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