Orange Cream

My sister's friend asked me to make cupcakes for her daughters 1st birthday party in November, 40-50 to be exact. She didn't care so much about making them look fancy. Her only criteria was that they were delicious. She said her and her hubby usually eat dessert that are chocolate and peanut butter so that makes it pretty easy for one kind of cupcake. Usually infants shouldn't eat nuts until they reach 2 yrs old so I'm dabbling in the kitchen a little to figure out what option I'm going to go with for cupcake #2.

I've been thinking alot about what to make for this birthday girl. I tried a Orange Wheat cupcake with Vanilla Honey Cream icing.
... not the winner.
Although it tastes pretty good, it more like a muffin from the wheat flour.
My husband loved it but he loves that wheat taste.
The Frosting was pretty yummy and I can thank the honey from that. It's amazing what a couple teaspoons can do.

1/3 cup (75 ml) regular block cream cheese,
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons honey
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 cups sifted powder sugar

Beat cream cheese with butter, honey, vanilla and salt. Gradually add icing sugar until thick enough for spreading.

Stay tuned for more ideas and recipes...

Cupcakes Take the Cake

I was so excited to learn that my cupcake blog was featured on one of the tops cupcake blogs out there... Cupcakes Take the Cake on August 19 th. Check it out at:
http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2010/08/yarn-cupcakes-chocolate-boston-creme.html

I received a few comments from followers suggesting that I post my recipes along with the photos. Thanks for the suggestions and stay tuned for more recipes of my favorite cakes and frostings...

100% Edible Yarn

Frank's Ma knits beautiful scarfs, sweaters, hats and socks for all of us. I thought I'd surprise her with a color pallet for her next project. The kids picked out the colors, of course...

I made carrot cake cupcakes with our garden grown carrots and threw in some toasted walnut. After frosting with the kids desired colors I places a tinted Wiltons candy melt in the center pushing slightly so the cake and frosting indented.

I piped the "yarn" over the frosted cupcake and covered the candy just a bit to create the yarn illusion.
I made some labels on the computer and taped them in a cylinder shape then added two finished cupcakes to each side. I had to refrigerate the cupcakes to be able to work with them.

The yarn needled are 2 pringle wheat stix dipped in white chocolate.

Mama Nudo loved her surprise.

Happy Birthday Nana!!

Stout & Mini's

We were having a get together this weekend with family and friends. Most of us would be having margaritas and beer while hanging out by the pool. I had seen in a magazine beer flavored cupcakes so I figures a good stout frosting would be perfect.

Dark Chocolate with espresso cupcakes with Cream Cheese"Guinness" frosting. The stout adds a unique flavor that goes perfectly with the hint of espresso.

Stout Cream Cheese frosting
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
2-4 teaspoon of Stout (guinness) depending on your taste buds

1 With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2 Add the Stout and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness.

Chocolate cupcakes filled with a bit of Salted Carmel with dark chocolate frosting. So I decided to make these little guys again since they were a hit last time we had friends over.
Mmmm... delicious!

Stella & Dot with Discovery Toys

Me, my sister and mother-in-law hosted a Mommy and Me party

with Stella & Dot and Discovery Toys.

We had so much fun trying on gorgeous pieces of jewelry and watching our kids enjoying all of the toys. I thought mini-cakes would complete the theme of fun and sassy.

Salted-Caramel Filling
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, preferably Fleur de Sel
1. Place sugar, water, and corn syrup in a medium-sized heavy saucepan. Heat over high heat, stirring occasionally, until syrup is clear; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Stop stirring, and cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush as needed.
2. Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and just reaches 360° F.
Remove from heat; slowly pour in cream (be careful, mixture will spatter) and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in sea salt. Use immediately; if at any time caramel begins to harden, reheat gently until pourable.

I wanted to thank my handsome husband for monitoring the carmel temp while I tried to multi-tasked with the other one.

Chocolate with Peanut Butter Frosting

• 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
1. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until pale and fluffy. Add salt and peanut butter, and beat to combine. Beat in vanilla.
2. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-speed, whisk cream until medium-stiff peaks form. Fold cream into peanut-butter mixture.

I made these little signs to catch the eyes of our family and friends.

Thanks Everyone for stopping by.

Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Buttercream

What 16 year old doesn't love chocolate and peanut butter? For my brother in law I wanted to make something special that him and his friends can enjoy to celebrate his 16th birthday.

Double Chocolate with mini chocolate chips

Topped with a delicate peanut butter buttercream with semi sweet chocolate shavings.

Added princess cupcake liner for a laugh.

Happy Birthday Dominic!

Happy Fourth of July

These were pretty simple. I used two different style tips with 2 colors of frosting. The stars are made from fondant which our Nana helped me dye blue and roll out. The inside is a white cake with blue and red marbling that I colored in 3 separate bowls and layed them prior to baking. I forgot to take a photo before the kids dug in. = )

Happy Fourth of July!

Chocolate for Heather

My sis-in-law absolutely LOVES chocolate. We had plans to have dinner at her house over weekend so I decided what's Heather going to like more than delicous chocolate...on chocolate...on more chocolate? NOTHING!

I took a take on Boston Creme Pie cupcakes since that's one of my husbands favorite things I make. Instead, I went all chocolate.

Triple Chocolate fudge cupcakes +

Chocolate fudge custard+

Semi-sweet chocolate ganache = Chocolate heaven

Added fresh strawberries for color.

Happy Mothers Day!

I saw this amazing Cupcake Flower tree in the FoodNetwork Magazine a few months back and had to make it for our Mother's Day brunch.Instead of cupcakes I made breakfast muffins: Banana nut with cream cheese frosting, Bran with cream cheese frosting and blueberry with lemon cream cheese frosting. I used a different tip to get a rose like look on the purple ones.

I left the muffins out for a few hours to set the frosting to get ready for assembling.

I painted a styrofoam ball and use a stick that my husband cut off the tree outside and placed it in a flower pot I got at Target for about a dollar. About 3 toothpicks per muffin to attach to the ball. This definitely needed a little weight around the bottom so I used some marbles to make sure it wouldn't topple over.

Happy Mother's Day!

A Must Have Apron.

Okay so not everything is going to be about cupcakes. I found these adorable aprons at Anthropoloy and I had to share. I've never seen aprons so stylish with such flare. These three are my favorite but their selection is so big that it will please anyones style. I can definitely see my little sis, Brianna, wearing the black and white one while she's baking for her new hubby.

anthropology.com

Gabriella's Ducks

My adorable niece had her first birthday party over the weekend. The theme for her party was Duckies. She had a beautiful duck dress and party favors galore. So I obviously wanted to make her something "duckie" and fun. I came across these on the cover of "What's New? Cupcake." I pre-ordered the book hoping it would be here in time for her party.

The base is a simple yellow cake in yellow cupcake wrappers.

First I frosted the top of the cupcake with a plain white vanilla frosting. Then I added a doughnut hole for the head. I needed to add a little more frosting to secure it.
The tail end is a big marshmellow cut diagonal and places pointed side up. After the base for the tail and head were done I popped them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to make them firm enough to withstand the "dipping" process.
One by one each duck was taken out of the freezer and dipped into melted frosting that I colored yellow with a little food coloring. The dipping technique is pretty cool. Guests actually thought that I use a fondant.

My husband did a great job helping me with the final touches of the beaks and feet. It's amazing what you can turn a starburst into. Last I added a dot of the white frosting from a piping bag to the head and places mini m&m's for eyes.
I was so happy the way they turned out. They were a big hit and the kids couldn't wait to take a bite.

Happy 1st Birthday Gabriella!
xoxoxox

"Fries" for Beef

These are my favorite so far. I found them in an AMAZING book called "What's New, Cupcake?" It is the sequel to "Hello, Cupcakes" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

Our family friend "Beefy" had a birthday celebration over the weekend. We love to eat, drink and have fun so I wanted to make him something he'd really enjoy.

These are super simple. I deviated from the original recipe just a bit. I used chocolate cupcakes instead of vanilla since I like a little contrast between the frosting and the cake. I used a blend of fresh strawberries with added strawberry syrup for "Ketchup" to replace the mini-cupcakes with red frosting. This way you actually got to dip the "fries." To create the "fries" just use a crinkle cutter on pound cake and toast. Usually the cutter is used for veggies and can be found at Bed Bath & Beyond for around 3 bucks.


They were a HUGE hit at the party. This is why I've created this blog. It would be fun to see how many recipes I can pull off.

Thanks Heather for the awesome suggestion. And tell Joe I won't tell anyone about the Julie & Julia idea.
xoxoxo

Easter Baskets

These were fun for the whole family.

After frosting these cupcakes in a tinted light green frosting I added tinted green coconut for the grass effect. I put a few drops of green foodcoloring in a ziplock bag with the coconut and let my daughter shake it up.

My husband help asemble these cute little baskets that I picket up at Michaels for about $2.99 per dozen. Then I decorated with whatever candy the Easter Bunny had left behind.

I'm also excited about the shots that I took. I take photos of everything and I love it! As you can see in the first photo I just learned how to blurr the surroundings of my image. I'm pretty proud since I'm self-taught = )

Baseballs

My sons second birthday was all about Spring training.

Licorice was an easy fix for plain cupcakes. Baseballs was what was requested and baseballs he got.

Easy Lilo & Stitch Cupcakes

My daughter requested a "Lilo & Stitch" birthday. Her birthday is December 22nd so it's a very intense month since everyone is getting ready for the holiday. We promised ourselves that we would never combine the two.

We celebrated with "Winter Luau" theme. We all dressed in Hawaiian outfits and decorated with palmtrees , flowers and coconuts. My husband even made a delicious Hawaiian feast

Anyways, with all of the stress of the holidays I simply ordered some "Lilo & Stitch" rings from ebay and added them to a frosted cupcake. It was nice that the guests had a little momento after eating the cupcake.

Happy Halloween!

These scary skeletons were easy and fun.

I used the same ingredients that I used for "Slimey" cupcakes but substitutes the worm for skeleton body parts.