Spring Cupcakes

Spring is without a doubt my favorite season.  I love the warmth of the sun, the blooming flowers, and the budding trees.  I also love the fresh fruit.  So obviously I had to make spring cupcakes with, what else, but strawberries.

I found a fabulous recipe for strawberry crepe cupcakes on foodgawker, and I had to try it.  I am always a little hesitant to try standard chocolate/vanilla cupcakes, since there are so many other fun options to make, but theses were the perfect combination of classic and exciting.  The vanilla cake is perfect- moist, fluffy and just dense enough, and the nutella frosting is addictive. 

These really taste like a strawberry nutella crepe- and they may be my new favorite cupcakes!  I will definitely be making these again.

Happy Spring,
Margaret

Not-Quite-Christmas Cookies

When is the acceptable time to start playing Christmas music?  Some would say after Halloween, but others would wait until after Thanksgiving.  This debate has yet to be settled in The Cupcake Suite, and we are currently listening to periodic Nutcracker and Andrea Bocelli Christmas music.

However, I think everyone agreed that it was never too early for Christmas cookies.  These delicious peanut butter nutella cookie recipe caught my eye on foodgawker, and I was dying to make it.  As a kid, I always made these type of peanut butter cookies with my mom for Christmastime.  We would always put a hershey kiss in the middle, which was so wonderfully gooey and delicious right out of the oven.

So this recipe, for me, worked like a not-quite-christmas cookie recipe.  They were perfectly moist and peanut buttery with a hint of choclate from the nutella.  Also, they were gone within minutes of sharing them with The Cupcake Suite.

Bon Appétit,

Margaret

Happy Cupcakes

College can be hard.  There is lots of work- that paper that is due on Monday or that lab report that you haven't started yet, and don't forget the reading that was due yesterday that you have yet to do.  But there are certain things that make these problems (and problem sets) go away, at least for a little bit.  One of those is nutella.  My friends and I have somewhat of a nutella addiction, especially when it is on pineapple, but for these cupcakes I decided to go with peanut butter as the pairing.

They were quite divine.  The cake was a little dense, but a really peanut buttery and delicious recipe from How Sweet It Is.

For the frosting, I just whipped a couple large dollops of nutella with half a stick of butter and 4 oz of cream cheese.  Then I added powdered sugar a half a cup at a time until I was around 2 1/2 cups of sugar.  A splash of milk if necessary and voila- nutella with extra sugar and butter!  It is quite a happy little cupcake.

Bon Appétit
Margaret