Super Bowl XLVII Cupcakes

Hello again! Such a rare moment, blogging two days in a row! I hope in the future to have more posts to share, though. Well, today is the Super Bowl, and up until about 2 days ago, I had no clue who was in it. I pretty much watch for the commercials. I saw a preview for a commercial where a baby,  panda and a bunch of other animals are going into space!! I want to see that one! I love pandas! And space! *ahem* Anyhoo...

This is perhaps the 4th or 5th year that I've made Super Bowl cupcakes, and it's the only way I remember which teams played! For the San Francisco 49ers cupcakes, I went with a caramel buttercream, so they would already have that tan color for the background. The cupcakes were almond flavored (love that combo!) 

The Baltimore Ravens cupcakes were vanilla cake with vanilla icing. I decided to keep the background white, so that people don't get a mouthful of black icing. Blech!

I went with the simple "B" because the raven's head would just be far too much detail for me (I was making these at 1 am this morning!) I think they turned out pretty nicely, and I hope they're a hit tonight at the Super Bowl party.

No matter what team you're rooting for, have a fun and safe Super Bowl! I'll be on the lookout for the space panda!

Late Post : Carrot Cupcakes, Halloween Festivites, and My Betrothed's Birthday

I have been MIA as of late, and it's because I've found myself busier than usual! Between Halloween, a hurricane, and cake orders at home, my blog has fallen by the wayside. :(  But no more!

The weekend before Halloween, I threw a Halloween Monster Mash/ Birthday Bash (for Roger's birthday). It was much fun, the food was amazing, and the costumes were awesome! I DIYed my devil costume, and managed to look quite snazzy-- except my corset was KILLING me. I think it was actually shifting my organs around! Eek! My Betrothed was an indie hipster (complete with finger mustache!) Thrifting for his clothes was a lot of hard work!

Anyhoo, for the party, I made carrot cupcakes, which were requested by my Betrothed, the birthday boy! I didn't really like how mixes turned out, so I went with a scratch carrot cake recipe. I obtained it from Taste of Home and the recipe can be found here. It came out tasty, but I wanted it more moist, so I may keep searching for other recipes or try to tweak this one in the future.

I topped my cupcakes with my cream cheese buttercream and Halloween sprinkles and voila!

The party-goers loved them-- and so did my Betrothed. :)

The next day, I made his birthday cake, which was The Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. He is a huge Tolkien fan-- so much so, that I'm pretty sure he's already getting in line for The Hobbit in theaters next month. I made my new trusty chocolate cake recipe and filled it with Dr. Oetker chocolate mousse. It was quite delicious and very moist. It was a hit with Roger and his family. :)

The writing is "Happy Birthday, Roger" in Elvish, I think

Slay that Eye! grrr

Ah, yes, this is my 100th post!!! It seemed like just yesterday that I started rambling about delicious sweet goodies. 2 years and 100 posts later, I am very proud that I've actually kept this up! (she said after a long hiatus)

Brown Sugar Bacon Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Good afternoon, all! It's definitely been a while since I posted. It's mainly because I've had a dry spell in cake orders. :( But I've also been busy at work. This past weekend, Roger (my Betrothed) celebrated the completion of his first year at law school! So I wanted to surprise him with a delicious treat made with something he loves. I've done the chocolate, the peanut butter, and even chocolate and peanut butter. So I went a bit more out of the box...

BACON!!

And speaking of "out of the box," I made these cupcakes from scratch! :)

•  1/2 c bacon, cooked and chopped (about 8 pieces)
• 2 Tbsp bacon grease, cooled
• 1 c loosely packed dark brown sugar (you can also use light)
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 c milk
• 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

 First, start by frying up the bacon.

Save the grease and let it cool!

Also, melt the butter and let it cool.
Then preheat the oven to 350 and line your cupcake pans. This recipe was intended for 12 cupcakes, but I ended up with 15.

In a bowl the dry ingredients go. Then stir them with a fork to blend.

In a larger bowl, whisk the brown sugar and egg until smooth. Then slowly pour in the melted butter, bacon grease, vanilla,and milk, whisking until all is combined.

Add the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until smooth.

Then fold in that chopped bacon!

Scoop the batter with a 1/4 c measure and bake for 16-19 minutes.

Check the bacon bits!

Yum!

While the cupcakes are cooling,candy some bacon to go on top. Toss 5 strips of bacon in 1/3 c of brown sugar and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Lay the bacon out on a parchment-line backing sheet and sprinkle the strip with the remaining brown sugar mixture.

Place another piece of parchment on top and another baking sheet on top of that, so that the bacon lays flat while baking. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes, then check the bacon. If it is still soft, place the bacon back in the oven for another 15 - 20 minutes. Remove top pan and parchment and let cool.

To make the maple buttercream, I added some prepared maple icing (found at cake supply stores) to my vanilla buttercream. Another alternative is adding 2 Tbsp of actual maple syrup to the buttercream, or adding maple flavor (although I don't know how authentic the flavor tastes).

 I added a drizzle of the leftover maple icing and some fudge icing (just for a little chocolate kick) and a piece of the candied bacon on top. These turned out amazing! :) I was super-excited that the cupcakes turned out awesome, and these will definitely go on the menu in my future bakery. :)

I also had a fun time making these cuppin' cakes. I felt like I was on Epic Meal Time, bacon-flippin', candying bacon, and a-drippin' that choc-uh-late sawse!

Congrats to Roger for completing his 1L year!

Post - St. Patrick's Day Shenanagans: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Greetings, everyone! I got back from Florida last week, and I felt super-refreshed (especially since the weather has also been nice here in Virginia Beach). But now, the weather has cooled down, and I am not well. Bleh. But I was still able to make some cuppin' cakes for St. Patty's Day this weekend. Even though I did not partake in the massive amounts of green beer, I made a batch of Irish Car Bomb cupcakes-- Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's buttercream.

I found this recipe at instructables.com, which was an adaptation of a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. The ingredients are as follows...
For the cupcakes:

• 1c Guinness beer
• 1c butter, melted
• 3/4 c cocoa powder
• 2 c flour
• 2 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4c sour cream 

Preheat the oven to 350 and line your cupcake pans (this recipe is good for about 28). Melt the butter in the microwave then add to a large bowl. Add the Guinness and the cocoa powder to eh butter and mix well.

A little extra step at this point would be to enjoy the rest of the beer (or in my case, I had my Betrothed take care of it).

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.Then stir in the eggs and sour cream. Add the chocolate mixture and mix well.

Spoon the batter into the cupcake pans. I actually had a bit of extra batter that I poured into a 6" pan. Bake all for about 17 minutes.

For the Bailey's buttercream, I mixed up my basic vanilla buttercream recipe and added an entire mini bottle of Bailey's (of course you can add more to taste, but make sure your buttercream isn't too soupy!). The Bailey's mixes well by hand, so no need to bust out the Kitchenaid if you already have some vanilla buttercream lying around.

A bit of shamrock sprinkles and voila! (what would be the Irish equivalent of that...?)

Once these were baked, the Guinness flavor was hard to find. However, this recipe makes delicious, fluffy chocolate cupcakes! I think next time, I could add a Guinness glaze or use the Jameson whiskey ganache filling from the original recipe, just to give them a little kick.

Bowling Party Cupcakes!

Hello, all! I made these cuppin' cakes this past weekend, but I haven't had the time to blog about them until today. I've been freaking out/ planning/ getting excited about my trip to Florida for the next week! My Betrothed and I are renting a car and road-tripping it down to Clermont to spend some time with family. I'm so excited because we haven't visited in almost five years! Also, this will be the longest road trip I've been on, so I'm super-nervous!

Anyhoo, I made two dozen bowling ball cupcakes for a birthday party this past Saturday. It just so happens that the US Open of Bowling was also this past weekend. It was actually pretty interesting because the bowler that won (Pete Weber) was creating quite a stir. But, I digress!

I started with baking 12 yellow and 12 chocolate cupcakes (the other two dozen went tightly wrapped in the freezer for snacking). My client requested purple bowling balls, but I didn't want to make them just solid purple. I wanted them to look marble-y, like real bowling balls.

So I started with a lighter purple on each cupcake and gave them a rough smooth (heh makes sense but doesn't at the same time)

Then I mixed the remaining purple with even more purple and squiggled the darker purple onto each cupcake.

So to get the marble-y effect, I used a spatula dipped in hot water to smooth it over and make it round and bowling ball-like.

After repeating that 23 more times, I added 3 black dots to each ball and patted it down with a wet finger. And voila!

The kids loved the cupcakes at the party, and I heard that there were none left!

So, my lovely readers, I will be on hiatus for a little while. Time to pack up my shorts and bathing suits and head on down to Florida for a much-needed vacation! Perhaps I shall bombard you with stories and non-confectionary pictures when I return mwahahaha!

Big Baby Mickey Cake and Super Bowl Cupcakes!

My weekend was full of cake. Between work and home, there was a lot going on. I had my first 12" cake-- it could barely fit in my tiny oven! Then I had my usual Super Bowl cupcakes (this is the 4th year, I believe). I finally got to attend the Super Bowl party my cupcakes were going to--as well as even eat one!

For the Baby Mickey cake, I started with yellow cake iced it in vanilla buttercream. I had also baked off one cupcake as the baby's "smash cake" (client's preference). This 12" cake made me learn that 3 boxes of cake mix and its ingredients was the absolute most that I could fit in my Kitchenaid at one time!

Anyhoo, after base icing the cake, I scored the Baby Mickey design with my trusty fondant tool.

Then I started filling in the lines and smoothing it with a warm spatula.

What I like to do to save icing is start with one color then mix in more colors as I go along. So I started with light blue then mixed more blue into it later. I started with yellow also, then mixed it into the orange, then mixed that into the brown until eventually everything ended up being mixed into black.

And voila! Here's the finished product with its matching little cupcake. From one of the party-goers, I heard the cake was a huge hit, and I may be getting a call for someone else's birthday party. Fabulous!

So yesterday, I made two dozen super bowl cupcakes, a dozen for each team. Honestly, I am not a football person at all, so I barely knew who the teams were. I was glad, however, to find out that they pretty much had the same colors. For the Giants cupcakes, I went with base icing in white (the smaller the amount of blue icing, the less likely there will be blue teeth at the party). Then I added "ny" in blue and outlined in red. Pretty simple.

But when it came to the Patriots, it got a little tricky... Instead of drawing the whole patriot's head, I just went for the hat, which I thought was more of a focal point of the logo anyway.

They seemed to work out, even though they kind of look like a map of Kentucky or something... Hmm Ah, well. The cupcakes were still a hit at the party, and people ate the Patriots cupcakes despite the fact that they lost... I think. Hey, I was only there for the food and the commercials (I loved OK Go in the Chevy Sonic ad, by the way).

Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Cupcakes

Today is the second annual ZS Thanksgiving. It is a time for the Zombie Squad to gather from near and far and spend quality time with each other while eating good food and drinking until merry. I, of course, was responsible for the dessert. I didn't have much time, so I went with a cake mix-based recipe that turned out as moist and delicious as a scratch-made recipe. I also needed to find an alternative to cream cheese buttercream, since some people attending the feast have dietary restrictions. I searched through my notebook of flavor ideas and found Honey-Ginger Buttercream. The recipe for the cupcakes are as follows:

• 1 box Duncan Hines space cake mix
• 1 box (3.4oz) Jello Pumpkin Spice pudding mix
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup canned pumpkin

1) Preheat the oven at 350 and place paper cups in cupcake pan.
2) Mix all ingredients for 30 seconds on low, then stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl (as well as the paddle). Continue to mix for 2 minutes on medium. Scoop 1/4 cup of mixture into each baking cup.
3) Bake for 18 to 23 minutes or until a butter knife comes out clean.

Yummy!

While the cupcakes were cooling, I started on the Honey-Ginger Buttercream. The recipe I used makes about 4 cups of icing, which is just enough to make 24 roses with leaves.

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 2 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Beat the butter until creamy, then add the powdered sugar and beat on high until smooth.

2) Add the honey and ginger.

Love the smell of fresh ginger!

*spray the measuring cup with pan release before measuring your honey!*

3) Beat for another minute or so before adding the vanilla. Then continue to beat on high for 3-4 minutes until nice and fluffy.

The consistency of the buttercream is kind of like a stiff Swiss Meringue without all the muscle involved. So it was perfect to hold a rose shape.

And 23 more...

After I made all of the roses I needed, I used the rest to make leaves. It worked out perfectly, and I didn't have much buttercream left over.

I only used two teaspoons of ginger because I didn't want the flavor of the ginger to overwhelm the honey flavor. Feel free to add another teaspoon if you're feeling spicy!

And of course these cupcakes aren't specifically for Thanksgiving. They are perfect for any fall occasion, or if you're a pumpkin-hoarder like me, they are perfect for any time of the year!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (and have a safe Black Friday!)

Braaaaains (and Eyeballs)

My Betrothed had his birthday this past Friday (more on that later), so I decided to make him some delicious cuppin' cakes for the occasion. And why not make them Halloween-themed? I baked up some vanilla-almond cupcakes and whipped up some vanilla buttercream, and got to work on making brains and eyeballs!

The eyeballs were flat-iced then I added green for the iris and red for veins. I finished off with a black pupil. For the brains, I mixed up a brownish pink brainy color and used a Wilton tip 5 to freehand the folds. To divide the two "hemispheres," I ran a warm spatula down the middle.

The cupcakes were a definite hit! Perhaps the next time I make these, I should add a gooey filling. Mwahahaha! *cough* *ahem* Anyhoo...

These cupcakes inspire me to be an awesome zombie next year. I'm talking eyeball hanging off and a huge open wound on my throat and greenish. Ahh, yes... Stay tuned for that one!

Have a fun but safe Halloween, everyone!