Just J.Faye

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Almond Champagne Cupcakes

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I hope you all had a lovely holiday and spent lots of time with loved ones eating cookies and laughing! I did. That’s fo sho.

Now that Christmas has passed 2015 is just around the corner. I made you these almond champagne cupcakes to celebrate!

Almond Champagne Cupcakes Ok, if you want to get technical (Megan) they are actually almond sparkling wine cupcakes. We’ll just pretend that they are legit and from Champagne in France.

Anyways, New Year’s Eve! Do you love it? Do you hate it?

Personally, I love it. The idea of a new year is always very exciting to me. I enjoy reflecting on memories and great things from the passing year and looking forward to the new one to come. I get butterflies just thinking about all the amazing things that I want to make happen in 2015!

New Year’s Eve itself is never a particularly extraordinary night or anything; however, I love drinking champagne while wearing something sparkly and singing Auld Lang Syne (also this song & this song) with some fabulous people. It’s amazing.

Almond Champagne Cupcakes Have you ever tried the almond champagne from Trader Joe’s? If not, I recommend you buy a bottle (or five) right now, because it is delicious. It is also the inspiration behind these cupcakes (along with this recipe), so you’re going to want to buy at least one bottle to make them.

These almond champagne cupcakes are light and fluffy. The almond flavor comes from the use of almond meal, almond extract, and almond champagne. Don’t worry though, it’s not too almondy, but rather just almondy enough to take a bite and think, “Hey, these are almond flavored! Yum!”

Side note: I’ve never talked about almonds so much in one paragraph before.

To amp up the champagne flavor, champagne is reduced down to a syrup and then brushed onto the tops of the cupcakes and also used in the frosting.

Almond Champagne Cupcakes The batter comes together like most cupcake batter does: cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, and then alternate between adding in the dry and wet ingredients. Easy. While the cupcakes bake and cool you’ll have the perfect amount of time to reduce the champagne, make the frosting, and do the dishes.

After frosting the cupcakes, add some sprinkles. Never, ever forget the sprinkles. Especially on New Year’s Eve.

Almond Champagne Cupcakes

So there you have it: almond champagne cupcakes.

Almond Champagne Cupcakes
 
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These almond champagne cupcakes are light and fluffy. Almond flavor comes from the use of almond meal, almond extract, and almond champagne (which is used in the batter and as a syrup to brush on the cupcakes and use in the frosting). These are the perfect treat to say goodbye to 2014 and hello to 2015! Also, don't forget the sprinkles!
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Serves: 15 cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ¾ cup almond meal
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup almond champagne
  • ¼ cup buttermilk
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • 2 eggs
For the frosting & champagne syrup:
  • 1 ½ cup + 1 tablespoon almond champagne
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter
  • 4-6 cups sugar
Instructions
For the cupcakes:
  1. Preheat the oven for 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, combine the almond champagne, buttermilk, and almond extract. Set aside.
  4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium, 3-5 minutes.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.
  6. Alternate between adding the flour and champagne mixture to the batter, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
  7. Pour ¼ cup of batter into each liner and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
For the frosting & champagne syrup:
  1. Add 1 ½ cups champagne to saucepan and heat on medium-high until reduced to 3 tablespoons. Let cool.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter, 1 tablespoon of champagne, 2 tablespoon of the reduced champagne, and 3 cups of the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Add the remaining powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.
To assemble:
  1. Poke a few holes in the cupcake with a fork. Brush cupcake tops with the remaining tablespoon of reduced champagne.
  2. Top the cupcakes with the frosting. Add sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I made my own by squeezing some lemon juice into a ¼ cup of milk and then let it sit for 5 minutes.

I hope the rest of 2014 treats you well and that you welcome in 2015 with lots of champagne and sparkles and singing and dancing (and cupcakes)!

Almond Champagne Cupcakes

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Molasses Creams with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

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I am in full swing holiday cookie baking mode. My kitchen is stocked with butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. I have a list of (at least) a dozen cookie recipe experiments I want to try. There are Christmas movies playing 24/7 on TV. It is just the best.

Molasses Creams Feeling a little nostalgic this weekend I decided to whip up a classic family recipe: Molasses Creams.

Molasses Creams are one of my great-grandma’s recipes. My mom remembers driving down to Iowa as a little girl with her brothers and parents every year to visit family for the holidays. My great-grandma would always send them back home to Minnesota with Molasses Creams wrapped with wax paper in shoeboxes.

Luckily, my mom was able to receive the recipe from my great-grandma before she passed away. They are now a family staple that make it to the “must bake” Christmas cookie list every year.

After you bake them, you’ll see why.

Molasses Creams Molasses Creams are soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with cream cheese frosting. They are heavenly.

The molasses cookie dough comes together quickly and simply, but there is some rolling and cookie cutter-ing involved. Watch the movie Elf or sing along to Christmas music while you stamp out cookies and you won’t even mind the little bit of extra time that it takes. Just make sure that you roll your dough out on a well-floured surface. I didn’t and had one heck of a time with all those little circles.

Molasses Creams These cookies bake up nice and soft. If you like them a little crunchier keep them in the oven for an additional minute or two. Once they are completely cooled, make them into delicious cookie sandwiches with some cream cheese frosting. Not just regular cream cheese frosting though, ginger cream cheese frosting. It’s amazing.

Molasses Creams I hope you try them out and love them as much as my family and I do. Who knows, maybe you’ll even add them to your annual Christmas cookie baking list!

Molasses Creams

Molasses Creams with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
 
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Molasses Creams consist of soft, thin molasses cookies sandwiched with ginger cream cheese frosting. This recipe was passed down from great-grandma and is on my holiday cookie list every year.
Ingredients
For the cookies:
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 2 eggs
For the ginger cream cheese frosting:
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4-5 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixture, cream together the brown sugar and shortening until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
  4. Add the molasses, vinegar, and eggs. Beat until thoroughly combined.
  5. Stir in the dry ingredients until all the flour is incorporated.
  6. Roll out the dough on a well floured surface until it is ¼-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to stamp out circles.
  7. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes (the less you bake them, the softer they will be).
  8. Let cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
  9. To make the frosting: cream together the cream cheese and butter, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and ginger. Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the remaining powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
  10. Add a dollop of frosting to half of the cookies and top with the other half to make a delicious cookie sandwich.

PS- Just a head’s up that December will probably over-index on the baking side of things, rather than the workouts. But then January will be the opposite, so it’s all good.

Molasses Creams

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