Some People Are Worth Melting For

One of my friends Jocelyn is in love with Frozen, and I'm sure a lot of you are too! Thanks to her I finally watched Frozen (only 2 months late!) and I'm glad I did because the soundtrack is my new baking jam! It's funny how those songs apply to absolutely everything! Let-it-go for the bad recipes, for-the-first-time-in-forever for the new recipes and my personal favorite, #somyaneverbotheredmeanyway for every occasion 

For my friend's birthday I decided to try to make themed cupcakes, which I've never done before. Pictures online show cupcakes with lots of fondant, but personally I think fondant is really artificial-tasting and dough-y so I decided to try something different!

I made icicle decorations and cupcake wrappers, too, to decorate my red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Icicle Decorations:

1/4 cup sugar

2-3 tbsp water

1 drop of blue food coloring

1. In a saucepan on medium heat, add sugar and water.

2. Mix with spoon until well combined (mixture should boil). 

3. Add a drop of food coloring.

4. Pour on silicone baking sheet. (in strands, like in the picture below)

5. When icicles cool they are ready to use as decorations. 

The bottom left of the try shows thicker "icebergs" while the thinner strands elsewhere will form "icicles". A combination of both looks great on the cupcakes!

 I made cupcake wrappers too which help the cupcakes look more personalized! I bought scrapbook paper from Michaels (or any local crafts store) and cut out cupcake templates, which can be found online.

For some reason the cupcake still didn't look Frozen enough for me, so I added an Olaf on the top :) 

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Happy Monday :)
Last night my friend Hima (check out her blog here!) and I decided to have a baking adventure and make Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. 
This cupcake tastes like Churros, so with all the cinnamon, it's a bit of an acquired taste. 

Snickerdoodle Cupcake Recipe: (adapted from Alpineberry)

Cupcake Batter:

3 cups cake flour
1    1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 
12 ounces (3 sticks / 1.5 cups) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs 
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
 1   1/4 cups (10 fl. oz.) buttermilk
Cinnamon-Sugar Topping:
1 tbsp granulated sugar combined with 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Sift dry ingredients

2. Combine wet ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer

3. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients by alternating additions with buttermilk!

4. Fill cupcake wells 2/3 with batter. Dust tops of cupcake with Cinnamon-sugar topping.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350degrees. 

Note: The batter turned out to be viscous. To prevent this, try adding more buttermilk or butter until the batter becomes softer. 

Even though I was really insistent on not using cream cheese in the frosting, I think it turned out delicious :) and it's definitely a great addition to make buttercream frosting less sugary. 

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 stick cream cheese

4 cups confectioners sugar (sifted)

8 tbsp milk 

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon 

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy (not-chunky! This step is important if you want your frosting to reach a good consistency)

2. Sift in sugar, milk and vanilla

3. Mix on low until incorporated (Don't over-mix. This causes the frosting to be too runny)

I was frosting with Hima's tip yesterday and I think I finally know what love is<3 Wilton's tip 4B is absolutely gorgeous<33333! It's really smooth and easy to pipe with!