Red Velvet

So these are probably my favorite cupcakes to make...no messy butter or other ingredients that are difficult to work with! I started as I always do by lining my cupcake tins.  There's just something about lining cupcake tins that gets me in the mood to start baking!  This time instead of using just the standard cupcake pan I used both the standard and jumbo pans.  Mostly, because I have this cupcake swirly rack that I'm dying to use but standard size cupcakes won't fit let's hope the jumbo ones do so I can show it off!  My least favorite part about these cupcakes was using the red food gel (Wilton, Christmas Red).  It got all over my hands when I was trying to open the top & got on my hands...most of it went away with a couple washings with soap & water but theres still a little red on my fingertips.  So tip: Be careful with the food gel :)  Anyway, despite having red fingers these cupcakes turned out great!  They are moist & sweet.  I've yet to make the icing...they are still on the cooling rack.  But I've made this cream cheese icing before & know it's absolutely delicious.

Pictures to come.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

What's better on a hot summer day than Cherry Limeade Cupcakes! The cupcakes were pretty simple to make I started with three separate bowls of ingredients & had to mix with a hand mixer which was a bit much but the final product is well worth the extra work. My favorite part was zesting the limes the smell is amazing & you can really taste a definite lime flavor in the cupcakes. The frosting was incredibly easy to make too & very stable.  Icing: powdered sugar, maraschino cherry juice, 1/2 cup butter and a couple drops red food coloring.  It's a refreshing break from the traditional flavored cupcakes.  Top with cherry & candied lime and you have a great summer dessert.

Here are some pictures:

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

Recently, I had a special request for Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes.  Now, I've never made any cupcakes with filling inside them before so I was expecting quite a feat.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that these cupcakes were relatively simple & super fun to make!
I started with a standard banana cupcake recipe & then delicately piped a delicious Jello Instant Banana Pudding mixture into the center of each (which takes some practice so practice on a couple extra cupcakes before hand)  Next, I mixed a packet of Jello Instant Vanilla pudding with cool whip & a few other ingredients and made a delicious frosting I could pipe on top.  Both Jello filling & frosting must set in the fridge 30 mins before used.  I garnished with crushed Vanilla Wafers & a banana slice.  So delicious.

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes without Banana Garnish.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

The past two entries were from yesterday & the day before I just didn't publish them because they don't have pictures yet.  I have been a little lazy about getting the pictures uploaded to my computer.  But will definitely do so in the next day or two.  These are the mini version.

Anyway, today was another Frisbee day & I decided to bake Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with a sort of meringue frosting.  These were probably my favorite to make so far!  The frosting is the consistency of melted marshmallows :)  As for the cupcakes they were surprisingly simple to make you had your basic ingredients flour, sugar, butter, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla which sounds kind of bland but the end result was amazingly flavorful.  My boyfriend even said these were his favorite so far (and he's hard to impress).  The frosting was the best part it involved egg whites, sugar, and making candy out of corn syrup & water.  The result was a beautiful white fluffy frosting that was pretty sturdy & able to be piped fairly easily.  

Cookies!

I hope you all had a wonderful fourth!  I know I did.  I made delicious peanut butter cookies & mom made her famous chocolate chip and walnut cookies for the festivities :)  So I thought I'd share.  So delicious!

Banana Cupcakes

Yum! I am a HUGE fan of bananas so this recipe was a must!  It's Wednesday so I made them for my boyfriend's Frisbee team & boy are they delicious. I also tried out a honey cinnamon frosting and piped it on top with my new handy dandy icing tips that Melissa got me this past Christmas!  I am trying to build my repertoire of cupcake bases & icings so I can intricately decorate a variety of different flavored cupcakes.  This is a really classic design something you'd expect to see in a bakery case but you could easily step it up and drizzle honey across the top of the garnish bananas for a fancier look.

Tip:  This icing is primarily butter so let the cupcakes cool completely (1 hr. or so)  before applying frosting. This frosting will melt immediately and look like butter on top of each cupcake (this happened to me on a few of mine).