Red Velvet Cross Cupcakes ♥

I know it may sound super silly to some, but I believe that my mission in life is to share love to you through my cupcakes.

I break off pieces of my glittery heart and bake them inside everything I create.

(This hand drawn art is by Andrea Bills of Wisconsin, we are creating illustrations like this one for a children's book I am writing, more info here)

Before I made cupcakes, I was looking into doing philanthropist/missions work and traveling the world to help others, but my little God whisper told me to wait. That there was something else planned for me. So I did. I stopped and was still.  A year later.. I changed my name to Amanda Cupcake. 

So even if it seems quiet, you may want to listen to that inner whisper of yours. You never know where it will lead. My cupcakes are little philanthropists, healing hearts and making people smile.

So I thought this Easter I'd share a piece of Heaven with you:

Red Velvet Cross Cupcakes for Easter ♥

I chose red velvet cupcakes for this blog because red is very symbolic to the true meaning of Easter.  To make your own red velvet cupcakes, see the recipe at the end of this blog. ♥

To make the chocolate crosses you will need:

♥1 cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper

♥1 bag of dark chocolate candy melts (I like Make N Mold)

♥1 disposable piping bag

♥1 pair of scissors

♥A microwave proof bowl

♥...and a microwave!

1.  Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. If you are not a freehand drawer with melted chocolate-sketch as many little crosses as you want to make on a sheet of parchment paper in advance.  These will be your cross templates!
3..  Open the bag of candy melts and dump into microwave proof bowl.
4.  Melt the candy melt wafers in your microwave, in 30 second increments. Stir in between increments. Do not over microwave or the candy melts will burn and get lumpy/impossible to work with.
5.  Once candy melts are smooth and warm, pour into your disposable piping bag. Cut a tiny hole at the end of your disposable piping bags. Using even pressure, pipe the melted chocolate onto your parchment paper in the shape of crosses.
6.  Once you have sketched all your crosses, place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to make sure they harden. ♥ Place on top of your cupcakes like pictured above.

You can do the same thing, but draw hearts to symbolize "LOVE" out of red candy melts instead like my red velvet heart cupcakes! They look extra pretty with fudge frosting.  (see recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe,  for perfect cream cheese frosting swirls like these:

1 Cup softened butter

1 Cup softened cream cheese

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 Cup whole milk or heavy whipping cream

Appx 10 Cups of powdered sugar

Cream Butter, Cream Cheese, Milk, Vanilla and Heavy Whipping Cream using flat beater attachment in a stand mixer.  Gradually add powdered sugar until frosting peaks when touched.  To achieve heavenly frosting swirls like these, I used a 1A decorating tip (it has a large round hole at the end of it for the dreamiest of cupcake swirls).

Red Velvet Fudge Frosting, for perfect frosting swirls on top of red velvet cupcakes like these:

1 Cup softened butter

3/4 Cup of Hershey's Cocoa
1/4 Cup Buttermilk (just like what's in your red velvet cupcake)!
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4-6 cups powdered sugar

Cream Butter, Buttermilk, Cocoa, Vanilla Extract together using flat beater attachment in stand mixer.  Gradually add powdered sugar until you reach desired texture for piping fluffy swirls on top of red velvet cupcakes.  To achieve these flufy frosting swirls, I used a 1M decorating tip!

Bake-At-Home Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe, makes about 18 cupcakes.

My favorite red velvet cupcake recipe is from scratch, and I use one from scratch to sell my cupcakes at grocery stores.  However.. I came up with this easy bake at home version that you can try too that is pretty close to the authentic red velvet flavor you'll get in a from-scratch cupcake! You can even use the cream cheese frosting recipe above to make "Double Red Velvet" Cupcakes. Just replace the milk in the recipe with buttermilk and add Americolor Red Gel Paste to achieve the bright red color in the frosting! I used silver sugar crystalz as the glitter on the cupcake ♥  You can top any of the frosting swirls with the chocolate crosses or red hearts that you made.

Start with:  

1 box white cake mix

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 box of dry white chocolate instant pudding (3.9/4 oz)

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
4-6 tablespoons of Americolor Super Red Gel Color Paste

..and Bake!:
1.  Preheat oven to 325 and line cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers.

2.  Sift  white cake mix, cocoa, pudding in big bowl, set aside. (I like Betty Crocker the best)!

3.  Measure 1 1/2 cups buttermilk in liquid measuring cup, set aside.
4.  In stand mixer using flat beater attachment, whip eggs, extracts, and oil together until combined.
5.  Gradually alternate the addition of dry ingredients and buttermilk to creamed ingredients in stand mixer, scraping bowl down to the bottom to make sure all ingredients are included.
6.  Add Americolor Super Red Gel Color Paste to batter until you reach your desired level of redness.  If you don't want to use food coloring and you want to use an alternative, you can puree 3 medium sized beets and the buttermilk together in advance for a natural red color!

7.  Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake wrappers a little over 1/2 full.  Bake for appx 22-24 minutes or until cupcakes spring back up when you touch them.  Let them cool before frosting. ♥

For the ones that Love Cadbury Eggs. Cadbury Egg Inspired Cupcakes ♥

There are many different kinds of people (or should I say..Peeps?!) in the world.  Those who like Peeps. Those who don't like Peeps. Those who think Peeps are adorable and colorful (meeee!!!). Those who like to watch Peeps blow up in the microwave (sometimes I've been guilty. Uh oh). Those who toast their Peeps. Those who like stale Peeps. And those who play with Peeps (again..meeeee!!!!):

Peep Surfing in my bowl of buttercream frosting. Rad. ♥ This happened in my kitchen one night.

Then there are the controversial Cadbury Eggs.   There are the "peeps" who love them. And they gasp in delight when they see them on the shelf.  Or those who think they are awful. Those who don't see what the big deal is and just don't care. And those who use Cadbury Eggs as a medium to create amazing things that can be described in many delicious terms:

Aww. The Peeps are even wearing edible Sixlet Pearls.

A couple of years ago, I baked a cadbury egg inside of these cupcakes.  I was surprised to see that they were featured here on HLN, as one of the Six Amazing/Awful Things To Make With Cadbury Eggs. I was honored. I felt that the word Amazing cancelled out the word Awful. ♥ I am an optimist. Can you tell?!  I guess the "awful" or "amazing" depends on what kind of person you are (see my descriptions above at the top of this blog to find your Peep/Cadbury Egg disposition).

♥

For this Easter, I thought..
Instead of baking a giant Cadbury Egg inside of a cupcake..what if I partnered my chocolate cupcake with the deliciously controversial Cadbury Egg filling? So I stopped asking, and made my fantasy (maybe yours too) a reality!

 A chocolate cupcake.
Filled with a Cadbury Egg filling.
Swirled with layers of Marshmallow Cream buttercream frosting .

A mini Cadbury Egg on top of the yellow frosting "yolk.".
Some have little Peeps carrying the eggs on their backs!

How to make the filling:

You will need:
1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 Cup Butter (very soft but not melted)
1/2 Cup Corn Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla
4-5 Cups Powdered Sugar
Dash Salt
Electric Yellow Gel Paste Food Coloring
Finished Chocolate Cupcakes (see my easy bake-at-home doctored up mix recipe below)

...2 bowls, and 2 piping bags!

Mix up all the ingredients except for powdered sugar in your mixer until creamy.  Typical Cadbury Egg filling doesn't use Heavy Whipping Cream-but the cupcake version does! (It is a much better texture in your mouth in combo with a cupcake).  Now add the powdered sugar gradually until your filling starts to create little "peaks".  You can add or decrease amount of powdered sugar depending on how thick you want the filling to be. If you add more powdered sugar you can actually turn this into a moldable edible clay like fondant!  If you add too much powdered sugar you can always go backwards by adding little bits of Heavy Whipping Cream here and there to thin it out.

♥

Once you reach your desired consistency, divide filling into 2 bowls.  Color one bowl of filling Electric Yellow (I use Americolor Gel Paste), and leave one bowl white! Fill 1 disposable piping bag with yellow. Fill another disposable piping bag with white and set aside until you are ready to fill the cupcakes.  After you have baked your cupcakes, carve a hole out of the middle of your cupcakes with a cupcake corer.  Now you can cut a hole at the end of your piping bags, and alternate the addition of the yellow and white fillings to the inside of your cupcake.

This is what it will look like, yay! Looks just like the inside of a Cadbury Egg.

Now you can decorate the top of each cupcake however you'd like

.

I do the same thing with the frosting that I did with the filling-half of my buttercream frosting is colored yellow with Americolor Electric Yellow Gel Paste, and half is left white. I fill one piping bag with yellow frosting, and one with white. I cut a large hole at the end of each one..and pipe onto my cupcakes,  stacking a yellow frosting "egg yolk" on top of each cupcake!

Then I adorn each cupcake with delight! Peeps swimming through frosting (see the video for how to do that here), Mini Cadbury Eggs, Edible Glitter, Sixlet Pearls!

I wrap up how it is done (even blowing sprinkles at the end)!

Recipe for Marshmallow Cream Frosting:

13 oz Marshmallow Cream

1 lb butter (softened)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6-8 Cups Powdered Sugar

♥Combine all ingredients except for powdered sugar in stand mixer and whip until creamy.  Gradually add powdered sugar until frosting is a thick enough texture to hold shape when piping. If you want a creamier frosting, use less powdered sugar.


Easy Bake At Home Chocolate Cupcakes (tastes a lot like my signature cupcakes I make from scratch for the Cupcake Mansion):
1 box of Devils Food Cake Mix
1/2 Cup Instant Chocolate Pudding
1 1/4 Cup Hot Water or Hot Coffee
4 Eggs
1/3 Cup Oil
♥Preheat oven to 325 and line cupcake pans with cupcake wrappers.  Combine all ingredients in stand mixer and whisk together until evenly blended (about 2 minutes).  Make sure to scrape the bowl down in between mixing to incorporate all the ingredients.  Fill cupcake wrappers 3/4 full and bake at 325 for appx 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Next week's recipe:

How to make Rainbow Cotton Candy Cupcakes!

More Than An Average Peep Cupcake♥

I think I am going to have to hostess a Peeps Cupcake Hunt for all the children in the neighborhood ---- Instead of an Easter Egg Hunt.

I dreamt up these Peeps cupcakes that look like they are all going to march together in the nearest Easter parade. 

..or maybe they are going to march right into your Easter basket to surprise you on Easter Sunday!? ♥

Yes, they are adorable-but they were made to be eaten.

Sixlet Pearls that look like bubbles.

Confetti.

Marshmallow Fluff based frosting.

Glittery Tiffany Blue Candy Melts dripping off the cupcake.

I went so Peep crazy, I started topping my cupcakes with other marshmallow delights.

Like making flowers out of Marshmallows.

And Frosting out of Marshmallow Fluff.

Perhaps the best part of finding the cupcake is eating it.....and then discovering another surprise?!! Like this Cadbury egg I baked inside of a cupcake...

I wasn't even sure if it was going to work. It was another late night cupcake experiment.  This is what my Cadbury egg looked like inside of a cupcake liner before pouring more chocolate batter on top of it and baking at 350.

♥

I really do try to make the world a better place through my baking.

A cadbury egg, a marshmallow peep, and a cupcake. ♥ Does this make your world a better place, if even for a yummy moment?

To make the peeps look like they are swimming in the frosting, all you have to do is (oh my, this sounds sad).. cut the peep head and tail off of the marshmallow body.  Then use the sticky chocolate ganache as your glue to hold the head and tail on.

Peeps are much happier swimming in cupcake swirls & sprinkles.

Easter Fun

I have been feeling so guilty because I haven't put anything new on my blog lately..but I have been super busy baking beautiful confections for all of my friends!

So within the next week or so..there will probably be a blog overload to catch you all up on all my fun work!

I made some pretty colorful little Easter-y cupcakes that will make anyone happy.

I call them "Peeps" Cupcakes because I made the frosting with marshmallow fluff as the base and topped them with everyone's favorite treat: Peeps! The cake is white...flavored with a creamy orange extract.
I think these would be really cute if they were delivered in an egg carton. ♥  Just have to find an egg carton big enough to hold regular sized cupcakes!