Mashup of Past Projects

So, it's finals time. And it's not exactly my idea of fun. I've decided to just save a little time and put together a post with some of the cupcakes I've made in the past.  I won't go into details about many of them but if you see something you're interested in, let me know and I'll try to work it into a real post.

First up, these mermaid cupcakes that a made for a sweet little girl's birthday. All the decorations are handmade from fondant, and the frosting is blue buttercream. I don't remember if it was bubblegum or cotton candy flavored.

Also these were pretty popular. So much so that I actually made them twice in a few weeks. It's a chocolate chip cookie with a peanut butter cup on top, all covered by a brownie.

This was one of my first cupcake baking experiences. It did not go real well, but they were edible and looked nice enough. I wasn't real big on the flavor. They are decorated with conversation hearts and have a heart baked into them.

Lastly in this mashup is one of my favorite spur of the moment creations. When making the second batch of cookie-peanut-butter-cup-brownies above, I had some of the brownie batter left over. So I made some brownie bottom white almond cupcakes. They were delicious! And I don't even remember what kind of frosting I made for these. Nutella maybe...

As always, let me know if you have anything you'd like to see me bake. 

Happy Baking!

Cupcake Cones

So I know it's been a while since my last post. All I can say is this- Life. Life happens and gets in the way sometimes. I've been busy with school and work, not to mention the little free time I had was spent doing absolutely nothing. I've had a hard time finding my motivation for anything lately. However, this past weekend I got my niece Rosie and brought her to stay with me for a couple days. We had a full two days of fun, part of which included making cupcakes.

I decided to try the cupcakes in ice cream cones that I've seen so often. It seemed fairly simple and I knew Rosie would like them. I went the total cheater route on these! Boxed cake exactly per box instructions and canned chocolate frosting. I did add blue Wilton colorburst batter bits to the cake. And of course we put sprinkles on top! A couple of them turned out well and we were able to add frosting so that it actually looked like ice cream in a cone. The rest of them though, not so much. I forgot to take a picture of them because I was so wrapped up trying to keep frosting off my floor :) The cake baked up well on one side of the cones, but poured out the other side. It was pretty sad. But still, I let Rosie frost them herself and take them home with her.

She managed to get frosting pretty much everywhere! But it was worth it. I enjoyed having her here and she was already talking about what she wanted to do next time she comes. So now I'll try to get back into the routine and start posting regularly again.

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes & White Chocolate Buttercream

I'm going to start by saying I don't like Peeps. They're just weird. But I will admit, they do make for a cute cupcake topper. And I'm pretty sure nobody's complaining about these cupcakes. I also decorated a few with Cadbury mini eggs.

You may be wondering why I only made half a cake mix last time, and where is the rest of it. This is just the other half of that chocolate cake mix with some semi-sweet chips added in.

Cake:

1/2 chocolate cake mix

1 egg

1.5 oz vegetable oil
4 oz milk
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Again, double for the whole cake mix (2 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, 1 cup milk).
This made 12 cupcakes and I just baked according to the directions on the box.

Frosting:

3 oz white chocolate chips, melted

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 cup milk
about 5 cups powdered sugar

Cream shortening and butter with vanilla. Add the melted chocolate and some powdered sugar. Mix in the milk and continue to add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency. I decide to color it green to contrast my Peeps. I used leaf green gel color.

Happy baking!

Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes

I've got big plans this weekend! I'm going to the 1st Annual Chuckwagon Races at the Rockin' L Arena in Lacey, AR. I've got a couple people going with me and we'll be hanging out with the family so I'm sure we'll have a big time. And you know I had to make some cupcakes to take with me.

I pinned a red wine cupcake on pinterest a while back. My friend Casey offered these as a choice for cupcakes for this weekend. I'll be honest, I was a little iffy on them. But I decided to give it a shot.

I started with a basic chocolate cake mix. I actually only prepared half the batter. I mixed up half the cake mix, by basically halving the ingredients on the box. Well except the wine. That's definitely not on the box :)

Cake:

1/2 chocolate cake mix

1 egg

1.5 oz vegetable oil

4 oz Cabernet 

I mixed it all up and poured it into 12 lined cupcake wells. It came out perfect for 12 cupcakes. Double this if you're making the whole cake mix. (Comes out to 2 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, 1 cup Cabernet)

As for the Cabernet, I'm not even going to pretend to know anything about wine. I just went to the liquor store and asked the guy for a little bottle of Cabernet. He suggested a box wine, and it was pretty cheap, so I went with it.

Frosting:

3 oz white chocolate chips, melted

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 cup Cabernet- more or less to taste

about 5 cups powdered sugar

Cream shortening and butter. Add vanilla and 1 cup powdered sugar. Pour in melted chocolate. Add an additional cup of powdered sugar. Mix in the wine and continue adding powdered sugar until frosting reaches the desired consistency. It was a rather boring shade of pink, so I added pink gel food coloring to brighten it up a bit.

If you decide to try these, let me know what you think in the comments :)

Happy Baking :)

King Cake Cupcakes

So it's the Mardi Gras time of year. We always have king cake multiple times per year it seems. My grandma brought one up in January, but I thought Mardi Gras would be an appropriate time to make my own. And obviously it had to be in cupcake form! Since we had an ice day (the Arkansas equivalent of a snow day) and I was stuck at home, I literally lived in sweatpants and baked all day. These king cakes are easy to make and only took all day because I've been exceptionally lazy. And I've just gotten word that tomorrow is another ice day. Yay.

Crescent rolls and cream cheese play a starring role in several of my most popular non-cupcake desserts. These cupcakes are really no different. Crescent rolls with cinnamon sugar and cinnamon cream cheese filling. And in trying this experiment I just realized that crescent rolls only have 8 rolls per can...

Cupcakes:
2 cans of crescent rolls
cinnamon and sugar for dusting

Filling:
1 package cream cheese (8 oz)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

To prepare the filling mix room temperature cream cheese with brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. I laid out the crescent rolls and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. I always keep some cinnamon sugar on hand because it is good for so many things. I simply pour some granulated sugar in a bowl and add a small amount of cinnamon and shake it up. I dropped a spoonful of filling on the larger end of each triangle and wrapped the small end over the filling. I tried to seal the bottom as best I could because I didn't want all the goodness to leak out. It really doesn't matter how you wrap them, just get them in a cupcake liner. I baked them at 350 for probably about 15 minutes. I'm terrible at timing things because I never look at the time when I put them in :)

Cinnamon sugar dusted crescent rolls

Into the oven they go

I mixed up the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and spooned the icing over the top of the cupcakes. I sprinkled the wet icing with colored sugar. Which, in case you didn't know, is ridiculously hard to get enough sugar to make pretty colors. I hid the babies in several of the cupcakes. I just have to make sure everybody knows to look for them!

How many babies can you see?

These cupcakes would make a good alternative to cinnamon rolls any time of year. And you could play around with the flavors for different tastes and occasions.

Happy Baking!

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

Mississippi- one of those words I still can't spell and one of those states we all love to hate on :) But with something as delicious as this being named after it, the state can't really be all that bad. After all, what does Arkansas have named after it? *googling* Nope, can't find anything. We need to get on that!

I was trying to come up with something yummy, easy, and fun. Something that I haven't tried yet. K.C. suggested Mississippi mud cake. He rarely even eats cupcakes so I was a little surprised when he made a suggestion. I did tell him that this means he HAS to eat one!

As always, I started with a box mix, Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge cake this time.

Cake:
1 box chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/4-1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

I filled the cupcake tins and baked at 325 F for about 25 min. When finished I pressed mini marshmallows into the tops of the cupcakes. I placed the pans back in the oven and turned it off. The marshmallows melted some but didn't burn or melt completely.

Frosting:
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Mix the milk, butter, vanilla, cocoa, and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Stir in melted chocolate and continue adding powdered sugar until the frosting reaches a pudding-like consistency. This frosting doesn't stand up well for piping so just plop a spoonful on top. Trust me, you won't care what they look like.

Pretty sure these are the best cupcakes I have EVER tasted. If you don't make anything else, you need to make these! You can thank me later :)

Drunk Chocolate Covered Cherries

It's almost Valentine's Day, and whether you celebrate it or not you should make these. I got the idea from Kristan over at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.

I bought a few boxes of Queen Anne cherries and played around with the best method to fill them with amaretto. I determined that if you poke a hole in the top (where the liquid filling is most likely to be) and hollow it out a little you can suck the filling out with a syringe. It works best if the hole is the same size as the syringe tip, but be careful that you don't collapse the bottom of the cherry.

Then I filled my syringe with amaretto and went to work figuring out the best way to refill the cherries. It would be much easier with a syringe and needle but I was just using jello shot syringes (that I've only ever used for cupcakes!) so I ended up wasting quite a bit of amaretto when it dribbled down the sides of the cherries.

I let them sit overnight to dry so the melted chocolate wouldn't get that funky texture when it hit the amaretto. And also because I was tired :)

I melted a few chocolate candy melt wafers in a small bowl and just spooned a little chocolate over the holes. A couple of them I had to come back with a second coat, but they all seemed to seal up nicely. I wrapped them individually in little foil wraps I picked up at Hobby Lobby and put them in 1/4 lb candy boxes, also from Hobby Lobby.

Enjoy! If you decide to try this let me know how it works for you.