Super Secret

My cousin Teela, her twin boys, and I went shopping on Thursday for some super secret cupcakes I'm making in the next month or so. It was a total blast.

Here's what we got:

Some gold foil liners.

Some super awesome gold luster dust.





Some maroon AmeriColor gel food coloring.





Some black Wilton icing coloring.





Some burgundy Wilton icing coloring.

And some white/vanilla Satin Ice rolled fondant!
I'm so excited to finally get to use fondant! But that's all you get to know about the super secret cupcakes until I post pictures. =]

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Well I'm finally up to date. These are the cupcakes I made about 4 days ago. They're cherry chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting and either a cherry sour or a twin cherry gummy on top. They're delicious. I made the cupcakes from a box mix, simply for convenience and the fact that I was just making them for myself really.

Here's the recipe I used for the frosting, which is by far the most amazingly chocolatey frosting I've made:

Hershey's "Perfect Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting (from the Hershey's website)

• 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 c. Hershey's cocoa (any cocoa will do of course)
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 1/3 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Yields about 2 cups frosting.

St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

I made chocolate espresso cupcakes with green mint frosting for St. Patrick's Day, which also happens to be my mom's birthday! These were not my favorite cupcakes. I think I added too much mint to the frosting and not enough espresso to the batter. I would do things differently if I made them again. They sure were pretty, though.

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

• 1 stick room temperature butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp. instant espresso powder
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 mins. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Mix rest of dry ingredients in separate bowl until combines. Mix milk and vanilla in another separate bowl. Add wet and dry ingredients to butter/sugar, alternating wet and dry, starting and ending with dry. Half-fill cupcake cups. Bake 22-25 mins.
For the frosting, I just made my standby buttercream and threw some peppermint extract and green food coloring in there. Piped it onto the cupcakes, stuck an Andes mint in the top, and voila!

S'mores Cupcakes

Yes, you read that right. S'mores cupcakes. I made them for my friend Riza for her 20th birthday! These turned out absolutely perfect. I have no complaints at all.

First things first:

They're made from the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe I used for the hamburger cupcakes. That is an awesome chocolate cake recipe, by the way. I think it must be the baking soda, because they come out so fluffy and light every time.

So yeah. Chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting, with graham cracker crumbs on top of that, and a square of Hershey's bar and a square of graham cracker on the very top. Sooooooooo delicious.

Marshmallow Frosting

• 2 1/2 sticks room temperature butter
• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 7 oz. tubs marshmallow fluff/cream

Cream butter on high until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating until fluffy each time. Beat in vanilla until incorporated. Dump in fluff, mix until light and creamy.

What to do with leftover cupcakes?

Frost them and eat them, of course! But not after taking some pictures.

These are the leftover vanilla and chocolate cupcakes I had from making the hamburger cupcakes. With my trusty buttercream and some sprinkles on top!