Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes: Cake vs. Pie, can't we just be friends?

There is an eons old battle constantly raging between dessert lovers. Families divided, friendships ended. The ultimate question of sweets...

Cake or Pie?

Now, in the past, I have always sided firmly on the pie side as I truly think that pumpkin pie is one of the greatest foods ever created. But today, I bring to you a new question....

Why choose at all?

I got the recipe for these Apple Cinnamon cupcakes from The Cupcake Project, the same place I found the Root Beer Cupcake recipe. I promise that I do occasionally bake things that don't come from Stef's site, but she has so many delicious flavors to try, it's hard to resist! I used her cinnamon cream cheese frosting recipe, as recommended by one of the wedding couples she has baked for.

Oh My Goodness. These are amazing. It literally takes all of the things that you love about apple pie and puts them in cake form. Fresh out of the oven, without frosting, I could have sworn that I was eating an apple pie. The cinnamon cream cheese frosting is also spectacular, and as I had quite a bit leftover (since I didn't do big swirls on these) I've been snacking on it by the spoonful for the better part of the week. Or on graham crackers, that's another favorite.

Anyway, without further ado...

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes

Apparently Stef got 16 cupcakes out of this recipe. I got 21. Not sure where the discrepancy is, but I think I filled my liners a little lower than she did. And I just seem to always get more than  most people do when it comes to baked goods. My measuring cups must be super-size or something.

• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 C + 2 T of sugar
• 2 C flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 C applesauce (unsweetened)
• 1 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 C finely chopped apples (I used fuji, but I'm interested to try it with a more tart variety like granny smith...)

Cream together the butter, sugar, flour and eggs with an electric mixer. Stir in apple sauce, cinnamon and finally the chopped apple bits. Fill the cupcake liners all the way to the top (these cupcakes do not have a significant rise). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

I chose the cinnamon cream cheese frosting for a couple reasons. 1) Stef used it for a wedding, therefore it must be awesome. 2) I love cream cheese frosting and wanted to make it. 3) I had some cream cheese in the fridge that I wanted to use before it got too far past its expiration date and 4) I have no idea where to go about finding mead, and what I would do with the rest of it that I didn't use for the frosting. After making it and running into the living room with a spoonful for The Gamer to try, I remembered the dilemma I had with my rootbeer cupcakes, with the delicious frosting overwhelming the delicious cupcake. This frosting, being cream cheese based, was if anything stronger than the buttercream I'd made before. Which is why I chose the lattice-type decorations for the top. Plus, I thought it was a nice homage to the whole "this is a pie in disguise" thing. Like the top of an apple pie? Right? Anyway. Here's how you make it. It's super easy, I promise.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting from  The Cupcake Project

• 8 oz. of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C (half a stick) of butter, room temperature
• 1 t of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 t cinnamon (add more to taste)
• 2-3 C powdered sugar (add more or less to achieve desired consistency

Mix the cream cheese and the butter thoroughly. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon, then add the powdered sugar until you have it at the spreadable consistency that you want. I left this a little more on the gooey side because, well, I like gooey things. Like underbaked cake. Mmm, underbaked cake....

Overall, these were a gigantic success and I want to make them again, even though I still have some left-overs in my freezer (they freeze awesomely by the way). I do want to try them with granny smith apples to see how the contrast of the sweet cake and the tart apple works out. I'm also playing with a sparkling-cider frosting (because I've seen champagne frostings, why not sparkling cider?) to see if that adds a little of decadence to them... but they're pretty much awesome they way that they were.

Muffins vs. Cupcakes.

This question is apparently a very hot-button debate topic on the internet, so I'm going to jump into the fray.

Just what is the difference between a muffin and cupcake?

Many people give the simple answer that a cupcake has frosting and a muffin does not. I don't really like that answer since I don't think that wearing a hat changes who you are, and neither should the topping of a baked good change its identity. If I put on a chef hat, I'm still probably going to burn your roast, even if I speak with a fancy french accent and pretend to know what I'm doing.

(to clarify on that, I love to bake, and I'm relatively good at it, but I am an abysmal cook. I'm trying to learn, but I just don't enjoy it like I do baking.)

So I put the question out there to my friends on facebook and got a variety of responses.

One poster claimed that muffins have the option of having a "healthy" component such as fruit or bran or seeds, whereas cupcakes do not. The apple cinnamon cupcakes I'll be posting in a few days disagree with that though, and leaves me wondering what the difference between a chocolate muffin and a chocolate cupcake are.

There is argument that cupcakes are "lighter" and "airier" in texture than muffins, similar to the comparison between cake and quick-breads like banana bread or zucchini bread. My favorite way of explaining this (as gleaned from internet "research" was that when you throw a cupcake against a wall it will make a "thud" sound, whereas a cupcake should be more of a "poof". That theory was blown out of the water, however, when my brother's girlfriend brought up pound cake, and consequently, pound cupcakes. Those definitely fall in the "dense" catagory! I'm pretty sure they're  more dense than most of my muffins, actually.

On the more scientific side, I got the following formula:
A basic formula for muffins is 2 cups flour, 2-4 tablespoons sugar, 2½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 egg, ¼ cup oil, shortening or butter and 1 cup milk. When the fat, sugar and egg ratio in a recipe reaches double or more than this, you have reached the cake level.

...Which puts my banana muffins firmly in the "cake" catagory. Uh oh. And my mom's amazing banana bread is definitely banana cake. And the best cornbread I've ever tasted at the pub I used to to work at is now corn-cake... 
And I'm still a little confused as to the proportions therein. Do you need to double ALL of those ingredients (fat, sugar AND egg) or just one of them? What about low-fat cake? (I know, blasphemous) I'm finding too many exception to the rules!


And then my dear friend Samantha gave the answer that laid the question to rest. 


"I do not think that frosting identifies cup cakes as they can be with out frosting and still be cupcakes. Maybe back in the day muffins were more "bready" and cup cakes were more "cake-like", but that is not true in this day of age. Muffins... can have just as much sugar and fat as cupcakes and be called "muffins". I think it is more like art. If someone calls something "art" (no madder how weird/obscure it is) it becomes art. If we call it a "muffin" or "cupcake" that is what it. Purely because someone says so. It is just a name. It's like compairing fuschia and hot pink. You can argue over the differences but really in the end they are both pink."

Cupcakes as art. I love it. 

Banana Oat Muffins

I'm not assigning a number to this post because, well, they're not technically cupcakes (an issue that will be explored in a future post, after I'm done collecting data!) but they're still delicious either way. Seriously, The Gamer and I turned into complete muffin-pigs as soon as these came out of the oven. This is not good.

Yes, those are snowmen on the wrappers. I thought I had more pastel wrappers, but apparently I don't. I didn't want to use the fancy metallic-y red ones for muffins, those are for practice-wedding cupcakes only. I never got around to making the christmas cupcakes I was planning, so I had a whole package of snowmen. This is not a secret desire for winter to stay longer, in fact, I just about cried when it started snowing again. But anyway, that's not the point. I just like fun wrappers. And snowmen.

Anywho, I had some bananas in my kitchen that were getting to that "you need to make banana bread" stage. You all know what I mean, where they're not quite rotten so you don't want to throw them out, but you don't particularly want to eat them either? Yeah. I love banana bread, but we usually get really excited about it for a day or two and eat about 3/4 of the loaf, then it gets wrapped in foil and put in the fridge. I'll rediscover it a few months later and go "ew" and throw it away. Which makes me sad because banana bread should never be thrown away, it is too awesome. I thought that maybe banana muffins would work better. They're quicker and easier than banana bread since there's no slicing involved, and they come with their own cup, so not as much mess.

I looked around for recipes, and didn't find any that I was particularly enamored with. So I turned to my mom's banana bread recipe, which is amazing, and figured "heck, if a cake can be turned into a cupcake, why not a bread into a muffin?" Oh how right I was. This is the happiest baking experiment ever.

Banana Oat Muffins

I used oats instead of the nuts that the recipe calls for. I usually leave out the nuts because I don't like them, but I thought I'd add the oats to make it seem healthier and more breakfast-y. I also have decided I really like the texture of oats, but am sad that they are usually paired with raisins, which I am highly opposed to. Also, the only reason I used whole wheat flour in this is because I realized after I mashed the bananas that I was almost out of All Purpose flour. You could easily do it with all white, or use more wheat if you want to go more that direction.

• 3 Ripe Bananas - Mashed
• 1/2 C oil
• 1 C sugar
• 1 1/2 C All purpose Flour
• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 C quick oats
• pinch of salt

Peel your bananas and toss them in a medium-large mixing bowl. Smash them with a fork or pastry masher or whatever you have hand that is good at mashing things. Add the oil and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time, mixing as you go. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners (or just spray it with non-stick spray if you'd prefer to forgo the liners. As I've said before, I just like them) and fill each hole about 3/4 full. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes about 18 muffins.

These were, to put it quite simply, amazing. So incredibly moist, very sweet, just dense enough but not so dense that you feel like you can't have another (I did. And another two after that!). I don't know what they'll taste like when they're cold, as I have managed to gorge myself on them hot out of the oven. It should be noted that my oven tends to run on the cooler side most of the time, so if you have an oven that runs hot, you might want to check these at 17 or 18 minutes. 20 was perfect in my oven though.

On another note, I remember reading somewhere once upon a time (I don't remember where or how long ago this was) that if you don't have enough to fill the entire muffin pan, you should fill the extra cups with water to help ensure even baking. So I tried that today. The muffins came out just fine, but they did cook a little longer (22 minutes) than the first, full batch. Which I found curious. I'm not sure whether to believe this or not yet, and I may have experiment. I do know that it made dumping them a lot harder, since I couldn't just flip the tray over on my counter and dump them out. The liners still made them easy to remove though, so that was good.

Only slightly unrelated, I picked up the newest Better Homes and Gardens magazine after work yesterday, it's all cupcakes! There are some in there that I really want to try, so look forward to reviews of those over the next few months. There are a few lemon recipes that can vie for a spot in the wedding, and even another root beer float cupcake with icing that uses actual ice cream. This might call for a re-test. We'll have to see how motivated I am. And how soon I can get my hands on some more flour. I've got to be more careful about keeping stocked in the future!

#8 - Running takes time

I don't know if there is a rule as to how long you're allowed to be a "new" runner, but I think I might be stretching it at 3 years. (has it really been that long? My goodness I feel old now!) The thing is, I like to run, but it seems like just as I finally start getting into shape for it and really running, either I lose motivation and quit, or something happens that forces me to quit. Sprained ankles (thanks to horses), shin splints (thanks to running), car accidents, and Winter (it gets a capital W here in North Dakota) have all been factors in my not quite following through with the whole running thing. The weather is warming up though, so it's time to hit the road! Slowly!

My goal for this challenge is a half-marathon. My eventual goal is a full marathon, but I think that might be farther in the future. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep in shape this winter as I'll have access to the indoor track on base and won't be limited to ice-covered roads in sub-zero temperatures (I don't like running THAT much!), but I'm not sure if a full marathon is within my grasp quite yet. Who knows though, I might surprise myself!

Anyway, here is the other thing. I have hated wearing shoes for... well, for a while at least. I got a reputation as a "hippie" while I was in college because of my aversion to footwear and my refusal to use styrofoam dishes in the cafeteria. I eventually got over the styrofoam thing (it's hard to stick to principles like that when you're in a community with zero environmental awareness) but I still hate having anything on my feet, even in winter. Some research has turned up quite a bit of info on barefoot running, and I think I've found my love.

The biggest emphasis everyone in the barefoot community has for starting out is to TAKE IT SLOW. You have to build up strength in your feet and it's really easy to do too much too soon because it just feels so freakin' GOOD to be out there running with your feet free. I've gotten a lot of advice from the barefoot forum over at RunnersWorld.com and I think I'm going about this the safest way possible. I don't run more than a block at a time, taking breaks in between and I'm only running 3 days a week to give my muscles and tendons some time to recuperate in between. We'll see how things go, but so far so good. I've always had a lot of pain in my ankles when running, but so far, nothing. I feel awesome. My running buddy thinks the whole thing is silly, but is glad to get out and run all the same.

That's his "Is it time to go play now?" face. He's pretty much awesome, and the best running buddy I've ever had. He never complains about being tired, though I wish he'd put a little more pressure on me when I'm the one complaining! Either way, he's considerably chubbier than he was when this was taken (not long after we rescued him and our other dog, Abby) so this is going to be good for both of us.

And taking a nap on Dad is definitely the best thing to do after a run. Good boy, Shadow.

#100 - Root Beer cupcakes

Alright, a little bit of background here. I'm getting married this summer to the most amazing man I've ever met (The Gamer). Because I'm insane, I have this idea that there is no reason we need to hire a bunch of vendors to do the stuff that we can do ourselves. Despite everyone telling me not to, we're doing all of the food, including the cake, ourselves.

And by ourselves, I mean myself and my absolutely amazing team of family and friends. My mom and dad are really excited about the barbecue shish-kabobs that we're planning on serving, but they're a little skeptical about me making my own cake.

Or rather, cupcakes.

There are a couple different reasons behind the cupcakes. The first is that I like cupcakes, pretty simple. I think they're fun to make, fun to decorate, and fun to eat. The second, which is more practical, is since we're not having the reception catered, we're not going to have any servers. Rather than asking someone to take time out of having fun to cut and serve the cake, everyone can just help themselves to a cupcake. Makes everything a whole lot simpler. The third reason is because everyone has different tastes. I'm a serious chocoholic, The Gamer is kind of meh on chocolate but doesn't hate it, unlike a few of my other friends. We're both major peanut butter fiends, but I have a good friend who is highly allergic to peanuts. By doing cupcakes, I can have three completely unique flavors and everyone can be happy. Unless someone was hoping for coconut, because I'm not having anything to do with that.

Anywho, I've been researching ideas for a couple months as far as flavors go, and I've got a list that I'd like to try. Today was my first batch of potential-wedding cupcakes. Root beer cupcakes! I was going for root beer float, but I'm still not sure if that's the experience that I got. Either way, they turned out awesome.

The recipe is courtesy of The Cupcake Project, which appropriately is all about wedding cupcakes. Seriously, I can spend hours going through these recipes. I love it.

Root Beer Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 C root beer soda
• 1 t apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1/3 C canola oil
• 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 2 t root beer extract
• 1 1/3 C flour
• 3/4 t baking soda
• 1/2 t baking powder
• Pinch of Salt

1. Combine your favorite root beer (I used Barqs because it's The Gamer's favorite) with the cider vinegar and let sit for a few minutes.
2. Whisk in the oil (I didn't have canola, I used vegetable) and sugar and stir vigorously until frothy.
3. Add the extracts, then slowly add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir just until combined, do not overmix.
4. Fill your cupcakes liners about 3/4 of the way to the top and bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes (18 minutes exactly in my oven, and it tends to run on the colder side. I'd probably check at around 16 or 17 in a hotter oven, like the one at my mother's house)

The cupcakes came out moist and fluffy and delicious with a very distinct rootbeer flavor and smell. The Gamer loves them. SCORE!

I used a different frosting than Stef over at The Cupcake Project for these. I'm sure the cream soda icing is amazing and I love the soda fountain idea, but I don't have any cream soda extract, and really, what I love about root beer is root beer floats. So I used her Vanilla bean buttercream frosting as a jumping off point and adjusted it to fit my needs. Here's what I came up with.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 1 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 1/2 C sweet cream butter (room temperature)
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract (adjust to taste, 2 teaspoons would probably have been fine, but I really wanted a strong vanilla flavor)
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Whipping Cream

 Combine the sugar the the butter (which you do not want to melt! Just have it be soft enough you can squish it around with the sugar!) and stir until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract and the whipping cream and mix for another minute or so. Add more vanilla to taste or more sugar if you want it stiffer. It came out pretty stiff for me, but your results may vary.

Holy bejeebus the frosting was good. This the first success I've had with homemade buttercream. The butter flavor was pretty prominent, so I might experiment with substituting half of the butter for shortening, but we'll see. The vanilla flavoring was amazing and I think the whipping cream added a nice richness.

I loved the frosting so much I wanted big ol' rosette swirls on my cupcakes. And they were good, but The Gamer had a point with his comment that the flavor of the frosting kind of overwhelms the more subtle flavor of the root beer. I'll use a smaller tip next time and go for a thinner coating, but dang they were good.

A smaller tip would probably be wise in general, since I realized I wasn't going to have enough frosting after the first six cupcakes. I tried one of the skimpy ones and had to agree that the root beer flavor really shines when it's not mounded with delicious icing. I think it's good either way, but I think The Gamer is going to win this one.





These are a definite contender for wedding cupcakes, but we'll have to see after a few more trials. I'm aiming for three flavors for the cupcakes, and maybe a different flavor for "our" cake, which will be more cake-like so that we can cut it. Hopefully with a sword. We're still working out the logistics of that.

#59 - The Wise Man's Fear

Goal #59 was to read 100 books through to completion which, honestly, shouldn't be too hard for me. I love to read.

I finished The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss a few days ago, and I'm just now getting to writing about it. I needed a little bit of time to absorb it and accept that yes, it really was over. And I'm really going to have to wait a couple years until the next book comes out to find out what happens next.

I have a love/hate relationship with finishing a book. On the one hand, yay! I finished a book and now I can read ANOTHER book! And meet new characters and discover new adventures and be absolutely floored/intimidated/inspired by the amazing authors that reside on my bookshelves. I LOVE starting new books and I don't usually allow myself to read more than one book at a time. I get too easily confused.
On the other hand, that book is done. And if I've been reading it for a significant period of time (like I do with Rothfuss's books because they're freakin' huge) I'm always a little bit sad. I'd gotten so used to spending my breaks at work and my evenings with Kvothe, that now I find myself musing about what trouble he's going to get into now that he's back at the university, and how he's coming learning Yllish. But I can't. I feel like a good friend has moved far away and didn't take the internet or a phone with them, and didn't leave an address where they can be reached.

I especially feel this way after a particularly good book. I feel like no matter what I read next, it's going to be a disappointment because it's not my friend. Even if it's a very good book, if it's not as good as that book, it will forever be tainted in my mind. "Oh, yes, it was alright, but not nearly as good as this OTHER book that I read!). I then have to put a lot of consideration into what I read after I finish a spectacular book. I don't want to set myself up for failure by reading something that I know is going to be awful (If I wanted to do that I'd go pick up a copy of Twilight...) but I don't want to read something that I have high hopes for. What if I'm disappointed? Will I ever forgive that author? I just don't know.

Anyway, in case you haven't guessed, I would highly recommend The Wise Man's Fear and, before that, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Especially if you like beautifully crafted character driven fantasy. The third book in the trilogy (known as The KingKiller Chronicles is due out... eventually. When Pat is finished with it. I love how dedicated he is as an author to the quality of his books, but dang. I can't even describe how much I want that third book right now. I'll be patient though. Books like these are worth waiting for.

Anyway, I decided to step back into The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher next. Lots of books to keep me busy while I get over my heartache for Kvothe, and a completely different writing style. Where Rothfuss spins an absolutely epic tale with spectacular imagery, Butcher is full of funny wit and unexpected circumstances. And each book is a little more extreme than the next. I don't really know what else Harry Dresden is going to be able to get himself into that will top riding a re-animated dinosaur to battle evil necromancers in down-town chicago, but Butcher has yet to disappoint me. You'll be sure to hear about White Night when I'm finished with it in a few weeks. Maybe sooner. The availability of the following book might keep me from sitting around for a while being depressed that it was over. The Gamer owns the entire series, after all.