Mandy Eats

Welcome! There are some changes brewing over here at Cupcakes by Mandy, the first being the change of this blog's name! I'm really excited to announce that I've changed this blog to Mandy Eats. The official domain name is now http://www.mandy-eats.com.  I am expanding the blog to cover more than just cupcakes to talk about a variety of different recipes, food & restaurant reviews, and  keeping up an active lifestyle. This is something I've been thinking of doing for a while, and I'm excited to have the blog grow! I have so much more to talk about than cupcakes, but those will certainly still be featured here and will continue to expand my baking skills. Stay tuned for upcoming articles for Thanksgiving recipes and how I attempt to keep the holiday weight gain at bay! I'm thinking of throwing a Facebook page into the mix as well... stay tuned!

The old address of cupcakesbymandy.blogspot.com will redirect you to this site as well.

Eeking out every drop of my Halloween decorations as possible. Bring on the holiday season now!

Butterbeer Cupcakes

A friend asked me to make butterbeer cupcakes as a birthday treat for her fiance, which happened to be combined with a Halloween party (that's why I included the candy knives for a spooky decoration). Now I have indeed been to Harry Potter World at Universal, but (gasp!) did not actually try the butterbeer! Why? Because the line was about 20,982,183 people deep. I exaggerate a tad, but seriously the line was ridiculously long and it being the middle of July in Florida, it just wasn't going happen.

So what's a girl whose never actually tasted butterbeer to do? Google. I came across this recipe by AmyBites and it seems pretty spot on. These butterbeer cupcakes are adapted from her recipe. They are filled the the brim with butterscotch, vanilla and buttery flavors.

These are an awesome flavor combination for fall and a great way to impress family members and in-laws for that up-coming Thanksgiving dinner.

Butterbeer Cupcakes 

with Butterscotch Ganache Filling & Frosting 

Yields 18 cupcakes

Adapted from this recipe by AmyBites

Butterbeer Cupcakes
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cream soda

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. 
3. In a large mixing bowl bowl, cream your butter until light and fluffy. Approx 3-4 minutes of mixing on a "high" setting.
4. Add your room-tempature sugars and beat until well-combined. Beat in your eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
5. Beat in your vanilla and butter flavoring.
6. Alternate adding the buttermilk, cream soda, and dry ingredients in batches until all are well incorporated. 
7. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and cake springs back to the touch. 
8. Cool completely on wire racks.

While the cupcakes cool...

Butterscotch Ganache (for the cupcake filling)
1 11-oz. package butterscotch chips
3/4 cup heavy cream

1. In a double boiler (heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove), combine butterscotch chips and heavy cream and stir until completely combined and smooth. 
2. Cool to room temperature. 
3. Reserve at least 3/4 cup of the ganache for the frosting later
4. Fill a squeeze bottle with ganache and insert into the center of each cupcake, squeezing until filling begins to overflow. I highly recommend using the squeeze bottle, as opposed to a frosting bag and tip; it gives you a lot more control over the ganache and less chance of spilling. 

Butterscotch Frosting
3/4 cup of unsalted butter (room temp.)
3/4 cup of vegetable shortening (i.e. Crisco)
3/4 cup of reserved butterscotch ganache
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp butter flavor (optional)

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter & vegetable shortening until well combined & fluffy (approx 3 min).
2. Mix in the reserved butterscotch ganache.
3.  Mix in 1/2 salt. I find that this is a very sweet cupcake, so I added salt to the frosting to help counteract all of the sweetness. It's very similar tasting to salted caramel.
4. One cup at a time mix the powered sugar into the butter, vegetable shortening & salt, on a low setting, making sure to scrape down the sides after adding each cup. 
5. Then add the vanilla and butter flavoring. I did not add the butter flavor, so try it out first with just the vanilla and see if it's "buttery" enough for you. 

Frost the completely cooled cupcakes with a ribbon tip and then lightly swirl any of the remaining ganache on the tops. 

These are the Martha Stewart Cupcake papers I used. My boyfriend's mom gave these to me, but I'm pretty sure you can find them at Michael's Craft Stores. 

For more fall-inspired cupcakes by Mandy click here!

Pretty Pink Princess Cupcakes

My niece's birthday was this past weekend and she had been asking me for months (I'm not even exaggerating) to make her cupcakes for her 6th birthday. After much thought and consideration she wanted vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and dark pink sprinkles. Easy enough. All you really need are some adorable cupcake liners, a vanilla cake recipe (boxed or homemade -I used boxed in this instance to help save time), a classic buttercream frosting recipe, food dye, and of course the sprinkles.

It's a cupcake canyon!

 I'm not sure how well you can see it, but there is my business card!

Butternut Spice Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream & Glazed Walnuts

For the Lake to Lake Girls Cupcake challenge the winner was a suggestion for a butternut squash cupcakes and walnuts, "Can you make a hearty and sweet butternut or acorn squash cupcake?  I bet walnuts would be good inside or walnut flavored frosting?!"Keep reading for pictures and the recipe!

For the Butternut Spice cake I basically took the recipe that I've used for the pumpkin spice cake and substituted the pumpkin with the squash. You can certainly roast your own squash and mash it up, but to save time I used canned butternut squash. I found this variety in the organic section of Wegmans.

I also used festive Martha Stewart cupcake liners.

The recipes for the cakes & the frosting were inspired from the pumpkin spice cupcake & maple buttercream frosting found in The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes by Nicholas Peruzzi with Courtney Forrester of Sweet Cupcakes, Inc.

Recipe

Butternut Spice Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting & Glazed Walnuts

Yields enough for 12 cupcakes & frosting

Butternut Spice Cupcakes

1 1/3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

14 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch (1/8 tsp) ground cloves

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 large egg

1/3 cup, plus 1 tbs whole milk

2/3 cup butternut squash

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit & line muffin tin with 12 cupcake papers
2. Beat the butter until light & fluffy in an electric mixer (approx 3-5 minutes)
3. Once butter is light & fluffy, gradually add the brown sugar and mix well
4. Beat in the egg until well mixed
5. Add milk to the butter & egg mixture and blend well until smooth
6. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and cloves. Once incorporated, add the flour mixture slowly to the wet mixture, and mix until just incorporated
7. Add the butternut squash & mix until smooth
8. Fill the cupcake papers until 2/3 full
9. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the tin, and bake for 17 more minutes. Insert a toothpick or thin knife blade into the center of cupcake, they are done when it comes out clean. 
10. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting, approx 30 minutes.

Maple Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)
2 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp maple flavor

1.  Beat the butter & vegetable shortening until creamy and well incorporated
2. Slowly add the confectioners sugar to the butter & vegetable shortening on low speed until it is well mixed
3. Add the vanilla & maple extract and beat on medium to high speed until fully incorporated
4. Use a ribbon tip to generously frost the cooled cupcakes & top with a glazed walnut

I used store-bought glazed walnuts to help save time but a quick Google search comes up with plenty of recipes that take only 5 minutes to make your own. If you love walnuts, try chopping them up and adding them to the cupcake batter and or sprinkle on top of the frosting.

I'm excited to use these Halloween themed papers & candy knives. Oh the possibilities! A shout to Terri for the treats! Xo

Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

Remember that time I made some epic heart-attack inducing cupcakes and then completely forgot to post it on my blog? Yeah. Last Thursday I was asked to make some bacon chocolate cupcakes and I'm not one to say no to a challenge. I searched the annals of Pinterest and came up with this recipe.