Page 60 Brown Sugar Pound Cakes

"Pound Cake batters bake into especially rich and dense cupcakes, and the traditional recipe can be adapted in so many ways to vary the flavor and texture. In this version, brown sugar replaces granulated for a hint of caramel flavor, while buttermilk makes for a more tender crumb than when made with regular milk. Nutty brown-butter icing pairs especially well with these cupcakes, but many other topping would also work, including brown-sugar cream cheese frosting or whipped cream." - Martha

Wow! These were so simple to make and so rich and delicious. I don't know how accurate Martha's comment of using buttermilk would make the more tender crumb is because I used regular milk (1%) and these pound cakes turned out so rich and tasty I can't imagine a more tender crumb. But, I'll have to take her word for it; what that means is, no matter how delicious and wonderful I think mine turned out, they would be that much better had I used buttermilk! Wow!

This recipe made 28 cupcakes...exactly 28! I mean really, there was barely a fingertip-full by the time I filled all of the cups. Now, I found this unusual because I normally have enough batter leftover to eat at least one cupcake worth of batter and there was only a scraping of it left in the bowl. Bummer! But what I got I knew would have good results in the baking of it.

Martha suggests using the brown-butter icing but since I had already chosen to use that frosting on a previous cupcake, I chose to highlight these cupcakes with strawberries and ice cream. I grew up having strawberry shortcakes with pound cake as the main ingredient so why not these? Oh, and man oh man! They are so good that way! Imagine pound cake, fresh strawberries, Bluebell vanilla bean and then that extra special flavor of the brown sugar bringing that caramel hint to the mix! Scrumptious!

Page 25 Carrot Cupcakes

"A well-loved American layer cake is scaled down to cupcake form. Golden raisins give these cakes added texture, but you can omit them. You can also add one cup walnuts or pecans; toast them, let cool, then finely chop before stirring into the batter at the end, after the flour mixture. Unfrosted carrot cupcakes make delicious snacks." - Martha

Whenever I make carrot cake I always think to myself how good it'll taste and how carrot cake is one of my husband's favorites. But, I also always forget how LONG it takes to peel and grate all of those carrots! One full pound of carrots is required for a full batch. I liked the fact that even though Martha recommends using two bowls, one for liquid/one for dry ingredients, I managed to use only one bowl by mixing my carrots and eggs, etc and then sifting the dry ingredients into it. I like a one-bowl recipe.

This recipe calls for a vanilla bean seeded and scraped or the pure extract...I used the extract because my beans were too dry. (Spent too much time in the frig without use, I guess.) I also added to the recipe some dried cranberries (flavored like cherries) because I only had one tiny box of golden raisins in the house. Usually, my boys won't eat raisins anyway, so this was a great substitution. I did not add the pecans...I forgot.

I made one sheet of regular-sized cupcakes and one sheet of minis. I liked the look of the minis but you know what that problem is? You never remember how many you've had and before you know it, they're half gone! Minis are very easy to eat and forget about. I baked the minis for 18 minutes each and the regular cupcakes for 28 minutes each with the convection going.

I chose to use the cream cheese frosting (no one in their right mind should ever choose otherwise) but I didn't have any coconut on hand for garnishing (Oops! It's in the freezer, I just remembered.) but I like the tiny touch of frosting, shaped into a heart, rather than the whole cake being covered anyway. These definitely make a great quick and healthy snack for the kiddos coming home from school on any given afternoon.

Page 34 Devil's Food Cupcakes

"Some believe devil's food cake got its name because it's so tempting, others think that the deep, dark color is "devilish." Whatever it's history, the cake is typically made with melted butter (instead of oil) and a hefty amount of cocoa powder. This version mixes sour cream into the batter to add moistness and a subtle tang. Silky smooth ganache makes a rich topping; other options include seven-minute frosting and cream cheese frosting. The chocolate curls are easily made with a few strokes of a vegetable peeler, but you can omit them." - Martha

I guess 3/4 cup of cocoa powder is hefty; I just think it's appropriate! This is a super easy recipe to follow and all of the ingredients are pretty standard in your kitchen's pantry. It's amazing how much more satisfying a home-made cupcake is to eat as compared to a box mix-made one. The flavor of course is more rich but the texture is very fluffy and yet crisp at the same time. The only thing I didn't like about this recipe is that it's one of those that you have to use so many different bowls and pots. Heat this, blend that, sift these and mix in here. But it was worth it.

There wasn't much to change out for this cupcake, but I did choose to make only half a recipe again, you know the reasons why by now. I went out on a limb and chose a marshmallow cream frosting and added graham cracker crumbs as a sprinkle topping. I liked the contrast between the two on the top and it now tastes similarly like a S'more. So that's my twist on a good ol' standard cupcake. Let's go camping!

Page 99 Raspberry Marble Cheesecakes

"Smaller adaptations of favorite desserts, such as raspberry-swirled cheesecake, are always appealing. Everyone gets his or her own, with plenty of buttery graham-cracker crust in each bite. Drops of fresh raspberry puree are pulled through cream cheese batter to give the cakes a marbelized look. Baking the cupcakes in a hot-water bath produces the creamiest results and prevents the batter from sinking in the oven." - Martha

Loved the pictures of these cakes. So juicy and creamy looking! Making cheesecakes, in general, is not that hard a process. I've always stuck to the same recipe: per one block of cream cheese add 1/2 t vanilla, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 egg. They always seem to come out great. This recipe called out for a bit different distribution: less sugar, more eggs. Anyway, still very easy.

I chose not to use graham-crackers because I didn't have any (as usual they mysteriously disappeared from the pantry before I got a chance to use them.) So I had some Chocolate Chunk Cookie dough in the frig and decide to bake those to place in the bottom of my cupcakes instead. I really felt like they would do the trick because the cookie dough was stable enough and the chocolate could only compliment the raspberries at the least! I baked those just a bit shy of the 18 minutes usually needed, about 13 minutes. I figured they would bake some more in the oven with the chessecake batter on them and still not be too crisp. I wanted them soft-ish. Otherwise I follwed the recipe as is.

My raspberry puree was perfect, the batter looked good and creamy and tasted the part. I placed the cookies in the bottom of each paper-lined cup and filled them 3/4 the way to the top with batter as directed. I also placed each tin of cakes into a water bath to bake.

I ended up having to bake them about 35 minutes instead of the 22 minutes as Martha reccommends. At 22 minutes they still looked liquidy and I thought they should be more solid. At 35 they still looked slightly liquidy but overall more solid, no sinking batter and very beautiful! So I took them from the oven and let them cool abit. I placed them in the frig for 4 hours or more to firm up. When I took them out to display and photograph, I found that they were not only still liquid-ish but the paper liners were soaked and were tearing upon trying to lift them from the tins! This I did not enjoy. As you can see by the photo, the paper liners are not round anymore (and these were the good pics) and we had to eat them with a spoon from the paper liners because there was no way the paper would peel from the cheesecake without a huge mess.

I am disappointed in this recipe. I wouldn't mind making them again, but I'd use my own cheesecake recipe and add raspberry puree to it. I think I will also use my silicone baking cups just in case. For some reason the liners were so soaked that I can't tell if it came from the batter or if while cooking in the water bath, it bubbled up and got into the paperliners and tin forms.

Nonetheless, they tasted great; definitely creamy cakes! Perhaps even a larger cheesecake with this recipe would turn out OK with more time in the oven.

Page 42 Blueberries and Cream Cupcakes

"The summery combination of blueberries and whipped cream tops berry-filled cupcakes. The muffin-like cakes, which can also be served for breakfast or brunch, are delightful as standard or mini cupcakes." - Martha

These cupcakes are in my opinion definitely NOT muffins but are truly cupcakes. The batter is very light and airy and they bake up the same way too. To me, a muffin is a bit heavier textured batter. However, I will agree with Martha that the whipped cream and blueberry cake combo is delightful as both a standard cupcake and a mini! I baked some of both sizes.

I found that in my convection oven the timing for baking was off a bit. The minis took longer than 15 minutes, more like 20 but the standard cakes were right on. Of course the exact times were difficult to calculate since the electricity went off in the middle of baking due to the storms outside. I think it was off for about two minutes before I realized I had these in the oven!

And, as usual, even though I thought I'd be able to make these as written, I couldn't. I didn't have any cake flour. I used all-purpose flour for the entire recipe. I made sure to sift as she suggests; I know Martha loves to sift everything 3 times!

Since I didn't want to make 30 cupcakes, in the case I was the only one devouring them, I made a half recipe of 15 cakes and the batter turned out perfectly. I love it when you can half a recipe without any consequences!

Page 104 Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cups

"These single-serving delights are a staff favorite - not only because they are delectable, but also since they are easy to prepare instead of a cookie-crumb crust, a whole sandwich cookie serves as the base for each cheesecake. In addition, chopped cookies are mixed into the filling." - Martha

I let my boys pick out this recipe, hoping they would then also eat them up so I wouldn't have to! ha-ha. Of course, when they agreed on Cookies and Cream, I was delighted because I knew I had recently purchased Oreos and at the very least I KNEW I had that ingredient in my pantry!
Upon gathering the rest of the items I needed, ie., cream cheese, sour cream, eggs and sugar, I found out that I had the eggs and sour cream but only had 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 block of cream cheese with a partial container of spreadable cream cheese along with a mostly-eaten package of Oreos! Oh brothers! Oh brothers! Oh brothers!

So my experimentation for this recipe is that I decided to make a half-recipe (that's 15 instead of 30 cups) and I combined the cream cheeses to make the 1 lb. required and I used sugar mixed with Splenda for the total of the sugar needed. Luckily I had most of the Oreos I'd need but with the few cups that would be "cookie-less" at the bottom, I used good ol' Girl Scout Thin Mints in place of the sandwich cream cookie.

Both versions of my cheesecake cups turned out delicious! But I happen to think that if I had enough of the Thin Mints, I would next time crush those into the batter and use them at the base of the cup, maybe even add a little green food coloring to make a "Grasshopper Cheesecake Cups!

Page 130 Amaretto-Pineapple Cupcakes

"These tropical cupcakes, scaled-down versions of the most well-known upside-down cake, have a retro appeal thanks to the flambe'ed fruit filling." - Martha

I have also devoured pineapple-upside down cake whenever my mother made it or when I've made them through the years. So naturally, when I saw this recipe I had to make it as closely as possible to Martha's. (I already knew what mine tastes like.)

I didn't have any fresh pineapple so I used Dole canned slices and instead of butter I used a product I hadn't used before called Smart Balance Spread. It's a half-butter/half-margarine product. I was very pleased with the results of both substitutions. I just couldn't believe I actually had Amaretto in the house!

The batter whipped up fluffy and the pineapple flambe' was perfectly caramelized, but the real problem occurred when I dressed the cakes. I filled the cupcakes just as the picture and the words denoted, then I fluffed up the cream and topped the cakes with it and a bit of extra flambe'. I turned my back to clean up the saute pan and PLOP! One by one the cupcakes began to fall off of the pedestal because they were top-heavy!

I ended up putting toothpicks in each cake to hold the top to the bottom, but there was no guarantee they'd stay on the platter. I guess you gotta eat these right away! They are the real Mccoy...Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes alright!

Page 122 - Mint-filled Brownie Cupcakes

"Each of these chewy brownie cupcakes has a secret center; a chocolate covered peppermint patty. To ensure they have a dense, fudgy texture, be careful not to overbake (start checking at 30 minutes). " Martha

Oh, the photo in the book is so decadent looking, I had to make these, besides the fact that York Peppermint Patties are one of my favorite candies. But right off, I didn't have any bittersweet chocolate in bar form that one would have to coarsely chop, so I used my good 'ol standby, semi-sweet chocolate chips. (I never have a pantry without them!)

Also, if Hershey's unsweetened powdered cocoa is Dutch, then I guess I got that right, but as luck wouldn' t have it, I didn't have any York Peppermint Patties in the kitchen either! Really, I looked in all my good hiding places too! So, I used what I had which was a movie-size box of Junior Mints and I even shook things up a bit more by subbing Junior Caramels in a few.

You should place a bit of batter in the muffin cups, then add a few mints or caramels (I chose 4 in each brownie), and finally top the cup with more batter to fill. They rise to the top of the muffin cup but no higher...that was perfect!

I baked mine for the entire 35 minutes and should have heeded her words "check them at 30." I really should have checked them at 25 minutes as I had my convection working. My brownies (and do get this right, they are brownies not a cupcake) were very tasty but just a bit crusty. I would have preferred a softer top. And upon wanting to see the secret center, once cooled, I found the mints stayed in place, but the caramels sunk to the bottom.

In hindsight, I should have placed the caramels on top of all of the batter in the cup and had been sure the mints did not touch the edges of the cups. The paper pulled the entire mint with it when peeling away. I believe a mini York instead of Junior Mints probably would have been best as it wouldn't have pulled through the cake if it had touched a side. Nonetheless, I feel these were a success with the common substitutions I made.

The recipe says it makes 12, but I got 14 good-sized brownies out of it, and if I hadn't been so generous to let my son "clean the bowl" I would have had an easy 16.

Page 107 - Pistachio Raspberry Teacakes

"These brightly colored cupcakes are very simple to make - a food processor handles all the mixing. You'll find slivered pistachios at specialty stores or on-line retailers; you may substitute chopped pistachios instead." Martha

I decided to substitute pecans for the green nuts. Why? #1 - I love pistachios, but my boys don't. #2 - I didn't happen to have any at the time in my pantry. #3 - I do know pistachios happen to be available at my local Kroger Grocery store, but it seemed much simpler at the time to use what I had.

Since I was now using pecans, I also subbed out 1/2 of the granulated sugar for brown sugar believeing that it would coordinate with the pecans so nicely. I packed my brown sugar as usual. Instead of the raspberries (I didn't think they would go with the brown sugar) I simply adorned the cakes with pecan halves after icing. I iced them with her Caramel Buttercream Frosting on page 307.

This recipe worked out just as easy; my muffins baked at the same temperature and length of time as Martha's.

I called mine Caramel Pecan Teacakes!