Cupcake Wars: Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Last night I was able to join some friends for a girls night and as part of it we had a cupcake contest. I made caramel apple cupcakes with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, and they were a hit. We had four judges (husbands) who rated the seven different cupcakes and then picked out their favorites. James was able to be one of the judges, but lest anyone call favoritism, he actually picked my cupcakes as second, he liked the key lime ones better. I did manage to win over the other judges though and took home first place.

Here is the winning recipe. [I wasn't able to find vanilla bean paste at the store, but I did find it on Amazon here for a great deal.]

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped into small pieces (I used 2 granny smiths and 2 pink ladies)
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows
Caramel syrup, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 regular size cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer on low speed, combine the sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla extract until blended. In a separate large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing on low until blended. The batter will be somewhat dry at this point. Stir in the apples.

Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full with batter and bake until the cupcakes spring back when touched with your finger, about 15-20 minutes. Let cool in the pans for a few minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Either pipe Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting onto the cupcakes using a pastry bag and your favorite tip, or spread each cupcake with the frosting. Drizzle each cupcake with caramel syrup.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 (8-ounce) bar cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
4 cups powdered sugar (about 2 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla bean paste until smooth and thoroughly blended. Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt. Mix until smooth.

Caramel Sauce:

1 cup of sugar
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

First, before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go - the cream and the butter next to the pan, ready to put in.

Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.

As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably.

Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.

Young love

Arabella has a best friend named Rigdon.  He was born a few weeks after her and they live across the street from each other, so they have grown up together.  Bells and Riggs, as they call each other, love to play together.  Recently they started attending preschool together and are loving even more time together.  On Monday the two of them were watching a movie together, I came into the room to find them snuggled up on the couch together.  It was too cute to not capture.

With Rigdon, Bella is pretty bossy.  She will tell him what to do, where to go, and when to hold her hand, that poor boy!

One more story; yesterday we were getting into the car and Rigdon was waiting to get into his.  Arabella went over to him and told him that he was her best friend.  She then gave him a big kiss on his cheek.  When I asked her what she had done, she smiled and said quite simply, "he's my best friend, so I gave him a kiss."

I love that she has such a great friend!

Piano Recital

Here is the video of MacKayla's first piano recital. She has worked really hard this year and has done quite well at it.

Adventures in eating

Just a fun photo of all of the kids at the same age, in the high chair , having eaten. Bella is the only clean one, she hated to be messy when eating.

Such a Daddy's BOY!

As I have mentioned before, Johnny is a Daddy's boy, he loves his Daddy and wants him all of the time. I guess because of that he decided that dada should be his first word. I was able to get it on video, at least he is the cutest guy in the world as he proclaims his dada love.

James is so excited to have a boy, and have someone to share guy stuff with.  He even let Johnny play with his pocket knife one day (of course the blade was closed!)

One day James came home from work and we realized the boys were almost twins.

Does it get any cuter than that

A to Z about me

Snagged this from a friend, it's a pretty fun one...

Age: 30,  I am officially out of my twenties, I guess that means I am a grown-up now.

Bed Size: Queen, but I would really love to upgrade to a king.

Chore You Hate: Moping, no matter how many times I do it, the floor never looks clean.

Dogs: None, and not really interested in getting any.

Essential Start of Your Day: A shower, the day doesn't seem to start right without one.

Favorite Color: Blue, always has been.

Gold or Silver: Silver, I've never really liked the look of gold.

Height: 5'7"

Instruments You Play: I am really good at pushing buttons to make the stereo work.

Job Title: Mom, doesn't get any better than that, at least most of the time.

Kids: Four, MacKayla, Annika, Arabella, Jonathan.  Maybe more in the future.

Live: Idaho Falls, I never thought I would end up in Idaho.  How does a California kid end up in the land of spuds?

Mom's Name: Barbara.

Nicknames: Neesha, Kelsey gave me the nickname and it really is the only one that I like enough to let stick.  There were others over the years, but for the most part I hated them, really who wants to be called Tishy.

Overnight Hospital Stays: Four, one for each of my wonderful kids. 

Pet Peeve: A sense of entitlement by people, you have to work for what you get.

Quote From a Movie: "I carried a watermelon."

Right- or Left-Handed: Righty

Siblings: Only child, and no I wasn't spoiled.

Time You Wake Up: On a school day around 7, on the weekends, as long as Johnny will let me, usually around 8:30.

Underwear: Mormon-style; over the shoulder, down to the knees

Veggie You Dislike: Peas, unless they are fresh from the garden.

What Makes You Run Late: Trying to get four kids out the door, and one invariably needs to use the potty.

X-Rays You Have Had: Lots...ankles, wrists, neck, chest, jaw, teeth...I was a very accident prone kid and teen.

Yummy Food You Make: I love to cook, so I think it's all yummy.  My kids would say the sweets, cookies, cakes, cinnamon rolls.  James says chicken enchiladas, chicken noodle soup, cream of asparagus or broccoli soup, and mushroom stuffed chicken.

Zoo Animal You Like Best: I like the lions, the one at our zoo here always seems to be tracking you as you walk by, it looks like he would eat you if he could.

March Books

Twisted
Laurie Halse Anderson
272
This was a decent story of a kid who was tired of being a nobody. He decided to pull a prank and vandalize his school. He was caught and sentenced to community service, including the cleaning of his school. He bulked up over the summer and was "hot" when school started again. Trouble ensues and life is Twisted.  This book did contain some strong language.

Going Bovine
496
Libba Bray
I really wanted to like this book, it sounded fun and I liked the ideas, however, it was another of those books where the coarseness of the  language made it very hard to get through.  The story is of a boy who is diagnosed with Mad-Cow disease.  He is then told by an angel that the disease was brought back by a scientist who was stuck in space.  The scientist was also causing a black hole and the earth was going to be destroyed, but the boy has the opportunity to save himself and the earth.  The story was very surreal, and while entertaining at times, not a recommended book.

The Shadow Club
Neal Shusterman
192
The Shadow Club Rising
Neal Shusterman
200
These are the stories of the seconds, they are the kids who are always second best.  They are jealous of those that always come in first and decide to do something about it, they form and club and pull pranks on those that are better than they are.  The pranks of course get out of hand and things begin to turn ugly.  The kids admit to what has happened but not before tragedy strikes. 
In the sequel a new boy moves to town and is the best at everything, and many of the kids in school start to get bugged.  Pranks start again and the Shadow Club is blamed once again.  The kids then have to flush out what is really going on and save the day. 
These were well written stories, and they were entertaining.  The language in them is clean.

Birthmarked
Caragh M O'Brian
368
In this dystopian future the first three children born each month are sent to live in the Enclave, there they will be riased by other families and given the best of everything.  Gaia, delivers her first baby independently and takes the baby to the Enclave.  Life gets turned upside down when her parents are arrested and she is forced to learn the turth about her world.
I really liked this story and found it a very fast read.  The world is well developed as are the characters.  I found myself caught up in their lives and wanting to help them.  I recommend this one. 

The Unit
Ninni Holmqvist
272
This was another dystopian world where people are deemed  not useful if they have not married, had children or careers that benefit society.  They are sent to The Unit where they spend there final days being test subject for scientific research, giving their organs to those that need them and in the end giving their final donation.  While in The Unit though, they are treated better than they have ever been before.  They are given everything they want, are allowed to pursue whatever they want and they enjoy their days.
While most of the dystopian books that I have read lately are of juveniles, this one was actually adults and presented an interesting change in the dynamics.  I enjoyed seeing how and adult would react to situations, and how they tend to go with the status quo more that teens do.  While this was a very good story, it was written as an adult book and contains some very "adult" scenes and language. 

Prom
Laurie Halse Anderson
224
This was fluff read about a group of inner-city high school kids and the prom that they are planning.  The lives of the kids are pretty rough, and they feel like this is their chance to have the fairytale.  That is until their advisor steals their prom money and they have to come up with something quick.
The story was okay, not great reading by any means though.  I did find the attitudes of the kids to be cliched and very unrealistic.  There is also some strong language in here as well.

Don't You Dare Read This Mrs. Dunphrey
Margaret Peterson Haddix
128
Another quick read, this time written in diary format about a girl living with a screwed up mother, who longs for her alcoholic husband to come home.  When he does things are good for a bit, but the problems begin again.  The girl has to grow up quickly and take responsibility for herself and her little brother.
This was an interesting story. 

Make Lemonade
Virginia Euwer Wolff
208
Another story of inner-city life, and finding your way through it.  LaVaughn befriends and helps Jolly, a teen single mother of two.  LaVaughn has the plan of going to COLLEGE, the word that has a life of its own in her house. 
This was our bookclub book for the month, and while I didn't dislike it, I didn't like it either.  Parts of it hit too close to home and I didn't care for the writing style, it was written in free-verse.

Almost True
Keren David
445
This was the sequel to When I was Joe, here Joe is set to testify in the murder trial, but again is faced with the difficulties of being in the witness protection program.  He meets his paternal grandparents as well as his father and learns more about the truth of his life.  He also spends time getting to know a cousin and his girlfriend more.
I enjoyed this book a lot and thought it was a nice sequel.  I did get annoyed with the characters at times and wanted all of them to grow up, I guess it's the sign of a good book though when I care enough about the characters to want them to be different.  Some mild language, again it is British, so some of the slang is hard to get though.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
John Grisham
263
Both of Theodore Boone's parents are lawyers and he has spent his whole life around the law and wants to be a lawyer.  The kids at school know that he can help and give advice to them.  Once such kid comes and shares some information that is crucial to the biggest case that their town has ever seen.  Theodore must decide how to proceed and what to do with the information that he has received.
I love Grisham and was intrigued by his story idea.  I think he pulled it off fairly well, he did leave a large cliffhanger at the end though.

Nightlight: A Parody
The Harvard Lampoon
160
Bella Goose moves to the town of Swithblade and falls for the mysterious Edwart Mullen. 
This was a very funny parody of the Twilight novel.  I read and enjoyed the Twilight books and I found the humor in this book to be spot on in many parts.  After a while, the story does get tedious, but it does succeed in being a good parody.

Inside Out
Maria V Snyder
384
Outside In
Maria V Snyder
336
Trella is a scrub, her job is clean to ducts of Inside to keep them clean.  She and the other scrubs work hard to keep the Inside working and running smoothly.  The Uppers take care of the more technological aspects of life and the two groups are kept separate.  Trella's friend introduces her to a "prophet" who preaches about outside.  Trella is taken in and soon joins in and discovers some truths the will shock all of their world. 
I will leave off describing the second book so as not to disclose too much of the first book.  These were some of my favorite books of the month to read.  The first book is pretty clean and I would recommend reading.  The second book does contain some juvenile versions of adult scenes, as in the teens take a shower together, the book does not go into details, but leaves those to the imagination.

Total Pages for March: 3948
Total for 2011: 9428