Salted Caramel Cupcakes

These are Martha Stewarts caramel cupcakes (kinda)! Actually, the frosting is not hers, but I am sure hers is also amazing! This is a tricky recipe to make due to the caramel making...at least for me it is. I did the caramel correct the first time I made it, but the last few times I have had it still be a little grainy. But it is sill GOOD! I took this to a house warming party that we went to...everyone loved them!
It is amazing the flavor that the sea salt adds to the chocolate and caramel. YUM!

Vanilla & Brown Sugar with Cream Cheese Frosting

These are from the Martha Stewart cupcake book which I love! I have been looking for an amazing vanilla cupcake recipe so I wanted to try these. For the record...I am still looking! These were yummy, just more of a muffin type. If I am in the mood for a CUPCAKE...I want A CUPCAKE not a muffin.
I will say however the brown sugar on the cream cheese frosting was amazing! How could you really go wrong with that anyway. When making these the batter is THICK so it won't rise to much...so pack it in!
I will share this one. It was good, but no where close to my favorite. Kinda tasted like a muffin...
Brown Sugar Cupcakes

from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Makes 28 – 30

3 cups sifted all- purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup buttermilk

Brown-Butter Icing (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 325F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Little League Mariners Cupcakes

More baseball.... These are for a 10 year old team who I heard LOVED THEM! Yea, even boys appreciate a good cupcake. Hopefully they will grow up to be hubby's that bless their wives with a yummy one for no reason at all. Cause honestly that would make MY WEEK!!! Back to these...hehehe.
I tried to make the Mariners current symbol and BOY WAS THAT A CHALLENGE, but I got close.
The baseballs are white fondant circles and I piped on red frosting for the lacing. Seemed to work, but if you touched it...SMEAR!

I like how the frosting looks when I did it sideways, rather than up in a twist...kinda fun!


This one is for MAR! She just got married and I couldn't make it to Vegas...so CHEERS with cupcakes!

Book Club (saved me)

I got a call from a good friend last minute asking if I had 12 cupcakes she could have for her book club. I did infact have extra from the baseball cupcakes, which I was SO HAPPY to share! Otherwise they would have been in my house and I would have had to fight the temptation! They were the chocolate cupcakes so I made cream cheese frosting (which is to die for with the chocolate if you dont mind me bragging!) I also had some extra fondant so I made a quick fun design and off they went)
I just love these cases from Safeway...dont get me wrong the large plastic ones that carry 27 are great also, but as for sharing these are the bee's knees!

They show off the "goods" while also being a practical and needed tool of the cupcake trade!
Cheers to CUPCAKES!

Red Sox Baseball

I made these baseball team cupcakes and some more that I will share tomorrow for a wonderful friend. Her life revolves around baseball for her 2 boys...they are pretty good! These are for their end of the year party.
I made these all out of fondant and buttercream frosting. I hear they were a BIG hit with the team and their parents!

GO RED SOX!

Black & White Sweet 16

My friend asked me if I would make cupcakes for her daughters sweet 16 party that was being shared with her best friend. They were having the co-ed party at a local airport in a hanger. Who would say no to that? What a fun idea. The girls had made a drawing of what they wanted. We made a great team and everyone was super happy with how they turned out.
As you can see the liners that I own 300+ of were perfect for this party also! Here is a close up of a flower on the chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
One tray is packed up and ready to go! I love these cupcake trays!!! Thanks Safeway for allowing me to purchase some.
I had the fondant flowers dry in a cupcake tin so they would be rounded not flat on the top of the frosting. It worked out perfectly and they were just as I had hoped.
All packed up and ready to go....you can see dad's Raider cupcake in there as well as plastic wrap with extra flowers that mom was going to put on sheet cakes she ordered to feed the teen crowd!
Here are the cupcakes displayed on the table! They were so perfect with the other decorations they had in the room.
Close UP!
Table display, my work here is done! Have fun kids ( I mean TEENS).

Raiders

In my next post you will see the Black & White Sweet 16 party that I did for my friends daughter. The actual party fell on her dad's birthday so mom asked if I could make him a special Raiders cupcake. I said of course before I even knew what the logo was. Let's just say I was a little worried once I googled it! AHHHHHH...how in the world am I gonna do this? I was up so late working on this and the Sweet 16 party cupcakes, that I thought I was seeing 2 Raiders ones. Not really, but that would have been a bonus to really have 2. A little secret of my work is that I am usually up until 2 am the night before cupcakes are needed...there are two reasons for this. 1. MY KIDS ARE SLEEPING!!!! 2. I am usually watching a show on the computer while I am working. All my favorite things in a quite house....no wonder I love doing this!!!
I heard that dad was surprised by mom halfway through the party with his birthday cupcake and didn't want to eat it cause it was to cool! I love hearing things like that... but if you ever get one of my cupcakes and don't eat it I WILL CRY!

Happy Birthday! Check out the sweet 16 cupcakes tomorrow! I should mention the party was in an airplane hanger! SO COOL!

Bridal Shower

I was contacted by my friend to see if I was inerested in making cupcakes for a client of hers. I am not gonna lie....that was scary!!! But I try to live by the quote "What doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger". So I agreed to talk to her about the shower. She had thought she wanted sunflowers, but this is what we decided to go with. Teal fondant hearts.
Teal ribbon that is being used at showers as well as the wedding.
HOMEMADE teal sugar sprinkles!!! (Hard to see here, but they are there).
All packed up and ready to deliver to the location! So excited that I said I would try this!!!
The line-up! So beautiful!!! I just love the liners...did I mention I now own 300+ of this design? Sorry Snohomish county!!!
Cream cheese swirls!
Table at the shower. The mother-in-law made the wrapped boxes for the cupcakes to be displayed on and she found napkins that were PERFECT! We made a great team!
As I was taking these photo's I had a crowd behind me of family and friends that were there helping the MIL set-up!
I had my wonderful assistant with me as well! K did great!!! She helped me place them in a pattern....and we love how it looks!

Teal, black, and white. Elegant, beautiful, and YUMMY! What more can a bride to be ask for from her mother-in-law? This was an amazing cupcake adventure making 80+ cupcakes!

Northwest Cupcakes

When people think of the Great Northwest they think RAIN & Coffee. Both are very true! This is my most requested filling! COFFEE!!!!! It is AMAZING in my chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting on top!
This makes my hungry!!!

It runs in the family

We love this b-day gift! How cute are these cupcakes? They are wooden with plastic frosting toppers and the frosting are markers that you decorate them with! My girls play with these everyday (seriously) and they are so good about putting them back in their kitchen so they don't lose them!
THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IN MY HOUSE PEOPLE!!!! Thank you A for the AMAZING gift that everyone one loves to play with. Well, let's be honest...who doesn't LOVE cupcakes!

PINK

Here are the cupcakes for the Fairy Princess Party. They were cute, yet simple. I didnt have a lot of time to work on these. But, they were perfect since the girls all had their cookie wands also. They were vanilla cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting.
I made yellow hearts for a little contrast. They were origionaly going to be yellow crowns, but they were not cooperating. BOOO....but note to self...2 year olds don't care as long as it is sugar!
I also sprinnkled them with rainbow sugar crystals. That added the final touch that made them PERFECT!

Magic Wand Cookies

Not a cupcake...but just as fun! I saw these wands in the Family Fun Magazine by Disney and we made them for a fairy princess party! I have the link below, I am not as good with computers as I am with frosting, so you will have to cut and paste the link. I used a cupcake tin with liners in it to hold the different sprinkles. I also had the cookies already in the bag with their name on it, that they would go back into when they were decorated. This was the take home treat since we were having cupcakes (next post) and it was only 11:00am.
I also had the pink buttercream frosting ready to go in a bag and I put it on each cookie, but had plastic knives so the girls could spread it out. It is tough for little hands to squeeze the bag and not have it come back out the top.
The girls all loved it and we had the cupcakes at the same table with the sprinkle mess, so they could also decorate their cupcakes!
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/edible-magic-wands-841568/