Green Velvet Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I went there. Let's say that I do not take St. Patrick's Day lightly.  This is a day for my Irish heritage to shine.  (PS - I'm totally not Irish, but I will celebrate with those that are.)  This is a time for celebration.  This is a perfect excuse to bust out a batch of green velvet cupcakes.

Green Velvet Cupcakes.  As in Red Velvet Cupcakes with green food coloring instead of red food coloring.  This isn't rocket science, but let's face it: I'm a sucker for pretty food.  I'm also really into vibrant green colors right now so this was perfect for me.

I've made red velvet cupcakes in the past, but each time I did they just ended up being too dry for my liking.  I spoke to my co-worker who's a baking expert and she suggested I try the Martha Stewart recipe since it uses oil and would make the cake pretty moist.  I initially balked (SAT-word alert!) at the amount of oil Martha called for, so I toned it down slightly and I was quite pleased with the outcome!  I've said it before that I'm not a die-hard red velvet cake fan, but these would help me to reconsider.  I topped these cuppies with my co-worker's white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Green Velvet Cupcakes

slightly adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe
yields ~24 cupcakes

Print Recipe

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring*
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

* This is one of those instances where you should do as I say and not as I do.  I only added 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring to the batter.  At the time, I thought it yielded a really pretty green.  I thought this green would translate beautifully into a bright green cupcake.  Yeah. Right.  About 20 minutes later, I had mossy green velvet cupcakes.  So make sure you add even more green food coloring than I did.  You will need it!


1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners.


2) In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, cocoa, and salt.  Set aside.


3) Use an electric mixer to beat together the sugar and oil.


4) Drop in the eggs, one at a time, beating in between each addition so that the eggs are incorporated in the sugar and oil.


5) Add the green food coloring and vanilla to the egg mixture.


 6) Alternate pouring in the flour mixture and the buttermilk.  Use the mixer to blend the wet and dry ingredients into the batter after each addition.


7) In a small bowl, stir together the baking soda and vinegar.  It will foam, so make sure you use a bowl that is not very shallow.


8) Pour the baking soda and vinegar into the batter and mix together for ~10 seconds.


9) Ladle the batter into the cupcake liners, filling ~2/3 of the way up the liners.


10) Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes.  Check for done-ness by inserting a toothpick or knife in the middle of the cakes.  When the object cleanly emerges from the cupcake, it is done.


11) Cool the cupcakes completely before attempting to frost them.


(Yes, these cupcakes are being displayed on a snowman plate.  We tend to smush holidays together over here. There's nothing wrong with maximizing the amount of times you can use a holiday item!)


White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
from my coworker Deirdre of Zoe's Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces white chocolate, melted
• 3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1) In a mixer, cream together the shortening, butter and cream cheese.


2) Add the vanilla and melted chocolate.  Stir to combine.

3) Slowly add the sugar to the mixture, a few tablespoons at a time.

4) Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.  (If you choose to pipe the frosting, you may need to double the recipe.)

Jalapeno Cream Cheese Swirls

Around here, everything is turning green. You might ask why.  Obviously, it's St. Patrick's Day in Hoboken.  (No, it doesn't make any sense that it's celebrated before the actual St. Patrick's Day of March 17th.  Let's just roll with it.)  A few weeks ago, my roommate and I eagerly sent out invitations to what is now our 3rd Annual St. Patrick's Day brunch party.  Of course this initiated a hunt for festive green appetizers.

As a part of my "research", I began poking around the Karen Cooks blog.  See, I was assigned Karen's blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club. Karen has quite an extensive list of recipes on her site.  As I was looking for appetizers, I kept getting side-tracked by other recipes that I wanted to try.  Chief among those recipes are these Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls.  They just look delicious.  But that's not what this blog post is about.  This blog post is about some spicy, savory appetizers.

Jalapenos give this appetizer a real kick, especially if you're not careful and add in a few extra peppers.  Apparently, some people at our brunch weren't huge fans of all the spice that I accidentally added(sorry about that!).  At any rate, I thought the blend of flaky, slightly sweet crescent dough, soft cream cheese, and heat from the peppers worked really well together to provide our guests with an unexpected (and green) hors d'oeuvre!

Avocado Toast

 

I've been seeing a trend on Pinterest lately.  It's something called Avocado Toast.  Let's get something straight.  I'm really like avocado.  In fact, I'm a lover of avocado.  That's right. I laid it out there.  Twice.

Growing up in the Bahamas, I was lucky enough to have an avocado tree in backyard.  When the avocados (or "pears", as we call them -- I didn't know they were called avocados for years. Years.) were in season, I could eat to my heart's content.  But I haven't busted a move with an avocado in a long time.  Since I've been trying to incorporate more healthy foods into my diet lately, I decided that my busy weekend could do with a burst of protein and good fat.  And sometimes the simplest recipe is just the way to go.

Chocolate Hazelnut Drop Cookies

I know why cookies were invented.  They were invented to help one cope with work deadlines and similar highly stressful situations.  They were invented to bring a calm over the eater.  And they were most definitely invented to ensure that I am not the next subject of that "Snapped" television series.  These are my reasons for baking these cookies.

I've had a very difficult week and the thing that got me through it was these cookies. Let's just say that I have a bottle of nutella in my pantry and I'm not afraid to use it.  Giada's recipe is simple, straightforward and filled with butter. This is how I want to live my life.

These are not your ordinary cookies. They will not be chewy or cake-y. They will be light and crispy and that's OK. Don't be afraid to add extra chocolate chips into the batter to ensure extra chocolate chip-y goodness. You won't be disappointed. In fact, I would recommend bringing a half cup of chocolate chips to the party (aka the batter) next time. We all need to take a walk on the wild side sometimes.

Blue Cheese and Red Potatoes Tart

Potatoes and blue cheese should be a match made in heaven.  In fact, I'm pretty sure they are.  I have proven that with this tart.  It was a very short and subjective study, but as long as it's published on the internet it's true, right?

I'm a fan of Deb at the Smitten Kitchen food blog.  She has a fairly simple and approachable attitude toward food that I can get behind.  I've been drawn to several of her recipes in the past, but I was mesmerized by the Blue Cheese and Red Potato Tart recipe on her site.  I was actually mesmerized a while ago (back in 2010) but I re-discovered this recipe while rifling through my bookmarks for a quick tart to whip up for brunch last weekend.  (Let's face it.  There just aren't enough days and events in my life to make all the food I want to make!)

This is a rustic, simple tart and I'm so so so glad I choose this recipe to make.  The potato, blue cheese, and rosemary combination was something I've discovered I can't get enough of.  This tart was scrumptious and it's a fact that everyone needs this in their life.

Crockpot BBQ Beer Chicken

 

Don't give me the side-eye for the details I'm about to divulge.

I made this chicken while I was sleeping.  I am not kidding.  This was the easiest, tastiest pulled chicken recipe ever.  Now, I don't normally do something this, but it had been a hectic week and it was about to be a hectic weekend.  So I decided to sneak in some cooking time overnight.  I fired up the crockpot when I got home late on a Thursday and by Friday morning, the deed was done.

Now I have to admit that I was slightly inconvenienced by having to wake up twice during the night to stir the contents of the crockpot and make sure it wasn't burning, but this was completely something that I felt the need to do.  It's not required.  If you think about it, many people turn on their crockpots to make meals while they're at work all day.  Presumably, no stirring goes on during that time and their meals seem to pull through in the end.

No matter when you choose to make this chicken though, I would like to assure you that it will be absolutely tasty and flavorful.

Sweet Potato Macaroni and Cheese with Peas and Bacon

We all know that bacon makes it better.  Who doesn't know that?  You? Oh, well now you know.  It does.

You know what else makes it better?  Sweet potatoes.  Truth.

This month for my Secret Recipe Club assignment, I was matched up to the Veggie Converter blog.  Now I'm not a vegetarian.  However, I don't think Kristi will hold my love of bacon against me.  At least I hope not!

Kristi is a wife and a mom of two kids and makes delicious vegetarian and vegan meals for them.  I really think Kristi and I were meant to be friends in this life.  You may ask why.  This is totally because we share a passion for freezing food.  In Kristi's case, she's trying to feed her family healthy meals on a daily basis.  In my case, I simply don't want my meals to spoil while I'm traveling for work each week.  Freezing allows me to choose a variety of meals to defrost and eat whenever I return.  I like to think of these as personalized gourmet meals.  Kristi knows where it's at.