Almond Joy Cupcakes

Here is another great cupcake recipe from Lizzy over at Your Cup of Cake! I am enjoying sifting my way  through her cupcake recipes. One of the things I love about cupcakes is how easy they are to share! It keeps me from eating a whole cake by myself :) This is the Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes, also known as the Almond Joy Cupcakes. They are so tasty, and this is the best chocolate buttercream icing I have ever had, but I do want to find a way to make them a little more coconuty. 

Cake Ingredients: 

3 sticks of butter at room temperature

2 cups sugar

5 eggs at room temperature 

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter milk

7 oz coconut (and some extra to sprinkle on top)

1. Preheat oven to 325 and line muffin tins with cupcake liners

 2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy

3. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract, beat some more

4. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together

5. Starting and ending with the flour mixture, alternate adding the flour and the buttermilk to the batter, mix only until combined

6. Stir in coconut and fill cupcake liners to the top 

7. Bake for 20-30 minuets, or until a tooth pick comes out clean 

Chocolate Buttercream:

2 sticks of butter, softened

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 cups powder sugar

1/4 cup of milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract  

Almonds to top cupcakes with

1. Beat butter for 5 minutes

2. Slowly add cocoa and powder sugar adding small amount of milk in between

3. Add vanilla

4. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes- top with an almond and extra coconut

Hazelnut, White Chocolate, and Pumpkin Cheesecake, and my note on organization

In response to a reader request, I want to share the recipe for the Hazelnut, White Chocolate, and Pumpkin Cheesecake I baked for Christmas this past year (talked about it in this post). However first I want to talk a little bit about how I organize recipes at home. 

Recipe Box

I tried, for what feels like years, to organize my recipe's in a cute, and classic, way- like in the recipe box above. I spent forever copying recipe's onto note cards like my mom and sister did, and I spent forever trying to make time to copy even more recipe's onto note cards. Whenever I used my handy little recipe cards they never did manage to make it back into their little box. One day I decided I had enough- I needed something functional! 

Enter my very functional recipe binder. 

Everything is in sheet protectors to keep them nice and clean- and I make photo copies of recipes so I can keep the pretty pictures of the food-or the handwriting of my loved one. AND it's nice and organized :)

Now from my recipe binder: Hazelnut, White Chocolate, and Pumpkin Cheesecake

I hate to admit it but I have no idea what magazine this recipe came out of- my sister cut it out for me because she knows of my love for all things cheesecake and all things pumpkin! This recipe makes one 9 inch cheesecake, but this cheesecake is so rich it can feed A LOT of people.       

Ingredients 

Crust-

3/4 cup vanilla-wafer crumbs

1/2 cup ground hazelnuts

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons melted butter 

Cheesecake filling-

3 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup canned pumpkin

4 eggs

1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts  

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit 

2. Combine the crust ingredients, mix well

3. Press crust mixture into the bottom and 1/2 an inch up the sides of a springform pan

4. Bake crust for 10 minutes

5. Reduce oven temperature to 300

6. In large bowl blend cream cheese, sugar, flour, and pumpkin pie spice with an electric mixer at low speed 

7. Add the pumpkin and eggs, beat until well combined

8. Stir in white chocolate

9. Pour filling into the crust lined pan, sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts 

10. Bake (at 300) for 1 hour, then turn off the heat and leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door closed for another 30 minutes or longer until set

11. Remove the cheesecake from the oven, chill, and enjoy!