It’s Teacher Appreciation Week! These cupcakes went to my daughter’s pre-school teacher this morning. They’re vanilla cake with a fluffy buttercream on top. If you can’t tell (let’s hope you can), they’re apples! These were a lot of fun to make. Of course I made an extra for myself because I needed to make sure they tasted good……right?? :)
Once again, chocolate cake with nutella filling and topped with a peanut butter ganache. I swirled on a peanut butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream and drizzled more peanut butter ganache. These were for a friend’s office mates.
Strawberry buttercream on vanilla cake.
These are Chocolate Italian Cream Cupcakes that I made for mi madré. The cupcake has chopped pecans and coconut mixed in, and they’re topped with a chocolate cream cheese icing. I decorated them with toasted coconut on the sides and one dainty pecan from my mom and dad’s trees.
I set out to find an exact recipe to use, however, I only came across chocolate Italian cream CAKE, not cupcakes. Now, I used to think that any cake recipe could be turned into a cupcake, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that it’s not true. I guess I’ve been getting lucky. So, I decided to tweak a regular recipe and make it chocolate. I think the cupcakes taste GREAT! They are a bit heavy and I’m not sure if it’s because of the chopped pecans and coconut inside the cupcake. I have decided that I am not a fan of cream cheese icing. Yeah, it tastes good and all, but you just can’t do any decorating with it without adding a ton of powdered sugar or maybe even shortening.
Coming up: More chocolate! More peanut butter! Even peanut butter ganache!
Lemon Cupcakes! This is my first time making lemon cupcakes and I must say they are delish! I really wanted the pure lemon flavor to come out, but not make a very heavy and overly sweet frosted cupcake. I think I did just that! I made a lemon cucpake and filled it with homemade lemon curd…mmm.mmm. Then I topped it off with some lemon whipped cream and a tiny dot of lemon curd. Look closely and you can see the specks of lemon zest. These are dangerous for me since they’re so light and refreshing I can’t stop eating them! I’ve had two already!
-Emily
I’ve been wanting to bake now for a few weeks and decided today was the day! Today I made chocolate cupcakes filled with Nutella and then a heeping scoop of peanut butter buttercream to top them off. I left a few without Nutella, but I personally think the Nutella adds something wonderful to the chocolate cake. Why wouldn’t it? It’s Nutella! I also sprinkled a few cupcakes with chocolate jimmies, but decided I like the look of the cupcake without them. They do look a bit plain, but I kinda like it :)
Next….lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and topped with a lemony frosting. Spring here we come! (wait..it’s already here).
-Emily
It was a very BUSY baking weekend for me. What started as making decorated sugar cookies and cake pops for a friend’s son’s school party turned into cake pops, cookies, 3 dozen cupcakes, and 10 dozen mini cupcakes (not all for my one friend:P).
The mini cupcakes are Champagne, Coconut, Chocolate, and Red Velvet. Sadly I was in such a hurry to package up the cookies and cake pops that I failed to take a photo :( It really stinks cause I love having a photo of everything I’ve done so that I can see where I’ve (hopefully) improved :). The one photo of cakepops were leftovers that I had and decorated loosely just to get them to an edible state. Well, I can certainly eat a ball of cake and icing with no chocolate coating, but why!?
These are mini Champagne Cupcakes decorated with sugar pearls to look like bubbles! There is champagne in the cake AND the icing. This is a test batch for a swanky valentines party a friend of a friend is having. I have to say that I’ve tried a few already and they definitely taste good, however I’m not sure what they should really taste like :) The champagne in the icing was reduced down for a more robust flavor, but I’m left thinking they’re rather tart. Is this what champagne should be like?
Vanilla cake with chocolate chip cookie dough buttercream. It’s true! You take chocolate chip cookie dough(minus the egg) and vanilla buttercream and mix them together. I have to say it’s pretty delish. I’ve had one and a half already :P I actually wanted to have little chocolate hearts on top of each cupcake, but my hearts weren’t hardening fast enough and I wasn’t altogether sure they were even going to so I scratched that idea. I’ll have to research that and see what to do differently next time.
What’s Next??
Ahh, so many choices! I have two types of cookie dough in my freezer and one fantastic design in my head. BUT! I also really want to make a new vanilla cake recipe to go with a new icing recipe. What to do..what to do.
OK! I think I’m going to do the cake next. It’s going to be a vanilla cake with a chocolate chip cookie dough buttercream! Yep, that’s right. Chocolate chip cookie DOUGH buttercream. I can taste it now *drool*.
Until then…happy baking!
-Emily
