Cancer Cupcakes

That title got your attention, didn't it? Well, tomorrow at work we are having a bake sale to fundraise for Breast Cancer. One of the girls I work with is a Breast Cancer survivor at 36, she has a pretty crazy and amazing story and she is quite an inspiration. My reputation as a baker has leaked out at work so I was asked to contribute. I decided to make cupcakes, three kinds of cupcakes: chocolate with cream filling, vanilla bean with chocolate/hazelnut filling, and red velvet. I have been baking all day long and just finished. I ended up making 6 dozen cancer cupcakes, now hopefully they will sell. 

The first recipe I made was red velvet. I won't re-post the recipe since I have made them before and posted it here but I will show you a picture because I used adorable little heart sprinkles and I think they turned out super cute! 

I also made the chocolate cream cupcakes that I tried last week. This time I nailed it. The frosting turned out right and I squeezed more cream filling in the middle of the cake so it is nice and full. Again, I won't repost the recipe since it is already here but I will show you some pictures of what they were supposed to look like. 

To fill the cupcakes I go into the top since it will be covered up with frosting anyway so it doesn't matter if it looks messy:

Once they are filled I dip them in the chocolate frosting and they look beautiful!

I was going to write "hope" across the top but writing a word in frosting and having the look good rather than like a 3 year old wrote it is harder than it looks so I just went with the standard "Hostess Loop".

I cut one open to make sure I got enough cream and indeed, I did. Look at this - yummy! Now that is what I was going for. 

The last recipe I made was the vanilla bean cupcakes. I have an ongoing quest to make vanilla awesome and I was pleased with how these cupcakes turned out. I don't think you can see it well in the pictures but the frosting has tons of flecks of vanilla bean in it. They look so good. I haven't made these before so I will post the recipe here. 

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Chocolate Hazelnut Filling

Cake:

2 cups vanilla sugar

2 sticks butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla bean paste

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk w/ 1 Tbs. vinegar)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into two 8" round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before filling.

Filling:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cups Nutella

1 pound powdered sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup heavy cream 

In your large mixer bowl, beat together the butter and Nutella until well combined.  Slowly add in the sugar and mix until combined.

Add in the vanilla & half of the cream, beating until well mixed.  Add more cream, a bit at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.  Continue to beat until light and fluffy. Fill cupcakes.

Frosting:

2 sticks butter at room temperature

5 cups powdered sugar

4 Tbs. milk 

1 Tbs. vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean

Mix the butter until creamy and smoothed out. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix until creamy. Add the remaining sugar and mix until creamy. Add vanilla extract. Add milk.  Add the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean and mix until evenly distributed.

And here is the finished collection of cupcakes for tomorrow's bakes sale. I feel very accomplished.