Halloween Class Party.....

Got to love the last second, "Oh yeah Mom, I signed you up to make cupcakes for my classes Halloween party." Good thing I had the night off and a cabinet that looks like a baking supply store! LOL

I decided to stick with the basic Halloween Color theme and used a new orange emulsion I've been dying to use :D Orange vanilla cake with a vanilla bean frosting. Was pretty happy with them, considering the were last minute :)

Merrick's 5 !!!!

My son turned 5 on June 16Th and we had a super fun birthday party! It was Mario brothers themed. We went all out... bouncy house, life sized Mario pipe for the kids to go in, he even had his very own ice cream truck come and he got to serve ice cream to his friends. I had so much fun making his cupcakes, did the standard Mario colors red and blue with a chocolate gold coin on top (got to get the coins) Plus I made them root beer flavored...the cake itself tasted like root beer with vanilla frosting so it was like eating a root beer float. It was a great day!

Chocolate rasberry

One of my best friends was hosting a candle party so of course I had to bring desert. She was making sangria so I went with something fruity and did a devils food cupcake with raspberry frosting, filled with raspberry jam and drizzled with chocolate.

Baby shower cupcakes

My boss is pregnant with her 3rd son and asked me to make cupcakes for her shower. She was having a brown and blue theme. So I did one batch of "blue velvet" which is a basic red velvet but done blue instead. Plus one batch of my honey cupcakes (which I made the frosting brown just to match the theme) Those are a creamed honey cupcake with a honey frosting, which I often fill with vanilla custard

Candy Corn...

Tonight my daughter has a girl scout meeting and it's our snack day :D I've been wanting to make candy corn cupcakes so it was a perfect time to go for it lol I cheated a bit today and used a cake mix. Separated it into two batches colored one yellow and one orange. Stacked them in the liners and baked.
I topped them off with my basic homemade vanilla buttercream but I added honey to it to give it that candy corn flavor. I just LOVE the way they look...very happy with how they came out :)

Spiced caramel apple

Tonight I got into one of my late night baking moods and decided to make something new, spiced caramel apple :) Since it was late and I was pretty beat I cheated a little and started out with a boxed spice cake, I then chopped up and added in 2 cups of granny smith apples, topped it with my cream cheese frosting (recipe listed under my pumpkin posting) and finally topped it off with a drizzle of caramel :) They were a big hit!

Birthday cupcakes

I've been a little behind on my blogging so thought I'd take some time to catch up. My son turned 4 in June (told you I was behind lol) and he said he wanted chocolate cupcakes, with blue frosting.I also filled them with custard :)I decorated them with this adorable edible silver heart confetti I found at Michaels Craft Store.


Ingredients for Cream Custard Recipe
•1/3 cup melted butter
•1/3 cup flour
•Yolks of four eggs
•1 cup sugar
•1 1/2 cups sweet milk
Instructions
1.Cream flour and melted butter together.
2.Beat yolks and add the sugar.
3.Heat the milk until it is scalded, then pour it into the flour mixture.
4.Mix in the egg mixture.
5.Cook in double boiler until thick.
6.Add any desired flavoring.

Banana Split

Who doesn't like a banana split, right? They have such a wonderful mixture of flavors but don't exactly travel or have much of a shelf life, ice cream and all ;) So I decided to create a banana split cupcake.

Started out with the very important banana cake base, added vanilla frosting and of course a sundae wouldn't be complete without all the toppings....hot fudge,sprinklers,nuts and a cherry on top :D

Snickerdoodle

We're big snickerdoodle fans in our house so one day after baking several batchs I had to create a snickerdoodle cupcake...ofcourse LOL

So I baked a vanilla cinnamon cake a topped it with cinnamon sugar frosting not only did they smell amazing but they tasted just like the cookies :D

Lemon Drops

Our close friends from Sonoma have a wonderful large meyer lemon tree in their backyard. on our last visit we picked tons and brought them home. My daughter and husband spent some time squeezing them all and them we went to town making goodies....lemonade and of course lemon drop cupcakes :D Vanilla lemon cake, filled with lemon filling, and lemon buttercream! I have to say these for sure are my new favorites. The lemons were so sweet and fresh they made them amazing.



My friends have started telling me to stop giving out all me recipes but I have to give you guys something so here's the recipe for the lemon filling that goes inside :D

3/4 cup fine granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold filtered water
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
Juice of a medium lemon (about 1/4 cup) and finely grated zest (I left this out for my kids)

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Gradually add water and whisk until well blended. Whisk in egg yolks, lemon peel and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until thick and bubbly. Boil one minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter. Cool to room temperature, without stirring. Before using mix a little. To fill cooled cupcake, cut the center of each cupcake. Spoon 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon filling into the cut-out center.
1 Tablespoon chilled unsalted butter

S'mores Cupcakes

I had this idea to make s'mores cupcakes. I found a few recipes online but finally just had to do it my way, it actually took 3 tries to get the frosting just where I wanted it but it finally worked :D

I was going to share the recipe but after having my friends try them they told me I should keep this one to myself as a specialty :) But, I will give you some ideas so you can experiment. After all that's half the fun!

Of course you have to have all the s'mores components: start off each cupcake with a gram cracker crust, top that with devils food cake, them fill them with rich chocolate fudge. Finally, top them off with marshmallow frosting, torch it with a kitchen torch and add a little piece of Hersey Chocolate.

Not only are they super cute but they are camp fire fun in a cupcake form !!!!

Chocolate Strawberry

Tonight for my daughter's girl scout meeting I made chocolate strawberry cupcakes. Basic devils food cupcakes with strawberry butter cream. They came out really cute and the girls loved them :D

Strawberry butter cream:
•1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
•1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract (optional)
•4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
•2 tablespoons milk (if needed)
Several drops of red or pink food coloring (I added one drop of blue to make it that raspberry color)

Slices of fresh strawberry and chocolate sprinkles to garnish

Cupcake Valentine's

This year we decided to pass out Cupcake Valentine's in my daughter's 3rd grade class. We made chocolate cherry cupcakes and decorated them with some adorable accessories we found :D We got Wilton's Valentine Cupcake Wraps'n Pix and Wilton's Valentine Small Treat Box ....we couldn't find enough of those so we used them for the girls and I got these really cute Valentine's Chinese food style containers at Michaels craft store for the boys cupcakes :D

They came out adorable and best of all we had so much fun making them :D

Chocolate raspberry

I decided to do a little twist on my basic butter cream and make a raspberry butter cream. Just made basic chocolate cupcakes and butter cream, added in some pink food coloring, raspberry extract and topped it off with a piece or raspberry filled Ghirardelli chocolate square :D

Cupcakes for Haiti !!!!

The other day I asked my 8 year old daughter if she knew about the awful disaster that had happened in Haiti. She told me she'd seen a commercial about it; how sad she was for them and that she wanted to do something to help. So, we decided to put our love of baking to good use.



We baked 100 cupcakes (from scratch none the less...I'm exhausted just writing to you LOL) and sold them for Haiti relief. My husband sold to his coworkers and our favorite local store,Children's Orchard, generously let us set up on their front counter for the day. In the end we were able to raise $99 (which is being donated to the Red Cross) She's SO proud of herself and I'm thrilled that she now knows she CAN make a difference.

Green tea with almond buttercream

It was a rainy Sunday so after taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese today we stopped by the Asian market and picked up some green tea powder (Matcha) to make the green tea cupcakes I've been wanted to try :D

I made a silly mistake and missed the fact that I didn't have quiet enough flour for the recipe, not wanting to send hubby or myself out in the rain I made a substitution. Needless to say the cupcakes themselves didn't come out quiet as visually appealing as I would have liked (they spread out more like a cookie than cake and got a little overly brown) but they tasted amazing !!!!! One or two more tries with all the flour I need and I'll have them just right. Plus, the almond butter cream was amazing...already thinking about what other cupcake I can put it on :)

Green Tea Cupcakes:
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1-2 tablespoons of Edible Green® ground green tea (I used 2, might do 2 1/2 next)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and green tea. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes for standard size cupcakes (less for mini cupcakes), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
The batter is rather dense

Almond butter cream frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
1-3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
1-2 teaspoons almond extract (I went with 2 I liked it stronger)

Chocolate Banana

Start with a basic cupcake (white or yellow) boxed or from scratch. Just add in 1tsp.(you can add more if you like, I like a little more) banana extract.



Chocolate Butter Cream:
•1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
•3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted
•1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
•4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
•3-4 tablespoons milk

As you can see from my photo this makes a light almost milk chocolate icing if you'd like it darker and richer add more cocoa powder.

Silicone baking cups

Our really close friends Danny and Missy are big fans of my pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. For Christmas I wanted to make some as part of their gift but wanted to add a little extra to it....so I bought a cupcake Tupperware (the large rectangle holder carries about 18-24 cupcakes, it has handles and all...it's great to have when you send the kids to school with their b-day cupcakes)then I went to Michales craft store and bought these adorable silicone flower baking cups . they worked great, baked the cupcakes right in them. All together it made for a cute little gift :D

Here is the link for the baking cups

Fun with boxed cake

This November my daughter turned 8 and we decided to make cupcakes....they are great with kids, no plates or fork needed. She decided she wanted strawberry cake with marshmallow filling :D

Being busy with other party planning I went for the boxed cake and pre-made frosting. Cooked the cupcakes and used a knife to cut a cone shape out of the middle. Cut off the bottom of the removed piece so there is just a little round lid. Filled it with marshmallow cream, put the little lid back on and frosted.


I colored the vanilla frosting with lilac gel food coloring (purchased a Michales craft stores...they have a wonderful cake decorating section, I also got the candy flowers and luster dust to glitter them there too)Piped the frosting on and added the candy flowers which I'd glittered with luster dust. They came out really cute. Looking back I would have added some strawberry extract to the icing but there is always next year :D

Chocolate cherry

Start with a chocolate cupcake, boxed is fine or you can use my basic cake recipe. Add
1 t. of cherry extract to the cake batter.



Cherry butter cream frosting:

Ingredients:
•1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
•1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
•4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
•2 tablespoons milk
1-2 t. cherry extract (depending on how strong you want it)
A few drops of red or pink food coloring