Butterbeer Cupcakes, Harry Potter Style, for Father's Day

A retroactive cupcake post, but too cute to pass up. Father's Day was the reason behind these cupcakes--my dad is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I could post pictures of the parties we have, but I might incriminate myself a bit (I dressed as Ron). I am not a Harry Potter-head, but I will indulge the obsession--lord knows people indulge my obsessions :) I found these Butterbeer Cupcakes from a blog online, and they came out perfectly!! There is a lot of butterscotch and butter extract (who knew??) to make these buttery, moist and caramel-y. They were a hit among the family, and are a second runner up for my dad only to the Boston Cream Pie cupcakes I made later in the summer. Dad contributed the background decorations for the pictures!!

CUPCAKE BONANZA, 06/01

It is the last Cupcake Wednesday of the school year!! And for that, I decided I needed to make it special. I have A MILLION (ok well, over 100) new recipes to try because I found cheap cupcake cookbooks on Kindle (a super awesome birthday present for my 31st!!), and had to try them out. And in order to get a few in before the end of the school year, I made three recipes and put them all in mini cupcake form so everyone could enjoy all three flavors!
Flavor #1 comes from "Cupcake Cookbook: 100+ Super Cute and Droolworthy Recipes to Impress" by Sharlene Alexander on the Kindle. It is a Lemon Cream cupcake and I used some left over raspberry frosting to complete the flavor pairing--sour and sweet (kinda like me, or Sour Patch kids). I piped on a little flower/star and added a mint leaf to spice it up a bit.
Flavor #2 was from Kindle book #2 "The Absolutely Most Delicious Cupcake Recipes Cookbook" by Madison Parker--Key Lime Cupcake. Well, I used regular limes but put in a LOT of zest to make it lime-y. I thought a good complimentary frosting flavor would be coconut, and I have a tried and true coconut cream cheese frosting. I like the tropical inspiration of these cupcake. Gets me ready for summer.
Flavor #3 is from "Who You Callin' Cupcake" (see the section on Books), a banana cupcake. It's a good solid banana flavor, and could be used for bread as well. To sweeten it up, I added a new frosting--Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting. I googled it and found one I could live with. Essentially, it's cream cheese frosting, but replace some of the cream cheese with Nutella, and add powdered sugar as necessary.

All three cupcakes are very moist, and stayed that way after being baked and frosted ahead of time. The lime is very flavorful, despite the lack of lime extract. The group really liked the banana, and the consensus on the frosting is A+!! And, as mentioned above, the lemon and the raspberry are a good combination for the contrasts they provide.

Happy summer!! :)

Tiramisu Cupcakes, 05/18

There are a lot of new ingredients here that I have not worked with (ever or recently). There are MANY recipes for these types of cupcakes online, and I took a component here, a component there, and made my own cupcake.
To start off, I baked a white cupcake using "Hey There Cupcake" by Clare Crespo. Good basic cupcake, tasty flavor. The next step was to make the Mascarpone filling/frosting using 1 lb mascarpone cheese, 2 cups of whipping cream and 1 cup of powdered sugar. I made half a batch at a time because I don't have one of those huge standing mixers (I know, pity me :P). I whipped the cream until ALMOST stiff peaks with the sugar, then added the cheese. It solidified nicely, just don't overbeat or it gets icky. I hollowed out the cupcakes with a little do-dad from Bed Bath and Beyond and lightly "soaked" the middle with a mixture of instant coffee, water, sugar and Kahlua (flavoring since I had to take these to school). Then I piped in the filling, covered it back up with the little bit of cupcake I had carved out, and "frosted" it with the same concoction.
Now the reason I use quotations is because this is not really frosting and should not be used or paraded around as frosting. It melts. Quickly. I had to return the frosting to the refrigerator to let it harden up a little and then pipe it back on, then RUSH the cupcakes back in. They are now safely in Kelli's mini-fridge in her classroom, but in my opinion, that is a lot of work to make the darn frosting stay on top of the cupcake.
To finish off the illusion of the dessert, I sprinkled a little cocoa powder on the top. I think this is the only time I will be making these cupcakes, which is a total bummer because I have a whole tupperware bowl full of the filling and it is too hard for me to throw it away!! Unless these cupcakes are FABULOUS, I will be eating tiramisu in its normal form....from a restaurant.

Ok after actually tasting the cupcake (I hadn't when I wrote the above information), I LIKE it. It's yummy. And aside from the annoying consistency of the frosting, I call this Cupcake Wednesday a success!!!

Pineapple Right Side Up Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting, 05/11

It has been a while since I have posted, and although I have not stopped baking, they weren't really anything special. However, my creative juices started flowing again and I have a list of cupcakes I want to make, and the end of the school year is fast approaching (no one is complaining, don't get me wrong!). My first new concoction was a Pineapple "Right Side Up" cupcake. I saw a bunch of recipes for upside down cupcakes online, but they seemed messy to transport, so I kept with the flavors and just retooled it a bit. I used a pineapple cupcake recipe from "Hey There Cupcake" by Clare Crespo, which turned out FABULOUS. I like the cupcake much better cold than warm--the pineapple flavor comes out more when it has been in the refrigerator. Then, for the brown sugar that is usually on the bottom and all crystalized and yummy, I made some brown sugar frosting, using another new and untried recipe from a recent birthday present from the Cupcake Wednesday lunch group--"Who You Calling' Cupcake" by Michelle Garcia. My only change in the recipe (and I don't know if it would remain the same if I did it the other way, but just a note) was that I melted the brown sugar FIRST with the shortening instead of adding it in at the end. I thought it might be grainy the other way around. Top it off with a little maraschino cherry and your Upside Down Pineapple Cupcake is right side up!!

Lemon-Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream, 03/02

Being that it's the first Wednesday in March, and, to me, March means spring (even if it is 65 outside), so I chose a fun, fruity cupcake for today, with a bright, spring-like cupcake wrapper! These lemon blueberry cupcakes are adapted from a recipe I found on the Internet. My main goal was to find a blueberry cupcake that wasn't just a white cupcake with blueberries thrown in--my foray into fruit cupcakes that tasted just like the muffin or bread version (see: Banana Caramel Cupcakes) made me gravitate toward something with puree instead of whole fruit. This recipe gave me the ingredients for the blueberry puree, which I added to (essentially) a yellow cupcake. I replaced one tsp of vanilla with a tsp of lemon extract and then stirred in the zest of 2 lemons along with the blueberry puree. To add my own "flair" (which is healthy), I used Egg Beaters, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, and 1/2 the sugar. The cupcakes are light and sweet, and not as close to blueberry muffins as the banana cupcakes were to their bread version, so I was satisfied. I think I might be able to keep this recipe and replace the blueberries with any type of fruit--strawberry, mango, etc. The frosting is a standard buttercream that I have made a million times, but with lemon extract and a touch of fresh lemon juice. Fun, fruity and festive for spring!!

Side note: I cannot remember the last time a batch of cupcakes got devoured like the did this week!

Caramel Banana Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream, 02/23

Like I mentioned, my new obsession with my cupcakes now is to find new and maybe unexpected combinations (I will NOT, however, be using bacon). I know this combo is not unexpected, but it's new and I got to play scientist a little with the mixture. I found a banana cupcake recipe that used brown sugar instead of white (Google it, I don't remember) and mixed that baby up. After filling the cupcake tin with batter, I dropped a dollop of caramel (homemade of course--see last post) in the middle in the hopes it would stand out after baking--it didn't. But whatever, I tried. The frostings are different based on what I had left over--a basic cream cheese, caramel buttercream or a whipped cream cream cheese frosting. After slicing a banana as garnish I drizzled a bit more of the caramel for effect and served them up. Now, my honest opinion/criticism is that this tasted like banana bread. I wanted a sweeter cupcake, but if you want a banana cupcake, just make banana bread--it's probably healthier anyway. But it was a recipe I had been wanting to try and a flavor I had not made yet, so it was not a total bust.

Brown Sugar Pecan Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream, 02/09

My challenge now is to find or create new recipes and combinations of cupcakes, frostings and additions. I have been looking up different ideas on Google and found this combination that intrigued me. I cannot, however, tell you where I found it--just google it :). The cupcakes are a brown sugar flavor, which is fun and caramel-y and toffee-y. I crushed up some toasted pecans (how expensive are they, by the way??) and mixed them in. Cupcake done. Now for the frosting. I REALLY wanted a caramel flavor, and so many called for heating this, boiling that, and to be honest, I did try heating the egg whites and sugar and I was not successful. SOMEONE needs a double boiler and a candy thermometer. So as I was making the base with powdered sugar and butter, I said "Forget this" (Cee-lo style, tho) and started making my own. Again, I couldn't tell you how I did it, but it is essentially a buttercream with caramel added to it. OH, but I DID make the caramel. Not too hard, but dangerous if you stop watching the boiling sugar. And then if the frosting is too runny as you add the caramel (1/4 cup maybe?), just add a little more sugar. Easy! I topped it off with a toasted pecan. I really adore these cupcakes--the flavor of the brown sugar is different and I love pecans!!

FUNFETTI Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, GREEN BAY PACKERS THEME, 01/26

For Kelli's birthday, which was on a Saturday and a day before the Super Bowl (involving her favorite team, the Packers!!), I thought it would be awesome to combine two of her favorite things--Funfetti cupcakes and, of course, Green Bay. The cupcakes are just regular old Funfetti and the frosting is a canned vanilla dyed green for the field and yellow for the endzone. The yard makers are piped on with a tiny Wilton tip (I don't know the number, but it's the smallest circle). That was the easy part. The rest took me a bit of time to figure out logistically, but I do believe I was successful. The logos in the middle of the field and the endzone are white melting chocolate that I melted in a plastic bag, snipped off the tip, and piped on the correct shape on a piece of wax paper (I did sketch it out first). The goal posts are the same thing, except at the bottom, I made it come to a point so I could pierce the cupcake easier. Then, because no football field is complete without players, I used candy (I don't even know what they were called--you could also use M&Ms or jelly beans or Skittles) to create the formations (and YES they are real formations, I am not dumb).
Like her last birthday hoopla cupcakes, I had nightmares about this design not working, but it came together successfully. And now, if I ever find a reason to like MY team enough again (I miss you Uncle Pete!!) I can easily make this for a tailgate. Someday...

"Healthy" Carrot-Coconut-Pecan Cupcakes, 01/19

Ok I lied a little bit, and made these cupcakes for the 18th, but the 19th is a finals day and we don't have lunch. So these are for the WEEK of the 19th, ok??? So I tried a new recipe with new flavors, and one I had seen demonstrated on Paula Deen's show on the Food Network. These are carrot cupcakes with coconut and pecan, but because it's Paula Deen, let's face it, these are not the healthiest cupcakes in the world. And I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that--but at times I need something a little healthier. :) Since it is post-holiday, and people are all on the healthy kick for the moment, I "healthified" these cupcakes. So I used her recipe, but made a few key changes. First of all, I switched 1/2 of the flour to whole wheat. The eggs were replaced with Egg Beaters, and the oil replace with applesauce. I also only used half the sugar, and you really cannot tell. The rest remained the same, except I also toasted the pecans first (yummmmmmy). Maybe because of the substitutions, I only baked these for 20 minutes. Who knows. The frosting is my own cream cheese frosting, made with non fat cream cheese too keep it healthy-ish. The "carrot" on top is composed of a dried apricot, cut into a triangle, and although Paula Deen calls for a mint leaf to represent the stems on the carrots (which I think is SO CUTE), I was lazy and dyed some frosting green. Oh well. Then, with my leftover pecans, I rolled the edges and ta-da!!! Cute!!
These cupcakes came out very moist, rose to perfection, and were excellent with the chopped pecans! I would like to try to add crushed pineapple some time, or maybe golden raisins, but the basis of this cupcake was very good, a definite keeper (it earned a few "favorite" comments from the cupcake group), and one that could have many many additions and variations!

Cupcake NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year! No, New Year's Eve did not fall on Wednesday, but no one is going to paint me into a corner as to when I can make cupcakes (didn't you hear--"no one puts baby in a corner"). The design is super simple--I made mini chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and frosted them with chocolate fudge frosting (because sometimes a girl just wants chocolate cake :)). I piped on the numbers for the clock and arranged them to look like a clock. The middle cupcakes are frosted white for some alternating color in the arrangement and then the clock hands are just chocolate frosting piped on. And while the clock says midnight, we did actually celebrate ALL the new years for the United States (ok, continental US)...but hey, it's midnight SOMEWHERE :)

Cupcake Christmas! Snowmen and Reindeer, Assorted Flavors and Frostings

For the festive holiday spirit of Christmas, I found two designs of iconic holiday characters (snowmen and reindeer--duh) from the Hello, Cupcake! series, and did my best to replicate them. The snowmen are a white cupcake with peppermint frosting and then rolled in coconut to give them a "flaky" appearance. Make sure you roll them in the coconut RIGHT AFTER you frost them or nothing is sticking. The noses are cut up Starburst, the eyes are mini chocolate chips, and the rest of the decorations are assorted candies (Runts, Airheads). I'm not going to lie, these were not the easiest cupcakes I have ever decorated--the scarves are sticky and pulled apart and they toppled over during transportation.
The reindeer are gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting dyed brown. Now, you are supposed to roll them in brown colored decorating sugar (NOT brown sugar, DAD), but Michaels refuses to carry that color, so I was stuck with darkening the frosting as best I could. The eyes are chocolate chips, and the nose is a red hot (because they are all Rudolph, of course). The antlers are made of melting chocolate piped into a design--I let them dry in the refrigerator and then stuck them into the sides of the the mini cupcake, which is turned on its side for the face. These were much easier, both to design and transport, but they are both equally cute!!

Cupcake BIRTHDAY!! 1920s style :)

Happy birthday Shavonne!!! In honor of #29, we celebrated 1929 style (before the Crash, of course) with a speakeasy, gambling and martinis--cupcake martinis that is! When asked by the birthday girl to provide the desserts, of COURSE I said yes and couldn't wait to begin my project. After getting approval for a few colors (green, purple and red, in case you couldn't tell), I then began planning the cupcake and frosting flavors. The red ended up being a recipe I concocted--Cherry Almond cupcakes (guest starring Amaretto!) with Cherry-Almond-Vanilla frosting. The green ones are Creme de Menthe, from 125 Favorite Cupcakes, and the purple ones are "Purple" Velvet cupcakes (using Martha Stewart's Red Velvet recipe). Creme de Menthe was topped with mint cream cheese and Purple Velvet just had plain ol' cream cheese.
Now to the assembly. Plastic martini glasses (big and little), red Jelly Bellys and purple and green M&Ms, and a TON of frosting--these are the tools needed. For the mini martini glasses, I began with a few jelly beans, added a mini cupcake, and topped it off with a swirl of frosting. DONE. For the larger glasses, I put a few M&Ms in the stem to prevent the frosting from dripping too far down and then "painted" the inside of the glass with frosting warmed up in the microwave to make it a little runny-er. Then into the fridge for it to harden. The big cupcakes were actually made in the LARGE cupcake tins, but filled halfway, so it was a flatter cupcake. Drop that baby into the glass and either swirl the frosting or pile it on top and smooth it out with a butter knife and garnish with some leftover candy. The "straws" are cocktail forks (with or without, they look great). You can see the mini cupcakes modeled in Hello Cupcake's newsletter, and the larger cupcake "martinis" on Jelly Belly's web site.
I had SO MUCH FUN making these cupcakes, but also lost a lot of sleep stressing about whether or not I could pull it off. But, since 1929 WAS in the midst of Prohibition, we couldn't break the law and have REAL martinis, now could we :)


Side note: Special thanks to Brian (college football writer for AOL Fanhouse, FYI) for the AWESOME cupcake plate in the background.

Persimmon Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, 12/01

What is a persimmon? Well, it's a funny looking fruit. But I was challenged (ok not really challenged but asked) to make a persimmon cupcake from Art's donation of the ingredient, so I set out to find a recipe. I found one here (and A LOT of other cool recipes, which I will be trying out in the near future!!) that seemed to be pretty reputable. There was orange juice and pumpkin pie spice involved, and while I do have to admit this was not my favorite cupcake, those who KNEW persimmons and what they should taste like were satisfied with the flavor. One review was that it "tasted like winter" which I guess is good because persimmons seem to only be ripe at this time of year for a few weeks (?)--kind of like the Macinaw Peach (if you know Seinfeld, you get it)!!! So if you like persimmons, I suggest this recipe. It was fun, however, to try a new recipe with a new flavor since I feel like I am running out of new ideas and flavors (I know it's not true, but I'm in a cupcake rut, I guess!!). Next up--festive and FUN Christmas cupcakes:)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Nutter Butter Turkeys, 11/17

Gobble Gobble! Happy (early) Thanksgiving. Since SOMEONE gets a whole week off at Thanksgiving (no complaints here, even if it means a little pay cut), this is Cupcake Wednesday's Thanksgiving. And for the festivities, I have pumpkin cupcakes from a tried and true recipe (into which I added pumpkin pie spice! Oh yes, I am THAT daring) and my cream cheese frosting. Topping these babies off are little "turkeys" made with 1 1/2 Nutter Butters, a few pieces of candy corn, mini chocolate chips, and a little extra frosting. I got the idea from another web site (just Google "Nutter Butter Turkey Cupcakes") and, while they have wings as well, I could NOT for the life of me fit the wings on the turkey. So guess what, my turkey can't fly (wait, can turkeys fly anyway? I know they can run really fast). The turkey cupcakes got rave reviews for their design, and would be great for little kids, but as it is, we turn in to little kids whenever we get around cupcakes, so they worked perfectly for us!

Fun Cupcake-Themed Items

So this is a new topic for my blog, but since I have received so many FUN cupcake themed items in the last year or so, I thought they (and the gift givers) deserved a shout out. I will add posts periodically. The first blog of this sort is dedicated to Lisa (see her blog), who found, at Bath and Body Works, this awesome hand sanitizer!! It absolutely smells like Red Velvet cupcakes, and it even has GLITTER! It's such a Catch-22--I want to use it but I don't want it to get used up too quickly. And at this time of the school year (think flu season and no one covering their mouths--you would think a 16 year old knew to do that by now but I guess not...), teachers are grateful for any type of germ fighter!!

Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting with Jelly Bellys, 11/09

Cupcake Wednesday took place on Tuesday since our week is totally messed up (but I'm not complaining about a four day weekend!). The spiced cupcakes are from Crazy About Cupcakes, and the cream cheese frosting (my own) was dyed a light shade of brown for the base. To celebrate the fall month of November, and the coming of Thanksgiving, I took an idea from What's New, Cupcake! and decorated the cupcakes like "Indian Corn." I had the most fun picking out the Jelly Belly colors and decorating them in a fun pattern. Squished together, they REALLY do look like corn on the cob! The leaves are another issue. The book suggests making it from philo dough, which I did, and it was my first time working with it. Well, mine looks NOTHING like theirs :( , but I tried. The definitely LOOKED like leaves, but propped up around the corn they just kind of fell flat. I suppose I will have to practice to get the technique right. Go to Hello Cupcake's website to see how it REALLY should look (or buy the book, it's TOTALLY worth it!).

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting in a Graveyard Scene, 10/20

It is getting closer to Halloween and my holiday spirit is picking up. For this week's design, I incorporated some ideas from What's New Cupcake, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, along with my own ideas. For the base cupcake, I used red velvet--Martha Stewart's recipe--because it seemed kind of appropriate. The frosting, of course, was cream cheese (my own combination and ratio of ingredients). After frosting, I rolled the cupcakes in ground-up chocolate cookies to make the "dirt," thus beginning my graveyard scene. On separate occasions, I made the trees (the outline of which came from What's New Cupcake) and the grave markers (broken up bits of graham cracker, dipped in melting chocolate, and piped on RIP letters. The rest is store-bought courtesy of Walgreens--candy corn pumpkins and gummy skeletons I cut into pieces and stuck in the frosting. The scene was put together hastily before lunch, but the cute factor is still there, and I like the way it turned out. I think under different circumstances I would like to have put these on a platter and sprinkled more "dirt" on the bottom to fill in the spaces and make it REALLY festive, but I can live with the outcome for today.

PS. As ordered by my Dad, I have reserved some of the leftover cupcakes for him, that are not to be frozen by Mom--this rule (#576 in our lifetime--me, Steve and Erin, that is) is called the King's Fifth (maybe he needs a shirt with this on it). This rule does have more practicality behind it than the Neopolitan ice cream rule though!!!

Honey Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting as Candy Corn, 10/06

It's October!! Candy corn and Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins galore!!! These cupcakes were inspired by two things--a candy corn candle my mom got me last weekend (the "cupcake" in the back!), and the left over candy corn in my pantry from my attempt at candy corn-infused vodka:) The cupcakes are honey flavored, because that is the closest I could think of candy corn tasting like, and it's the same recipe as the "bee" cupcakes. The frosting is just store-bought but dyed with gel dyes to get a vibrant color. Then, using a large star, I swirled the yellow, then orange on top of that, and a dab of white. Festive!!!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, 09/01

Cupcake Wednesdays is back!! Which means so is school but a girl's gotta make a living somehow. So the first design for the beginning of the school year is, what else, an apple!! I've never been given an apple though (I have, however, been graced with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, which I prefer), but it still reminds me of school and fall (and yes, I consider the first day of school to be the first day of fall!!). The cupcakes are caramel apple cupcakes from Crazy About Cupcakes, and the design is from my newest cupcake book, What's New Cupcake? by the authors of Hello Cupcake! My new book--courtesy of Marnie :) The "apple" shape is created from cutting off a tiny bit of the bottom of a mini donut, and then topped with a BUNCH of store-bought frosting dyed red. I then rolled the top of the cupcake GENTLY in red sugar and let them set in the fridge. While that was going on, I cut a tootsie roll length-wise and rolled it into a stem shape. I cut a green leaf out of a green airhead candy and scored it down the middle. I did think these cupcakes looked difficult to put together, but in the end they were not really that difficult!! The hardest part was getting the frosting on the cupcake/donut combination. And once the sugar soaked in to the frosting, combined with the apple/caramel/cinnamon flavor of the cupcake, it tasted a little bit like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and well, there is nothing bad about Cinnamon Toast Crunch :)

Brown Sugar Pound Cake Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, 06/02

Bittersweet yes, as this is the last cupcake Wednesday for a while. It does, however, mean that they schoolyear is nearly over, so I won't mourn too much. To celebrate the onset of summer (I don't care what the calendar says, to teachers, summer starts when school ENDS), I developed a beachy scene, creativity that was inspired by my newest cupcake book (courtesy of Marnie!), "What's New Cupcake?" It was also my first venture into a cupcake "scene". The cupcakes are from Martha Stewart, and the frosting is some leftover vanilla buttercream, with the remainder being from a can of store-bought frosting. I expected the cupcakes, with the term "pound cake" in the title, to be heavier, but they were not overly heavy. The "sand" is brown sugar, and to create the waves I just piled on the frosting (after tinting it blue) and then created peaks with a butter knife. I was pleased with the end result. I cut up some Swedish Fish and shoved them in the frosting to add to the scenery. All in all, it makes me excited for my first full day off, when I go to the beach and enjoy the sand on my feet!!