*Sweet Indulgence

welcome. I am an amateur baker bringing you lots of cupcakes and other indulgences. Mistakes will be made. Blogs I &hearts Pinch My Salt Bakerella Tartelette Dozen Flours Confessions of a Bakeaholic I &hearts Cuppycakes! Jojochao Le Cupcake How To Eat a Cupcake Facebook

[thesweetindulgence]

Tropical Breakfast Muffins

Another prime example of... I'll bake just about anything you request.  Including things with yucky coconut!  {Again, feel free to make any requests!}  This muffin turned out quite moist and I'd try it again, but this time without the yucky coconut ;) I was searching and searching for a muffin recipe with the main ingredients being pineapple and coconut, but even foodgawker was failing me this time. I took to google search and for once, found a recipe that looked presentable on about.com, which I normally avoid.  The recipes tend to be incomplete and unreviewed, but this had a photo and I was hooked.

I was glad I took the risk even though my muffins didn't rise like the ones in the image, but next time I won't hesitate to fill the paper cups to the top as suggested in the recipe.  Especially since I cut the baking powder in half.  They were moist thanks to the banana, buttermilk and vegetable oil.  You would have thought with all the ingredients they would have been quite dense, but that wasn't the case at all.  I think I may try to alter this recipe in the future for a carrot cupcake.  There's definite potential with this one!

{The batter reminded me of chunky peanut butter.}

Ingredients

{recipe adapted from}

1 cup oatmeal

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon lime juice

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 ripened banana

1/2 cup crushed pineapple

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup almonds

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line muffin tins with papers.  In a large bowl, mix together the oats, flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together the banana, crushed pineapple, brown sugar, oil, egg, lime juice, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add the carrots, coconut and nuts to the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry  and mix until everything is incorporated.  The batter looks like chunky peanut butter.

Fill the muffin tins almost to the top.  Place in the oven, close the door and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake 15-18 minutes, insert toothpick and make sure it comes out clean.  When the muffins are ready, the tops should feel slightly springy to the touch.  Remove and let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and let cool completely on the rack.

{Makes 20 muffins}

{Original Article}

[thesweetindulgence]

Baking Muffins - Who Am I?

For those of you who may not know, I have a separate baking blog that I don’t update nearly enough.  Recently after attending the blogging class in Stockton I’ve been considering just melding that blog with this one.  Alejandro talked about how blogs are the central hub of your brand so it makes sense that two blogs are only more confusing.  I want you to be able to find me easily and in one location. What do you think?

While you’re all mulling it over, read on for a yummy muffin recipe that’s really more like a naked cupcake.  {If I were too take an educated guess, I’d say it’s because the recipe called for cake flour.}  I’ve never liked blueberries so this is probably my first time baking with them, but these were at the request of Mr. Goddard.  If you don’t know this about me yet - I always take requests!  {Please feel free to make one anytime!}  It helps me branch out of my box.  Otherwise I’d keep baking the same snickerdoodles and the same vanilla cupcakes.  This is only my second or third time making muffins, which is such a different ball game than cupcakes.  With cupcakes I’m always trying to achieve light, fluffy and moist.  Muffins in my opinion are more hearty and therefore light and fluffy are not the goals.

Mr. G took these into his work and I received several emails of thanks and praise, but the way I really know there a hit?  If there’s none left at the end of the day and I saw these on the counter at his sister’s house a couple days later… What I’m trying to tell you is that these may not have hit it out of the park {why am I speaking in sports terms?}, but they were good.  I think that I make actually make them again, but use them as a cupcake base.  Maybe since I’m trying out blueberries I could attempt throwing them into a new frosting recipe?  You’ll just have to wait and see!

Recipe

{adapted from}

Ingredients

12 1/2 ounces cake flour {just under 2 3/4 cup}

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

heavy pinch salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup plain yogurt

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

zest of 3 lemons

Lemon glaze

powdered sugar

lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 380 degrees F. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.

In a food processor or mini chopper, pulse sugar and lemon zest until you get a fine blend.

In your mixer’s bowl, whisk together your lemon zest sugar, oil, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients slowly, reserving one tablespoon of dry ingredients to toss with the blueberries. Mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated.  Detach your bowl and add 1 cup of blueberries, and stir 3 more times.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

Place muffins in the oven to bake and increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 15-18 minutes.  While muffins are in the oven squeeze the juice from your 3 zested {is that word?} lemons.  Added about a quarter cup of powdered sugar at a time to the juice until you reach a desired consistency.  Mine was probably similar to ranch dressing.  It’s sticky enough though not to pour down the side of the muffins though.

Remove from heat and let stand in the pan on your cooling rack for about a minute.  Then remove muffins to cool completely. Once cool I turned the muffins upside down and gently dunked just the tops in my glaze.  Turn up right and allow glaze to dry.  {The glaze is what makes the top of the muffin look so shiny in the photo.}  Store in an airtight container until served.

[thesweetindulgence]

Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Cookies

A friend of a friend very generously moved the content of my blog from tumblr to wordpress for me recently.  For FREE.  I obviously couldn’t let that kindness go unrewarded and luckily for me, this was a tech genius with a B-I-G sweet tooth.  My wifey has asked his wife if he’s part elf because he knows how to indulge in all sweets that come across his desk. Haha!

Saturday night, with the help of my beautiful assistant, I made another attempt at stuffed cookies.  This time with Reese’s Peanut Butter in the miniature size.  It was definitely much easier than the s’more stuffed cookies I made a few months ago, equally delicious – just easier.

Next time I make these (and pb fans take note) I will definitely use the original sized cups.  There just wasn’t enough peanut butter to do justice to their name.

Ingredients

{via Picky Palate}

2 sticks softened butter

1 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

10 oz bag chocolate chips

Instruction

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a stand or electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until well combined.  Add eggs and vanilla until well combined.

2.  Place flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl; mix then slowly add to wet ingredients.  Add chocolate chips to combine.  Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of snack size candy bar.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of candy bar.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until candy bar is enclosed with dough.  Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until cookies are baked to your liking.  Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  Serve with a tall glass of milk, enjoy!

Makes 25 cookies.

{Original article}

[thesweetindulgence]

Cupcake humor, love it!

[thesweetindulgence]

Birthday Cupcakes for the Boy

My honey turned 32 last week so when I came down to his office for lunch I surprised him and his coworkers with his favorite cupcake!  Yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Mr. Goddard works in a big building downtown where I have to check in at the lobby with security.  I felt quite official!

Yellow Butter Cake

{via Mangio da Sola}

Ingredients

6 oz (3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

14 oz (1 3/4 cup) superfine or regular granulated sugar (I used regular)

3 large, whole eggs 

1 egg yolk 

6 oz AP flour

3 oz cake flour

1 tsp salt 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup half-n-half

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the eggs one at time, making sure the batter is well-blended before adding another egg.

In a separate bowl, whisk or sieve the flours, salt, and baking powder. In a (2-cup/16oz) liquid measuring cup, mix the half-n-half and extract. Pour in a 1/3rd of the dry and a 1/3rd of the wet ingredients and continue to alternate, ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be thick (and tasty).

Pour batter into  cupcake liners, and bounce them gently on the counter to remove air bubbles and to make the batter even. Bake the batter for 18 minutes, you should end up with about 22 cupcakes. 

For the frosting I usually make it up as I go along, but I start off with William Sonoma's 'Quick Chocolate Buttercream'.

These definitely earned me some friends in the office.

[thesweetindulgence]

If not, I'll be the first!

[thesweetindulgence]

3rd Times a Charm!

I have posted this pie in the past, twice in fact.  With no success either time I never attached the recipe.  I don't know why because I posted pictures of mushy pie that wouldn't set.  Not that it was the fault of the original baker.  It was this girl right here who seemed to temporarily become incapable of reading a recipe.  I mean there's a BIG difference between 4 teaspoons of rum and 4 TABLESPOONS!  Oops.

So after more than a year I decided once again that I would make this pie and make it my bitch.  I promise this pie is so easy, so yummy (even with the extra rum), it was just baker error.  Oh, and the secret ingredient? Curry powder in the crust!  Sounds a bit weird, but I swear it makes the pie.  We've all had banana cream pie, but this one is special.

Banana Rum Cream Pie

{via Epicurious}

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs from 9 (4 3/4 - by 2 1/4-inch) crackers

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon curry powder (preferably Madras)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest

1 cup chilled heavy cream

4 teaspoons dark rum

4 firm-ripe bananas

Preperation

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix together crumbs, butter, curry powder, cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar in a bowl with a fork until combined well. Reserve no more than 1 tablespoon crumb mixture for garnish and press remaining crumb mixture evenly onto bottom and up side of pie plate. This can be a little tricky because the crust mixture is fairly dry, but it doesn't need to be perfect.  Then bake crust 10 minutes.  Allow to cool completely in your 9" pie plate on a rack, about 20 minutes.

Beat together cream cheese, zest, and remaining 6 tablespoons brown sugar in a deep bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.  If your bowl is too shallow, prepare for cream cheese to cover you, your counter tops and the coffee maker.  If it sounds like I know from experience, that's because I do.

Beat cream with rum in another bowl with cleaned beaters at medium speed until it holds soft peaks. Gently stir one third of whipped cream into cream cheese mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whipped cream gently but thoroughly.

Spread all of cream filling over bananas, then sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top. Chill pie, loosely covered, 20 minutes.  Thinly slice bananas and arrange evenly over bottom of crust. One suggestion I'd like to make and I'll probably try in the future, is laying your spread and bananas.  Just a thought, we'll see if it works out.

[thesweetindulgence]

THIS is the diet I've been waiting for all my life!

[thesweetindulgence]

A STUFFED Cookie? The more calories the better!

When did stuffed cookies become all the rage on the blogs?  If it weren't for my friend and coworker Diana, I would be walking around clueless right now!

Diana brought chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Reese's peanut butter cups in to work, but since I've never been a huge PB fan *gasp* I wasn't really sold on the idea of stuffed.  That was until I came across Picky Palate, not only do I wish I'd thought up the name myself, but s'mores?!  I knew I had to make these and since it takes a lot of dough to wrap around your s'mores I knew this small batch would be perfect for our Monday night dinner group.

{via Picky Palate}

Makes 12 cookies.

Ingredients

2 sticks softened butter

1 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 1/2 Cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Cups semi sweet chocolate chips

24 graham cracker quarters or 12 full sheets separated at perforations

3 Hershey Bars, broken into rows of 3 bars

12 large marshmallows cut in half lengthwise

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment or a silpat liner.

2.  In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, continue to beat until well combined.

3.  Place flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl; mix to combine then add slowly to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips.

4.  Layer a graham cracker quarter with 3 Hershey chocolate squares and 2 marshmallow halves.  Close with another graham cracker.  Top s’more with a large scoop of cookie dough.  Place in hands and place another large scoop on bottom then front and back sides as needed.  Form dough around s’mores.  Will get messy, but stick with it, it does not have to be perfect.  S’mores will move around but it’s no big deal.  {My sort of took the shape of a potato.} Place large cookies onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges are golden and centers are cooked through.  Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack or serving plate.

Notes:

My only question here is HOW IN THE HELL did hers turn out so lovely and flat, while mine turned into these monsterous, lumpy cookies?!  I even treated myself to a silpat sheet, thanks to my birthday gift card at William Sonoma.

[not-a-stacist]

[thesweetindulgence]

Anatomy of a cupcake.  So cute.

{not-a-stacist: (via}

[thesweetindulgence]

If you were to ask me the difference between what makes a yellow cake and a vanilla cake I would guess it has something to do with eggs.  Other than that I don't know... What I do know is that these cakes are delicious and moist!  

After having a yellow cupcake with chocolate ganache last year in Napa at the famed Dean & DeLuca Market I went on a quest to make my own.  That desire was fueled even more at fourth of July when my strawberry cupcakes were snubbed by a potential suitor.  He informed that he really only like yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  I made these yummy cakes, tweeted a photo and never shared one!  I showed him ;)

I know I always tell you that THESE are the best cupcakes, but they can't all the best. A lot of the time if I don't particularly like a flavor then I don't photograph it.  If I don't photograph it then it won't make it on here.  If it helps though, I've made these 3 times and that is the true way to know how much I really love a recipe - repetition. 

{For some reason I didn't write down how many cupcakes this cake recipe makes, but from my photos I count 21 cupcakes.  If I were to guess I would say this should make at least two dozen.}

Yellow Cake

{via Mangio de Sola}

Ingredients:

6 oz (3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

14 oz (1 3/4 cup) superfine or regular granulated sugar (I used regular)

3 large, whole eggs (room temperature)

1 egg yolk (room temperature)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cake flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup half-n-half

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two pans with cupcake liners. Cream the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the eggs one at time, making sure the batter is well-blended before adding another egg.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flours, salt, and baking powder. In a liquid measuring cup, mix the half-n-half and extract. Pour in a 1/3rd of the dry and a 1/3rd of the wet ingredients and continue to alternate, ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be thick.

Scoop batter into the cupcake liners, I use an ice cream scoop and the cups are about 3/4 full.  Bake the batter for 17-20 minutes, depending on your oven. 

[thesweetindulgence]

Trying a new recipe tonight with my Vermont maple syrup!

[thesweetindulgence]

I first had these heavenly cakes at my friend Alice's engagement party several months ago.  They had a whole table of homemade treats and for a sweets crazy girl like me it was so difficult to decide what to eat first.  I will admit that these did not make the first cup, but when I realized that these were made by my friend Lindsey I absolutely had to try them!  I almost wish I hadn't tried them since I proceeded to eat five of them (or more) throughout the evening!

To make the story even sillier, when I asked Lindsey for the recipe, I realized it was from a cookbook we both own!  I went through a faze of snatching up any and all cupcake cookbooks when I first started baking.  I still haven't gone through every single one, cover to cover. That needs to be corrected SOON :)

{Recipe from Cupcakes!}

Ingredients

1/2 cup cake flour

3/4 cup, plus 2 tbsp sugar

3/4 cup egg whites (about 5 large)

1/2 tsp cream or tartar

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp grates lemon zest

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp pure almond extract

Instruction

Preheat the over to 325 degrees.  Have a muffin pan ready with 12 muffin cups.  Sift the flour and 2 tbsp of sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until the whites are foamy and the cream of tartar dissolves.  Beat on high speed until the egg whites look shiny and smooth and the beaters from lines in the mixture; if you stop the mixer and lift up the beaters, the whites should cling to the beaters.  Slowly beat in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbsp at a time, then beat for 1 minute.  Mix in the lemon zest, vanilla, and almond extract.  Beating on low speed, sprinkle 1/4 cup of the flour mixture over the egg white mixture at a time, beating after each addition to incorporate it.

Using 1/2 cup for each, spoon the batter into 9 unlined muffin cups.  {You may think you have enough batter to fill each cup in the pan, but trust me, fill all the batter into NINE cups.} The batter may even be above the tops of the cups, but this stiff batter will not spill over the sides. Do not smooth the tops - let the batter remain in fluffy mounds.  Bake for about 35 minutes {keep an eye on your oven, mine were done in less time}, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry.  The cupcakes will rise quite a bit.

Arrange 2 cans on a wire rack and invert the pan over the cans so the ends of the pan rest on the cans.  This lets the air circulate while the cupcakes cool upside down.  Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Use a small knife to loosen the edges of the cupcakes from the pan.  Carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan, using the knife to help release them if necessary, and set them right side up on the rack.  

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp plus about 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, stir the powdered sugar and the melted butter with enough lemon juice, beginning with 2 tablespoons, to make a smooth pourable glaze.  

Use a small spoon to drizzle the glaze over the top of each cupcake.

[thesweetindulgence]

I have never been a fan of carrot cake so this is only the second time I've baked it.  It has been years and I wasn't able to find my old recipe so after hunting around foodgawker, I decided on this recipe, mostly because it looked SO moist in the photos.

Carrot cake seems to be one of those recipes similar to red velvet.  It's been around for years and everyone has their perfect recipe.  More spices, include crushed pineapple, there is an art to the carrot cake.  Even when I brought these to work I was amazed how many coworkers told me carrot cake was there wedding cake!  Carrot cake is a crowd pleaser and this recipe will not disappoint you.

Carrot Coconut Cupcakes

{adapted from Simply Scratch}

makes 28 cupcake

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1-1/2 cups sugar

3 whole eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

2 cups grated carrots

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup (8 oz.) pineapple, crushed 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Place cupcake wrappers in two cupcake pans. Mix flour, baking powder and cinnamon until well blended; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing until well blended. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating until well blended after each addition. Add carrots, coconut, and pineapple; mix well. Scoop evenly in your cupcake wrappers, about 3/4 full.  

Bake for 16-19 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks. Frost with cream cheese frosting and enjoy my friends. :)

[thesweetindulgence]

I feel like I need these in my life.

[edatrix]

[thesweetindulgence]

Love it.

{via thewivesbook:sweepmeup}

[thesweetindulgence]

Don't let the word pumpkin deter you for two reasons. 1) I don't like pumpkin pie, but these are delicious. 2) The pumpkin is such a light flavor that it could be considered more of a spice cake. Definitely worth making outside of the turkey holiday.

I actually found this recipe several years ago in Domino Magazine. I was in a complete panic when I couldn't find the recipe in my baking folder, but THANKFULLY I found it online! Thank you to those out there who are more organized that me.

{Pumpkin Bliss}

adapted from Domino Magazine

make 39 cupcakes

3 c. flour

1 T. plus 1 t. pumpkin pie spice

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2t. baking soda

1 t. salt

3 c. Sugar

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

4 large eggs

1 c. vegetable oil

3/4 c. orange juice

Preheat your oven to 350. Line muffin pans with liners. The recipe says sift, but if you're me then you throw together flour, spices, soda, salt and mix the hell out of them with a wisk. In your mixer's bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin and eggs. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in the oil and orange juice until smooth. Add flour mixture and fold together until incorporated. Do not overmix. Bake 18-20 minutes and frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting.