Babycakes

So we had a triple baby shower at work earlier this month. Being that I've never made baby-themed cupcakes, I had to give it a shot. Here's what I came up with:

People were asking me permission to eat them at first! Since when do you need permission to eat something someone brings two dozen of to a party? Regardless, they were all gone by the end of the day. Got the bear toppers and baby wrappers at Hobby Lobby. No recipes for these since everything was store bought (I didn't have a whole lot of notice). The pink ones are strawberry and the blue ones are dark chocolate fudge, both topped with cream cheese frosting and sanding sugar. 

Mini Gingerbread Eggnog Cupcakes

Alright, time to play catch up. I've neglected this blog way too long!

Oh yes. They were quite scrumptious. I made them for work for no particular reason other than to be nice and that I wanted to make some Christmas-themed cupcakes. They're mini gingerbread cupcakes with Southern Comfort (non-alcoholic) eggnog frosting and mini candy cane sprinkles and white sanding sugar on top. And yes, the liners have little gingerbread men on them too! 

Gingerbread Cupcakes

• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. unsulfured molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. hot milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter or line with paper liners a 12-cup muffin tin or 24-cup mini muffin tin. Cream 5 tablespoons of the butter with the white sugar. Add the molasses and the egg and egg yolk. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot milk. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the hot milk mixture. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared tin. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes or until slightly springy to the touch. Allow to cool a few minutes in the pan and remove to a rack to cool.

Egg Nog Frosting

• 1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch ground cinnamon
• pinch kosher salt
• 1/4 c. SoCo Egg Nog (any egg nog will do)
• 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to cream the butter on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. Add the powdered sugar and continue to mix until it is well incorporated. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until frosting is very airy and thoroughly mixed, about 2 minutes. Use immediately to frost cookies or cupcakes, or store covered in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Apple Pie Cupcakes

Hey y'all! It's been a while since I've posted, hasn't it? Well, we had another potluck at work so I now have new cupcakes to share!

Our potluck was for Thanksgiving since we're closed on the 26th, so of course I had to bring something in keeping with the theme. What did I bring? Apple pie cupcakes!!!!

Golden butter cupcakes with apple pie filling mixed in the batter, topped with Dutch apple jam and cinnamon vanilla bean buttercream.

I originally got the idea to do so when my baker friend Joyce sent me an awesome recipe for them. However, I only found out about the potluck the day before, so I tried to find a quicker recipe. The new recipe involved cake mix and canned apple pie filling, but turned out delicious nonetheless. The buttercream is the same as my staple buttercream, with the substitution of a real vanilla bean for the vanilla extract, and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. 

Everyone at work loved them, and I'm pretty sure it's most due to the fancy piping job. Don't get me wrong, they were scrumptious, but we basically had a table full of desserts and they wouldn't have stood out otherwise. All I did for the frosting was pipe a lattice pattern on the top with a small basket tip (Wilton #46) and then piped the wavy crust edge with a medium round tip (Wilton #7). Not too difficult, just time-consuming. 

Alright, I have a few more pictures that I know you're waiting for. 

I'll be making more of these for Thanksgiving dinner with David's family next week, but I'll only be uploading those pictures to facebook and flickr so I don't have basically a double post. 


Next should be something Christmasey! We'll see!

Apple Pie Cupcakes (easy version)

• 1 box Golden Butter recipe cake mix
• 1 can apple pie filling (you may want to run a knife through it a few times since the apple slices are pretty large for cupcakes)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into lined muffin tin. Bake for 10-20 minutes, depending on what size tin you use. Makes 12-18 cupcakes.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes!

We had a potluck at my new job to celebrate the end of training, and since I was in a pumpkiney mood, I decided to make pumpkin spice cupcakes for it! These were seriously the easiest cupcakes I've ever made.

I got started on Wednesday evening by making mini marzipan pumpkins as toppers. I've never worked with marzipan before, but this definitely won't be my last time. It was so easy to work with and smelled so good!

I baked the cupcakes Thursday evening. I love how they crackled on the tops, so pretty. They made the whole house smell heavenly, too. 

I filled the cupcakes with a squirt each of pumpkin butter on Thursday evening as well. I have a filling tip from Wilton that makes filling soooo easy. 

 

I frosted them all early Friday morning before work with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I found the liners at Michael's, and they're by Martha Stewart. She has some awesome Halloween stuff. The "poison" liners have a skull image on the bottom of the cup, and the "beware" ones have spiders.

At the potluck. I displayed them on my Wilton cupcake stand with a big black charger plate underneath to hold the rest, since there were 24. 

These cupcakes were a huge hit and made me tons of new friends, haha. They were positively scrumptious as well! It was torture having to wait to eat them, since I was sitting near them and could smell them all day. I've already been asked by David's aunt to bring some to Thanksgiving dinner, though!

Easy Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

• 2 (18.25 oz) packages spice cake mix
• 1 (30 oz) can pumpkin pie filling
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp butter flavoring 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl for 2 minutes. Contents will be very thick. Line muffin tin with paper cups. Fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 24 minutes (or, if you're only doing one 12-cup tin at a time, about 10 minutes). Makes about two dozen, usually a little more. TIP: If you have extra batter but not enough to fill all the cups of the muffin tin, fill the remaining empty cups halfway with water. It helps the cupcakes to bake more evenly.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Beat the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer in a bowl until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar a little at a time until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and cinnamon; beat until fluffy.

Robot Cupcakes

Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to post! I've been super busy starting a new job!

Anyways, Benjamin's robot cupcakes turned out fantastically. They were apparently a huge hit at his awesome robot party! I had a ton of fun making them, and I'm glad they turned out as well as they did.

Here they are, in the plastic cases I got at the All In One Bake Shop and with my new tags attached! They smelled sooooo good!

And here they are displayed at the party! Aren't the signs Kristi made just adorable? She's so creative.

And here is one super happy birthday boy!

The cupcakes themselves were just french vanilla and devil's food, both made from a mix (terrible, I know, but they're soooo much easier!). The frosting was a shortening-based buttercream that I've lost the recipe to. It had to be shortening-based so that they wouldn't need to be refrigerated. The cookies are just plain sugar cookies with royal icing!

More news! These cupcakes will actually be the last order I'll be doing for a while. I want to focus more on developing my skills and testing new flavors and ideas before I make more to order. I think it'll be a nice little break to just make a dozen or so whenever the mood strikes me rather than having to make so many and plan so much. It'll be a nice little experimental period for me. =]