Grammy Celebrations: Marshmallow Cupcakes a la Yum

Welcome to the Grammys! As many American families do, we are having a Grammys party. Nachos for dinner and something ultra-new for dessert! I've had this gluten-free chocolate cake mix for a while now and really wanted to do something with it today but I had to find something creative to do with it. And then I looked at Pinterest - on the top of the page was a picture of epic proportions: Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes. I had to do it.

Let's get started!

This is one of our easier recipes because it's not from scratch. I didn't have time today to get some of the required 'from scratch' ingredients.

• Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Chocolate Devil's Food Cake Mix
• Jello Chocolate Fudge Pudding Mix
• 1 cup water
• 3 eggs
• 1 stick of butter, softened

Put all of the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and pull out your mixer. We have a small handheld mixer, not one of those fancy KitchenAid ones. The batter should be extremely smooth after about 5 minutes of mixing on the second lowest setting.

Smooth, soft, and scrumptious!

Start spooning the batter into each cupcake spot, about 3/4 full, and then add the marshmallow standing straight.

Bring on the marshy-mallows!

Put in the oven at 325 for about 22 minutes. The marshmallows will poof up and then spread out across the top of the cupcakes. This can get messy.

S'more goodness!

I did marshmallow filled and non-marshmallow filled. The marshmallow filled turned out nicely (and delicious), even before I frosted them.

Frosting and sprinkles to the front!

I frosted the cupcakes with whipped vanilla frosting, to sort of match the marshmallow consistency. Then, I used red and silver sprinkles, and white pearls. They turned out elegantly delicious.

Grammy-winning deliciousness!

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Creative Cupcakes from Trader Joe's!

Hey blog buddies! That was me talking like Davey Wavey, the flamboyant YouTube blogger extraordinaire. Anyway, a few days back, I decided I wanted to make cupcakes, especially because I had noticed an abundance of chocolate lurking in my pantry. There was just something so enthralling about a chocolate-cakey flavor, coming in cute and joyful little cups of dark, cakey sponginess. 

not even weird though

 But, I could never settle for plain old boring cupcakes! Conceptually, I knew I didn't have any fancy schmancy baking ingredients, but having set my mind on weirdness, I hunted around my kitchen in search of originality. Lo and behold, I found some awesome stuff! Tidbits of creative peanut butter, in individually wrapped pouches! Coconut flakes! Spiced Carribbean chocolate! Graham crackers... marshmallows? So, I had decided on four different flavors of cupcake: peanut butter, s'mores, coconut, and plain ecstatic chocolate. It was at this point that the adventure began. And I'm sorry, I don't know why this is highlighted, I've tried everything in my power to stop it.

Oh, and I also apologize for not taking photos of the batter - I really couldn't hold a camera while I was making it because the camera would have gotten covered in chocolatey mess, dooming it to a chocolatey death because I was too busy cooking.

I carefully lined my cupcake pan with twelve paper thingys. I put a layer of batter in the bottom of each cupcake hole, followed by the middle layer of filling, and then the final layer of cake batter on top. I went about this cake batter endeavor in a precautious manner, careful to not spill anything. Each bottom layer filled the cupcake tin a third of the way. The toppings I used were peanut butter, coconut flakes, and chunks of high-end Caribbean chocolate that was accompanied by graham crackers. The latter topping was used to create a delicious s'mores concoction.

They came out of the oven and everyone devoured them in three seconds and they tasted wonderful! Peanut butter was by far the prettiest cupcake, resembling a piece of candy, except even prettier. I dubbed it the Reese's Peanut Butter CupCake. Apparently, one JifToGo®  pouch can fill two cupcakes with peanut butter. Also, I am apparently capable of advertising for Jif®. Reese's® as well.

The S'mores cupcake definitely tasted the best, despite lacking marshmallow, but a spot of milk in a martini glass did the trick. 

Conceptualized: Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcake

You can't really see the chocolate in this s'mores cupcake below, but there are chunks of delicious, melty, spicy chocolate sprinkled around the top, accompanied by graham crackers, which may or may not have turned brown from being in chocolate cake.

Oh, and the coconut ones were pretty good.

#GlassofTheRightStuff

Until next baking (or cooking) time! Something is making me sense especially festive brownies on this blog in the near future. ;)

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes!

       Once upon a time, there was me in my kitchen at school, wanting to recreate something I saw on the internet: mini versions of pineapple upside down cake! I was equipped with a box of cake and a few other random ingredients, and this Betty Crocker Super Moist looked pretty delicious, which was all perfect because I was craving some delicious fluff after going to see The Vagina Monologues. I was ready to attempt a pinterest-inspired version of mini pineapple upside down cake! Because the only thing better than food is MINI-FOOD! Right?

Whoa, dude, you're using strawberry cake for this pineapple dessert? YES

       The box of cake only called for a cup of water, half a cup of vegetable oil, and a few stupid eggs. Make sure you actually have eggs, because I had to go ALL THE WAY to the market to get them and then they didn't have those nice little packages of six eggs so I had to get twelve eggs and now they're just sitting here. Maybe I can cook the rest of them up with some bacon! Oh wait we ate the bacon. Ehh.

DAT PINK AND BLUE. DAT CONTRAST

       At least the cake mix is beautifully vibrant! I couldn't stop tasting it only because it was faaaahbulously pink. And I have this bacon in the picture because I almost cooked bacon into some of the cakes, except again, we ate the bacon.

       I wasn't sure how well bacon would go with the pineapple flavor, anyway, since I had poured some of the pineapple juice into the cake batter. I continued to get out my muffin tin, a tiny one because I live in a dorm and have a toaster oven! Shh, I'm not really supposed to have a toaster oven. Anyway, I lined the tin with some butter, created these pretty little flowers out of some pineapple chunks, and cinnamon-sugared them. I saw this done on pinterest with pineapple rings instead, but that's okay, not everyone's food is as pretty as mine. But actually though, rings might give your cakes more leverage when it comes to getting them out of the pan; I would try it out!

EAT YO FRUIT

       I proceeded to coat the pineapple in cake mix to prepare for baking. I filled them up about 3/4 of the way full. I would usually only fill them halfway because cake rises so much, but think about it, pineapple doesn't expand or rise.

       Lo and behold, they rose just the perfect amount! Getting them out was easy since the pineapple juice lubricates the pan, AND the chunky fruit is baked into the cake so it all comes out in one nice little package!

Don't they look like plain strawberry cupcakes? Haha, joke on you

       I'm glad they were so easy to take out and didn't fall apart! I had to wait for them to cool off completely, though, so everything could solidify together. Look how pretty they turned out! They look like cute little individual tiki festivities! It's like I want to serve them on an island inside a coconut.

I ended up taking the cakes over to my friend Lauren's, (SHOUTOUT! GO LAUREN! SHE GOT ME INTO PINTEREST!) and my old high school friends and I devoured them like true inebriates. Because of all the sugar we had been eating, of course.

Let's have a Tiki Kiki!!!

       Stay tuned for more baking adventures with the College Kitchenettes!

       Share the yummy with friends on Facebook, Reddit, or Pinterest! See you soon!

Vanilla Cupcakes: Gluten-Free Even!

This weekend, I wanted cupcakes. My mom wanted frosting and cupcakes. However, she eats gluten-free (allergies!). But, that is no match for a girl with a serious CC (Cupcake Craving)! So, I made gluten-free vanilla cupcakes! This specific mix brand, Wholesome Chow, features hardly any extra ingredients - milk, apple cider vinegar, and oil are the only ingredients you have to add.

Look how easy this looks!

The recipe itself is easy enough to carry through; add the wet ingredients to the mix and whisk until it becomes batter. The batter is fairly thin, making it really easy to pour!

Thin, fluffy batter!

Once poured into the cupcake pan, they bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes. The package said 18 - 23 minutes, but 18 turned out to be perfect for me. The batter makes about 12 cupcakes that don't rise very much. However, they do turn out to be a beautiful golden-brown!

Golden-Brown Gorgeousness!

For the decorating, I used Betty Crocker  butter cream frosting. No, I didn't make my own frosting. Yes, I'm okay with that. Also, for Christmas, I got this cupcake decorating kit and, trust me, that makes a lot of difference!

The Decorating Kit Saves The Day!

For my cupcakes, I used the star tip because it produces less frosting at once. I prefer a larger cupcake-to-frosting ratio. However, the frosting covered the cupcakes well with about half of the frosting package. After the frosting, I deliberated over what to sprinkle the cupcakes with, since I used green liners. Eventually, I settled on rainbow dots. I think the result was rather nice:

Frosted and Sprinkled!

The recipe was good and the result even better! My mom loved them and so did I! 

Tune in next weekend, when the poll-winning cookies are made spectacular! Which cookie do you think will win our poll as your favorite cookie??