Cupcakes!

My husbands birthday is coming up in a couple short weeks, and for his birthday I wanted to send him something special, something homemade, but wasn't entirely sure what would survive the journey over there. Originally I had debated making him pies in a mason jar, as I saw the idea on pinterest, but after talking to him realized that they have pies available where they eat dinner, so I brainstormed some more. I finally found these amazing recipes for adult cupcakes and decided that it would be a great birthday treat if I could bake some in mason jars! While I was at it, I wanted to try this champagne cupcake recipe that I had seen on pinterest as well that I thought looked good. At first glance, each of these recipes used a box mix, and there's always a stubborn part of me that says as good as box mixes are, scratch has to be better. So my original plan was to try both the scratch and box versions of these cupcakes, but time got away from me, and after doing the scratch and box versions of the champagne cupcakes and finding I enjoyed the box versions better, decided to settle on the box version for the second. Feel free to try them both out yourself and make your decision though! I gave my neighbors a bit of each and they enjoyed the scratch version better, so maybe it's just me. Either way, here they all are for your experiments and enjoyment :)

Pink Champagne Cupcakes (from scratch)

 (The cupcakes side by side, cut open so you can see how similar they are. At the top is the box mix, bottom is the ones from scratch.)

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup champagne
• 6 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line cupcake tins with liners.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with champagne. In a large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites. Pour into cupcake liners. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I can't remember the exact time, as I just did the same amount of time as the box called for on the box mix.



Pink Champagne Cupcakes (from box)

• 1 box white cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 1 1/4 cup pink champagne
• 1/3 cup oil
• 3 or 4 drops red food coloring

Mix together and bake according to the directions on the box.

Salted Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

In a bowl combine butter, sugar and salt. Beat till blended. Add the milk and vanilla and beat for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until smooth and creamy. If you don't have a wide enough tip on your icing bag, just use none at all and you'll get the look like mine do, and if you don't have an icing bag feel free to use a zip lock bag with one corner snipped out :)

Bailey's Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

(Tip: Don't frost and decorate them while in the cupcake pan still. Makes for a mess! Ooops)

• 1 Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
• 3 Large Eggs
• 1/2 cup melted butter (butter not margarine)
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
• 10 ounces Bitterweet Chocolate, finely chopped
• 3.5 ounces caramels (about 10-12 candies unwrapped)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 cups Powdered Sugar
• 1/3-1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1/4-1/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• Caramel Syrup

For the Bailey's Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350. Using a large mixing bowl, add cake mix, eggs, butter, Bailey's and milk and mix on low until combined. Then mix on high for 2 minutes. Pour batter into paper lined cupcake pans. Bake for 20 min. Cool completely.

For the Chocolate Ganache:
Place chopped chocolate in medium bowl and set aside. Using a medium sauce pan, heat whipping cream and caramels over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramels have melted completely.
Pour caramel cream over chocolate and stir until melted.
For Bailey's Buttercream:
In large mixing bowl, cream shortening and vanilla for 2-4 minutes. Add in powder sugar, one cup at a time
Combine Bailey's with cream in measuring cup and slowing add to sugar mixture, using more cream for a creamy consistency, use less milk for a stiff consistency.
To Assemble:
Using a sharp knife, cut out a cone shaped section of the cupcake and set it aside setting next to each   cupcake. Fill Cupcake holes with ganache, and place cake back over hole. Top cupcakes with buttercream.
Garnish with remaining ganache and caramel syrup. (just remember there is uncooked out alcohol in these!)

(Mason jar cupcakes! Accidentally put in too much batter, so not enough room for all of the frosting but I think he'll still like them :) )

Enjoy!