Decadence in a bite: Elvis Cupcakes

For anyone living under a rock, last Sunday was the Super Bowl. Having received an invite to friend Pas' Super Bowl party (at his outright amazing apartment in downtown Manhattan), I knew almost immediately what I wanted to make.

Peanut butter. Banana. Bacon. Cupcakes.

Otherwise known as Elvis Cupcakes. Oh yes, baby, they are as delicious as they sound. Well, at least my recipe is. Surprise, surprise, these recipes came from inspiration and combination of a few Smitten Kitchen recipes. I went with mini cupcakes because these are decadent, and I recommend giving these miniatures a try. I also really really wanted to debunk the dry mini cupcake myth. Even day-old cake doesn't have to dry out! Thus, I packed the cake with tons of banana and the next day, before frosting, I brushed the tops of the cake with Jack Daniels. My goal was to create a moist, banana-rich, peanut buttery, salty bacon dessert bite, a worthy tribute to The King, and I think these are winners.

My frosting did not want to pipe out, so they were sloppily frosted with a knife. Ignore the ugly, embrace the tasty.

Elvis Mini Cupcakes

Banana cake
[This makes 54 mini cupcakes or probably around two dozen regular cupcakes.]

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3.5 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 - 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (4 large)
3 tablespoons greek yogurt or sour cream
1 tablespoon whiskey (Jack Daniels), plus 1/4 cup [for topping the baked cupcakes]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift first 5 ingredients into bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until creamed. Beat in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, rum, and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions just until combined.

Line your mini cupcake with liners. Spoon no more than one tablespoon of batter into each liner, filling the cup 2/3 full max. Bake for 10-13 minutes max. [A toothpick may not come out "clean" because it's a very moist cake.] Remove cake from pan immediately and put on a cooling rack. Repeat process until batter is gone, it will take 2-3 batches of baking.

Directly before frosting, use a pastry brush (or new, clean paint brush) and brush the top of each cupcake with Jack Daniels.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups (which is more than you need for said cupcakes. Feel free to 3/4 the recipe, or give the frosting to a baker friend.)

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, commercial brand

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1/2-1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

The frosting will be quite thick and a bit difficult to pipe out because of the peanut butter. If possible, use a ziploc bag to frost the banana, Jack Daniels soaked cupcakes. If not, use a knife or small offset spatula and spread on.

Baked Bacon
10 slices high quality bacon

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place the bacon in a single layer on the pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping 10 minutes into the process. You want the bacon crispy but not burnt, and it will continue to crisp as it cools.

Place cooked bacon on a paper towel lined plate, and once cooled, cut slices into fifths. Top each cupcake with a generous piece of bacon.

Put the cupcakes out on a nice platter and enjoy the questions. "Bacon? On a cupcake?" "Wait, what are these called?" And then enjoy the happy smiles and mouthgasms around the room.

Hazelnut Mocha Chip Protein Muffins

So...I haven't felt so hot today, but I've had an itch to bake. Having finally picked up spelt flour at Whole Foods last week, I decided on Eggface's protein muffins. But, I was looking for something a bit more decadent than fruit. Nutella is like my favorite thing ever, so what's better than hazelnut mocha chip protein muffins?! Chocolate, coffee, hazelnuts, yum!



3/4 cup Spelt Flour
1/2 cup chocolate protein powder - used 1.5 scoops Lean Dessert Chocolate Fudge Pudding and 1 scoop Click Mocha, which yielded a bit more than 1/2 cup but it worked
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp sugar free syrup (I used 2 parts vanilla, 1 part SF hazelnut, 1 part Kahlua)
2 tbsp 1% cottage cheese
3 tbsp instant coffee - I'd recommend instant espresso instead
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/2 cup chopped Guylian no sugar added dark chocolate

Combine dry ingredients, excluding the coffee but including the hazelnuts and chocolate. Mix together, coating the pieces well. I whizzed the eggs, oil, syrups, vanilla, and coffee in the magic bullet (but mixing by hand is fine) and added to the dry ingredients. Stir until well-combined.

It makes 24 mini muffins, and bakes 12 minutes at 350.

They're a tad over-coffee-y for me, but not bad - now that I've had a second one, I think it's also heavy on the cinnamon. Next time, I may cut the cinnamon to 1/4 tsp, throw a little bit of splenda in it, take the kahlua syrup out, just use hazelnut and vanilla. As for nutrition stats, the nuts and chocolate makes the fat content a bit higher, but it's pretty darn good for the final product!

Attempting on the menu tomororw? My "stuffed shells" meatballs - spinach and cottage cheese. And, if the day goes well, red curry. But there's never enough time on Sunday!

I love baking for people...

And cooking. It just makes me happy. And if it's a surprise? Even better!

I've been itching to bake recently. So, Sunday I picked up things I knew I needed (baking soda, brown sugar, chocolate chips) and decided I'd raid the pantry to come up with an idea. Also, I used the massive America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated cookbook we have.

What I came up with?

Banana, Salted Pecan Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups non-fat greek yogurt
1 cup frozen-thawed bananas (including liquid), pureed
3/4 cup chopped roasted salted pecans
1 (heaping) cup semisweet chocolate chips
Vegetable cooking spray for muffin tins

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, sugar and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Whisk yogurt and eggs together, add vanilla extract. Fold yogurt and eggs into dry mixture until just barely combined. Fold cooled butter into battter. At very end, add pecans, chocolate chips and pureed bananas into batter.

3. Spray twelve-cup muffin tin with vegetable cooking spray or coat lightly with butter. Use ice cream scoop to divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and serve warm.

Side notes - this recipe made 12 large muffins and about 20 mini muffins. I used muffin liners, as well. They all only cooked for 20-25 minutes. The recipe isn't exactly like the Cooks Illustrated one found online - the cookbook had slightly different directions. They could probably use the extra butter the online recipe included, and the online recipe said to cream the butter and sugar, using a mixer. Also, it called for low-fat yogurt, and I used non-fat greek yogurt because that's what I had in the fridge. But these turned out pretty good - they were delicious right out of the oven, and not quite as good as they sat. But that's expected, right?

All I know is that I brought in 9 large muffins and like 6 mini muffins to work, and in less than 3 hours, they're gone.