The Littlest Succubus

Mini Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter cakes and whoopie pies!

So I get bored. And we’re broke. I really wanted to bake but I’m out of cocoa powder and cinnamon rolls took too much time and I wouldn’t be able to bake them tonight.

We have tons of crunchy peanut butter! Tons of it! So after making puppy chow a few nights ago (the easiest munchies of the gods. Just look up muddy buddies on the chex website), I decided on chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream. But I didn’t want cupcakes. I wanted a cake! So I chopped the top of the cupcakes off and flipped them to frost them like mini cakes. Then I used the tops to make mini whoopie pies!

But once again, I have no cocoa powder! So here’s a simple recipe when you’re in the mood for chocolate cake and have most of the ingredients but this one!

Oh, and this frosting tastes just like those De La Rosa Peanut Mazapan candies from Mexico.
 

Mini Chocolate Cakes
Ingredients:
(yields about 10 standard cupcakes) 

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup and 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup and 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup milk

Peanut Butter Buttercream:
(You can half this recipe if you don’t like lots of frosting. I did this time around and had JUST enough to frost my cakes and fill my whoopie pies a little.)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy is preferred but crunchy will work)
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and brown sugar; beat in eggs, chocolate and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream.
2. Gradually beat in water. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
3. For frosting, cream the butter, peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth. I found 4 tablespoons gave me the perfect consistency but add more or less to your taste.

Now this recipe is light and fluffy so making mini cakes was probably not the best idea with these but they still turned out adorable! All I did was cut off the domed top of the cakes and flipped them upside down onto parchment paper to frost. I also paired the cut off tops and made whoopie pies. Then I just carefully picked up the cakes on the parchment paper and placed it into my storage container, but whatever way works for you!

Enjoy! 

Mini Pistachio cakes aka Vicky cakes.

Mini Pistachio Cakes filled with pistachio pudding.
The cream cheese frosting on top has a hint of pistachio.

I start at my new store tomorrow and wanted to bring along a sweet snack for everyone. Although I originally planned to make the signature red velvet cakes, the pistachio pudding was on sale and I instantly knew I had to make these.
I call these Vicky cakes. When I was little, my best friend’s mom would bake a pistachio cake for their birthday parties. It was my favorite thing considering pistachio ice cream was (and still is) my favorite ice cream and it tasted just like it in cake form. Not to mention they’re a pretty shade of green!

Eventually I’ll make a “real” pistachio cake by using ground pistachios instead of pistachio pudding but this is still one of my favorite cakes ever. So here we go!
This recipe yields 24 mini cakes and 8 standard cakes. 

Mini Pistachio Cakes with Pistachio Pudding filling!
Ingredients

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 packages (3.4 ounces packages) instant pistachio pudding mix
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups 2% milk
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• Green food coloring, optional
• 1 cup milk for pudding filling

Hint of pistachio cream cheese frosting!

• 6 tablespoons butter, at room temp
• 1 8oz package of cream cheese, at room temp
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons pistachio pudding mix

In a small bowl, whisk together half of a packet of pistachio pudding and 1 cup of milk and set aside to thicken till ready for use.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking powder and salt. Beat the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla in a large bowl. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until blended.

Fill paper-lined standard muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 375° for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. If baking minis, fill paper-lined mini muffin cups three-fourths full and bake at 375° for 12-16 minutes.
Allow cakes to cool for 5 minutes before filling. (I like to fill with pudding while the cake is still pretty warm so that the hole I poke closes back up easily). 

For the filling:

Fill pastry bag equipped with a round tip (I don’t remember what size I used but it was about 1/4” wide) with pistachio pudding. 

Poke a hole in the middle of the cake with a toothpick or wooden spoon handle (I actually used a piping tip to get a cone shape to fill).  Fill hole with pistachio pudding until pudding reaches the top of the cake. Then just frost!

For the frosting:

In a stand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until combined and smooth. Add vanilla and almond extracts along with 1 or 2 teaspoons of pistachio pudding mix (I used 1 to get the tiniest flavor of it but I think 2 would be delicious next time!). Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar until desired consistency and sweetness. (I also like to keep some milk or cream around too in case it gets too thick for my liking).
Frost cakes with knife or piping bag.

Enjoy! 

Mini Applie Pies.

I wanted to bake something for Thanksgiving but didn’t want to do cupcakes like usual. Instead I opted for the mini apple pie. I tweaked the recipe I found for a little more of that “apple goo” as I call it. The recipe supposedly yields 6, but I have enough left over apples and dough to make another 2. These things are delicious and filling. Sure I only took them out of the oven an hour ago, but if it’s already been an hour and I can only eat two then they must be filling… or maybe that was dinner. Here we go!

Mini Apple Pies!
(adapted from baking bites)

1 recipe All Butter Pie Crust Dough (right below)
2 tbsp butter
3 large apples, peeled and diced
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt

All Butter Pie Crust Dough!

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup butter, cut into 1 inch cubes and chilled
5-7 tbsp ice water

Whisk together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Toss butter in the flour mixture, then rub in with your finger tips until mixture is coarse and no chunks larger than a large pea remain. Add in water gradually and stir with a fork until dough starts to come together, then press dough into a ball with the palms of your hands. If dough is dry, add an additional tablespoon or two of water to pull the dough together.
Divide dough into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour before using.

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add in apples and sautee for 4-5 minutes, until they just start to soften.

In a medium bowl, whisk together cinnamon, brown sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add to apples and stir to coat. Cook until sugar is bubbling, apples are very tender and the mixture starts to thicken, 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature

Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out half of the pie crust dough on a lightly floured surface until they are about 1/8-inch thick. Cut dough into 6 rounds about 1-inch larger than the size of the muffin tin that you will be using. Press dough into pan and up the sides.

Roll out remaining half of the pie crust dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut smaller rounds into remaining dough to form the tops of the pies.
Spoon about 1/3 cup of cooled apple mixture into each prepared pie crust. Some liquid will have been released from the apples, so evenly distribute this as well. Top pies with a second round of dough and crimp the edges with a fork to seal.
Bake for 16-20 minutes, until pastry is golden brown. Allow pies to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then gently loosen and transfer to a wire rack to cool before serving.

I opted for a lattice top on two of my pies and fell in love! Time to bake some more tomorrow!

succubusinthekitchen:

My vanilla cupcakes with Nutella buttercream.

I’ve been meaning to bake these cakes for the past few days and finally got to it!
So of course, here is the recipe:

Cupcakes (yields 12 cupcakes):
·         1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
·         1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
·         1/4 teaspoon fine salt
·         2 large eggs, room temperature
·         2/3 cup sugar
·         3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
·         2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
·         1/2 cup milk

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. While beating, add the butter and vanilla until mixed.
3. Add in half of the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Add the milk and combine followed by the rest of the dry ingredients.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Now for my Nutella buttercream! I based it off a recipe I found earlier and tweaked it to my liking. This recipe is enough to cover 24 cupcakes, so I halved it when I made it and still had quite a bit left over. Try it for yourself!

Nutella Buttercream (enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes):

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 13-ounce jar of Nutella
• pinch of fine grain sea salt
• 1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 6-8 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Cream together butter and Nutella until well blended.
2. Add the vanilla and sea salt.
3. Slowly add half of the confectioners’ sugar followed by the heavy cream.
4. Combine the rest of the confectioners’ sugar.

And of course, add more sugar if it’s too creamy for you or more cream if too stiff.

Here’s how I halved the recipe:

1 stick of butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla
a bit of sea salt
7 ounces nutella
1 pound powder sugar (3-3/4 unsifted cups)
3-4 tablespoons heavy cream 

For more fun, you can add a dollop of nutella to the side of your piping bag and fill it with the butter cream for a nutella swirl.
I however didn’t really think of that right away until after they were all frosted and decided to go through and throw some nutella on each fold.

Try em out and let me know what you think! 

Yep. These were the ones I was just baking.