cheater "fancy" nutty devil's food cupcakes

so today was a pretty lazy saturday, except for making cupcakes... jeff asked if I would make dessert if he ordered dinner, so I agreed- I always want treats and I was pretty bored anyway.

I was trying to think up something fun, and I remembered I had a boxed cake mix in the pantry. it's actually been a while since I've used one, so I figured why not? my problem is I always have to screw around recipes and add something or find a new/weird way to make it.

so obviously I couldn't just make a plain ol' devil's food cake (or cupcakes). instead I decided to do devil's food cupcakes w/nutella filling, peanut butter-cinnamon frosting, and chocolate butterscotch swirl on top. see, I told you- I can't just leave things alone.



since I just used a box, there's not really much of a recipe. just follow the instructions on the box, and then:

• fill cupcake liners about halfway up w/batter, then spoon in about 1/4 teaspoon of nutella, cover nutella w/just a little more batter.
• bake according to instructions on box (about 20 minutes).

Frosting:

• about 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar (depending on how thick/thin you want the frosting)
• 1tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• approx. 1/4 cup milk
• cream all ingredients together on medium in stand mixer until creamy and fluffy.
  

for the chocolate on top I melted about 2/3 cup of a mix of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in the microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, stirring, until it was all smooth and evenly melted. spoon it into a plastic zip-top bag, clip off a tiny end to pipe onto the cupcakes.



and yeah, that's about it! I only tasted a half of a test cupcake, cause the rest are for dessert, but I'm pretty pleased w/the outcome.

Avocado Update!

Ok. So yesterday was Binya's (from the previous post) bridal shower. I was asked to make cupcakes. I, of course, obliged. Duh... The theme was international travel, since they will be traveling about after the wedding, so we all brought food representing different places from around the world. Their first stop is Mexico, so I felt like the avocado cupcakes would be pretty appropriate... but with a little twist. I made them spicy-for a bunch of spicy ladies. :) Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT! They were deeee-licious!

I started out with the same basic recipe from before, but decided to tweak it a little. Oh, and I took some more process pictures.

*Side note: I think we accidentally didn't put in enough water last time, which is why the batter was so weird. It looked like totally normal batter this time around, but both times were delicious, so it doesn't matter all that much.*

So, everything starts out the same: avocados, cocoa, flour, etc... until we get to the water.
I thought it might be fun to add a little something extra for a little more flavor. So I subbed one of the two cups of water for COFFEE-mmmm, coffee... it tasted great, and gave it a little richer chocolatey color, which I think is quite nice. Speaking of nice, let's get to the spice... Oh man, I'm so lame. I love it. I decided to make up my own little blend. I used Mexican chili powder, cayenne pepper, this chile y limon mix, and some cinnamon. I was happy with the way they all tasted together.
I used pretty equal parts when putting it all together, I didn't really measure. I added about 1 tsp of the spice mixture to the batter, and it was just a little teeny bit of a kick, exactly what I wanted. Those were really the only changes I made to the batter. The cupcakes came out really great. They were nice and fluffy, and not too spicy.

Onto the frosting. This part was a little different. Since the frosting turns out so sweet I had to put a lot more spice in it than in the batter. I started out with 2 tsp, but then I just kept adding more to taste, which is probably a good idea since everybody has different tolerance levels for spicy stuff. Oh! I remembered to document the slime stage of the frosting this time.
mmmmm... slime... The consistency of the frosting came out almost exactly the same this time- nice, thick, gooey caramel-y, and it set really well again.

I would really call these a success. The complete cupcake, with frosting, was really tasty. At first you just taste chocolate, then the heat kind of sneaks up on you after a few seconds. I really, really enjoyed them, and they seemed to be a hit at the party. They ended up looking pretty much the same as the first batch.

I also had some extra batter, so I made a tiny cake for myself. hehehe. I was curious to see how it would hold up as a cake, but it turned out really well. Hooray for experiments.


p.s. I noticed that my dress and my apron, together were very similar to the colors of the spices, avocados, and chocolate. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd show you.

Farewell, Bon voyage!