Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

FOR THE SWIRL
1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
FOR THE CUPCAKES
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup  sour cream
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the filling: In a small bowl, stir all of the ingredients together until combined. Set aside until ready for use.
To make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers; set aside.
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl, making sure there are no streaks of flour remaining (do not over mix).
Place one tablespoon of batter in each of the paper liners in the prepared muffin pan. Make a small well in the middle of each cup of batter with a toothpick. Stir the filling to make sure the butter is combined, then spoon a scant 1 teaspoon of the filling into each cup. Use a toothpick to swirl the filling and batter together.
Add another tablespoon of batter to each cup and repeat the filling/swirling process.
Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Raspberry Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)

1/2 cup buttermilk

(or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice- add acid to the milk then set aside for 5 minutes before using)

Directions-

 Preheat oven to 350*F.

 In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.

 Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.

The batter will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.

Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Frost as desired when fully cool. 

* Feel free to use this recipe for a cake as well. The recipe above will work for a 6″ cake. Double the recipe for an 8″ or 9″ cake.

* A note about Cake Flour- Cake Flour has a lower protein content than traditional all-purpose flour, which results in a more tender, delicate crumb in the finished product. If you can not find or access cake flour, feel free to substitute as necessary, but your results will vary from the original recipe.

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
8 oz (1 block) cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons fresh raspberry puree (from about 1/2 cup fresh raspberries)
Directions:
In the bowl of a large electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
Add the cream cheese, and beat further until the butter and cream cheese are fully incorporated and smooth.
With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
Add vanilla.
Again, with the mixer on low, add the raspberry puree, one tablespoon at a time.
Continue beating, increasing speed to medium for about 30 seconds.
Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, and the moisture in your berries, the frosting may be on the soft side. I put the whole bowl of finished frosting in the refrigerator for about 1 hour to help the frosting firm up. If needed, you could add an additional cup of powdered sugar.

Cinnamon Breakfast Muffins

1/3 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg (preferably room temperature)
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. milk

Topping (option: cut topping in half*)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a medium-large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir just until combined, but still a bit lumpy. Do NOT overmix; overmixing will ruin the texture of the finished muffins. Also? Don't overmix the batter. Finally, don't overmix. Scoop batter into muffin tins that have sprayed with cooking spray. Using a large ice cream scoop, I got 8 medium-large muffins out of this batter; I think you could get 10-12 muffins by distributing the batter a little less generously. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges.

For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Place melted butter in another small bowl. Dip the warm muffins in melted butter (you can dip just the top, but it's even tastier to dip the whole muffin!), then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

3 cups flour                          2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt                           1 1/3 cups pureed fresh

1/2 cup milk                        2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp lemon zest                  2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar                         2 eggs

4 egg whites

Strawberry frosting

4 sticks unsalted butter     2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp sea salt                    8 cups powdered sugar (from two 1-lb boxes)

1/2 cup pureed strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease 24 cupcake tins.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the pureed strawberries, lemon zest, milk and vanilla in another bowl. Also set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and egg whites gradually, beating after each, until combined. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the wet strawberry ingredients to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins, filling up 2/3 to 3/4 the way full (depending on the size of your tins…I have really small cupcake tins so I filled mine up all the way). Bake cupcakes for 25 minutes or until golden. Be sure to test using a toothpick to make sure they are completely done in the center. Let cool.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting! Beat the butter until creamy then add the powdered sugar, lemon juice, sea salt and pureed strawberries. Continue beating (ideally with an electric mixer but you can do this by hand if need be) until very light and fluffy.