Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanutbutter Frosting

Yay, it's Oscar night. And since I still have free time, I can watch it without feeling guilty and be completely overtired the next day. I am not sure I manage the whole show, but I will try my very best. Also, it is time to celebrate one of my favourite flavour combinations, so I will have something to snack on tonight :-)
It is chocolate and peanut butter and it is about time I came along with a new cupcake recipe.




Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 125 g butter
• 125 g sugar
• 125 g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 medium free range eggs
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar/vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp milk

And how to make them:

• beat the butter until creamy
• add sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and cocoa and mix
• add the eggs, for extra fluffyness you can also separate the eggs and whip the eggwhites before carefully folding them in with the rest
• add the milk
• spoon into muffin tin (with muffin papers)
• bake in a preheated oven at 190 °C for 20-25 mins.

Now on to the frosting:

• I only give rough directions as I never measure it out...
• take 2 large tbsp of creamy peanut butter and equal amounts of butter and whip until soft and creamy
• add a pinch of salt
• now slowly add icing sugar while constant whipping until you have the consistency you are looking for
• then add a bit more icing sugar, so that it looks a bit too dry
• now add a little bit of milk and bring it back to a smooth paste
• that's it

Once the cupcakes are cooled, add the frosting in any style you like and top with some crushed peanuts. I use the roastes salted one to have a bit of contrast to the very sweet buttercream frosting. It's a bit like salted caramel. But you might as well use unsalted ones or leave them out completely.

And now, the winner is....

Lime Cupcakes

Hello, hello :-)

Another thing I got in masses from the market is limes. So apart from adding limes to my water and adding lime juice to my fruit salad, I have been looking a long time for a good recipe for lime cupcakes. And this is what I found somewhere in the internet. As usual, I have made some changes.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• zest and juice of two limes (or more to taste)
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• for the frosting: 60 g unsalted butter, 1 cup powder sugar, juice of 1-2 limes

And how to make them:

• pre-heat the oven to 175 °C
• sift flour into a bowl and add baking powder and salt
• in another bowl whisk the butter until fluffy and slowly add the sugar
• when finished add the lime zest and small portions of the lime juice. At this stage, the mixture might look curdled, but don't worry, it will come back together
• next, add 1/3 of the flour mix, followed by half of the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mix, buttermilk and last portion of the flour mix
• don't overwork the batter, rather mix with a rubber spatula after the last bit of flour is just incorporated
• divide the batter between 12 large or 24 micro muffin cups, place in muffin tray and bake for 25-30 mins (micro ones for 15-20 mins)
• while the cakes are baking, prepare the frosting
• whisk the butter until it becomes lighter in texture and colour
• add powder sugar in small portions until the buttercream looks just a bit dry (but not crumbly)
• next add lime juice little by little until you reach a smooth texture and the aciditiy you are looking for
• place in a piping bag and set aside until the cakes are ready and cooled
• once they are completely cool, pipe the frosting and add decoration (if wanted, candied lime peel works well)

Voila!

Chocolate Spread Cupcakes - Nussnougat Cupcakes

Here is another cupcake recipe which I just tried. It is very simple and quick, so give it a go!







 Ingredients:

• 100 g soft butter or margarine
• 120 g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 80 g plain flour
• 40 g ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 90 g chocolate spread (nutella does well here )


And how to make them:

• preheat oven to 170 degC
• stir butter and sugar until creamy
• add one egg after another and mix with an electric whisk
• mix flour, almonds, baking powder and cocoa and mix with the butter cream
• last add the chocolate spread
• distribute evenly between 12 paper cups and bake in a muffin tray for 20 mins.

• let cool completely
• for the frosting mix 150 g of cream cheese with 60 g of chocolate spread and distribute the mixture over the cool cupcakes

You can also use whipped cream or mascarpone cheese as topping. Since the cakes themselves are rather sweet, don't add too much sugar to the frosting. They are tasty enough even without any frosting.

Rübli-Cupcakes (Carrot Cupcakes)

Rübli-Cupcakes

And these one I made last sunday. They are very simple but a bit different to the carrot cake. But be careful, even though there isn't much fat in the cupcakes itself, the frosting is a little bomb...


Anyways, here the ingredients:

• 2 M eggs, separated
• 1 pinch of salt
• 70 g caster sugar
• 100 g ground almonds (I took half almonds and half haselnuts, was also very good)
• 1 Tbsp plain flour
• 75 g grated carrots (make sure to drain the liquid before you add them, otherwide everything goes soggy)
• papercups
• for the frosting you need: 100 g soft butter, 150 g soft cream cheese (phili does well) and 150 g powder sugar

How to make them:

• preheat oven to 175 °C (150 °C fan)
• whip the egg whites with the salt until very stiff, then add in the sugar slowly so that you obtain a smooth and glossy texture
• add one egg yolk after the other, fold them in carefully
• than add the almonds, flour and grated carrots
• don't wait too long before spooning the mixture into the paper cups
• bake for 25- 30 mins and let cool afterwards completely
• for the frosting mix the butter and cheese and sieve in the powdered sugar
• spoon the mixture over the cupcakes and let it set 

That's it! :-)