Butter Baked Goods

Today is Chocolate Cupcake Day. Yes, it's a thing. Chocolate cupcakes are our favourite, they're easy to make, stay moist, and you can pair it with almost any flavours and it still tastes great. Or, you can add a hint of salt with it if you want to cut the sweetness. Basically, we find that chocolate is versatile (we're sure others agree)! To help us celebrate this national holiday, we enlisted the help of Butter Baked Goods.

Butter Baked Goods
Nostalgic Recipes From a Little Neighborhood Bakery
Written by Rosie Daykin
Photographs by Janis Nicolay
ISBN 13: 9780449015834
ISBN 10: 0449015831
Publisher: Appetite by Random House
Hardcover: 272 pages

Butter is a bakery in Vancouver, opened by Rosie Daykin (an interior designer), in 2007. Her vision was to restore the nostalgia of homemade baked goods. We think she succeeded from viewing photos of the bakery online and flipping through her cookbook. Pastel pinks, greens, and blues, Butter Baked Goods is like a chic grandmother. The cover alone gives me cake stand envy. That rose wallpaper you see in the background? Endpapers. And there's a soft green ribbon that serves as a bookmark, which I know that they use to tie up their treats with.

There's nine chapters of treats: muffins, scones, cinny buns and loaves; drop and sandwich cookies; rolled and cut cookies; bars and slices; butter creams and frostings; cakes; cupcakes and whoopie pies; pastry, pies and tarts; and confections. The recipes go by measuring cups and spoons, so the only thing I would wish for would be the weight measurements beside the ingredient list.

Recipes I'll want to try: Pineapple Coconut Scones; Apple Bacon Cheddar Scones; Banana Chocolate Loaf; The Gingerstamp; Smartie Pants Bar; The Campfire Bar (makes me want to go out and purchase a better kitchen blowtorch); Butterscotch Crispy Bar; Triple Lemon Layer Cake; The Quintessential Butter Tart; and Butter's Famous Marshmallows.

I also want to give a nod to Janis Nicolay and Kelly Hill. The photographs are lovely, delicious looking and the layout and design is beautiful and thoughtful. There's a photo for every recipe and even some for process and procedures. Overall, this would be a great gift for those starting out in the baking world.

So I made some chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes, only making slight changes here and there to make due with what I had in the kitchen. They might look different from the version in the cookbook, but we can attest to how yummy the cupcake itself is!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Butter Baked Goods
(Makes about 28-30 cupcakes)

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter (plus 1/2 cup more if you include the optional step)
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 cup of dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup of whole milk
1 cup of sour cream
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F) and prepare your cupcake pans by placing the cupcake liners in.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl (preferably one with a spout).
3. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the peanut butter, unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium to high speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one. Scrape the sides of the bowls as needed.
5. In a measuring cup, whisk the milk, sour cream, and vanilla extract together.
6. Turn the mixer to low and alternate adding the dry ingredients and the liquid ingredients. Begin and end with the dry ingredients in three parts, the liquid ingredients in two parts.
7. Using an ice cream scoop, fill each cupcake liner about three-quarters full. This part is optional (I skipped it), use a small teaspoon to push in 1 teaspoon of peanut butter into the center of the batter. Make sure it is fully covered by the cupcake batter.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted, comes out clean. If you included the optional step, don't insert your tester into the middle, do it on the side. Otherwise, you'll just hit warm, gooey peanut butter.
9. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.

The following recipes are not in Butter Baked Goods, but an improvised version since the original called for a peanut butter butter cream and a deep dark chocolate butter cream. I didn't feel like doing a double stacked swirl of frosting on the cupcakes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting
(Makes enough to frost 18-20 cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups of icing sugar
1/4 cup of smooth peanut butter
5 (approximately 1/4 cup) Lindor Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Truffles, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons of whole milk

1. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, icing sugar, and peanut butter together.
2. Melt the chocolate and peanut butter truffles over a double boiler or in the microwave at 10-15 second intervals. Pour into frosting and mix.
3. Add in the milk for a smoother consistency.

Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon of whole milk

1. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave at 10-15 second intervals. Stir until smooth.
2. Add in the milk and mix until incorporated.

Crunch
1/2 cup of Rice Krispies

Final steps to assemble the cupcakes. Pipe the chocolate peanut butter frosting onto the cupcake, swirls look best! Then, create the chocolate ganache as you want to work quickly with it so that it doesn't cool and harden. Pipe zig-zags of chocolate ganache over the chocolate peanut butter frosting. Sprinkle Rice Krispies liberally over the frosting.

Eat! Howard's colleagues had the joy of eating some of our Chocolate Cupcake Day treats. I heard everyone from his department ate two and left only 10 for lucky passersby.