I'm Back!

I know I know...it's been seriously like a month since I've updated. This doesn't mean I stopped baking!!....Well, I did some SERIOUS baking this weekend. Good news- I was asked to audition for a FoodNetwork Cupcake challenge series. (Doesn't mean I'll be on tv but I'm shooting for it hahah) They asked me to create 1 or more than one crazy cupcake to show or bring in for my audition....SO I made 4.

These are my cheesy sketches that I came up with

So we're starting with my: Ultimate-GrandeDeluxe'-Breakfast-Cupcake

Here we have a lovely bacon infused maple base, topped with a decadent maple frosting, with butterscotch "pancakes", and complimented by a bed of bacon and blueberry accents.

Bacon is key here...The rendered fat really bring out the flavors in the cupcake.

Next up we have: Gold infused grande' espresso cupcake

Mademoiselle we have here a lovely Irish creme' and dark chocolate cake base topped with a silky espresso frosting with lovely gold accents.

"I lOvE GgGollLddD!"


Top View

Next is a little more fondant work: Meet HelloKitty

She's actually made of strawberry cake...mmM tastes cute too!

She sits on her glitter hill and white chocolate cake hill.

Next we have here a lovely - Itty-bitty-fits-in-your-hand wedding cake...

3 tiers --white chocolate filled with raspberry

Topped with Nature's own fancy jems....


There you have it---all done within 2 days...my feet and back hurt but it was all worth it

Thanks for stoppin by!

Ciao*

Vegan you say?....with a side of blueberries please!

So at work I have a co-worker who is allergic to dairy products, but what do most of my cupcakes contain?...yup a LOT of dairy.

So I thought why not try to find a good recipe with no dairy...That's easy vegan recipe's are always safe! Keep in mind I never cook vegan or anything of the sort.

Ah!--side note--I found dark chocolate cocoa powder which totally made my day. It's pure amazing.....You should definitely keep your pantry stocked with this stuff...ITS GOLD!!!!

The BASE: or go HERE

*1 cup Chocolate soy milk
*1 tsp apple cider vinegar
*3/4 cup granulated sugar
*1/3 cup canola oil
*1 tsp vanilla extract
*1/2 tsp almond extract
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*1/3 cup cocoa powder
*3/4 tsp baking soda
*1/2 tsp baking powder
*1/4 tsp salt

----if you follow the link you can find out how to cook them properly...VERY simple and tasty!

Ta-Da! dark chocolate vegan cupcake...People who arn't vegans also gave great reviews : )
Frosting also doesn't contain any dairy!

A very deep, rich chocolaty flavor and color!


For the non-vegan people I baked Blueberry Pie Bars!!

Find recipe here:



Nice golden crust....I could eat it alone....It's my favorite part of a pie.

Individually wrapped for your enjoyment with a little hello kitty sticker steal

Enjoy!

Alana's B-day!

Happy Belated birthday to Alana!

She turned a whoppin 18 years old

...okay im kidding...

Here are some of the cupcakes I made for her birthday. Her favorite cake is red velvet so I used the previous recipe for the base and topped it off with some cream cheese frosting.

Little candy pearls and glitter....very classy


Fondant flowers were fun to create. Felt like I was in art class again....

I even snuck in Hello Kittty!

It's not really Friday...but it is Friday

So, to celebrate the fake friday we start the weekend off with moist red velvet cupcakes!

The color is vivid and the cake wasn't so dense and heavy as other red velvets I've had in the paste...Perfecto'!

The recipe can be found here:
Of course take note that baking times will differ. Cupcakes range from 20-25 min.

of course with decadent creme cheese frosting : )

Happy 4th everyone!





Enjoy!

Shmoooore Please!

This weekend my kitchen hand torch finally made its way to my home...!!

So the first thing I did make, was a couple ramekins of creme'brule but that'll make for another blog....So I pondered and wondered what I could set on fire, and what better way to start off a Monday morning by torching some marshmallows!

So I started with a nice decadent chocolate base and a graham cracker crust

Note: you can either crush you're own or buy the already crushed graham cracker crumbs.

About a cup of graham crumbs and 2-3 tbsp of melted butter, mixed, and pressed into each cup.

For the Chocolate Cake:
(note: not sure where the base recipe is from...I've seen lots of people post similar recipes, but I've altered it a bit to fit my liking)

2 cups of Flour
1 cup of cocoa powder
2 and a half cups of sugar
1 and half tsp of baking soda
1 and a half tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
3 large eggs + 1 egg white
1 cup WHOlE milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 and 1/2 tsp of vanilla
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tbsp of instant espresso
1 cup of hot water
bag of marshmallows
box of graham crackers
box of chocolate bars--only because you can eat the rest later....hahah : )

Chocolate Frosting
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of cocoa powder
6 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of heavy cream
2 tsp of Vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350...
• sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda , salt and cinnamon...
• Now whisk together all the wet ingrediants -minus the hot water
  
• Gradually add in the dry ingrediants and mix till combined
• at last add in espresso and hot water...the hot water will set the batter
• As the batter sets- will still be a bit watery- bake the graham cracker crust for about five minutes
• Pull them out after they've turned golden brown and fill the cups with batter 3/4 full
• bake for 20-25 min...till cake springs back
• FOR FROSTING: beat the butter [should be at room temp please] with the cocoa powder. (this can cause the butter to become really rich and hard to beat)
• start adding in the powdered sugar and heavy cream.
• then add the vanilla and beat till smooth...or to the consistency that you want.
• Next----the most important part of the process-- frost and decorate any way you want.
  
• SINCE I had my torch I just went pyro and started setting all the marshmallows on fire...(its fun this way..hehe BECAREFUL THOUGH!-I don't have a thumbprint anymore)
  

1st clean attempt [FRONT]--or is there even a front?















quarter turn...


It was too clean...too simple...

















So I just went a little overboard and placed more marshmallow and chocolates where needed...



The fam bam...

Some cupcakes had 2 marshmallows--mind that I am using jumbo ones--and some cupcakes had extra chocolate...



This is my 'messy' version: I set the marshmallow on fire and left it burning till it was about to explode...also it was hand frosted


Good times! Happy Monday and enjoi

FULLY loAded!

Nobody likes humpday....BOO!!

So it's Wednesday and what better way to start off the middle of the week with a fully loaded coffee cake. Thanks to Smitten Kitchen everyone can have a better day....Follow LINK HERE:

Any who, the cake goes very well with coffee or tea obviously but can be enjoyed during any time of the day.

A little bit of the layering action....Sugar.cinnamon.chocolate.toffee...


Not only did I add toffee and a sh*t ton of jumbo chocolate chips, I also added a cup of butterscotch chips to the middle layer---thus making this fully loaded


I ended up with a pretty big batch of about 20 LARGE pieces. ---bigger the better right?

What's great is that the cinnamon-sugar mixture allowed for a nice crunchy topping to form.---very nice*


Super simple and easy to make! Enjoi*

Zeh GehrmEns are Coming!

Back in action after a week or two....

I brain-stormed with my sugarplum and we decided that I should try to make German chocolate based cupcake....

So I've been following David Lebovitz HERE :

He has an amazinggggg German Chocolate cake....so why not turn it into a cupcake!?

The chocolate base smelled like heaven...
.just the right mixture of semi sweet and unsweetened chocolate for the right taste.

Eventually the cupcakes came out super moist, light, and fluffy....Just the way German Cake was intended to be made like. The trick was to fold in some whipped egg whites and sugar. Kept the consistency of the batter to be fluffy.

An Hour later all prepped and assembled...
(cupcakes can be cooked for about 20 min)



So first I made a cavity on the top of the cupcakes then rimmed them with the chocolate frosting. (Make sure everything is at room temp or nothing will assemble properly!)



After rimming the cupcakes, I filled them with the coconut-pecan mixture.
and voi-la!----German Chocoalte Cupcakes!