Cupcake Crusade [Buttercream Frosting]

I've never been into baking for a variety of reasons: I hate measuring things, I'm fairly impatient when cooking, I like to taste as I go, and hate following an exact recipe. But it was a certain someone's birthday this past weekend, and I really wanted to surprise him with some homemade cupcakes (somewhat selfishly, ones that I too could eat). Alas, it was time. Time to break out the muffin tins and liners, dust off the stand mixer and track down the rubber spatula. I mean these cupcakes weren't going to bake themselves.

Now, I wouldn't call it cheating, but I did have some help from my friend Bob. Gluten free baking is HAF and I'm not ready to venture there quite yet. So luckily, with a little help, these cupcakes were not only edible, but quite good, even in a non-gf way. I did, however, make my own buttercream frosting. I was a little bewildered to learn that buttercream frosting is just butter and sugar. I much prefer being a naive cupcake eater. But now that I know the dirty truth, and how easy it is, I'll probably continue to make my own. I only needed a bit of frosting, so I followed this guide, more or less (again, I'm not big on recipes). My kitchen was a bit warm—I mean it was a breezy 94 degrees that day—so I added a bit more powered sugar to keep the frosting from becoming too loose. After frosting a few of the cupcakes with the basic buttercream, I got bit more experimental and added in some chipotle chili powder and maple syrup. Very unique—I think it'll be good with caramelized walnuts, but all I had was almond slivers so I stuck those on top. The real winner of the day (I mean, aside from me. COME ON! Wife of the year! Homemade birthday cupcakes!) were the ones filled with raspberry jam. So. Good. Recipe below.

you'll need...

1 basic yellow cake mix

1/2 cup of butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of powdered sugar (+2 tablespoons on reserve)

splash of milk, if needed (I used almond)

1/2 cup of shredded coconut flakes (unsweetened)

6 teaspoons of raspberry jam (I used no added sugar kind because the frosting is sweet enough)

to make...

Follow box recipe to bake cupcakes. Once cool, cream the butter and sugar together used a hand or stand mixer. Mix until combined well and there are no lumps. Think with the smallest splash of milk if needed. If the butter mixture begins to melt, just add in more powered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Next, carefully cut the tops off the cupcakes and using a teaspoon, scoop out the middle. Don't scoop too much—you need some structure so they don't fall apart. Fill the middle with about 1 teaspoon of jam and place the top of the cupcake back in place (try to match the tops with the original bottoms). Frost the cupcakes, and the gentle pat the coconut flakes onto the frosting. They should adhere very easily. If you don't fill them with jam, you can just roll the cupcake upside down in the coconut in order to get the flakes to stick.

That's really it. This basic recipe is enough to frost at least 10 cupcakes, maybe even a dozen, and adapts very well if you wanted to attempt any other sort of flavor variation.

#glutenfree #baking #cupcakes #buttercream #birthdays