How to Make Flavored Cupcakes

When choosing a cupcake flavor, the basic two flavors usually come to mind first: chocolate or vanilla. Just turn on your favorite baking show or step into any bakery and you'll find more than just the basics. With hundreds of scrumptious choices, and endless flavor options, you'll be tempted to try whipping up your own creative concoctions. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Select a flavor for your cupcakes. Some flavors, such as carrot, will involve adding ingredients to the cupcake mix before baking. Other flavors, such as marshmallow, involve filling the already baked cupcakes. Search online or look in recipe books and magazines for ideas on what flavorings to use for your cupcakes. In his article "Cupcakes for Grownups," Greg Patent offers a variety of cupcake flavor options including ginger, mocha chip and caramel. Good Housekeeping's website provides a plethora of cupcake recipes including strawberry shortcake, cherry and pumpkin spice.

Buy the necessary ingredients to make your cupcakes. If choosing to make your cupcakes from scratch, find a recipe to follow. Martha Stewart's website features a basic cupcake recipe which can be a base for many flavorings including peanut butter, coconut, and chocolate chip. To save time, buy a white or vanilla cake mix from the store. If you plan to flavor the cupcakes by filling them, you may wish to make chocolate-flavored cupcakes.

Preheat the oven to the temperature listed in your recipe or on your prepackaged mix (typically 350 degrees). Select a muffin tin and grease it with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper liners. Prepare the cupcake batter by following the directions on the prepackaged mix or the recipe.

Add flavorings to the cupcake batter by following the recipe's directions. Once the desired flavor has been added, bake cupcakes according to the recipe or the packaged. After cupcakes are baked, cool them in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove them. Cool completely on a rack.

Frost cupcakes if you desire or you fill the cupcakes with a variety of fillings. Use a large round tipped pastry bag to fill baked cupcakes. Spoon the desired filling into the pastry bag and squeeze the filling into the center of the cupcakes. Popular fillings include lemon, melted chocolate, jelly, and marshmallow. After filling cupcakes, you may then frost them if desired.