Birthday Cupcakes: Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

These are a mouthful, both to say and eat. They are also a pain to make. Well, I take that back. I enjoy baking and this was like making cupcakes and cookies, but all rolled in to one, so it was technically double the joy of baking. I had assumed that we would be back in time from the SuperBowl (sorry Cardinals) to make these, and we were because we left at half time. However, it took me about 3-4 hours from start to finish to get these done. Amazingly enough I finished in time to watch The Office afterwards. Sweet!

These cupcakes were for the February Birthdays at work. As usual, I got no suggestions. After a little bit of prying and prodding I was able to get a suggestion for pistachio or chocolate hazelnut. While both sound fantastic to me, and my Hazelnut Kahlua Nutella cupcakes were some of my favorite, I opted out of those fearing other people may not be too keen on them. Finally, it hit me! I've been dying to make these Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes for AGES! So I did. I didn't get to do the cookie dough frosting though. Doubling the recipe for the cupcakes cleaned me out of my brown sugar. Light and Dark.

Fantastic. Everyone loved these and they were a great big hit. I even ate one of my own creations! I usually don't have one of my cupcakes, and I am not really sure why, but this time I did and it was wonderful. I loved it. I definitely suggest that anyone looking to impress people with a cupcake should try these. They may be time consuming but they are pretty easy. People will really appreciate the creativity and yumminess that goes into these.


Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes
recipes found on Hello Baker

Chocolate Chip Cookies
by Alton Brown
yields 30 balls and a lot of mini cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter
2-1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
   
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
   
3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

*** Roll approximately 30 balls of dough into the size of a marble (you can do larger if you want, just compensate by adding less cupcake batter in the end) and freeze the balls until ready for cupcakes ***

*** If you want to make mini cookies, scoop out dime sized pieces of cookie dough and bake for about 7-10 minutes ***

Brown Sugar Cupcakes
from Cupcake Bakeshop
yields appx. 30 cupcakes

1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C milk
1 T vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
3. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
6. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
7. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
8. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
9. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
10. Place previously prepared frozen cookie dough ball (mine were fairly big) into cup liners, then fill about half to three-quarters full of cupcake batter.
11. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched. (Testing by using a toothpick would be insufficient because of the gooey cookie dough in the center).

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Frosting
recipe by Me
yields enough to frost all cupcakes

8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 T butter, softened
3 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 C mini chocolate chips

1. Cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add in vanilla beat paste and beat together until incorporated.
3. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
4. Stir in mini chocolate chips and frost cooled cupcakes.

Cupcakes in Arizona: Cake Cafe

I went to this place ages ago, except I didn't have a blog then, so I didn't review it. I am now. First I will start off with the appearance of the Cake Cafe. Glenn and I spotted this place in a generic looking strip mall that had some balloons and a sign out front advertising the new bakery. Awesome! We went inside and we're turned off by all the tacky gifts lining the wall. The place looks like a 12 year old girl decorated it, and that's not a good thing. The display for the "Famous Cupcakes" was really small, one of those clear containers you usually see with muffins or bagels inside them. It really looked like an afterthought.

Now these "Famous Cupcakes" have got me stumped as to where the name came from. I'm not sure who decided these were famous, but I can't really vouch for that. I got a peanut butter chocolate cupcake and Glenn got a chocolate mint cupcake. Having just been back from Yummy Cupcakes in Santa Monica about a month prior, we were eager to recreate the flavors we had there. Mission not accomplished. My chocolate cake was dry and tasted off. Reviews on Yelp suggest that this is because they used cake mix, and I have to agree. That's probably it. The frosting however, I liked because it was super sweet and peanut buttery. The grainy texture was a little irritating, but the flavor was still good. Opponents of super sweet will not enjoy these. Glenn also had a chocolate cake and the accompanying "off" taste. He also wasn't sure if the mint was in the cake as well as in the frosting. He enjoyed the frosting, but quoted Yummy Cupcakes as being far superior.

I'm sorry Cake Cafe. I really want to like you. I try to support local business, but only if they are putting out a product Arizona can be proud of. Try making your cakes from scratch and taking them out of the oven a few minutes earlier. Those simple tips can do wonders for your business. Until then, I will continue to make my own cupcakes.