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