Halloween Marble Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a Halloween potluck my bff was having at work. I decided to do a vanilla chocolate "marble" cupcake which would allow me to do both orange and black cake.

I started with a box mix and then separated it in two, one half I made orange and the other black.

I added cocoa powered and black americolor gel in order to get a strong black color and not a grey.

The vanilla I just turned into orange with a little orange americolor gel. 

I started by placing a small scoop or orange cake in the pans.

Then I added some chocolate.

And topped them off with more orange.

They baked up to be a nice orange and black color!

I decided to go with a strong orange colored vanilla buttercream and black pearls.

Try them out and let me know what you think! 

I look from the inside.

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Halloween Marble Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box mix

3 eggs

¾ cups heavy cream

¼ milk

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

¼ cup cocoa powder

Orange food coloring

Black food coloring

­Frostings:

Vanilla Buttercream

Orange food coloring

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.     Heat oven to 350º. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.     Add mix, eggs, heavy cream, milk, and butter to bowl of your stand mixer and beat on medium for 2 minutes.

3.     Divide batter in half, add cocoa and black food coloring to half and mix well.

4.     Add orange food coloring to the other half and mix well.

5.     Divide batter between pans, alternating between orange and black batter.

6.     Place in oven and immediately turn down to 325º.

7.     Bake for 18-22 minutes.

Frosting:

1. Make frosting, add orange food coloring and mix well.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

There's not much story to these cupcakes, I just wanted to bake and had been thinking about making an easy snickerdoodle cupcake for a while so I finally did it. Since I needed wanted mini cookies to garnish with I also made some easy snickerdoodle cookies too! 

 I rolled them small and then rolled them in the cinnamon sugar topping and then in the oven they went! 

They came out nice and tiny but thick and soft! 

For the cupcake I started with a box mix (I said super easy, right?!), I substitute butter for oil and milk/heavy cream for water and they turn out moist and crumbly. So good. 

I added a couple tablespoons of brown sugar in addition to cinnamon to get a nice deep, rich flavor.

I mix everything in with the mixer going, it probably doesn't make a difference but I like to think it does. :)

After everything is mixed in I mix for a good 1.5-2 minutes on medium. 

  

It gets nice and think and easily scoop-able with my ice cream scoop! 

 After dividing the batter into the cups I topped them with the same cinnamon sugar mixture I used for the cookies. 

They came out looking so good and while they cooled I started on the caramel for the caramel buttercream. 

I was always intimidated about making caramel but it's actually really easy! You just throw the brown sugar, butter, and heavy cream in a pan and heat it up.. well sorta. 

While it melts you should stir it occasionally to make sure it all gets mixed up.

It will start to boil around the edges first.

Once it really starts boiling set your timer for 3 minutes and stir constantly while it boils.

After 3 minutes, remove it from the heat and add the vanilla. 

Adding the vanilla makes it pop and bubble, stir it in until it's mixed well.

Give it one last stir and then let it sit and cool! As my kindergartners would say, "easy peasy, lemon squeezy"!

Once the caramel has cooled you can start on the buttercream.

Beat butter until it's fluffy and then add the powdered sugar on low until it's incorporated… otherwise you're going to end up with a giant cloud of powdered sugar. 

Once it's incorporated kick up the speed to medium and beat until its all mixed in.

It should look something like this. 

Next add in your vanilla and mix it in.

Now, you're ready to add your caramel. 

I just pour it right on top. 

Then, turn on your mixer and let it do all the work. You'll know it's done when it looks like buttercream and you can no longer see any caramel.

After all that, it's time to assemble them! Add some frosting, a cookie, and then dust the whole thing with some more cinnamon sugar topping!

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Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box mix

3 eggs

¾ cups heavy cream

¼ milk

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

1 tbsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. brown sugar

­Frostings:

Caramel Buttercream

Cookies:

1 stick of butter

¾ cup of sugar

1 egg

1 ¼ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon for topping

3 tbsp. sugar for topping

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.     Heat oven to 350º. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.     Add mix, eggs, heavy cream, milk, and butter to bowl of your stand mixer and beat on medium for 2 minutes.

3.     Add cinnamon and brown sugar and mix well.

4.     Divide batter between pans and then sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar topping.

5.     Place in oven and immediately turn down to 325º.

6.     Bake for 18-22 minutes.

Cookies:

1.           Heat oven to 375º.
2.      Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3.      Beat in egg, flour, and baking powder.
4.      Roll cookies into desired size and then roll in cinnamon sugar topping.
5.       Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo