The oh so scary Basil Pesto Cupcakes

For the cupcakes                                               For the frosting


3/4 cup yellow cornmeal                                                      1/2 cup basil pesto
1 cup all purpose flour                                                          1 1/2 cups cream cheese
2 tsp. baking powder                                                             12 cherry tomatoes 
3 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) sweet butter, melted 


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, Place 12 paper baking cups into a muffin pan. In a medium bowl stir the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs, milk, and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and stir until just combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes. remove pan and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.


For the frosting, beat the pesto and the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Smear the frosting onto cooled cupcakes and top with the cherry tomatoes.


Store UN-frosted in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.


Makes 1 dozen


Upon starting this blog I had not intended to make such daring cupcakes so soon. However there were a few people who were intrigued by this specific cupcake and since you are my audience I figure it's best to entertain you. My first impression of "Basil Pesto Cupcakes" was EW. Cupcakes and pesto do not mix! W.T.H. thought of that. After reading the ingredients I thought to myself okay so the "cupcake" must be more of a dinner bread than a dessert bread, this could be okay.


I made these on Monday because it was a snow day and work was cancelled. Of course we did not have all of the ingredients for the cupcakes so I walked to the grocery store about 2 small town Iowa blocks from my house. (Charlotte blocks are massive and odd shaped, small town Iowa blocks are small and square... like blocks are supposed to be :-) Anyway... I picked up corn meal, pesto, cream cheese, cherry tomatoes, and whole milk. (I found a personal sized jug of whole milk because the likely hood of anyone in this house drinking it is slim to none. They also have small versions of pre-made pesto sauce. in the spaghetti isle) Once I paid for all of my ingredients I stopped at the Red Box and picked up the movie Easy A (Pretty funny. Totally worth my dollar!) and headed home.


As I made the cupcakes I noticed it was taking a lot less time than my previous batch of Key Lime cupcakes. I envisioned a more health conscious person than myself making these ahead of time as a mid day work snack. I also saw them as a big hit at someones Thanksgiving dinner as a substitute for rolls. Once I had them in the oven I began the frosting which could not be more simple. basil pesto + cream cheese = done. However I ended up adding more cream cheese to the mix. (I have an insatiable sweet tooth and couldn't resist.) 


After removing the cupcakes from the oven I put two in the freezer to cool faster because I have no patience when I am excited about something and I needed to try the cupcakes right then and there! After they were cool I frosted them and topped them each with a cherry. I then took pictures and ran up stairs to Kurt where he was working and handed him a cupcake to try. He just stared at it and said "I don't want to." So to prove it wouldn't be terrible I took the first bite. The cupcake was actually pretty good. The bread portion tasted kind of like corn bread and the frosting was a great combo. I then took a bite that included the tomato and cringed. I am big on texture with food so when the tomato sprayed juice and seeds into my mouth I found it disgusting! (<--- that's what she said.) I looked at Kurt and he just sat there, put the cupcake up to his mouth, and said "I don't want to" about 3 more times before trying it and saying "It's not as bad as I thought it would be." He ultimately decided even though they were not as bad as he had originally thought he would still prefer that I never make them again. As for me? I think I will make them on Thanksgiving this year. :-)


Be sure to let me know what flavor you would like next:

Pop rocks cupcakes

baked cheesecakes 

Mint chocolate cupcakes

Thanks for listening to my cupcake ramblings, here is a cupcake for you!

"Kurt's" Key lime cupcakes

I am now calling the key lime cupcakes Kurt's key lime cupcakes. I made them on Saturday at his request. The recipe is as follows:

Kurt's Key Lime Cupcakes

For the cupcakes                                                                   For the filling

1 cup  (2sticks) sweet butter, softened                             1/3 cup key lime juice

1cup superfine sugar                                                            14oz can condensed milk

2 cups self rising flour

4 eggs                                                                                     For the meringue 

1 tsp. vanilla extract                                                            3 eggs whites

                                                                                               1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

                                                                                               1/3 cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place 18 paper baking cups in muffin pans. Placed all of the cupcake ingredients in a large bowl, and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and pale, about 2-3 minutes. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. then remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool on a rack.

For the filling,  combine the lime juice and condensed milk in a small bowl. Remove the top from each cupcake and hollow out a small hole. Spoon the filling into the hole and replace the top. 

For the meringue, beat the eggs and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 of the sugar and beat for 1 minute. Repeat until all of the sugar has been added. increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the cupcakes. Bake for 5 minutes until golden. Store for no more than 1 day in an air tight container.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen

Before Starting out Kurt agreed to be the food taster for my project. I was missing a few ingredients and had to got to the store for them. Luckily I live withing walking distance to the local grocery store, Harris Teeter. I picked up some Key lime juice, eggs, self rising flour, superfine sugar, and milk because we needed some at home. I got all the way home and realized that I had forgot to pick up sticks of butter. Then irritated at my constant forgetfulness I turned around and went back to the store for butter sticks.

Now that I had everything I began putting the ingredients together. Butter, sugar, flour, eggs check. Next? Vanilla. There was a bottle of extract on the counter from a cake I had previously baked that was the same shape and size as my vanilla so i picked it up measured out a tsp. and threw it in... uh oh, that was not vanilla. It turned out that it was the butter flavor extract and not vanilla. A little concerned I convinced myself that since there was already butter in the mix it would not change the flavor. I then measured out a tsp. of VANILLA and went on my way. Compared to the boxed cake batter this batter was very thick. This was nice during the process of filling the cups because it did not run and drip everywhere. 

While the cupcakes were baking I started the filling. This was a piece of cake! Key lime juice, meet condensed milk. Done. I was nervous about how this mixture would taste so I ran out to the living room with the bowl to my taste tester. He was extremely apprehensive about tasting the mixture saying he would only taste the finished product. He first asked if this was the cake mixture, or the meringue. To which I said "no it is the filling. Just try it!" I laughed as he dabbed the smallest amount possible onto his finger and tasted. "Not bad." He said as he dabbed a larger spoonful onto his finger. Ultimately he decided that the mixture tasted just like the key lime yogurt that we love. When the cupcakes were ready for the filling I decided to use a filling tip and pipe the filling into the cupcakes instead of hallowing them out. This worked great. 

The meringue was very tough. Getting just the egg white was the first challenge. I have a separator but the dang yolk kept slipping through the sides along with the whites. I got two whites into the bowl and had Kurt do the last one because he is usually great at everything he takes on. Only he ended up cracking the yolk into the egg whites I had spent so much time getting. So we had to start again. This time we used a separate bowl to separate the yolks and to store the whites. Once we had that situation under control we added the tartar and stirred, and stirred, and no peaks ever really formed. We continued with the stirring with little results. So we started adding the sugar. The mixture was looking meringue like but never did thicken up. I was disappointed about this because I had plans to pipe on the mixture to look like the picture int the book but I ended up spooning it on because it was so runny! I baked it at 450 for close to 5 minutes until they were golden on top like in the picture.

We let the cupcakes cool and then dug right in! They were delicious. The food critique/ taste tester decided they needed more filling. I determined that they should be more moist. I figure I could attain this in the future by either baking them for less than 20 minutes or adding a little water to the mix. As for the meringue... I guess  maybe if we add more tartar from the get go we might see those peaks they were talking about in the directions. Over all they were great cupcakes.

Next I will be making the oh so scary pesto and basil cupcakes due to a high interest from my readers. :-) (Actually I read through the ingredients and it sounds like it could be pretty tasty!) 

Please comment what you would like after basil pesto...

Pop rocks cupcakes

baked cheesecakes

Mint chocolate cupcakes

Boxed Cake Countess

I make amazing cake. Ahhem... amazing boxed cakes. I recently took a few cake decorating classes at Michaels and really enjoy making cakes for people when I can. In the future I would really like to advertise and make cakes a true side business instead of just a hobby. I love to hear people tell me how delicious it tasted and how beautiful it was. However I always feel a little ashamed that the oh so tasty cake they loved was easily thrown together from a box. 


Yesterday My husband and I made a trip to the book store so I could find a cake cookbook. After flipping through a few books I came across a cookbook called 500 cupcakes. It made me think of the movie Julia and Julia. I pictured myself baking my way through 500 cupcakes and muffins and I was sold. 


So here I am starting my first blog ever and preparing myself to possibly gain about 10-20 lbs. I am very excited to bake my way through this book, it has all kinds of recipes from vanilla cupcakes to basil pesto cupcakes. I hope that anyone reading is at least mildly entertained and inspired to create your own delicious confections.