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 :)