White Chocolate Cranberry Cupcakes

Since I'd already exhausted gingerbread and pumpkin before Christmas, I decided to go with another festive flavor for the day of: CRANBERRY!

I've been wanting to make these white chocolate cranberry cupcakes for a while, and after success making cranberry sauce, I decided to try them.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cupcakes (from culinography)

makes 18 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

6 (1 ounce) squares white baking chocolate
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake tins with liners. 
2. Chop 6 of the chocolate squares and set aside. 
3. Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. 
4. Add eggs, orange peel, and 3 tablespoons of the orange juice; mix well. 
5. Add flour and baking powder; beat until well blended.
6. Fold in chopped chocolate and the cranberries.
7. Bake approximately 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 (1 ounce) squares white baking chocolate, melted
3 tablespoons orange juice
3-4 cups powdered sugar

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. 
2. Mix in white chocolate. Mix in orange juice and powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. 

If you use the typical 12 oz. bag of cranberries, you'll have about 2 cups of berries leftover. I decided to make cranberry sauce with the leftovers.

Cranberry Sauce

2 cups fresh cranberries

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. In a medium saucepan, bring water and sugar to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
2. Add washed cranberries and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Once mixture has boiled, reduce heat and simmer until most of the cranberries have popped. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

The Flavors of Christmas

Gingerbread, cinnamon, and pumpkin.

I arrived home from Houston and started the Christmas baking (almost) immediately.

The first project was gingerbread...

(designed for deliciousness, not beauty)

But what goes better with homemade gingerbread than cinnamon cream cheese frosting?

And, of course, there was plenty of leftover frosting.

So, better make some pumpkin cupcakes to go with the remainder.

this is like an endless cycle of the chip/dip problem

Of course, given that half the frosting was already on gingerbread cookies, there wasn't nearly enough to frost all of the cupcakes.

Per Mom's suggestion, I decided to bake just a dozen cupcakes and pour the rest into a loaf pan to make some pumpkin cakebread. 

improv pumpkin bread

 Finally, the cycle was broken, and the baking was complete.

Gingerbread Cookies (from food.com)
makes 30 cookies

3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
6 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 c dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 c molasses
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest (optional)

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves until well blended.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and egg on medium speed until well blended.
3. Add molasses, vanilla, and lemon zest and continue to mix until well blended.
4. Gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth.
5. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic and let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours, up to 8 hours. (Dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, but in this case it should be refrigerated. Return to room temp before using.) 
6. Preheat oven to 375°.
7. Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
8. Place one portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle flour over dough and rolling pin.
9. Roll dough to a scant 1/4-inch thick and cut out cookies with desired cutter.
10. Bake for 7-10 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies).
11. Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack (about 2 minutes). Wait until cookies are cool to decorate.

I used a pumpkin cupcakes/cream cheese frosting recipe to make the frosting. When I realized I had leftover, I just decided to use the cupcake recipe from the same blog post!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (from the Cake Blog)

makes 30 cupcakes (or 12 with 1 loaf pan of cakebread)

For the cupcakes:

3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar
4 eggs
1 c milk
1 1/2 c (1 can) pumpkin puree

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake liners.
2. In large bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
3. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add dry ingredients and milk, alternating until well combined. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.
6. Mix in pumpkin puree.
7. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.
8. Bake for 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
9. Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
10. Once cupcakes are completely cool frost with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

For the frosting:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

1. In bowl of stand mixer beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed until well combined.
2. Gradually add in powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.
3. Add vanilla and cinnamon and mix until combined.

I only had enough frosting for 9 cupcakes, so I baked a dozen and used the remaining batter to make a loaf of pumpkin bread.

I used the topping from the Apple Cinnamon Bread to top the pumpkin bread. (That's 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp white sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon whisked together and sprinkled over the top of the batter before baking.)