Cajeta - Mexican Goat Milk Dulce De Leche

Today, my three year old told me that he had one hundred hugs for me.  Cajeta, Mexican goat milk dulce de leche, is like that.  It's not the kind of sweet that makes you want to gag (like a really bad pick-up line).  Rather, it's an innocent sweet - so heartwarming that you get chills as it sinks into your soul. 

Make your cajeta on a grey day, one where even getting out of your pajamas seems like a burden. Wafts of milky sugar will be your sunbeams and the rhythmic motion of your wooden spoon circling the pot will be the light breeze swaying your hammock.

Why Cajeta?

Coffee-Rubbed Pork Tacos on Homemade Chocolate Corn Tortillas

It all started with some leftover masa harina (special corn flour that I used to make chocolate tamale cupcakes).  I couldn't let that big bag of flour go to waste, so I decided use some of it to make corn tortillas with a hint of chocolate.  Then, of course, I needed something to go in the tortillas. Coffee-rubbed pork tenderloin seemed like just the thing - and my husband Jonathan, who does most of the cooking in our household, was just the man to prepare it.

Chocolate Tamale Cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo

When I was a shy girl in pigtails, I collected stickers in my gold vinyl sticker book. I would regularly flip through the book admiring my latest puffy unicorn or scratch 'n' sniff Strawberry Shortcake, deciding which stickers to keep and which ones to trade with a friend.  I still love stickers; there is something so tactile about them in today's world of screens.  My son and I add one each night to the wall calendar by his bed to reveal the next day's plans.

Homemade Cupcake Piñata Filled with Cupcakes

Imagine the joy and surprise when your party goers bash into a homemade cupcake piñata and...

Homemade Jelly Beans - You Pick the Flavor

Once I conquered homemade Lucky Charms (a task that was so arduous I will never repeat it), I needed another challenge.  I set my sights on homemade jelly beans.  While homemade jelly beans are time-consuming to make, I learned that the process isn't that difficult.  I would make homemade jelly beans again and I would encourage you to try preparing them, too.  Seriously, you can do this.

When you create homemade jelly beans, you get the joy of choosing the flavor and color you'd like - any drink you fancy can be turned into a jelly bean flavor.  Use juice to flavor jelly beans for a kid's party, but don't forget the adults.  Grownup flavors made using your favorite cocktails allow you to get really creative. The homemade jelly beans shown above are margarita jelly beans.  Serve the margarita jelly beans straight up or use them to top margarita cupcakes.  Jello shots are so 2011; homemade jelly beans are where it's at!

Pumpkin Chili with Abuelita Two Ways - Cupcake and Non-Cupcake: My First Cupcake Pairing

This month, I participated in a new blog event (well, new to me) called Taste & Create. In this event, food bloggers get partnered up. Participants pick a recipe from their partner's blog, make it, and blog about it.

I got paired with What's Cooking. What's Cooking is a blog by a man whose family owned a restaurant in Mexico for 40 years. He posts mostly - but not exclusively - Mexican recipes. He does not have any cupcakes on the blog to date.

As a cupcake only blog, what was I to do? Create my first cupcake pairing, of course.

I decided to select a recipe that appealed to me, make it, and then make a cupcake inspired by it. This would involve doing actual cooking, an activity that hasn't been done by me for 9 months or so.

There were many appealing recipes on What's Cooking, but I had to go with the Pumpkin Chili. It's chili season and the bride mentioned loving pumpkin. Also, the recipe contained an ingredient I had never used or, for that matter, even heard of. This always intrigues me. That ingredient was Abuelita.

What the Heck is Abuelita?

Abuelita is Mexican hot chocolate made by Nestle that is sold in a variety of formats. The chocolate is made of sugar, cocoa and artificial cinnamon flavoring. It is sickeningly sweet to eat straight up, but it has a really nice and subtle chocolate spice flavor. In addition to being good for hot chocolate, it works well in pumpkin chili and pumpkin chili cupcakes.

Those of you who are Spanish speakers (I am not) will know that abuelita means grandma. The grandma on the package is Sara García, a legendary Mexican actress of more than 140 films. Despite her fame, I wonder if this kind of marketing would work in the US. She's kind of scary and reminds me of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. Then again, Mrs. Butterworth sells well, as does the Quaker Oats man, so who knows.

Where Can I find Abuelita if I'm not in Mexico?

My first concern about the chili was whether or not I would be able to find Abuelita. Thankfully, St. Louis has a number of different stores that carry Mexican products. I picked mine up at Global Foods Market in Kirkwood. If you don't have a good Mexican grocer near you, you can purchase Abuelita online.

The Pumpkin Chili

The pumpkin chili was fantastic. The combination of flavors was perfect: spicy but not too spicy with just a touch of sweet. I followed the recipe as written on What's Cooking with just a few exceptions as noted in red below.

For this recipe you will need:
2 lbs ground beef (I used local grass-fed beef from Whole Foods. It was great! It was the first time I have made something with beef that had no grease at all. Even after putting the chili in the fridge overnight, there was no nasty orange fat on the top to remove. If you like grease, don't use this.)
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup tomato juice
½ Abuelita chocolate bar
3 cloves garlic
1 chopped onion
2 cups pinto beans
olive oil

Special chili mixture:
1 tbsp black pepper
½ tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp salt (I don't like salt. I only used 1 tsp. That was plenty for me.)
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp ground paprika
2 tbsp ground chipotle pepper

Preparation:
1. In a large pot cook onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.
2. When translucent, add ground beef and special chili mixture and cook until beef turns brown. It is important that the ground beef is thoroughly cooked.
3. Add pumpkin puree, chocolate, crushed tomatoes and tomato juice.
(At this point, I dumped everything into the crock pot and left it there for 8 hours. I added the pinto beans about halfway through. This worked perfectly for me. If you don't have a crock pot, read on.)
Stir and reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about one and a half hours.
4. Add pinto beans and simmer for about 20 more minutes.
5. Let it cool a little bit before serving.

Garnished with avocado, sour cream and fresh cilantro. (I topped mine with a Mexican cheese mix.)

The Pumpkin Chili Cupcakes

For the cupcakes, I turned to the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I finally broke down and purchased. There is a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes that sounded great. I decided to use that as a base, but I added the chili flavors and used Abuelita instead of chocolate chips.

When I got to the step when I was about to add the chili spices, I almost backed down. The batter tasted so good, what if the chili ruined it? "Oh well, here goes nothing," I thought as I dumped it in. I did not regret the choice.

The cake was melt-in-your-mouth moist. It was ever so slightly spicy, mildly pumpkiny, mildly chocolaty, and extremely tasty.

For the frosting, I opted for a pumpkin cream cheese frosting. I added Abuelita to half of the frosting and did something I've been wanting to try for a very long time, a two color cupcake swirl. There are swirling instructions at the bottom of this post.

The Cupcake Review

Bride and Groom 2.0 came over last night to pick up their cupcake samples. They also took two extras for friends they were going to dinner with. Lest you think them rude, my husband and I were invited to join. I just wasn't feeling well and had them bring over movies to watch in exchange for the cupcake pickup.

One friend of ours who was at the dinner has never before given me a cupcake review. He emailed me a quality review this morning and he will therefore get more cupcakes.

"I tried a bite of just the cupcake without frosting. Sigh, the density was what every cupcake should have and the cake was moist throughout. Too often a cupcake is dried on the top and too moist on the bottom thus it crumbles in hand. The pumpkin cupcake was evenly baked, kudos, and the density was respectable. Run of the mill cupcakes are too airy and not very satisfying. I like a pastry to have resistance when I bite into it."

He continues to talk about how our other friend claimed to like the soda fountain cupcakes better. He explains that choice as follows, "Last night I learned he is one year and 363 days younger than myself. So, perhaps in about two years he'll favor the mature pumpkin over root beer."

Bride 2.0 also really liked the cupcakes. She called them "wedding contenders" and said she liked the mild kick and the cupcake to frosting ratio. Despite my pride at the neat looking swirl, this was WAY too much frosting for me. I was glad that others liked that quantity though.

As I had predicted, Groom 2.0 didn't like the spice factor. He's more of a basics guy.

The Cupcake Recipe
adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

2 C canned pumpkin

2/3 C vegetable oil

2 C sugar

1/4 C soy milk

1 t vanilla extract

2 1/2 C flour

1/4 t black pepper

1/4 t oregano

1/4 t cumin

1/4 t chili powder

1/4 t ground paprika

1/4 t ground chipotle pepper

1/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 bar Abuelita

In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Sift in the flour. In a separate bowl, combine all the spices. Add spice, baking soda, and baking powder. Do not over-mix. Melt 1/2 bar of Abuelita and stir in.

Bake for 20 min at 350 F.

Makes 20 cupcakes.

The Frosting Recipe

1 pkg of cream cheese
1/4 C butter
1/4 C pumpkin
1 t vanilla extract
4 C powdered sugar
1/2 bar of Abuelita

Mix cream cheese and butter well. Add pumpkin and vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar. Split frosting in half. Add melted Abuelita to 1/2 of the frosting. Note: If you plan to heavily frost the cupcakes, you may need to double this recipe.

How to Make a Two Color Cupcake Swirl
I got some help from Clever Cupcakes (who happens to have some of the best cupcake photos on flickr) to figure out how to do a two color color cupcake swirl. The way I did it was to use 3 different disposable pastry bags. I put couplers but no tips in two pastry bags. You could also just cut a small hole and not use a coupler. I thought the coupler provided some stability and an even flow. I partly filled one bag with the pumpkin frosting without chocolate and one bag with the pumpkin frosting with chocolate. Then, I placed those two bags side by side in a bag with a star tip and started piping. Voila! A two colored swirl.

Fiesta Cupcakes: Beware of Cupcake Breath

This past weekend, some good friends of mine got married (not the ones I'm making the wedding cupcakes for) in Dallas, Texas. I made these cupcakes in their honor. Some people do book dedications or radio shout-outs, I do cupcake dedications. In fact, if you would like a cupcake created in someone's honor, just let me know, and we might be able to work something out. The more incentive you give me ($$$), the higher it would go on my to-bake list. I'd design it, give you the recipe and write about the honoree on my blog. Any takers?

I asked the Texas Groom what were his bride's favorite flavors. He responded with:

"pizza, MEXICAN FOOD!, hamburgers with pickles and onions only.
She also likes red cream soda (big red specifically). and candy corn..."

Since Mexican was in caps and the wedding was in Texas, I decided that was the cupcake route I needed to go.

Question for my readers: Is anyone else a red cream soda fan? Is there actually something different about red cream soda? Does she just like the taste of food coloring?

The Fiesta Cupcake Recipe

I called my cupcakes "Fiesta Cupcakes" because the average person got a little bit nervous when I called them by their technical name of, "Chocolate Salsa Cupcakes with Hot Sauce Cream Cheese Frosting." Don't stop reading now! They were good. Really.

I got the idea for the recipe here. It was originally a recipe from a Marlboro cookbook, Morning Fires, Evening Lights. I think it's the first Marlboro product I have supported.

Here is my modified version:

The Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 T cocoa powder
• 1 cup salsa (I used a medium spice Habanero salsa)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 bag of Tostitos Scoops

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   In large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and cocoa. Mix in the butter.
2. Add the salsa, beating 3 minutes with an electric mixer. Next beat in the eggs and water, beating another 3 minutes.
3. Line up Tostitos Scoops on a baking sheet.
4. Fill each scoop with 3/4 t of batter.
5. Bake for 10-15 (until toothpick comes out clean).

The Frosting

• 1/4 C butter
• 1 8oz package of cream cheese
• 3 C powdered sugar
• Hot Sauce to taste (add it in slowly and keep tasting until you get the level of spice you are comfortable with)

Cakes on a Plane (Part II)

Read here for Part I

When I approached the TSA security counter with my Fiesta Cupcakes, the agent seemed very interested. "Did he want to confiscate them?" My last cupcakes made it through, but I know there is inconsistency when you fly.

One of my travel companions, Margarita Injury Man, (I'm sure he loves that that's his blog nickname) is particularly outgoing and offered the agent a sample. The agent happily accepted. He enjoyed it and told us that they passed the TSA inspection and we should let him know if anyone else gave us a hard time. Sweet!

As the cupcakes got x-rayed, the x-ray inspector man screamed out "cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!" He didn't try one, but they sure did seem to make him happy.

Note to Terrorists: Do not try to fly with cupcakes bombs, the TSA takes cupcake testing very seriously.

When we boarded our flight, the flight attendants immediately noticed my container of cupcakes. Once seated, one attendant sought me out for a taste. Even after I told her the flavor, she still gladly tried one, enjoyed it, and let me take this picture.

Flight Attendant Number Two, however, was less receptive to the flavor. Apparently salsa cupcakes were an offering that would only be made by the Devil. She made cross signs when she passed me and refused to try one or be photographed.

I also gave a cupcake to the man at the Alamo rental car booth. He also would not let me photograph him. He is not allowed to eat at his station and he didn't want to get fired. I think Alamo should make an exception for Fiesta Cupcakes! Let me know if anyone has any connections to make this happen.

When I arrived at the wedding hospitality suite, more cupcake sampling ensued.

I wouldn't call these cupcakes crowd favorites, but they got eaten and it was fun to watch everyone's bemused, "Ummm.. this is interesting" reaction.

I liked the fact that they were bite sized, although, that makes them dangerous. You can eat way too many of these things. I also enjoyed their surprising kick.

Important Tips

1. These cupcakes will give you cupcake breath. In this case, it's not a good thing.

2. If possible, serve them the day you make them. That way the chips will still be really crispy.

3. If you don't like the idea of salsa cupcakes, you could bake any cupcake in a chip to make for an interesting presentation at a Mexican-themed party.

Another Contest

I'm entering these cupcakes into the Royal Foodie Joust. This is a contest sponsored by the Leftover Queen where you must use 3 ingredients and make something tasty. This month's ingredients were chosen by last month's winner at Cilantro and Lime:

Chocolate (any kind but white)

Chilis/Chili Powder (any type)

Grains (like wheat, rice, oats, etc., in any form)

Wish me luck! Better yet, head to the Joust Forum at the end of the month and vote for me!

Margarita Cupcakes: Can a Cupcake be Dangerous?

Margarita cupcakes, like margaritas themselves, go down smooth, leaving you with just a small tickle in your mouth from the salted rim (yes, the rim of the margarita cupcakes has salt, but it's mostly sugar).  The margarita cupcakes won't get you drunk, but they are boozey.  There's tequila in both the margarita cupcake batter and the margarita frosting.  

The Margarita Cupcake Back Story

I was invited to a Memorial Day game of wiffle ball (a game I hadn't played in years - and as it turns out still haven't). The last two parties that were hosted by the wiffle ball couple involved margaritas in some way so I felt that this one should, too.

Although we were were sitting on picnic tables in a shady St. Louis park, the cupcakes transported us to a glistening island shoreline.  There was no alcohol allowed in the park, but who would suspect that the margarita cupcakes I brought contained tequila?


Margarita Cupcake Recipe

I found a recipe for margarita cupcakes on Baking Bites, one of my favorite blogs.  The margarita cupcake recipe originally came from a Vegan cupcake cookbook called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I'm not a vegan, but one nice feature of this cupcake was that the party's host, who is lactose intolerant, was able to eat them (he put up with the small amount of butter in the frosting).


Yield: 12 cupcakes

• 1/4 C lime juice
• 1 1/2 tsp lime zest (1 lime)
• 1 C plain or vanilla soy milk (Regular 2% milk would also work.)
• 1/4 C vegetable oil
• 2 tsp tequila
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C sugar
• 1 1/3 C all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, lime zest, soy milk, oil , tequila, vanilla and sugar.
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
3. Add the dry ingredients to the lime mixture and stir until just combined. 
4. Divide evenly among 12 cupcake liners.
5. Bake at 350 F  for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed.

Margarita Frosting Recipe

While the flavor was spot on, I found the original frosting recipe to be a bit too clumpy. Here is my modified version.  You may also consider cutting this recipe in half.  I ended up with a lot more than I needed.

• 1/4 C butter or nonhydrogenated shortening, melted
• 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream or soymilk
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp tequila
• 2+ C confectioners’ sugar
• coarse colored sugar and salt for “rims”
• Umbrella toppers (optional)

1. Cream together butter/nonhydrogenated shortening (depending on whether you want the frosting vegan or not), heavy whipping cream or soymilk, lime juice, tequila, and confectioners’ sugar.
2. Add in more sugar as needed to make the frosting smooth and spreadable. 
3. Spread the frosting on the cupcakes.
4. Combine colored sugar and salt in a small bowl.
5. Roll the edge of each cupcake in the sugar/salt mixture.
6. Top with umbrellas.

Other Margarita Cupcake Anecdotes

1. Margarita cupcakes are not dangerous because of the alcohol. They are dangerous because one of my cupcake tasters cut the roof of his mouth with the coarse salt. We're talking blood and all. I call that user error.
2. Margarita is clearly not a winter kind of flavor, so I didn't expect it to be a wedding contender at all. I just made it because it seemed like a perfect wiffle ball summer thing. However, I've been informed that a family member of bride to be said, "I don't know what a blog is, but I know a great cupcake when I eat it." Apparently, he tried to convince the couple to adjust their wedding theme so that this cupcake could make an appearance. We'll have to make sure he gets to taste some of the future flavors. I like fans!

Update

The margarita cupcake was chosen for the wedding! The others that were selected were Soda Fountain Cupcakes and Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes.