I'm still here!

 I know I have disappeared for nearly a year, but I promise I have been baking!! Married life keeps me busy, so I haven't been baking every week, but I have tried a few recipes. I made butter pecan cupcakes a month ago, and before that, I made some yummy carrot cake cupcakes, and before that, I made my in-laws sugar free cupcakes!!

But, enough of what I WAS doing. Here is what I made today! Blue velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a blueberry on top. These cupcakes were not made from scratch, I happened to pick up this box mix just because I was curious on what blue velvet tastes like (which is a lot like red velvet, but more vaniilla-y). My frosting, as always, was homemade though. I also struggle with cream cheese frostings. But, this one I found online and then tweaked it and it's fluffy and creamy and amazing.

I think I will bake again this week if I get a chance. I missed sharing my cupcakes with everyone. I need to get back to doing it. :o)

BIG POST! Andes Mint cupcakes, Rebels cupcakes, Ariel the Little Mermaid, and Paint Splatter cake

I know I've been silent since February! I am so sorry! But, I have a good excuse. I was busy planning my wedding, taking care of a sick fiance in the hospital, getting engagement photos taken, having two wedding showers, running in a race, AND actually getting married and going on a honeymoon! But, I have made a few cupcakes since February. I'm putting them all into one big post.

 

The first cupcakes I made were Andes Mint cupcakes! I made these because my (now) husband LOVES Andes Mints. I thought, "Why don't I make these cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day/my mom's birthday? Everyone will love them!" And I was right. Everyone did. :o) These were so delicious. I want to make them again soon.

Second up, I made these in April for my niece for her all-star cheerleading sleepover party! Since her team's colors are blue and green, I decided to swirl them. I'm told the girls loved them. They were just chocolate and vanilla with custard filling. Nothing especially hard. But, I think the swirl makes them special. :o)

These cupcakes I made in May for Evan's cousin's daughter's school birthday party. She loves Ariel the Little Mermaid (who, by the way, is also MY favorite Disney princess!) so I made her Ariel cupcakes! These were just vanilla cupcakes. I don't think I put a filling in them. I just made ocean swirls and used some sprinkles. Then added Ariel and Flounder to the tops!

Everyone knows I don't especially LIKE doing cakes. I won't do them for just anyone, because I prefer making cupcakes instead. But, when your niece asks you to do one for her 10th birthday, you say yes. Riley wanted a paint splatter cake, which I have to say, was really fun to make. I turned on music and danced around the kitchen while splashing the icing mixture onto the fondant. Super fun thing to do. She always wanted a tie-dye inside, so I did that as well!

Fondant cow cupcakes

I have been practicing cow cupcakes lately for an upcoming baby shower. I am still learning how to make cupcakes with fondant. I am good with cookie cutter shapes, but these are different. The baby shower I am making these for at the end of the month is for my future sister-in-law, who is also an amazingly talented cake decorator! So, I want my cupcakes to be perfect!

I'm pretty proud of how these cows turned out. I looked online at tons of cow cupcakes. I saw some made with buttercream, some with black frosting, candy eyes, and cookies and candies for the faces, but none looked as good as fondant cows. Since I am currently dieting (I'm down 26 pounds! Just a few more to go!) and I didn't want a bunch of cupcakes sitting in my kitchen calling me to eat them, I used this Cupcakes for Two recipe I found on Pinterest. It's a decent recipe and it was great only having two cupcakes to deal this!

I've got some more ideas for the final cows, but, I'll keep those a secret until after the shower. I'll update this post after that!

Mimosa cupcakes

I have been meaning to post these cupcakes since NYE, but I have been so busy!

I made my first adult cupcakes for New Years Eve this year! I'm not a big drinker, so I was nervous about making cupcakes with alcohol, but these were delicious! The batter contained less than a cup of champagne, and the frosting contained a few teaspoons, so it worked out great! I took them to a New Years Eve party, where one person said they tasted like breakfast. I think that was because the recipe also included orange juice and the grating from an orange peel.

I didn't go all out in decorations with these. I considered making fondant stars, but decided I wanted something simple. I chose sprinkles that reminded me of champagne. These cupcakes were so moist! I can't wait for the excuse to make them again.

Hot chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream frosting

I have had an exciting and memorable yet busy December! Earlier in the month was Evan's 29th birthday. I made him Street Fighter cupcakes (they didn't exactly turn out how I imagined, so I didn't post them here). Then, my dad's side of the family came in for an early Christmas get together. My parents had more than 20 people at their house! It was so great seeing everyone. I spent s lot of time finishing up Christmas shopping and a bunch of DIY projects I was making for my family, Evan's family, and my friends. THEN, on Dec. 22, my wonderful Evan took me to the park to look at Christmas lights and he PROPOSED!! Needless to say, I've been a bit preoccupied and didn't get to post any of the Christmas-themed cupcakes I made this month.

For my day's family Christmas celebration I made hoot chocolate cupcakes (basically, they're chocolate with mini marshmallows baked in them) and then I made my buttercream frosting, but instead of adding vanilla, I added peppermint extract. SO YUMMY! Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love sprinkles, so this year I bought a bunch of different kinds so I could make s few different cupcakes. Personally, I think the ones with peppermint crunch looked especially adorable, but my absolute favorites were my snowflake cupcakes! I used some silver sugar sprinkles to look glistening snow and then sprinkled the snowflakes on top! They all turned out nicely. I made a lot of compliments on them.

I then made a dozen of just chocolate (no marshmallows) with peppermint buttercream for a good friend of mine who celebrated a birthday last week. I have been one very busy girl! Can't wait to start brainstorming new cupcakes for 2013!!

Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes

I have been attempting to post about these cupcakes for the last few weeks! I have been SO busy that I've had to put posting on the back burner. I had two Thanksgiving dinners this year: one with my family and one with my boyfriend's family. My parents went to their condo for the holiday to work on some remodeling projects, so our family Thanksgiving was the Saturday before the holiday. My uncle came in from Tennessee for dinner and there were a few other family members who were able to attend.

Anyway, on to the cupcakes. Last year my cousins and I attempted to make some turkey cupcakes that turned out awful. They didn't look anything like what they were supposed to. This year, I decided I needed something creative, but not impossible like the ones from last year. I found this idea on Pinterest! I LOVE Pinterest. So many cute ideas!

I used Wilton's candy eyeballs; Nutter butter cookies and Oreo cookies; Candy Corn; and I made some frosting dyed it yellow and orange, and made the turkey noses and necks (which, BTW, I learned the other day from my doctor is called a wattle).

The cupcakes themselves are two different recipes. The first recipe (with the smaller Nutter Butters) are vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting. The second recipe is one of my FAVORITE recipes! They're vanilla pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting. The first time I made the turkeys, I used the tiny Nutter Butter cookies, but I like the bigger ones better, so when I made them the second time, I got those instead.

These cupcakes were a hit with everyone who tried them. I think I've got a new Thanksgiving cupcake to make from now on. :o)

Halloween spiders

I spent the weekend in South Carolina with my aunt, uncle, 14-year-old cousin, and 12-year-old cousin. Let me just say, if I haven't already in this blog, that my cousins are a lot younger than I am, but they're taller than I am! This makes me SO jealous. I wish I was tall.

Anyway, my cousins are cheerleaders for their middle school and had a cheerleading competition this weekend, so we wanted to make cupcakes for their squad. Since it's almost Halloween, we chose to make spiders! My aunt and I went to a bunch of different stores to make sure we got everything we would need for the cupcakes. I couldn't bring my entire kitchen with me on the 7-hour drive to visit them, so we had to buy a lot of stuff.

After we FINALLY found everything, we got to work! I started by making frosting and custard filling prior to the girls getting home from school, so that they could help with the decorating of the cupcakes. I made vanilla buttercream frosting and I dyed half of the batch a grayish-black color for the bodies of the spiders with Wilton Icing Color in black. I then made a pumpkin spice custard for the filling with Jell-o Instant Pumpkin Spice pudding  and light whipped cream. If you like pumpkin spice pudding, go to your nearest grocery store and buy as much as possible because it's only available during the Halloween/Thanksgiving season and it is DELICIOUS.

The girls and I made two-dozen French vanilla cupcakes and two-dozen chocolate cupcakes. We cored the cupcakes after they cooled and I showed Leah how to pipe the filling inside the cupcakes. Then we started frosting them. Leah and Carsyn put the eyes and legs on the two-dozen spiders, and then we frosted the other two-dozen with white buttercream and topped them with orange and black sugar sprinkles.

On Saturday, after my aunt and I ran in the Color Me Rad 5k, we had to scrub all of the color off of us and then she, my uncle, and I hopped in the car and made the 1.5-hour drive to the cheerleading competition to watch the girls. After they competed, the parents of the cheerleaders had this whole meal thing set up for them in the parking lot. I don't think these girls know how lucky they are! When I cheered, we never had something so nice. We ate concession stand food or waited till after the whole thing was over to go out to eat. I hope these girls appreciate how amazing all of their parents are to do such a nice thing for them.

Oh, and their team won first place in their division! They did GREAT! I'm proud of my cousins, as well as their entire team. :o)