ConGRADulations! Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream frosting AND Cosmopolitan Cupcakes!!

It's that time of year my friends where years of hard work boil down to the final steps down the yellow brick road...GRADUATION!  My long time friend, Dorothy, graduated with her Master's in Social Work from Arizona State University.  CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

So in celebration, I baked her two delicious batches of cupcakes: Red Velvet Cupcakes, using the same recipe found in my previous post for CBRE's Softball Cupcakes. I was hesitant to make a pure Cream Cheese Frosting since I wasn't sure how long they would be out without refrigeration, so I looked to nifty ole Martha Stewart for a Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting which is basically the one I usually make, less the sour cream.  I finished these off with homemade ASU Graduation Caps made of Marshmallow Fondant!!

And if you knew Dorothy and I when we're hanging together, if it's not MAC, Marc Jacobs, or a Betsey Johnson product in hand, it's a cocktail :-P   So making Cosmopolitan Cupcakes for her was just the intuitive thing to do. I am proud to say that this recipe is my very FIRST fully personal recipe, so I'm going to be pretty stingy on this one and leave it just for me ;-)


Red Velvet Cupcakes
(Makes 30 cupcakes)

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle (1 ounce) McCormick® Red Food Color
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Using an ice cream scoop with tradition release handle, scoop into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans. When completely cooled, frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.

2. With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary.

3. Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute. Now FROST!

Cosmopolitan Cupcakes made with Vodka and Cranberry Vodka Buttercream Frosting
(Sorry Friends! This one is going to have to stay in my cupcake diary!)

Maroon & Gold for ASU:

Red Velvet Cupcake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting and Gold Glitter

NOW it's a party!

Grad Hat Cupcakes accompanied by Cosmopolitan Cupcakes .

Pose #1: Vogue with your Cupcake.

Pose #2: Devour your Cupcake.

Ole! Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes with Strawberry Margarita Buttercream Frosting

I'm just going to start this out by saying that I love love LOVE making alcohol-infused cupcakes.  There is plenty of room for custimizing, and the possibilities are seriously endless!  Perhaps this is the tipsy girl in me talking, but I find tons of inspiration from girly cocktails when thinking of new cupcake recipes to make.

My friend Rachel celebrated her birthday the weekend of Cinco de Mayo, so what better flavor cupcake to make than Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes!  I found this really good recipe from The Picky Apple Blog for the cupcakes and frosting.  Using cake flour instead of all-purpose flour would result in a more dense product and a finer crumb, so I gave it a shot (and didn't dissappoint!).  Also, cake flour doesn't rise as much (hence the increase in density) so filling the liners more than usual worked out just fine.

You may also notice that I have a heavier tequila hand as I altered the frosting recipe as shown below to a be a bit more generous in the alcohol. hehe :)  [It did give more of a runny frosting since the tequila ratio didn't completely blend, so I may add more sugar, butter, and stawberry preserves next time.]

Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes
Makes 22 cupcakes

3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teasepoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons limeade concentrate, I used Nellie & Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup tequila, Jose Cuervo Especial
5 tbsp strawberry preserves, I used Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tine with fun and sassy cupcake liners.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and powder and set aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter until smooth then add the sugar and cream together using a stand mixer. Once the butter and sugar are creamed add in the lime juice, strawberry preserves, and 1/3 cup tequila. Mix in one egg at a time, waiting until egg is completely blended before adding the next.
4. Add in flour mixture 1/3 at a time, alternating with the milk.
5. Use spring-loaded ice cream scoop to fill cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes.  Remove from pan and allow to cool.


Strawberry Margarita Buttercream Frosting

1 pound (16 ounce bag) powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 tbsp limeade concentrate
3 tbsp tequila
4 tbsp strawberry preserves
Pink food coloring, or Red will do

1. Using a stand mixer, cream together butter, powdered sugar, limeade, tequila, and strawberry preserves until smooth. 
2. Add drops of food coloring until frosting is desired shade of pink.

Step #3: Mixing in the stawberry preserves, lime juice and tequila.  Don't be alarmed if is looks like this!  Keep mixing and it will figure itself out as seen below...

Tada! 

 Step #4: Alternating with Flour and Milk.

Step #5: Cupcakes waiting for some lovin' from the oven.

The "BEFORE"

The "AFTER"!

 Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes all ready for a night out!

Did I mention it was a Stache-Tastic Birthday Bash?? OLE!

Birthday Girl eating some deliciousness!

All Stached-Out and posing with Rachel and our cupcakes!

The senioritas at Culinary Dropout eating cupakes :D

ADIOS AMIGOS!

Dig In!! The Archaeological Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Fondant Topper

The best part of making cupcakes is the creativity. Cupcakes are 3 square inches of an empty canvas, so make every inch count with delicious details!

We celebrated my friend Andrea's birthday a few weekends back and, of course, I jumped at the opportunity to paint some edible canvases. I really enjoyed incorporating a special part of her personality into the cupcakes: Andrea is currently in graduate school for Archaeology! So with a bit of research on the career, I got the creative juices flowing, preheated the oven, and baked away.

When asked what flavor she prefers, Andrea replied, "Chocolate, duh!". haha! So I used the Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Dede Wilson's Book, A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes and the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting from the book, Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. As usual, I often make these recipes my own by adjusting the quantities, substituting ingredients, and adding my own instruction if I choose to.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 18 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.
2. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl; set aside.
3. In large bowl using an electric stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the bowl at least once.
4. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in eggs one at a time, waiting until egg is absorbed and scrape bowl before adding additional egg.
5. Add flour mix in four additions, alternating with milk; beginning and ending with the flour mixture on low-medium speed.
6. Using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs. *Do not over bake! Chocolate cupcakes can get dry easily. I could have pulled them out a minute sooner to retain more moisture.
8. Remove from oven, cool cupcakes in pans for 5 minutes then remove and place them on cooling racks to cool completely before frosting.


Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Frosts 15-20 cupcakes

6oz (1 dry measure cup) of bittersweet chocolate, I used Ghirardelli's 60% Cacao baking chips
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablepsoon 2% milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar, sifted to remove all clumps

1. Place chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl and melt on medium for 25-30 second intervals until smooth and has a think pouring consistency. Stir well in between each interval to prevent burning the chocolate. Leave to cool slightly.
2. In a larger mixing bowl, beat butter, milk, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar until smooth. This can take several minutes.
3. Add the slightly cooled melted chocolate and beat again until thick and creamy. If it appears too runny to frost cupcakes, keep mixing as this will thicken it and improve consistency.

 Step #1: Melting the chocolate chips

Step #3: Add slightly cool chocolate chips into creamed mixture until desired thickness is acheived.

Making the archaeological fondant toppers.

Because I know as much about archaeological tools as I do about rocket science, I did my homework first! I knew I wanted to do for the artifacts, but thanks to the wonders of Google, I found inspiration for the tool toppers here.

Top row from left to right: ceramic bowl and grinding tool with corn granules, stone-carved arrows, stake wire flag with flagging tape, fan brush with hand trowel, and rock pick with soil probe.

I made cute little turtles too because Andrea likes turtles!

And here's a look at the final product!

Rock Pick with Soil Probe

Flagging Tape with Stake Wire Flag

Mexican Artifacts of Ceramic Bowl with Grinding Tool and Corn Granules

Fan Brush with Hand Trowel

Message for Andrea!

A picture taken en route to the birthday celebration.

Me with the Birthday Girl about to enjoy some cupcakes!

DIG IN!

Guest Appearance: This is me trying to stuff my husband's face with delicious-ness.

Who says cupcakes can't complement the taste of beer??

NOM NOM NOM NOM.

Cupcakes in action!

(Andrea along with her boyfriend Mike digging in.)

Have a lovely week!