Stuffed Cupcakes = Stuffed A!

Last weekend my husband and I had the most DELICIOUS cupcakes in our little cupcake brigade so far. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for calorie sake), they are located an hour away from us in NJ. Luckily, they aren't far from my in-laws so we can always ask them to bring us some when they come over!

Anyway, we first heard of Stuffed Cupcakes on some show on Cooking Channel's show called Unique Eats. When we found out it was close to my in-laws, we were so excited. We knew the next time we'd be heading to NJ we'd be heading there! It was just a matter of time.

Well, the opportunity finally arose and off we went. The bakery has a menu with like, a hundred cupcake flavors but they only put a handful out per day... maybe around 25 or so. If even that much...I can't remember. We were too busy trying to pick out which 6 we were taking with us.

After much deliberation, we ended up with Sexy Sadie (Chocolate Cupcake With White Chocolate Raspberry Amaretto Mousse And Topped With Vanilla Icing, A Dollop of Mousse And Almonds), Butterscotch Hug (Butterscotch Cupcake Stuffed With Butterscotch Mousse And Topped With Vanilla Icing And Butterscotch Chips), Raspberry Beret (Chocolate Cupcake Stuffed with Chocolate Raspberry Mousse and Topped with Raspberry Whipped Cream), Peanut Butter Fluff (Peanut Butter Cupcake Stuffed With Marshmallow Mousse, Topped With Chocolate Icing, Crusted Nuts And Marshmallows), Chocolate Kiss (Chocolate Cupcake Stuffed With White Chocolate And Strawberry Mousse With Chocolate Icing And Dollop Of Strawberry Mousse) and Simply Delicious (Chocolate Cupcake Stuffed With Whipped Cream Topped With Chocolate Icing And Nonpareils).

I couldn't wait... as soon as we left the store and got back into the car, I dove into my Simply Delicious... and delicious it was!!


It was a very moist cupcake with a lot of flavor and a generous amount of stuffing in the middle. I got through 3/4 of it before I got full and felt like I needed milk, but you can be sure I saved the rest for another time!!


Over the week, my husband and I would split the cupcakes in half and share them (well, all but the peanut butter one - that was all him...I hate peanut butter). We had a ranking but none of them were bad...and these cupcakes are better than ANYPLACE around us...even Crumbs, which was our favorite so far.

So, good job Stuffed Cupcakes, good job. You have my vote!! And if you live ANYWHERE near Nutley, NJ - go check them out!!

Finally, a GOOD Local Place for Cupcakes!

The search continued this weekend for some good cupcakes near where my husband and I live. As I was flipping through our Entertainment Book that we get every year because my mother-in-law gets them through where she works, I came across a bakery called the Slap Happy Baking Company, about 10 minutes from my house.

While this is not just a cupcakery, it is a full bakery, I can tell you, they do a fantastic job. They have about 10 different cupcakes, along with different types of bars, cakes, cookies and whoopie pies!

Our coupon for the entertainment book allowed us 50% off our entire order, up to $5. So, we wanted to spend at least $10 to get the maximum value of our coupon - and we did! We ordered 3 cupcakes and 1 bar. Each item was $2.50, so it worked out well. My husband got a Nuts n' Jam cupcake, which was sort of like a peanut butter and jelly cupcake. It was a chocolate cake with a strawberry jelly filling and a peanut butter frosting. The cake was moist and it was very peanut buttery, so he loved it!

I got a Cocoa Mint cupcake - a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate filling and a very minty frosting with some chocolate chips sprinkled on top. It was delicious! Also a moist cake and very flavorful.

The third cupcake we got to share was their Dulce de Leche, and it was also perfect. Very moist vanilla cake with a dulce de leche filling.

The cupcakes are standard size you can make at home, but they were all packed with flavors and done perfectly. The $2.50 price tag is justified on these babies.

Lastly, we indulged in a S'mores Bar, some type of graham crackery brownie with graham cracker crumbs, marshmallows and chocolate chips on top. It was a very sizable bar for $2.50 and also, very, very delicious.

So, we FINALLY found a good place to get cupcakes near us. Of course, there is Crumbs about 20 minutes away, but the cupcakes are pretty expensive and it is more like a special treat than a dessert for any random night.

This place is reasonably priced and has fantastic cupcakes. The first out of a few that we've tried around us - so we're happy with the Slap.

Eating With A With Yet Another Cupcake Review

So... I know I've been cupcake focused lately. But, I have to review this last cupcake place we just tried yesterday. Out of all 3 places I talked about in my last post about cupcakes, this place ranks 4th. It's worse than the NY Cupcakery that we weren't impressed with because we thought their cupcakes were too generic for their prices. Turns out you get more cake for your dollar there at least!!

So...in the same town as NY Cupcakery, a new place recently opened called Got Cupcakes? (They do not have a website, only a page on Face Book). I had high hopes - my boss's daughter actually started working there so he would tell me about the cupcakes. The flavors sounded great. My mom found a coupon for me and we waited until we returned from vacation to try it out. So, the other day we went. They had about 20 flavors out - and they sounded great. We had a coupon for buy 3, get 1 free. The "regular" sized cupcakes were $2.25 each. So, we set about picking out our flavors. Right away, one called Chocolate Chip Pancake called to me, so we got that. My husband was intrigued by Mexican Hot Chocolate. Amaretto won us over next. Then we couldn't decide between Mud Pie and Chocolate Covered Cherry. We ultimately decided on the cherry one but the owner threw in a Mud Pie for us for free, probably hoping we'd come back.

We paid for our cupcakes and went home. We decided we would share two of them for dessert that night. They looked like they were normal cupcake size. Well, when my husband went to split the cupcakes, we found that the cake parts were tiny. Really tiny. They used so much frosting on top to make them look bigger than they are. So right off the bat, we were disappointed at the size, especially at $2.25 a pop. Also, the cake parts were really dry...

We first tried the Chocolate Covered Cherry and neither of us liked it. It had that cherry medicinal quality that the owner swore it didn't have. Then we tried the Chocolate Chip Pancake. That one was far superior...it would have been fantastic is the cake wasn't dry and it was a smidge bigger. But it had a subtle maple taste and was decent.

Tonight we polished off the last three flavors - Amaretto, Mud Pie and Mexican Hot Chocolate. Unfortunately, since the cakes were already dry, they were even dryer tonight. Amaretto was actually great - despite the cake dryness. It had great flavor in the icing and was a very unusual flavor. We were told the Mexican Hot Chocolate had cinnamon and a little pepper in it, but we didn't taste anything but chocolate. The chocolate frosting however, was my favorite. Mud Pie was okay...the cake part had good flavor (despite being dry) but I thought the Mexican Hot Chocolate frosting was better.

So...all in all... it was okay. We'd stop there if we were in the area and needed dessert, but we didn't love it. Sorry, Got Cupcakes?, you didn't do it for us this time.

CUPCAKES!!

It's no secret that I LOVE cupcakes. They are probably my favorite dessert - I've already posted 2 posts about them. This one is different...I'm not posting a recipe. I'm commenting on some awesome cupcakes I have eaten around the Tri-State area.

My husband and I just got some delicious cupcakes (pictured) from Crumbs Bakery. They are actually a chain, but there is only one location somewhat near me and I'd never gone. Boy was I missing out!! These sizeable cupcakes come in many delicious combinations. We had a hard time picking out one each, so we ended up with 4, promising to split them. We purchased a Dulce De Leche (YUM!!), a Chocolate Covered Strawberry, a Half Baked and a White Hot Chocolate, which was the flavor of the month. I have a feeling we will be back to this bakery sometime in the near future.

Another favorite of ours resides in New Jersey near my in-laws, called Mr. Cupcakes. We first heard about this place on a local radio station and when we found out it was only 5 minutes from where my in-laws live, we went. These are standard size cupcakes but they have so many delicious flavors and it is always a treat. Some of our favorites are French Toast, Chocolate Raspberry and Cookie Jar.

We tried another place near us called New York Cupcakery, but we weren't overly impressed. We were so excited when it first opened because it would be a close cupcake place for us, but the cupcakes weren't special. They had a lot of flavors but it was like a standard cake cupcake with a flavored icing or something. We like cupcakes with stuff in the cake or a filling. I mean, these tasted fine - just not special. They were a standard size, but more expensive than Mr. Cupcakes.

We recently heard about Stuffed Cupcakes, another cupcake location near my in-laws in New Jersey and I am now DYING to try it out. Hopefully one day soon!!!

I blame the Cooking Channel, the Travel Channel and Food Network for introducing me to all of these wonderful locations and making me crave cupcakes!!

If you know of a FANTASTIC cupcake place that we should try - let me know!! My husband and I travel a lot so we'd totally seek out some local cupcakes. :-)

Until then, I am going to go enjoy my birthday cupcake from Crumbs - Chocolate Covered Strawberry tonight! YUM!!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes - Great Thanksgiving Dessert!

It's my husband's "year" for Thanksgiving, meaning we will be joining his family for the holiday this year. This means we get to drive 3 hours away and there will be something like 22 people there. It's a far cry from the Thanksgiving with my family, where there are maybe 10 people and it's less than 10 minutes away from my house. But, it must be done.

We go to my husband's Aunt's house and this year everyone needs to pitch in a little bit more because this poor woman tore her Achilles Tendon over the summer and can't really stand long enough to do much cooking. She asked us to do a dessert, which is fine, because I was thinking of doing that anyway.

I saw THIS recipe about a month back and thought it looked intriguing. Not particularly for me, because I HATE pumpkin, but my husband loves it and so do some members of his family. This recipe was different for sure, so I tested it out this past weekend.

The girl who made up this recipe is obviously a much better baker than I am and she made the cupcakes from scratch. I didn't! I had to cheat and use cake mix (it's just easier for me) but I did add some special touches of my own. Once they were completed I had my husband taste test them as well as my neighbors. They fared well, so I will definitely make them to bring up to Thanksgiving.

Here is what I used and how I made the cupcakes...

Ingredients:

Pre-made refrigerated pie crust dough
Pure pumpkin (15 oz)
Evaporated milk
ground cinnamon
ground ginger
ground cloves
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs
Cake mix (or your favorite recipe to make cupcakes from scratch)
3 more eggs (based on my cake mix)
applesauce
water
marshmallow fluff
frosting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Take a mini cupcake pan and gently spray each cup.

Roll out your dough and cut circles that can cover the cup in the pan - bottom and sides. Like the girl from the original recipe suggested, I used a small juice glass opening and it turned out to be the perfect size.

Line the cups with the circles of dough.

Prepare your filling - I use Libby's pure pumpkin and the recipe for the pumpkin mix is right on the can but you mix all the dry ingredients (sugar, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of salt). Then you add the pumpkin and the eggs - well beaten. Slowly add in the evaporated milk and stir until smooth.

Fill your little pie cups - only halfway since they will expand as they cook. But if you want bigger "pie bites" fill them up!

Bake these for 7 minutes at 425 degrees F, and then lower the oven to 350 degrees F and bake them for another 10 minutes or so, until the crust is brown and the filling is completely set.


Take them out of the oven and let them cool on a wire rack in the muffin pan...once cool, take them out and set them aside as you make your cupcake batter.

In my case, I just used boxed cake mix. I used white cake and mixed the eggs and water in, along with the applesauce. I prefer to use applesauce instead of the oil they recommend, because it's a little healthier and lighter. I use the exact same amount of applesauce for the amount of oil they ask for.

Once the batter was whipped up, I sprinkled in some cinnamon and nutmeg for a little extra flavor - but not overwhelmingly so.

Line regular muffin pans with baking cups. Put 1 tablespoon of batter in the bottom of each cup and then gently put a pie bite in the middle. Do not press the pie bite down to the bottom.

Put another heaping tablespoon of cupcake batter in each cup - make sure the pie bite is completely covered.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes until cupcakes are golden brown. Remove them from the oven and let them cool.

Once my cupcakes were cooled, I used marshmallow fluff as my "icing" and smeared it on the top of each cupcake.

I then mixed plain white frosting with unsweetened cocoa powder and yellow food coloring to get a tan effect and used a piping bag to make the top of the cupcake look like a little pie.

On some cupcakes, I placed a candied pecan on the top.

I really hope my husband's family will enjoy these little creations!

I also made some "cherry" pies the same way, using cherry pie filling in the pie bites instead of pumpkin. They came out well, and I just used regular frosting on top - no marshmallow fluff. I will also be making a batch of some sort of fruit pie for Thanksgiving for the non pumpkin eaters like myself. I am just trying to decide between blueberry pies and strawberry pies.

I wish I had the talents of the girl who made this original recipe - they were so fancy - but as I previously mentioned, my husband is the baker in the family. While his shoulder is recuperating, I am filling in, and people will have to make due with plain old cake mix :-)

Happy Thanksgiving Cooking everyone!!

Cupcakes!

I've enjoyed decorating cupcakes for a few years now. I'm NOT anywhere close to being a pro. I just liked to use gel pens and make fun designs on cupcakes I baked.

Recently I've tried branching out. I began practicing using a piping bag to make decorations. The pictures above only indicate my 2nd time using them, so I have a lot of improving to do. But it's going well.

I also have started making filled cupcakes. I learned a neat trick from a show on Food Network on a pretty easy way to get filling in after you bake the cupcakes (use an apple corer to poke a hole on top, then drop in the filling and leave it open or put the little circle of cake back on to cover it!)

Last weekend I made "blueberry pie" cupcakes and cupcakes filled with nutella. The blueberry pie cupcakes are a take on the "bake sale cupcakes" that have been circulating the internet from Oprah's website, I believe. Basically, people baked cupcakes and used blue or red M&M's on top to make it look like cherries or blueberries and then piped tan icing over it to make it resemble a pie. They were super cute.

But I took it one step further... I filled the cupcakes with blueberry preserves! I did decorate some with the M&M's because they were so cute, but for people who don't like chocolate, I used blue sugar sprinkles.
To me, they were a little too sweet with the sugar sprinkles, so next time I am just going to use blue icing.

The other night, my husband requested cupcakes stuffed with strawberry preserves and chocolate icing. So that's what I made. I baked a basic white cupcake and mixed in hints of vanilla extract and cinnamon. It turned out well! He came home from work, where he took one as a snack and said, "those cupcakes were delicious!" yay! Boost to my ego.

I also decorated some with white icing to make it more like a strawberry shortcake.

I've been having a good time with the cupcakes so far. If you have any ideas, tips or tricks, send them my way!!