Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting OR Strawberry Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting, 03/10

First off, a bit of a self serving moment--HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. That's right, the big 3-0 and I can't even eat birthday cake. Believe me, I will be freezing a few of these babies to enjoy in April. Well, the reason for strawberry cupcakes is that strawberry is my favorite flavor, and having made these cupcakes before (they are the Sprinkles Bakery recipe, as given to Martha Stewart), I can vouch for their deliciousness. The frostings vary because I had some leftover strawberry frosting (also from Sprinkles via Martha) but wanted to try a yummy sounding recipe in 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, Strawberry Cream Cheese Buttercream. YUMMY. Well, my mistake in substituting an ingredient might have made it less cream cheese-y but that is the lesson I will have learned. While it called for strawberry jam, I decided to just use pureed strawberry for a "healthier" alternative. Well, unbeknownst to me, strawberry puree is more liquid-y than jam (ok I KNEW it but didn't it didn't really cross my mind at that point), so the frosting came out WAY too runny, and I literally had to add about 1 more cup of powdered sugar, so I'm sure it changed the taste a little bit. Next time, I will slowly add the puree, but I do think I will stick to the puree (it just seems more pure, you know?). The comments heard 'round the room was that it tasted like a strawberry smoothie. Good to know!! Well, these are my birthday cupcakes, happy birthday to me, and while everyone else celebrates it today, I'll celebrate April 8th!! :)

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting, 03/03

I must admit, when you don't get to taste the cupcakes, it makes it rather difficult to write about them. But that is the sacrifice I have made, and I will continue to use reviews of the cupcakes to report on the success of Cupcake Wednesday (I have, however, frozen two of them to indulge as soon as Easter hits). The yellow buttermilk cupcakes were from Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook, and even though I cut the recipe in half (which is difficult when there are 5 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks) and used regular flour in place of the cake flour portion (using 1/4 cup less according to my mom), they came out fluffy and moist and nicely rounded on the top (I hate the cupcakes that come out flat). The maple buttercream frosting was from PureMapleProducts.com, although I substituted maple extract for the maple syrup (halving the recipe, I used three teaspoons of maple extract) and added a bit more milk, slowly, until I found the right consistency. Despite the strong smell of the extract (my fingers smelled like maple syrup for DAYS), the report on the frosting was that it was NOT (again, despite the smell) as maple-y as one would think. Thanks to this frosting, I now have just about every extract available at Vons!! My mom dubbed these cupcakes "Breakfast Cupcakes" (because I was going for the pancake inspiration), so that is what they shall be called!

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting, 02/24

Thanks to the wonderful southern California weather and very fruitful lemon trees (thanks Mom and Art!), I had an abundance of lemons in my refrigerator, taking up room, but I felt too bad to let them turn bad. So I found a new lemon cupcake recipe, this time from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, for my next cupcake. Although I tend to have issues with this book because the cupcakes don't rise very well (I have decided to just amend each recipe to include baking soda), these cupcakes rose very well, and I added a little extra zest for that super-lemony taste, just in case. :) The frosting took a little time to decide, because I wanted to do something new, but couldn't decide what type of frosting to make. I settled on a Lemon Buttercream (recipe here) that, when mixed, was absolutely light and airy and, texture-wise, fabulous (couldn't taste it--Lent, remember?). For the frosting technique, I used what I think Hello, Cupcake! calls the "Rustic" Frosting technique. I plopped a glob of frosting in the middle and fanned it out to the edges, lifting the knife up at the end of each movement (girls of the '80s, imagine feathering your hair, but with frosting--that kind of wrist snap!).
So because I have absolutely no taste information on these cupcakes, here are the "reviews" from lunch: "Enough zest in the frosting to make it taste like lemon;" "The buttermilk reminds me of buttermilk pancakes I make;" "I can taste the buttermilk;" "They're so light and airy!" Those are the specifics. So to review, not too buttermilk-y, but enough to contribute to a light and airy texture, enough lemon in both the cupcake and the frosting, and good enough for seconds!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, 02/17

Milk and cookies anyone? These cupcakes were unique on a couple levels. First of all, they really were like chocolate chip cookie in cupcake form. The batter was a little denser, the cupcake came out a bit heavier and chewier. These cupcakes were from Crazy About Cupcakes, although I must admit I adapted them a little bit. I added mini chocolate chips to the batter (which did NOT sink to the bottom) in addition to the topping the book suggested (a mixture of chocolate chips and brown sugar on top of the cupcake before the frosting). I would have nixed this component of the cupcake, though, and instead just filled the cupcake up to the top, instead of halfway to the top as the book directed. To compensate for a lower cupcake, I swirled the frosting, which was also a new attempt on my part to create my own little recipe. So I already found my perfect cream cheese frosting recipe (to my personal liking--not necessarily the perfect combination and consistency for all), and instead of the last 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, I added cocoa powder. Although it was less cream cheese-y than I had wanted, the frosting came out very light and airy--not what I expected from cream cheese frosting. It almost had the texture of a mousse, which pretty much rocked. I enjoyed making these cupcakes because all pieces were new, and I have discovered I like finding minor adaptations to make them my own creation. Also because it was the last cupcake (or sweet for that matter) that I will be tasting without the punishment of my own self-inflicted penance because I gave up sweets--cupcakes and all--for Lent.

Pina Colada Cupcakes with Pineapple Pudding Frosting; Valentines Day Mini Cupcakes, 02/10

There were two cupcake themes today. First of all it was Claudia's birthday, and her request was from one of my favorite cookbooks, but not one I ever expected to use for Cupcake Wednesday--Hungry Girl!!!! I kid you not, these books (and website) has changed my life. Healthy, low-cal options for "regular" food, like cupcakes, dips, ONION RINGS. But I digress. So the first cupcakes were pina colada, and the frosting is a mixture of pudding, cream cheese and pineapple that tastes divine (I could eat it by the spoonful). The great thing about these cupcakes is that--despite the few ingredients--they are SUPER moist. In fact, they are such a favorite I was threatened by my brother if I did not bring some home (so as to not repeat the Runts Cupcake incident--oops!). They will reappear--Courtney is changing her request to these. So seriously, BUY THIS BOOK because it ROCKS.
The second installment was inspired from Hello, Cupcake!, a valentines day theme (and as much as I despise this holiday--and no I'm not lonely--I thought they were cute) that looked easy enough. I made some mini cupcakes from last week's batter, and then just a chocolate cake batter mix to make little chocolate ones. Then some big marshmallows and lots of valentines candy transforms these cupcakes into a box of chocoloates!!! Special shout out to mom for saving the heart shaped box. And from far away, they actually kind of look like chocolates (to quote Cher from Clueless: "It's like a Monet...from far away it looks good...")!

White Chocoate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, 02/03

There is really only one thing that the phrase "White Chocolate" conjures up in my mind--the guy that had it tattooed on his arm with whom my friend thought it would be funny to set me up. We both got a good laugh out of that and occasionally reference him (but only to make fun of someone as lame as he has to be). But the cupcake recipe did sound good, I hadn't tried it yet, and I had white chocolate chips. The cupcake recipe is from Crazy About Cupcakes, from which I have yet to experience an icky cupcake. They are definitely flavorful with not only white chocolate chips but melted white chocolate in the batter as well. The frosting has a story behind it. I just used Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting, but there was a purpose (and laziness was not it). In the book Hello, Cupcake, they discuss how the store-bought frosting holds color better than homemade, and since I had the idea of coloring it, I stuck with store-bought and will save homemade frosting for next week. So, obviously, I dyed the frosting orange, but then rolled the cupcake in orange sprinkles (pour a whole bunch into a shallow bowl so that you never see the bottom of the bowl, that way the frosting does not stick to the bowl). And to celebrate the near-end of basketball season (high school--one of the Cupcake Wednesday-ers is the coach here), I designed it like a basketball--or as close as I could. The inspiration came from two places--Hello Cupcake for the sprinkles part (they have this AWESOME cupcake platter of "pool balls" for the pool lover that uses color sprinkles for the different colors of the balls) and Martha Stewart's cupcake book for the actual basketball. She, however, used black licorice strings for the design, and for the life of me I could not find them, so I just piped chocolate frosting dyed black instead. Then I thought they looked like spiderwebs on a Halloween cupcake, so I lined a few with white frosting. I'm not sure which looks more authentic but the whole cupcake was a neat concept and I'm glad I learned the whole sprinkle thing because it really does add to the decoration aspect of the cupcake and there are so many directions you can go!

Crazy Cake, Friday, January 29th

Alright, so it's not Wednesday and it's not a cupcake but I have to display this newest creation--CRAZY CAKE!! For Kelli's REAL birthday, I had been saving this cake for about a year. She sent me a picture of this cake on another website, and asked how on earth this was possible. I did some clicking and found the process, except I added my own little touches. First of all, it is just a regular cake mix (Fresh and Easy), and made according to the box (this is different than the other example, which did it the "Weight Watchers" way). I divided the batter into 4 portions of 1 cup, and two portions of 1/2 cup.Three colors made up each of the round cakes, because I wanted three colors per layer. Because of the watery nature of this batter, I tried my best to place a little cardboard divider as I was pouring so it didn't spread out too much--it worked out just ok. Bake the cake according to the directions, and then I repeated the process for the second cake while layer one cooled off. I even sliced off the top so it was as flush as possible (it wasn't 100 percent successful, but good enough). After everything had cooled off, I spread a little vanilla frosting on the top of the bottom layer, and put the top layer on, adjusting for maximum color exposure once cut. My next step (a day later) was to frost the cake with Kelli's favorite frosting, Vanilla Cream Frosting, and it frosted very well. I was unsure of how well I would know how to frost a cake without making unsightly dents in the frosting, but this frosting did not pull on the cake or do anything that would make my nightmares come true. I dyed some leftover Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting purple (Kel's favorite), and piped on some shells on the top and the bottom. There are so many different angles you can take with this cake (Cardinal and Gold anyone? :P ) for so many different occasions, and it's really not very hard. The one suggestion I would make is to have a second person there to help you pour (I was standing there wishing my cat Nan had opposable thumbs to help me--nothing came of it though).