Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Cupcakes (GF)

As many of you probably know, "National Cupcake Day" was a big trending topic on Twitter yesterday. In recognition of this special day loved by cupcake connoisseurs everywhere, I decided to do a Christmas Cupcake post.

These cupcakes are a deliciously moist chocolate cake filled with peppermint pastry cream and topped with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. If you're an avid pinterest user, or just follow a lot of baking blogs, you've probably seen these frosted Christmas tree cupcakes. They're festive and clever, as well as super easy to make.

Another easy and impressive cupcake floating around the web are these "North Pole" cupcakes. I've made both versions with purposefully non-traditional Christmas colors, just because I like that sort of thing.

For the Chocolate Cupcakes Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

2/3 cup superfine sweet rice flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup potato starch
1/2 cup, plus 2 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flours, starch, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer, beat eggs with paddle attachment until foamy. Add sugar and mix for another 5-6 minutes until thick and fluffy.

While eggs are mixing, heat milk and butter on stovetop until butter melts.

Reduce mixer speed to low and pour in hot milk/butter. Add flour mixture 1/4 cup at a time until combined. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

For the Peppermint Pastry Cream:

3 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
8-9 candy canes, broken up into large pieces
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
1-2 drops pink food coloring

Heat the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and candy canes in a small saucepan over medium heat until cream is hot and bubbly and candy canes are almost all melted. Strain mixture to remove leftover hard pieces of candy and place back in sauce pan. Add food coloring.

Whisk together sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and cornstarch. Slowly add in hot cream mixture, whisking continuously to temper the eggs. Add mixture back into sauce pan and heat longer (if necessary) until thickened. Strain one more time through sieve and place in fridge, covered with wax paper or plastic until fully cooled.

For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
4 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 sticks butter, unsalted

Combine egg whites and sugar in heat resistant bowl. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water, creating a "double boiler" and continuously whisk until egg white mixture reaches 160 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove bowl from water and whisk egg whites/sugar using hand mixer or stand mixer until thick and fully cooled. Once fully cooled, add butter in piece by piece, mixing well after each addition. Once butter is fully incorporated, switch to paddle attachment and add vanilla extract. Mix for 2-3 minutes.

To Assemble:

Using a small paring knife, cut out the center of each cupcake. Fill each cupcake with pastry cream by using a plastic bag with the corner cut or a pastry bag. Once all cupcakes are filled, decorate as follows.

To Decorate:

For the North Pole Cupcakes

Preferably the night before decorating the cupcakes, cut out small squares of white fondant and allow to dry (lightly covered) overnight. Using an edible food pen, write "North Pole" on each square.

Using candy sticks or candy canes of your choice, stick into center of frosted cupcake. Attach "sign" to each candy cane with a bit of melting chocolate.

For the White Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, frost each cupcake starting from the outside rim of the cupcake and make each subsequent layer narrower, so that the frosting resembles a tree shape. Create ornaments by using round or ball sprinkles of your choice (you can also cut small circles with fondant). The star topper was created by cutting small stars out of rolled marshmallow fondant. The stars were painted with a thin layer of corn syrup and rubbed into edible glitter.

Browned Butter Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting (GF)

I hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving! I'm sharing one of the two desserts I made for Thanksgiving dinner- Sweet Potato Cupcakes filled with cinnamon pastry cream and topped with marshmallow frosting.

It really seems like Christmas came earlier this year- this climate of early festivity has of course been driven by consumerism and marketing by major retail corporations, but personally, I'd rather focus on the seasonal charm of it all. I started listening to Christmas music a couple of weeks ago, so that pretty much shows where I stand on the subject. You see, I know many people who staunchly say that Christmas music should not be played, nor Christmas movies aired or viewed, until after Thanksgiving. I'm usually with them, but this year I was kind of into the fact that I could listen to vintage holiday songs in the midst of miserable Los Angeles traffic earlier in the season.

I am also one of those people that continues to bake with pumpkin and sweet potato through Christmas, so I hope you are too! These turned out pretty tasty- I recommend them for your next holiday get together.

Browned Butter Sweet Potato Cupcakes (Gluten Free) (makes about 22 cupcakes)

1 cup superfine sweet rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup superfine brown rice flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter, unsalted and browned (see below)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sweet potato puree
1/4 cup water

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. Line 2 12-cup muffin pans with cupcake liners (I found that this recipe only made 22 cupcakes, but I tend to fill my cups a bit fuller).

Cut butter into slices and place in small saucepan over medium heat. Melt butter and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until butter turns a light brown shade and smells nutty. Once browned, place butter in a plastic dish and put in fridge or freezer to cool completely.

Once butter is cooled, place in bowl of stand mixer with sugar and cream together for 1-2 minutes. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract. Once batter is thick and creamy looking, add dry ingredients, in three additions, alternating with water and sweet potato puree. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes.

For the Cinnamon Pastry Cream:

2 cups whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs

Place milk, vanilla, cinnamon stick and ground cinnamon in a saucepan and heat to a boil.
While the milk is heating, mix the cornstarch, sugar and salt.
Gradually add the eggs to the dry mixture and mix until smooth.
Slowly add 1/3 of the hot milk while whisking constantly. Then, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return to the heat, stirring constantly with a whisk or spoon until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.
Remove the cinnamon stick.
Pour into a large shallow bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap or parchment to prevent a skin. Cool down a bit before putting in the refrigerator.

For the Marshmallow Frosting:

-2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
-1 7-ounce jar Marshmallow Fluff/Creme
-1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
-1/4 cup heavy cream
-2 tsp vanilla extract, or 1/2 vanilla bean

Combine butter and marshmallow cream. Add in confectioner's sugar, cream, and vanilla. Mix until fully combined and creamy.

To Assemble:

Core out the center of each cupcake using a small paring knife. Fill a pastry bag with cinnamon pastry cream and pipe into each cupcake. Frost and decorate as desired.

I made homemade marshmallows earlier in the week, so I melted these down and added water instead of using marshmallow cream in the frosting. Homemade marshmallows are like another world compared to the store bought kind- they're like soft, delicately sweet pillows. I even really enjoy the store bought ones, but they really can't compare with these. They're also super easy to make. Check out the recipe on my past Scotchmallow Heart Candies post.