Minion Cake and Cupcakes

Red velvet cake and chocolate cupcakes decorated as Stuart the Minion. These were birthday desserts for a 7 year-old's party.

Inspiration taken from this one on the Betty Crocker website. The main change was baking a cupcake for the eye in a silver foil wrapper.

The cupcakes are decorated with frosting, with a necco wafer for an eye to make it a little more 3D.

Potluck Cupcakes (Tailgate Theme)

I started a new job last October and about a week after I started, we had a potluck lunch. Wanting to impress my new coworkers, I went with an old favorite: Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes with Perfectly Chocolate Frosting. (ProTip: despite what the recipe says, my cupcakes are almost always done after 17 minutes.) I dusted the cupcakes with orange sugar so that they would be the colors of the Cleveland Browns.

I'm happy that my much vaunted baking skills were confirmed and appreciated. We have potlucks every few months so I'm adding a new label to the blog!

Plants vs Zombies

These cupcakes and cake were for my littlest nephew's Plants vs. Zombies themed birthday party. I frosted and my sister decorated with the rolled buttercream fondant made (and dyed!) by yours truly.

Sunflower, Peashooter & Corn Gunner vs. Zombies & Conehead Zombies

My nephew made the paper decorations that topped the game board cake. He is a very talented artist!

Chocolate Roses

I took the skills I learned in class and applied them in the real world. Here are Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes with Perfectly Chocolate Frosting all dressed up and ready to impress.

Building Buttercream Skills, Class One

I took the first course of the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating, which is called Building Buttercream Skills at my local Michaels store. The course consisted of four two-hour classes over four weeks. At the first class, we brought plain cupcakes, which we decorated with the skills we learned that day. I chose roses, swirls and stars, which were pretty basic, but also just pretty.

  

The cupcakes came from my freezer since I only had to bring in a few. The smaller cupcakes are champagne and the larger ones are chocolate. Unfortunately, these were frosted with the Wilton canned frosting, which tasted really awful. 

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon (Buttercream?) Frosting

I made these cupcakes in honor of a friend's birthday. But, umm, this was back in June so I don't remember what recipe I used. I think it was from a cupcake cookbook I own.

They were delicious! The cake was kind of heavy, but packed a lemony punch. The frosting had a sweet-tart quality. I added a little yellow food-coloring to the frosting to make them more appealing.

If I remember what recipe I used, I'll update this post to include it. Sorry for the incomplete post!

Bunny Baking

I was ambitious this Easter and made a bunny cake, Easter egg cupcakes and assorted Easter-shaped cut-out cookies.

I left the bow tie coconut free. Need help assembling your own bunny cake? Click here for video instructions!

My tia gave me some Easter egg cupcake tins that she bought at a garage sale. This was the first time I used them, and they were cute so I might make them again next year. 

Usually cut-out cookies require frosting and decorating, which I've complained about before. I didn't think I could enlist frosters and decorators like I can at Christmas so I sprinkled them with assorted colored sugar before I popped them in the oven. The decorating was complete as soon as they came off of the baking sheet. And they were still pretty and tasty!

Valentine

My eldest nephew's Valentine's Day birthday cake. This year his little brother helped me put some heart-shaped sprinkles on both the main cake and the cupcakes. I thought the fresh strawberries would give it a bakery look. 

As usual, the cake was Double Fudge Chocolate Cake with raisin-size pieces of dried strawberries. The frosting is Mrs. Milman's Chocolate Frosting. The cupcakes don't have any dried strawberry pieces for the crazy few guests who don't like that delicious combination.

The center of the two-layer cake (not pictured) was diced fresh strawberries in a strawberry glaze. I've been looking for a homemade strawberry glaze recipe for years, and it only occurred to me to look for one in a strawberry pie recipe this year. It was sweet and delicious, and I'll never use store-bought glaze again!

Birthday Cupcakes

I went a little nontraditional for my birthday this year since I made cupcakes instead of cake. Even though I'm constantly making cupcakes, I prefer a whole cake. No one should be surprised by the flavor profile, however.

Yellow cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream frosting. Expertly topped by my littlest nephew with fresh raspberries.

Close up of the decadence.

Banana Cupcakes with Leftover Frosting

When I made the cupcakes for the 50th anniversary party (see last post) I made three batches of cupcakes and three batches of frosting. I put a generous amount of piped frosting on the white cupcakes but still had about two cups of frosting leftover. Since I had some bananas that I was saving for banana bread, I decided to make banana cupcakes to use up the extra. They were a little sweet so I would recommend using less sugar than the recipe calls for. But I took them to work, and they were well-received.

Whole star-shaped cupcake and split cupcake to show off banana bits.

50th Anniversary Cupcakes

Entire batch

Close-up. White cake with white frosting and golden sugar sprinkles. The liners are also gold foil.

Displayed at the party, which had a Route 66 theme.

Devil's Food Cupcakes

These were the dessert for my little sister's birthday barbecue bash, which was also a belated Labor Day celebration. We had ribeye steaks, good red wine and yummy Devil's Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. 

Cupcakes in a box

Close up to show color and my nephew's decorating skills

Pledge Allegiance

I've made a flag cake for the Fourth of July and other patriotic holidays, but this year I made cupcakes in the shape of a flag. The cupcake container holds 18 cupcakes, which I didn't think about when I was transporting them without their decorations. I probably should have packed 20 to make a nice rectangular shape.

The cupcakes were yellow cake - basic recipe that I got from a stack of recipes my dad picked up at a garage sale - and the frosting is whipped cream. The frosting of a flag cake is traditionally Cool Whip, but the real stuff is more delicious.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I offered to make cupcakes for a friend's last day at Pub Quiz. I was going to make chocolate/chocolate since everyone likes chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but the guest of honor told me he liked the combination of peanut butter and chocolate (who doesn't?) I told him that the peanut butter frosting I've made before is sensitive to heat and the cupcakes were going to have to sit in my hot office all day. So I had the thought of doing the reverse: peanut butter cupcakes and chocolate frosting.

A quick internet search led me to a new recipe. These cupcakes were winners! They had enough peanut butter flavor to stand up to the double serving of chocolate frosting with which I topped them. I do think the baking time of the linked recipe is off (at least for my oven) since when I checked them at 17 minutes they were already done (and might have been with a minute less baking.) I was inspired to top them with a few roasted and salted peanuts and that extra peanut flavor made them pop. Without doubt I will be making this recipe again.

On a sad note, the main recipient stated that, although he liked these cupcakes he liked chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting better since he loves chocolate cake. I should point out that this preference didn't stop him from eating one and a half cupcakes that night.

Boston Creme Pie Cupcakes

These were desserts for a Labor Day barbecue  I've never made a Boston Creme Pie, but I was inspired to make these when I was flipping though the "Our Favorite Cupcakes" slideshow on Martha Stewart's website.

The whole gang! 

Artsy picture, courtesy of Quinn.

I'd recommend watching the video before making these cupcakes since the recipe isn't quite as specific as it could be. For instance, the cupcake recipe should be made with the whisk attachment of the mixer.  Also, the main recipe links to a recipe for the vanilla cream filling, but doesn't specify that you need 3 cups of filling (a double batch) for 2 dozen cupcakes.

Pure Cupcakes

Based on Sweet Revenge's Pure Cupcakes. I didn't use the parchment method, although it is a fun twist on the basic boring liners.

Heavily frosted

Split open to show texture, but photographed poorly so that all detail is obscured.

The crumb on the cupcakes was heavy, yet light. The taste was eggy and very vanilla-y! The gals who helped eat them are big custard fans so they approved of this variation on a yellow cake. I've discovered that frosting like this buttercream that uses a little shortening has a better consistency than butter alone. I've taken to adding a tablespoon or two to my other recipes as a result.

Bug Party

My littlest nephew's 4th birthday had a bug theme. It gave me a chance to wear my sparkly spider t-shirt, ladybug ankle bracelet, and scorpion necklace and ring. It also gave my sisters and me a chance to make fun creepy crawly desserts.

Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes with "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had" and topped with giant plastic bugs.

The frosting was dyed light green, which is a little hard to see in the pictures.

Beautiful butterfly cookies (Grandma Kookoo's Swedish Sugar Cookies.) 

The birthday boy's brother helped decorate these.

Oh, it's a caterpillar! How clever! So cute!

Ladybugs. She don't know I'm a boy.

Black and White

These cupcakes were dessert for Memorial Day.  Both are Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes.  The one on the left has Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting, and the one on the right has a simple vanilla buttercream frosting (6 T butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, 1 t vanilla, milk to thin it out.)

The cupcake paper on the right is supposed to look like a flower.  I like these type of "fun" liners, but their size tends to be a little bigger than a standard cupcake tin. I made some in my jumbo tin and some in the regular one, which worked well enough.

I make these chocolate/chocolate cupcakes a lot since they are easy and delicious so I was just going to make chocolate/white cupcakes. But, I made two frostings since at least one person in my family prefers chocolate/chocolate to chocolate/white.   

Thanks for Baking

I made the pumpkin pie for dinner all by myself! from the homemade crust to the filling to the whipped cream to top it! I used a different recipe from years past, and I think using condensed milk instead of evaporated milk and sugar gave it a smoother texture.


The whole spread. From left to right, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, red velvet cupcakes, pumpkin roll, chocolate roll, mini-pumpkin pie (graham cracker crust) and pumpkin cheesecake.

This picture is terrible but all of the ones I took were. I think we need a tablecloth for the dessert table. At least for the picture.

Wedding Cupcakes

This past fall, my friends had an open house wedding reception at their house. They wanted an informal and fun celebration and asked me to make cupcakes for the main dessert. Here's what we came up with:

Naked cupcakes in three varieties.


Frosted!


Chocolate with chocolate frosting.

Red velvet with cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with a little red sugar.

Pumpkin spice with white frosting. Topped with Mellowcreme pumpkins.

The most popular were the chocolate/chocolate. They actually ran out before the party ended. Overall, they were all well-received. Not bad for my first attempt at large-scale cupcaking.