness can easily substitute for your morning coffee (to get you going for at least 30 minutes before crashing hardcore).

Just to be safe, you should pour even more sprinkles once you cut the cake. In fact, I'm developing a giant fork made of sprinkles specifically for eating the cake.

When making a pop tart cake, it's important to have options (I'm pretty sure my mom told me that along with some stuff about being sure to get at least 5 hours of TV in each day). We chose two berry fillings to go along with the golden child of Pinterest- Nutella (Ryan Gosling would have also been an acceptable answer). Upon initial devouring, the warm berry fillings proved to be supreme, but as this cake matured like a fine wine, the Nutella became the ideal. In the end, everything came together for a dessert we'll never forget.

This picture taken after making our first pie pretty much sums up all our baking adventures.

While it's sad to see a great baking partner and the only person who is a bigger pie enthusiast than I am go, I'm excited to see her start her new life as Dr. Robin, MD. This one final baking excursion encapsulated all the fun and randomness that filled our misadventures in the kitchen and served as a fitting send off. If you're in South Carolina, I highly recommend injuring yourself as she is one of the rare people I know who I would trust as my doctor.