Gluten-free Butter Pecan Cupcakes - Recipe

For the cupcakes:
2 3/4 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 lightly beaten eggs
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped dates

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a whisk. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, butter, milk and vanilla with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined. Add the dry ingredients and stir until nearly combined. Fold in the pecans and dates. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes.

For the frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners/icing sugar
2 tbsp. milk

2. Cream the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar, 1 cup at a time, alternating with a tablespoon of milk until all ingredients are combined and the icing is light and fluffy. Frost each cupcake and sprinkle with additional chopped pecans, if desired.

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

White Chocolate & Almond Cupcakes - Recipe

For the cupcakes:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners/icing sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped, blanched almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine all the cupcake ingredients (except for the chocolate chips and almonds) in a large bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips and almonds with a spoon or spatula. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes.

For the frosting:
1 cup white chocolate chips
5 tbsp. milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 tbsp. chopped, toasted, almonds

2. Melt the chocolate and milk in a double boiler, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and beat in the confectioners sugar until smooth. Frost each cupcake and sprinkle with the chopped nuts.

Makes approximately 18 cupcakes

Cranberry, Orange & Macadamia Nut Cupcakes - Recipe

For the cupcakes:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners/icing sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tbsp. orange zest
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine all the cupcake ingredients (except for the chocolate chips and cranberries) in a large bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips and cranberries with a spoon or spatula. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes.

For the frosting:
1 cup white chocolate chips
5 tbsp. milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 tbsp. chopped, toasted, macadamia nuts

2. Melt the chocolate and milk in a double boiler, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and beat in the confectioners sugar until smooth. Frost each cupcake and sprinkle with the chopped nuts.

Makes approximately 18 cupcakes

White Chocolate & Macadamia Nut Cupcakes - Recipe

For the cupcakes:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners/icing sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine all the cupcake ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) in a large bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon or spatula. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes.

For the frosting:
1 cup white chocolate chips
5 tbsp. milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 tbsp. chopped, toasted, macadamia nuts

2. Melt the chocolate and milk in a double boiler, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and beat in the confectioners sugar until smooth. Frost each cupcake and sprinkle with the chopped nuts.

Makes approximately 18 cupcakes

PS Be sure to frost these cupcakes quickly after finishing the icing. Because of the chocolate content it will develop a bit of a hardness as it cools, still soft and delicious enough to eat, but very difficult to pipe or spread.

Apricot & Cottage Cheese Muffins - Recipe

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup confectioners/icing sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

2 lightly beaten eggs

4 tbsp. sunflower oil

1 1/4 cups low-fat milk

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 cups fresh apricots, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a spoon or whisk. In a large bowl beat the eggs, oil, milk and cottage cheese with an electric mixer on low-medium speed until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the cheese mixture and stir with a spoon or whisk until almost combined. Gently fold in the chopped apricots, be careful not to over mix. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes. 

Makes approximately 12 muffins

Blueberry & Cottage Cheese Muffins - Recipe

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup confectioners/icing sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

2 lightly beaten eggs

4 tbsp. sunflower oil

1 1/4 cups low-fat milk

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a spoon or whisk. In a large bowl beat the eggs, oil, milk and cottage cheese with an electric mixer on low-medium speed until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the cheese mixture and stir with a spoon or whisk until almost combined. Gently fold in the blueberries, be careful not to over mix. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes. 

Makes approximately 12 muffins

Celebrating Students - May Kitchen Creations Part 1 of 2

Hey, I'm back!
Did you miss me?

Well, I have been up to lots of bakin, cakin, popin (no lockin)...Did I just show my age again?
This month I'm going to show you what I've been doing in 2 parts...otherwise one post will go on forever, and you'll feel like you're at someone's house, looking through their parents photo album, feeling like the first 20 pics were interesting, and after that you wish you knew how to fake a terminal stomach virus to just get out...
I think I went to a weird place there, lets all go back to the happy place, shall we?

So this week I was asked to make some delicious treats for some very hard working kids. These are kids who take a little time out of each day to stop watching tv, or playing video games, to sit down and build up their math and/or reading skills. Many of these students, because of their dedication and great attitude towards learning, are working well above their grade level. These children, if you hadn't guessed, are of course Kumon students. After a year of hard work, they deserved some special recognition and some extra fun.

If you're not overly familiar with Kumon, here are a few things to know... They are the largest and most successful after school learning program in the world, they've been around for over 50 years, they help students develop their learning skills in locations all over the world, their company colours are lemon yellow and sky blue, their slogan is 'Be truly amazing' (way to empower kids, right?!), and many of the awards they hand out are star focused (because these little geniuses are of course, all stars)!

To bring together the themes of Kumon I first created these three cakes, in vanilla, chocolate and marble.

These stars were so fun to make. I used the Wilton Star pan. If you don't want to purchase all sorts of different character pans, check out your local Bulk Barn store. You can rent a variety of pans for 2 dollars a day...seeing as you'll probably only need it for a day, for 2 dollars you can have stars, giant cupcakes, dora, diego, elmo, fire trucks and so many more! Amazing!!! I bet in the background of this picture you can see a glimpse of some special cake pops I made for the event...

For a special touch, I stuck these star pops on white and yellow striped paper straws. These sweet little stars are a delicious lemon cake mixed with lemon frosting, shaped in to stars and dipped in tangerine chocolate. I gave them happy little faces, they reminded me of the stars on Dora the explorer, in a few different colours these would be a great accent to a Dora party.

Since a number of the students attending would be under 6 years old, I thought some mini cupcakes would be perfect for those little hands, and little tummies. I made these sweet chocolate cherry cola minis topped off with chocolate icing.

These tiny cupcakes filled my entire house with the smell of cherries, it was like being in an orchard. The smell was absolutely incredible. For the kids who don't really like chocolate, I made some rainbow minis. Yummy vanilla cake filled with rainbow bits, topped with vanilla icing, and more rainbow bits.

These were a big seller. I'm starting to think kids may actually like vanilla more than they like chocolate...is that even possible?!

In thinking about meeting needs and working with special diets, I made a few gluten-free options. Cake pops are quickly becoming a family favorite so, I made two varieties of gluten-free pops. First I made some vanilla caramel pops.

These rich pops remind me of a caramel macchiato, vanilla caramel cake, mixed up with vanilla caramel frosting dipped in white chocolate, it's a good thing these come in small bites, because they sure offer a lot of taste in a small package. I finished them off with a nice blue drizzle to bring out the Kumon colours. I also made some gluten-free mocha almond fudge pops.

I know these particular pops don't look like much, but let me tell you, they are beyond delicious! These are my favorite of all the pops I make. The chocolate and the almond together, mixed in a dense but gooey centre, its just a little ball of heaven. These are a little like rum balls, but with an Amaretto flavor, instead of Rum. YUMMY!!!

For those with bigger tummies, or the little ones who like a challenge, I made a variety of standard sized cupcakes. First, and probably my favorite are these chai tea latte cupcakes...with a twist. These cupcakes have a grown up spicy flavor with a sweet surprise...they're filled with mini chocolate chips.

I love the baking cups too. I got these awesome baby blue foil cups from The Cupcake Social (a great shop on etsy, if you're looking for fabulous baking supplies, stop by her shop)! The great thing about foil baking cups is that they don't show colour through. So if you're baking a darker mix, like chocolate, the cups stay the same colour. If you've baked chocolate cupcakes in paper liners before, you know what I'm talking about. The darkness of the chocolate overpowers your liner and you don't get to see that they are light pink, or have a pattern on them, these great foil cups solve all those issues!

Using the same baking cups I made some classic white on white cupcakes.

Everybody loves a french vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. It's a classic for a reason. To match with the blue baking cups, I sprinkled the tops of these cupcakes with some blue shimmering sugar. So pretty!

Now, of course I had to balance the cupcakes out, and make some yellow ones too. First I made some Chunky Monkey cupcakes. These are yellow banana cupcakes filled with chocolate chunks, topped off with chocolate icing and a banana chip...and baked in a yellow cups, (you knew that last part was coming, didn't you?!)

I didn't even expect the banana chips to match in colour, but somehow, they worked out just perfectly! These little babies are delicious and nutritious, sweet chocolate (with antioxidants) and full of fiber and potassium from real, fresh bananas inside each cupcake.

I also baked up an old favorite. Orange creamsicle seems like one of those flavors that takes you back to being a kid and sitting outside in the summer time, happily licking a creamsicle (or orange popsicle), while it melts and drips all over your face and hands...but you didn't care, because being all sweet and sticky and dirty was great as a kid. These cupcakes were also baked in some yellow baking cups I got from The Cupcake Social (I'm tellin ya, stop by her shop, the variety of baking cups is insane). These cups were yellow polka dots, stripes, damask print and plaid, lovely!

Just like the french vanilla cupcakes, I topped these orange cupcakes off with vanilla icing and yellow shimmering sugar. I love these cupcakes. They're light, and fruity and sweet and creamy, yum, just yum.

I hope you didn't think I only made those 3 pops. I wouldn't do that. We needed to have over 100 pops, so I also made these triple chocolate pops.

Once these pops, are...popped... they're way beyond triple chocolate, they're more like quintuple chocolate...that's 5 times...right? 3 kinds of chocolate in the cake, chocolate frosting and milk chocolate coating...hello chocoholics, let me introduce you to your dream treat! I also made these great strawberries and cream pops.

These pops may be blue on the outside, but they're a pretty pink on the inside. Little girls love these pops. They would be amazing for a Strawberry Shortcake themed party, with a different coating on the outside of course. But, this time, in keeping with the Kumon theme, I dipped these strawberry pops in blue candy coating and sprinkled on some yellow non-pareils.

All in all, the event was a big hit. Hundreds of students and their families came by to celebrate their hard work and great accomplishments! Congratulations to all the rising stars of Kumon, you most certainly deserved 'a day sprinkled with fun'!

Well that's all for this year's student awards event. Check back in a week or two to see what else I've been up to in my kitchen this month.

For more information about Kumon go to www.kumon.com or check them out on facebook!

Until next time,
Happy baking, caking and decorating!
Love and sprinkles, xoxo