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Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

A very long time ago (like years ago) I made some Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes for a super good friend of mine and they turned out quite delicious.  Recently, a friend of hers had a super sweet simple wedding on the bay and requested I make the same Strawberry Champagne cupcakes I made years ago! I guess it didn't matter that I was a cookie company :).  Of course I was happy to do it but I haven't made a cupcake in SO long I had to turn to our trusted friend the internet to find a good recipe and I did! With a few tweaks the cupcakes came out delightful! (Even though my icing skills aren't).  Lucky for me she cared more about the taste than the look and she was one very happy bride :).

Champagne Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 egg whites

1 cup Champagne

Strawberry-Champagne Filling:

1 cup champagne I used the barefoot pink moscato and it made it just the right amount of sweet with no extra sugar)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 pint strawberries, hulled

Champange Buttercream Frosting:

2 sticks butter, room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup champagne

Instructions

1.    Bake the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in egg whites one at a time. Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with dry mixture. Pour batter into tins and bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

2.   Make the strawberry filling: Cook the champagne over medium-high heat until the mixture is reduced by about half. Whisk in cornstarch and allow the mixture to thicken. Pour into food processor bowl and allow to cool. Add strawberries and pulse until combined.

3.   Make the champagne buttercream frosting: Beat butter in bowl of stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla, salt, and champagne; beat until frosting is creamy.

4.   Assemble the cupcakes: Using a small paring knife, cut a small cone from the top of each cupcake. Fill with a heaping teaspoon of filling. Using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake, swirling decoratively. Finish them off with a couple of candied strawberry chips, and serve.

Stuffed Carrot Cake Cookies - First Attempt at Making them Chewy

Cinnamon Almonds vs. Candied Pecans...candied pecans fo sho! My first attempt at our newest stuffed cookie taste wise turned out fabulous! However consistency and texture wise it fell a little short. I've never been a fan of cakey cookies. I just personally like my cookies dense and chewy so I always try to make my cookies in the same way I like them.  In this recipe I used grated carrots, which leave a lot of the water found in the carrots in the cookie batter.  I actually think I am going to juice the carrots first before putting them into the cookie batter.  I am thinking it will have less moisture and therefore bake a little less cakey.  I also think I am going to increase the amount of coconut to make up for the loss in moisture from the carrots.  I will let you know how it goes.

I will also testing which one I liked better...cinnamon almonds or candied pecan and the candied pecans came out so much better.  I ended up cutting them up and putting them on top of the cookies before baking them.  They stayed crunchy which I was very happy with and gave the top a nice crispy crunch in each bite! Delish! Now I just need to work on the texture.....keep you posted ;)

Tiered Cookie Cakes - Wedding Cookie Favors

Being in the wedding industry is sometimes really tough for me.  I've tried to make my mark with making very chewy dense super delicious stuffed cookies and unfortunately sometimes that can be really hard if you're trying make it look really cute too.  The cookies  that look the cutest don't ever really taste the best. Often they require a lot of fondant & icings and harder cookies that can hold specific shapes.  And that is my dilemma.....BUT yay! I think I've found a compromise with these tiered cookie cakes.  Here are my first attempts at making tiered cookie cakes.  I've even been able to stuff each cookie layer (except for the top layers) to go along with my style.  These are definitely the first attempts so hopefully they will get better the more practice.

Oven thermometers...small life saver!

Baking can be so frustrating! It is so crazy inconsistent it drives me insane! The same exact recipe sometimes will come out different every time I bake it. Ugh!! Although I still struggle with consistency, one thing I have found that has helped me out TREMENDOUSLY is an oven thermometer.  So cheap and easy to get, I think every baker must have one. Ovens are really testy and often very wrong.  It might say it's set at 375 degrees but often the actual temperature inside the oven isn't even close to 375 degrees and my cookies come out under baked or over baked.  Especially if I've been baking for a while, the oven is always hotter than what it's set at.  Hopefully, the consistency part will get better since I know thats incredibly important when trying to run a small business.

Orange Cream Cheese Cookie Squares

I can't think of anything worse that affects so many people I know....being allergic to chocolate! It just breaks my heart! ;)  Well here's a recipe that even the poor unfortunate choco-phobes can enjoy.  Light, fruity & not to sweet with a crunchy with cookie bottom and crumble topping. Perfect to close out the summertime and head into the fall!

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

8oz cream cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 canned mandarin oranges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter & sugar together.  Sift flour.  Add flour & walnuts to mixture until it becomes crumbly.  Pat mixture into 9 x 9 pan, but reserve some for topping.  Bake crust for 12 mins.

Combine all other ingredients together, except for oranges.  Remove baked crust from oven and layer mandarin oranges on top.  Pour cream cheese mixture over and add topping. Bake for another 20 mins.  Cool & serve!