Carrot Cake Pancakes with Maple Whipped Cream Cheese

When I was a kid, my parents once let me put frosting on pancakes. I think it was a special occasion, with frosting left over from someone's birthday cake, and it was definitely a one-time thing. But after that breakfast, I was ruined. Nothing else could ever compare.

In case you haven't had the pleasure, let me just tell you right now: pancakes with frosting are the epitome of the good life, the breakfast of hedonists, the ultimate "treat yo'self" meal (Parks & Rec style).

Easy Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting {Secret Recipe Club}

Sometimes you just need a cupcake.  Or a few cupcakes.  I feel that I need cupcakes often, but it's rare that I actually need a dozen, full-size cupcakes.  Unless I have a party to take them to, making a whole batch of cupcakes can often end in disaster, with me deciding that a cupcake with coffee is a great breakfast, a cupcake with a side of fruit is a perfect lunch, and dinner is best concluded by eating another two cupcakes, and so on for the next few days.

That's why I love small-batch baking.

This delicious recipe for a small batch of easy vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting comes from Asiya at Chocolate and Chillies.  I was assigned her blog for my first month participating in the Secret Recipe Club, and had so much fun perusing her recipe index and deciding what to cook (if you haven't heard of the SRC, it's basically a club where each month you're assigned a blog to cook from, and someone else is assigned your blog, and it's a fun surprise on the reveal day to see who had your blog and what they decided to make).

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Brownies

The large amount of frosting on these brownies represents the large amount of love I have for you!  It constantly makes my day that people actually read my blog, and I'm even more thrilled when I get a comment or get to connect with you on FB, Twitter, or IG.  You are the best, and that is why I made you the best brownies.

I've been wanting to make frosted brownies for a while now.  They just seem fabulously over the top--because once you've baked a rich and fudgy brownie, you totally need a big pile of buttercream on top, right?  (Hint: the answer is yes!)

Spiced Honey & Corn Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream (Gluten free, Paleo)

I wanted to make a fabulous end-of-summer, beginning-of-fall cupcake, and here it is!  These have corn kernels baked right in, and a batter laced with fall spices.  The frosting is my favorite part: butter and coconut cream are delicious together, with a little honey and maple sugar for sweetness.  I tested the frosting with and without butter, and it's great both ways.

Some people don't include corn in their paleo diet, so feel free to leave it out.  If you wanted to substitute something else, I bet these would also be delicious with little chunks of apple instead.  Let me know if you try it!

Oh, and do you love these parchment cupcake cups as much as I do?  I got the idea from this post on Alexandra's Kitchen.  They take a few minutes to make, but I love their rustic look.  The BEST part is that NONE of the cake crumbs stick to the paper!  And, the cup unfolds into a nice little placemat to put your cupcake on between bites.  You can also use parchment to line a loaf pan if you are making banana bread or something like that, and you don't even need to grease it.

Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes

Blackberries are one of my favorite fruits.  They are juicier than raspberries, and seem more elegant, perhaps because of their sleek purple-black color.  So, I was really excited to discover that blackberries were this month's ingredient for the Get Your Chef On challenge hosted by White Lights on Wednesday and Four Marrs and One Venus.

I knew I wanted to make a delicious blackberry dessert.  At first I was thinking about blackberry galettes, but I just made galettes recently, and I realized it had been TOO LONG since I'd made cupcakes.  Initially I was planning to make chocolate blackberry cupcakes, but I was over at my mom's, and she really wanted vanilla.  Since she was nice enough to let me heat up her kitchen on a hot day, I had to agree.  Since the blackberries I've been getting are so sweet and juicy, I decided lemons would be a nice counterpoint.

This cake is adapted from a lemon bundt cake recipe in Cook's Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking, which is an awesome book with recipes that were rigorously tested to make the most of the scientific principles at work in the kitchen.  The blackberry frosting is my own creation.

There was almost a disaster when I was decorating these cupcakes.  I thought glaze with frosting on top would be delicious (and I was right), but I didn't realize the frosting would try to slide right off the glaze.  Disaster was averted when I cut little cone-shaped holes into the top of the cupcakes to hold all the buttery frosting.  Phew, that was a close one.

These cupcakes take a little bit of time, but you should make them because they are so summery and so delicious--creamy, buttery, fruity, and tart at the same time.  If you buy a lot of blackberries, which you should, hang on to some--I have another delicious, but much healthier, blackberry recipe coming up soon. 

Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes; cake and glaze adapted from Cook's Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking):

For the cake:

1 lemon
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Scant 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, at room temperature
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool (60 degrees)
1 cup sugar

For the glaze:

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the frosting:

1 heaping cup fresh blackberries, plus 12 blackberries for decorating
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla, divided
1 teaspoon lemon zest
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350 and grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin (or use papers--I didn't because I knew the glaze was going to drip down the sides).

Zest the lemon and squeeze one tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of juice (save the rest of the lemon for the glaze).  Put half the zest in a small bowl with the juice, reserving the rest of the zest for the frosting.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  In another medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon mixture.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until very fluffy and light (take a full 3 minutes to do this).  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  With the mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time, mixing to fully combine between the additions.

With the mixer still on low, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of the buttermilk mixture and scraping down the bowl as needed.  Give the batter one more stir by hand to make sure it's mixed.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, being careful not to fill them over 3/4 of the way full--without cupcake papers, it's hard to remove a cupcakes that's baked over the edges of the cup.

Bake for 12-18 minutes, or until the cupcakes are light golden around the edges and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for five minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack, using a small sharp knife to loosen the cakes if necessary.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the glaze.  Combine all the ingredients and whisk until smooth.

While the cupcakes are still warm, pierce the top once or twice with a fork and pour the glaze over.

To make the frosting, heat the blackberries, water, granulated sugar, half a teaspoon of vanilla, and the remaining lemon zest in a saucepan over medium heat.  Simmer, using a spoon to help break up the blackberries, until the berries are turned to mush and the liquid around them is syrupy, 15-20 minutes.  Strain through a fine-mesh strainer, using the back of the spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.  Discard the seedy pulp and set the blackberry syrup aside to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.  Add the blackberry syrup, powdered sugar, salt, and the remaining half teaspoon of vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  If the frosting seems too liquid, put it in the refrigerator for half an hour or so to set up.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, use a paring knife to cut a small cone-shaped piece of cake out of the top of each one (see a picture in this post).  You're doing this because you don't want the frosting to just slide right off the glaze!  Use a spoon or a frosting bag to fill the cavity with frosting, letting it spill over a little.  Place a blackberry, stem end down, in the cavity with the frosting.  Enjoy!

I kept these cupcakes in the refrigerator because it's been so hot and I didn't want the frosting to melt.  They still tasted great on the third day, and there were none left after that.  They will also keep up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.  The cakes texture becomes denser over time (like a pound cake), but it's still delicious.

You might also like:

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Triple Berry Almond Clafoutis

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Okay, this is it!  My best cupcake ever.  If you haven't jumped onto the salted caramel train yet, now is the time.  These are light and delicious vanilla cupcakes (my new favorite white cake recipe) filled with salted caramel sauce, topped with salted caramel buttercream, and sprinkled with a little more sea salt to finish.  They're amazing!  I recommend that you make them right now.  If you prefer, you can use chocolate cupcakes as the base--I tried that, too, and it's also amazing.

To make these, you'll need to some salted caramel sauce.  You might want to make a double recipe so you can stash some in the fridge or drizzle it over ice cream.  If you make a single recipe, it should be just enough to fill the cupcakes and make the frosting.

You'll also need cake flour.  I know, I also wish all-purpose flour could really be used for all purposes, but this time you're going to need the cake flour.  It makes the cupcakes really light and gives them a nice fine crumb.  If you don't have any cake flour but you do have cornstarch, use this post from Joy the Baker and turn some of your regular flour into cake flour.

I made these for an event we had at my Quaker meeting last night.  Every Wednesday in the summer, my meeting hosts a Wellesley Wednesday cookout, where everyone brings something to share and then someone presents on an interesting topic.  Well, yesterday, the interesting topic was THIS BLOG!  I had so much fun telling everyone all about A Calculated Whisk and how it all works--some of them did not even know what a blog was!

After the discussion, we made frosting together!  I showed everyone how to stuff a cupcake with salted caramel, and how to use sugar, butter, a little milk and salt, and flavorings to make a delicious small batch of buttercream.  I brought all kinds of fun things for people to flavor their frosting: grenadine, vanilla, vanilla beans, cinnamon, cocoa, almond extract, peppermint extract, salted caramel, and lime and lemon zest.  We had a blast!

Salted Caramel Cupcakes Recipe
Yield: 20 cupcakes
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients for the cupcakes (adapted from this recipe at Cookies & Cups):

1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), at room temperature, cut into chunks
4 eggs
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup salted caramel sauce, for filling

Ingredients for the frosting:

1 cup salted caramel sauce
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 and line your muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Use a mixer to beat the mixture on low speed for about a minute to make everything light and fluffy.

With the mixer still on low, add the butter a couple of pieces at a time.  Mix until it looks like coarse sand.  Slowly pour in the milk and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing all the while and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.  Raise the mixer speed to medium and beat for about two minutes until the batter is really smooth.

Fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are puffed and set, but not browned, and a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove to a rack to cool.  Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before you fill or frost them.

To fill the cupcakes, use a small paring knife to cut a small cone-shaped piece out of the top of the cupcake, making sure you don't cut too close to the bottom of the cupcake.  Spoon salted caramel in to fill the cone.

To make the frosting, mix all ingredients by hand or with a mixer until smooth.  Spread or pipe onto cooled, filled cupcakes.

If desired, drizzle some salted caramel and sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on top of the frosted cupcakes.

**Did you know you can support A Calculated Whisk by clicking here to visit Amazon?  When you access Amazon through my link, I receive a very small commission based on any items you purchase.  It won't affect the prices you pay at all.  Thank you so much for your support!

You might also like:

Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes

Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Neufchatel Frosting

Margarita Cupcakes

A Cupcake Party and Simple Chocolate Buttercream

We had a decorate-your-own cupcake party last night!  I got the idea from this post on A Beautiful Mess.  People had so much fun choosing a cupcake flavor and heaping on toppings inside the ring of frosting.  Carrot cupcakes were the most popular, and I saw lots of people spooning on strawberry curd.  It wasn't too bad waking up to leftovers this morning, either.  I am a big fan of cake for breakfast.  Maybe the decorate-your-own cupcake station can become a permanent feature around here?

In case you want to throw your own cupcake party, here are the recipes I used:

• Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Neufchatel Frosting
• Double Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes
• Vanilla Bean Cupcakes from Annie's Eats
• Strawberry Curd
• Salted Caramel Sauce

For the chocolate cupcakes, I was too lazy to make the Swiss meringue buttercream that's in the post for the Double Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes, so I made a simple chocolate buttercream.  Here's the recipe in case you want to make it!

Ingredients (makes enough for 12 cupcakes): 

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
Pinch of salt 

Combine all ingredients and beat on high speed until smooth.

I also put out these toppings:

• Shredded coconut
• Chopped pecans
• Chopped strawberries with a little sugar
• Sprinkles
• Mini m & ms

There are so many other things that would be great on cupcakes!  What are your favorite cupcake flavors, frostings, and toppings?

Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Neufchatel Frosting

I have never been really into carrot cake.  Sometimes there are raisins in it.  It's a way to try to pass vegetables off as dessert.  It doesn't pair well with chocolate.

However, my boyfriend thinks it's the best kind of cake, so I had to make some for the joint birthday party we're throwing tonight.  And, I have become a carrot cake convert!  These cupcakes are so delicious, I wish I had made two dozen.  That way I could eat one dozen myself and no one at the party would be the wiser.



Are you a carrot cake fan?  If not, let this recipe turn you into one!  The moist, perfectly spiced cupcakes paired with the creamy, not-to-sweet, rich vanilla frosting--you're going to love it!



How adorable are these organic carrots I got?  They came with all their greens still attached, but were trimmed and peeled before I took this photo.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.  Double it to make 24.

Ingredients for the cupcakes (adapted from this recipe on Gimme Some Oven):

1 1/2 cups grated carrot (about half a pound of carrots, peeled)
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Rounded 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of allspice
Zest of one orange
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Use a food processor with the disc attachment to grate the carrots.  Measure to get 1 1/2 cups and set aside in a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour with the next seven ingredients (through orange zest).

Rinse the food processor, and switch to the regular blade.  Blend the sugars and eggs until well combined, about 30 seconds.  With the machine running, add the oil in a steady stream, and continue to blend until well mixed, about 30 seconds.

Add the egg mixture and the flour to the bowl with the carrots, and mix until combined and no streaks of flour remain.

Scoop into cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Ingredients for the frosting:

8 ounces Neufchatel cheese (you can substitute cream cheese)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 vanilla bean (you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract if you don't have a bean)
1 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl, combine the Neufchatel, butter, and seeds from the vanilla bean.  Beat on high until well combined.  Sift in the sugar and beat again until smooth.  Wait until the cupcakes are completely cool to frost them.  Enjoy!