Christmas-Themed Cupcakes!

 

 

 

Every year, on Black Friday, instead of going out to fight people for cheap laptops and toaster ovens, our family has a 'Family Fun Day'.  This year was the 12th year we've done it.  It has transformed over the years, and within the last couple, it has become a tradition for my mom and I to bake on Family Fun Day while the boys work.  In addition to the dozens of peanut blossoms and kringla and over a hundred dark chocolate sea salt caramels, we found time to try four different kinds of cupcakes. 

 

The first one we tried was what I was calling a 'Pear Tree' cupcake.  It's a pear cake, which is similar in texture to an apple cake.  It had a ginger flavor in it as well.  The frosting is a dulce de leche butter cream and it's garnished with candied ginger, which is amazing if you've never had it. 

The second one we tried was a 'Hot Cocoa' cupcake.  The chocolate in the cake batter was  'Swiss Miss' cocoa mix and the baked cupcakes really tasted like hot cocoa versus plain chocolate.  I made a marshmallow buttercream for the frosting and garnished it with a little hot cocoa powder and then chocolate-covered marshmallows.  It was pretty good, but very rich. 

The third one we tried was an 'Eggnog' cupcake.  Eggnog is a pretty polarizing flavor, and if you don't like eggnog, you wouldn't like this one.  It really tasted like eggnog.  The batter had eggnog and rum extract in it and the buttercream on top had more rum and fresh nutmeg.  Very tasty. 

 



 

And the last one we made was a 'Peppermint Stick' cupcake.  This one was pretty basic, but I wish I'd taken a picture of the inside of it, because it was pretty.  I made my basic vanilla bean cupcake batter and seperated it into two bowls.  I added peppermint extract and red food coloring to half of it and then put the batter into two squeeze bottles and swirled it in the papers instead of scooping it.  The frosting was a very basic peppermint buttercream and I crushed up some candy canes for the garnish. 

 

All in all, they turned out pretty well I think.  

Fun Fall Flavors!

 

 

 

In the middle of summer, when I was bored out of my mind and decided to start keeping track of all of the different cake-related things I was doing, I created a list.  A list of flavors.  And because I love to make lists, I divided that list into more lists.  I separated them into 'themes' and one of those themes was 'The Flavors Of Fall'.  Here's what I came up with.

 

 

 

 

 

The first one I made was an orange clove cupcake with a whipped cranberry buttercream.  The garnish on it is blood orange zest. 

 

 

 

The second one I made was a gingerbread cupcake.  It had a lot of ginger flavor to it.  On top was a molasses buttercream, crushed gingerbread cookie crumbs and a gumdrop.

 

 

 

This one was I think the overall favorite of the guinea pigs who tried them (my mother's co-workers).  It's a pumpkin cupcake topped with a pecan pie-like filling and then garnished with a dollop of Cool Whip.  Not whipped cream, but Cool Whip.  And it tasted exactly like Thanksgiving dessert. 

 

 

 

On the last one, I tried to create something that would taste like mulled apple cider, but it ended up tasting more like apple pie.  It was very good, but might need to be rethought in some places.  I started with a spiced apple cake.  I made a filling out of thickened apple juice filled with cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves.  The result was basically pie filling without the fruit in it.  Then I took the apples that I had stewed to get the juice and chopped them up and set them aside.  I topped them with a maple cream cheese frosting and then garnished with the chopped apples and some leftover gingerbread crumbs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Photo Dump

 

 

 

Here are more pictures of cakes I've made. 

 

 

 

 

And this was the first cake I did.  It's a Big Mac cake, complete with a side of (sugar cookie) fries!



New Chocolate Creations!

I have been trying to work with reimagining other kinds of desserts into cupcake form and came up with these new kinds. 

The first one is a chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake.  It's a chocolate cake with a cookie dough filling and a cookie dough frosting.  It's garnished here with a chunk of milk chocolate. 

The second one is modeled after a Hostess Snowball.  It's a chocolate cake with a whipped buttercream filling and then topped with marshmallow cream and pink sugary coconut. 

The third is a fairly basic cookies 'n cream cupcake.  It's a chocolate cake with a while chocolate sandwich cookie in the bottom of the cup.  It's topped with a vanilla & chocolate swirl frosting and crushed cookie pieces. 

And my personal favorite ( my parents and I each ate one to make sure they were okay) is a Take 5 cupcake.  It's a chocolate cake (yes, again) with a caramel-fudge filling and then topped with a peanut butter buttercream and then rolled in pretzel crumbs and garnished with chopped milk chocolate. 



Photo Dump

I have a ton of old cakes I've done for various projects on my computer that I'm going to try to post little by little. 



Summertime Flavors!

I decided to go with a 'picnic' theme, incorporating some flavors I've tried before with some new ones.  I'll break them down one by one. 

The first is a watermelon cupcake.  It's a watermelon cake filled with a watermelon coulis and topped with a watermelon buttercream frosting and black candy pearls. 

 While it looks like a 'slider', a mini burger, it is actually an orange cake, a moist cake filled with fresh orange zest.  There is a rich chocolate fudge filling and a raspberry-infused buttercream frosting, tinted here to give the appearance of ketchup and mustard.  The top is garnished with sesame seeds that have been cooked in simple syrup. 

The third flavor I made for the 'picnic' spread is a pink lemonade which I actually tried for the first time two summers ago.  It is a strong and tangy cake with a 'pink lemonade' flavor.  It is filled with pink lemonade lemon curd and topped with a pink lemonade buttercream and garnished with a drinking straw

This is another one that I've tried in the past and was very popular.  This is one of the more whimsical-looking cupcakes I've ever done as well.  It gives off the appearance of corn on the cob, complete with a square of butter and salt and pepper.  It's actually a moist lemon cake topped with a buttery, lemony frosting and then garnished with lemon jelly beans and a lemon Starburst candy, as well as both white and black sugar. 

The last of the flavors I tried is a Root Beer Float.  It's a cake with very heavy ginger flavors in it.  It is topped with a buttercream that has a strong vanilla flavor and a root beer syrup drizzled over the top and then garnished with a drinking straw. 

Another Wedding, A Couple New Flavors!

I did 200 cupcakes for the wedding the first weekend of July.  I ended up doing fifty each of four flavors.  The first one was what has quickly become my most popular cupcake, the carrot.  It's topped with cream cheese frosting and then sprinkled with cinnamon and garnished with a glazed walnut. 



The second one I made was a red velvet.  Fun fact: Red Velvet cake is really just chocolate cake with a red tint to it.  Anyway, I tried my hand at the 'trendy right now' flavor of red velvet and then topped it with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate curls, achieved by using a simple vegetable peeler. 

The bride had a 'antique tea room' theme for her wedding reception and had asked for two 'tea' flavors as cupcake flavors. 

The first of the 'tea' flavors was an Earl Grey cupcake.  I ground the tea leaves to a powder and then stirred it into a vanilla bean cupcake.  It gave the interior of the cupcake a 'speckled' appearance that was actually quite appealing.  The frosting was an Earl Grey infused buttercream, which naturally tints to a violet gray color.  The garnish on this one is candy pearls. 

And the second of the 'tea' flavors was green tea cupcake.  Once again, I ground the green tea leaves and also steeped some green tea in the milk for the batter.  It really does taste like green tea, which surprised me.  It was topped with green tea infused frosting and garnished with tinted white chocolate 'leaves'. 



Mini Cupcakes!

I made the mistake of not taking individual pictures of the mini cupcakes I made for a wedding shower in July.  I will try to zoom in on these individually as I explain them though. 

I made the lemon cupcake and filled it with homemade lemon curd and then topped it with meringue and then browned it with my blow torch to make it into a lemon meringue cupcake!

The second was a vanilla cupcake filled with a strawberry and blueberry coulis and then topped with cheesecake frosting and garnished with a single candied blueberry. 

This picture is a not good quality.  Sorry.  It's the same chocolate cake from the Spencer wedding and topped with chocolate fudge frosting and garnished with shaved milk chocolate. 

Another not very good picture and another remake from the wedding.  The carrot cake is topped with cream cheese frosting and then garnished with cinnamon and a glazed walnut again. 

The last one I tried was a caramel apple.  It's a green apple cake and then it was topped with thick caramel and chopped peanuts and had a miniature popsicle stick. 



Spencer Wedding - 5/26/12 Part 2

The Cupcakes

The first cupcake was a mocha cupcake.  It is a rich chocolate cake with a coffee essence.  It was topped with a thick chocolate fudge frosting and then chopped milk chocolate as well as a dark chocolate eighth note (the bride and groom met at work- as choir teachers!). 

The next cupcake was a carrot cake.  This is a seriously heavy cake, but it is so worth it.  It's got loads of fresh grated carrots as well as crushed pineappe and coconut.  It was topped with a maple cream cheese frosting and then dusted with cinnamon and garnished with a candied walnut. 

The last cupcake was a lemon.  It is very buttery and lemony, but still pretty light in consistency.  It was topped with fresh whipped cream infused with fresh lemon juice and candied lemon peel. 

Here is a picture of the finished cake table at the wedding.