German Chocolate Butter-Pecan filled!

So for my boyfriend of 3 years bday I wanted to make him cupcakes! And before I get too ahead of myself, let me just say that I have found an AWESOME recipe site for the idea opening of: “If it can be a dessert or drink flavor, then it can be a cupcake flavor!” Here is the site:

http://annies-eats.net/category/dessert/cupcakes/

http://annies-eats.net/2010/07/07/double-chocolate-raspberry-cupcakes/

So looking through the recipes of this site, my boyfriend, Adam, wanted German chocolate cupcakes. I have never made that recipe (homemade anyways) and my goodness it was a fun challenge. SO much butter was used (including frosting and filling-3.5 sticks!). The filling was a butter-pecan base (original recipe calls for pecan and coconut but he didn’t want coconut), and the frosting was yummy (which turned out more like icing, was RICH in flavor)! I only did about half of the cupcakes with filling and here are some pictures on how it was done:

And prior to decorating them, I have found a cupcake stand idea via www.pinterest.com on how to make a stand from stove top burner covers and a candle stick! So here is how it would look glued together with regular and mini-cupcakes!

The cupcakes are REALLY REALLY rich in chocolate and the filling was yummy-I have a good amount leftover so I’m thinking… pecan pie filling?

All the cats and chicks can get their kicks at the hop!

So we all love those themed-parties! And of course there are cupcakes that go with them! I have a friend whose work is throwing a 50’s style themed-party. They wanted me to create 50’s style cupcakes: 2 cute, but simple designs. We came up with these:

“Shakes” and “Rock n Roll notes”

The shakes are chocolate flavored in foil liners (to go with the glass look), whipped frosting, a cherry on top and a pretzel stick for the “straw”.





The rock n roll notes are just your basic spread style of bright pink frosting (bright pink and bright turquoise were popular colors at the diner back then.) with black colored frosting, and mini-Oreos for the note part.

We were going to try the Oreos as records but they just didn’t turn out right. Now you can also use almond bark to create guitars (and red licorice for the strings), “cat-eyes” style sunglasses, poodle skirts, etc. You can display them on a checkered-style fabric too. Show me your ideas if you develop any!

Lions and Tigers and Wolves OH MY!

I have been longing to do animal themed cupcakes and finally my chance came when my creativity class decided to visit The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keensburg, CO. This place is exactly as said: a COMPLETELY non-profited organization wild animal sanctuary. More great info (and how you fellow animal-lovers can help) is here: www.wildanimalsanctuary.org/

I decided to create wild animal themed cupcakes! I did my Hershey’s chocolate recipe and a vanilla recipe from the book. (I suggest less flour and add French vanilla pudding mix-non prepared next time). I also have discovered that being in a higher elevation; I have to cook my cupcakes less than the time-suggested.

 I got the animals from what my fellow classmates’ favorite animals: Hippo, Jaguar, Lion, Tiger, and Wolf. 

Hippo: Purple frosting and purple colored almond bark with nerd for the ears, eyes, and nostrils poking their head out of the water.

Jaguar: Yellow frosting, spots (left over from the hippos), almond bark (or white frosting) mouth with heart runt nose, pink triangle formed starburst ears, and orange runt eyes.

Lion: Yellow frosting, orange hair, using a ziplock bag and “hair technique”, heart shaped nose, nerd eyes and orange runt ears.

Tiger: “teal” colored almond bark (not suggested again-texture didn’t turn out right), orange face, m&m ears, runt eyes and nose, and black swirls for stripes.

Wolf: My friend wanted green wolves, so using the idea from the book, I took a mini-cupcake and placed it on top of a regular cupcake (upside down and cut a “V” shape out of the middle to form the mouth (you can do cone shape for more of a “howl” mouth). I used starburst for the ears (shape) and inside of mouth. Then I did the “grass” technique and started from the outside and worked my way up the cupcake. After that, I used white frosting (same technique) for the teeth, and nerds for the eyes and nostrils.

These turned out awesome but I know with time they can improve and look even more professional! J

Breakfast Cupcakes--1st set

I’m currently taking a class about managing and finding my creativity. I told the class about my cupcakes (and this blog of course) and they are more than happy for me to bring cupcakes to class! I was so excited to hear this that I brought breakfast themed cupcakes (and received extra credit too)! I found the recipe through this site (therefore giving them credit for the recipe):

http://weelicious.com/2010/08/11/breakfast-cupcakes/  I read comments on what others did and I added more peanut butter than requested (and some reviews I received said I should add chocolate chips next time). They turned out amazing! Coming out of the oven they smelled and kind of looked like Peanut Butter cookies! The frosting I used was a Wilton brand with Nutella mixed in. I would like to add more Nutella next time. (Nutella is a hazelnut spread with skim milk and coca-all natural and super yummy!) Then I topped them with French vanilla flavored granola. They were definitely a success. I saved a few from the batch because one of my quality testers wants to create a Bavarian cream one with a chocolate glaze on top-genius!

CUPCAKE STORE ITEMS UPDATE:

I discovered more items to have in my future store: 2 more cupcake holder designs, a cupcake decorated reusable bag, a cupcake cup, and some cupcake themed sandwiches bags! Please feel free to comment if you find anymore great item ideas.

Take me out to the ball game. . .

 Every year for the past 3, I attended the Colorado Rockies game. (And so far they have won all the games I attended so it was worth it.)

This year was also my first year to not only enjoy the game, but to have a drink as well! So I was also thinking that prior to the game, why not make some cupcakes themed to this?! I made my Hershey’s chocolate ones. I used purple colored frosting with a swirl, and created “CR” and baseballs to top the cupcakes off with. I created these with the white almond bark, melted it down in a zip lock bag, tiny snip off the corner, and drew circles and filled them in for the baseballs. I cut up the red twizzlers and put them in there for the red stitching. Then I drew up the “CR” to represent the Rockies logo. 

Overall, these turned out amazing! Plus, I bought a new frosting tool that is much easier and less messy (which will work for the big jobs!) O and I almost forgot to mention: I have officially begun obtaining things for my future cupcake store! These are it: a “Sweet Treats” display tray, and a cupcake holder (which will be great for retail merchandise).

Knee Deep in the Water Somewhere

So this would be a great idea for beach party, summer themes, or anyone who loves the beach and is having a beach-themed birthday party.

BEACH-THEMED cupcakes!

I only did a few ideas (only had 8 cupcakes to work with). The flavors are the same as the previous post and the frosting is the same too (even same color!) This idea came out of the book and they had a “shark” beach theme. I didn’t have Twinkies so I’ll have to make sharks later.

What I did instead was a life preservative, floater with fishes, palm trees, a lawn chair and the sun.  The L.P. was airhead stretched out into a circle and twizzlers red stripes on it. Floaters were 2 starbursts molded into the “gumdrop” shape (book originally used gumdrops for floaters and mini-doughnuts for LP) and then a pretzel stick slowly pushed through them. The fishes were random runt’s candies because I didn’t have either the gummy fishes or goldfishes. The palm trees are pretzels and green twizzlers with orange runt coconuts. The sand is the ritz crackers again. The lawn chair is pretzels and a blue airhead. The sun is airhead and banana runts (some say it could be an octopus).

Any Patriotic theme idea

So we all know flags are popular at Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. We’ve all seen many numerous cupcake and cake ideas. The most popular I have seen is white frosting, strawberries, and blueberries. Well I don’t care much for blueberries but I have always liked the strawberries. So using that and color-themed candy, I created my own version of the cupcake flag. I used what red candy I had, and strawberries were added at the last minute to keep its best quality.  

The flavors I used were Hershey’s chocolate, and super-moist white cake box mix. I created regular and mini-cupcakes.  I used whipped-white frosting and spread it in a basic swirl on the cupcakes, then used the candies and strawberries to decorate. I made the top left cupcakes with blue frosting for the stars area.

The candies I used were: runts, twizzlers, and red M&M’s. I created the stars by melting down Almond bark white chocolate putting it into a zip lock , cutting 1/8in off a corner and drawing the stars on wax paper then letting them dry in the fridge. I sliced the strawberries and used them to bring out the red more.