Nutella

I think just about everyone loves Nutella. (I think it's okay, nothing special...don't attack me!) Regardless I think these cupcakes came out pretty great...at least the second time. The first time I found a super weird recipe but I want to try it anyway. It went against every rule of cupcake making I've ever learned and it turned out crappy. Shocker. It probably didn't help that I forgot to add the sugar (whoops!) but even so it was definitely muffin texture. Dense and kind of dry, so I'm happy I got to start over. Since I was in a crunch for time I just took the vanilla bean recipe, minus the vanilla bean, and used that for my base. I filled each with Nutella before I baked it thinking it would be all great and gooey. I was pretty wrong. The Nutella kind of hardened but there's not much I can do about that except take note for next time. I tried to remedy that by adding a little extra Nutella after they were done so hopefully that goes over well. I topped them with the BEST FROSTING IN THE WORLD. All it is is two cups of whipping cream and a little over a 1/2 cup Nutella. Absolutely perfect. It tastes like a Wendy's Frosty. I will definitely be using that again. For a finally Nutella touch I drizzled some melted Nutella on top.
Here they are!

And here are the failures...they had some potential...maybe.

Chocolate and Cream Cheese

What more can I say? It's a classic; chocolate cake with delicious cream cheese frosting. There are no fillings or nifty designs just a simple cupcake but it's the frosting that makes it super.  I can eat cream cheese frosting by the spoon. Kind of gross but I love it so much! If you want the perfect cream cheese frosting recipe ask me. I'll be happy to give it out...any recipes for that matter, just let me know!

Here are the beauties! You should probably stop drooling now...Haha I'm just messing around. But they do look good don't they? 

  Notice the cute little cupcake liners courtesy of Abby and Megan. I've been waiting to use them for quite sometime and as you can see, I finally did.

Happy Cupcaking! :)

P.S. Suggest some cupcake ideas, share my blog, ask for my recipes...do it all!! 

Fauxstess

Yeah we know those delicious Hostess cupcakes that are sooo good but so so bad....well, I decided to make them from scratch. Chocolate cake base with a whipped cream center. I dipped them in chocolate ganache and decorated them with the classic curly q's on top. I didn't try one for myself but they did look pretty good. I was having issues filling them so I didn't get the amount of filling I wanted inside but I think everyone got the point. Enjoy!

Did you know ....?

*Each Hostess cupcake has 7 squigglies on top.
*Americans consume 1/2 billion each year!!!
*The original slogan was "You get a big delight in every bite!"

Kickin' It Up a Notch

So I really thought I was behind 5 cupcakes but turns out I was COMPLETELY WRONG! I'm behind 15 recipes so I really need to put this project in high gear. Starting today I will be baking three times a week and on either Tuesday or Thursday I will be making two half recipes. Basically I will be making four recipes a week with my new schedule (made by Abigail Fraser...thank you!). Cupcake consumers....get ready to get fat! :)

Touch of Lemon

I'd have to say I'm IN LOVE WITH LEMON! Seriously I love lemon cake, lemon pie (minus the meringue), lemon tarts, lemon loaf, lemon cookies, lemonlemonlemonlemon. It was probably for my best interest to hold on making lemon cupcakes because I love them way too much. These cupcakes though did not turn out how I had hoped but the two people who tried them said they were great. I have issues not trusting my cupcakes, but then again I'm really picky about cupcakes in general.

So these are my cupcakes. I went crazy with flowers! Ana also taught me how to make roses last time I was there so I wanted to put my new skills to test and this was the final outcome.

 The cake is soft, moist, and a medium consistency. Next time I want lemon chiffon but extra lemony. No matter what  did the lemon flavor was not lemony enough but maybe that's just for my taste. I filled the cupcakes with lemon curd and finally made the SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM! After making it I have developed a love/hate relationship. The frosting is beaaaautiful and pipes perfectly but I could not flavor it for the life of me. You would be shocked to know how much lemon extract and lemon juice went into the frosting. Aggravated me but nonetheless I loved it.

Lemon Facts!

*Lemon trees grow to be about 10 to 20 ft tall and are sparsely covered with foliage.

*High in vitamin C, lemons prevent scurvy, a disease that causes bleeding gums, loose teeth and aching joints.

*For whiter fingernails and to get rid of fingernail stains, soak your fingernails in fresh squeezed lemon juice for about five minutes.

*California and Arizona produce 95% of the entire U.S. lemon crop.

*Lemon trees bloom and produce fruit year-round. Each tree can produce between 500 and 600 pounds of lemons in a year.

Vanilla Bean

I've never in my life held a whole vanilla bean. It is the weirdest little thing ever. For one they are suuuper duper expensive and range from like 4-8 dollars a piece! Two they are just so little and creepy. Haha creepy may not make sense to many of you but they are just a weird texture and filled with all theese beans everywhere. Not as big of a deal as I'm making it...I'm sort of dramatic. Besides my rant about vanilla beans, the cupcakes turned out perfect. I looove the cake part like no other which is saying something as a person who doesn't normally induldge in cake. It light, moist, flavorful; absolute perfect.

The frosting on the other hand...meeeeh. Not a favorite in my book. Buttercream is just too sweet. I hope somebody enjoys the frosting because it's on every single cupcake. We will see how that goes. I really was hoping to use a beautiful frosting recipe I found for Swiss Meringue Butter cream but I ran out of the ingredients for it, but I will make it soon so be ready! :)


Fun Fact: "Cake is of Viking origin , from the Old Norse kaka." HA and if you know some spanish slang that makes cake so appealing...

Carrot Cake

I really don't think these need much of an explanation. They're carrot cake cupcakes and they are topped with cream cheese frosting. Classic. Simple. Delicious.

See those little carrots^^^. Yeah my amazing mentor Ana Orozco taught me how to make those along with other frosting creations. On top of that she bought me some nifty decorating tools as well as let me borrow all her tips and a book. I'm really lucky to have somebody that can help me with my baking in close reach and I really appreciate all that Ana has done for me. So here are my beautifully decorated carrot cupcakes!

Peppermint Red Velvet

So way back when before winter break, I made these cute little treat boxes for some of my friends. Inside was a mini peppermint red velvet cupcake. I know this is a late post but I COMPLETELY forgot about them. I tried a new red velvet recipe and it tasted the same but had a better, fluffier texture to it. But the frosting is what really was the best part. It was cream cheese frosting mixed with melted white chocolate and peppermint extract. I'd say it was absolutely amazing! I will definitely be making them again for a larger group of people.

Fun Fact:

Since everyone loves butter...

"Every year, over 8 million metric tons of butter are consumed worldwide. The chart below shows how much butter is being eaten for selected countries. Americans have been eating less and less butter since the mid 20th century. This is a graph of annual butter consumption, in 1,000 metric tons. " 

Source:http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/consumption.html

India really loves their butter!!!

Mint Chocolate Chip

Mmmm...mint chocolate chip ice cream: a popular flavor among us all. This is one of the first ideas I brainstormed earlier before I began this project. Even so, it took me quite some time to actually bake it. But here we are now, and they are made! My whole house smells like a minty, chocolately wonderland.



The cupcakes are dark chocolate cake and frosted with mint buttercream. Quick note: I've been having a debate with myself over butter or oil for quite sometime. I love the flavor of butter, but it's just not moist like oil is. So in this recipe I did half and half...I'd have to say they came out pretty great and I may have a new standard for my cupcakes. I'm impressed with how they turned out and I'm looking forward to everyone trying them.

Fun post from Icecream.com. It describes your personality based off of your favorite flavor, so of course I am posting about Mint Chocolate Chip.

 "As a Mint Chocolate Chip lover, you tend to be ambitious and confident… yet a little skeptical about life. You are a realist who prepares for the future, needing a solid plan to feel secure. While your stubbornness is a business asset, it can add a challenging element to your relationships. Nonetheless, your loyalty, honesty and dependability create lasting friendships and close family ties."

Suggestions!

Any cupcakes you'd like me to bake? Request anything and I'll do my best to accommodate your suggestion. Email me at jhen629@yahoo.com.

Please and thank you! :)

Photographer Needed!

As you can see, I have just about no photography skills. I really want this to look the best I can so if you'd like contact me and we can work something out. My mom is a photographer but I don't want to put a lot of pressure on her to take the photos. Just hit me up!

Snickerdoodle Round 2

I don't really need to explain these much. They differ from the other recipe in a few ways; I used an egg white based frosting instead of buttercream, and they are a little dry at the cost of having more flavor, but I will definitely remedy that with some applesauce. I made them again because I was short on ingredients but I had to bake something. Plus they were very popular the first time around! I'm deciding to use this batter(plus applesauce or oil) and the other frosting. It's the perfect combination. :)

Reese's Cup

Peanut butter and chocolate complement each other pefectly. I'd have to say Reese's Cups were always my favorite candy when I was younger. That was like the one candy my brother and I never traded after going trick or treating. We worked hard for our Reese's!

I guess these cupcakes are pretty similar in structure to the Cookies N' Creme ones (Candy on the bottom of the cup) . I was debatng whether to use a mini cup in the center or a normal one on the bottom and I used both. But I definitely like the normal Reese's best. There was no recipe for this cupcake so I, once again, put a some togther. I used a tradition Hershey's cake recipe and a whipped peanut butter buttercream. I'd say they were a hit!

Why cupcakes are better than muffins:

"If you threw a cupcake against the wall,

you would hear something of a 'poof!'

 If you threw a muffin, you would hear a 'thud'" 

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Peanut Butter Jelly Time! PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME! Haha that is actually very annoying but perfect for this post. So what do you know...you can make a sandwhich into a cupcake! There wasn't actually a recipe that I found that suited my imagination for this cupcake so I just threw a bunch of stuff together.

To resemble white bread I used an angel food cake type batter. It's not too sweet and doesn't have a rich buttery taste but I think it worked well in this recipe. I filled the cupcake with strawberry jelly and frosted it with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Of course I had to drizzle the jelly on top...it makes it all pretty. :)

Cupcake fun fact: One cupcake is consumed for every adult in the US every day. Cool huh?



Cookie Dough

Cookie dough. Need I say more? These babys used a whopping 6 1/2 sticks of butter!!! It doesn't help that I ended up making the recipe three times! I don't think I've ever struggled so much on a recipe. It's not that it was difficult, but it's never good to bake when you're tired and when you're reading the recipe off of an ipod.

So I started making the batter and everything seemed just fine. I poured in my 2% milk and added the last bit of flour and I was ready to fill the pans. While reading the recipe once more to double check I notice that I used normal milk as opposed to sweetend condensed milk. If you bake you will no that they are NOTHING alike. One is, well milk, and the other is a thick, sugary, syrup. Once I noticed this I couldn;t just waste all those ingredients so I poured the batter right into a cake pan.

*Notice the picked out part...I got hungry and that cake was deeeelicious.

Anyways, I'm now out of eggs so I run to the neighbor house to borrow some. I'm finally at the last steps: milk and flour. I add in the condensed milk and the batter just doesn't seem right. I question the recipe because really, what type of recipe doesn't use water or milk? So I check the ipod once more. Here is where I'm about to just give up...So previously when I read condensed milk, that was intended for the filling and NOT THE BATTER!!! I had made it correctly the first time and now I'm stuck with a bunch of weird textured batter! I was so angry with myself ( I probably cried a little haha) but I was determinded to make this recipe correctly!

I make the batter for the final time, being careful to read the recipe correctly. I was successful!!! They turned out how I always dreamed they would.

The batter was of course filled with chocolate chips. Inside the actual cupcake though was actual cookie dough! I thought it was pretty creative. But what was really the icing on the cake (PUN ALERT) was the frosting! It actually tasted like cookie dough!!! The recipe called for flour in it and it just did wonders. I love it.

Cookies N' Creme

Being a person who loves food more than probably anybody I know, I suprisingly don't like ice cream from a carton very much. But on occassion I will enjoy a nice bowl of cookies n' creme ice cream. While browsing for recipes I found a cookie dough recipe which got me super excited. Then I notice the cookies n' creme one and my mom pretty much forced me to make it. Haha but saying that, she made a good decision.

The cupcakes are essentially a vanilla cake base with oreo cookie piece mixed in the batter. Before I filled the cupcake liners I place half an Oreo on the bottom. It's a nice little surprise when somebody finds an Oreo in their cupcake! :)  *Notice my new pretty cupcake liners. I'm starting a collection!!*