Cake Series: Pretty Princess Cake for Winsome!

My second cake attempt was a pretty princess cake for Winsome's (12th?) Birthday. The princess was given glasses in order to resemble the birthday girl herself. The cake itself was lemon with lemon buttercream. 

Wednesday, March 2nd: Dr. Pepper Cupcakes with Dr. Pepper Glaze and Cherry Frosting

This week I made Dr. Pepper cupcakes. There were definitely mixed thoughts about whether or not the cupcakes tasted like Dr. Pepper, but not whether or not they were fresh and delicious. The cupcakes were fairly simple to make. Next time I would probably put a little more frosting on the cupcakes, but I wanted to try something new (and I ran out of butter). The glaze probably created the most amount of Dr.Pepper flavour (and the biggest sugar rush). They definitely looked complete with a cherry on top. 

New Poll! Coca Cola Vs Dr. Pepper

What do you want to see as a cupcake next week!?? Coca Cola or Dr.Pepper? Battle it out!

Voting closes Monday @ 5pm.

Wednesday, February 22, 2011: Spiced Pear Cupcakes With Maple Cream Cheese Frosting!

This week I made spiced pear cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting topped with toasted almonds. They turned out very moist and delicious. I was quickly told that this is a recipe to keep in the short pile. I had absolutely no problems making these cupcakes; they were extremely easy and quick to make. The perfect way to make use of those pears sitting in your kitchen!

Recipe to come 

Wednesday, February 16th: Sweetheart Cupcakes!

 

Happy belated Valentines day! Here are some cupcakes I made this week. The cupcakes were vanilla and chocolate, and the hearts were pound cake covered in candy coating! Yum!

Wednesday, February 9th: Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cupcakes

 

I FINALLY made caramel! After having major difficulties with my caramel frosting in December, I was extremely weary when going forward with this recipe. However this time I was armed with a candy thermometer, and what a difference it made! Who knew that having the right tools would allow you to be successful? These cupcakes turned out great! Super decadent, but I made them a little smaller than normal. I wasn't sure how the frosting would turn out because of the amount of chocolate vs icing sugar, but the super richness worked with the rest of the cupcake. These would be extremely dangerous to have in the house.

Wednesday, February 2nd: Red Velvet Cupcakes With Red Hot Cinnamon Heart Frosting

It's February, that means candy and chocolate everywhere you look for Valentine's day, and the CCW cupcakes will be reflecting that. This week I made red velvet cupcakes with a red hot cinnamon heart frosting. The best part of these cupcakes was the frosting for sure, it had the taste of cinnamon hearts without being overpowering. I did add about twice the amount of blended cinnamon hearts that the recipe called for because I wanted that flavour to really come through.

Cake Series: Happy 23rd Birthday Jess!

Here's a teeth cake I made for my dental hygienist friend, Jessica! My first fondant cake, and it way more difficult to place the fondant down smoothly than I anticipated. Luckily the teeth on the cake were very forgiving of the wrinkly fondant. I'm hooked! I can't wait to make another cake!

The cake itself was a rainbow cake with fudge filling and vanilla bean icing.

Special Order: Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes in a Chocolate Cake With PB and Chocolate Swirled Frosting

Here is another special order I did; a variation on my peanut butter cup cupcakes from October. These were a chocolate cupcake and chocolate and peanut butter frosting swirled on top. Huge mound of frosting... mmm.

Special Order: Boxing Cupcakes (Fondant Boxing Gloves)

So this past week due to illness, I did not make cupcakes. Here are some pictures of the boxing glove cupcakes I made a few weeks ago for an order.

Special Order: Make-Up Cupcakes (Fondant Lipstick & Compact)

Here are some pictures of a cupcake order I did a couple weeks ago. The cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting. The lipstick and compact were made out of fondant. It was my first time working with fondant, and I think they came out pretty good for a first attempt. I also made some fondant boxing gloves for cupcakes that I will post in the coming weeks.

Wednesday, January 19th: Cherry Pie Cupcakes

This week's selection from the book, "What's New Cupcake?", was the pie cupcakes. The flavour voted was cherry, thus I made cherry cupcakes that look like cherry pies. The piping of the pie crust (which is just vanilla icing with cocoa and yellow food colouring added to make the desired colour) was semi-frustrating. The tip I used seemed too big, yet anything smaller would not have looked even over the red candy. It was amazing to me that the book even suggested just using a ziplock bag with a hole in it, I can't imagine how difficult that would have been. I used red Smarties candy as the "cherries" and then piped the frosting over to resemble a pie. I've seen some other variations of this cupcake on the internet where cherry filling is actually used and fondant makes the pie crust/dough. I think I would try the style again but with those different materials. The actual cupcake is a cherry cupcake with real cherries in it. After I ran out of Smarties, I decided to decorate the cupcakes more simply; you can see the pics of those cupcakes after the jump.

Also, check back later this week for some 'special order' cupcakes I've made recently!

 Click the link below to see recipe and another way you can decorate these cupcakes.

WW: Cherry Cupcakes!

Cherry won the vote this week. I will be baking Cherry flavoured cupcakes that resemble cherry pies. The idea comes from the book I've been using all January as inspiration, "What's New Cupcake". I've had a ton of fun making the cupcakes from the book so far, and have had a ton of great feedback. Can't wait to see how tomorrows cupcakes turn out! Come back and take a look!

Cherry: 13
Blueberry: 10

New Poll: Cherry Vs Blueberry

This week's cupcake from the "What's New Cupcake" book is going to resemble a pie. So what better flavours to have this week than Cherry and Blueberry. Voting will end on Monday now rather than Tuesday because I really need that time to find my ingredients. So get your votes in on time! :)

Voting will end Monday at 5PM

Wednesday, January 11th: Honeycomb Cupcakes (Green Tea Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting topped with Honey)

This week I continued to recreate cupcakes from the book, "What's New Cupcake", with these honeycomb cupcakes. The cupcake itself was a Green Tea flavour cupcake with vanilla icing. I then topped the cupcake with hexagonal sugar cookies topped with yellow sprinkles. I would advice baking the sugar cookies in advance to save time. Also, try to find a hexagonal cookie cutter; I was without one and it was extremely difficult to shape the cookies with just a knife. The bees on the cupcakes were made out of black jelly beans striped with yellow frosting and sliced almonds for wings. The first few bees I made I attempted to make separate and then transfer them onto the cupcakes. However too much of the yellow stripes smudged from this so eventually I learned to make the bees right on the cupcakes. Finally the cupcakes are topped with honey inside of the sugar cookie. After, you just place the hexagons together to form a honeycomb shape. 

I love the cupcake colour!

WW: Green Tea Cupcakes Win!

Wow! Thanks for all the votes this week! 48! New Record, Woohoo! Green tea has won despite Peanut Butter's lead most of the week. I am excited to try the green tea cupcakes, however, it has been quite the adventure to even get to the baking stage.

After my car overheating while driving home from work (for the second time in two weeks!), and then having to brave the cold to refill my coolant (a simple task that takes me, a non-car person, a ridiculous amount of time to do), I was not in the best mood. And that's not even including the extra trip across the city in the snow storm to get the Matcha green tea powder required for these cupcakes. By the time I am starting my baking, I know its going to be a late night. However, I like baking in the night when every else in the house is sleeping. It's sort of therapeutic. Plus I can make a big mess while baking and have time to clean, and no one will know. And everyone can wake up to some fresh goodies!

Come back tomorrow to see how they turn out!

Results:
Green Tea: 25
Peanut Butter: 23

New Poll! Honey and...?

There is a new poll this week! My apologies for not having one last week, I had several requests to put up a new poll this week, so here it is. The difficulty with polls this month is the cupcakes in the book, "What's New Cupcake" require a lot of supplies and time to search for those supplies, that it makes it tough not knowing which cupcakes I need to make until the night before. But alas, I have found a way around it this week. This week I will be making cupcakes that look like a honey comb. The cupcakes will be topped with honey, but you can decide what the actual cupcake flavour is going going to be. The choices will be: Peanut Butter and Honey, or Green Tea and Honey.

Voting, as usual, will close on Tuesday at 5:00 PM. 

Wednesday, January 5th: Hero Sub Cupcakes

 

This Wednesday is the first week of exploring the book, "What's New Cupcake". The book features all sorts of crazy cupcakes that look like animals, food, etc. This Wednesday I attempted to create the Hero Sub cupcake. These cupcakes were very time consuming, the cheese and ham on the sub are made out of chewy fruit candy and they were at times more difficult to work with. The book called for a long donut such as a cruller for the top of the sub, but I couldn't locate some (and I didn't have a ton of time to look), so I used a the top of a grocery store pound cake. The lettuce was the easiest part and the possible my favourite looking aspect of the sub cupcake. It is merely bran flakes with green frosting. The cupcakes are messy and harder to eat, but the initial reaction you get by people makes it worth it. They looked like subs, and while they weren't as perfect as the book, they got the reaction I was looking for!

January on CCW: Exploring "What's New, Cupcake?"

 

This month will focus less on cupcake flavours, and more on the decorating. I got this great book for Christmas, "What's New, Cupcake?", and will try to recreate some of the cupcakes from the book for January. Stayed tuned to see how these clever cupcakes turn out!

Happy New Year!

 

Goodbye 2010, hello 2011! Let's make it the year to dream big, laugh lots and love most. Can't wait to see what baking adventures 2011 will bring!