Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

So, for the past year about, I have been taking Amitriptyline for my fibromyalgia (yay, comorbidities!) which doesn't do much for the fibro, but does work as an antihistamine, so I am no longer reactive to baking soda or baking powder (amongst other things, like corn), which means, OMG CUPCAKES!

I missed cupcakes so much. I mean, sponge cakes are fine and dandy, and pound cake is all right, but it isn't a soft delicious cupcake.

So I made some cupcakes today. It took me four days to build up the motivation to do it, but they are way delicious, and beautiful!

I used a regular boxed cake, but if you know that baking powder doesn't work for you, there are plenty of cake recipes out there (and in this blog), to choose from.

And I also totally didn't use measuring cups when I made this, so my measurements are approximate. You can do that with frosting. Not so much with cake recipes.

Ingredients:

-Cake-

Boxed chocolate cake mix (I used german chocolate) + the stuff it says you need to make it (likely oil, water, eggs)

1 cup chocolate toffee chips (you can find it on the baking aisle near the chocolate chips, or just break up toffee bars)

-Frosting-

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick butter

1 12 oz. jar of caramel (I used Smucker's Hot Caramel sauce at room temperature- you can make your own but I have no energy to do that)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

2 cups or more of organic corn-free powdered sugar (to taste... I really didn't measure, so just keep tasting it and add slowly to get sweet but not too sweet) 

Directions:

Make the cake according to its instructions, mix in toffee chips at the very end and portion into lined cupcake tins (makes 24), about 3/4 full. Bake according to package instructions. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Whip in the caramel and salt. Add the powdered sugar to the frosting at low speed, taste and add more as needed. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and continue to whip until it is all incorporated and a pleasing consistency (you know, like frosting and neither like soup, nor like a lumpy mess of sadness). Place in a piping bag, or a ziplock if you are super fancy like me, and pipe frosting onto cupcakes.

Garnish with extra toffee chips, or perhaps some fancy salt.  

Pepperoni Bread

Pillsbury makes a pizza dough that is leavened with baking soda and Glucono delta-lactone that I have found to be tolerable and quite useful.  Tonight, I made pepperoni bread out of it, that I served with a side of tomato sauce for dipping.  It's easy and delicious.

Chocolate Covered Salted Toffee Almond Matzo

I was looking for matzo cookie recipes and came across this recipe from about.com and adapted it to create a super delicious treat.  I'm even posting it early to give you a chance to make it before Passover is over, because it is really amazing.  It tastes very much like a Skor bar, which is one of my favorite candies ever. It is relatively easy to make and I hope you will!

Cream Puffs

Pate a Choux (pronounced patty-shoo) is the French name for cream puff dough. Cream puffs are one of the quintessential French desserts.  Using this recipe you can make eclairs and cream puffs, as well as funnel cakes (by simply deep frying the piped batter in hot oil).  Fillings can vary from sweet, like the banana foster variation in the picture, made by mixing mashed banana and caramel syrup with whipped topping and freezing, and covering with a caramel sauce thickened with powdered sugar or a traditional ice cream and chocolate topping, to savory, by filling with cream cheese mixtures or even chicken or tuna salad.   Whatever, they are delicious and a great bread-like option.


Should your puffed shells have a habit of falling, poke the side of them with a tooth pick as they are removed from the oven to allow the air inside to cool more quickly.

Meringue Cookies

The are great for holidays and are perfectly suited for Passover, which comes up in mid-April because it is mostly egg whites and sugar and love.  You can always add in extras.  The ones above have crushed peppermint sticks sprinkled over before baking, but you can add chocolate chips, cocoa, flavorings... anything you fancy, just add them in after all the sugar has been added.

One word of advice though, since you are not using cream of tartar which stabilizes egg whites (because it is made of grape skins a.k.a yeast central) make these on a day with low humidity (rainy days and meringues don't mix) and make sure your mixing bowl is absolutely free of all grease, or the egg whites won't inflate.

Mini Deep Dish Apple Pies

This makes 6 mini pies but can easily be doubled to make a full tray. You can use excess scraps of the dough to create cute decorations for the top of the pies if you are feeling creative.  Be sure to peel the apples thoroughly and rinse them as the skin has quite a bit of yeast.

Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies

My sister wrote me an email asking for a peanut butter cookie recipe.  She doesn’t like cooking like I do, and so I gave her this recipe and she replied that I knew her well.  With just 4 ingredients, it cannot get much easier. If you like, you can use just one kind of sugar, bringing it down to just 3 ingredients, but I like the variety of the two sugars. This can also be done by hand, if you do not have an electric mixer, or don't feel like cleaning it. It can also be halved easily for a smaller batch.

Chocolate Sponge Cake

This recipe requires folding. Folding means cutting through the batter with a large rubber-type spatula to gently mix one ingredient into another, usually whipped egg whites or whipped cream. You have to be very careful when you do this or it will deflate the batter and you end up with something quite flat and uncake-like. If you are too timid though, and don't fold in the dry ingredients completely, you get big gross chunks of unsweetened cocoa powder, which, I know from experience, is not very enjoyable. Take the time and care and it really makes a delicious naturally leavened cake.  And yes, it really does cook completely in 10-12 minutes!

When preparing a pan with parchment, you can spray the pan lightly with non-stick spray to make the parchment cling to the pan. Take care not to get any of the spray on the top side of the parchment as the cake needs the be able to hold on to the paper to bake correctly.

Basic Yeast- Free Pizza

The recipe below is the general methodology for plain yeast-free pizza, it is meant to be a base for customization.  This is in NO way low-calorie, but it is great when the craving for pizza overtakes you and you can't take one more pizza delivery commercial without losing your mind. The pizza pictured above was a sausage and bacon with provolone, mozzarella, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.  The toppings are only limited  by your imagination, and your food intolerances.

Since pizzas are such a fun and personal thing, all toppings are estimated for this recipe instead of using specific measurements. Cater it to your tastes.  Just remember, a well covered pizza is good, but adding too many topping can interfere with baking all the way through.  

Caramel Fudgy Brownies

This is a basic leavening-free brownie recipe.  It is very rich and fudge-like.  Of course, you can add toasted nut, candy bits, or different flavored chips in these.  I've made them with white chocolate chips, with heath bar pieces, and with a vanilla coffee frosting.  The yeast content of your additions is the only thing that should limit the many ways this can be personalized to your taste!

Simple Cheesecake

I like to make the crust with a sweetened cocoa rice cereal, but you can use any type you like (or have on hand) for your crust, just check labels to make sure there is no cornstarch.  Vanilla powder can be found in specialty cooking stores or online and is used to avoid the alcohol in extracts which often times contain yeast.  It can be replaced with vanilla bean paste or “safe” vanilla extract made without ethyl alcohol.
If you wish to cut the recipe in half for a mini cheesecake, use a 6-7 inch springform and lower baking time to  about 30 minutes.  (see information on safe products here)