Back in the game

So I made cupcakes tonight for the first time in a few weeks. I made "2 ingredient pumpkin cupcakes". So far they have turned out amazing. And my frosting also turned out amazing. For the first time, my frosting is fluffy instead of runny. I finally figured out the trick. I added some cinnamon to it to give the frosting a little bit of a holiday flavor, but it turns out it didn't contribute much. Still very good though. Until next time....

Ooops!

I've neglected my blog for a while, sorry! So I made orange pineapple cupcakes, delicious. Black velvet for Corey's last day, delicious but sad. (Still missing you Core Core!) Friday is Treva's birthday. I'm making chocolate cake with a white chocolate inside, strawberry cream cheese frosting, topped with a strawberry and drizzled with chocolate ganache. So far, my most complicated cupcake, but I think it will be worth it and delicious! After Friday's batch, I won't be making cupcakes for about 2 weeks, which at that time, will be pumpkin cupcakes. :) Since I will now be working Saturdays, I am going to spoil my Saturday coworkers with cupcakes since I don't work much during the week. Until next time....

United Way Bake Sale!

I just finished making my cupcakes for the bake sale! Caramel apple cupcakes! I decorated some with sprinkles, some with pecans, and some just have caramel on them. The caramel is soaked into the cake a bit so hopefully that will help keep them moist. I ended up getting 3 dozen cupcakes out of the batch, it seems to be different every time, keeps me on my toes lol. To finish the cupcakes, I put them in little baggies and tied them with orange ribbon (for Halloween) with a little tag on it that says "Cupcakes with Care" in a pretty, curly font. I haven't tried one yet (I have a thing about odd numbers) but I have 6 set aside for my favorite people: Carla, Judi, Tracy, Diana, Lori, and one for myself. That list is in no particular order if any of you listed is reading this. :) Well it's about time for me to get to bed, it's late and I'm tired. Until next time....

Happy Birthday Amy!!

It's my sister's birthday today and tomorrow is her birthday lunch, so I made her cupcakes. I made lime cupcakes with lemonade buttercream frosting. To make the lime cake, I added 2 packets of lime jello into the mix. The jello mix also made the cupcakes green. :) As for the lemonade frosting, amazing decision. I dyed the frosting yellow. So now they look like Packer cupcakes! :) I've got 2 kinds of cupcakes to make next week, one for the bake sale and one for a Halloween treat contest. Until next time....

Got some good news today

So I came into work today and opened my email and saw something awesome! It was about a bake sale that we are having to raise money for the United Way. It said that they are looking for people to make stuff to sell! This got me super excited. I thought about it for a while and decided on the most presentable idea so far. I will be making Caramel Apple cupcakes. They will be adorable, since they will look like real caramel apples. I will be making an apple spice cake, made with applesauce - chunky, so that there are actual bits of apple in the cake - and green food coloring (that's the apple part). For the topping, instead of a frosting or icing, I will top them with caramel syrup. For some I will put sprinkles on, some I will put nuts on, and some will be just plain caramel. I will top them all with a toothpick to look like a caramel apple on a stick.

Since they are supposed to be "pre packaged" to sell, I'm gonna get some pretty bags, tie them up with some ribbon and put a tag on each one with the name of my future business (Cupcakes with Care) so that everyone knows whose cupcakes they're eating and want more when I make them. :)

Until next time....

Chocolate Cherry Coke Cupcakes

My chocolate cherry coke cupcakes went over very well. There were several people who had more than one cupcake. I've decided I will make this recipe the first in my book. Towards the end of the night, after all the leads and supervisors had at least 1 cupcake, I started handing them out to random agents. There were a few that looked like they needed one and many whose night I made just with the simple offer of a cupcake. The only feeling that beats the one I get while making the cupcakes is the one I get when I know I just made someone a little happier or someone's night a little better.

I'm going to start making my own recipes by altering the recipe below to suit the flavor I want to make. My sister, Amy, has a birthday on Saturday and her birthday lunch is on Sunday. She told me to surprise her with something that tastes good. I have an idea of what I will do, but I don't wanna put it on here in case she's reading. 

Next up after my sister's are Corey's. He requested red velvet, normally too simple for my style but it's a classic. His will be made for Halloween so naturally I will be making them festive. :) "Black" velvet with orange colored cream cheese frosting.

Following Corey's last day is Treva's birthday. Between Tracy, Diana, Krystal and I, we came up with the perfect cupcake for her. She said she wanted something chocolate and a surprise. We came up with a chocolate cake, white chocolate chips in the middle with a strawberry cream cheese frosting drizzled with caramel. The frosting will be made with pureed strawberries rather than artificial strawberry flavoring (which I hate). Artificial strawberry doesn't do justice to the real flavor of strawberries.  Sounds good, huh?

After Treva's birthday, there isn't a real reason to make cupcakes until Diana's birthday, therefore, I will make them for holidays! Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and I figure what better way to celebrate it than with pumpkin cupcakes? Unless someone has a better idea lol. I found a 2 ingredient recipe involving a can of pumpkin and a box of cake mix. Just mix the 2 together and bake! I of course will be adding some pumpkin pie spice to add some flavor to it. Topped with cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with some more spice and graham crackers, it sounds pretty perfect to me!

Then for Christmas I will be making 2 separate kinds. I will be making a gingerbread cake with cinnamon frosting and a chocolate chocolate chip/candy cane cake with whipped cream frosting drizzled with chocolate syrup and sprinkled with candy cane bits. I think I will buy a couple different kinds of candy canes to top the cupcakes with to make a little bit of a variety.

Diana's cupcakes will be simple. Chocolate cake with peanut butter chips and a peanut butter frosting. Sounds like my favorite candy: Reese's!

That's all I have scheduled for now but that could change... :) Until next time.....

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (no substitutes)
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Waiting game

I'm currently waiting for my 2nd batch of cupcakes to cook. I've made the icing (pink colored amaretto flavored) and the 1st batch is cooling. This is exciting cuz they look sooooooo good! They are made-from-scratch chocolate with pie filling cherries and chocolate chips in the middle. The recipe said it would make 24 cupcakes. HA! I still have a half bowl full of batter. This will please my coworkers haha. And I won't run out and leave people out. This has been an absolute success so far.... I have successfully made a ginormous mess in my kitchen! :) It's worth it though. Gotta take the 2nd batch out of the oven. Until next time....

I had a dream last night

Last night I had a pretty awesome dream. I went on Facebook and 8 different people had either wrote on my wall, commented on my status or sent me a message saying that they wanted some of my cupcakes and I was really excited that so many people wanted MY cupcakes. Yup, that's it. I haven't thought of any new flavors. It is a week until I make my next batch of cupcakes for Carla and the rest of my awesome coworkers. I might even make some for my awesome friends! :) Until next time.

I just had a great idea!

I was looking at the list of cupcakes I want to make and my eyes landed on the Orange Pineapple cake with Mango icing and it made me think of the conversation I had with Tracy when I thought of it. I told her that this flavor was inspired by my favorite juice: orange pineapple. And she said "I LOVE ORANGE PINEAPPLE JUICE! It goes really good with peach schnapps." I was on the phone with my mom at the time and she said that regardless of if i thought of the flavors without looking them up, someone somewhere has probably already made it. Which made me think. Now I've got this great idea! I should make alcohol inspired cupcakes!!  All my (and everyone else's) favorite drinks transformed into cupcakes!!

My mom's favorite (and only) drink is Malibu and Diet. I figure I'll make a chocolate cake flavored with Coke and coconut and top it with a Malibu flavored frosting.

Next is my favorite drink: Chelemvod as Laura and I like to refer to it as. Or as it is more commonly known: Cherry Vodka with Lemonade. For this I will make a lemon cake with a cherry vodka frosting.

Oh the possibilities! How about a rum flavored cake with coke flavored frosting? Rum and coke!

And for the whiskey coke fans out there, I'm sorry, I don't think I could come up with anything that would taste good. :)

A modification to an idea I already had: Orange Pineapple cake with a Peach schnapps frosting.

More ideas to come later. Time for work!

And so it begins...

So my work day was super productive, aka it was slow, so with the help of some of my coworkers (shoutouts to Tracy, Jameson, Eric, Carla and Andrew) I came up with a list of cupcakes that I want to/am going to make. Here it goes:

Apple Pecan cake with Maple Syrup icing

Graham cracker cake with Marshmallow icing topped with a Hershey's square

Red velvet cake with Cream Cheese icing and a sugar cookie center

Peanut butter and Banana cake with Chocolate Ganache

Gingerbread cake with Cinnamon icing

Raspberry cake with Honey icing

Lime cake with Orange buttercream

Apple Spice cake with Peanut Butter icing topped with a banana slice

Banana/Strawberry/Pineapple Pecan cake with Chocolate Caramel icing topped with whipped cream icing and a cherry (Banana Split)

Orange Pineapple cake with Mango icing

Sweet Potato/Brown Sugar cake with Toasted Marshmallow icing

Chocolate cake with Amaretto icing and a cherry and chocolate syrup in the middle

Vanilla cake with Pumpkin icing and a cream cheese center

Lemon cake with Meringue icing

Raspberry cupcakes with Champagne buttercream

Vanilla cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese icing and a strawberry jelly filling

Lemon Blueberry cake with Lemon frosting

Maple cake with Cream Cheese icing topped with bacon

Caramel Apple cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese frosting

Vanilla cake with Cream Cheese frosting sprinkled with Pop Rocks

Gingerbread cake with Zinfandel Buttercream frosting

Sweet Tea cake with Lemon Sweet Tea icing

Mint Chocolate Chip cake with Fresh Mint Buttercream

Chocolate Cherry Cola cake with Marshmallow frosting with red licorice filling

Strawberry Champagne cake with Champagne frosting

Lemon cake with Kiwi frosting

Chocolate Chocolate Chip/Candy Cane cake with Whipped Cream frosting drizzled with chocolate syrup and sprinkled with candy cane bits

Chai cake with Vanilla Bean frosting

Vanilla cake with Cream Cheese frosting with a brownie center

Lemon cake with Raspberry Tea frosting


Leave comments with which one you think I should do next!

Pumpkin Pie

So I'm writing about this after the fact. I've decided to use my coworkers as my guinea pigs to test out different cupcake flavors. Yesterday, I attempted to make Pumpkin Pie cupcakes. They ended up being Spice cupcakes with a graham cracker middle. I assumed that buying pumpkin pie spice would give a pumpkin flavor. I was wrong. Some people said it tasted like pumpkin but I didn't taste it. The overall consensus is that they were very good regardless.

To make them, I started with a white cake mix. I blended in a good amount of pumpkin pie spice, poured the mix into the cups and threw them in the oven. The box says 18-22 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. The first batch went in for somewhere around 13. The second went the full 18, but they both turned out fully cooked. Once they were done cooking, I let them cool. I was on a tight deadline (1.5 hours) so I stuck them in the fridge for about 5 minutes to flash cool them. Once cooled, I took a paring knife and cut out a core. I scraped out some of the insides and filled them with a mixture of crushed graham crackers and whipped cream. I then put the top back on and voila!

It also turns out that my cupcakes were a little tough according to my supervisor, Judi.  She said that this is caused by mixing for too long, which I admit I did. I mixed in the spice, decided it wasn't enough and repeated two more times. I even had to add 1/8 cup more water just to make it a little runnier since it wasn't emptying into the cups well enough.

At the end of the night, another supervisor, Carla, gave me my next idea: Chocolate covered cherry cupcakes with an amaretto icing. I did some research on how to make chocolate cupcakes from scratch instead of from a box and I got an idea to revise the recipe. Until next time....