23 1 / 2013
Snicker Doodles aren’t just cookies anymore!!
As much of a peanut butter addict as I am (see below for whole story), my husband and son are cinnamon addicts. I found this recipe on Pinterest. I decided to make these cupcakes last Saturday. They did not last more and 2 hours in my house! My husband told me I could make these often if I wanted.
Cinnamon is not my favorite, but I tried one of these cupcakes anyway. Oh my…it was good. Considering you put cinnamon in the cupcake batter, brush the still warm cupcake with melted butter and dunk it into sugar and cinnamon and THEN put cinnamon in the frosting..I thought it would be cinnamon overkill. However, it was quite the contrary. The cake was moist and the flavor subtle.
I guess I’m going to have to put this in the regular rotation….only I might just have to double the recipe so they last the day!
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21 12 / 2012
It’s that time of year once again, time to shop ‘til you drop, time to go off to Grandma’s and time to BAKE! By day, I have a desk job, so I do a lot of my shopping on the Internet, but I do occasionally take leave of my senses and go to the mall. Last Sunday, we traveled to Grandma’s house for the annual family Christmas gathering. It’s funny how you see your own kids getting older and bigger but don’t expect anyone else’s kids to have done the same.
Now, for the baking! I haven’t yet done my ohmygoshit’sChristmassoIhavetobakeeverything baking. I had already done 2 pumpkin rolls (1 to take and 1 for my husband and son) and I decided to some cupcakes as there would be a lot of kids at our gathering. I decided on a winter theme and came up with the “winter wonderland” cupcake.
Here’s the link to the white cupcake recipe:
http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/White-Cupcakes-Epicurious
I used a basic buttercream tinted blue using Wilton gel dye Light Blue. I made my snowflakes with white chocolate melting wafers and used my squeeze bottle to shape them. Oops…before I forget. I added a little peppermint extract to the white chocolate before forming the snowflakes. I then put coarse ground sugar on the chocolate to look like snow or ice crystals.
They were yummy…and I only brought 3 home!
04 12 / 2012
I participated in a multi-vendor Holiday Bazaar this past weekend. The host is a friend of mine and she remembered I hand poured scented soy candles. She asked me to bring some holiday scents to sell and anything else I may want to bring. Hmmmm…I wonder what else to bring. CUPCAKES!! Keeping with the holiday theme, I decided to make Candy Cane Cupcakes. I used my “makes ‘em weak in the knees” chocolate cupcake recipe and added some peppermint to the frosting. Trying to drum up business for my baking company, I offered the cupcakes as samples. They were a big hit. One lady even thought they were candles in the shape of cupcakes. She said “they are too perfect to be food!” Umm….Ok. I’ll take that.
04 12 / 2012
Mimi? Can you make me Disney Princess cupcakes for my princess party? My 4-year-old granddaughter asked me this before she turned 4 a few weeks ago. What am I supposed to say to that? Of course I said “yes.” I was not going to put the actual figurines on top of the cupcakes, so I decided to just make the frosting the colors of the princess’ dresses. On top of the cupcakes, I sprinkled coarse-ground sugar to make them sparkly. I then made her a special cake with a tiara on top. She LOVED it! She thanked me over and over again. It was nice to be her hero for the day.
05 8 / 2012
My daughter asked me to bake cupcakes for her boss’ baby shower. I asked my daughter what kind of cupcakes she wanted, but there was no real answer other than “she’s having a boy, she likes teal and she’t not a girlie girl.” So….this is what I came up with.
I made chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes. When they cooled, I colored the buttercream frosting and then put it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds. This made is somewhat of a glaze consistency. I dipped the cupcakes in the frosting and then put them in the refrigerator to harden a bit.
I got a packet of stencils at the store a while back, and I found some baby stuff on one of the stencils. I could not get the other things to come out in a manner that would be recognizable; so after much trial and error, I decided to make “pitter patter of little feet” cupcakes. I took white buttercream, put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds and then poured it into a squeeze bottle (you could also use a piping bag and a small round tip). I held the stencil over the cupcake and then filled it in with the white buttercream (think Royal Icing on cookies).
I thought they were just about as cute as the day is long…I hope they went over well at the shower.
16 7 / 2012
Chocolate and Peanut Butter cake
sooo…I had a family reunion to attend yesterday. I know you all know how much fun they are right? I decided to make something that would ease the pain. Going back to my love affair with peanut butter, I knew exactly what I had to do. Since I am trying to hone my baking skills in the hopes of someday adding some extra income with them, I decided I was going to make a zebra cake. I had limited time and a box of each of the white and chocolate cake in the cupboard. I saw on Pinterest how to spruce up a box cake and I decided to try it. I used milk instead of water and then added another egg white to the eggs called for by the instructions. Off I go.
The cake is baking, and I decide to make my peanut butter frosting. YUM!! I have to make more than I origianally intend because I have to taste so much to be sure it’s right. HAHAHA…believe that and there is some land I want to sell you!! I just love that frosting. Back to the cake…I made two 8-inch round cakes. I did the typical layer cake thing. Got it all frosted and then used some chocolate frosting from a tub to make what ended up looking like Hershey kisses around the top of the cake and around the base. Now, for the final touch….I cut up mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and spread them on the top of the cake. OMG!!! I couldn’t wait to get there and have everyone marvel over it. Here’s where I went wrong……
I forgot to take a picture of my masterpiece at this point, and now I regret that. I forgot to mention at the beginning of my story that the family reunion is a 2-hour drive north…and it’s July. You do the math. I failed miserably in the task of cake transportation. By the time I got to the reunion, the peanut butter cups had melted into some kind of chocolate peanut butter mosaic on the top of my cake and some of my chocolate kisses on the top of the cake slid down the side of the cake. I was so embarrassed I thought I would die.
However, let me tell you how wonderfully delicious that cake turned out to be. The gooey mess on the top of the cake ended up just enhancing the flavor of the frosting and the cake. Everyone loved it (or they were just being nice, as the Pennsylvania German folk often are).
This is what was left of my cake after the reunion. It was an adventure…
01 7 / 2012
Coconut Cream Cupcake
My husband loves his mother’s coconut cream pie. I do not eat coconut, so I can’t tell you whether it’s actually good or not. I decided I needed to make something to rival that pie. After looking around on Pinterest, I found a coconut cream bar recipe. TA DA!! I can change a few things and have myself a coconut cream cupcake.
Step 1: Toast the coconut. I put the coconut in the oven at about 275 until the coconut got “toasty” looking…that’s a technical term, by the way. The picture here is darker than the actual coconut.
Step 2: Make the pudding (Ok..I cheated. I used instant pudding). When the pudding sets up, add about 3/4 cup coconut to the pudding).
Step 3: Make the cupcakes!! I used a regular vanilla box cake and bake according to your stove and box instructions (my stove runs hot, so I bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes) After they cool, cut out the center of the cupcakes.
Step 4: Put the pudding/coconut mix in the holes. Add frosting (I used white frosting from a can and mixed in about half a tub of Cool Whip….dear hubby doesn’t like frosting too sweet) and then top with the toasted coconut from step 1.
Here’s the finished product. Again, I don’t eat coconut, so I can’t say whether or not they are good, but hubby at 4 or 5 already tonight….you do the math!!
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24 6 / 2012
Happy Birthday Baby Boy
My son turned 17 on Thursday. When I asked him what he wanted on his birthday cake, he made a list the length of my arm. He is very proud to be a Red Land Marching Patriot. He wanted a red, white and blue cake (school colors) with drums and the uniform, etc., etc. Well, I knew I was not going to be able to deliver that…especially since I was not able to even start the cake until Thursday morning, the day of his birthday. So, I set out to make the best cake I could in just a very short time.
He was very adament that he did not want fondant on the cake. He wanted buttercream only, and keep that white. He wanted red on the bottom and blue on the top. Sheesh!! Specific instructions!! I set out to make this cake, and this is what I ended up with. It is way too sloppy for my taste, but he didn’t seem to mind.
The red and blue bands around the middle (and the black lettering) are sugar sheets. What a timesaver!! I also had a can of blue spray food coloring that I used on the cake to give it some dimension. I thought he would be disappointed, but he seemed to be really pleased! Whew!!
I have been seeing so many posts with zebra cakes. I decided it didn’t look too hard, so I gave it a try. My son, much like me, has an addiction to peanut butter. I made some peanut butter mousse and put that between the layers of the zebra cake and then the white buttercream frosting over the whole cake. Yum…Yum…Yum.
17 6 / 2012
Happy Father’s Day…hope you don’t mind pink!!
So I decided I was going to make this elaborate cake for my hubby for Father’s Day. Yellow cake with chocolate icing plus strawberries. The man loves strawberries…like eats 2-3 pints a night kind of love. Anyway, I make my cake and start stacking, alternating the chocolate mousse icing with strawberry. Hubby, bless his little pea-pickin heart, comes in and announces that he doesn’t really like chocolate and fruit together. TOUGH!! MAKE YOUR OWN CAKE!! Oh well, sorry…you are just a wee bit too late. You’ll just have to eat the layers separately, I said as sweetly as I could muster.
So after that little interruption, I continued on with my masterpiece. It was my maiden voyage covering a cake with fondant. Perhaps I should have started with a round cake, but I muddled through. The corners are not perfect, but other than that, it’s OK.
Now, if all of this weren’t ambitious enough, I decided I needed to cover up my mistakes, so I decided to tint some fondant and make some ribbons for the job. Silly me used the liquid food coloring instead of my gel food coloring. Ugh…my arms are exhausted and the fondant only got to a lovely shade of fuschia…marbled fuschia at that. Oh well, I say. It’ll get better!!
At the end of my journey, I am somewhat proud of myself. I know what I did wrong, and I can’t wait to try again. I think the colored fondant is kind of cool, except for the whole supposed to be for Father’s Day thing.
Oh…I forgot the most important part…it tasted delicious!! Even if I do say so myself.
14 6 / 2012
Fondant Flowers
I have decided to plunge headfirst into this whole cake/cupcake decorating thing. I realized that there is only so far the “swirl” will take me. So, I bought some fondant and away I went. First up…the rose..and this is how they turned out.
Next up..a carnation….and this is how that turned out.
Not too shabby if I must say so myself. I want to put this to practical use now. I wonder if my husband would mind a cake with fondant flowers for Father’s Day?
