Life is a cabaret, old chum.

My little brother is performing in his school play and asked if I would make some cupcakes for a cast party. It was after the fact that I agreed that he mentioned that he'd need about fifty. I'm so not used to cooking on a larger scale but it actually proved to be a lot of fun, and a lot of good practice for the dozens of cupcakes that I'm going to be making for my best friend at her wedding later.

Oreo cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream and smushed oreos topped with a baby oreo.

Carrot cake cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and baby carrot made out of frosting.

White chocolate chip and Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry and White Chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

Mint Chocolate Chip cupcake with Mint Buttercream frosting topped with a chilled grasshopper.

All cupcakes packaged and ready for the show!!

White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Strawberry and Creamed Cheese Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients
1 Cup Unsalted Butter - Room Temp.
1 Cup Sugar
2 Cups A.P.
Flour 1 Tsp. Baking Powder
4 Eggs
1 Tsp. Strawberry Extract
1/2 Cup White Chocolate Chips

Cupcake Directions.
Combine Butter, Sugar, Flour, Baking Powder, Eggs and Strawberry extract in medium bowl. Beat until light and creamy. Fold in White chips.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

Frosting Ingredients
1 Cup Cream Cheese (Softened)
1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar (Sifted)
1 Tsp. Vanilla
3 Tbsp. Butter (Softened)
3 Tbsp. Fresh Strawberries (Chopped)

Frosting Directions
Beat Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar, Vanilla and Butter until creamy. Fold in chopped Strawberries.

Overall the cupcake was one of the more simple ones to make using the 'dump and mix' method but I found the cake to be incredibly dense and not light nor fluffy at all, but still not horrible tasting, especially smothered in strawberries and creamed cheese.

Where I've been.

My experiences in the world of baking as of late. I haven't been documenting much but have still been baking up a storm.

L-R. Vanilla Cheesecake with Cherry Topping. Chocolate Cupcakes with Cherry Filling and Cherry Buttercream Frosting for March of Dimes fundraiser at work. Tropical Beach Cupcakes for Family Reunion on the beach. "Dirt and worms" Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Oreos Crushed on buttercream frosting for a birthday party. Chocolate Cupcakes with a coconut cream filling topped with a vanilla buttercream and toasted coconut flakes. Red velved cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting for Valentines Day.

Mini Cake Rounds

I recently came across these mouthwatering delicious looking cake rounds on Lovely Little Cakes Blog. I knew immediately that I also had to try my hand in making them, especially after reading how scrumptious and what a hit that they were, and after tasting them I knew that she definitely wasn't kidding. These little guys really pack a yummy punch and are crazy simple to make.


Started with a basic chocolate cake recipe paired up with a cream cheese frosting that I sort of wanted to just eat with a spoon.

Pour cream cheese frosting over chocolate and refrain the urge to grab the nearest spoon and pig out.



They would have been a lot less messy but I was in a bit of a hurry. Biting into these was like a huge treat packed into such a small package. The filling was moist and chewy and as I told my mom, reminds me of when the ice cream in your bowl pools in with the cake and makes it extra moist and yummy.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F.

2. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 5 dozen cookies. (My scoop must have been big, I only got about 3 dozen)

Recipe from back of chocolate chip bag

Once again imagine my surprise when I logged into one of my favorite sites Cupcakes Take the cake and saw another one of my cupcakes featured. I am super giddy about this second posting and hope to continue making post worthy cupcakes.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting.

Cupcake Ingredients
1/4 Cup [1/2 stick] Butter, [Room Temp]
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 Cup [2 ounces] Unsweetened Chocolate, coarsely chopped, melted.
2 Large Eggs
1 Tsp Peppermint Extract
1/2 Cup Chocolate Milk [I used regular]
1 1/2 Cups A.P. Flour
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup [6oz] Mini Chocolate Chips

Cupcake Directions

• Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy [3-5 mins]. Beat melted chocolate into butter mixture. Add eggs, peppermint extract and milk. Beat until creamy.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
• Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture and beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 350

Frosting Ingredients
1 stick butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1.2 tsp peppermint extract

Frosting Directions

• Beat butter until light and fluffy, scrape bowl
• Add sifted powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint extract. Alternate and beat well.
• Beat until well combined.

First time using the nut and party cups that I had originally seen on Cupcake Blog instead of the normal cupcake wrappers. I am totally in love with these holders, I am going to stock up and hella use them in place of the wrappers from now on.

On vacation from work this week, and hoping to bake up an insane amount of new recipes.

Oreo Cupcakes w. Vanilla Buttercream / Oreo Buttercream

Cupcake Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups crushed oreo cookies (10 cookies)

Cupcake Directions

• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract, then beat in the egg whites one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next.
• Working in 4 or 5 additions, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the sugar mixture. Keep the mixer on low speed while you do this. When just combined, stir in the crushed oreos.
• Spoon batter evenly into muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full.
• Bake for 15-18 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick comes out clean (a few chocolate cookie crumbs are fine, but not batter).

Frosting Ingredients
1 stick butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 Cup Oreos [10 cookies]


Frosting Directions

• Beat butter until light and fluffy, scrape bowl
• Add sifted powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Alternate and beat well.
• Add crushed oreos in a small stream.
• Beat until well combined.

Yet another one of our managers had their last day yesterday and I was assigned to bring cupcakes. I decided that the Oreo cupcakes were fast and easy to throw together so I decided to bring those.

Going with the assumption that oreo frosting on an oreo cupcake would be overkill, I omitted the oreos from the frosting on the oreo cupcakes, leaving a rich and full buttercream that I thought accented the oreo well, and put the oreo frosting on plain chocolate cupcakes.

Thankful to say that they were a huge hit at work and I was nominated to bring cupcakes to every store function.

Funfetti Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Woke up the other morning to the baby asking "We bake today, sounds good?" Of course, how was I to deny the adorable asking of a two year old who enjoys "helping". Naturally I was fresh out of nearly everything required in the cake making process so we took a quick run to the store where I realized "man... I'm really lazy, we'll just make cupcakes out of a box." Clearly he wasn't caring either way as long as he got to be a "helper."

I let him pick the flavor and ended up with one that I had honestly never tried before, a "Funfetti." Flavor, which is at least what the box says. I used my super awesome skills to deduce that the "Funfetti." In question must be a fun-confetti type of concoction. I believe I was correct, perhaps, maybe.

I hadn't made cupcakes from a box in a while and forget how much faster it was than from scratch, although not nearly as tasty. All in all I think he liked the decorating part the best because that's where he could lick off all of the frosting that mysteriously kept ending up on the table as we decorated.

Kahlua Cupcakes with Kahlua Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs [separated]
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup kahlua
2 1/4 cup ap flour
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt.

Cupcake Directions

• Cream together butter, cocoa, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Add egg yolks and beat for four minutes.
• Mix water and Kahlua in a small bowl.
• Combine Dry Ingredients [Flour, Baking Soda and Salt]
• Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with Kahlua mixture. Mix until fully combined.

In seperate bowl, beat egg whites on high until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining sugar to make a meringue. With a rubber spatula, fold meringue into cupcake batter.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 350.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 Stick butter
1/4 Cup Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Powdered Sugar [sifted]

Frosting Directions

• Beat butter until light and fluffy, scrape down bowl
• Add powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat until fluffy.

I was totally heartbroken when I glanced through the oven door and saw that at around eighteen minutes the cupcakes were already fallen. I questioned what possibly could have happened to have such a annoyance occur and make the poor cupcakes collapse within themselves. The only conclusion that I came up with was that possibly the baking soda was bad, then I thought, can baking soda really go bad?

Then after thinking it over for a while, I realized that it was my own idiocity that caused the cupcakes to fail. My grandma always has a conniption about spillage falling into the bottom of the oven, so I thought that I would be a genius and put a baking sheet on the bottom of the oven to catch any spills, of course at that point I neglected to realize about how the air rotates in the oven and with the pan blocking the air from the bottom, it couldn't circulate around the oven properly. I also failed to realize that you can't put a teflon pan on the bottom of the oven because it would melt to the oven.. oops.

It was a bummer that I was fresh out of chocolate, otherwise I could have thrown together a quick ganache and plop them on the fallen arches of the cupcakes and then smooth the frosting on top. [I saw that on a blog once, I forget where but big props to the person that thought of that] So instead i just settled for plopping the frosting on top, even though it had gotten pathetically flat.

I was slightly annoyed and irritated already at the point of frosting, so I conferred with the baby about what color frosting that he wanted to use and let him help me with the frosting. At least he had a blast.

Cupcake Deco

One of my favorite managers had their last day with us today, so we planned a little lunch party at work for which I volunteered to provide the cupcakes. I made Chocolate Cupcakes with a coconut buttercream frosting

I was totally stoked with the way that the decorations came out and can't wait to make my next batch!

Whoa, featured on a cupcake blog.

Imagine my surprise when I was browsing my favorite blogs the other day and skimmed past a picture that looked exactly like the most recent batch of cupcakes that I had made. Then, more of my surprise when I realized that they actually were the most recent batch of cupcakes that I had made.

A huge thanks to the most awesome people at Cupcakes takes the cake for featuring my slightly askew cupcake creations. Hopefully I will have much more presentable things to show in the future.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients
3/4 Cup Butter (1 1/2 Stick)
2 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
2 Cups A.P. Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Cocoa powder
1 1/2 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla

• Line muffin tins and preheat oven to 350
• Beat Butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Measure Dry Ingredients [Flour, Baking Soda, Salt and Cocoa Powder] in small bowl. Mix well.
• Measure Milk and Vanilla into bowl

• Add 1/3 of Dry Ingredients to butter/sugar mix, beat to combine. Add half of milk and Vanilla. Alternate wet and dry ingredients, ending with dry.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Cups Powdered Sugar [Sifted]
1 1/2 Cups Flaked Coconut
1 Tsp Vanilla

• Beat Butter until light and fluffy, scrape bowl.
• Add sifted powdered sugar and Milk. Beat until smooth.
• Add coconut mix until combined.

I lessened the ammount of vanilla to 1/2 tsp and added 1 tsp of coconut extract, which made the frosting entirely too sweet. Next time I'm going to go half and half on both the vanilla and the coconut extracts.

I also burned the first batch of Coconut that I was toasting for the toppings. I placed the tray under the broiler and left it while I went to frost a couple of cupcakes. I kept hearing this popping sound that was unfamiliar, but didn't think anything until I smelt the burning of the coconut. The lesson learned was to stay right by your coconut while under the broiler. Luckily I had another bag of coconut to try again with.