Black Bottom Cupcakes

I had some bananas froze that I have been waiting to use for a while, so when I came across this recipe on Bakerella's website recently, I tried it that very day!  They are now long gone, but with more bananas in the freezer, I have a feeling I might get to enjoy them again soon.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
Source: Bakerella

Cream Cheese Mixture
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 small banana, pureed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

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S'Mores Cupcakes

Here is the third and final cupcake recipe from our Cupcake Party. 

If you have ever went camping with me, you know that I love to roast marshmallows over the fire.  Many of my friends joke that I would eat a whole bag by myself.  While they are exaggerating a little bit, I do love them, and every once and a while I enjoy making myself a Smore too.  When I saw this recipe with an actual marshmallow on top, I knew I had to try it.  Served warm, it is delicious and the marshmallow is so perfectly gooey!

S’mores Cupcakes
Source: adapted from Kevin & Amanda

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Sugar Cookie Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

When I was on my conquest to find some delicious cupcakes for my cupcake party, I came across the Vanilla Buttercream used by Georgetown Cupcakes from the show DC Cupcakes.  I new I wanted to try it, so I began searching for a white cupcake to pair it with.  When  I stumbled across a recipe for Sugar Cookie Cupcakes, I was very intrigued as I love sugar cookies.  After looking at the recipe, I decided that this was the cupcake that I was looking for to pair with this buttercream, and I was very pleased with the final product.  They tasted great together and I will definatley be using these recipes again in the near future! 

Sugar Cookie Cupcakes

Source: adapted from Baked Perfection

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups plain Greek yogurt

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake

If you checked out my last post, you know that I recently held a cupcake party.  This week I will be sharing three amazing recipes that I tried for the first time for this party.  My inspiration for the party was a post on Kevin & Amanda so it only seemed right to try a few of her cupcakes too.  I only recently found this amazing blog, so I hadn't tried any of her cupcake recipes yet.  I chose the S'More cupcake from her party, and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake that is one of her most popular posts...and now I know why!  The third cupcake I found on Baked Perfection while searching for something I thought would go good with a Vanilla Buttercream from DC Cupcakes.

These might just be my new favourite cupcake. When I took my first bite, I literally stopped and said "Wow." I was all by myself and all I wanted to do was tell someone how amazing they were. My husband has since had the same reaction. He usually tries to stay away from my baking in order to be 'healthy,' but he will be eating these until they are gone, and his reaction is priceless every time. Trust me that they are just THAT GOOD! Mmmmm!

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Ladies Night In: Cupcake Party!

I happened across the most amazing blog a few weeks back while revamping my blog.  It is called Kevin & Amanda and it has a little bit of everything on it including amazing recipes, photography and blogging tips, free fonts and so much more.  Oh, and her craft room is amazing and will be my inspiration when I can have a permanent crafting space!

I have tried a few of her recipes so far and am in love.  I will be sharing many of them in the coming weeks so stay tuned.  However, it was her post about her cupcake party that really got me excited!  Not only was it an evening to spend with friends, but they enjoyed tasting delicious cupcakes and each of them created a lovely cupcake inspired painting.  How much fun is that?!?  It reminded me so much of last spring in OKC when my friend Kristen and I enjoyed an evening of Wine & Canvas, recently renamed Wine & Palette.  We enjoyed an evening out at a restaurant in Bricktown including drink specials and step-by-step instructions for creating our own masterpiece to take home. 

We had a wonderful time and when I moved to Norfolk, I looked to see if they had anything similar.  Sadly, they do not, however, when I came across Kevin & Amanda's Cupcake Party post, I was inspired to create my own version of Wine and Canvas at home, with the help of Stephanie from All Artful.  Click on this link to view a tutorial on painting the cupcake with a class of milk.  It is wonderful!

Of course, a Cupcake Party would not be complete without a bunch of cupcakes to taste test!  I found three new recipes to try and was impressed with all of them.  My mouth is watering just thinking about them.  I will share the recipes I used in the coming week so make sure to check back!  Until then, enjoy these pictures of the most amazing flavours ever: 

Sugar Cookie Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

S'More Cupcakes 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes



  

Is your mouth watering yet?  I can best describe these cupcakes with words like "Wow," "Amazing," or "Heaven."  They are so good.  My husband tried the Cookie Dough one first and now that is all he wants.  Even though I tell him the others are good too, he thinks it is impossible to top the Cookie Dough cupcake!

Oh, and we had Cupcake Wine too!

Now, when I invited the ladies over for a cupcake party, they did not realize that it was also a painting party.  When they arrived to see my apartment set up as a mini art studio, some were excited, others were a little nervous, and probably a few thought I was crazy.  They were all troupers and played along, and I must admit, these ladies are pretty talented! 

I hooked my computer up to our TV and played the video from All Artful so that everyone could see and listen to Stephanie explain the painting step-by-step.  I made my painting prior to the party so that I knew the steps and could help my guests.  I also knew one of the ladies had to work and was going to arrive a little later so I started hers for her.  We replayed certain parts and pressed pause so that everyone had time to paint their picture and let the paint dry.

The ladies at work: 

It was funny how quiet it would get because everyone was concentrating so hard.

Here are our finished projects!  I love how everyones' paintings are similar yet different.  Great job ladies!

All of the ladies with our finished paintings.  Thanks so much to all of you for coming over and making the evening so great.  You ladies are awesome and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

(I told you they were talented!)

Are you interested in having your own Cupcake Painting Party?  You can easily host one with the help of All Artful and Kevin & Amanda.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment as I would love to help get you started!

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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!

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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.

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Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have been eyeing up lots of great pumpkin dessert ideas the last few weeks as today is American Thanksgiving.  I already got to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving before I moved to Oklahoma City, but I love a great excuse to do baking and cooking.  Plus, who doesn't love turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and more.  Mmmm...it sure smells good in my kitchen right now.  It is wonderful to have my parents visiting, and my Mom has definately been a great help in the kitchen today! 

So, for dessert I decided to do something we had never tried before.  I found a recipe for Pumpkin cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting that can be found here.  How fitting that it is from a Canadian magazine!  I didn't have buttermilk so I used a mixture of plain yogurt (about 1/3 cup) and 2% milk, to make a total of half a cup.

Here are some special pumpkin ingredients I picked up.

 How about these great pumpkin cupcake papers.  I brought them with me from home and was excited to finally get to use them.  They are very festive.

The recipe says that it makes 12 cupcakes, but it makes 12 BIG cupcakes.  This is the amount of batter that was in each wrapper. 

When baked they looked like this.  Mmmm....they smell delicious!

Next add some of the Cream Cheese icing and some Autumn Sprinkles.

Check out these delicious, pumpkin cupcakes!

Our Thanksgiving meal is almost ready!  I can't wait.

P.S- we of course had to have a taste test of the cupcakes and they are nummy.  Everyone likes them and the icing very much!

Happy American Thanksgiving to everyone!

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Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

I recently visited Pinkitzel located in Bricktown of Oklahoma City.  Check it out online at: http://www.pinkitzel.com/  It has a super cute interior and delicious cupcakes.  I must admit that this place has truely inspired me to get baking and creating once again.  Yesterday I spent many hours checking out great baking blogs and found delicious recipes that I just can't wait to try! 

So today I went and picked up some last minute ingredients and baked up a storm.  I chose a lemon cupcake with lemon frosting, and while they are pretty tasty, I found the lemon frosting a little overpowering so I will definately need to do a little tweaking to get it to perfection. 

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