Cupcake Decorating...It's just the beginning!

I am starting to get this whole cupcakes from scratch thing down, but now the real challenge is decorating them! So my blog today is dedicated to my hard work on decorating dozens of cupcakes in the past week. I'll being with the cupcake baking! I decided to be adventurous and make strawberry cupcakes, chocolate-mocha cupcakes, and chocolate peanut butter filled cupcakes. I must say, I will be making filled cupcakes again! What a treat!

Let's start with the strawberry cupcakes. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the mix. The challenge: using fresh fruit in the batter.

Pureed fresh strawberries

Finished strawberry cupcakes. Not bad, but not as light and fluffy as I would like.

Now for the main event! I took a cupcake decorating class and here is what I made. I can't wait to make more fun, creative cupcakes!

The beginning of the ducks! Donut holes and half a marshmallow to form the head and tail. Put in the freezer for about 10 minutes to set.

Finished ducks! Dipped in melted yellow icing. Tootsie rolls for the beak and mini M & M's or candy eyes.

Apples! Made by putting a small donut on top of the cupcake. Cover with red icing, roll in red sugar. The stem and leaf are tootsie rolls!

Mini pies! Cover in a light layer of icing, then colored M & M's.

The icing: mix white icing with cocoa powder and yellow food coloring. Put icing in a bag and use a star tip for the pie crust.

Garden cupcakes! Cover in icing and dip in cocoa powder. All of the veggies are made from tootsie rolls and M & M's!

  Butterflies. Made from chocolate designs that are chilled to set.

All of my cupcakes!

On to the chocolate cupcakkes filled with peanut butter!

24 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

5.4 ounces dark chocolate or 3/4 of a 200 gram bar of Valrhona 61% cocao
22 tablespoons butter (yes, nearly three sticks of butter!)
1-3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
4-1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

1. Melt chocolate and butter over a water bath.
2. Add sugar and stir, let mixture cool for 10 minutes.
3. Beat in an electric mixer for 3 minutes.
4. Add one egg at a time, mixing for 30 seconds between each
5. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and a pinch of salt into the mixture and mix until blended.
6. Scoop into cupcake cups and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate and butter. Yum.

The dry ingrediants.

Now for the peanut butter filling. (I could eat this with a spoon!)

4 ounces or 1/2 package of Philly cream cheese
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat cream cheese and peanut butter until combined.
2. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Add the milk and beat until combined.

**I added more milk so the filling wasn't stiff.

Carve out a cone shaped piece of the cupcake.

With a pastry bag, fill the hole with the peanut butter filling.

Cover with the cake piece. You can't even tell there was a hole!

Football themed cupcakes for Stone Cold's playoffs!

 So delicous! I will definitely be making filled cupcakes again!

That was a whole lot of cupcakes for one week! I had such a great time making them. Look for more to come because after taking the cupcake class, I ordered the book What's New Cupcake? 

I hope to continue my mixer adventures with something a little healthier next time!

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

What to make for an Easter morning treat? Back to baking, but not cake or cupcakes this time! Instead, I decided to make something the reminded me a lot of home, monkey bread! This was my first holiday not spent at home with my family, and although it was a fun, amazing day, I still needed a touch of something from home. My grandma used to always make monkey bread when I was younger, and then again when ever I came home on breaks from college.

Instead of looking online for a recipe, I decided to use the traditional one in my Mixer Bible recipe book. This was my first time make bread with yeast and I forgot that the whole process would take longer because yeast has to rise. I had planned to only spend 20 or so minutes on this, but the entire thing took about 2 hours. You bake and you learn! It was also my first time making bread dough!

The ingredients were simple enough!

Yeast, flour, sugar, egg, milk

My first bread dough!

The good part! Margarine, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Monkey balls rolled in the delicious, cinnamon mix.

The finished project! Covered in crushed pecans.

NOM!!

Even thought the Monkey Bread took longer than expected, it was worth it! It was fun to make and a delicious Easter morning treat. I also discovered later that night that warm Monkey Bread is even more delicious when you put of scope of ice cream on top of it :) I will definitely be making this again, along with other breads now that I have yeast experience.
I must say, I think my grandma would be proud!