Little Brother’s Brown Sugar Birthday Cupcakes with a Peanut Butter Buttercream

Hey!

I have been getting it in at the gym this week. I wish I can say it’s because I’ve been naturally motivated and that’s just how I do, but I would be lying. I have been off my gym game for a couple of week now… until I ate (an untold amount) of delicious cupcakes that I made for my brother’s 20th birthday. The guilt swelled (or maybe it was my belly) in me with every fluffy sweet bite of these yummy terrible things.

Here are some pics of the end result! They didn’t last long!

I got the recipe from HowSweetEats.com.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes)

1 cup loosely packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt, stirring to mix. Set aside. Line a cupcake tin with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar and egg until smooth. Add in vanilla extract and milk, again mixing until combined. Slowly pour in melted butter, continuing to whisk. Add in the flour, soda and salt, mixing with a large spoon until batter is smooth.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to liners. Bake for 16-19 minutes, or until tops are puffy and golden, and don’t jiggle when touched. Let cool completely.

Peanut Butter Brown Sugar Frosting

6 ounces cold cream cheese

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup loosely packed brown sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

raw turbinado sugar for topping, if desired

Add cream cheese to the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until smooth, then add peanut butter and vanilla extract, mixing until combined. Add in brown and powdered sugars gradually, with the mixture on low speed. Once everything has been added, turn to medium-high speed and mix for 4-5 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides. If you’d like the frosting a bit sturdier, add additional powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time, mixing like before. Frost cupcakes!

I try not to indulge my sweet tooth too often, but I just had to give this recipe a whirl and cook up something with a little love for my brother’s big day. This was my first time making cupcakes and I was overwhelmed at first, but I’m glad I tried because it was super easy and super delicious! He loved them! I hope you try them and enjoy them, too!

Baby Eggplant No-Parm

I love farmer’s markets! Everytime I go I end up picking up things I either never heard of, know how to cook, or how to eaten. I don’t set out to get these items. They intrigue me or they are just really cute! Last time it was Fuyu Persimmons, and this time it was baby eggplants. They were flipping adorable!
I know, I know… Eggplant is a very common vegetable, but I have only eaten it once in a mushy casserole of some sort and I had never actually cooked one myself! I was excited!

So I decided to try the classic Eggplant Parmesan, but hold to the Parm… I’m not a big cheese eater not because I don’t like cheese (I love cheese), but because I dislike the saturated fat content. I can live without it.

I didn’t look up a recipe for it, I just kind of freeballed it (<– is this a nasty saying? I hope not :-/). The sauce I made for the eggplant is the same base I use for my “Yum-Yum in Ya Tum Spahetti”.  Anywho, this is how I put it together;

9 cute baby eggplants or 1 large ugly eggplant

1-14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes

3 vine ripen tomatoes or 1-14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

1/2 a large sweet onion, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves

1/3 cup of good quality extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp basil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheated oven at 375 degrees.

I saute the onions and garlic (the garlic has been finely chop in the food processor) in a medium size nonstick pot using 2 tablespoons of olive oil, cook until onions are just starting to soften around the edges. I seasoned them with a little salt and pepper and then added the cans of crushed tomatoes to the pot. (If you are using fresh tomatoes like I did because I was using what I (fortunately) had on hand, then cut them in wedges and put them in the food processor with the garlic leftovers!! Yay no waste!) I then chopped them until they look like the diced tomatoes in a can and added these yummy garlickly tomatoes to the pot and simmered, stirring occasionally.

While that’s was cooking up, I washed the cute baby eggplants (or the big ugly one). I cut them cross-ways, making 1/2 inch wide slices. If using the big one, cut into 1.5 inch cubes. I found that the skins on these things are rather tough to cut through FYI. I just couldn’t fathom them cooking up nice and tender… But they did!

I, then, added the eggplant to the simmering pot of tomato goodness. Season with the rest of the EVOO, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. I tasted the sauce and see if I needed more of any of the seasonings. I have a low tolerance for salt and I found I made it slightly too salty for my taste.  I call myself going easy on the salt and it still came out a little salty so I don’t know if eggplant just has a salty nature or if it was me, so be careful.

Finally, I threw the whole pot in the oven (but you might opt to transfer it to a pretty casserole dish). I bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the eggplant’s skin can be punctured with a fork.

It was divine!

I’m sure this is a very different version of this classic dish, but I love the simplicity of it and it’s wholesome ingredients.

I hope you try it and enjoy this dish as much as I did!