Cinnamon Spice Cupcakes with a Touch of Cocoa

Sundays are great, especially this past one; my hubby was home and available to entertain the shorties and I got half a morning of uninterrupted baking

We were invited to a Super Bowl party so I decided to whip up some cupcakes to bring along. I was avoiding going to the store so I tried to come up with something with what I had available in my kitchen. My original plan was to make a chai tea cupcake with a cinnamon frosting, but I didn’t have any chai tea to toss in the batter… kind of an essential ingredient; so while digging through my pantry I found Cinnamon Spice Cocoa mix…hmmmmmmmm EXPERIMENT TIME! This is why I don’t bake…I have baking adventures

cinnamon-y goodness

I started with a simple white cake recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

I added 3 tablespoons of the cinnamon spice cocoa mix AND an extra tablespoon of ground cinnamon with the dry ingredients for a little extra spicey goodness.

First, using my standing mixer, I creamed together the butter and sugar, then added the eggs and vanilla.

I combined the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then slowly added them to the creamed butter mixture, alternating the dry ingredients with the milk until the batter was smooth.

I used cupcake liners and filled each one about 1/2 full (roughly 2 tablespoons of batter in each cup) baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

On to the frosting!

I made a cinnamon buttercream with a touch of cream cheese,  I pretty much just tossed a bunch of things into the frosting until it tasted right… it went roughly like this:

4 oz cream cheese

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup butter- room temperature

1 tablespoon (yes, TABLEspoon, not skimping on the spice!) cinnamon

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

First I creamed together the cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla.

I added the 1/2 cup butter while still mixing, then I did a quick spatula sweep of the bottom and sides of the bowl and continued mixing; adding the cinnamon and alternating between the powdered sugar and the milk until it reached the right consistency.

I ended up adding a little bit too much milk and I ran out of powdered sugar so the frosting wasn’t as thick as I like for decorating but it was VERY cinnamon-y.

Also should be noted that there was only enough frosting for 15 cupcakes! I have 9 naked cupcakes leftover…

chocolate truffle football fail... but still deliciously chocolatey and ready for transport

Because it was Super Bowl Sunday I attempted to make little chocolate truffle footballs to top my cupcakes- but my ganache got a little soft and my footballs looked like little turds! My daughter and I decided to just make little truffle balls rolled in cinnamon to top the cupcakes- success!

Yum

What a delicious evening! Way to go Giants! But really I watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and my fav… the naked M&M! Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle!

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