It’s Not About The Cake

I was originally going to share a recipe for these little dark chocolate cupcakes, but when I realized that they weren’t the star of the show I shifted gears.  The frosting is the true star here!

And no, this isn’t a sponsored post.  It’s just about me being adventurous in my kitchen.

Love making homemade buttercream frosting?   Then I have a new trick for you.  Try substituting Black Velvet Toasted Caramel Whisky in place of vanilla extract.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am not a huge frosting fan.  For me it’s more about the cake.  But I have to tell you that I COULD NOT STOP TASTING THIS FROSTING the entire time I was taking the photo’s for this post.  Seriously, it is that good!  And don’t you love how the alcohol didn’t tint the frosting?  It stayed bright white. 

I used about 1 tablespoon of Black Velvet Toasted Caramel in place of the 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract my recipe calls for and I didn’t think it tasted boozy.  However,  there is no reason that you couldn’t start out by adding one teaspoon of the BV at a time until you reach the desired flavor you’re looking for. 

Cheers!

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Frosted Carrot Muffins

Rather than save stacks of magazines from years gone by,  I make it a habit to rip out the pages from my magazines that I am super impressed with.  And that’s where this recipe came from.  The original recipe for these muffins was featured in one of my favorite magazines; Country Living (January 2009).

I significantly modified the original recipe, and while there is a little more tweaking to yet to be done, I think I am onto something here.  Frosted Carrot Muffin anyone?

Frosted Carrot Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line 16 standard-size muffin pan cups with baking wrappers and set aside.

1/3 c. olive oil

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar

2 large eggs

3 tbsp. milk

1 c. grated carrot

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, cream together oil, sugars, milk, and eggs.  Mix  in salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and flour.  Fold in grated carrot.  Divide batter equally between baking cups.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.  Immediately remove muffins from the pan and cool completely.  Frost with your favorite frosting recipe. 

As far as the tweaking goes, I’m going to work on making this muffin slightly moister.  I’ll be sure to update you once I accomplish that.

Do you rip pages from your favorite magazines to refer to later?  Or, do you have stacks of magazines to refer back to?

 

 

 

Made from scratch

What inspired me to make this recipe?

 

Lemons … Not really.   

And, what did I make?   Holy cow!

A Vanilla cake with lemon curd filling, and lemon buttercream icing. 

A four layer cake!

There is little, that is  more beautiful (in the world of baking) than a huge layer cake with a delectable filling nestled between each and every layer.  When I see one of these cakes, I ogle…  The cake, and lemon curd recipe was adapted from Elinor Klivans cookbook Cupcakes!   The icing recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

If you’re looking for the recipe email, or tweet me.