My New Favorite Cupcake Flavor…

I found some inspiration on a blog that I follow.  I thought I’d do a little experimenting with my regular chocolate cupcake and came up with my own chocolate peppermint chunk cupcake with peppermint buttercream.  What I came up with is my new favorite holiday cupcake.

Chocolate and peppermint, what a fabulous combination.

Camy and Carson’s 11th Birthday

I did a little experimental baking for the girls’ birthday this year.  We had dinner at my parents’ house and I made an Amaretto chocolate chip cake with a caramel filling and a rolled buttercream fondant icing.

I think that in all it turned out pretty good.  I am so used to making cupcakes and a cake seemed like a lot more work.  It was pretty sweet, although I think that is the point, and the caramel filling was a lot harder to keep inside the cake than I had planned, but it was pretty good.

 

 

 

For their slumber party there was a lot of baking going on.  First we had iced sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

Then I did a little simpler cake, the chocolate chip cake but just buttercream icing for the filling.  My second attempt at the buttercream rolled fondant was a little better, and I am looking forward to some more practice.

The slumber party guests seemed to enjoy all the baked goods.

Frosting for the Cause…

On June 10th I guest posted on the Frosting for the Cause website.  I cannot say enough about how wonderful I think this project is.  It is a little late coming, but you can see my guest post here.
Go by and check out the wonderful baking that has been going on all year and the wonderful difference the women of this site have been making.

Summer Baking…

It has been pretty slow on the baking front around here.  I did whip up some cinnamon rolls while we were at the beach earlier this month for the family, but other than the usual chocolate chip cookies it’s been too hot to be in the kitchen.  I do have some cinnamon bread rising in the kitchen as I type, and I am looking forward to that.
In June, I made some cupcakes for the sweetest birthday boy.  My friend Angie’s son, Cooper, celebrated his 5th birthday and I got to make the cupcakes.  Kids and cupcakes just go together.  Chocolate with chocolate butter cream, and vanilla with vanilla butter cream.

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Also in June I got to make cupcakes for a birthday girl.  More friends from high school, Ben and Suzan’s daughter, Hannah, celebrated her 6th birthday.  The birthday girl wanted chocolate chip with chocolate butter cream, and confetti cupcakes with green butter cream.

More Beer Sprocket...

Had a mixer on loan from a friend.

First batch was pumpkin.  Gotta love Penny Cakes!

That's organic pumpkin.

The minis are so stinking cute.

One half of the display table.

The other half of the display table.

With the banner.

Check out the logo.

Beer Sprocket

Beer Sprocket was this past Saturday.  I would have to say that it was a success.  I made between 450 and 500 mini cupcakes and when we left at about 8:30 (30 minutes before it was officially over) we were out of cupcakes.  Every last one was gone.

I had made:

pumpkin with cream cheese frosting

red velvet with cream cheese frosting

strawberry with strawberry buttercream

amaretto chocolate chip with cherry buttercream

Who would have thought it, but the red velvet was the hit of the day.  We ran out of those first, followed by pumpkin, chocolate and then strawberry.  It's funny because the red velvet was a last minute addition.

Who also would have thought that Josh, with the help of Jeff, would make me two awesome cupcake stands.  They even had C's on the top of them.  With the stands, the brightly colored napkins, the cupcakes with our C&C toothpicks in them, and our banner, it all looked very professional.  I gave out a ton of business cards too, so we'll see if we can generate a little business from this.

Now I just have to come up with a strudel inspired cupcake for Oktoberfest in September.  I love a good recipe challenge.

Baby Shower Goodies...

This weekend I am baking for babies. 

The first baby is a little boy, and for his mom's baby shower I made two dozen very vanilla cupcakes, with blue tinted cream cheese frosting.  I have not used the recipe for the cupcakes before and I am very happy at how they turned out.

The second baby is a little girl.  For her mom's shower, which is being hosted by my friend Kendra, I made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I did a test batch of carrot cupcakes last week, and was not thrilled with the results.  I did get good reviews from my co-workers, but I was still unsure.  I don't have much of a history with carrot cake, so I don't really have a point of reference for this one.  The initial batch called for crushed pineapple and raisins.  I have never been a huge fan of raisins.  When I got ready to whip up this batch, I opted for Martha Stewart's version of carrot cake, it didn't contain pineapple, and the golden raisins were optional.

I also made a batch of sugar cookies.  I love the little feet cookie cutter I bought the other day, though I kinda think I should have gotten the left foot and the right foot.  They are iced with pink and yellow royal icing.  I have been worried about these because the icing didn't set up as quickly as I like, but they seem to be okay now.

Later today, my niece Lanee will be here, and I told her I'd make her some cupcakes for her birthday party tomorrow.  I think she wants cherry, but we'll see when she gets here.  I love having a pantry full of supplies and people that need baked goods.

Beer Sprocket

A week from today is Beer Sprocket.  I have committed to provide cupcakes for this event.  I am hoping this is just what I need to jump start my business and get some regular customers.

I will be making somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 mini cupcakes next week.  What was I thinking, right?  Turns out mini cupcakes are a bit easier to manage on a large scale than regular sized cupcakes.  I did some experimental baking last weekend to get ready.  Who would have thought that a regular batch of pumpkin batter, that usually makes about 3 dozen regular size cupcakes, would make 11 dozen mini cupcakes?  Not me.

I came up with three varieties that I sampled last weekend, and have since decided on adding another.

We are going with Josh's favorite, pumpkin with cream cheese frosting, strawberry with strawberry frosting, and Amaretto chocolate chip with cherry butter cream.  I decided that I'll also include some red velvet with cream cheese frosting, just because I love that one too.  I hate to leave any of my favorite flavors out.

I ordered a set of business cards, complete with my new logo, and I have a banner in the works.  I even went on cafepress.com and ordered a pink t-shirt with my logo on it.  We'll see how it looks when it gets here.

Now, I have to come up with my plan, and a grocery list and come Friday I'll be baking up a storm.

Sometimes Things Don't Go As Planned...

So today is a rest day for me, as is tomorrow.  Since we are heading down to Dallas tomorrow for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon.

Instead of heading to the gym this morning, I got up with the intention of decorating the five dozen sugar cookies I whipped up last night before dinner with a couple of friends.  All didn't go as planned.  I don't know what my problem was this morning, but I screwed up two, yes TWO, batches of royal icing for the cookies.

For some reason I thought I should only do half of the recipe, but I put the same amount of powdered sugar in as I would for the whole recipe.  I was hoping to make black and white cookies, but the second batch of frosting that I attempted to make black, didn't turn out so black.  (Note to self, research black icing.)   I tried piping with the first batch, but the consistency seemed all wrong.

Then it hit me, too much powdered sugar!  Duh!  No wonder it wasn't working.  So I pitched the two bad batches, and started all over.  I now have one perfect batch waiting for my in my fridge, so I can get all of the cookies decorated tonight when I get home.

Birthday Cupcakes...

Back in January I made cupcakes for Camy's teacher, her daughter Lillian was celebrating her first birthday.

I made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting, and vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. 

Brightly colored cupcake holders, frosting and sprinkles completed the look.