Endless flavor variations with one simple cupcake recipe

Hi Bold Bakers, do you remember my crazy cookie dough? One dough that made loads of different flavors of cookies. I also made a crazy bread dough. These things were a huge success so I thought to myself why not share another one with you. This time, crazy cupcakes. So let's get started. So before we get started, the recipe for these cupcakes can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com along with all my other recipes, so make sure you go over there and check it out. And if you haven't already done so, make sure you tap that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming videos. Okay? Let's start with our cupcakes. So now I'm using a stand mixer, but you can also use a hand mixer, and the best thing is you can actually even make these by hand, just make sure that your butter is nice and Nice and soft at room temperature. Into your mixer add in your room temperature butter, then all you want to do is turn on your machine to medium speed and just loosen up that butter until it's nice and soft. So after around 2 minutes you want to go ahead and pour in your sugar. Now we're just gonna let this whip up until it's really light and fluffy. This is an important stage to making these cupcakes. So this method is called creaming and I like to do this on a high speed so you get a lot of air in there and it gives you lovely light cupcakes. Okay that's looking good, now we're gonna go ahead and add in the eggs one by one. So this recipe is kind of like cupcakes 101, the reason you want to add in the eggs one at a time is because you want to make sure that it's fully incorporated into the mix and then you can add in the other one. If you add them all in at the same time it can curdle your mixture and you don't want that. So high speed, one at a time. Ok so all our eggs are in there, it's looking light and fluffy so now I'm just gonna turn off my machine and add in the rest of my ingredients. So go ahead and add in your flour. A little bit of baking powder to make them rise, and then a small amount of milk just to give you a nice light cake. So now at this stage you know my rule, we never want to beat in flour to a mixture because it ends up toughening our cakes and our cupcakes. So turn your machine on to just a low speed until you fold in all of that flour and then stop. So now if you don't eat eggs, don't worry, you can still make these cupcakes. You can add in any of my substitutions from my chart, like mashed banana, apple, tofu, you've got lots of different options there and you can still make lovely cupcakes. So there you go, that's it, simple, easy cupcake batter. Now this is where things get really crazy. You can take this and make Any flavor of cupcake you want, and I mean anything, I'm going to show you some of my top favorites now. We are going to start out with my personal favorite, a flavor that I think should never be overlooked, it is a birthday cake cupcake. So now this mix makes 12 cupcakes, now to flavor each one you want to take a quarter cup of your cupcake mix, which is around a generous 4 tablespoons. Just go ahead and add that into your little bowl. So now birthday cake has a very distinct flavor, it has a little bit of vanilla and almond extract. Now if you don't have almond extract you can always leave it out, but I always recommend putting in a little bit of vanilla. So in you go, some vanilla first, and then a little bit of almond extract. And then of course you cannot have birthday cake without loads of sprinkles, so in go Letting go of my sprinkles. Perfect. Then all you want to do is mix it up until it's all folded in. Just look at that, how simple it was to make a Funfetti cupcake. Now you can make just one or you can multiply the recipe to make as many as you want. So now I'm just gonna set this aside and we're gonna move on to our next exciting flavor. It is a classic and I absolutely love it, it's a lemon and blueberry cupcake. So just like before, add a quarter cup of your batter into a small bowl. Next I'm going to zest over some fresh lemon, who does not love fresh lemon, and then scatter in a few blueberries. Now with the blueberries you can use fresh or frozen, that is totally up to you. Then mix it all together. Already this smells amazing. So now just in case you actually haven't seen my crazy cookie dough video, you have to check it out. It is one simple cookie dough that makes loads of different flavors, double chocolate, best ever chocolate chip, funfetti, so many cookies. I know if you like this video, you're going to love it. And there you go, another cupcake flavor in no time at all, absolutely lovely. So now I'm going to set this aside and we're going to move on to our next cupcake and this one will really show you how crazy this recipe is. We are going to make a carrot cake cupcake. So our cupcake batter goes into our little bowl, next I'm going to add in some freshly grated carrot. Now for my carrot cake, I love raisins in my carrot cake. You don't like them, you can leave them out, but I'm definitely adding a few in there. Perfect. And then chopped walnuts. Not everybody's cup of tea, I love them, it gives a nice texture, so I'm gonna add a few in there too. You don't like them? Leave them out. And then of course a little bit of cinnamon, because carrot cake has to have cinnamon. And then just mix all these ingredients together. So now you can see by now why I call this crazy batter. Anything you like into it, your favorite flavors, come up with your own combinations, whatever you like. It's only gonna make these cupcakes better, perfect. So there you go, one lovely carrot cake cupcake ready to go. Now I'm gonna set this guy aside and we're gonna move on to our next flavor. This one is a huge fan favorite around here on Bigger Bolder Baking, it is a cookies and cream cupcake. So just like before, go ahead and add your little quarter cup of cupcake batter into your bowl. Into our cupcake batter we are going to add in crushed Oreos. Now I love Oreos as you know, you've seen me use them a million times on Bigger Bolder Baking. But you can use any type of cookie you want. Remember, get creative. That's what Bigger Bolder Baking is all about. Once they're in there, just go in with your spoon and mix them in. Now after doing a few flavors I'm sure that your creative wheels are turning and you can think of so many different flavors and I'm excited to see what you come up with. Because the ones that I'm showing you are just suggestions, you make whatever you like. Okay so set this guy aside and we're gonna move on to our next flavor. It's an oldie but a goodie, the chocolate and peanut butter cupcake. So you know the drill now at this stage, into this we're going to add in our cupcake batter. And then we're gonna add in some cocoa powder. Now I like to use unsweetened dark cocoa powder. And then just go ahead and stir that in. Now if you're wondering where the peanut butter is coming in, it's going to be actually in the frosting, so if you don't like peanut butter, you can use a different frosting. What this is making here is just a regular chocolate cupcake. Perfect. Now I'm gonna set this guy aside, just like the others, and we're gonna get started on our next flavor. This one was hugely requested. It is a red velvet cupcake. So now the beauty of this flavor is that it's very similar to the chocolate cupcake. So into our bowl we add in our batter, we add in a little bit of cocoa powder, and then we add in some red food dye. Now I'm using my homemade food dye which is really easy to make, it's made with beets, or you can use a good quality store bought one. And then all you want to do is just stir these together. Now add in as much color as you want to get the desired color that you're looking for. A lot of people don't know that red velvet is actually a cocoa-based cake, it's not a red cake, it's cocoa-based, that's why you get that lovely dark rich color and flavor. Perfect, look at that. So now I know my Bowl Bakers are really creative and here's a fun thing you can do, you can make the whole batch chocolate and then divide it, add food coloring to one side and then not to the other so you get red velvet and chocolate cupcakes out of one batch. Okay, so that's our red velvet cupcake. Now we're going to pop these guys Let's put these guys into our cupcake tin. Line your tin with cupcake liners and then go ahead and add in all of your batters. Now I like a really big cupcake so go ahead and fill these until around 3 quarters if not a little bit more full because you want a nice big height for our cupcakes. Lovely. This is such a fun idea for a party or even a sleepover where everybody gets to make their own flavor. Okay, these are looking fantastic, now these guys are ready to be baked off. Bake your cupcakes off at 350°F or 180°C for roughly 16-18 minutes or until firm on top. The cupcakes turned out even better than I could have imagined and I love how they're different colors and flavors. Now you can tell when your cupcake is done was if you push down in the middle and it's firm, that means it is perfectly baked. Now I'm going to set these guys aside and let them go totally cold before we decorate them. So now decorating, this is my favorite part, I'm gonna use two different types of frosting, my buttercream frosting and my cream cheese frosting, both fantastic recipes, make sure you check them out if you haven't already done so, but you can decorate yours any way you like. I'm gonna start out by decorating my red velvet cupcake, now traditionally you would have cream cheese frosting, which is what I have, and I'm just gonna pipe a big swirl on top, And here I just have a few crumbs of red velvet, I'm just gonna sprinkle those on top for a little bit of extra color to make it look really pretty. Gorgeous. So next we're gonna move on to chocolate. Now I said this was chocolate and peanut butter, so this is where the peanut butter comes in. I added it into my buttercream frosting, and I'm gonna go ahead and pipe a nice generous swirl on top. I don't know about you guys, but the frosting to me is as good as the cake, so I like lots of it. Perfect. Then I'm gonna sprinkle over a chopped up peanut butter cup, just so you get that extra chocolate peanut butter thing going on. Gorgeous. Look at that. Beautiful. So next up, our lemon and blueberry cupcake. Now I'm going to top this guy off with some of my homemade buttercream frosting. And then for extra flavor and just to make it look even prettier, I'm gonna zest over some fresh lemon. And then finish it off with a few fresh blueberries on top. Just look at that, it's so pretty. Almost too pretty to eat. Okay, now let's decorate our birthday cake cupcake. So here I have some buttercream that I colored with a little bit of green coloring, and I'm gonna pipe that on top. And then of course finish it off with some sprinkles. Now for my little Oreo cupcake, I'm gonna go double Oreo, I put some in the frosting, and then I'm just gonna pipe a big swirl on top. And then, just so you know for sure it's an Oreo cupcake, I'm gonna place an Oreo in on top. Fantastic. I think that says it all, doesn't it? And then last but not least, our carrot cake cupcake. Now traditionally it is always served with a lovely cream cheese frosting, so that's what I have here. Gonna pipe a nice big amount on top, lovely. Then I have some crushed walnuts, nice. And then just for extra color, and so you can tell what it is, I have a little bit of grated carrots that I'm just gonna sprinkle on top, beautiful. Just looking at these cupcakes just goes to show you how crazy this recipe is, whether you love chocolate, red velvet, or funfetti, there is a cupcake here for everyone. Okay, I know I can try any of these but I think I'm gonna try the chocolate and peanut butter. Oh my gosh, this is my favorite cupcake recipe and I'll tell you why, it is really light and moist, it's not dense, and it's so easy to make, and best of all, as you saw, you can flavor it any way that you want, mmm, I really hope you try out these crazy cupcakes and actually all of my other crazy videos, and I'll see you back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.