Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Five Toppings

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Five Toppings

My last cupcake recipe of the year! Can you believe I've done 53 of them altogether? I have no idea what I'll do with all my new-found free time! I am, however, really excited that I managed to stick with this and do a recipe every week. Go me!

Cupcakes:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

16 oz sweet potatoes, drained and mashed (I cooked down fresh sweet potatoes but if you need to save time canned works just as well, with the added bonus that you don't have to strain out the fiber!)

2/3 cup apple cider

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg (if you don't have nutmeg, allspice will substitute)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices, and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.

In another bowl, mix sweet potatoes, apple cider, and vanilla until smooth. If you used a fresh sweet potato, you will need to strain it through a sieve of some kind to get out all the fibers before you mix it in.

Alternate in the sweet potato and flour mixtures, beating until just blended. The batter will be a gorgeous golden-orange color.

Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full. 

Bake for 13 minutes, turn, bake for 13 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 30.

Caramel Topping:

6 soft caramels

Spread the caramels very thin with your fingers, then lay them over top of the cupcakes.

Vanilla Topping

3 tbsp butter, soft

1 1/2 cups xxx sugar

Dash of vanilla

2-3 tbsp cream

Beat all the ingredients until smooth. Frost generously.

Chocolate Topping:

2 oz fine chocolate, semisweet

1/4 cup cream

Melt the chocolate in the cream using a double boiler. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Let cool slightly before using. Drizzle over cupcakes.

Cinnamon Topping:

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup xxx sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt the butter and brown sugar together over low heat (between 2-4 on a stove dial). Add the cinnamon and stir until mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat and whisk in the xxx sugar.

Frost cupcakes immediately, as topping will set up fast.

Whipped Cream Topping:

Make or buy whipped cream (I cheated and bought because I was in a hurry). Top generously.

Cupcakes adapted from FoodNetwork.com.

And there you have it! Five different toppings, six cupcakes each. I couldn't decide which one would go best with the cupcakes when I was making them, so I decided to use all three. In retrospect, I think the cinnamon or the whipped cream would be best, but it's really up to you and what tastes good.

Also, I didn't have time to make them, but sprinkling some toasted pecans over the vanilla frosted cupcakes would have been divine!

I hope you enjoyed this foray into the world of cupcake baking; I definitely had a blast. Any future recipes will definitely be documented for this blog, but I'm not going to keep the same rigorous schedule at this point.

Thanks for reading!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Whipped Cream

Chocolate Peanut-Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Whipped Cream

These cupcakes were made with my friend Liz in mind. The cupcake itself is very dense, so the whipped cream provides a nice contrast. That said, because of the chocolate it will solidify and get kind of a weird texture, so you want to make it right before you serve these cupcakes, and don't let them get too chilled, because it really doesn't thaw well.

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) butter, room temp

2 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sour cream

1/2-2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

30 miniature Reese's peanut butter cups

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together cocoa, flour, and baking powder, and set aside. Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Add vanilla. Alternate in flour mixture and sour cream until fully combined, then use the mixer to beat in the peanut butter. The batter will be really, really thick.

Scoop the batter into baking tins, about 3/4 full. I used my spiked baking tins to impale the peanut butter cups so they'd sit on top of the batter, but in retrospect because of the thickness of the batter I think you can just press them gently into the top of each cup of batter. Cover the peanut butter cup with a small about of batter.

Bake for 10 minutes, turn, bake for 13 minutes. Let cool.

Makes 30.

Chocolate Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 4.5 oz bar of good semi-sweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)

Coarsely chopped mini Reese's for garnish

Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave in intervals of about 20 seconds, stirring after each time. When it is fully melted, remove and let cool.

Whip the cream until thick, being careful not to whip too much, or it will turn into butter. You can sort of tell when you're there because you will see the impression of the whisk in the cream.

Slowly stir in the melted chocolate until combined.

Top each cupcake with a generous helping of whipped cream...

...and sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups for garnish.

I should note that I made enough whipped cream for only half the cupcakes; the other half are going in the mail to the aforementioned Liz, and since whipped cream probably won't survive the trip to Seattle I'm preparing something else for a topping. You may, therefore, need to double the recipe.

Cupcakes heavily modified from a recipe by Martha Stewart

Frosting by me.

Black Raspberry Shortcakes

Black Raspberry Shortcakes

These super delicious cupcakes are also very low on sugar, if you're cooking for someone who is trying to avoid refined sugars. I used black raspberries because I want to take advantage of the season, but obviously any other fresh seasonal fruit would be great.

Cupcakes:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 tbsp almond extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, and baking powder. Cut in the butter. You can do this either with a pastry cutter or your hands, mushing it together until it forms coarse crumbs. If you have ever made pie dough, this is the same idea.

Stir in whipping cream, almond extract, and eggs, using a fork or bread hook, until dough forms.

Roll medium-sized balls of dough and place into the bottom of lined cupcake tins. They should fit evenly into the tins.

Bake for 8 minutes, turn, bake for 7 minutes. Let cool.

Makes 22.

Black Raspberry Whipped Cream:

1 1/2 cups fresh black raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream

Wash black raspberries and mix with sugar. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Whip the cream until it gains body and forms stiff peaks. Be careful not to whip for too long or you will get butter!

Drain the raspberries of any residual liquid, then stir into the whipped cream.

To finish:

3/4 cup fresh black raspberries

Remove the shortcakes from their wrappers and slice them in half using a serrated knife. Top each bottom half generously with the whipped cream, then replace the top. Add fresh black raspberries to garnish.

Adapted from Betty Crocker.