{recipe} churro cupcakes

I’m posting these delicious churro cupcakes today to help celebrate Cinco De Mayo tomorrow (or to celebrate all week). I made mini versions of these cupcakes and brought them to work a few years ago and they were gobbled up. I originally made these when we hosted a dinner party for our 1st year wedding anniversary in 2012, then I made them again that same week during a Memorial Day BBQ get together. I’m glad these cupcakes finally see the light of day on the blog.

There’s something magical that happens when you combine simple ingredients of sugar & cinnamon, it just smells like home to me and also taste so good. The soft cupcake topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, just a perfect combination.

Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo and also taco tuesday in our household, so I’m sure there will be some cinnamon & sugar concoction of some sort.

My husband also bought a whole case of mangoes this weekend, and I happen to grab cilantro as well this week, so I see some mango salsa in our future.

I’m quite excited to taste and make all these flavors that I associate with summer season. To me, summer season starts in May and ends in September. I know this doesn’t follow the real season based on the calendar, but oh well.  I am going to be using the hashtag #150daysofsummer on Instagram and I hope to accumulate 150 pictures in the summer and make it into a book at the end of the season.

Churro Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 8 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 large egg, plus 2 egg yolks, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon, to taste

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position; heat the oven to 350F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in the bowl of a standing mixer. Add the butter, sour cream, egg, yolks, and vanilla and beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and stir by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.
3. Divide the batter evenly among the cups of the prepared tin. Bake until the cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Use a skewer or paring knife to lift the cupcakes from the tin and transfer to a wire rack. Cool the cupcakes to room temperature, about 45 minutes.

For the Frosting

1. Cream the cream cheese and butter together in a large bowl. Add the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well between each addition. Stir in the cinnamon until thoroughly combined. Then stir in the vanilla. Beat the mixture well, until light and fluffy. Pipe onto cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated, The New Best Recipe cookbook.

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Are you going to celebrate Cinco De Mayo this week?

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