In Honor of Dave Ramsey

I created these cupcakes using the same technique I used on Katie's bridal shower cupcakes, to celebrate the final class of Financial Peace University. My husband and I attended this 13 week course this summer which emphasizes saving your money! If you haven't heard of Dave Ramsey or FPU...check it out!!!

Kathryn E.'s Bridal Shower

Here is an array of cupcakes that I made for my best friend's wedding. My instructions were to include red velvet and a variety of colors. I end up with red velvet, lemon and chocolate cupcakes with a variety of colored frostings. I created the decorative words by piping dark chocolate candy melt. I piped a heart, "love", "I do" and "A" as a monogram.

Bake on!

M

First Communion Cupcakes

I've looked at the candy molds many many times at Micheal's and JoAnn's, but have always passed them up. For some unknown reason I figured they just wouldn't worked. I envisioned the candy getting stuck in the molds and ruining them while trying to get 'em out. Well yesterday I decided to spend the whopping two dollars and give them a shot. And boy am I glad I did! Kind of want to go to Micheal's now and grab one of every design! They are so incredibly easy. And not one of them got stuck in the mold! They pretty much just fall right out!

And best of all, making these cute little candies is so much easier, faster, and less stressful than working with fondant! So glad we are finding some fun alternatives to fondant!

Underwater Cupcakes

Made these for a cute little boy's first birthday party!!

Sorry for the crappy picture. Almost forgot to take one altogether. Snapped it last second as I was running out the door to deliver them. But they are little crabs, turtles, fish, starfish, and shark fins. The crabs were definitely my favorite. If only you could see the little pinchers in the picture. Overall though, I thought they turned out pretty cute!!

Pacifier Cupcakes

A very good friend of mine asked me to make some baby themed cupcakes for her! She is announcing her pregnancy to her co-workers on Monday and wanted a fun way to share the news! And what better way than with a cupcake!

Vanilla cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting! The pacifiers are made out of marshmallow fondant. And these could quit possibly be the easiest fondant decorations I have made! Love when I actually have a cookie cutter in the shape and size that I need! Makes the process so much easier!

Hostess Cupcakes

Well, well, well, another chocolate cupcake recipe that disappoints. Through out all of our chocolate cupcake troubles, Michele and I have come up with three criteria that would lead us to the perfect chocolate cupcake. We named it the trifecta to perfecta-- moisture, structure, and chocolaty goodness! Usually a recipe meets one or two of the standards, but lacks in the third area. As was the case here. This recipe was outstanding as far as chocolate flavor and structure, but was very dry. The weird thing is that when Zach and I taste tested them the night they were baked they were perfect, but the following day they were dry as could be.

I am just baffled by how chocolaty these cupcakes tasted with such a small amount of cocoa. We have made previous recipes with three times as much cocoa and they all ended up lacking the chocolaty-ness factor.

Well it is a good thing these cupcakes look so darn good on the outside. Being that the cupcake isn't anything grand and they don't have the typical cream filling like the original hostess cupcakes. When I tried to inject the cream filling into the cupcakes using a pastry bag I met complete resistance- even causing a few of them to crack down the middle. I probably should have just cut a hole out of the tops and squirted in the cream filling, but for some reason that night I didn't feel like going through the bother. Maybe next time...


And this is the one I made especially for Zach. I know, pretty cheesy, huh?

Source: Annie's Eats

Safari Cupcakes

These cupcakes were for another co-workers baby shower! Beginning to think that there must be a contagious baby bug going around our unit at work. Seems like everyone either just had a baby, will be having a baby, or wants to have a baby.

Her 'lil baby Gavin should enter this world in a little over a week! I'm sure she wouldn't complain though if he came a little early. I just have to share with all of you the fun and creative way that they found out they were having a little boy. At their twenty week ultrasound they had the tech put the sex of the baby in a sealed envelope. First of all, this would be pure torture for me. I would have ripped into that envelope before I even left the doctor's office. But anyways, enough about my hatred for suspense and surprises. They then took the envelope to Queen of Cakes in Edina and asked them to make a cake with the inside of the cake being colored either pink or blue. When they cut into the cake the inside was blue and revealed they were having a BOY!! How cute is that idea?!?!

Alright, onto the cupcakes that we made for the shower!! After much debate on what boyish theme to pick, we settled on safari animals! Lions, tigers, and monkeys! Only to find out that this is also the theme of the baby room! What are the odds of that! Worked out a little too perfectly!



These were fairly easy being that pretty much all of the shapes were cut out with circle cookie cutters. The only tedious part was securing down the many layers! But once again, the end result makes the time well worth it!

Funfetti Cupcakes from Scratch- Zach's Birthday Wish

Zach's birthday was this past Friday and of course I had to send cupcakes with him to work. Kind of felt like a mom sending a treat with her little kid to school. His coworkers sure have come to expect these delicious little treats. And have actually started to come up with any possible excuse for why I should make something to send with Zach. At least I know I have guinea pigs to try some new recipes on!

Zach's absolute favorite cake is boxed funfetti (okay, it's my favorite too!) There is just something about that cake that makes it so darn irresistible. He actually wanted funfetti for his alien cake but I refused to use a boxed cake for that one. Ever since starting this whole baking shinanigans I feel like I am cheating every time I bake something from a box. Hopefully I get over that feeling of guilt sometime soon. The convenience of a box mix comes in mighty handy at times.

So of course I pulled up good 'ol google and went on the hunt for a homemade funfetti cupcake recipe.

And this is what I found. Definitely nothing like boxed funfetti, but still very tasty. Pretty much just a plain old vanilla cupcake jazzed up a little bit of rainbow sprinkles. And I topped it off with Zach's favorite cream cheese frosting! This frosting will seriously make any cupcake taste delicious!

This recipe is from I heart Cuppycakes.

Ladybug Cupcakes!

Had to challenge ourselves with doing three designs! As if working with fondant isn't enough of a challenge itself! It looked so cute though having a variety! Just hope we didn't cause a fight between any of the little girls at the birthday party! "I want that one!" "No, I wanted that one!" "Uh, there aren't anymore of that kind!"

These were chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting! And as far as the chocolate cupcake challenge, these were probably about as close as we have gotten to perfection. They had very good structure, texture, and moisture. Just have to figure out a way to make them a little more chocolatey. With the chocolate frosting they were perfect, but if the cupcake was every paired with a frosting other than chocolate the cupcake would be overpowered in an instant. We have one more trick up our sleeve to try. Stay tuned for the results....

Here is the recipe for the chocolate frosting though! It is absolutely delicious!! Yum yum!


Chocolate Frosting

6 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1/3 cup milk (I had to add a little bit extra)

Cream butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa. Slowly add to creamed mixture. Add milk until the desired consistency is reached.

Baby Shower Cupcakes

We made three dozen of these cupcakes for a baby shower for two co-workers. Angela had a little girl, Abela, and Melissa had a little boy, Evan!


These cupcakes were also almond and lemon flavored!! Worked well to mass produce the two flavors for our orders this weekend!! All of the decorations are made out of marshmallow fondant! I was a little skeptical at first about how these were going to turn out, but dang they sure turned out cute!!!

Card Club Cupcakes

Tonight my parents are hosting card club at their house and my mom asked us to whip up some cupcakes for the event! To fit the theme I told her we could cut out hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades out of fondant. Super cute and fitting for the event, right? Well it was a good idea until she told me she wanted mini cupcakes and I was unable to find miniature cookie cutters in stores or online. Of course the diamonds were super easy. Hearts and spades a little more challenging. And the clubs a huge thorn in my side. All in all though, they turned out super cute! And it all was worth it when I saw my mom's look of awe. She is always amazed with our fondant creations!

And I am proud to present our two most recent additions to the "go-to recipe list." Lemon and Almond!! Woohoo! The lemon is the same recipe that I used this past fall when I made the lemon cupcakes with raspberry frosting, but somehow managed to forget how perfect these little buggers were! This time I paired them with a lemon cream cheese frosting! Simply took our staple cream cheese recipe and added a little lemon zest and lemon juice and replaced the vanilla with lemon extract.

Michele and I are in love with this almond cupcake recipe!! Like Michele said, it tastes like a spritz cookie! It is a moist and delicate cupcake with a subtle almond flavor! I forget the name of the cookbook that we found this in, but it is one that Michele just picked up at Kohl's for $5!! A cookbook for $5 is almost unheard of!! I think a trip to Kohl's is in store for me later today to pick up a copy for myself!

Almond Cupcakes

1 3/4 cup sour cream
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream one cup sour cream, butter, and oil.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in the sugar.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture one-third at a time. Mix thoroughly after each addition.

In another bowl, mix the eggs, 3/4 cup sour cream, almond extract, and vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the batter in thirds, beating for one minute after each addition.

Fill liners 3/4 full. Bake for 25 minutes for regular size cupcakes or 17 minutes for mini cupcakes.


Sure nice to follow up a failed cupcake attempt with two successes!!
-Jess

The Journey To Find The Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

Michele and I have been doing this whole "baking thing" for about six months now! And in that time we have only found a few absolute, without a doubt, go to cupcake recipes! The pumpkin and strawberry are about the only ones. At least we have two! But we still have a long ways to go with many, many more flavors to tackle. At this point chocolate and vanilla are our main culprits. With these two being the most common flavors that people want to order, there is a little more pressure to find that one amazing recipe.

For the past few months we have been focusing on chocolate. Between the two of us we have tried countless chocolate cupcake recipes. We have had a few failures, a few so-so, and a few that are do-able. It seems like there is always one part that just isn't quite up to par. Usually the downfalls are either not chocolaty enough or doesn't rise into a nice dome. And the most frustrating part is that the recipes we have tried have usually been deemed "the best chocolate cupcake." Not sure if we just have too high of standards or what the deal is.

Today I tried a chocolate cupcake that I found on Pink Parsley. It caught my eye last week when it was listed on the site as one of the most popular posts of 2010. I clicked on the link and the very first words were, "Not to be dramatic, but the search is over. These are quite possibly the most perfect cupcakes ever." And to top it all off it is a recipe from Cook's Illustrated!! A very reputable source.

Well here they are....



And the verdict is: Not overly impressed. They were a little dry, not chocolaty enough, and just didn't have that "wow factor." What a let down.

The journey continues. Dang it. I am so ready to move onto a new flavor, like pina colada or margarita or something a little more fun and exciting.

Luckily I have found another chocolate cupcake recipe that I want to try. It is from Barefoot Contessa, who I absolutely love! And the source that I found them on gave them 4.5/5 stars. Oh please let these be the magic ones.

Honey and Banana Cupcakes

I found this recipe in a book called "200 Cupcakes". It made about 12 cupcakes which, to me, is perfect when you are trying out a new recipe. I really, really liked this banana cupcake. It actually tasted like a banana cupcake and not a banana muffin. It was soft and cakey like a cupcake. It didn't get that sort of crusty muffin top that muffins get. The frosting I could have done without. I love honey, but it just wasn't the frosting for me. It was more of a honey drizzle or a glaze than it was an actual frosting. Next time I might consider chocolate ganache, PB buttercream or cream cheese frosting as alternatives.

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 6 Tbsp lightly salted butter, melted
• heaping 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 small, very ripe bananas, mashed

1. Line a muffin pan with 12 liners. Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a bowl.

2. Mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and mashed bananas in a separate bowl. Tip in the dry ingredients and mix together gently until evenly combined. Divide the cake mixture between the 12 liners.

3. Bake in a preheated over, 325 degrees, for 25 minutes, or until risen and just firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

4. Frost as desired.

Enjoy! What frosting will you come up with?
Bake on!
M

More of Michele's Halloween Treats!

Jess and I made plenty of Halloween cupcakes this year. She has already posted some of them that we created together. I made more the next day for my nephews' Halloween party. Here are some featured creations that are a bit different that those that she has already posted.

This walrus cupcake was created on top of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. I dyed some cream cheese frosting blue to create his face. I pipped on some black eyes. His mouth is made out of a halved peach ring and his teeth are candy coated licorice bites.

This spider and web was created on top of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. I piped cream cheese frosting to create the web. The spider's body is made out of a milk dud, chocolate licorice and an m&m.

This little blue monster was created on top of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. I dyed some cream cheese frosting blue to create his face. Mini marshmallows were used to create his eyes and teeth. I quartered the marshmallows for his teeth. I created lips using chocolate licorice.

These cupcakes were inspired by a picture I saw in the MixingBowl.com Fall/Winter 2010 magazine. I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache. Then I piped on the mummy's wrappings using peanut butter cream cheese frosting. M&ms were used for the eyes.

Justin called this one my "Elmo" cupcake. It is a pumpkin cupcake that is layered with a mini pumpkin cupcake. I used pink dyed cream cheese frosting and gave this little guy a furry look. The orange nose is made out of a gum drop. The eyes are 2 large marshmallows with blue m&ms.

These cupcakes were loved by everyone at the party. I have a picture of 2 of my nephews standing on a chair next to the kitchen counter just staring at all of them. Priceless. I think my brother-in-law ate 3 of them that day. His favorite were the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache that had cream cheese skeletons piped on them. Of course the kids at the party went crazy for all the monsters that were loaded with lots of delicious frosting. Another attendant of the party said that these were cuter and tasted better than a cupcake shop in the Twin Cities that charges $3-4 per cupcake. Kudos to us.

Bake on!

M

White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

A Pretty Dud

I recently purchased a cupcake cookbook while on a trip to SF. I was excited to try out my first recipe. So, here it is. Or here it isn't. Well, let's just say that I was more than disappointed. The cake batter looked more like cookie dough. The raw dough had a good flavor but when baked it was a dry little cake. It didn't leave me wanting more. It was lifeless and dense. So, not my idea of the perfect cupcake.

The frosting, on the other hand, was a success. It was more of a glaze than a frosting. It was timely to curl all of the individual little white chocolate curls, but so pretty if you have the time. I used my sifter to dust the chocolate with some powdered sugar. Really pretty. Now if only the cupcakes tasted good...

Bake on!
M

Halloween Cupcakes

This past Saturday was the Second Annual Millard Monster Mash and of course this called for some fun and festive cupcakes! We had a pile of assorted candy and just let the creative juices take over.

"Three Eyed Furry Monster"
This was our first attempt at two-tone frosting! The eyes are dots and the teeth are slivered almonds! He is definitely one of my favorite monsters!

These pumpkins were a little classier than the other cupcakes :) But they were the favorite for the guests that love frosting! Got this idea from "Hello, Cupcake!" A mound of frosting rolled in orange sprinkles and a piece of green apple twizzlers for the stem!

Super cute and easy mummies! Criss-crossed lines using a rose petal tip and M&M eyes!

Bloodshot Eyeball Cupcakes! The center is a flattened dot candy with piped black icing in the middle.

The two one-eyed monsters! The one on the left is a furry little guy that was made with the two-tone frosting and a grass pastry tip. His eye is a peach candy ring with an M&M center. The monster on the right used laffy taffy for the tentacles and milkdud-M&M eye.

I absolutely love these little skeleton guys! A mini marshmallow for the head and #3 pastry tip to pipe on the body.

Three Eyed Alien! The orange is melted candy melts poured over a thin layer of cream cheese frosting. The eyes are flattened dots with shimmery blue gel.

I can't help but to laugh a little when I see this little monster. The back part of his head
was built up using a large marshmallow under the frosting. The eyes are gummy
lifesavers with runts stuck in the holes. And the teeth are slivered almonds!

I already can't wait for halloween next year! But we have a whole year to dream up some more fun monsters!!

-Jess

Hummingbird Cupcakes

Made these a while ago, but apparently I forgot to blog about them. I know, can you believe I would forget such a thing? I was a little iffy about trying these cupcakes being that there was banana, pineapple, and pecans. Just seemed like a weird combination with the pineapple. But the online reviews were very high so I had to give them a try. And I am very glad that I did! They are actually probably in the top five for the ones we have made so far! Of course it helps that they were topped with my favorite cream cheese frosting :)


Hummingbird Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
8 ounces sour cream
1 cup mashed bananas
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately two minutes. On low, mix in oil and vanilla. Then mix in sour cream until just incorporated. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until just incorporated. Then fold in bananas, pineapples, and pecans. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake 20-23 minutes.

Wishing you a Sweet Escape
-Jess

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Over the past few months I have made lists upon lists of flavors and combinations I want to someday try. I have checked out many cookbooks from the library, bookmarked way too many recipes online, and have torn out numerous recipes from magazines. Needless to say, I have recipes everywhere.

One of the flavors that has been at the top of the many lists I have laying around and I have been dying to try is cookies and cream! The perfect opportunity presented itself this past week when we had some of the oreo cream cheese filling leftover from the pirate cake. I just had to do something with it since it is way too good to dump down the garbage disposal.

I wanted a recipe that had half of an oreo cookie on the bottom as a little extra surprise. And I happened to stumble upon one during one of the sleepless nights that I couldn't stop looking at baking blogs.

So hard to resist the temptation of siting down with a spoon and this bowl in my lap! But don't let me fool you, of course I had a taste of the batter and dang was it tasty!

Another successful recipe where the cupcakes rose nicely! Finished these off by using my pastry bag fitted with a star tip and placing a nice fancy little dollop of the oreo cream cheese frosting. They looked so cute!

And the final verdict from the taste testers: Of course everyone loved the frosting, which we already knew was an amazing recipe! The cupcake part was good, but definitely not a five-star recipe. Seemed a little dry to me. If I were to make them again I would probably just add less flour.

Until we meet again for our next sweet escape!
-Jess

Who knew you could make pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes better!

This cupcake is a member of the variety pack that Jess most recently blogged about. I used the pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting recipe that she had blogged about this summer. To the recipe of cream cheese frosting I added 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg and 1/4 tsp ground cloves. I then ran some cinnamon through my sifter for a nice cinnamon dusting (though my picture above does not reflect this step). The spice additions were more subtle than I thought they were going to be. I was afraid the frosting was going to compete with the cupcake but they were a nice marriage of flavor. I know they gals on the night shift thought they were a tasty treat!
Another Sweet Escape success!

Bake on!
-M

Variety Pack!

One of our co-workers was hosting a baby shower and asked us to make a little variety of cupcakes for the party!

We chose to do pumpkin with a spiced cream cheese, banana chocolate chip dipped in chocolate ganache, and chocolate with a raspberry filling and chocolate cool whip topping.

Pumpkin was a must given the time of year. And this is one of the recipes we just can't get enough of! In fact, this recipe has been filed in the "Sweet Escape G0-To Folder." Michele gave a little twist to the cream cheese frosting by adding some spices! Very, very yummy!!!

The banana chocolate chip cupcake had very good flavor, but was pretty much banana bread in a cupcake liner. More of a bread texture than cupcake. The chocolate ganache worked well on these cupcakes being that they domed up nicely! We are definitely ganache lovers! Makes every thing look so pretty with its smooth and shiny finish!

Chocolate and raspberry is one of my absolute favorite combinations! And we finally found a chocolate cupcake recipe that isn't dry and will rise nicely!! Woohoo!! The chocolate cool whip was a nice light topping for a cupcake that already was bursting with flavor.