Hop Scotch

This time I used my coffee cake recipe to make a vanilla cake.  I omitted the cinnamon sugar and frosted them with a vanilla buttercream.  I popped them in the freezer for 5 minutes and dipped them in butterscotch ganache.  They are very sweet, but delicious!  I used my small camera, so the pictures didn't turn out very good.

Halloween

These are just simple chocolate cupcakes, but I added a Halloween Oreo cookie to each cupcake.  They were so good!!!

Snickers Bar Cupcake

I made this one just like the recipe.  It's a brown sugar cake with chopped dry roasted peanuts.  It has a nougat layer and it's frosted with rich chocolate frosting and topped with more peanuts.  It was a pain to make, but it tastes pretty good.  I probably won't make this one again.

Mocha Latte

During my visit to Starbucks last week, I indulged in their seasonal Pumpkin Latte (tall, skinny, no whip).  As I was drinking it, I thought, that's a great name for my pumpkin cupcake!  Today, while home for the second day with a sick child, I decided to make Pumpkin Latte cupcakes.  Sadly, I was out of pumpkin.  So I made the next best thing, Mocha Latte Cupcakes!!  I used my dark chocolate recipe, but added one cup of really strong coffee.  I only had half of the sour cream that it called for, so I supplemented with heavy cream.  The result is an even moister (is that a word) cupcake.  I made my usual whipped cream cheese frosting and dusted them with cocoa powder and sprinkled shaved chocolate on top.  You're going to want a "Vente."

Pumpkin Cupcake

Who says you have to wait until October to eat pumpkin?  Every year I make several patches of pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.  So I used the same recipe to make cupcakes.  I frosted them with whipped cream cheese frosting and dusted them with pumpkin pie spice.  YUMMY!  They remind me of fall.

M & M Chocolate Cupcake

Nothing special here, I was just craving m & m's.  It's my dark chocolate cake with Whipped cream cheese chocolate frosting, topped with chopped m & m's.  They were for Russ' bday party.  I also made an apple pie, but didn't take a picture!!

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake

It's been almost six months since my last blog.  I've been baking a little, but I haven't created anything new....until today.  A few months ago, my 9 year old asked me to try to make a Pineapple upside down cupcake.  Yesterday my husband bought me a new muffin tin that holds 24 cupcakes.  I couldn't hold out any longer, I had to make the cupcake.  It was kind of a challenge in the fact that it's an upside down cake, which means I couldn't use a cupcake liner.  I had to bake the cupcakes right in the tin and then flip them out and hope and pray that they didn't stick to the sides of the pan or fall apart!!  Luckily, they turned out great.  I made a whipped cream cheese frosting and garnished them with toasted coconut and toffee bits and put a cherry on the top.  They are delicious!

Chocolate Drizzle Cake

I was asked to make a white cake with chocolate frosting for a baby shower.  It needed to feed 15 people.  This is a triple layer white cake with chocolate frosting, drizzled with chocolate ganache and garnished with strawberries.  It looked so good, my family asked me to make one for them!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcake

I had Valentine's Day on my mind when I came up with my new cupcake.  I always make chocolate covered strawberries for the holiday, so I thought, why not make a cupcake around that?  I made my normal chocolate cupcake, but I realized too late that I didn't have any sour cream (it's the secret to the moistness of my cake).  Then I realized I could use buttermilk instead.  Guess what?  No buttermilk!  This was not a problem as I happen to have whole milk and vinegar on hand.  The two can be combined to make buttermilk.  That problem was solved, but now I needed to figure out how much buttermilk to add to my batter.  I decided on 1/2 a cup and crossed my fingers.  That seemed to be the perfect amount.  I think I like this cake better than the sour cream version.  I love it when that happens!  Next, I pureed and cooked the strawberries.  I used some of the puree for the frosting and the rest for the cupcakes.  I dipped the tops of the cakes into the puree.  Then I frosted them with strawberry whipped cream cheese frosting.  I topped each cake with a chocolate dipped strawberry and drizzled them with chocolate.  YUM!

Peanut Butter Pattie Cupcake

This cupcake was obviously inspired by my favorite Girl Scout cookie, the Peanut Butter Pattie.  It's a peanut butter cake filled with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, frosted with peanut butter frosting, drizzled with dark chocolate ganache, and garnished with a Peanut Butter Pattie.  This version has a lot of peanut butter, so if that is your thing, you will love it. 

Blue Moon Cupcake

In October, while attending an Emporia State Alumni event at The Boulevard Brewery, someone asked me if I could create a Wheat beer cupcake.  I told him, "Yes," but I never followed through.  Finally today I decided to attempt it.  Since I am a Blue Moon fan, this is the beer I chose to use.  The cake is made with orange zest, coriander, buttermilk and Blue Moon.  It tastes very similar to a spice cake.  The frosting is made with cream cheese, orange zest and a little Blue Moon.  It's garnished with an orange wedge with the peel left on.  I think it's delicious, but I am a fan of coriander.  My tongue is still tingling from the spice.

My daughters like to make Cupcakes too!

So it's been three months since I baked a new cupcake.  I did one new cupcake a week for eight weeks and I guess I got burned out.  I've still been baking, I just haven't come up with anything new in awhile.  Haven, however, has been decorating like a star!  I am posting her MINI FLOWER CUPCKAKE.  She saw a picture of this cupcake and then figured out how to make it completely on her own.  She even made a "how-to" video.

Briley made a lot of awesome cupcakes too.  This one below was her favorite design.  We had a fun time decorating on New Year's Day.