Announcing the 2nd Annual Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup

It's too late to enter - but you can view the entries and cast your vote now.

It's time again for the Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup - your opportunity to showcase your amazing ice cream cupcake creations just in time for summer! For a brief tutorial to get you started, check out my post on ice cream cupcakes. For tons of inspiration, check out all of last year's ice cream cupcake entries.

This year's Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup is going to be a bit different because we've got PRIZES!! Lots and lots of prizes!! They are all listed after the official rules.

Official Rules:

• Dates: You can enter any time through May 31, 2009.
• How to Enter: Write a post on your blog during the month of May and include a link to this post and to the post at Scoopalicious. Then, complete the entry form. If you don't have a blog, you can still enter by emailing us the details about your ice cream cupcake, a photo, and your top three prize selections.
  
• Reader's Choice: There will be one Reader's Choice Award winner chosen by vote during the first week of June (you can get anyone you know to vote - start begging).
  
• Editor's Choice: There will be two Editor's Choice Awards: one by Scoopalicious and one by me.
  
• Prizes: When you enter the roundup, you will have an opportunity to tell us which prize you want the most, your second choice, and also your third choice, so be sure to review the prizes carefully. The prizes will be distributed as follows:
• The Reader's Choice Award winner will get their first choice prize.
• The Editor's Choice Award winners will receive their first choice prizes unless they have already been taken by the Reader's Choice Award winner (in which case, they will get their second choice pick). If both Editor's Choice winners want the same prize, the winner of that prize will be randomly chosen and the other will get their next preference. It is possible for someone to win an Editor's Choice Award and a Reader's Choice Award or even two Editor's Choice Awards. In these cases, the winner will receive multiple prizes.
• Just by submitting a cupcake, you have a good chance to win a prize. After the Reader's and Editor's Choice Award prizes are given out, all other prizes will be distributed randomly. There is no guarantee that you will get one of your top picks. If one of your top picks is still available when your name is drawn, then you will get that prize. If not, you will get whatever prize is still available. If you don't love it, there is always the re-gift (but, why wouldn't you love it?).
• The Fine Print: While we would love to see entrants from all over the world, not all prizes can be shipped internationally. If you are outside of the USA and you win a prize, will will try our best to get that prize to you, but we make no guarantees.
  

The Prizes

3 winners will receive a 12 pack of gourmet cupcake wrappers from Bella Cupcake Couture. Her cupcake wrappers are gorgeous!! They will surely snazz up any cupcakes you make. Save them for a special occasion or a fancy night in.


1 winner will receive an awesome prize pack from the talented Just Jenn Designs (a participant in last year's ice cream cupcake roundup). The package includes a Cupcake Gift Set (eight personalized cards + envelopes with one cup-a-cake holder), I heart cupcakes' cards (6 folded cards plus envelopes), and Happy birthday, cupcake! (six - 3.5"x2.5" glossy tags w/various color ribbons).

1 winner will receive a cupcake tote bag from Avocado Creations. It will look just like the one above, but in turquoise. What better thing to take shopping with you to buy all of your cupcake ingredients?!


3 winners will receive a package of bread mix from JB Dough. It may not be cupcakes, but who doesn't love the smell of fresh bread in the oven? Yum!! The winners can choose from 22 different flavors of bread mix!

2 winners will receive a bag of cacao nibs from Patric Chocolate. Patric Chocolate will also include a recipe for Patric Chocolate Nib-Chip Cookies. If you've never tried cacao nibs before, they are truly a treat, and Patric Chocolate is some of the best chocolate on the planet (not that having dinner with the owner recently made me at all biased).

1 winner will receive an 8-pack of homemade cupcake birthday cards directly from Bethany of Scoopalicious. In addition to running the fun ice cream blog, Bethany also sells all kinds of items on her Etsy page, Buzz Buzz Bee's.


1 winner will receive a 4x5 illustration from the incredible Cakespy! Cakespy's art just couldn't be any cuter!

1 winner will receive a cupcake pendant from Krissi's Mixed Media Arts. It will look like the pendants on the left only with cupcake picture from the right. What better way to show your love for the cupcake than by wearing one around your neck?

We can't wait to see all of your delicious entries!!

I've Adopted a Girl!

Regular readers know that I'm having a baby in August. Check out my ever-growing belly! Oh - and I haven't yet told you that it will be a boy!

Because of this huge life change, you may not think it's a good time to consider adopting a girl. However, I haven't adopted a new child, I've adopted a blogger!

The Adopt a Blogger program is run by Dine & Dish and this year there are over one hundred food blogs participating. The idea is that people who have been blogging for over a year are paired with newbie bloggers to help them on their way.

I'm excited to announce that my adopted blogger is:

You can see from the logo that we clearly have something in common. Cherryspoon is "all sorts of baking related goodness, personal projects, great links, product reviews and more!" I am looking forward to getting to know her over the next three months (the length of the adoption) and I hope you will all head on over to Cherryspoon and show her some cupcake love.

Prickly Pear Cupcakes

Prickly pear cupcakes bring my week of prickly pear eating to a close. While I strongly preferred my prickly pear lemon bars to the prickly pear cupcakes, one friend said that I was doing something akin to comparing a sandwich to ravioli - they are too different to compare. Other friends couldn't weigh in on whether they liked the the prickly pear cupcakes better or worse than the the prickly pear lemon bars because I hoarded all of the lemon bars for myself! They did have some very positive things to say about the prickly pear cupcakes, though:

• "Heaven!"
• "I would definitely buy one if they were for sale somewhere."
• "The only thing that would make this better would be chocolate."

OK - those last two quotes were from the same person I talked about in the first paragraph - but they were good quotes. I had to use them.

The other quote that multiple people had, including myself, was that the prickly pear cupcakes were:

• "Generically fruity."

If I hadn't mentioned the fact that they contained prickly pear, people would not have been able to identify what the fruit flavor was.

The Prickly Pear Cupcake Recipe

The coolest thing about the prickly pear cupcake recipe was the bubblegum-pink batter. It was so fun! Too bad the cupcake didn't stay that color after baking. This is a Cupcake Project original recipe.

Makes about 14 cupcakes

• 2 C flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 3/4 C butter, room temperature
  
• 1 C + 3 T sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C plain yogurt
• 1/4 t lemon extract
• 1 t vanilla extract
  
• 1/3 C prickly pear juice (You can easily make prickly pear juice with a prickly pear and a food processor or blender. Simply Recipes has a great tutorial on how to make prickly pear juice.)
• 1/4 C lemon juice

1. With a fork, whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl for 1 minute until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs, yogurt, and extracts until blended.
4. Combine prickly pear juice and lemon juice in a small bowl.
   
5. Alternately mix in the flour mixture and juice to the sugar/butter mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with flour.
6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
   
7. Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the cupcake clean.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting with Prickly Pear Lemon Bars

You could top the prickly pear cupcakes with a basic lemon cream cheese frosting. That would be perfectly tasty. But, if you just happen to have some extra prickly pear lemon bars laying around, you can blend them and mix them into the frosting for added zing! That's what I did, and as you can see in the photo, the prickly pear lemon bars integrated into the frosting so well that no one even knew they were there.

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 1/4 C butter, room temperature
• 4 C powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/2 t lemon extract
• 1 1/2 t prickly pear juice (Optional. I only added this to give the frosting a mild pink color. It did not affect the taste at all. You could use food coloring or skip this entirely.)
  
• 1 C pulverized prickly pear lemon bars (Optional.)

1. Mix butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.
2. Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time. You can add more or less to get your desired level of sweetness and stiffness.
3. Add lemon extract and, optionally, the prickly pear juice.
4. If you choose to do so, mix in the prickly pear lemon bars. It could also be fun to sprinkle them on top.

Other Cupcakes With Prickly Pear and Lemon

I want to give a quick shout out to Keesha - The Prissy Cook. Keesha is a fellow prickly pear lover and cupcake baker. Around this time last year, Keesha made lemon cupcakes with prickly pear frosting. She was able to find a prickly pear syrup that made her frosting a gorgeous pink color. Be sure to check out her prickly pear cupcake post for a different take on the prickly pear lemon cupcake and also to read about her amusing tale of transporting cupcakes by bike.

Prickly Pear Lemon Bars

Prickly pear lemon bars are sweet and tangy and have a buttery crust that I could eat all by itself. They are a variation on my favorite lemon lime squares. While I wouldn't make the prickly pear bars over the lemon lime squares every time, they are great for something different and the pink color is so striking!

Why Prickly Pear Lemon Bars


As a pregnant foodie, I often find myself at restaurants with top-tier bartenders and have recently begun to challenge them to make me tasty virgin drinks. Last night at Monarch, I had a drink with almond syrup, pear nectar, pomegranate, and lemon that was like nothing I had ever tasted before - in a good way. But (more relevant to this post), earlier in the week I visited a St. Louis restaurant, Agave, that had several virgin drink options on the menu. The bartender, Keith, recommended a drink that featured prickly pear and lemonade. He gave me a shot of the prickly pear juice on its own to entice me. Loved it! I proceeded to order the drink - which rocked my world. I decided right then that prickly pear would be the flavor of the week. Check out the cupcake version of these bars - prickly pear cupcakes.

Prickly Pear Lemon Bar Recipe

The prickly pear lemon bar recipe that I came up with was based on a recipe called Lemony Lime Squares that I originally found in a newspaper (the clipping is so old that I can't tell which paper) as an adaptation from a recipe in the book Low-fat & Luscious Desserts by the American Heart Association. The recipe says that it makes sixteen servings, but that depends on how big you cut your bars or squares. I think that you would probably want to double the recipe if you were truly serving sixteen people. Here is my adaptation:

Cookie base

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/4 C sugar
• 1/4 finely chopped pecans
• 1/4 C butter, softened

Topping

• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 T all-purpose flour
• 3 T lemon juice
• 1/2 t lemon zest
• 3 T prickly pear juice (You can easily make prickly pear juice with a prickly pear and a food processor or blender. Simply Recipes has a great tutorial on how to make prickly pear juice.)
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 2 T powdered sugar (optional)

1. Prepare the cookie base
1. Mix flour, sugar, pecans, and butter until crumbly.
2. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray or butter and press the mixture evenly on the bottom of the dish.
3. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

2. Prepare the topping
1. Beat all topping ingredients except powdered sugar. Mixture will be thin.
2. Pour over hot crust.

3. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until topping is set.
4. Allow to cool before cutting.
5. If you'd like, top the bars with powered sugar.

Finding Prickly Pear


Prickly pear is not easy to find in St. Louis. Some of my friends from other parts of the country have informed me that it's practically a weed where they live. I thought for sure that our international supermarket would carry prickly pear, but they said they wouldn't carry it until next month. Then, I checked a Mexican grocery and they told me to check the Asian grocery. Surprisingly, I found it at Whole Foods. I shop there almost daily, but I had never noticed prickly pears so that was the last place that I looked for them.

If you can't find fresh prickly pear fruit and I've got you craving prickly pear, you may be able to find some other prickly pear products.

I was informed by my Twitter friend c_ellis that our local grocery store, Schnucks, sometimes carries prickly pear sorbet, so your local store might, too.

Bolthouse Farms makes a Prickly Pear Cactus Lemonade which will give you a taste of the flavor, but I found it to be way too sweet.

Lastly, you could always order one of the many prickly pear products available online. You can choose from syrups, jellies and jams, and candies.

One More Photo of the Prickly Pear Lemon Bars, Just for Kicks

Grape Cupcakes Topped with Wine Whipped Cream

Grape Cupcake Man says, "I love grape cupcakes!" Grape Cupcake Man also says, "I need you to lick the Muscat wine whipped cream frosting off of my grape cupcake face - it's blocking my eyes!"

When I first made Grape Cupcake Man, my in-house food photographer refused to take the photo: "It's just too weird." Perhaps I did go a bit overboard, but I wanted to use the whipped cream and I didn't want to hide the grapes like I did here:

Clearly, Grape Cupcake Man was the only choice.

Regardless of how you frost the grape cupcakes (or if you frost them at all), these grape cupcakes are a perfect choice to serve while sitting outside with a bottle of wine, grapes, cheese, and nuts. Enjoy!

Grape Cupcake Recipe

I found a most appetizing recipe for a grape cake on the Desert Candy blog and decided to convert it to grape cupcakes. I have included the recipe with my modifications below. The main change I made was to add some ginger and pineapple flavor to replicate the tastes found in my recent punch recipe.

Makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t ground ginger
  
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/2 C Muscat wine
• 1/2 C pineapple juice
  
• 3/4 C sugar
• 4 T (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
• 4 T (1/4 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 C red seedless grapes

1. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ginger into a medium-sized bowl.
2. Combine wine and pineapple juice in a small bowl.
   
3. Whisk 3/4 cup sugar, butter, and olive oil in a large bowl until smooth.
   
4. Whisk in eggs.
   
5. Add flour mixture alternately with wine/juice in 3 additions each, whisking just until smooth after each addition.
   
6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.
7. Sprinkle grapes over batter.
8. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes or until top gets slightly brown.
   

Muscat Wine Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe

This Muscat wine whipped cream frosting went perfectly with the cupcakes, but it worked nicely as a dip for grapes. Yum!

• 1 C Muscat wine
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 C heavy whipping cream

1. Bring wine and sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan.
2. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for about thirty minutes.
3. Remove from heat and bring to room temperature.
4. Whip heavy whipping cream until it looks like whipped cream.
5. Add 1/3 C of the muscat wine syrup you just made.
   

Note: Use more whipping cream or less syrup if you want a thicker frosting.

Punch Recipe - Grape, Pineapple, and Ginger

This punch recipe combines fresh grapes, pineapple, and ginger. Other grape punch recipes I've tried use grape juice or fake-tasting powder (like Kool-Aid). Using fresh grapes in a punch recipe works really well (aside from having to strain the skins), but don't expect the punch to taste like the traditional grape juice variety unless you are using Concord grapes.

Punch Recipe

I made this punch recipe for this month's Taste & Create (the food blog event where food bloggers pair up to try each other's recipes). My partner this month was Experiments, Emotions, and Experiences with Food. While there were tons of appealing recipes of all kinds on my partner's blog, I decided to opt for her punch recipe to avoid worrying about converting a dessert into a Kosher for Passover creation (two days left!).

I am reprinting my partner's punch recipe below, with my notes. Note that the recipe makes just one large glass. Double, triple, or quadruple the recipe depending on how much punch you need!

• 1/2 C (around 15) black seedless grapes (Feel free to experiment with other seedless varieties.)
  
• 1/2 C pineapple, cubed
• 1 T fresh ginger, chopped (The ginger flavor is VERY strong in this punch. If you are not a huge ginger fan, you may want to reduce the amount to taste.)
  
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 3 T sugar
• 1/2 t salt (This was a bit too much salt for me. You might consider cutting this amount in half.)
  
• 1-2 C ice water

1. Put all ingredients in the blender.
   
   
2. Blend.
   
   
3. Strain.
4. Dilute with more water, if needed.
   
5. Serve chilled over ice.

Up Next

Grape cupcakes with pineapple and ginger - of course!

Kosher for Passover Cupcakes - Charoses Cupcakes

Kosher for Passover cupcake Photo disclaimer: The Kosher for Passover cupcake featured in the photo above was taken by the esteemed St. Louis food photographer J. Pollack Photography. However, the photshopping of the cupcake onto the Seder plate was done by me and he does NOT approve of such photo mutilation.

Charoses cupcakes will surely be the "wow" dessert on any Passover table. They are lemon-flavored Kosher for Passover cupcakes with baked-in charoses and topped with brown sugar charoses frosting!

Last year, I featured Kosher for Passover chocolate cupcakes. I got many comments from people complaining that they couldn't eat the cupcakes after a traditional Passover Seder because the cupcakes were dairy.

These charoses cupcakes can be served two ways. Without the frosting, these cupcakes qualify for a Kosher for Passover fleishig meal (no dairy); don't worry, even without the frosting, they are still better than macaroons. With the frosting, you could serve the cupcakes with a dairy meal.

Charoses Cupcake Recipe

I found the recipe that I used for the charoses cupcakes from Key Ingredient. I modified it slightly to make it a cupcake. I'm listing the recipe with my modifications below.

Makes about 16 cupcakes

• 5 eggs, separated
• 1 1/4 C sugar
• 3/4 C safflower oil
• Juice of 2 lemons (4 to 5 T)
• Grated zest of 2 lemons
• 1 1/4 C matzo cake meal (not matzo meal)
• About 2 C charoses (Use my charoses recipe if you don't have your own go-to one.)
  

1. Mix egg yolks and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.
2. In a separate bowl, combine oil, lemon juice and zest.
3. Add matzo cake meal to yolk and sugar mixture alternately oil mixture.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
   
5. Using rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture until well blended.
   
6. Fold in remaining beaten egg whites.
7. Fill cupcake liners about halfway with batter.
8. Put a spoonful or more, of charoses on top of the batter on each cupcakes.
9. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Charoses Frosting Recipe

For my charoses frosting I used a basic penuche frosting (brown sugar frosting) and just added charoses to it. It's a bit gooey (kind of like the frosting on a German chocolate cake) - only even yummier (if you love charoses)! In fact, I just ate an apple and totally enjoyed dipping it in all the leftover frosting. I'm typing with sticky fingers now.

I got the penuche frosting recipe from Southern Food on About.Com. I used this same frosting minus the charoses on my Gluten-free quinoa cupcakes. The recipe made twice as much frosting as I needed. Unless you want extra frosting around for snacking, you could definitely cut this recipe in half.

• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 C milk
• 2 C sifted confectioners' sugar (I only used about 1 1/2 C)
• 2/3 C charoses (Use my charoses recipe if you don't have your own go-to one.)

1. In a saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter.
2. Add the brown sugar.
3. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium low and continue to boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
5. Cool to lukewarm. Gradually add sifted confectioners' sugar. (I would highly recommend sifting this confectioners' sugar. It's such a pain to sift, but it ensures that the frosting will be extra smooth.)
6. Beat until thick enough to spread.
7. Mix in charoses.
8. Pour over cupcakes.
   

Speaking of Passover

Don't expect many new posts over Passover. I'll likely be passing over the blog during that time, but, you never know.

Charoses Recipe - Mom's Recipe

Charoses is a reason to look forward to Passover. I would eat charoses year round, but then I wouldn't enjoy it as much over Passover. I could eat it by the bowl - cold or hot. Charoses is almost always served cold, but it's actually great after 30 seconds or so in the microwave - try it!

While I typically experiment and drastically change recipes, there is no messin' with Momma's charoses. Well, except for the fact that I used up this charoses in a Kosher for Passover charoses cupcake.

Charoses Recipe

Mom's charoses recipe is actually from The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook. As I look at this digital picture of the cookbook, I can picture the more worn out version of it sitting in Mom's kitchen and feel all warm and fuzzy. If you want your own worn out version, you can get used copies of this book for only $4 on Amazon!

Here is the recipe twice removed from the book - emailed by my mom and then edited with notes by me:

• 1 C chopped apples (Mom uses a couple of different apples to make it
• interesting.)
• 1/4 C chopped nuts (We always use walnuts.)
• 1 t sugar or honey (This is not a choice. Use honey!)
• Grated rind of 1/2 lemon (I ended up using a whole lemon. The more lemon, the merrier.)
• 1/2 t cinnamon or more to taste
  
• 2 tablespoons red wine (about) (Don't go for fancy wine here. You want Manischewitz Concord Grape. I can't imagine charoses with any other wine. It's really an essential ingredient.)

1. Mix all ingredients.
   
2. Add enough wine to bind the mixture.

Cornmeal Cupcakes with Orange Flavor and Grand Marnier Whipped Cream

My mother-in-law just reported that these cornmeal cupcakes with orange flavor and Grand Marnier whipped cream are her favorite cupcakes so far this year. She also said that she really liked the crunch. "The crunch?" I asked. Could a crunch possibly be a good thing in a cupcake? She thought so. Personally, I wouldn't describe the cupcakes as having a crunch, but they definitely do have more of a gritty texture than normal due to the coarse blue cornmeal.

My other taster of the week, Susan, enjoyed that the cornmeal cupcakes weren't overly sweet, and she also liked the orange flavor (which she felt could be even more pronounced).

As for me, I was happy to move back to a healthier (not healthy) cupcake after the cookie dough cupcakes. I felt springy and happy after eating a cornmeal cupcake.

Cornmeal Cupcake Recipe


I got the recipe for the cornmeal cupcakes from Garrett of Vanilla Garlic. When I first started this blog, I made several of his cupcakes and they were all hits. I haven't made one in a while, but when I started looking for a blue cornmeal cupcake to go with my blue cornmeal pancakes, he had the perfect recipe (he used yellow cornmeal, but that was an easy substitution)! The best part of the recipe is its simplicity, it requires only one bowl.

Garrett's recipe is below, with my notes.

Makes 12 cupcakes

• 1/2 C olive oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 C sugar
  
• 1/2 C dry white wine
• 1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C yellow cornmeal (I used blue cornmeal)
  
• 1 t salt
• 2 t baking powder
• Finely grated zest of one orange (I used 1/4 t orange extract instead)
  

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, sugar, and wine until smooth.
   
2. Add the other dry ingredients and the zest; whisk together gently.
3. Line cupcake tin with cupcake papers and spoon into the papers about 4/5 full.
   
4. Bake at 375 F for 22-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Grand Marnier Whipped Cream Recipe

You could top these cupcakes with any number of frostings. They might be great with an orange buttercream frosting. I opted to make a Grand Marnier whipped cream.

• 1 C heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 C Grand Marnier syrup. See my Grand Marnier syrup recipe.
• 1/4 C sugar
• 1 t Grand Marnier
  

1. Whip heavy whipping cream until it looks like whipped cream.
2. Mix in remaining ingredients.
   

Note: I added some food coloring to the whipped cream to create the middle of the flower. I typically avoid food coloring, but the flower needed some color and I decided to take the plunge.