Posts Under Recipes Category
Mother’s Day is today, but we had an early celebration chez moi with my mom and grandmother yesterday. I had them both over for Brunch – it was far from a healthy brunch, but boy was it delish!
Gluten Free Chai Tea Cupcakes
Both my mom and my sister are gluten intolrant, and lately I’ve been suspecting I am as well. I’m going gluten free for a month (currently on day 5!) to see if that helps how I’ve been feeling – but more on that another time. Needless to say, brunch had to be gluten-free for my mom’s sake (and I guess, possibly mine!) – so I decided to go balls to the wall and work on making this awesome Chai Tea breakfast cupcake recipe I’ve been meaning to make gluten free… and do cake balls. I don’t half ass when it comes to baking – I love baking (and eating the results, which is how I ended up falling in love with fitness… haha ;)
Gluten Free Cake Balls
So, after some research and a ridiculous overload on GF flour and cake mix at Bulk Barn (I will be baking GF yellow cake for the rest of my life), I was ready to get down to business. The morning’s menu?
Chai Tea breakfast cupcakes, chocolate covered vanilla cake balls, non-alcoholic sangria (my mom also can’t have alcohol – the poor thing! luckily I didn’t inherit THAT terrible allergy), and banana split bites.
Banana Split Bites
Yum.
Tea time! Only we'll be eating it.
Gluten-Free Chai Tea Cupcakes Bake @ 375° for 18-20 minutes | makes 24 cupcakes
- 2 c all purpose gluten free flour
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 c sugar
- 4 chai tea bags
- 1 1/4 c milk, heated
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 (ish) a cup Nature’s Path Crunchy Maple Sunrise
Put the milk in a saucepan and heat until it’s JUST simmering on the stove. Once it’s ready, take it off and add your 4 chai tea bags – let it steep for 5-7 minutes while the milk cools a bit. While its steeping, mix the gluten-free flour, baking soda, ginger, and salt in a bowl, and set aside. Next, cream the butter using a beater, and then add the sugar and vanilla, mixing until it’s combined. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Fill your cupcake liners, and then sprinkle the Crunchy Maple Sunrise on to. Pop them in the oven and bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes. Chai Cream Cheese Drizzle (to top the cupcakes with!)
- 85 grams (about 1/3 a 250 gram brick) low fat cream cheese, softened
- 2 tbsp butter (softened) or margarine
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 c icing sugar
- strongly brewed chai tea, cooled
The spread! Om nom.
Combine the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Add the icing sugar (I recommend doing this a little bit at a time as it’s easier and doesn’t make a gigantic mess, especially if you’re using a hand mixer like I do!), and continue to mix it in. Finally, add your chai tea in bit by bit until the consistency is thin enough to drizzle, but not so thin it’s totally liquidy. Using a spoon, drizzle it over the top of your cupcakes. If you had tons leftover (I did), you can use the Wilton #230 to fill the centers with more icing. Oh, yum. I only wish I had thought of this before serving them! I ended up filling them the day after as I found the cake dried out quite quickly (a side effect of the GF flour, maybe?), and this gives it extra moisture. Finally, eat them and love them. Or, if you’re serving them up for a brunch like I did – pair them with this wicked non-alcoholic sangria (or, just flip the cranberry juice out for a bottle of red wine and make it alcoholic!)
Psssst! Looking for the Chai Tea Breakfast Cupcake nutritional information? You’ll find it here!
Delicious non alcoholic Sangria
Non-Alcoholic Sangria
- 4 cups of cranberry juice
- 1 c orange juice
- 1/4 c lemon juice
- 1 pear
- 1 apple (I used a granny smith green one – they’re my favourite! :)
- 3 c carbonated lemon lime beverage (ie. 7UP or Sprite)
Combine the cranberry juice, orange juice, and lemon juice in a pitcher. Slice up your fruit, and add it it. Allow it to sit for a few hours before you’re planning on serving it (I prepped this the night before, so the fruit was good and infused by the morning). JUST before serving it, add in the pop – you don’t want to do this too early, or it goes flat. Toss in some ice and volia! Tastiness in a pitcher. Happy mother’s day to all you fabulous moms out there.
And for those of us who may not be mom’s, always remember this key piece of wisdom when dealing with your mom:
“When your mother asks, “Do you want a piece of advice?” it’s a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no: you’re going to get it anyway.” – Erma Bombeck
As seen on: Sweets for a Saturday #69, The Sundae Scoop #28, Makin’ You Crave Monday, Weekend Wrap Up Party, Made By You Monday #98,
Featured on: Cupcakes Take the Cake, FoodGawker
I have to be honest. I’m not a morning person, and most my mornings go a little something like this:
Hit snooze
Hit snooze again
Hit snooze AGAIN
[continue snoozing for the next 45 minutes or so]
Finally get up, panic, rush around like crazy trying to get ready.
Make coffee in panic, spill on counter, don’t bother cleaning, slam toast in toaster, slap peanut butter and/or jam on it, rush out door and shove toast in mouth on the way out the door.
However, I’ve discovered the recipe of ALL recipes that, with a little night-before prep work and an extra 5 minutes in the morning, can be made to-go and is healthy, delicious, and contains so many good-for-you things you’ll be feeling amazing all morning.
Mmmm... so good in the morning.
And, even better, this recipe makes enough for four smaller, or two giant pancakes – so I use half the batter one morning, and it keeps an extra day in the fridge for the next morning. Score.
Pre-making the batter the night before means less work in the morning!
I know, this sounds too-good-to-be-true, but I swear it’s not.
Four Ingredient Chocolate Protein Pancake
- 2 scoops Bodylogix chocolate protein powder
- ~1/2 cup egg whites (I use 2 large eggs, which is usually a little shy of a half cup)
- 1 heaping tbsp ground flax seed
- 1 medium banana, mashed
Protein Pancake Ingredients & Extras
The night before, mash your banana in a medium to large bowl, and set it aside. Measure out your egg whites, then add to the banana bowl. Add your protein powder, and ground flax seed. Mix it up well, transfer to tupperware (or cover the bowl with saran wrap) and stick it in the fridge.
Morning Extras
- Coconut oil (or your oil of choice) – for the frying pan
- Syrup (I use E.D. Smith’s No-Sugar-Added Syrup) or Agave
- Chocolate chipits, berries, or chocolate chia goodness as a topping
Cooking the pancake
The next morning, heat up your frying pan while you mix your coffee, add 1-2 tsp coconut oil, and scoop half the batter (for a large pancake) or 1/4 (for two small) into the heated pan.
I find when I make one big one it’s harder to flip and becomes less pancake-like, but still tastes great, so I usually do this when I’m more rushed. If I have a few extra minutes I’ll do two smaller ones, one at a time. Cook until brown on one side, then flip it and cook on the other.
If you’re like me, and usually in a rush, I toss it it tupperware, put the syrup on, and bring it with me. A quick 20-second zap in the microwave at the office usually warms it up nicely.
And, if you’re so inclined – top with syrup, berries, a few chocolate chips, or whatever else you’d like and enjoy!
Yum!
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Ah, Easter – the time for chocolate, bunnies, coloured eggs, and zombies. Now, every year for Easter – on Sunday – my whole family gets together (cousins, aunts, and uncles included) for a big ol’ fashioned dinner party. Usually there’s ham or lamb (this year it was lamb), lots of veggies, wine, and an array of dessert. One year, I brought really cute Easter cupcakes- and, well, ever since my affinity for cupcakes has grown, and with it, my family’s expectations that Lauren+Cupcakes are a package deal. This year, I decided to go “back to basics” and make a traditional carrot (cup)cake to bring instead of my usual cheat-with-a-box-mix-and-make-look-pretty strategy, but of course there had to be a Lauren twist… so I baked the traditional cream cheese icing on the inside (thanks for the idea, Pinterest) and threw a coconut buttercream icing on top.
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Filling and Coconut Buttercream Icing
Super delish.
Carrot Cupcakes [Adapted from “Sam’s Famous Carrot Cake” on allrecipes.com]
Bake @ 350° for 20 minutes | makes 30 cupcakes
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup buttermilk**
- 3/4 cup applesauce
- 1 tbsp oil
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup flaked coconut
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup crushed pineapple (with juice)
- 1 cup raisins
**If you don’t have buttermilk on hand (I never do, nor do I buy it especially for recipes!) use this substitute: 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 cup skim milk. Add the lemon juice to a measuring cup, and fill with milk to the 1 cup mark. Let sit for 5 minutes – volia! Buttermilk substitute. Use the amount the recipe calls for.
Shredded carrots
Peel 2-3 large carrots, and shred them until you have two cups (medium to tightly packed). Set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon using a fork. If you’re using bulk items, be sure to sift them first. Set aside.
Mixing the dry ingredients
In another bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Using a mixer, mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient bowl, and mix well. Measure out your add-ins (in this case, coconut flakes, pineapple, raisins, and walnuts). If you have whole or half walnuts like I did, you’ll need to crush them down to a smaller size – I put them in a ziplock bag and used a hammer to crush them into smaller pieces. Totally therapeutic, I might add.
The hammer is my secret weapon in the kitchen. Seriously, I use it so often!
Add the extras into the batter, one at a time, folding them in using a large wooden spoon or spatula as you go. Set the batter aside, and prepare your filling.
Cream Cheese Filling
- 1 (8-ounce package) light cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1/4 cup white (granulated) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl, and using your hand mixer or KitchenAid, thoroughly mix the ingredients (until creamy). Line your cupcake pan, and fill 1/3 of the way with carrot cake batter. I used an icecream scoop, and put one small-ish scoop into each cup. Next, put a small scoop (about 1/2 a tbsp) of the filling into each cup.
Yup, the cream cheese is baked right into the middle
Finally, fill the cup the rest of the way to 2/3 full (about 1/2-3/4 an ice cream scoop) by dropping the cake batter on top of the filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the batter clean. If you stick it through the filling part, it will come out with gooey filling on it – that’s totally OK as long as the cake batter is baked. While they’re baking, prepare your icing!
Coconut Buttercream Icing [Adapted from my favourite Wilton Buttercream Icing Recipe]
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 1.5 cups shortening
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp coconut flakes
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let cool. Once they’re cooled, take them out and ice them anyway you want. I used a Wilton #12 Round Tip for the white – gently pressing down while swirling the icing across the cupcake to give it a flatter look. Next, I sprinkled coconut flakes on the icing. I then used the #103 Petal Tip for the carrot, starting with the thick end of the tip to make the thick end of the carrot and pulling across the cupcake while reducing pressure. Once the icing had sat for about 5 minutes, I used a knife to mark lines into the carrots. Finally, I used the #3 Round Tip to make the green tops of the carrots.
Surprise!
I have to say, these turned out amazing and were a huge hit at Easter (as were the leftovers at work on Monday!). The recipe does make a TON of cupcakes – even after taking them to Easter dinner with my family of 11 and pawning a bunch off on them post-meal, I had a number leftover (14!) so I kept a few for The Boy and I, then took the rest to my coworkers. Office favourite this week, right here. ;)
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For last year’s Superbowl, I made these cute maple bacon cupcakes. So, when the boy suggested an impromptu Superbowl gathering at his place on Saturday night; I immediately promised our friends Superbowl cupcakes – specifically, those aforementioned maple bacon cupcakes. But, then I got excited daydreaming about all the possibilities out there for an epic Mancake 2.0 – and hence, the Chocolate Beer Cupcake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and Bacon “Sprinkles” was born.
The Mancake 2.0
And no, my friends did not complain that they weren’t the promised maple bacon cupcakes of last year – and for the record, both the boy and I thought the Mancake 2.0 was far tastier than the Mancake.
2012 Superbowl cupcakes = huge success.
One of my complaints when I made my Irish Car Bomb cupcakes last year was that the cupcake lacked the beer flavour I’d been hoping for, so I went on the hunt for a) a better recipe for the beer cake and b) a better stout to make it with.
Chocolate Beer Cupcakes
Bake 16-18 minutes at 350° || Makes 24
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 350 ml stout beer (this is one bottle or ~3/4 of a tall boy) – I used Faxe 10% Extra Strong
- 1 stick butter (melted)
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup light sour cream
- DRY MIX: Combine the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda (set aside)
- WET MIX: Combine the beer, butter, and vanilla extract – mix well.
- Add the eggs to the wet mix one at a time (mix after each)
- Add the sour cream to the wet mix
- Pour the dry mix into the wet mix slowly, mixing as you pour
Om nom.
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 12 ounces softened light cream cheese
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons maple syrup
- Cream the shortening and cream cheese together
- Add the icing sugar gradually, mixing as you go
- Add 2 tablespoons maple syrup, try it, and add up to 2 more if you’d like (I used 4)
Bacon Sprinkles
- Bacon – and lots of it.
- Fry the bacon up so it’s nice and crispy (or not-so-crispy if you’re like my boyfriend and like it less charred than I do ;)
- Set aside to cool
- Finely dice/crumble the bacon so you have tiny sprinkle-like shards
- Or, just buy bacon bits if you’re feeling a bit lazy or pressed for time ;)
Once baked, set the cupcakes aside to cool, and then pipe the icing on the cupcakes any way you want – I went with the standard 1M swirls. And, for the (deliciously awesome) finishing touch – sprinkle the bacon bits (and LOTS of them) on top. Serve to your guests, and, if they’re a bunch of football-and-beer-loving men (or women!) keep extra bacon on hand. My boyfriend routinely topped his mancakes with “M’OOOORE BACON! *insert manly grumble here*”
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In case you don’t know what it is, and Irish Car Bomb is a half-pint of Guinness, and a shot that’s half Baileys and half Jameson (or some other combination of Irish Cream and Irish Whiskey). You then drop the shot glass into the pint, and chug. The point is to do so before it curdles – gross, right? You’d think so, but I actually loved them.
Emphasis on the past tense, as I haven’t tried to drink one in a couple years now for fear of PTSD flashbacks to my college days. THAT’S how much I loved them.
Ahem.
Moving on, these cupcakes were a more adult (and still tasty!) version of the drink.
Guinness chocolate cupcakes, filled with chocolate Jameson ganache, and topped with Baileys buttercream icing – and the perfect treat to drag along on St. Patrick’s Day.
I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but have reproduced it here with my own variations and notes :)
Cupcakes 
- 1 cup Guinness
- 1 cup butter
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup sour cream
Simmer the beer and butter, than add the cocoa and stir until it’s smooth. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, and set aside for a few minutes. Mix the eggs and sour cream with an electric mixer, than add the beer/cocoa concoction to it and mix just until it’s combined. Add the dry ingredient mix and, well, mix!
Bake at 350°F for 15 – 17 minutes
Jameson Ganache
- 8 oz chocolate (**I used bittersweet baker’s chocolate, which was a dumb idea as it tasted like crap – but dumping in roughly a cup of sugar fixed that. I recommend not being lazy and going to a store other than Bulk Barn to get the good stuff :)
- 2/3 cup cream
- 2 tbsp butter or margarine
- 3 tsp Irish Whiskey (**Next time, I’m going to try 4 tsp as the whiskey flavor wasn’t quite strong enough for my liking; the chocolate taste was too overpowering)
Chop the chocolate, put in a bowl. Put the cream in a pot and heat it up until it simmers. Dump the cream into the bowl with the chocolate, and stir until it’s a melted and smooth. Add the butter and Jameson, and mix. Let it cool down until it’s fairly thick – I tossed it in the fridge for about 25 minutes and that did the trick.
Using a spoon, apple corer, or some other utensil you think will work, scoop a hole in the center of the cupcakes once they’re cool. Eat center bits to ensure cupcake’s tastiness. Fill a decorator bag (or ziplock) with the ganache, snip the tip, and pipe into the cupcake holes.
Baileys Icing
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 butter (room temperature)
- 4 tbsp Baileys
Whip the butter, than add the icing sugar. I’d suggest pouring a little at a time, than mixing, than a little more, etc… apparently it makes the icing better (though I’m not sure I see the evidence!) but most importantly it keeps you (and your kitchen) from getting covered in icing sugar. TRUST me on this one. Add the Baileys and mix.
Ta Da!
Now ice them, eat them, and enjoy. I topped mine with shamrock sprinkles and a three-leaf clover made out of green melting chocolate.
I thought they were quite tasty – though very rich, sometimes I found it difficult to finish an entire cupcake and I’m a chocoholic. I know they were delicious though, because my Dad rarely eats cupcakes when we bake them – and he ate THREE. In a day and a half.
