The only thing better than a cupcake is a cupcake with a rich cream filling. So, when you start out with a cupcake that is well known for having a delicious frosting - such as red velvet, which is almost always paired iwth a cream cheese frosting - you know that it can only get better when you manage to incorporate more into the cupcake.

Red velvet cake is a buttermilk cake with a light cocoa flavor that gets its name from its color: red. The red in the cake comes from food coloring and the more you use the redder your cake will be. This recipe is adapted from a Cook’s Country recipe for a red velvet cake. They call for using 2 tablespoons of food coloring, which is an entire little bottle of the stuff. You can get away with using half that amount, but don’t skimp too much or you’ll lose a lot of color. If you leave out the food coloring completely, the cake will have a reddish brown tinge to it (thanks to the combination of cocoa powder and baking soda, this is where the idea of a red cake came from in the first place).

These cupcakes are moist and tender, with a distinct cocoa flavor to them. It isn’t enough to make them taste like a chocolate cupcake, but it is enough to give the cupcakes a good, solid flavor. I really like this about these cupcakes because it is too often that red velvet cupcakes don’t have much flavor at all and simply trade off their unique color. With the cream cheese filling (the same as the frosting), the cupcakes become even more moist. They will keep well for a couple of days in an airtight container.

If you’ve never made a cream-filled cupcake before, I have a filled cupcake tutorial that will guide you through the process. It involves removing a piece of cake from the center of the cupcake and adding filling. With this method, which only takes a few seconds per cupcake to do, you get a lot of filling in each. An alternative is to simply stick the tip of a pastry bag or a can of frosting into the cupcake and squeeze, but you don’t get nearly the same amount of filling and it doesn’t save very much time. You don’t need to do anything special to finish these off, but if you dye a little bit of frosting red, or have a red gel frosting pouch, you can add a little squiggle to the top that is reminiscent of the squiggle on the classic, cream-filled hostess cupcakes.
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Although it will always be my favorite use for it, maple syrup can be used for so much more than just topping pancakes and waffles. I’ve used it to sweeten cookies and homemade granola before, where it accents the other ingredients with its rich, sweet flavor. But there is no reason to keep maple as a background flavor and here I’ve made it the star flavor of a batch of Maple Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream, where there is real maple syrup in both the cake and the frosting.The cupcake recipe uses some brown sugar and some maple syrup for sweetness. The brown sugar helps give the cupcakes a tender consistency, and it also goes well with the maple syrup. There is no maple extract in here, so all that maple flavor comes from the syrup. I used Grade B maple syrup, which has a slightly stronger flavor than Grade A syrup. You can use either, but I’ll recommend B if you’re going out to buy some syrup. Do not use pancake syrup in these cupcakes.

The frosting also has some maple syrup in it. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature when you mix them together so you get a very smooth frosting. Often, maple syrup is stored in the fridge, so consider this a quick reminder to take it out before you start to bake!

These have a great maple flavor to them, with a buttery undertone. I don’t think that they taste like pancakes, but if that is where you usually use maple syrup, the cupcakes might remind you of them! The cake has a slightly firm, tender crumb and holds up really well to frosting and to traveling, so consider these as an option for winter or holiday get-togethers.

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Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite autumn treats and I make it often once the weather starts to get cool, but I also like to try and find new twists to put on it to keep it interesting. Pumpkin pie bars and chocolate pumpkin pie are some of my favorite variations. This year, I set out to put pumpkin pie in a cupcake form, something that could easily be eaten by hand but still had that custardy feel of a real pumpkin pie. Plus, it’s always nice to have another cupcake recipe around.

This cupcake recipe is based on an impossible pie recipe. Impossible pie is a concept that is a popular “back of the box” recipe for baking mixes, like bisquick. These “pies” have a little bit of flour in their mix that turns into a firm, crust-like outer layer around the filling in just the same way as this crustless quiche recipe. I incorporated enough flour and leavening into the cupcake batter that a firmer shell forms around the more custardy pumpkin pie center, make these easy to eat and handle, but delivering that familiar pumpkin pie texture and flavor.

The cupcakes will fall as they cool because of their slightly dense pumpkin pie center, so don’t worry as you seem the start to deflate after you take them out of the oven. I prefer these chilled, just as I like my pumpkin pies. As soon as they’re at room temperature, pop them into the fridge until you’re ready to serve. Serve these topped with some whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Granted, the real pie is a little bit more custardy and I do like the crispness of a good crust on a pie, but you can’t beat the ease of being able to take a portion of pumpkin pie wherever you go. If you have silicone cupcake liners, you’ll be able to pop the mini pies out easily, but they can also be served with regular paper liners (easier to handle).
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A lemon drop is a cocktail that is made with vodka, lemon juice and sugar. They are bright and refreshing, and since the acidity of the lemon takes the edge off of the vodka, they’re very easy to drink. These cupcakes are inspired in part by lemon drop cocktails and in part by summer strawberries - making them a sort of adult strawberry lemonade cupcake. There are lots of fresh strawberries in the cupcakes and quite a bit of vodka, too. I really like these as a bit of a grown-up alternative to classic cupcakes and cocktail-inspired cupcakes are usually a big hit at parties.

The cupcakes themselves are very moist and fairly sturdy, as cupcakes go. This means that the strawberries remain suspended in the cupcake batter and don’t all sink to the bottom. The cakes actually look gorgeous when they’re unfrosted and you can see bits of berry sticking out all over. The cupcakes are also not too sweet, thanks to the fact that they don’t include an excessive amount of sugar and because the vodka doesn’t lend any additional sweetness. This gives the berries another chance to stand out. Only a bit of lemon zest is included in the cupcakes and it doesn’t make a big impression on its own, although it does allow the cupcakes to tie in very well with the frosting.

The buttercream frosting has lemon zest, lemon juice and a bit of vodka. I’d say that you can get a hint of the vodka even with the lemon in the frosting, but it is very subtle. In fact, you don’t get more than a hint of the vodka in the cupcakes themselves even though there is about a 1/2 cup in the recipe. If it is necessary for you to leave it out, you can replace it with milk if you have to, but I don’t think that anyone at the party will get tipsy from these, even if they eat the whole batch. I used Ciroc vodka for these cupcakes, but feel free to use any brand that you like.

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Orangina is definitely one of my favorite sodas. I don’t remember exactly where I was when I first had the sparkling orange (it’s actually yellow) soda, made with real orange juice and pulp, but I do remember that I wanted more. It has a light, fresh flavor and is not too sweet - more like juice than soda, really. I also remember that there was a time when it was very difficult to find it in the States. Fortunately, times have changed and I am now able to easily pick up a bottle when I shop (Trader Joe’s in my area carries it). I am also able to play with it, as I did when I set out to make Orangina Cupcakes, because I can buy an extra bottle to drink while I work.

These cupcakes don’t have the effervescence of real Orangina, but they do have a very similar orange flavor. It’s almost refreshing to eat them, because the flavor is nice and light, and the cake is moist and tender. The recipe is a very simple one, made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs and a little sour cream. Where a regular cupcake recipe might use milk, however, I used Orangina. I also incorporated some into a cream cheese frosting to make sure the flavor carried throughout the entire cupcake. Cream cheese was still the dominant flavor in the frosting, but it added a little something extra.

If you want to boost the orange flavor of these, use a few drops of orange oil or a little orange zest, but not orange extract. Orange extract tastes a little fake to me, while orange oil (and zest, of course), have a more natural flavor that enhances the natural flavors of the Orangina.

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I have always been a big fan of marble cakes. They satisfy cravings for both chocolate and vanilla cake, and always please everyone if you need to serve a crowd. They’re also not difficult to make, even though they make for a really beautiful presentation when you slice into them. All you really need to do is add some chocolate - either cocoa powder or melted chocolate - to half of a vanilla cake batter and swirl everything together.

These marble cupcakes work the same way as full sized marble cakes, just in a smaller package. The only drawback to making them this way is that you can’t really swirl them as much as you can swirl a large cake with a large amount of batter. You could try to swirl the batter in the bowl before portioning it out into the cupcake cups, but this generally leads to over-combing the chocolate and vanilla and you don’t end up with a distinct marble pattern. I prefer to measure out the chocolate and vanilla into each cupcake cup, then give the batter a quick single swirl with a knife before baking. Every cupcake ends up with the right amount of chocolate and vanilla this way, and the very distinct black-and-white swirling layers make for a beautiful contrast.

The cake is the same basic recipe that I used for my Rainbow cupcakes, except that instead of dividing it up into many small portions for food coloring, I simply added some melted chocolate to half the batter. One ounce of dark chocolate (semisweet will work, too) adds just the right amount of chocolate flavor to the mix. I used a similar technique on the icing, dividing a basic recipe and adding cocoa powder to half. I put both icings into the same piping bag so that the frosting would have a marble look to it. The wider your pastry tip is, the clearer the effect will be.

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