Fresh summer peaches, another awesome Farmer's Market find...not what to do with them? I've made peach pie a million times so that was out. Then I happened to see peach cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen and knew a cupcake it must be! I wanted something a little different though, so the Peach Pie Cupcake was created.
I couldn't decide though which frosting I wanted, so I made three, I know I'm a compete dork. I preferred the brown sugar, T liked the brown butter better. The mascarpone was pretty great, just not really the right thing for this cupcake though, it needed something with a little more depth and heaviness. Amazingly, the kids actually ate these...cool...and they're not half bad for breakfast either. Inspired by Willow Bird Baking.
Peach Pie Cupcakes
1 stick unsalted butter
3/8 cup light brown sugar
3/8 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup applesauce (or any fruit flavor baby food you like)
3 Tbs Tuaca liquor, divided
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
2 cups fresh peaches chopped
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 12 wells in a cupcake pan. In a small bowl, make streusel. Add all the ingredients and cut the mixture into crumbles using a pastry blender. In a separate bowl, combine chopped peaches with 1 tablespoon Tuaca liquor, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time and mix. Mix in the buttermilk, applesauce, vanilla, and the Tuaca/peach juice and extra 2 tablespoons Tuaca.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add a little of the flour mixture at a time to the wet ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Beat the batter well until air is incorporated, about 2 more minutes.
4. Pour batter until each cupcake well is just under half full. Spoon a thin layer of streusel over this batter, then drop in one tablespoon of peaches (making sure not get extra juice from the peaches). Fill in with the rest of the cupcake batter. If you love a lot of peach in your “cobbler,” you can add a few more hunks on top. Spoon a sprinkle of streusel over the top of the batter in each well. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan for a couple of minutes, and then on a cooling rack. Once cupcakes are completely cool, frost them.
Streusel
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting, Smitten Kitchen
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread or dollop on cooled cupcakes.
Mascarpone Frosting, Martha Stewart
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.
Brown Butter Icing, Martha Stewart
4 Tbs un-salted butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 Tbs milk
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk; stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon milk, a little at a time, until consistency is spreadable. Let cool 5 minutes. Use immediately* These cupcakes would have looked amazing if I'd had chocolate brown cupcake liners, I really need to buy some!
I've seen snickerdoodle cookies, but never actually tried one... so although these are supposed to be snickerdoodle muffins, I'm not sold on the name, so I'm renaming them Cinnamon Crunch Muffins. They are a seriously yummy breakfast muffin, or... just happen to be cruising by the kitchen, grab one off the counter muffin...whatever.
The kids can be really funny about muffins, so imagine my surprise when these Cinnamon muffins were gone in less than 24 hours...can we say HIT?!?
I admit they were a bit of work, and I think I'll refrigerate the dough for maybe 15 minutes before trying to 'roll' them. I use the term roll lightly, they actually ended up more like blobs that I dumped in cinnamon sugar. Rolling was not gonna happen, so I ended up spooning the cinnamon sugar over the blobs until well coated.
However you do it, who cares, no one is going to see your funky blobs, they just want good muffins!
Cinnamon Crunch Muffins
8oz unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cream of tartar
¾ tsp nutmeg
1 ¼ cup sour cream
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar and 2-3 Tbs cinnamon mixed together for rolling (shallow bowl).
Preheat oven to 350°.
1. Cream butter and sugar until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the vanilla, mix on medium. Add eggs one at a time and mix until each is incorporated.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.
3. Add the flour mixture and the sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture. Start with and end with the flour. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.
4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out muffin batter (leveled), one at a time and drop into cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin until well covered, or like me, spoon cinnamon sugar over the blob until well coated. Place muffins in ungreased/unlined muffin tins and bake about 20-22 minutes or until cinnamon sugar top is well cracked.
Tips:
1. If the dough seems real real wet, don't add all the sour cream.
2. Refrigerate dough 10-15 minutes before rolling in cinnamon sugar.
Is it a muffin or a cupcake? It's all in the frosting, leave it off and you have a delicious muffin for breakfast, add it on and YUM, awesome little cupcakes! Both the cupcake and frosting are adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, I just think they needed something extra. I've made these before and they were unbelievable, but decided to make just one more change, exchanging some of the butter for applesauce instead and I'm glad I did. So that you don't have a super sweet cupcake, make sure your applesauce isn't sweetened, or use baby food!
Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 4 very ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
¼ cup ground pecans (finely grind in a food processor), optional
* more ground pecans for topping
1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, applesauce, mashed bananas, eggs, and both extracts. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not over mix). Fold in pecans. Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups. (Ice cream/cookie scoop is best).
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. (Start checking at 20 minutes, and remove as soon as toothpick is clean, do not over bake). Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.
Honey-Cinnamon Frosting
1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, 15 minutes out of fridge is best
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1. Cream butter with electric mixture until warm and smooth. Add honey, cinnamon, and extracts. Beat on high 4-5 minutes.
2. Frost cupcakes with the back of spoon once completely cooled.
3. Sprinkle with extra ground pecans.
Tip: If you only have sweetened applesauce, cut bake slightly on the sugar.
Yum-Yum-Yum
I absolutely LOVE these delicious little bites of heaven! Thanks to Lisa Roman, creator of the Baby Cake, from Food Networks Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Hers was the winning recipe and once you bake these, you'll know exactly why. I have baked these at least 6 times now, and they are still my favorite cup cake ever...not to mention they're a huge hit with everyone I've ever shared them with. Today I've made them for a 4 year old playdate, I'm sure the little kiddos will gobble them up.This suped up modified cream cheese frosting is the absolute best frosting I've ever eaten in my entire life! If you follow the recipe though, you'll be eating frosting for a year, you can cut it down by half and still have some to spare.
The smell of these alone, was hard to resist. My kitchen hasn't smelled that good in years! I found this recipe while doing extensive cupcake recipe searching...I'm so tired of doing the same old thing. Now that summer is here, I just couldn't resist Key Lime, I mean really, is there anyone who can?!? I've always loved, loved, loved Key Lime pie, and since I'm on a cupcake kick, I thought this seemed a perfect way to jump into summer with both bare feet :)
And believe it or not, it is my third Ultimate Recipe Showdown recipe, found completely by accident! Those ladies (as I've yet to try one of the guys), certainly do produce some good stuff. This Key Lime Cupcake is from Jamie Nondorf, thanks so much Jamie!
The cupcakes were awesome, although a bit dry, and didn't quite want to stay together. I added a bit of extra zest and key lime juice to the cupcakes, and backed off a bit on the confectioners sugar in the frosting, overall though, they were really nice, I may just need to tweak it a bit the next time.
Fresh summer peaches, another awesome Farmer's Market find...not what to do with them? I've made peach pie a million times so that was out. Then I happened to see peach cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen and knew a cupcake it must be! I wanted something a little different though, so the Peach Pie Cupcake was created.
