Oldie but Goodie #2 - Oreo Truffles

I was searching the internet and I came across a recipe for oreo truffles and of course I had to try them.  These turned out very tasty and were very easy to put together. All you need is three ingedients, one 8 oz. package cream cheese, one package of oreos (regular not double stuf) and chocolate for dipping (I used candy melts).  For me it turned out better if I put the oreos in the food processor and crushed them finely and then blended in one brick of cream cheese in the mixer so that everything is combined.  Once combined I formed each bit of truffle dough into a cone shape and put into the freezer for the mixture to set.  once firm I dipped half of the cone into white and the other side into white and it looked like a santa hat.

I used some white sprinkles between the white and red to hide any imperfections and then toped the santa hat with a chocolate pearl

I wrapped each oreo truffle in a treat bag tied with a boy

These were a big hit at work hopefully you will be able to try these and make these in any shape you want.

My First Big Gig

I am pleased to announce that I have successfully survived my first big cupcake gig.  I was hired by my job to make 250 cupcakes for our one year anniversary in our new building.  Holy cupcakes, is what you are probably thinking.  I will admit this was a very daunting task, how was I to make 250 cupcakes in my kitchen while my 20 month year old is still awake, thank goodness for the baby gate :)

I decided to make four different flavors, vanilla with vanilla bean buttercream, chocolate with chocolate fudge frosting, red velvet with mascarpone cream cheese frosting and lemon with luscious lemon frosting.  I also decided to top each of the cupcakes with a cupcake topper that I made with my new cricut machine that I purchased which I absolutely love. I even bought the cake mini so stay tuned for some fun decorate cupcakes.  The cupcake toppers were designed to mesh with our CPI theme that our job is highly invested in.  For those of you that don't know what CPI is, it stands for Continuous Process Improvement.

I will admit that everything worked out perfectly despite the fact that I only got 1 and 1/2 hours of sleep, it was well worth it.  I even booked two weddings out of the deal, you can't beat that.  It's really exciting to know that possibly a dream can become a reality.

Hope everyone that had my cupcakes enjoyed the event.

I love the simplicity of putting the cupcakes on rectangle platters 

 Lemon with luscious lemon frosting

Devil's Food with chocolate fudge frosting 

 Red Velvet with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting

 Vanilla with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Love my wilton tiered cupcake stand

Oldie but Goldie #1 - Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes w/ Peppermint Swirl Buttercream

For my New Year's resolution I have vowed to get better with my blog postings.  The next few postings are going to be treats I made during the holiday season that I didn't share on my blog.  Plus I can add that future blogs should be a little more exciting as I'm coming up with more great ideas for cupcakes as and I  will also be adding some tutorials on fun ideas for cupcake decorating and presentation.

My first Oldie but Goldie post is for Peppermint Mocha Cupcake w/ Peppermint Swirl Cupcakes.  I made these cupcakes for my job's holiday party bake contest and I will be happy to announce that I did win first prize.

This recipe was adopted by Baker's Royale's Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes http://www.bakersroyale.com/cupcakes/peppermint-mocha-cupcakes/.  These cupcakes were absolutely delicious and the presentation was beautiful.  I can say that these probably are my favorite cupcakes so far.  This is definitely a recipe to keep in your repertoire.

 My assembly line of cupcakes

I swirled the frosting to get a candy cane effect, which was festive for the holidays but you could keep it all one color and get the same result.

Hope this inspires you to make this delicious cupcake.  Happy Baking!

In Love with CAKEPOPS!

I know I have mentioned it before in a previous blog but I am in love with cake pops.  I purchased the bake pop pan from the infomerical, which now you can buy at Bed Bath & Beyond, and make sure to use your 20% coupon if you purchase.  I have tried to make the cakepops with mashed cake and frosting but the texture is slightly overputting to me.  If I want to eat a "cake"pop, i want to taste cake.

I have experimented with several flavors.  For my recent selection I decided to do a irish cream cake batter laced with chocolate chips and coated with delicious milk chocolate.  What was my inspiration, my unopened bottle of Irish Cream that I completely forgot about.  I searched the web for a delicious recipe and finally came upon a recipe by the Cupcake Rehab, I of course adjusted to my liking. 

I usually make cupcakes because I love the frosting but I am finding that cake dipped in chocolate is just as satisifying.   I do plan on making some cakepops that have fillings and also holiday cake pops to come.  These are how my delicious irish cream cake pops turned out.

Go Diego Party

My good friends, Cheri and Jonathan, were giving their son, Preston, a first birthday party and they asked me to make a cake and cupcakes.  I was of course honored.  What was the theme, Go Diego, of course.  I knew for the cake I was going to do a safari theme like I did for Benjamin's birthday.  For the cupcakes I searched the internet high and low to find the easiest and perfect Diego cupcakes.  I finally found them at Nick.com.

For the cupcakes, I made chocolate cupcakes topped with vanilla frosting.  For the Diego details I used mini M&M's (eyes), fruit roll-ups (mouth), cheerios (ears), nd for the hair I had a template and traced with melting chocolate.  For Baby Jaguar I tinted the frosting with a few drops of orange food coloring and couple drops of brown  I used red and orange dots candy (nose and ears), mini m&M's (ears), and black frosting for the whiskers and mouth.  I think these turned out very cute, I did make a joke that Diego kinda had a Don King fro, but they were still adorable.  If you would like to make these cupcakes here is the link: http://www.nickjr.com/recipes/diego-cupcakes.jhtml.

For the cake I also made a chocolate cake, adopted by Martha Stewart's Devil Food Cake Recipe.  I did a two layer cake filled with vanilla buttercream frosting and tinted green to resemble grass.  For the decorations I used piping gel tinted blue for the lake surrounded by crumbled graham crackers to resemble sand.  I used green laffy taffy ropes for the tree trunks and piped green frosting with a star tip to resemble leaves.  I made a fondant elephant and baby jaguar for figurines to complete the cake. I'm getting more and more comfortable with decorating cakes as it is much easier to decorate cupcakes which I love.  Let me know what you think about the cake.

 

I had a lot of fun making the cake and cupcakes and look forward to my next baking project.



Cake Pops!

I have officially joined the cake pop craze, but not the cake pops where you mix frosting with crumbled cake.  I am in love with the cake pops baked in the Bake Pop pan that I purchased from the infomercial.  At first I was a little skeptical until I tried it, it made perfectly circle donut hole cake balls that were full of delicious cake and no frosting. 

For my first attempt with cake pops I made a devil's food cake mixed with peanut butter chips dipped in almond bark and dipped in a chocolate peanut butter glaze.  A quick note about almond bark, I have never used it before but it is the perfect dipping source.  It melts very smooth and has a nice texture, it's not too sweet either. 

I made a little cake pop bouquet for my friend, Lykheng's birthday and they were a huge hit.  Needless to say I currently thinking of the next cake pop to make, I'm HOOKED.

Stay tuned to see what other cake pops I come up with.

It's been so long

I truly apologize for the lack of blog postings for the last couple months as I have made several cupcakes over this time.  I am also proud to annouce I just bought a cake pop pan so i'm very excited to see what tasty creations I come with you and of course to share with you all.

In the past three months I have made several cupcakes.

The first one I did was inspired by favorite drink, the peach bellini.  The best peach bellini is at Joey's in Seattle, it's a delicious blend of frozen peach puree perfectly blended with just the right amount of champagne.  This cupcake was delcious, it was a moist champagne cake infused with peach schnapps and a peachy peach schnapps buttercream with a peach-o decoration.

My next cupcake was for  my mom's birthday.  She loves lemon cupcakes, so I made a lemon cupcakes, adopted by Barefoot Contessa with a lemon buttercream frosting.  For decoration I made little fondant purses decorated with little sugar pearls and sugar paper that I found at Joann's.  This was a big hit with her family and friends.

I was then asked to put to make cupckaes for a three week seminar series at my job, so that meant I had to come up with three different cupcakes.  My first cupcakes was a pumpkin cupcake with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting that was inspired by Fall.  I will admit that this was one of my favorite cupcakes, the cake was very moist and delicious and the cream cheese frosting adding a subtle tanginess.  AWESOME!

My next cupcake that I  made for the seminar series was an Halloween inspired cupcake.  I made a moist chocolate cake with a chocolate frosting adorned with Halloween sprinkles. 

I  of course have to add some cute pictures of Benjamin in his Halloween costume, which I made by the way. 

My last cupcake that I made for the series was a vanilla cake with a vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream.  I wasn't too happy with the cake for which I am still in search of the perfect vanilla cake but the frosting was amazing.  I am a huge of swiss meringue buttercream, it creates a delicious smooth creamy texture that is very appealing.  It works with every flavor.  The best site to learn how to make this amazing frosting is www.sweetapolita.com, and she also has some amazing recipes as well.

You can see all the delicious specks of vanilla bean, YUM!



I promise I will get better of posting the day off or the next day when making a new cupcake.