Maple cupcakes

Another fabulous recipe from my Martha Stewart Cupcake book. Have I mentioned how much I love this book!?? Probably a million times. The pictures are so fabulous and inspiring, and she has the cutest ideas ever!!! I made her marshmallow Turkey cupcakes last year, and although they were cute, they were a pain in the butt! All of those little Turkey features drove me crazy!!! So I decided to try the maple cupcakes.




Here's a fun fact, maple syrup is PRICEY!!! I couldn't believe it. Over $20bucks at Safeway for a relatively small container! I almost nixed the maple cupcakes right then and there, but I figured they might just be worth it. I think they were! I took them into work, and I think my co-workers agreed.





They weren't your average cupcake. They were almost like a muffin in that they weren't super sweet. The maple buttercream was decadent!! I think my brother nailed it by saying that they tasted like a heavily buttered waffle. Delish!



As most of Martha's recipes are, they were slightly involved, but worth making at least once! The marzipan leaves were a cute idea, but not totally necessary. I didn't have the right size cookie cutter, so my leaves ended up being a little warped. I think I need a little practice with Marzipan for future projects :)

Something different

Lately, I've been feeling adventurous and baking some pies! My family is a BIG pie family, so I think it's kind of weird that I had more of a cake/cupcake calling. Maybe it's because I know I'll eat the whole pie if I make it, and I really like fitting into my clothes.

I've made a few pies over the summer using the ready-made pie crusts. However, I went to a cooking demo with my friend Maria recently. It was hosted by King Arthur Flour company. We had such a great time! After the demo I was so inspired that I came home and baked a pie the next day. Voila- a homemade apple pie with homemade crust! It was delicious, messy and lots of fun!! I'm definitely hooked.





Bradley is too!

Halloween cupcakes continue!

It seems that I got a little cupcake crazed this Halloween! My friend Maria, and blogging expert!!, sent me this fabulous link with all sorts of creative ideas! I only tried one of them due to time, but I would have loved to try them all! Next year!




These were the cupcakes i tried from the website. I followed the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes, which originated from Country Living. MAJOR disaster. I don't even know what happened, except that I didn't have a German Chocolate Cake mix. I didn't think it would make a huge difference if I used a Devils Food. Well it did, and these poor cupcakes turned into mini grand canyons. I tossed them and repeated it with a basic chocolate box mix. The frosting was a chocolate buttercream. The webs were actually very easy! I tried using a pastry bag to pipe them, which was also a huge mess! I stopped half way through and went back and used a ziploc bag like the recipe suggested. Much better! It was so easy and clean after that!




I made these chocolate with buttercream frosting cupcakes for Momma Linda, one of the Unit Secretaries that I work with! It was her birthday, and she lovess cupcakes! I had these adorable Martha Stewart treat boxes that I was dying to use! The treat box with the cupcakes in it was a big hit!

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

These cupcakes were RICH!


They really turned out more like muffins almost because they were so dense. I love the idea of chocolate and pumpkin together, so this recipe seemed perfect. I used my own cream cheese frosting, but I bet the spiced frosting per the recipe would be pretty good! I would definitely leave out the chocolate chips next time. They overpowered the pumpkin flavor for sure. I'll probably play around with this recipe again next year.

Happy Birthday Uncle Mark!

I had the privilege of making a cake for my Uncle Mark who just recently celebrated a large birthday! The big Five-Oh :)

He's loves baseball, so I knew I wanted to try and make a baseball cake of some sort. He also happened to be sporting a very funny hat down at the beach this past summer, so I thought I'd take advantage of some of the pictures we took from that!

The cake turned out pretty cute I thought, and seemed to be a big hit!

Praline Cupcakes

I recently traveled to New Orleans with some girlfriends, and when I needed a sweet break from the spicy, delicious cuisine, I found an adorable cupcake shop! Of course I can't remember what it was called, but it was very much like Georgetown cupcakes.

So today I saw some pecan pralines in Trader Joe's, and had to bake me some praline cupcakes! Here's the recipe I found: http://thefrostedcakencookie.blogspot.com/2009/03/gimme-some-brown-sugar-and-praline.html. I used the cupcake recipe, but made my own cream cheese frosting. I put a pecan praline on top.

Cupcakes turned out a little drier than my amazing one in New Orleans, but the cream cheese frosting made it ok! I'll have to try a different recipe next time, but all in all, they were pretty darn good!

The Kitchen's Chambord Layer Cake

I've been feeling adventurous in baking and decided to break away from the boxed cake mixes that I normally use. I feel like boxed cake mixes are really good and can sometimes taste better than homemade! Plus, they're a lot less work. However, I ready for a little bit more of a challenge!

I decided to use Don (hubby), Joe (brother) and Don's new coworkers (never met them, they can't judge me yet!) as my guinea pigs. I went with The Kitchen's Chambord layer cake from Country living (recipe here: http://www.countryliving.com/recipefinder/chambord-layer-cake-recipe-3841). It was a three layer white cake with black raspberry preserves between the layer and a yummy, light pink Chambord frosting. Chambord is a black raspberry liquor (very delicious by it's self and in champagne).

I thought it turned out really well. The cake baked well and was relatively flat. It was easy to handle and layer. I loved the look and the taste of the preserves in the middle, and the frosting was fab. It was a big hit at home and at Don's job :)

Summer Cupcakes!

Two of my coworkers celebrated their birthdays in the last two weeks and by special request, I was in charge of cupcake making!

For Remika, she wanted Red Velvet and cream cheese frosting! I found the best new cream cheese frosting recipe. These may have been my best tasting and looking cupcakes yet!! Can I have a job at Georgetown cupcakes now please? Maybe one day!

For Tonya, I made yellow cupcakes with hot pink frosting and pretty sprinkles. They turned out so cute!

Happy Easter

I made some simple cupcakes for our family's Easter dinner. A classic white cake mix and my favorite Swiss Meringue Butter Cream. They turned out perfectly! I loved them displayed on my tiered dessert platter next to the pretty flowers! Martha would be proud!

Worst cake ever...Sorry Joe!

My poor brother! All he told me for his birthday cake that he wanted some kind of chocolate and marshmallow. Easy enough, right? WRONG! Very Wrong!

I made a rich dark chocolate cake and had attempted to make a chocolate frosting. The cake turned out very yummy, and the frosting tasted really good as I was making it! Unfortunately, when I started frosting the cake, the marshmallow was so sticky and so heavy that it started literally pulling the cake's layers apart. Finally, it formed a huge crater in the middle of the cake. Not only that, it almost pulled your teeth out trying to eat the frosting!!!

Sorry Joe! I'm going to make it my mission to find a better marshmallow frosting for next April :)

I'm embarrassed to even show these pictures, but it's so pathetic that it's funny! Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies!

One of my favorite traditions is making Christmas cookies every winter. This winter, I made sugar cookies, Russian tea balls and chocolate chip cookies. My favorite part is eating the dough :)

A Taste of Spring

Fast forwarding to Spaghettin Night 2010 at my cousin Emily's house...

I made a Coconut Cake with ginger lime curd. The frosting was a variation of cream cheese/coconut. The whole cake was covered with coconut. Very yummy and fresh for a cold day in spring! Recipe found at cake central.

Happy Turkey Day..8 months later!

I'm blaming my lack of blogging on moving into a new house and having a new focus...wallpaper removal and home repair!

These are the cupcakes I made for Thanksgiving (2009). If I can remember correctly, I took these cuties in to work to share with my coworkers...who are becoming cupcake connoisseurs by now. I test out all sorts of new recipes on them, and i'm pretty sure they enjoy it!

Again, I got the idea for these cupcakes out of my new favorite cupcake book. (Same as the Halloween monster cupcakes)

They were a lot of fun to make, and they are so cute!! They are a little difficult to travel with. I think I lost a few turkey feathers and beaks!

A Different Kind of Cake

Instead of butter and sugar, this cake's made of diapers and a secret surprise inside holding it together! I made this diaper cake for my cousins Hannah and Steve who have already had their baby girl, Lily, for awhile now. (Sorry for the LATE LATE posts)!

The diaper cake was so fun to make and turned out so cute, that I had to share it. Interested in making one for an upcoming baby shower? I followed these fairly easy instructions:

http://alphamom.com/family-fun/activities/how-to-make-a-unique-diaper-cake-ha/

P.S- Most diaper cakes use baby lotions or bubble bath as the inside support/base, but this one uses champagne!!