Coconut Cream Cupcakes

I have finally settled into our new home in Norfolk, VA and am looking forward to a season of baking delicious treats!  My goal this year is to develop a recipe of ten cupcakes that I will offer to people for special events, whether it be a birthday party, wedding or business event.  Before I moved, I had the honour of making 200 cupcakes for my cousin Morgan's wedding.  It was a great experience and I learned a lot.  Thank goodness my Mom and Auntie were willing to help bake, as I got called into sub the two days I had booked for making and decorating the cupcakes!  The three flavours the bride and groom chose were Vanilla (they had a splash of lemon), Chocolate (with a touch of Zucchini) and Carrot cake (with a bit of apple too)!  Each of them were covered with buttercream icing.  I was happy with the taste and how moist the cupcakes were.  I learned, however, that I needed to invest in a few bigger decorating tips to help make the cupcakes look more beautiful.  Shortly after arriving in Norfolk, I made my way down to Michaels to pick up a few tips and couldn't wait to use them...I am very happy with the results and look forward to using them for many events in the future!

On to the Coconut Cream Cupcakes!  The cupcakes are made with coconut milk, have a coconut cream filling with shredded coconut, and then are frosted with whipped cream and topped with toasted coconut!
They are delicious, but I wanted to share a few points with you that I learned along the way.  I opted to toast my own coconut in the oven, and learned that when you open the oven door, make sure you keep your eyes far away, until the door has been open for a bit.  Not only did I get a blast of heat in my face, but my eyes burned like I have never felt before!  This is a lesson I will not soon forget!  Secondly, if you keep the cupcakes in the fridge, bring them to room temperature before serving.  They will be easier to eat and taste so much better!

Mmmm!  I can't wait to share these with everyone!

Pin It

Jessica's Wedding Cake!

I was very honoured to be asked by my great friend Jessica to make the cake for her special day!  The three tiered cake was covered with fondant and then laced with buttercream.  Yellow roses are her favourite and were part of the decor theme, so it was only fitting that they covered the cake, along with some blue and yellow ribbon.

Congratulations Jess and Jerome and thanks for letting me be part of your special day!  I wish you much happiness in the years to come.

Pin It

My First Official Wedding Cake!!

While last week was full of a little nerves and stress, I am so thrilled to say that I made my first official wedding cake and it went off rather smoothly.  I was definately very proud seeing it all finished on the cake table during the reception.  Hours of hard work planning and preparing had paid off and I was thrilled that it was for a great friend and his beautiful new bride.

 Thanks Errin & Heather for trusting me with creating your wedding cake and helping with the photography.  Your day was beautiful and I hope it was more than you ever dreamed it could be.  Congrats again!!

Pin It

Cow Themed Birthday Cake

This past weekend was my nephews birthday.  I have a few wedding cakes coming up and I wanted to practice making tiered cakes and using fondant, so they lucked out and got a really big birthday cake!  Both boys love being on the farm, with the littlest one being a bit cow crazy, so the theme was not too hard to come up with.  Here are a few pictures of the end result.  The boys loved to see it, and the crowd thought it tasted pretty good too!

Pin It

Hockey Stick Cake!

Hockey is a very important part of our family, so it was only fitting to make our nephew a hockey stick cake for his 9th Birthday.  I baked a square cake and cut it into pieces to make it into a hockey stick.  It is covered with buttercream icing. Mmmm!



Pin It

Green Panda Bear

My newphew Kyle decided that he wanted a panda bear for his birthday party so I decided to make him a 3-D bear, as the kids always seem to love them.  His favourite colour is green, so we decided to make a green and white panda, instead of black and white.  For a special little touch, I put his initials on the paws...all of the kids noticed this detail right away- before the adults!

    

By doing the bear with these colours, I saw how easily the 3-D bear could be made into a Care Bear too!  I might need to try that this summer.

Check back in the coming days for more peanut butter treats.  I made some but they all got eaten before I took pictures so I will need to make another batch!  But trust me, they are delicious, and pretty easy too!

Pin It

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Peanut Butter Recipe #2: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I was first introduced to Peanut Butter Cup Cookies by my sister-in-law a few years back.  Since then I have found the following recipe online at allrecipes.com and I use it all the time.  I make these cookies at Christmas to share with family and friends and they are always a hit.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.

2.Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk.

3. Add the flour mixture; mix well.

4.Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
 

 

5.Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

A few changes I have made:

I usually make them in a regular size muffin pan. Of course, you will only get 20-30 cookies instead of 40. 

I used half a teaspoon vanilla extract and half a teaspoon almond extract last time and they turned out great.

ENJOY!



Pin It

Peanut Butter Goodness!

Peanut Butter.  Yum!  What more do I need to say?  I have several delicious recipes that I am going to share over the coming week that will make you love peanut butter too.  Please feel free to leave a comment with more delicious peanut butter recipes! mmm!

There is a super cute cupcake and candy store here in OKC called Pinkitzel.  I admit that I may have eaten a few delicious cupcakes from this lovely store, but I always think that I can make them too- and for alot cheaper!  Just the other day, one of my good friends got a craving for a Peanut Butter Cupcake after trying one from this store.  I convinced her to let me make her some (yes, it was REALLY hard to convince her of that- haha!) and set off to find a recipe.

I ended up making German Chocolate cupcakes (yes, from a box) with Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing.  Since I did Wilton cake decorating classes, I like to use their recipes since I know they will be good for decorating.  It is delicious and went great with the chocolate cupcakes. 

The following recipe yields about 3 cups of icing.  I halfed the recipe and had more than enough icing for 12 cupcakes and a small cake.  ENJOY!!

Wilton Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

•1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
•1/3 cup butter
•3/4 cup peanut butter
•1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
•4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar, sifted
•4-6 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla.  Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well. Next, add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

 Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.


For a little added touch of peanut butter goodness, I cut a Reese Peanut Butter Cup into several pieces and stuck it into the icing on top.

Pin It

Candy Cane Cookies.

I know that Christmas has come and gone but I still wanted to share these wonderful, delicious treats that I made.  I used a recipe from a Company's Coming cookbook that I got as a wedding gift.  It is from Most Loved Treats.  I did a quick google search and found it online, including other similar recipes with other variations, so if you are interested, you can check them out here.  The second recipe is the same one I used, by Company's Coming.

Once you have made the dough, they suggest seperating it into two pieces, and colouring one of them red.  As you can see, I decided to use green as well, so seperated the dough into three pieces.

It took me a few tries to get the right amount of dough to roll out nice, and I even twisted them wrong the first few times.  Not that it still didn't work, but when I finally figured it out, it was much easier.  My first few cookies were also huge.  It was easier to roll out with more dough, but trust me that you should stick to the suggested 1 tsp. of each colour.  Roll out each colour and then pinch the edges together. 

Next twist the two rolls several times, and then shape into a candy cane.  Don't over complicate it like I did.  To start I tried to keep the bottom of the cookie flat- don't!  Here is what your cookie will look like with one twist...then do a bunch more!

I made red and white candy canes, green and white candy canes, and red and green candy canes.  So many options and everyone loved them.  Mmmm!

Bake at 350 F for 10 mins, cool and enjoy!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and is enjoying the new year so far! 

Pin It

Merry Christmas Sprinkled With Love!

I was very excited to receive the Kitchenaid Professional 5+ 5 quart stand mixer in metalic chrome colour from my parents for Christmas.  What a great gift that will keep on giving!  I can't wait to use it and to share my creations with all of you!

Since it is rather big and quite heavy, I sadly had to leave it at home. :(  I can't wait for the summer when I get to go home and use this wonderful new gift.  Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Pin It