Pina Colada's!!! Summer is almost here

Summer is definitely in the air (this weather will make you a firm believer)!  The summer cupcake flavors are on the way, starting with this one below! I named it "Pina Colada", but I am searching for a new name, because I am not sure if I will stick with that one.  So far, I have considered 'Hawaii 5-0' and 'La Coco'.  What do you think of those two? If you don't think those are sound catching, then let's play 'Suggest a Name'!! 

"Pina Colada" - Rum & pineapple cupcake w/coconut cream cheese frosting topped w/toasted shredded coconut...Perfect for cooling off on a hot summer day!



'Olivia the Pig' Kid's Birthday Party

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of making cupcakes for an 'Olivia the Pig' themed birthday party.  I had so much fun creating the toppers and the cupcake stand.  Little projects like this bring out my creative side!

For the toppers I used a large (2 1/2 inch) scalloped hole puncher for the background layer and for the foreground smaller layer (personalized) I used a smaller (1 1/4) scalloped hole puncher. I placed each topper on a rounded toothpick and inserted into cupcake.  For the cupcake stand, I used two regular different sized wrapping boxes and decorated with wrapping paper, ribbon and glittered scrapbooking paper (for dots on top box - cut with 1/2 inch circle hole puncher).

Each topper was personalized

Boxes wrapped in wrapping paper and decorated w/ribbons and scrapbooking paper

Cupcake Flavor - 'Simply Strawberry'

Chocolate is Chocolate is Chocolate!

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!!!  How we love chocolate.  Chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate candy bars, chocolate covered bananas, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate muffins...well, you get my drift. You name any type of food, and I'm willing to bet a catrillion of these bad boys below, that chocolate has already found a way to be incorporated some way, somehow. 

Everyone loves some form of chocolate (rich, semi-sweet, milk chocolate) and we oh so love the baking creations...BUT!!! No one, and again I can place that bet...I mean NO ONE, likes to clean up the mess that is made from baking anything chocolate - me included! (raising both of my hands, with an extra one coming from somewhere to stress my emphasis on loathing this task).

While you can always keep a relatively clean baking space, chocolate has a mind of its own.  Chocolate in a powered form starts to pop up everywhere, melted chocolate often finds its way on every utensil you are using and when it's time to mix and combine, you're already dreading the cleaning process.  The batter goes into the pans alright, but everywhere else as well! Oh, I could go on and on - but I'm not.  I'll digress right...about...now! Whew! Like I said, Chocolate is Chocolate is Chocolate and while it takes a true labor of love to want to clean it, the end result of that treat going into your mouth is 'so worth it'!

In the picture immediately above - 'The Usual Too' - Moist rich chocolate cupcake w/Milk chocolate sour cream buttercream frosting topped with chocolate sprinkles and a mini chocolate coated cookie! The top two pictures are also 'The Usual Too', just covered with sliced almonds!  Savor every bite - Delish!

My dad's 60th birthday celebration!

This past weekend (on February 18, 2012), we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday with a surprise party!  He was definitely surprised - that is until he the hit the corner leading up to my brother's house and saw all of the cars - at that moment, he knew something was in store for him.  We had entertainment, great good and even better guests!  It was simply wonderful. 

Initially I was going to make cupcakes, but the day of, the time started getting funny and I was just going to let our sheet cake be the only dessert.  Then I got to thinking:  "I had better make these cupcakes for my #1 daddy".  So, I whipped up some "Love on Top" (red velvet w/cream cheese frosting) and "The Usual" (vanilla w/chocolate buttercream frosting) and it all went off without a hitch!

Thank you Urban Annapolis Magazine!

On Saturday, February 4, 2012, I had the pleasure of displaying my cupcakes for an event held by Urban Annapolis Magazine http://urbanannapolismagazine.com/ The event turned out to be a total success, which included special guest Chuck Brown (the Godfather of the DC based popular form of music known Go-Go for those of you unfamiliar)! Tarsha Beavers and her UAM team are doing an exemplary job with this magazine in their effort to showcase the cultural spirit and diversity which embodies Annapolis, MD. Check it out!

The cupcakes are mini and the flavors consisted of my 'Simply Strawberry' (but of course), 'Mocha-Choca', 'The Usual' and 'The Usual Too' (w/cream cheese frosting). Check out the UAM's logo cupcake!

My adventure with cake Pops

If at first you don't succeed...

...dust yourself off and try again!!

My first cakepop making experience was a complete disaster, fail, tragedy, mess, debacle, and any other word you could muster up to describe what took place. The evidence is right there in the top picture; they weren't cakepops-on-a-stick, but rather 'sticks in a cakepop'!  Everything that could go wrong...well...went wrong! 

1) Did not crumble the cake enough (always crumble until fine)

2) Mixed in too much frosting (for every avg cake size, 1/2 cup is just perfect)

3) Did not let cake firm up (leave in freezer for at least 30 min or refrigerator for 2 hours)

4) Melted chocolate too long (FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS FOR MELTING CHOCOLATE!)

5) Did not let chocolate firm up on stick in cake pops (stick back in freezer for 30 min)

Well, if you read the 'about me' section, you'd know I wasn't going to let that be the end with the cake pops.  The following weekend, I got back to work, followed my troubleshooting instructions and voila'!  What you see in the next two pictures was the turn out for this go 'round...SUCCESS!  Cakepops are very simple to make, but like most projects, its not a 'dive right in' type of thing.  There are rules you must follow and those rules will help to ensure you come out with the perfect cake pop every single time!







More Mocha-Choca's

I'm back with more of my Mocha-Choca's, but this time I used the holy grail of all chocolates...Valrhona! Yes, I could definitely taste the difference.  If you're looking for that true, rich, semi-bitter chocolate taste (and it's all preference), this is your winner.  Trust me, my Hershey's is still the bomb, but the Valrhona is definitely all that it's cracked up to be.  I ordered some off line, because I thought (and never did much research) it could not be purchased in specialty stores in my area.  Well low and behold, I'm at the local Whole Foods store and I turn over an unmarked container of chocolate (similar resemblance) and there it is...Valrhona!  So needless to say, I was psyched and will be purchasing it from WF from here on out.  For the frosting, I switched it up and used Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa, which didn't deviate too much from the frosting I made using Hershey's.



'Mocha-Choca' - Devil's food chocolate cupcake with caramel flavored mocha chocolate frosting.