Pumpkin Cupcakes

Pumpkin Cupcakes

So its been a while since I've posted anything. I've been baking but not posting strangely enough. Since it is fall (finally!) and the people around me like pumpkin flavored items I decided to try to make some pumpkin cupcakes.

My go to lady for recipes Martha Stewart cupcake book. There are a few things I changed... instead of buttermilk I used sour cream and of course I put in more spices. I will say that she put in a lot of ginger. In retrospect I'd not put in so much. It seems like all you taste is the spices.. but then again I'm that clueless person who doesn't really know what pumpkin tastes like. The cake is extremely moist.. which I love! And what goes better with pumpkin cupcakes is Cream Cheese frosting. I love that it only has 3 ingredients butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar!

These came out pretty tasty and really easy to make. :)

Nom Nom Nom!

Triple Citrus Cupcakes with Citrus Glaze

It's been a while since I've baked and or posted an entry. I've made a few things like a 4 layer chocolate cake for John's birthday and some more Carrot Cake Cupcakes for my mom's birthday. It's been really warm lately and it doesn't help that I live on the top floor of an apartment complex that doesn't have A.C.. So needless to say I seem to bake if its not already an oven in the apartment.

Anyway for father's day this year we were having a cookout w my parents and my Great Aunts and I wanted to try something new and refreshing for the summer time. So in the good ol Martha Stewart Cupcake book there was this recipe for these Triple Citrus Cupcakes. The interesting thing about this recipe is that the only flavoring is 3 types of zest... Lime, Lemon & Orange. Also another odd thing is that there is no leavening agent. No baking power or soda which I found to be really strange!

The glaze itself consisted of three things powdered sugar, lime zest and lime juice. The glaze is a bit tart but it is a nice compliment to the cake. Strange observation... the day these were made after trying them the cake didn't taste like much and all you tasted was the lime glaze, but after a day of them sitting in the fridge (like I said my apartment is an oven) and trying them again the citrus flavor was more apparent more flavorful.

I really liked these! I thought they are quite refreshing and are a nice alternative.

Marshmallow Experiment

RAY WHAT DID YOU DO?

Marshmallows how I love you! So soft, fluffy and just melt in my mouth! I could probably go through a half of a bag of them on their own. This was a challenge to see if I could make them on my myself. There is only a handful of ingredients that go into a Marshmallow and it mostly consists of sugar... both corn syrup or granulated sugar the other main ingredient is gelatin and lots of it. If I was a less ambitious person I would have made a half of a batch instead the recipe took 4 packets of gelatin and a cup of corn syrup.

I've made a marshmallow frosting for the smore cupcakes and its a similar process. Heat the sugar to a molten 244 degrees then combine it with the gelatin then whisk it until it is crazy fluffy. I did enjoy trying to figure out how to transfer the marshmallow out of the bowl and into a 8 by 12 glass pan without it sticking to everything. I failed miserably. It stuck to my hands and to the rubber scrapers and also to the sides of the bowl the only thing it didn't stick to was the glass pan because it was covered with powdered sugar. Then it has to sit out over night to dry. There wasn't an approximate time with how long this happen but i figured a good 12 hours.

The fun part is when its all ready to go you can break out your fun cookie cutters and go to town. I posses a few round cookie cutters for your basic marshmallow shape but then I also own a Squirrel cookie cutter (don't ask why i just do) and I made some fun squirrel marshmallows.
They turned out pretty good and i have a whole bag of marshmallows to myself. Nom nom nom. I can totally see why people can charge what they do for gormet marshmallows its not as easy as it might seem. If I do this again I will add different flavoring to them maybe rasperry or orange extract to make them more exciting!

SQUIRREL!

Banana cupcakes

These Cupcakes are Bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S

These are Roasted Banana Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart cupcakes book. Couple of things about roasting bananas is interesting... I'm not found of their texture after they are roasted and then trying to extract them out of their peels. I've decided that I need to invest in another Kitchen Aid Mixing bowl because you have to beat the egg whites separate from the actual batter, which I'm sure gave them the light and fluffy texture of the cake. I'm sure it would have been easier if I had a separate bowl and wasn't transferring batter to another bowl while whipping the egg whites. The recipe only makes 16 regular cupcakes so to have more to try & distribute I made allot of minis and took some to Classic Studios when I got my hair cut. They seemed to enjoy them very much.

The frosting is a honey cinnamon butter cream quite tasty! Of course I added more cinnamon because 1/4 teaspoon doesn't seem like all that much to me. The cake is a whole lotta banana flavor and the frosting is a sweet accent. If I can get past the preparation of the bananas I'd make it whenever I have extra ripe bananas.

Lemon Cupcakes

She Wore Lemon

I like citrus desserts they are always refreshing and seem to clean you pallet. I've made these cupcakes before for both my brother's wedding shower and his wedding. But as always I changed the recipe to make it my own. The recipe called for self rising flour but instead I used cake flour with a teaspoon of baking powder as the rising agent. I used my new and shiny juicer to squeeze all the juice out of the lemons! It's so much better then me squeezing a lemon with my hands like I did for my brother's wedding. The cake is light and not as lemony as you might expect it to be that's where the frosting comes into play.

I used the liners that my mom bought me from Crate & Barrel they are very spring like. I usually make the lemon cupcakes with a lemon frosting, but this time around I wanted to switch it up and experiment with swirling two flavors together. I ended up with Lemon Raspberry frosting.... half lemon half raspberry. The lemon itself is kind of tart because of the freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest and the raspberry is a nice complementary flavor because they also have a tendency of being a bit tart. They are very tasty and refreshing. I'm really happy the way these turned out. =)

Egg Bread

There is nothing better then homemade bread & I don't mean bread out of a bread maker. Egg bread is one of my favorites to make the cookbook suggests to put it into 2 loaf pans I have a preference to making one loaf and braiding it. It has a tendency of stretching length wise over a baking sheet. But I think it looks pretty.

I experimented this time around with mixing the dough at night and letting it rise once then I put it into the fridge so I could bake it in the morning for Easter. I put it in the fridge and woke up in the morning and saw it did its second rise and I got slightly worried that it wouldn't do a third rise, but thankfully it did.

One more picture =)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

To celebrate Easter this past weekend I decided to try a new recipe Carrot Cake provided by Abbey at Our Forking Blog (http://ourforkingblog.blogspot.com/). Because I seem to be selective to desserts that don't have to do with chocolate I've never tried carrot cake, but my mom is a big fan of this dessert. I shredded my carrots and away I went. I must say that the batter seemed runny and I was slightly concerned with its outcome but when I rotated the pan everything seemed A-OKAY!



The frosting is a cream cheese frosting another first for me and its delicious! I love cream cheese in general so why not in frosting form. I love how it consists of three ingredients: cream cheese, butter & powdered sugar. YUM.

I will be happy to report that the cake was fluffy and light and the cream cheese frosting had a smooth consistency. Mom was very happy and so was I.

New Moon Night

New Moon Release Party

For those who are not aware of Twilight its about tween vampire who sparkle... I know there is more to it but that's what I take it as. =) I made sugar cookies and mini cupcakes for this years New Moon dvd release party for work. Sugar cookies were made in the shapes of Lions, Lambs, Apples, and Moons. The apples & moons were covered in red & yellow sprinkles. Mini cupcakes were pretty basic vanilla & chocolate chip cupcakes with colored buttercream frosting. I did put out a tent card and business cards hoping people would comment, no luck. Oh well better luck next time. All I do know is that there were no more cookies and or cupcakes left at the end of the night.

Week Six part deux

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I've been feeling quite ambitious lately with attempting a few new recipes this week. So when you say to some people "oh i made some snickerdoodles" you either get the look of what the heck are those or OoooOo do those have snickers in them? Snickerdoodle cookies are basically a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon and sugar. These cupcakes seem to be a vanilla cupcake with cinnamon and sugar. I find it amazing that they do taste extremely similar to the cookies.

The frosting was a seven minute frosting from the Martha Stewart cupcakes cookbook. Yeah it took longer than seven minutes to make, but it does have the consistency of a marshmallow on a cupcake minus the chewiness. Good news I got to use my candy thermometer again to heat up sugar to 230 degrees. Molten sugar is a scary thing! So anyway the closed star tip was used to pipe on the frosting sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar. Some googly eyes were placed for comic relief. My friend Connie helped with piping and eye placement. (CiaoBellaRosa.blogspot.com)

Week Six

Shipping Off to Boston

Chocolate Chip and Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

with Baileys Buttercream

It seems when it comes to baking and bakeries that everyone does holiday themed goodies. So I decided to join in this week and make come St. Patty's day cupcakes. I will just say that I am in LOVE with cake flour at the moment. It seems to make the cake lighter. With that thought I've been using the same chocolate cupcake recipe for the chocolate cupcakes but this time around I altered a few things like substituting some cake flour for the all purpose flour and I also added some mini Chocolate chips for an extra punch of chocolate.
Vanilla bean cupcakes instead of regular vanilla extract I used French Vanilla extract. It is quite strong and I'm not sure that I would use as much but it has an amazing aroma to it.
The Buttercream.... oh my i didn't really have a recipe for this so instead of adding milk to the buttercream I added Baileys. I like the combination of flavors with the chocolate, vanilla, and the baileys. Not too Shabby!

Week Five

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana.

Oh man that was cheesy. There aren't many songs that have to do with oranges. I was thinking Orange County Girl by Gwen Stefani but that's just plain obvious when it comes to me and my love of No Doubt. Anyways.... these are Orange cupcakes the recipe / idea came from the website www.mybakingaddiction.com/orange-cupcakes-2/ . Yeah I still not too sure how to post a link on this blog but hopefully I will learn soon. Anywhoo. I love this recipe i love the consistency of the batter not too thick not too thin. The batter itself make exactly 12 regular size cupcakes so that's the only downside. Today I went on a nice shopping trip to find some shiny new cupcake liners and I ended up finding some plain brown ones (which i must say look pretty classy) from Tapps a baking shop and some spring time liners with eggs on them from Target.

On Mybakingaddiction.com she used a cream cheese frosting. I wasn't too sure about it even though I bought all the ingredients for it. After trying the cupcakes it seemed to need more of an orange flavor to it. So instead of the cream cheese frosting i made a butter cream frosting with orange extract instead of vanilla. I think they turned out pretty. I had a few panic moments because I seem to have misplaced my giant star tip. I hope it shows up. I just used a smaller star tip and decorated it with a fruit slice candy.

Week Four Part Duex

Shortbread Buttons

So this is where this one started.... Bakeitpretty (Bakeitpretty.com) tweeted a link to these cookies a few weeks ago from Forty-six at Grace. (fourtysixthatgrace.blogspot.com/2010/01/tutorial-shortbread-buttons_8809.html)

They looked so cute that I wanted to try them out. There is a recipe on her blog but it is in grams and I tried to convert it to cups but I was having troubles with the exact measurements. So I found a similar recipe on Joyofbaking.com/shortbreads/shortbreadcookies.html

Today was the day that I attempted them. I liked making 3 different colored cookies then I decided with the scraps to make a tie died cookie with all three doughs. I can't remember if I've ever had a shortbread cookie besides the girl scout version. I'm sure they would be great with tea but by themselves they seem a bit dry. But they look cute so that's all that matters right?

Week Four

Irish Cream Cheesecakes

Well I haven't posted for over a week due to lots of work and making cupcakes for people for Valentines day. This week I have three days off from work soooo i decided to do a few things. This recipe I found on the Internet in 2004 and haven't made it since so I've been seeing a whole lotta bakeries and blogs talking about St. Pats day so remembered this recipe that I made for a class in college. Yes it does have Bailey's in it and it gives it a nice flavor...and I'm sure that the alcohol burns off in the baking process. I made some slight modifications by making them into cupcake sizes. The only problem I run into when making cheesecakes is that the centers always fall. I know I should leave them in the oven to cool blah blah blah but I get anxious and probably mess it up in that way. I would love help on this issue. =) I'm sure my work mates are going to like trying them.

Irish Cram Cheesecake

Crust

2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers (I used Graham crackers)

5 tablespoons butter melted

Filling

3 (8oz) packages of cream cheese softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

4 large eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Irish cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Combine the vanilla wafers & butter in a small mixing bowl

3. Press crumb mixture into the bottom & 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a 9 inch spring form pan.

4. Hold this pan in the freezer until ready to fill

5. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.

6. Add the sugar 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

7. Add the gelatin; mix well at low speed

8. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

9. Stir in the sour cream , Irish cream & vanilla

10. Spoon the mixture over the crust

11. Bake at 300 for one hour & 15 minutes

12. Do not open the oven door!

13. Turn off the oven, keep the oven door closed

14. Allow the cheesecake to remain in the oven for an additional one hour & 15 minutes.

15. Do not open the door during this time!

16. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and carefully remove the spring form pan

17. place on a decorative plate & serve at room temperature or chilled

Okay so that's the recipe... but I put the Gram crackers in cupcake liners then baked them for 5 mins at 325 degrees so it set then cooled them then poured the cheese filling on top then baked for 30 mins at 325. I didn't leave them in there because i had another batch to do and that's just a long time to leave things in the oven taunting you with yummy smells. haha. I wish I could tell you where I acquired the recipe from but it was back in 2004.

Week Three

Chocolate Raspberry Beret

It was time for chocolate cupcakes! Oh how I love chocolate! I can never seem to have enough of it at any given time. So what goes well with chocolate? I thought that raspberry is nice. This is a devils food recipe with a good amount of chocolate & sour cream instead of milk. Its not as dense of a cake that I thought it would be. And this was my first attempt with mini cupcakes. I will say that the batter goes a long way. I stopped myself at 48 mini cupcakes and decided to make some regular sized ones.

I am in love with the Meranguie Buttercream. It is such a lite buttery frosting that you can add some kind of fruit to flavor & tint the frosting. Pureeing raspberries is a fun adventure. If you never have done it you will realise that raspberries have a lot of seeds & they need to be seperated from the juice. Lets say it took me a good 20 mins just to seperate them using a sifter. The end product is so worth it because the frosting is not only sweet but has a twinge of the bitterness for the raspberries. The cupcakes came out nicely.

Week Two

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Butter cream aka Strawberry Fields Forever.
These are pretty delicious. A white cake with chunks of strawberries on the inside. Yum!

I added a twist to some of them by adding a chocolate ganache on top of the cakes hoping when people took a bite that it might taste like a chocolate covered strawberry.


Top them off with meringue butter cream that has a strawberry puree mixed in with it. I've never made a meringue where I had to mix egg whites and sugar over a simmering pot of water. Needless to say I had a nice arm work out while whisking for 10 minutes. I used a closed star tip to pipe out the frosting.

These were a hit at my mom's office. Someone suggested to me to make mini cupcakes when bringing them to the office so more people can try them. Thank you for that suggestion and its something new to try.

Week One

My first recipe attempt was a S'more cupcake which consists of a Graham cracker cake bottom. This was my first time ever using anything but enriched flour and i found it to be quite exciting. This is what they looked like when they were taken out of the oven.

The next part of it was having to make a chocolate ganache. I am familiar with this because I used it on top of the wedding cake I made for my brother's wedding. I really didn't mind getting chocolate on my hands. =)

To top it off with a marshmallow frosting. Yum! I've never used gelatin before and never tried to make candy. So i bought a candy thermometer and away i went. My first attempt ended up being a big ball of hard sugar. Success the second time around to make these cute marshmallow tops.




The fun thing is that if you bit into this and got each layer this cupcake tasted like a S'more minus the campfire.

Hi there

Welcome to my new blog! Over the past year I have been asked by family members to bake them cupcakes and cakes for special events. I provided four different types of cupcakes for my brother's wedding shower :chocolate, vanilla, red velvet & lemon. They went over pretty well so my brother and his future wife asked me to make some cupcakes for their wedding. I made two types of cupcakes for the 60 chocolate and 60 lemon and on top of that I made their wedding cake. It was a busy summer and I got pretty burned out of baking until recently. The past 3 weeks I've been baking 1 recipe per week and sharing them with willing friends & workmates. I post them on my twitter account but I thought this would be a better way to display my pictures and get to describe them in more detail than just 140 characters. =)