Green & Gold Timbers Cupcakes

“When I go make sure I’m wearing green & gold”

I first made these cupcakes pre-blog when the Timbers got to the Western Conference Final back in 2013. This year we’ve defied the odds and are ending the season in the MLS Cup Final on Sunday. For a team with such deep-rooted soccer history with the most passionate fan base in all of North America (I’m talking about you, Timbers Army), this is a big deal.

The Timbers have been around for 40 years, but only became a professional MLS team 5 years ago and this will be the team’s first appearance in the cup final.

This year the team has overcome injuries, an up-and-down season and a ridiculous 11 round penalty shootout to get to the final where they’ll face the Columbus Crew in Columbus, Ohio.

To celebrate, these slightly chocolatey chocolate chip cupcakes with green & gold frosting are making their second appearance in my kitchen.

In order to get the green & gold swirl frosting, I put green frosting in one small piping bag, gold frosting in another, then placed both of them in a larger piping bag and piped them out together. Feel free to pipe one colour on top of the other if you’d prefer that.

Go Timbers!

Green & Gold Timbers Cupcakes: 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes: 

• 2 eggs
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder

Frosting: 

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp. heavy cream
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Cupcakes: 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a medium size bowl, lightly beat the eggs, add butter and sugar, then mix until light and fluffy.
3. Add milk and flour, stir to combine. Add the chocolate chips and cocoa powder and stir through the mixture. Beat until light and creamy.
4. Divide mixture between cupcake liners (depending on how full you fill them, between 12 and fifteen liners). Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch, stick a toothpick in the middle to make sure they’re cooked through. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool fully before frosting.

Frosting: 

1. Combine butter and powdered sugar. Add cream and vanilla and combine.
2. Divide frosting in half and colour one half yellow and one half green (I used gel food colouring).
3. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes.

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies with Maple Frosting

Autumn is here!!

Autumn, fall, whatever you want to call it. It’s absolutely without a doubt my favourite season. And October is my favourite month. The crisp chill in the air, leaves changing colour, falling to ground so you can walk through them and hear the crunch (as long as it hasn’t been raining).

Nothing beats a season full of pretty colours, scarves, boots and baked goods filled with all of my favourite spices.

Oregon is particularly pretty during the autumn months and I’m so excited to spend my days off doing fun autumnal things.

These pumpkin spice sugar cookies are perfect for bringing in this new season and month. They’ll fill your kitchen with such a delicious smell and the hint of each of the five spices in my pumpkin spice mix are guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

For an extra dose of autumnal flavour, I whipped up some maple frosting and swirled them onto the cookies.

So good, you guys.

Each autumn there’s a lot of talk about pumpkin spice, especially the Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSLs) from Starbucks. I’ve never had one, so I can’t tell you whether it’s good or not, but I can tell you that this spice mix is a perfect blend of 5 delicious spices. It’s especially good for all of your autumn baking needs 🙂

Pumpkin spice can be bought at just about any grocery store, but it’s really easy to make at home and chances are you have the spices sitting in your cupboard.

I just combined:

• 3 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp. allspice
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Mix it all together and store it in an airtight container, ready for use in these cookies, pumpkin pies, cupcakes, etc.

If I could give these cookies to everyone I know to celebrate autumn, I would. I hope you like them!

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies with Maple Frosting: 

Ingredients:

Cookies: 

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. pumpkin spice (store-bought or using recipe above)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Frosting: 

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp. maple syrup

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder and salt. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough onto a floured surface 1/4-1/2″ thick. Cut into circles with cookie cutter.
3. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool completely, then spoon and spread maple frosting on top.
4. Frosting: In a stand mixer with either whisk or paddle attachment, whip butter for about 30 seconds.
5. Add one cup powdered sugar and whip to combine. Scrape down sides of bowl, add remaining powdered sugar and whip again. Scrape down, add maple syrup, then whip on med/high speed for about 5 minutes.
6. Frost cookies, then store in fridge in an airtight container.

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Last week, my best friend turned 25. We’ve known each other since we were 10 years old and have been celebrating our birthday’s together ever since.

This girl is the ultimate chocaholic. I genuinely don’t think I know anyone who loves chocolate as much as she does. It’s kind of the best.

I can’t take any credit for this recipe. I didn’t have time to test and tweak anything so I turned to Joy the Baker for a cake recipe and she did not disappoint.

This cake was lick the batter off the spatula good.

Mary loves Maltesers (because England makes great chocolate) so I decorated her cake with those and plenty of colourful sprinkles. Because let’s be serious, you can never have too much chocolate or too many sprinkles.

This is a three (!!!) layer cake with the fluffiest most delicious buttercream. I made the cake layers the day before I frosted the cake. When they had cooled down after baking, I wrapped them and put them in the freezer. {Pro tip: icing/frosting a cake when its frozen is wayyyy easier}.

If you have a large offset spatula to use for frosting the cake, that would be ideal. If you don’t, your cake will just have some character and there is nothing wrong with that!

Three-Layer Chocolate Cake and Classic Frosting:
Recipe from Joy the Baker’s Homemade Decadence

Ingredients:

Cake: 

• 3 cups cake flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. instant espresso powder (optional)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups buttermilk

Frosting: 

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 5-6 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• About 1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Cake

1. Put oven racks in the centre and upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round baking pans.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and instant espresso powder, if using.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add half of the flour mixture, and beat until flour mixture is incorporated. Add the buttermilk in a slow stream and beat until thoroughly combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and finish stirring with a spatula. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared cake pans.
4. Bake until golden brown on top and a wooden pick inserted in the centre comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Let cool in the pans for 20 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.
5. If you’re not frosting the cake right away, double-wrap in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Will last up to 7 days in the freezer. When ready to frost, remove from the freezer, unwrap and frost frozen!

Frosting

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft, about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar, the salt, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until the sugar is well incorporated. Add another 2 cups sugar and the cream. Add remaining two cups of sugar as needed to thicken the frosting. Beat on medium speed until the frosting is smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Assembling the cake

1. Place first layer on cake stand and spread some of the frosting over the top. Cover with sprinkles, if desired (I did. Best decision ever).
2. Place 2nd layer on top of 1st and add more frosting/sprinkles. Place 3rd layer on top and repeat.
3. Scrape out the rest of your frosting and put it on top of your top cake layer. Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting, pushing it off the cake onto the sides. Spread the frosting around the sides of the cake, pushing more off the top if needed.
4. Once frosted, pour sprinkles on top and decorate sides with Maltesers.