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Darcie Bakes //

September 21, 2015

Small-Batch Pumpkin Chai Cupcakes.

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It’s September, and I’m on the pumpkin train. Truth be told, I have been on the pumpkin train since about August. I’m one of those people who wishes fall would hurry up and get here. Yeah, I even wish away summer at times. I get why some of you summer lovers probably hate people like me, but that’s okay. Fall is the best season, and pumpkin is so delicious in every form. These cupcakes are no exception to that pumpkin rule.

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This recipe is one of those small-batch baking recipes, of which I am a huge fan. The recipe claims to make four cupcakes, but I got five. I’m okay with that. The pumpkin flavor shines through superbly in these; often, I find that some pumpkin baked goods are not pumpkin-y enough. But these were really, really good. I took one bite of my “cupcake sandwich” [the only way to eat cupcakes, obvz], and I was immediately impressed. Me being immediately impressed with baked goods does not happen often, as my roommate can attest. The texture of the cake is perfect, super pumpkin-y, and the chai spices shine through beautifully.

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The chai buttercream is also really tasty. I love chai flavors, and they pair so well with pumpkin! I gave one of these cupcakes to a friend, and he exclaimed, “Wow, these taste like they were made by a professional, like at a professional bakery!” I just looked at him nonchalantly, and said, “I am a professional.” 😉

Yes, they’re that good. And the small quantity means you can make them for yourself. Or you could be nice and share them with your friends and/or significant other. Just make ’em if you’re on the pumpkin train, because they’re delicious. Thanks to Christina from Dessert for Two for her awesome recipes. I always know that her recipes will turn out fantastic; this woman is legit. And I’m also really excited to be meeting her in about a month!

PS: I also think these would make great muffins. Then you have an excuse for eating them for breakfast (sans frosting)… Or just eat cupcakes for breakfast, buttercream and all. I’m not telling anyone. 😀

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{Cupcake sandwiches are the best kinds of sandwiches.}
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Small-Batch Pumpkin Chai Cupcakes.
Yield: According to the recipe, it makes four cupcakes. I got five, which was fine by me! 😉
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
– 7 TBSP. all-purpose flour
– ½ tsp. baking powder
– ⅛ tsp. baking soda
– ¼ tsp. salt
– ½ tsp. cinnamon
– ¼ tsp. ground ginger
– ¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg [I used ground.]
– 1 large egg
– ½ cup pumpkin puree [NOT pumpkin pie mix. Plain pumpkin puree.]
– ¼ cup brown sugar
– 3 TBSP. granulated sugar
– 3 TBSP. vegetable oil

For the chai buttercream:
– 1⅓ cups powdered sugar
– 4 TBSP. softened, unsalted butter
– 1 chai tea bag + 2 TBSP. boiling water [Or 2 tsp. chai concentrate syrup.]

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and line a muffin tin with four (or five) cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the egg, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir until combined, being careful to not overmix.
4. Divide the batter between the cupcake liners, and bake for 28-32 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. {Note: Mine only needed to bake for about 25 minutes.} Remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
5. While the cupcakes are cooling, pour the boiling water over the chai tea bag and let it steep for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, beat together the butter and powdered sugar until it’s light and fluffy, or for about 3-4 minutes. Add the (cooled) steeped tea (or chai concentrate syrup), and mix well. Frost the cupcakes when they are cool, and serve. Enjoy!

+ Recipe via Dessert for Two.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: cake, cake cake cake, chai, cupcakes, pumpkin, small batch, small batch baking

July 19, 2015

Vegan Chai-Spiced Pancakes.

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I don’t think it ever occurred to me that you can make vegan pancakes until I bought the book Pancakes, written by the same cool lady who writes at A Cozy Kitchen. That sounds silly now that I really think about it. In my mind, however, pancakes have always meant that there’s gonna be lots of butter, eggs, and milk (or better yet, buttermilk!).

pancakescutI was pleasantly surprised to discover that tasty, fluffy pancakes don’t necessarily have to contain any animal products. I’m far from being a vegan – I don’t have anything against the lifestyle; I just recognize that it’s not for me. Still, I go through phases [Is it just me? Surely not…] in which I am: a) out of milk/eggs and too broke/lazy to go buy some; and/or b) eating mostly vegetable-based foods, because it just feels better at times; and/or c) in the mood to experiment with less common ingredients. For those phases, these vegan pancakes are perfect.

veganpancakes2This vegan pancake recipe is extremely simple and easy. It comes from the book titled Pancakes: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack, aka the Pancake Bible. I like to make these pancakes just as they are when one of my three-part life phases hit me. But sometimes when I’m feeling extra rowdy, I’ll add some chai spices to the pancake batter to, well, spice things up a bit.

pancakestopSometimes a girl just needs a stack of six pancakes for dinner. Sometimes chai spices add a lovely aroma and slight kick to some simple pancakes. That’s just real life, and real life is pretty decent when there are pancakes and jadeite plates around. 🙂

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Vegan Chai-Spiced Pancakes.
Yield: Makes six pancakes.

Ingredients:
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– 1 TBSP. baking powder
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
– 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp. cardamom
– 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
– Pinch of black pepper
– 1 cup almond milk [or other non-dairy milk]
– 1 TBSP. agave nectar [or real maple syrup, if you don’t have agave nectar]
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– About 1 tsp. of vegetable oil or vegan butter for the skillet

Instructions:
1. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl until combined. Set aside.
2. Measure out the milk in a liquid measuring cup, then add the agave nectar and vanilla extract, stirring until combined.
3. Add all of the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients at once, then mix until just combined. The batter will probably be slightly lumpy; this is okay! Pancake batter is supposed to be lumpy, so don’t beat the heck out of it.
4. Preheat your skillet over medium heat, and brush with the vegetable oil so that the pan is well-greased.
5. Measure about 1/4 cup of batter and scoop into the heated skillet. Cook for about three to four minutes, or until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes.
6. Flip the pancakes, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the on the opposite sides for approximately one to two minutes, or until the pancakes are golden brown.
7. Transfer the cooked pancakes to a cookie sheet and place in a preheated 200 degrees F oven to keep warm. Repeat the cooking process with the rest of the batter until pancakes are done. Serve immediately with real maple syrup, and enjoy!

– Recipe barely adapted, via Pancakes: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: breakfast, chai, pancakes, vegan

November 6, 2014

Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Chai Spiced Buttercream.

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Okay so, I absolutely LOVE everything chai. Chai lattes. Iced dirty chai lattes. [*With just one shot of espresso, because any more than one makes me hyper… and I’m not a hyper person by nature. Yikes.] Pumpkin chai tea. Plain chai tea.
You name it – if it involves chai – I adore it. But so far, I’ve only really had it in drink form. Then I stumbled across these chai spiced cupcakes with chai buttercream. Umm, clearly I knew I had to make these ASAP. So make them I did. And that was one of the better decisions I’ve ever made. I happily discovered that baking + chai = I am in heaven [more than I normally am with baking]. That’s a scientifically sound math equation if I ever saw one. 😉

eckopanThere’s really not that much to say about these. Chai flavors are just the shiznit, ya know? Cardamom, cinnamon, ginger… Yes. Because chai is obviously the shiznit, I think it goes without saying that these cupcakes are, by extension, also the shiznit [for you not-up-to-date-on-slang folks out there, “the shiznit” is a good thing].cornercupcakeThe cake is a fairly light, moist, white cake that’s bursting with the best chai flavors. And the frosting is your typical vanilla buttercream, only it also has the amazing chai flavors mixed in. And then if you wanna go real balls to the wall, you can add a sprinkling of cinnamon on top of them after you frost them. If you love chai drinks, and you like cupcakes… then these are clearly something that needs to be made. It’s just logical.

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Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Chai Buttercream

Yield: If my memory serves me correctly, this recipe makes about sixteen to eighteen cupcakes. 

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes:
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
cinnamon, for topping

Instructions:

Make the Cupcakes!
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners [pretty gold ones would be super pretty for these!].
2. Make the chai spice mixture: combine the ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside for later use.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment [or a large bowl, using a hand mixer], cream together the butter and granulated sugar until they’re light and fluffy. Add in the egg and the vanilla, and scrape down the bowl as necessary until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. of the reserved chai spice mixture [note: remember, you’re only using 1 and 1/2 tsp. of the mixture – DON’T dump the whole thing in, or you’ll have an overload of chai spices in your cupcakes].
5. Alternate adding the flour/spice mixture and the milk, and beat the batter until just combined after each addition.
6. Fill the prepared muffin cups 2/3rds of the way full with the batter. Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes, or until a tester/toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes in the pan, then remove from the pans and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the Chai Frosting:
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until it’s lighter in color and fluffy.
2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, the remainder of your chai spice mixture, and vanilla extract.
3. Beat until it’s light and fluffy and ready for piping; add milk as necessary, until you reach the desired consistency.
4. Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes, and sprinkle the tops with cinnamon, if desired.

Recipe from Taste and Tell.

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Yeah, I totally took a picture of these cupcakes on my back deck. I’m wondering if my next door neighbors think I am nuts… #worthit

Leave a Comment Filed Under: cake cake cake, chai, cinnamon, cupcakes

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I'm Darcie. In a nutshell: I'm a baker and mental health advocate in the tech industry.
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