I Need Max's Homemade Cupcakes!

Wow guys! I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. And sadly, I have no excuse. Well, I could say I was busy with uni and family stuff and blah, blah, blah. But once we get into this post, you'll probably see straight through that.

See, the US ratings period has started and all the good shows are back. Including some that I haven't watched before but wanted to. So you just know that I've had (yes, had) to catch up, some with whole seasons in one go. This isn't a new thing for me though. I often prefer to watch all of the episodes of a TV show together. I'm too impatient to wait week-to-week!

Where it gets weird - and I'm totally hoping that someone else is with me on this! - is that I often get so into a show that I feel like it's really my life. And I feel totally empty when I get to the end of the season. So I really feel like I've lived above MacLaren's Pub, cooked blue ice in the desert, hung out at all the cool places in LA with Vinny and the gang, and played football for Dillon Panthers (and had a huge crush on Coach Taylor!!).

But recently I've been spending a huge amount of time at Brooklyn Diner and trying to make ends meet with my financially-challenged friends, Caroline and Max. And Sophie and Oleg and Earl and the adorable Han. I'm of course talking about 2 Broke Girls, which took me a long time to get into, but which I'm so in love with now.

And this being a party blog you know I'm eventually going to get to the cupcakes! Oh, how I could go a couple of Max's Homemade Cupcakes when it's late at night and I'm watching a couple of episodes. Especially when they're all laid out on the counter, in a huge selection, all perfectly baked and iced. And because we all love Max, we know they must all taste amazing!

So, with all this going on, you can imagine that I just had to make some. Not only for my midnight cravings, but because I got to thinking what a great gift a selection of different tasting cupcakes is. They not only look great but basically you're giving someone permission to eat multiple cupcakes - and that's never a bad thing!

But, as we all know I'm not a fan of making anything that's too much bother. So the good news is a cupcake selection is super easy and can be made with whatever you have lurking in the fridge or the pantry. And those bakery boxes are available in pretty much every dollar shop in the world for little or nothing.

 
Not these boxes you see in the pictures though. These are from Williams Sonoma in Bondi Junction. I know, fancy. But I'm absolutely true to my word in terms of the cupcakes. They are 100% made from stuff I already had at home. I started with a basic vanilla cupcake mix and added some drinking chocolate to half of the mixture to make chocolate and vanilla cakes. Then, I made a simple buttercream, divided it into four and added mint essence, peanut butter, strawberry jam and coconut. And voila, a selection of four different cupcakes from little or nothing.

Now, I totally intended to get out all the piping stuff to ice these cupcakes and make them look all bakery-like. But when the time came I couldn't be bothered. Oh alright, the truth is I still had so many episodes of 2 Broke Girls to watch! Mind you, if you give these to someone and they tell you you should have piped the icing on, you have my permission to punch them!

Four Way Cupcakes (aka Max's Homemade Cupcakes)

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes in four flavours - chocolate & peanut butter, choc-mint, coconut and strawberry. And yes, Four Way Cupcakes is a play on Max's potty mouth!

Ingredients

Cake mix for 24 vanilla cupcakes (I used Magnolia Bakery's recipe, which you can find here)
3/4 cup drinking chocolate or good cocoa
Vanilla buttercream icing for 24 cupcakes (I used Magnolia Bakery's recipe, which you can find here)
1 tablespoon peanut butter, preferably crunchy
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons strawberry jam
1-2 drops peppermint essence
1-2 drops green food colouring

Instructions

1. Preheat oven as required for the cake mix you are using and prepare tins for 24 cupcakes.

2. Make cake mix for 24 vanilla cupcakes, then divide into 2 bowls. Set aside one bowl of vanilla cake mix.

3. In the other bowl, add sifted drinking chocolate or cocoa and stir well.

4. Divide mixtures into pans (12 of each flavour) and bake as per cake mix instructions.

5. In the meantime, make the vanilla buttercream icing as per the instructions above or the one you are using. Divide into four bowls.

6. In the first bowl, stir in peanut butter. In the second bowl, stir in strawberry jam. In the third bowl, stir in coconut. In the fourth bowl, stir in peppermint essence and green food colouring. (You will need to taste each and use your judgment as to consistency here. If icing becomes too thick, add a splash of milk. If icing becomes too thin, add more icing sugar. Always add additional ingredients in small portions!)

7. When cupcakes are baked and completely cooled, add peanut butter icing to 6 chocolate cupcakes and mint icing to 6 chocolate cupcakes. Then add strawberry icing to 6 vanilla cupcakes and coconut icing to 6 vanilla cupcakes.