DC Cupcakes

A friend of the family brought me a 1/2 dozen cupcakes from DC cupcakes yesterday. Not impressed. lol.  I tried the peanutbutter/chocolate first, since these are one of my best sellers  Mine are better. lol.  The cake stuck to the cupcake liner, and if anyone watches Cupcake Wars, this is a big no-no.  The cake was dry and the icing was way too sweet. The peanut butter was good, but the chocolate was sweet enough to make your teeth hurt.  I'm trying the cinnamon one this morning. Dry,dry,dry... And it has a weird after-taste. Not quite sure what it is.  I just hope he didn't have to stand in line for a long time to get these.  In my opinion, definitely not worth all the hype.

Buttermilk

I wish they would sell buttermilk in pint containers. The only thing I use it for is cakes and a quart is way too much to use before the expiration date.  I've seen on pinterest to put the excess in ice cube trays and freeze it, which I have done, but then I have to look up how many I need for 1/2 cup. The smart thing would be to write it on the recipe, but I'm usually not that together.lol.

So, I started to freeze it in my 1/2 cup pyrex measuring cup, then I pop it out when it is frozen and put the pucks in a freezer bag. Much easier.

 I don't usually bake on the spur of the moment, so thawing the buttermilk is not a problem.  This is the easiest way I have found to freeze most things. While the ice cube tray is a good idea, I like this one better.

Visiting local cupcake shop

I knew there was a cupcake shop near my hometown, so I decided to look for it today.
Not sure I should have wasted my time or gas. After finding it and walking inside, it was immediate disappointment.  I was expecting to find a bright, lively shop. Instead, it was in bad need of a paint job, and the front window was in bad need of attention.  I'm not saying I'm an expert on how it should look, but if I was disappointed before even tasting the cupcakes, that isn't a good sign.  I think if you are going to go to the expense of opening and maintaining a shop,  you should make it look as good as you can. First impressions are everything.

The cupcake I got wasn't that great either. It was supposed to be a pink lemonade cupcake. The cake was really dense. Not light and fluffy at all.  I didn't notice any lemon flavor either.. I just have this nasty taste in my mouth 3 hours after I ate it. Not sure what it is, but it's not a good taste.

I don't like to complain about businesses, but, like I said before, if you are going to run a business that you want to do well, appearance matters.

Silicone Ice Cube trays

I've always seen these seasonal ice cube trays at the craft stores and thought, what else could I do with those?  Well, here is one of my ideas.  This tray is from JoAnn fabric.  I love the little flip flops.  I also wanted small flipflops for a decoration on top of my cupcakes.

These will be the perfect size for cupcakes. You can make them whatever color you want. I just happened to have some yellow candy melts in a squeeze bottle that was the perfect size for small lines.  I'm also going to do some chocolate covered oreo's in the mold. It's great to get 10  from one mold.  You would use the mini oreo's in them.
I'm going to look at decorative ice cube molds in a whole new way now.  They always have such great shapes for holidays as well as seasonal.  So many ideasssssss.......

btw:  You only need to fill them with a little chocolate for decorations for cupcakes. Just enough to fill the bottom, but not so little that they might crack when you take them out of the mold.
I pulled the sides of the mold to release it around the sides of the chocolate before I pushed on the bottom of the mold to release them.  Trial and error is the best way to find which way works for you. I was lucky that none of them broke on my first attempt.

Autism Awareness Week

To celebrate autism awareness week, I did these cupcakes. I wish I had been able to find a smaller puzzle piece candy mold, but these will have to do.

Easter cupcakes

Easter really came fast this year. Here are a few of the cupcakes I did for the occassion.

a few more

a few more'

finally...

Cubcake Wars

I did the Norwin Lions Club Cupcake Wars this weekend. It was done to help the Kitty Sack program at Norwin School District. This is a program that helps out kids who may not have enough to eat weekends when they aren't in school.

This is the first time I have done any contest like this. It was a fun time. They raised over 4000.00 dollars to go to the fund.  All the contestants made cupcakes for all the attendees to sample, and then made special ones to be judged. This was my cc to be judged.  It was a lemon/blueberry cc.

This is a pic of my table of treats for all the visitors.

It's not a very good pic. It was hard to get close enough to get a good one. My kids don't look happy here, but they had a good time helping out.

And finally, I won 2nd place!!! First time I have ever gotten a trophy. Yeaaaaa!!!

The trophies were for the judges cupcakes. There were also awards for the kids choice,most donations..

New cupcake toy

I was in Sur La Table a few days ago and saw Cupcake Creations icing duets.

I thought this would be a great way to do the two color icing. Look at how beautiful the cupcakes are on the package.

This is what mine look like.

I am not a novice piper, believe me.  I piped out a few stars with the beginning of the bag.

Even worse in my opinion. I kept the icing to a minimum on both sides of the bag. 

There was no problem squeezing the bag. It's just the chocolate side wasn't coming out . I pushed the chocolate down into the bag by massaging the bag while pushing up on the marshmallow side.  The outside ring of the piped stars are the first ones to come out.  Even when I made it to the inside, the chocolate still isn't an even amount with the white.

I am not happy with this product. I thought it would be easier than using the two small bags inside the larger decorating bag.  I will go back to the two small inside the larger one. You can't use the bags with a regular coupler and tip either. I may try them without either and see what I get.

New gadgets

I've purchased a few new 'toys' for baking since Christmas.

First, the new pan from Wilton that makes little cupcake 'pucks' for all kinds of uses. I bought it to make the cupcakes to use in the 'push-up' containers.

  I love it for this. They are the perfect size for the push up containers that I have. Plus, you can fit 3 of them in with plenty of icing.  I used to use cake balls, but I definitely like the pucks better.  Neater presentation.



                                                                    

Next:  The Batter babies. These are a partition for making different color/flavor cupcakes.  While I love the idea of two different flavors or colors, they are difficult to use.  Maybe if there were more room to put the different batters in it would be a little easier. I don't use box cake mixes so that may be the problem.  Box mix batters are much thinner, thus, easier to put in with the batter baby in the place.

It does make a neater division of color than just putting the batter in with no divider.

The cupcake on the right is the one the batter baby was used with. 

They may look neater with the batter baby,  but it was not worth the time to use it.  Plus, there are only 6 in the package.  The cupcake pans I have and use have 12 places for cupcakes.  Takes too much time for me.  I'm sure they would be great for someone who doesn't bake and sell their cupcakes.

Finally, the cupcake measuring cups.  You get three measuring 'cups' for mini, regular, and large cupcakes.

These are nice, and they do measure out the correct amount for each cupcake, but, they aren't as fast as using an ice cream scoop.  You need to use a small spatula to get all the batter out. Again, if you use a box mix, it may be easier.  But for scratch mixes, I will stick with the ice cream scoop.

These are only my opinions on these products, so please don't buy or not buy based on these.  I like to read other's opinions on new products, so I thought I would give mine.

Happy Baking!!!

Anise Pizzelles

These are the last of the christmas cookies for this year. I really love pizzelles, but not the making of them.  They take along time when your iron only has 4 grids. I wonder if the big bakerys have bigger ones. I can't imagine a big bakery only doing 2 or 4 at a time.  Huge waste of their time.

Of course, I like mine much better than any bakery. At least they taste like anise. I have never had one from a bakery that tasted like anise. 

Meringue cookies

I've always wanted to try meringue cookies, so I decided to go for it this year.  They are really very easy. You just have to make sure you beat it long enough. My first try wasn't a great one for this very reason.

Use:

4 large egg whites (if using carton eggwhites, use 3/4 cup)
1/2 t. of cream of tartar
1 C sugar
1 t. flavor
color

The egg whites need to be room temp.  Put them in the bowl of your stand mixer. You will want to use a stand mixer, take my word for it.
After they are frothy, add the cream of tartar.. When soft peaks are formed, add the sugar 1 T. at a time.  Turn the mixer up to med.high and beat until sturdy peaks are formed. Mine took around 10 minutes to get to this stage.

When your peaks are well formed, add the flavor and color.  Put into a decorating bag with a large star tip. You can also make Christmas trees with a round tip. Just keep going in circles until you reach the desired height. Don't go real high or they may have trouble when you bake them.

Bake at 250 degrees for aproximately an hour.  Leave in the oven after turning off the heat without opening the oven for a few hours, or overnight.

They should be hard to touch when you remove them.  When you eat them, they will melt of your tounge. Yum...

Store them in an airtight container.

Chocolate/peanut butter cupcakes

If you are a chocolate/peanut butter lover, these cupcakes are for you. They have a lindt
peanut butter truffle in the middle. With peanut butter icing.   SOOOOOO good.

Cranberry/eggnog cupcakes

These are the best tasting cupcakes.  I love cranberries anytime of the year, but especially at Christmas time. 

The recipe is from Your Cup of Cake, but I used a scratch recipe instead of a box mix.

Turkey Pumpkin Cupcakes

How about a cute little turkey on top of a delicious pumpkin cupcake?  They would be perfect to finish off your Thanksgiving dinner. After the pie, of course.  The turkey is chocolate fondant with colorful feathers.  The cupcake is pumpkin, with pumpkin spice icing.

Here's a pic of just the cupcake.

Chocolate/toffee cupcakes

These cupcakes are a very moist delicious chocolate. Then comes the chocolate ganache that is then rolled in toffee bits around the edges.  Then a little dollop of buttercream with some toffee bits sprinkled on top.

Mini pies

Has anyone tried the new mini pie cake pan from Wilton. I had to go to 3 stores to get my hands on one. lol.  The lady at the checkout said they have really been selling. I'm just glad I was able to get one.

Just a little bit of info before you attempt to use yours.  Make sure the pie crust is to the top of each well. I would even leave it go onto the top of the pan too.  My first attempt with the pan, I just made sure the crust was to the top of the well.  NOT A GOOD THING. The crust really shrunk down alot.  In a few of them, the pumpkin is higher than the crust. Any they all had 1/4 cup of the pumpkin mixture in them.

There is about a 1/2 inch between the wells, so there is enough room to bring your crust over the top and crimp it.  I will definitely do this next time.

The pan is great as far as the pies just sliding right out.  No sticking at all. They only took about 20 minutes to bake.  My recipe for pumpkin pie tells  you to heat the oven to 425 for the first 15 minutes. I did it for 10, but I don't think I will do it next time. Just 350 for the full 20 minutes.  I'm not sure if that is what made the crust shrink so much, but I'm not taking the chance again.

If you have used this pan, and have any suggestions, please leave them in the comment section.  Any help is welcome.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

How is this for the 'great' pumpkin Charlie Brown?  I think he would be perfect. Plus, you get a yummy cupcake.  The pumpkin is a cake pop covered with chocolate.

Witches hat and Ghost

Some more Halloween cupcakes. The ghosts were really popular, so I tried out the witches hat too. I also have spiders in the works, but I don't have a picture of them yet.

Ghostly cupcakes

Cupcakes are completely edible. The ghost shape is a tootsie roll pop covered in marshmallow fondant. Yum,Yum.

Peanut butter chocolate

How about some peanut butter icing with a little chocolate cake?  Sounds good to me.  Plus you even get a reese cup with a little dollop of pb icing on top.  I love how the reese cup looks like a little cupcake on top. This combo is my favorite.