Lemon Cupcakes

lemon cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago my friend asked me to make desserts for a bridal shower she was throwing for her sister. It was my first "catering job"...not counting my family's parties that are like a catering job in itself with 50+ people!

She was really open to whatever I felt like making but did request the chocolate mint macarons I make. I originally thought to make the ombre cake (like the one I made for fourth of July but with shades of green and white) but decided on cupcakes instead. This way she wouldn't have to bother with cutting and serving the cake.

The shower colors were green and white, so I found green cupcake liners and kept it simple with white buttercream frosting.  I found this super simple lemon cupcake recipe that I used...tried it out the week before the shower and it was husband approved. For the vanilla buttercream frosting I used an Ateco 866 tip. I bought this tip a while ago and have been wanting to try it out for some time now.  I honestly don't make cupcakes much and took the opportunity to try this tip out...and I loved it!  They look like little flowers on the top of the cupcake.  You just pipe the buttercream holding the tip just above the center of the cupcake and let the buttercream push out of the tip onto the cupcake.  Then you tap the bottom of the cupcake on the counter or the palm of your hand to get the buttercream to spread out more. The only difficult part it getting the buttercream to pipe out even so the middle is nice and centered onto the cupcake. At the decorate shop I found clear plastic cupcake containers just like you would find at the store. They were perfect for my first catering job...so 'professional'...well, I try. 

Carrot cupcakes

carrot cupcakes

Also for Easter I made some mini carrot cupcakes. With the Easter cookies, I kind of ran short on time and decided to take a little shortcut and use the betty crocker mix for make these cupcakes. Just didn't have enough energy to shred all those carrots...

However, I do like the mix too. It's very light and not too sweet. I frosted half the cupcakes with a whipped cream/cream cheese frosting (only frosted half because I actually prefer it without the frosting, but my husband would disagree). For the carrots I used the orange wilton tube icing (this tube frosting has come in handy for these little carrots and the beaks for the thankgiving turkey cupcakes). The tube icing is very stiff which is good for adding the little ridges for the carrots, but it is tough on my hand muscles. I just used a little bit of the cream cheese frosting and tinted it green for the stems.

I found cute stripped mini cupcake liners at World Market but I'm always a little disappointed when I bake up the cupcakes and can barely see the print on the liners anymore. Wish there was a trick to ensuring the print will show through...

These cupcakes were so simple and easy to make. Next time maybe I'll muster enough energy to try it all from scratch...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving came and went so fast and it's been so hectic since then I haven't  had a chance to post my Thanksgiving cupcakes until now! For turkey day I wanted to make these turkey decorated cupcakes I saw from the i-heart-baking blog. The challenge was to find candy corn after Halloween.  Luckily I found them at Winco still in the bins...so I could get just what I needed.  I made pumpkin cupcakes (adapted from Paula Deen's pumpkin bars) with cream cheese frosting. 

For the decorative base I piped the frosting with a size 16 ateco star tip. For the body I added cocoa powder to the cream cheese frosting, put a cupler in the piping bag without a tip and piped a little round circle about the size of a quarter. For the head I used yellow reese's pieces, edible marker for the eyes and, since I didn't have rainbow chip sprinkles, for the nose I piped a little orange beak with a size 3 wilton tip and orange wilton icing in the tube. The waddle is a heart sprinkle upside down. And of course for the feathers I used the candy corn. They turned out really cute and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  With Christmas just around the corner...let the Christmas baking begin!

Animal Cookies

 Shortbread cookies with royal icing

 Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Vegan vanilla cupcakes with soy buttercream frosting

For my little nephew's first birthday my sister chose a safari theme. So, I thought we could make little animal cookies. I have the little Noah's Ark animal cookie cutter set by Wilton and decided to make the giraffe, elephant, lion and zebra. For the cookies we piped yellow & orange for the giraffe, yellow & brown for the lion, blue & black for the elephant, and white & black for the zebra. While the base icing was still wet for the giraffe and zebra, we piped the spots/stripes, mane, eye, feet and tail. This allows for a smooth finish. For the lion and the elephant we let the base or body icing dry and set a little first before piping the rest of the details. My sister made the cupcakes and we just topped them with the little animal cookies. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and the little guy got to have his very own vegan cupcake to destroy!

Transformer Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I made these Transformer cupcakes for my husband's birthday. He loves Transformers and I found these little plastic rings at our local decorette shop. I made chocolate cupcakes and piped vanilla buttercream frosting with a star tip to add a little decorative touch. I found that when I pipe from the center outward I can get the stars closer together (of course I didn't figure that out until the last center one)...the one that got destroyed first with the candles. I'm of course the only one that would notice that though. He was very happy when he saw them and it was a great birthday treat.