Football and my version of "Hostess" Cupcakes

Everyone always raves about my chocolate cupcakes filled with vanilla cream and topped with the same yummy cream on top. I've always called them my version of the "Hostess" Cupcake.  When I had to make dessert for the Superbowl party, the consensus was to make my Hostess cupcakes... so I decided to make them a little more "authentic".  The cake was chocolate, they were filled with vanilla cream and then topped with rich chocolate ganache, twice!  I used the vanilla cream to decorate the cupcakes with footballs, Superbowl notes, and the classic Hostess swirls.

But I still had to make them fun for a football party!

I used the vanilla cream inside to decorate the ganache on top as well.

Green Bay and Pittsburg!

The "Hostess" swirls.

Shiny ganache

And the "Hostess" football...

They went over very well... 2 Dozen went pretty fast, especially when guests claimed their seconds or thirds to bring home with them.

I wish I had one of them right now! so yummy!

Maya's Dora and Diego Cake

The niece of my friend Danny was having a birthday, so he asked if I could do a Dora and Diego cake.  I hadn't done a 3D Dora cake yet, so you know I was excited about this one.

The cake was classic... chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and icing.  The cake was covered in purple fondant, and decorated with fondant stars and polka dots. The parameter of the cake was adorned with purple fondant balls and on top, the cake had two hand sculpted figures. Dora and Diego.  They sat atop a green fondant patch that was surrounded by lavender flowers.  Maya's name was blocked out on top as well.

Close-up on Dora and Diego figures.

It was a fun cake to make, and a quick one for me.  The more of these children's cakes that I make where I have artistic freedom on design, the faster I bang them out!  I guess practice makes perfect.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

You read it right... mmmhmmmm... Another of Johnny's food favorites, and I do live to make him happy!!! :-)

I cant take full credit... I got the recipe from Martha... she is wonderful!!! Stewart of course! Though I did have to adjust a couple things for lack of ingredients... and since it was a "snow day creation", I wasn't running out to the store.

Peanut Butter flavored cake... from scratch... peanut butter buttercream (I do have my own recipe for this, but I can give this one a whirl for variation!)... and grape jelly.

I am trying to behave with my eating, so I made mini cupcakes too that I could try without feeling too guilty... and they were the most perfect morsels... but they didn't have the jelly going into the cake, not enough room... but I will let the pics explain!  Let the drooling begin!

I think i'm getting a good start at what will be on the menu in my cupcake shop... whenever that happens! haha... Happy Cupcake Snow Day!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

The love of my life has another love, besides me... its Chocolate Chip Cookies... I'm always trying to find ways to make them different and better... adding peanut butter cups... making a huge giant cookie... making them into little peanut butter "cups"... so with all my cupcake ideas lately, I decided, why not bake a chocolate chip cookie INSIDE a cupcake??? and then while i'm at it, make the buttercream, a cookie dough buttercream?!?!?!

Ok!

So I started with cookie dough... and then vanilla cake batter... stuck the cookie dough in the middle of the batter and baked...

Then I made my classic vanilla buttercream, but whipped it for a very long time, making it extremely fluffy and delicate... then I added chunks of cookie dough, and stirred.

Topped with a few mini chocolate chips, and Viola!

Cookie inside a cupcake...

The boy was in love... all over again... and I had a new cupcake under my belt... :-)

Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes

I keep coming up with cupcake ideas randomly... and luckily with all these snow days I have to take, I have plenty of time to try some of them out. So what did I have in the cabinet... a box of cake mix, a can of seltzer, everything for icing (always), caramel and apples... hmm OK.. Got it!

The Caramel Apple Pie Cupcake

SO first I made the apple filling... I diced up the apples really tiny, added some butter, brown sugar and cinnamon... put it all in a frying pan and sauteed until I felt they were the perfect consistency.  Then I made the cake.  Very simple.. a box of Spice Cake and a can of seltzer (mix and done... its my favorite way to make cake when I am just trying things out... and tastes so good, why not!) When the cupcakes were cooled, I put a little hole in the middle and filled it with caramel... then I made a caramel and sea salt buttercream and topped the cupcake, leaving a well for the apples... spooned some apples in the center, drizzled with caramel and decided to throw some salted peanuts on top.

Tough to eat because its so top heavy, so we ate the second one with a spoon.  They were super sweet, but the salty peanuts and the slight hints of salt in the buttercream set it off, just enough!

I have other apple ideas... so keep looking for more!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I know its been awhile... I've been pretty busy... not as busy with cakes... but dabbling in cupcakes!! and regular crazy life stuff!!

Sharffenberger was having an Adventure Cupcake contest... so i entered.  They gave you a list of "adventure ingredients" to choose from, and when I saw stout beer on the list, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to make...

An Irish Car Bomb... a half pint of Guinness... a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream and some Jameson's Irish Whiskey on top... you have to work fast or the Whiskey will curdle the Cream... unless you pour it as perfectly as this...

So how do I make this favorite, into a cupcake... EASY!!!

Take chocolate cake mix, add a bottle of Guinness Stout... mix and bake!!!  Guinness part DONE.  Then take some creamy chocolate and mix in some cream to make it into ganache... then add 2 TBSP's of Jameson's.... mix well!!! let set! Whiskey DONE... then, take your classic whipped cream recipe... make it, and stir in 1-2 TBSP's of Bailey's Irish Cream (depending on preference)... Bailey's DONE... and you have the Chocolate Irish Car Bomb Cupcake...

I, of course, drizzled on some more Whiskey ganache on top.  When I cut the cupcake open, the ganache had seeped into the chocolate guinness cake making it TO DIE FOR!!! and making me pretty tipsy!

Definitely not a cupcake for the kids!!!

More to come!

Jordyn's 2nd Birthday Elmo Cake

It's Elmo's world... and what better way to do an elmo cake than with some "Sesame Street's" and blocks.

My Elmo seemed a bit on the chunky side, but we'll just call him baby Elmo.  The block fronts were pretty uniform, and I wanted to include as much color as possible for the birthday girl.

The cake was vanilla with strawberry filling covered in vanilla buttercream and then green fondant.

Jordyn spelled out in block fronts... Little Elmo and his number 2 Block next to him. Green balls outline the bottom.

A number 2 block face in the back and the gray streets of Sesame laid across.

I am falling in love with making kids cakes.  It is so fulfilling knowing that it will brighten the little one's face when they see it.  Plus I get to use tons of colors and fun characters. My last Elmo cake was on a sheet cake, this was great to make a 3D one too.