Sugar and Spice Cupcakes

In the current edition of Cooking Club magazine there's a section for baking with love. This is the second recipe from that section I'm going to try, the first one being the Apple-Cranberry-Syrup Crisp. I'm not too sure that I'll do the other three recipes. We'll see. For now though, let's roll with some cupcakes. The only thing I changed was to skip the cardamom I didn't have.

Sugar and Spice Cupcakes
adapted from Cooking Club, Fall 2013
click to print

2/3 c raisins
1/3 c hot coffee
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 c packed dark brown sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, room temperature
2/3 c sour cream, room temperature
1/3 c walnut halves, toasted, coarsely chopped

Frosting
1 (8-oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 - 3 c powdered sugar, sifted
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Combine raisins and coffee in small bowl; let stand 15 minutes. Drain raisins, reserving 2 tablespoons coffee.

Since the raisins weren't fully submerged, I made a point to stir them every few minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Whisk flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.


Beat brown sugar and 1/2 c butter in large bowl at medium speed 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy.


Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.


At low speed, beat in sour cream and reserved 2 tablespoons coffee.


Beat in flour mixture just until combined; stir in raisins and walnuts.



Spoon into muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.


Cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl at medium speed 1 minute or until smooth and fluffy.


At low speed, beat in 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, adding additional powdered sugar to desired frosting consistency (frosting will be soft). Beat in cinnamon and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes or until chilled.


I skipped the chilling part.

Spread frosting over cupcakes.


Store in refrigerator; serve at room temperature.


I still have half the frosting left; it's not because I ate three of the cupcakes last night before frosting them tonight. There's just a lot of frosting. My having eaten three cupcakes without frosting should be indicative of the fact that they are delicious! They're almost like muffins since they have raisins and nuts plus the spices are nice. The cinnamon frosting though is good too. With enough frosting for another batch, I'll do these again with the cardamom I picked up today.

Cost:

• raisins: $1.09
• all-purpose flour: $0.12
• dark brown sugar: $0.52
• unsalted butter: $0.40
• eggs: $0.63
• sour cream: $0.50
• walnuts: $0.48

Total: $3.74 or about $0.31 for each of 12 cupcakes with frosting leftover.

Apple-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Continuing my hunt for new recipes to utilize the pumpkin puree in my freezer, I came across this one and looking so pretty, I had to try it. Apples and cream cheese in a bundt cake? Oh yeah, let's go.

The original recipe photo had coursely chopped pecans on top of the cake but the recipe didn't call for them. I fixed that. Otherwise, I executed the recipe as specified.

Apple-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
from MyRecipes.com
click to print

CREAM CHEESE FILLING
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 c butter, softened
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

APPLE CAKE BATTER
1 1/4 c pecans
3 c all-purpose flour
1 c granulated sugar
1 c firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 c canola oil
3/4 c applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 c peeled and finely chopped Gala apples (about 1 1/2 lb.)

PRALINE FROSTING
1/2 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 c butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c powdered sugar

Prepare filling by beating cream cheese, butter, and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended and smooth.


Add egg, flour, and vanilla; beat just until blended.


Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Begin preparing batter by baking pecans in a shallow pan 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. Once cooled, reserve a few nuts for topping; finely chop the remaining to yield one cup.

You can't really tell, but the nuts in the second picture are toasted.

Stir together flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and allspice in a large bowl.


Stir in eggs, canola oil, applesauce, and vanilla, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.


Stir in apples and pecans.


Spoon two-thirds of apple mixture into a greased and floured 14-cup Bundt pan.


Spoon filling over apple mixture, leaving a 1-inch border around edges of pan. Swirl filling through apple mixture using a paring knife.


Spoon remaining apple mixture over Cream Cheese Filling.


Bake for 60-75 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 2 hours).


Meanwhile, prepare frosting by bringing brown sugar, butter, and milk to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly; boil 1 minute, whisking constantly.


Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and gradually whisk in powdered sugar until smooth; stir gently 3 to 5 minutes or until mixture begins to cool and thickens slightly.


Pour immediately over cooled cake. Spread whole pecans over still-soft frosting.


This recipe doesn't call for an electric mixer of any sort so you can make it in the middle of the night without worry of waking neighbors. I like that. I also liked how many apples went into this cake; I used six and it looked almost like too much but it baked very nicely.

I'm not sure what the point was to leave a one-inch gap between the filling and pan before swirling the filling into the batter. There was no way to keep the filling from touching the pan edges when swirling and even if I did, the weight of the remaining batter on top of the filling would've squished it to the edges anyway. Maybe the gap is to help you see where you started swirling?

When preparing the frosting, I didn't really pay too much attention to how much time it was boiling. Once I saw the texture change from thick and bubbly to thin with smaller bubbles the pan was removed from heat. It worked out well and the frosting tasted fine. As the frosting cools it gets stiffer; it starts firming almost immediately. I waited a little bit too long before pouring it over the cake. It wound up so thick my frosting didn't trail down the sides of the cake at all. Next time I'll pour it while still quite warm since I like that drizzly look. The nuts were pushed into the stiff frosting to ensure they'd stick.

I brought this cake to work, dropped it off in the kitchen when I arrived and found it was gone shortly after lunch. Guessing, it tasted good!

Cost:

• cream cheese: $1.11
• butter: $0.40
• granulated sugar: $0.36
• eggs: $1.09
• all-purpose flour: $0.25
• vanilla extract: $0.24
• pecans: free from Mom
• llight brown sugar: $0.42
• canola oil: $0.32
• applesauce: $0.50
• Gala apples: $2.25
• milk: $0.05
• powdered sugar: $0.20

Total: $6.95 or about $0.50 for each of 12 servings.