Cupcake Crown!

I'm so very excited to announce I've entered my Peppermint Mocha cupcakes into Celebrations.com's Cupcake Crown competition! This is completely popular-vote driven, so it's up to you my friends to determine the winners! As my loyal visitors and friends know, there are few things I love more than creating both a tasty and beautiful cupcake, so if you'd like take a visit and place a vote for my cupcake - it would be much appreciated :) You can place one vote per day, so visit as often as you'd like - as you can see, the prizes are quite nice and wow, can't imagine winning the Cupcake Crown!!
http://www.celebrations.com/cupcakecrown/2012/cupcake/peppermint-mocha-cupcake

Shark Birthday

Admit it - you heard the music to Jaws in your head when you saw this cake, didn't you?! It's okay, I did too. :) Fluffy vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in fondant with all fondant details - even the friendly Birthday shark! How do I know he's friendly? Well that's a silly question - can't you see he's smiling?

Pink and Brown Polka Dot Wedding Reception

Such a lovely color combination for a wedding reception! The bride requested the same design I'd used on an earlier cake, but in her colors of pink and brown, then I made cupcake toppers to continue that color scheme! The cake was fresh strawberry with white chocolate buttercream filling, covered in fondant, with a gum paste topper and fondant details. Half the cupcakes were fresh strawberry with cream cheese frosting, the other half were vanilla with chocolate buttercream frosting, both with fondant toppers.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

An Italian themed luncheon for my Son's teachers proved the perfect opportunity to try out a recipe I've had stashed away in my "to-do" file - Tiramisu cupcakes! Extremely light, fluffy vanilla bean cupcakes, double-brushed with coffee syrup, topped with mascarpone cream cheese frosting, a dusting of cocoa powder and a chocolate coffee bean!

Ingredients:

* For the cake
* 1 1/4 cups cake flour
* 3/4 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste
* 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
* 3 large eggs + 3 egg yolks, at room temp
* 1 cup sugar
* For the coffee syrup
* 8 Tbsp strongly brewed coffee
* 1/4 cup sugar
* For the frosting
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 8oz mascarpone
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1/2 cup powdered sugar
* Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting
* Chocolate coffee beans, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line two muffin pans with paper liners (24 total). Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside. In a small microwave-safe bowl, add milk, butter, vanilla bean paste, and butter. Heat in 15 second intervals until butter is melted.
2. Whisk the eggs by hand over a simmering pot of water for 6 minutes, until warm. Then move mixer bowl to your stand mixer. Whisk mixture until pale, fluffy and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when the whisk is lifted.
3. Switch to the paddle attachment. With the mixer set on low, add flour mixture and slowly add the milk mixture, mixing until just combined. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean. Let sit in pan until just warm to the touch. Using a knife or fork, gently poke 4-5 holes in each cupcake (you want to give the syrup a way to travel down the cupcake but you don't want to tear up the cupcake).
4. To make the coffee: Mix coffee and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Using a silicone pastry brush, brush the tops of the cupcakes, letting the first round soak in completely before making another pass. Repeat until all of the syrup has been used.
5. Make the mascarpone frosting: With the whisk attachment, whip the cream on high until stiff peaks just form. Add the mascarpone, powdered sugar, and vanilla and whisk on medium-high for 1-2 minutes. Frost cupcakes when they have completely cooled. Garnish with a dusting of cocoa powder and chocolate coffee beans.

*Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Why exactly have I never combined chocolate and caramel before? I really can't think of a good reason! Glad I finally got around to it because - wow! These cupcakes were worth the wait! Rich chocolate espresso cupcakes with caramel swiss meringue buttercream, vanilla bean caramel sauce and a sprinkling of sea salt! Yum-E!

Be My Valentine Cupcakes

So I finally had an opportunity to play around with some ideas for Valentine Cupcake toppers - I was inspired by the paper Valentines I remember making when I was little! Did anyone else make those like me? Red or pink construction paper and a white paper doily glued underneath? I really wanted to capture that same spirit with these - only perhaps a little less pasty :) Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and gum paste toppers!

Sporty Cupcakes

This was a fun cupcake project! A mixture of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and hand made fondant/gum paste toppers representing various sports for a Birthday!

Love Bird Baby Shower Cupcakes

I really had fun working on these - cupcakes to mimic the Bananafish "Love Bird" nursery bedding pattern! Chocolate espresso cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and gum paste toppers.

Softball Birthday Cupcakes

Fun cupcakes for a girl celebrating her 10th Birthday! Chocolate espresso cupcakes with vanilla buttercream "grass", gum paste softballs and #10 toppers! :)

Curious George Birthday

I have had the pleasure of making this little guy's Birthday cakes for three years now - his First Birthday cake was the first outside request I ever actually received (the Mickey Mouse cake with Mouseketeer Hat smash cake) and looking back I remember being terrified! So it's so much fun to see not only how much he's changing and growing, but how I am as well in my skills! :) This year, they went with a Curious George theme, so we designed the cake and cupcakes around his party invitations. The main cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant with all fondant details. I then made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and fondant toppers to match the cake! Happy 3rd Birthday to a very special little monkey!

John Deere Birthday

Such a fun theme to work with for a little guy's 2nd Birthday! Chocolate cake with all vanilla buttercream frosting decorations and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and fondant toppers in fun John Deere colors!

Golfer's Birthday

When I received the request for a golf-themed Birthday cake, I knew exactly what I wanted to attempt - a re-creation of Royal Bakery's lovely design! Hers did have an additional tier on the bottom, but as that much cake wasn't needed in this case I just left it off. Lemon pound cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant with all fondant details made up this golfer's cake! I used colored piping gel for the water hazard, crushed graham crackers for the sand trap and buttercream for the grass at the base of each layer. Had such fun with this cake!