Lemon Blueberry

Two posts, one week what?!  Yup trying to catch up.  This week I made Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes. 
I LOVE lemon cake so I used the lemon cake recipe I tried and liked for the lemon strawberry cupcakes.  I filled them with lemon curd and topped them with Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting.  The blueberry wasn't as strong as I had hoped for but the lemon cake was good :).  Maybe next time I can add in some

To get a better blueberry taste.  I also finally got to use the super cute cupcake wrappers my friend Kacie got me months ago.  I've been waiting for a perfect cupcake to use them for.

I added some fresh Blueberries to a few of them



Cracked open for lemony goodness



Hubby Rating

Cake:  8

Frosting: 7

Filling:  9

Overall:  8.5

Happy Baking,

Sorry this is all Bolded, can't figure out how to turn it off...

You'll definitely want S'More of these cupcakes

It's been FOREVER since I last posted and it had been FOREVER since I baked it seemed.  I've been trying new concoctions and they have been good but not great.  Last week I made S'More cupcakes from the recipe at MarthaStewart.com, which is the recipe from the owner of Trophy Cakes.  Never heard of it but if it was good enough for Martha, it must be good!  The recipe starts out with making graham cracker crusts for the cupcakes.  The recipe did not make enough for 24 cupcakes so I had to wing it make some extra by guesstimate.  I also found a good use for shot glasses, pressing graham cracker crust into cupcake papers :)  Once you put the crust in the papers, you sprinkle them with shaved chocolate, or in my case, chocolate chips and bake them until the crusts are golden, approx. 5 minutes. 

 Then you add in the "soupy" chocolate batter and sprinkle with the extra graham cracker crust and bake.  They kinda sank but I just used it as an opportunity to add LOTS of marshmallow frosting.  It was like a crater filled with marshmallowy goodness.  Anyways, I baked them and they turned out ok but then I had a baking FAIL.  I tried to make a mini cake in the mini cake pans I have yet to use and the cake bubbled over and created a gooey mess in the oven...miserable. 

Then  I went on to make the "marshmallow" topping.  After watching some Food Network I deduced this was more of a meringue than a marshmallow but then it wouldn't fit the S'More theme so it's marshmallow.  Basically it's egg white (I used the liquid kind from the milk section) sugar, and vanilla.  Pretty tasty. 

The frosting was a mess to work with but I piped them all and then the hubs toasted them with the kitchen torch.  I think he enjoyed it too much and for the next few days he was torching almost everything that came out of the kitchen, and even some things that were not food, like using it to light candles.  It was fun to see it torched because it puffs and then turns golden brown.  We had to be careful not to set the wrappers on fire...
Anyways, they turned out good and the chocolate chips in the bottom added that need S'more essence. 

These cupcakes leave a lot of room to expand on.  Just like how I discovered last year you can make S'mores with Reese's PB Cups...maybe next time..

See the crater of marshmallow?

Hubby Rating
Cake:  9
Frosting:  9.6
Appearance:  7
Overall:  9.2
Happy Baking,

Breakfast Cupcakes

After I took my LOA for a few weeks to recover from baking-itis I decided to make a breakfast cupcake.  The following was born of a baking fail... Pancake Cupcakes.  My Quality Control Officer aka The Hubby tasted the Pancake Cake and said, "No this is no good" and I agreed with him so I made....

Coffee Cake Cupcakes with a "Watch out Cinnabon" Cinnamon/Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting (possibly my favorite icing ever...)
I used my favorite Cake Mix Doctor Coffee Cake recipe and, of course, made it into a cupcake.
The essential ingredients are...

• Yellow Cake Mix
• Eggs
• Oil
• Vanilla Pudding Mix
• Water?
• Sourcream? (sorry I don't have the book with me to verify)
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon
• Brown Sugar
• Walnuts (optional)

When I put the batter into the cupcake tins, I put one scoop and then put in the cinnamon/brown sugar mixture then put the second portion of cupcake batter on top.  Let me tell you, if when you make these your whole house will smell AMAZING! 

I had some left over brown sugar/cinnamon so I decided "Why not add this to my frosting?!"  So I did.

When the cakes cooled, I made cream cheese frosting and added the cinnamon/brown sugar plus some more cinnamon.  Since cinnamon has health benefits, why not?

Here is the finished product...

You can see the cinnamon and brown sugar swirl in the cake!

The brown sugar in the frosting adds a grittiness that I love!

Amazing!

Happy Baking!

Kristi

 

*Update*

So it's been awhile since I posted.  Mainly because I made enough cupcakes in one shot to last for an entire month of posts.  I made 120 cupcakes on Easter weekend for a retirement party at work the following Monday.  So I may have not baked as consistently as before.... :)
Here are some photos of the 8 Dozen

Vanilla Cake with Black Raspberry Buttercream

They look better with a little less purple

Devil's Food with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Why is my red dye "Elmo Red"??

Devil's Food with Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla Cake with Coconut Buttercream and Toasted Coconut

There were many others however I was more focused on packaging and getting these to work ASAP.

They all turned out well and disappeared quickly!  Awesome enough, there is a cake shop by my house that sells bakery boxes with cupcake inserts :)

Happy Baking!

Kristi

8 Dozen

Preparing to bake 8 Dozen Cupcakes for work!  Kinda excited :)

Kristi

Cake Walk Cupcakes

Quickly here are the cupcakes I made for one of my co-worker's daughter's school's Cake Walk Fundraiser. (that's a lot of apostrophes huh?)  The theme was "under the Big Top".  Big Top meaning circus in case you didn't know.  I really love that it has a theme but I struggled to stick to one idea.  So...I just made super bright fun cupcakes.  I think it fits the theme.  I still have to name them though....

I immediately started thinking stripes and elephants.  Dumbo also came to mind.  Then I thought of the foods you eat at the circus and almost decided on making

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1186760

or

http://hoosierhomemade.com/cupcake-tuesdaysnow-cones-ice-cream-cones/

The Sno Cone ones are my favorite and I may have to make those at a later date but for now I made it simple.  Also, again how fun is a circus!!!

If you grew up in the 80's or remember then you might remember this show

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/1565/

One of my FAVORITES as a kid. 

http://www.thewrap.com/blog-post/disneys-dumbo-broadway-bound-15115

Here they are...

 Frosting Fun!

 Settled in their box ready to go

Pink Sugar Sprinkles

Unwrapped

Ready for Taste Test

Hubby Rating

Cake:  10

Frosting:  8.5

Filling:  N/A

Overall:  8.5

Appearance:  9

For these I used Funfetti Mix and similar recipe to the previous chocolate cakes.  Regular buttercream frosting and teal and electric pink gel coloring!

Happy Baking

Kristi

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cakes

Wow I have a lot of catching up to do... Anyways, here are the cupcakes inspired by my dad.  For his birthday I asked him what kind of cupcake would he want.  He told me he likes peanut butter cups (although the eggs are better) and Heath Bars... So I decided to make Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a surprise inside...

Peanut Butter (is this one word or two?) Buttercream Magnificence with Chocolate Glaze!

My Cupcake Taster now requests drink pairings... Milk with this one

Can you see the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup inside????

The recipe for the cupcakes is the same one I used for the Toothpaste Cupcakes.  The book calls it a "muffin" but I like to call it a Cupcake.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Adapted From The Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor

Ingredients:

1 Devil's Food Cake Mix (Super Moist or With Pudding)

1/2 C. Vegetable Oil

1/2 C. Water

1 C. Sour Cream (not the low fat kind, come on now)

1 Small Package Chocolate Instant Pudding (yes, with sugar in it)

4 Large Eggs

2 Sleeves of Crushed Oreos (Found a way to involve the husband, make him figure out how to crush Oreos w/o making a mess.  Pretty entertaining for me and I like to see what kitchen utensil or household item he will try to use)

Anyways, this is super easy!  Put all of the ingredients (minus the Oreos,husband should work on crushing them while you mix) in the bowl and mix for 1 minute, scrape the bowl and then mix for 2 minutes.  Stir in the crushed cookies, eat the extra. 

Divide batter among 24-30 cupcake papers.  This time the recipe made 30.  I put in one scoop of batter and then the peanut butter cup and then another scoop of batter to cover it up.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 17 minutes, depending on your oven.

Remove when done and place on neat wire rack thing to cool.

Honestly for the frosting I put some butter in the mixer, mixed it, added a bunch of peanut butter (I liked the organic roasted PB) and added some vanilla and powdered sugar.  You may need to add heavy cream or milk to smooth out the frosting to make it spread- or pipe- able.  Pipe on cooled cupcakes however you see fit.

Then I made a chocolate glaze and drizzled it over the cupcakes.

These are almost as good as these...

You should definitely try them :)

Hubby Rating

Cake:  9

Frosting:  9

Filling:  6

Overall:  9

Happy Baking

Kristi