Category Archives: Cakes

August 24, 2012 · 8:00 am

Fireball Frosting

This frosting is awesome.

Seriously awesome.

I used my regular buttercream recipe, but substituted 1/2 the vanilla for cinnamon oil. They’re just a tad spicy, but not too hot to finish the rest of the cupcake. Or 5 more after that.

I used it on plain white mini cupcakes here because I wanted the frosting to be the star. Not that it wouldn’t be anyway.

If you love cinnamon, you must get some cinnamon oil and flavor your life accordingly.

There will be more cinnamon to come soon, I promise you that.

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Tagged as buttercream, cinnamon, red

August 3, 2012 · 8:00 am

Dairy Free Cupcakes with Vegan Frosting

I made these cupcakes for Baby Jude’s 1st birthday!

Due to some dietary restrictions, his treat needed to be dairy free. I bake with milk and butter and all that good stuff usually, so I had to do some research to find a recipe that was able to be made dairy free.

What I found was the BEST THING EVER. A cupcake recipe that makes 2 cupcakes. I know what you’re thinking. Whaaaaaaaat!? And it was easy too. I have a feeling I will be coming back to thing recipe again very soon. Small batches = opportunity for experimentation. Like I did here.

Anyways, back to these cupcakes.

Dairy Free Cupcakes for Two – adapted from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:

1 egg white

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp melted vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup flour

heaping 1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tbsp coconut water

Directions:

1. In a bowl, whisk together egg white and sugar until combined.

2. Stir in melted butter and vanilla.

3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until completely combined.

4. Stir in the coconut water.

5. Divide equally between 2 cupcake liners in the center of the cupcake pan.

6. Preheat the oven to 350*. (Do not do this first, do this last. While the oven is preheating, the cupcake batter gets to rest in the liners which makes them rise more rounded and beautifully.)

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

**Note** This cake recipe can be flavored with anything you want. Substitute the vanilla for almond or lemon extract, or substitute some of the coconut water for pureed strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries.

Now for the frosting. I had never made vegan frosting before, but I was confident it wouldn’t be a problem. My regular buttercream recipe is very adaptable so I started there and ended up with something wonderful. We even had a taste test comparison and everyone said tasted the same. Awesome.

Easy Vegan Buttercream Frosting

(Enough to frost about 12 cupcakes.)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

12 oz powdered sugar (if you don’t have a scale, that’s almost 3 cups. Start at 2 and add at the end until it’s the right consistency.)

3 tbsp coconut water or non-dairy creamer

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

With a hand mixer or a stand mixer, mix together all ingredients until fully incorporated. If the mixture is too thin, add powdered sugar a little at a time until it reaches the right consistency.

**Note** This frosting can be flavored with anything you want. Substitute the vanilla for almond or lemon extract, or substitute some of the coconut water/non-dairy creamer for pureed strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries. If it gets to thin, add powdered sugar. If it gets too thick add more coconut water/non-dairy creamer. Easy!

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Tagged as cupcakes for 2, dairy-free, sprinkles, vegan

July 31, 2012 · 8:00 am

Yo Gabba Gabba Cake

Remember these cookies I made for a baby shower last year? Well this little guy just turned 1 on Saturday!!

His favorite thing is Yo Gabba Gabba, so naturally the parents went all out!

After much deliberation, we decided on one large cake for the guests, and one personal little cupcake for Baby Jude! It was his first time having sugar, and we had some dietary restrictions, so I made him a Dairy Free cupcake with Vegan Frosting… recipe will come later this week!

Without further ado, here is the cake I made for Jude!

On the sides of this tall cake I did each of the characters…

(oops we had a little cake accident next to Toodee up there..)

I surprised the parents and made the inside of the cake like a rainbow cake, but in the colors of each of the characters… the Brobee layer is even striped!

Poor little guy was exhausted after such a fun party!

In case you were wondering, yes there were a lot of colors on this cake!

Here is how I made the stripes for the green Brobee layer:

Pour a small amount of batter into the center of the pan. With the other color, pour a small amount of batter directly in the center of the pan again, right on top the first circle. Go back to the first color and do this again, right in the center of the circles. As you add more, the layers push out and create the above ringed affect. When you cut into the cake, you will see the vertical stripes! (This can be done with black and white or chocolate and vanilla to look like zebra stripes!)

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Tagged as birthday, blue, buttercream, green, orange, pink, rainbow, red, yellow

July 3, 2012 · 8:00 am

Snickers Cupcakes with Chocolate Rose Frosting

These cupcakes are life changing.

Life changing. Seriously.

I’m going to just get right into it.

Snickers Cupcakes with Chocolate Rose Frosting

cupcake ingredients:

1 box white cake + water, oil, and eggs called for

1/4 cup brown sugar

3-4 snickers bars

frosting ingredients:

1 stick of butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 tbsp + 1tsp milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 lb (16 oz) powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Cut snickers into small pieces, spread out on a glass plate, and put into the freezer for 30 minutes. This will keep them from melting when you bake the cupcakes.

2. Mix together the water, oil, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Slowly add the cake mix until fully combined, then add the eggs.

*For the record, I forgot the last part. Yup, I forgot eggs. They still came out great, but they kind of crumble apart as you try to eat it. Tells me that if you are vegan, you can make these without eggs and they’re still amazing!!**

3. Use a cookie scoop or a 1/4 cup to scoop batter into your cupcake liners.

4. Remove the snickers pieces from the freezer and shove a few into each cupcake.

5. Bake at 350* for 18-20 minutes.

Mine came out puffy but sank in a bit after cooling. I don’t know if this is because I forgot the eggs or if they will do that anyway, but I thought I would mention it just in case it happens to anyone else.

6. To make the frosting, mix together the butter and cocoa powder, adding the milk slowly to make a fudgy paste. Add the vanilla, then slowly mix in the powdered sugar.

This frosting is not too chocolaty, because the cupcake is really sweet and rich already.

I took a couple photos to show how I made the frosting roses. You basically start in the center and go around in a circle while squeezing out frosting. When you get to the outside, stop squeezing and pull to stretch the end of the rose.

The insides are gooey and rich, and absolutely perfect!

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Tagged as caramel, chocolate, snickers

May 18, 2012 · 8:00 am

Lemon and Strawberry Cake

I made this cake for Mother’s Day. Actually I made it twice, one for my mommy, and one for my mother-in-law.

(Sorry the lighting isn’t great in the second one!)

I made 6″ lemon cakes (with the help of my friend Betty), then whipped up some fresh strawberry buttercream. I basically make my standard buttercream, but substituted almost all of the milk for strawberry puree. I added the strawberry first, then slowly added milk a tablespoon at a time until it was the consistency I was looking for.

The picture above makes me happy.

(We’re still working on our kitchen, which is why the walls look funny. It’ll be done soon though, yay!)

Man… this cake was tasty.

Oh yeah and I threw in a middle layer of chopped up strawberries mixed with a few drops of puree and a pinch of sugar. Easy, fresh, and yummy!

After having the first piece at my mother-in-law’s for lunch, my first thought was that I wish I could have more… then I realized I would get another piece after dinner at my parents house that night. 🙂

It was loved by my family members that love sweets, as well as those who don’t care much for them. It was a perfect party cake for a small group.

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Tagged as buttercream, lemon, lemon cake, strawberry

May 1, 2012 · 8:00 am

Angel Food Cupcakes

My mommy’s birthday was last week and her favorite is angel food cake. Last year’s was a fun twist, but I wanted to do something different this time.

I don’t own a tube pan for baking angel food cake, so I had to get creative. I also had to do some research on angel food. Let’s learn a bit, shall we?

Angel food cake is mostly made of egg whites, which makes it uber light and fluffy. The tube pan ensures that the cake is heated equally from all sides at the same rate. The tube pan cannot be non-stick, as the cake needs to be able to cling to the sides as it rises. After it is baked, it has to be cooled upside down, or else the cake will collapse in on itself and the cake will not be as light and fluffy as possible. The cake has to be cut from the sides of the pan to be released, so a bundt pan cannot be used as it will be nearly impossible to remove from the pan.

Okay all details aside, I decided to try and make cupcakes. I was going to go paperless and then try to dry the cupcakes upside down… but when I got home and looked at the angel food cake mix (ahem, Betty Crocker) there was a cupcake recipe right on the side of the box! So I made them like regular cupcakes, and yes they did collapse a little, but they were still light and tasted amazing.

For the frosting I wanted something light (exnay on the uttercreambay) but I didn’t really want to do whipped cream because (don’t hate me) I don’t like whipped cream… So I decided to revisit this marshamllow frosting recipe I made a while back for these chocolate cupcakes.

It was the perfect light fluffy texture to go with the light fluffy cupcake. Top it with a couple pieces of strawberry and they were perfect!

Mom approved!

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Tagged as angel food cake, marshmallows, strawberry

April 17, 2012 · 8:00 am

Circus Birthday {Boy}

What are the chances? Two back-to-back circus birthdays for 2 year olds? One is for a boy and one is for a girl. You will see the girl’s circus birthday later this week.

I want to start by saying I LOVE the circus. I went every year as a kid. Even when I got older and didn’t yet have kids to take with me, I still loved to go. Oddly though, I don’t like clown stuff much. I don’t mind the actual clowns at the circus, but I don’t like clown dolls, pictures, figurines, etc. And I’ve never even seen It or Chuckie or anything scary. I don’t know, they just weird me out. Sometimes when I do to Chevy’s, there’s this clown there who makes balloons for the kids. She kinda creeps me out too. Maybe I just prefer a safe clown distance when they’re real.

Anyway, I didn’t make clown cookies. I didn’t have a good cutter… and what I was envisioning was not translating to paper well and not really “findable” through a google search. For some reason people think clowns in cookie form need to be wearing pointy party hats, although I’ve never seen a real-life clown wearing a party hat. Ever.

So I made circus tents. I found a few images through google search that I liked, but they were made with royal icing, so I had to adapt to my own style. Here is what I came up with:

I am SO in love with how they turned out!

We also did some #2’s for the 2-year old birthday boy.

I bagged them up to be favors, and attached these cute little tags the mama found. It’s hard to read in this pic but it says “Thank you for coming to my party.”

I also made cupcakes for this circus party. There were red yellow and blue striped cupcakes with cute little toppers…

…as well as a few balloon decorated cupcakes for a special display.

and here is a picture of the whole treat table!

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Filed under Cakes, Cookies

Tagged as birthday, blue, buttercream, circus, cookie favors, icing, red, sugar cookies, yellow

April 13, 2012 · 8:00 am

Homemade Funfetti, Take 3

This is my third attempt at homemade funfetti. The previous attempted were somewhat dry, and did not resemble the perfect moist texture of a boxed cake mix.

I decided to start with a recipe that was created to mock a boxed cake mix, Glory’s Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes. This cake recipe calls for “cake flour.” Now seeing as I don’t sift my flour or powdered sugar, or let my butter properly soften, we all know I’m not going to go to the store to get a specific kind of flour. Luckily, Amanda from iambaker has a recipe for making your own cake flour. The recipe also calls for buttermilk. For the reasons noted above, I am not using buttermilk. Good thing you can make that too.

Homemade Funfetti – recipe adapted from Glory’s Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp cornstarch

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp white vinegar (or lemon juice)

4 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Generously coat 2 8″ or 9″ cake pans with cooking spray.

2. Measure the flour into a small mixing bowl. Remove 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp of the flour and return to your flour bag/bin/container. Add the cornstarch to the flour in the mixing bowl and whisk together well.

3. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the flour mixture and whisk together.

4. Measure the milk into a glass or small bowl and add the vinegar. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.

5. With your mixer, beat eggs for about 30 seconds. Add sugar and mix well. Add oil and vanilla and mix.

6. Add about half of the flour mixture, and beat until fully incorporated. Then add about half of the milk. Repeat with the rest of the flour, and then the rest of the milk.

7. Quickly stir in the sprinkles by hand, then quickly split the batter between 2 8″ or 9″ pans.

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes. When cake is done, it should spring back to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. (Mine got a little over baked. It was still good but ended up being closer to a pound cake consistency rather than a boxed cake consistency.)

9. Let cool completely before removing from pans.

This cake was actually what I made for my final cake decorating class. So the outside is pretty too!

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Tagged as buttercream, funfetti, sprinkles

March 30, 2012 · 8:00 am

Rio (Parrot) Birthday

For a little guy’s 2nd birthday, the theme was Rio the movie. I’ve never seen it, but it’s about a blue parrot. Looks pretty cute, I need to add it to my Netflix queue.

I made Rio cookies, along with 2’s on little circles, and packaged them up similar to the bridges I did recently.

I also made parrot colored cupcakes… I used the same technique for these as the rainbow cupcakes I made here and here.

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Filed under Cakes, Cookies

Tagged as blue, buttercream, cookie favors, icing, parrot, red, sugar cookies, yellow

March 26, 2012 · 8:00 am

Lemonade Cupcakes

These babies are GOOD. Personally I think the best cupcakes I have ever made.

I like lemon. I love lemonade. It’s pretty standard that I order it wherever I go.

I saw these cute little mini cakes on Kristan’s [hilarious] blog Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. I knew lemonade was going to be somewhere in my near future.

I decided to go regular lemonade on this, because it’s my favorite. And sometimes you don’t want to mess with a good thing.

Lemonade Cupcakes – adapted from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

1 box vanilla or white cake mix (I like to use Betty Crocker. She’s my gal.)

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

3 eggs

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Mix 1 cup of the lemonade concentrate with the rest of the ingredients. 30 seconds on slow, scrape the bowl, then 2 minutes on medium.

2. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 the way.

3. Let batter sit in cupcake liners for about 10 minutes undisturbed. I always do this now when I make cupcakes. The tops bake more evenly (instead of looking like giant nipples when they come out of the oven.)

4. Bake at 350* for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Let cool completely before frosting.

Lemonade Frosting – adapted from my own buttercream recipe

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened or cut up into small pieces

1 lb powdered sugar

1 tbsp meringue powder

2 tbsp lemonade concentrate (you have plenty leftover from above)

5 tsp milk

1. Mix all ingredients together. It will be thick and weird at first, but trust me just keep mixing. Once all the powdered sugar is incorporated (we don’t want a snowstorm here) turn the mixer up to medium/high. It will get smooth.

2. Pipe on, or spread it on – it doesn’t matter. Whatever is faster for you so that you can pop one in your mouth as soon as possible.

Don’t forget to share!!!

The cupcakes below are the same recipe, but I colored the frostings for my cake decorating class.