Checkered Flag Racing Cupcakes

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I have always wondered how people made dual-flavored swirled frosting, and now that I know, I've been sharing the info with everyone! You can use any two flavors of frosting for your swirls, but since we're just a few days out from the Indianapolis 500, I wanted to use the technique to make checkered flag racing cupcakes.

I started by making a basic vanilla buttercream frosting. I then took half of that frosting and made it chocolate buttercream just by adding cocoa powder and a little more heavy cream.

I then laid out a sheet of plastic wrap and used a spatula to spread the two frostings side by side. I folded one side over the other and stuck the whole thing into a pastry bag fitted with a 1M swirl piping tip. And that's it! To achieve the iconic swirl look, hold your piping bag upright and over the center of the cupcake. Apply pressure and begin circling the outside edge. Continue squeezing and add another layer of frosting working toward the center. Finish the spiral in the very center just by releasing pressure and lifting up!

You can use this frosting technique on any flavor of cupcake or with any flavors of frosting. In fact, you can even use more than two frosting flavors! I recommend piping the frosting onto a plate first though to make sure the flavors are coming out evenly before you put it on a cupcake.



Checkered Flag Racing Cupcakes
Yield: Makes about 12 cupcakes
Ingredients
For the vanilla cupcakes

• 1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (200 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar (198 grams)
• 1/2 cup unsalted Challenge butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup yogurt (57 grams)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 egg whites

For the swirl frosting

• 1 cup unsalted Challenge butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar (454 grams)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (42 grams)

Directions
For the vanilla cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl and set aside.
3. Mix sugar and melted butter in large bowl. Whisk in milk, yogurt, and vanilla extract making sure the butter is not to hot beforehand otherwise the dairy will curdle.
4. Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix just until no lumps remain.
5. Beat egg whites using whisk or mixer until frothy (about 1 minute of fast whisking by hand or 30 seconds with mixer).
6. Add egg whites to mixture and slowly mix in.
7. Divide batter amongst 12 cupcake liners and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool.

For the swirl frosting

1. In large bowl, beat butter at medium speed until smooth.
2. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and 2 Tablespoons of heavy cream. Beat at low speed until combined, and then beat at high speed for an additional minute.
3. Scrape away half of vanilla frosting and set aside.
4. Add remaining 2 Tablespoons heavy cream and cocoa powder to bowl and beat until combined.
5. Lay sheet of plastic wrap about a foot long onto work surface.
6. Use spatula to spread chocolate frosting into 3-inch strip in center of plastic wrap. Spread vanilla frosting in 3-inch strip alongside chocolate frosting being careful not to mix the two.
7. Fold chocolate frosting over vanilla frosting and place into piping bag fitted with 1M swirl piping tip.
8. Pipe onto cupcakes and serve.

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction and Delish

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

What could possibly be better than a chocolate chip cookie? A GIANT chocolate chip cookie that’s thick and crisp around the edges with a soft center. Oh, and with a scoop of ice cream on top. There is nothing more beautiful than an ice cream river running through the center of a warm cookie.

I’ve already gone into extensive detail about how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies.

But you can also use the exact same recipe to make a skillet cookie!

Skillet cookies are not only cool looking (anything in a cast iron skillet looks “rustic”), but they are also a lot quicker to make than regular cookies because you don’t have to chill the dough or roll them out.

I used a 9-inch cast iron skillet for this recipe, and it was just the right size because the cookie was nice and thick – just the way I like it! You can use any size skillet from 7” to 12” but just keep in mind there is an indirect relationship between cooking time and skillet size (throwing out math terms to impress you all, let me know if it works). For example, a 12-inch skillet may cook up to 5 minutes less than a 9-inck skillet because the dough won’t be as thick and will cook faster.

It’s important to not overbake the cookie. Keep it in the oven just until the edges start to turn golden brown. The center may be slightly underbaked, but that’s what makes it so delicious!

You can either cut up the cookie and serve it, or you can just give everyone a spoon and let them dig in! I prefer option 2!

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

Yield: Makes 1 large skillet cookie

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/4 cups flour (281.25 grams)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup Challenge salted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar (207 grams)
• 1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit; prepare cast iron skillet and set aside
2. Combine flour and baking soda in medium bowl and set aside.
3. In large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together until light and fuffy.
4. Add instant vanilla pudding package and beat until well blended.
5. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
6. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until just incorporated.
7. Fold in chocolate chips with a spatula.
8. Bake for about 30 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and cool about 10 minutes before serving with scoop of ice cream.

Blueberry Lemon Monkey Bread

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

Every year on Mother’s Day I’m stumped. I have the hardest time trying to find a gift for my mother.

What do you get the most important woman in your world? What do you get the woman who gave you life… the woman who selflessly serves the needs of your family… the woman who compromises her sleep to ensure your well-being… the woman who loves you unconditionally?

If you have the answer, let me know. In the meantime, my mom’s getting a plant, ha!

But seriously, my mother is the hardest person to shop for. She’s definitely not a “material girl,” and she doesn’t care for perfumes or jewelry or purses. So if you’re in a similar situation, I recommend making your mom something to eat! The way to any woman’s heart is through her stomach. That saying is typically reserved for men, but trust me, it applies to women too!

This year for Mother’s Day I really wanted to make something unique. One of my favorite spring flavor combinations is blueberry-lemon, and somehow I got the idea that it would work well as a monkey bread. I always have monkey bread on my mind. And although it took a few tries to perfect, I love the way it turned out. I think it’s the most beautiful brunch recipe I’ve ever made.

I’m going to walk you through the process of how I made it so you don’t make the same mistakes I initially did.

The first step is to macerate your blueberries, and it’s important to note that you should allow plenty of time for this. If you don’t know, macerating draws out the natural juices in fruit so it develops a thin syrup. You do this by adding sugar to the bowl of berries. That’s really all it takes. Because blueberries have skin, the maceration process takes a bit longer. I recommend doing this step up at least several hours in advance. If you didn't prep that far ahead, don’t worry about! But try to at least let them macerate for a half hour.

Secondly, don't forget to add butter to the dough mixture! If you skip this step, the dough is more likely to stick to the pan. I always use Challenge butter because they use 100% real cream without any hormones, additives, or fillers, and I think it makes a big difference in the taste.

Next, when you add the blueberries to the bundt pan, add half of the biscuit dough first, then add all of the blueberries, and finish with the remaining biscuit dough. It’s important that the blueberry layer goes in the middle. I tried adding the blueberries a couple of different ways, and this looks the best by far!

Lastly, don’t wait too long to flip the monkey bread out of the bundt pan after you bake it! I like to invert the monkey bread onto a plate about 20 minutes after removing it from the oven. If you wait too long, it will stick to the pan and fall out in pieces. I’ve had that happen before, and it’s the worst!

Let me know if you make Blueberry Lemon Monkey Bread for your mom for Mother’s Day, and thank you to all of the strong, gracious mothers out there! You don’t hear it enough, but we appreciate you!

Blueberry Lemon Monkey Bread

Ingredients

Macerate the blueberries

• 1/2 pint blueberries
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the monkey bread

• 2 (16 ounce) cans refrigerated biscuit dough
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons lemon zest
• 4 Tablespoons Challenge butter, melted

Icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

Macerate the blueberries

1. Combine blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice; set aside until ready to use. You can make this up to a day in advance.

For the monkey bread

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit; prepare bundt pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. Cut each biscuit into quarters, and add dough to large bowl.
3. Add sugar and lemon zest to bowl, and mix until all of the sugar sticks to the dough.
4. Add melted butter to bowl, and mix until dough is coated.
5. Evenly spread half of dough along bottom of bundt pan; add all of the blueberries.
6. Finish by layering the remaining dough on top of the blueberries.
7. Bake monkey bread for 30 to 35 minutes, or until dough looks golden brown.
8. Let monkey bread cool for 15 to 20 minutes before inverting it onto a plate.

For the icing

1. Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. The icing should be thick, but it should flow enough that you can still drizzle it. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.
2. Drizzle icing over monkey bread and serve.

Recipe adapted from Mind Over Batter