CupKates

Grilled chicken caesar wraps

2011-11-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

Between trying to get all the suitcases put away, folding the massive pile of laundry (seriously y'all, I can't see my bed underneath it all), and starting in on the long list of holiday to-do's I need some quick, easy and healthy (anyone else trying to detox from last week?!) meals right now.

This is my go to dinner on the fly. Our version of take out or fast food.

Between baseball and small group and other weekly commitments we are often eating on the go. Either with less than 15 minutes to scarf it down, or getting home late and shoveling the food in before putting kids to bed.

As an advocate of the Slow Food movement and family meals I don't love that we do this. However it's not every night, we are having at least 4 family meals a week, and to a certain extent I think it's the phase of life we are in with school age children. It's hard work trying to balance activities and involvement with family time. One I most certainly do not have figured out yet!

All of the items necessary to make this can be made ahead of time and warmed up. I almost always make leftovers as this also makes a great lunch!

Ingredients:

2 grilled chicken breasts sliced on the bias

cooked brown rice*

5 cups shredded romaine

whole wheat tortillas (I get mine from Trader Joe's)

Brianna's asiago caesar dressing

*To make my brown rice I take 1 cup rice, 2 cups stock, a dash of olive oil and salt (about 1 teaspoon of each) and bring to a boil. Once it comes to a boil you put a lid on it and turn it to low and simmer for 40 minutes. Turn off and then let set 10 minutes before serving. If you're really in a rush Trader Joe's has microwavable bags of organic brown rice that cook in less than 10 minutes.

So really, once you cook the chicken and rice it's just assembly. I just grill my chicken on our gas grill until they hit 160 degrees with a digital thermometer. Take up and let them rest while covered for 5 minutes and then slice.

I put the rice down first, then a couple slices of chicken. I top mine more generously with lettuce than my husband chooses to and then top with the dressing.

You could do it with the chicken and rice being cold, but I prefer mine hot with cold lettuce. Just a nice contrast and holds my appeal whatever season it is.

Here's the thing about these...the dressing makes it. I typically make my own dressings, but this one is worth buying. First off, most good caesar dressing recipes call for an egg yolk and while I'm pretty liberal with the food standards while pregnant and nursing, that one won't fly. That and um, it's easy. This is the best caesar dressing I've tried, including at restaurants.

Fast, easy and healthy, what more could a mom ask for? Now you'll have a little more time to throw some tinsel on something or bake cupcakes for both your kids classes.

Bacon Apple Cheddar Stuffing

2011-11-05T12:07:00.001-07:00

Being the food nerd that I am, I often update my facebook status about what we are eating for dinner, or what I am cooking.

Not usually a ton of comments hit those but a lot of likes. So when I posted that I made balsamic grilled pork tenderloin, roasted sweet potatoes, salad and bcaon, apple, and cheddar stuffing and I got a plethora comments asking for the recipe, I thought it would be nice to give it to you.

I'm not sure how this recipe came about, other than I know I started out putting it inside a pork roast. But pork roasts are tricky to cook, not very quick and make for squishy stuffing. It's fall encapsulated in a dish to me.

I realize stuffing is a very polarizing subject. Cornbread vs bread, sausage or not, lots of sage or none...it's a very personal business often relating closely to what part of the country you are from. This being said, and while it may not be the case for all, I think this stuffing has mass appeal. First off, who doesn't like bacon? And not many people are currently putting bacon in their stuffing so it's different enough to be sort of like grandma's but just under par. It's part bread and part cornbread. And who doesn't like cheddar and apples? It's pretty much all-american. (on an unrelated side note, have you ever put cheddar or your apple pie? It's SO good! My husband disagrees and is repulsed by this act...but if salty/sweet is your thing, DO IT!)

This was such a big hit in our home my husband has requested it for Thanksgiving. I'd say it's a winner!

Ingredients:

1/2 package of bacon (or about 8 slices) diced)

1 small onion diced

4 cups loosely packed bread cubes (I've used three leftover hot dog buns or 4 dinner rolls for this recently) dried (left out over night or stuck in a 250 degree oven for 1/2 hour)

6 cornbread muffins, or 1/2 of a normal sized batch*

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 large apple or 2 small diced

1 cup packed freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 egg

1 teaspoon rubbed sage (a little more if you like it heavy on the sage)

salt and pepper to taste

First off, cooking is very loose. There aren't too many hard and fast recipes. The beauty of it is experimenting and customizing it to your tastes. If you think it's too much apple, cut back. Think celery would be a good addition (it would, but the hubs isn't crazy about it and I didn't have any), throw it in! I would encourage you to make it the directed way first unless you are quite comfortable in the kitchen and then notate your preferences for the future.

*I use White Lily cornbread mix. Not that healthy, but I love it and it turns out perfect each time. I follow the directions on the back. If I am making cornbread just for this I half the recipe. The recipe for half calls for 1 cup of the cornbread mix. You could use leftovers. If you're a little short no biggie you may just need to cut back on how much stock you add.

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan cook bacon on medium. It won't cook quite as fast, but that is good. We are rendering the fat which will get more fat out (for flavoring) and make the bacon crispier. Once the bacon begins to get crispy add the onion. Cook until the onion is just translucent. About 8 or so minutes.

While the bacon and onion are cooking crumble to cornbread into a large mixing bowl. Add bread cubes, apple, cheddar, sage and salt and pepper (I used about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper) and toss together. Once the onion and bacon are done toss those in. Add about 2 1/2 cups of stock (more or less if needed) to get to an oatmeal or grits like consistency.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and then add. Mix thoroughly.

Pour into greased baking pan and bake for about 1 hour at 350 on the bottom rack moving to the top rack for the last 15 minutes to brown the top. The cooking time is really iffy depending on what kind of dish you use. The more shallow it is the quicker it will cook. Mine was about 1 1/2 inches deep and took about an hour. Just use the toothpick test if unsure.

A quick keeping it real shot for you. I'm photographing by my sink (most light) which is filled with dishes and I still have Halloween candy buckets on my counter.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Pumpkin Bread

2011-10-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

I love fall and all of it's flavors. It's by far my favorite season, and I'm already salivating at the thought of pork tenderloin with bacon apple and cheddar stuffing that will hit my table at some point this week. Apples, pumpkin, pork, caramel, soups, braising...everything about fall screams comfort to me.

This time of year Trader Joe's releases their cans of organic pumpkin. This stuff is amazing. I have made pumpkin puree from scratch before, but I think this tastes better. The pumpkin has almost of a caramelized type flavor to it that give it extra depth. Apparently others think it's amazing as well because it sells out quickly. So when I walked into the store and they were setting up a brand new tower of the beautiful golden cans, I grabbed 8. Or 9. A lot. I had just used my last can from the year before so it was perfect timing. And 8 or 9 cans will not get me through this year, I full plan on restocking again at least once.

Part of the reason for that is because I make pumpkin bread about once a week during the fall. It freezes great, makes great little thank you gifts (way better than a note!), is easy to throw together, makes a good snack, lunch treat or breakfast and results in a heavenly bread pudding. This is one of those items like bananas that will never go to waste, there is always a use for it.

Pumpkin Bread

(adapted from Bon Apetit)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

2 cans Trader Joe's organic pumpkin puree

3/4 cup sugar (if you prefer a very sweet pumpkin bread make this 1 cup)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat over to 350. Spray pans with nonstick cooking spray ( I usually use a combination of 4 mini loaf pans, 1 muffin pan and 2 tin cans (directions below)

Beat pumpkin, brown sugar and sugar in mixer until combined. Gradually beat in oil, then eggs adding on at a time. Sift in baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and salt, mix until blended.

Add whole wheat flour, mixing until just combined then slowly add buttermilk. Once incorporated add all purpose flour. Once blended add to pans.

Bake until tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs. For me the muffins took about 17 minutes, and the breads about 1/2 and hour.

One of my favorite ways to bake these is in tin cans. Not only is it eco friendly, I remember my grandma doing this to be thrifty long before green was anything more than a color. I love using cooking tips and tricks and recipes from my grandmothers and remembering the wisdom they passed down.

You should have two tin cans laying around after using the pumpkin anyways, so might as well go ahead and use them. Make sure they are the type of can that is coating free. Rinse thoroughly and let dry. Then spray with oil. Fill just under 2/3 full. If you're paranoid about your oven getting dirty (I'm not as mine never stood a chance) place a sheet of aluminum foil underneath just in case the overflow. For me these took a little longer than the mini loaves, I would check every 5 minutes with a tester after 20 minutes.

Now depending on your can opener you may have a rough edge on the can. My can opener doesn't do this (Pampered Chef), so it's not an issue for me, but if yours does you may either want to get a new one since it's cheap and safer, or just file down the sharp edges. Or just not use this method since filing it down sounds like a pain.

The thing I like best about the tin can method is it's a super easy and cute thank you or hostess gift. Either grab some cellophane or one of those clear plastic treat baggies they sell at all the craft stores for parties. Wrap it over the tin can (or slip it in the bag) and tie it with some cute ribbon or raffia, throw on a tag and you're good to go. This would be a great teacher gift around the holidays with a gift card attached.

Salted Caramel Spread

2011-10-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

We went apple picking last weekend.

It was wonderful, to head to the mountains and just have a fun day with the family. To say we've been busy is a bit of an understatement so it was a special time to get away and play.

After coming home with several bags of apples (about half of which were Honeycrisp, our fav!) I wanted to make something that would make the apples a bit more indulgent while still eating them raw.

Most people would probably run to the store and buy the caramel dip, but I didn't want to run to the store and I know how easy caramel is to make....plus I'd seen the recipe for this salted caramel spread on Pinterest and knew I had to try it.

It was ridiculous, and everything I had hoped it would be. Plus a little goes along way, and it makes a fair amount so I actually still have a whole jar in the fridge. I plan on making several large batches of this around the holidays for teachers, friends, coaches, etc.

The beauty of it is it's versatility. You can use it as a dip for apples and other fruit, to drizzle in hot chocolate, swirled in an apple pie, mixed into buttercream or whipped cream, dotted onto an apple crisp or tossed with freshly popped popcorn. The possibilities are endless.

Salted Caramel Spread

(adapted from Kathrin Koschitzki as featured on Design*Sponge)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups sugar

3 1/2 Tablespoons water

2 sticks + 1 Tablespoon butter cut into small pieces

3/4 teaspoon salt

Just over 1/2 cup warmed heavy cream but not quite 2/3 cup

2 tablespoons corn syrup

Directions:

Place sugar, water and corn syrup in saucepan stire to combine then cook on medium low heat until amber in color (this doesn't have to be stressful, golden brownish color is what you're looking for, no thermometer necessary, just DON'T TOUCH IT after the initial mix).

Reduce heat to low and slowly add the butter while stirring. The mixture is VERY hot so be careful while stirring and maybe even step buck as the butter will sizzle some.

Add the salt and cook an additional two minutes.

Remove from heat and slowly stir in the warmed cream. Mix until just combined.

It will initially be more sauce like than spread like, but thickens upon cooling. Let cool a bit and then pour into jars and store in the refrigerator. Mine filled about 3 smaller mason jars.

Cupcakes I've been cooking

2011-10-12T07:38:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the cupcakes I've been baking recently.

Double Vanilla Hungry Caterpillar

Double Vanilla for a baby shower

Chocolate mini cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Mini Chocolate Guinness stout cupcakes with Bailey's buttercream

Chicken and Dumplings

2011-09-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today is the first rainy and cool day of fall.

Plus I sent off my baby boy to preschool for the first time ever.

And I don't feel good.

The day calls for comfort food.

However, with figuring out two school schedules, pick up and drop off times, parent meetings and a 6 month olds nap schedule I didn't exactly have all day to spend boiling a chicken, shredding it, making dumplings and throwing it all back together.

But I wanted chicken and dumplings.

I've had this problem often. Particularly when I'm sick. I cook myself sick food, so I've had to learn some shortcuts.

No chicken boiling required.

Every time I go grocery shopping I grab a rotisserie chicken. I shred it up and divide it into two or three bags and throw them in the freezer. I can pull off about a 10 minute dinner if need be with one of these. Maybe sometime soon I'll do a "what you can use it for" post.

I know most people will argue homemade chicken stock is so much better, and generally, I concede. But I promise you, your family will never know on this one. Store bought stock is where it's at, but not just any. Kitchen Basics low sodium chicken stock. It's in a yellow box. Available at Whole Foods, Publix and Walmart for sure. Usually on the very top or bottom shelf.

I don't really do exact recipes, I'll be exact as possible for y'all, but essentially, this is what I do:

Lay out shredded chicken to thaw (about 1 cup, more if you like it heavy on the chicken)

dice up 3-5 carrots (depending on how much carrot you like)

1 stalk of diced celery (if you have it, I didn't today, no biggie)

1 small onion diced

Throw those in the pot you plan to use with a little olive oil (or butter) and saute until partially cooked, about 5-10 minutes.

While it's sauteing grab

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup buttermilk (or just under 1/2 cup whole milk and add a tablespoon or so of vinegar)

2 cups flour (I actually used white whole wheat today)

Pulse in your food processor (or you can hand cut it in) until a ball forms adding more milk if necessary.

Add about a carton and a half of stock to your veggies and let it heat up while you roll out the dumplings

Dust a pice of waxed or parchment paper with flour, grab your rolling pin and roll out the dumpling dough. It need not be pretty, and thickness doesn't really matter, but thinner will cook quicker. I use a pizza cutter to cut mine quickly. I like my squares bite size for the kiddos so that's how I cut them.

Add them one at a time to the stock mixing every so often. Add the chicken. Let it simmer for an hour or so stirring every so often.

Serve with cornbread. And honey. Because my mother in law did.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I promise it's good. And only involves about 1/2 hour prep time.

Hot Fudge Sauce

2011-08-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

Some moms are great with crafts, some are great letting their kids go crazy outdoors, some will read for hours, my specialty lies in the kitchen.

My kids have been breaking eggs since age 2 and dumping and mixing like pros. My oldest (6) is both knowledgeable enough and safe enough to stand at the stove and stir something for me if need be. He's even starting in on some very basic knife skills.

The last week of summer we came up with all kinds of fun stuff we wanted to make in the kitchen together. Homemade bread, handshaken butter, homemade drumsticks (cone and all!) and some of their dinner favorites.

One night that week we had planned a night out for special treats but something came up and we were unable to head out. I needed something fun, easy and fast. In stepped in this handy go to recipe for hot fudge sauce. Seriously, it took 5 minutes or less and we were able to use it in a couple different ways. It even stays good in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli dark), 1 can sweetened condensed milk and 4 tablespoons butter

Throw it all in a pan and heat while stirring until....

it looks like this

Couldn't resist a pic of my sweetest helper

The boys wanted theirs in milkshake form. Hot fudge, couple scoops of ice cream and milk

I went more classic with a sundae and started by adding a little salty, just crushed salted peanuts.

The the husband in all his brilliance kicked it up by adding sliced bananas. It may not sound amazing, but I promise it was divine. Not that the pictures would show it. I do most of my cooking in the evening which does not lend itself to good food photos. I promise you thought it was delish.

This would also be an easy gift thrown in a mason jar and topped with some cute fabric and rafia or ribbon.

I got voted into awesome mom status with this. Hopefully you will be equally adored by whomever you choose to bestow this on.

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

2011-08-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Finally, after much delay....I'm sharing my chocolate cupcake recipe.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it can be easily halved, so at the end I'll give you the recipe which usually puts out about 28-30 cupcakes or the one that does about 14. Because all those extra cupcakes sitting around can be bad for a girl.

My ingredients of choice. Sorry midwesterners but the White Lily flour may be inaccessible to you. Although you're getting more and more restaurants who serve sweet tea, so who knows...maybe you'll get lucky. In case not, I would go for King Arthur all purpose flour. It does make a difference.

The rest of the characters are easily interchangeable except the vanilla. I really like Trader Joe's Pure Bourbon Vanilla, mainly because I think they have the best price on a great product. Whatever you do don't get the imitation vanilla. It's not good. And you will thank me later when I eventually post my buttercream recipe in which quality products is key.

Everyone simmering. When I say heaping, I mean as much as you can possibly fit on the spoon.

Then add it to the flour and sugar mixture waiting for you in your mixer. I usually measure it out while waiting for the water to simmer.

The whole shebang all mixed and waiting for it's cupcake liner home.

The final product waiting for some buttercream. Pardon my well used muffin tins. They've been around.

These are some of my favorite substitutions. This particular batch actually had the Guinness substituted for the water as they went on to be Chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's buttercream. I will often sub the coffee or Guinness for the water (using equal measurements).

The Reese's and the Oreos I add to the cupcakes once in the liners. I usually use a miniature peanut butter cup, or cut a full one in half. For both the peanut butter cups and Oreos I fill the cupcake liners half full, add either then add just enough batter to cover. If you're being less lazy than I usually am and want your peanut butter cup precisely in the middle of your cupcake you can bake the cupcakes about 4 minutes then add the cup pushing down lightly then continuing to bake. Sometimes the filled cupcakes require an additional minute or two of baking time.

I usually tell when my cupcakes are perfectly done by lightly pressing on the tops. If they spring back (and don't sink in) they are done. In my oven 12 minutes at 2/3 full liners is perfect, but keep an eye out and check at 11 minutes. The quickest and easiest way to kill a good cake or cupcake is by over-baking.

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe (about 30):

Amounts for half batch (about 14) in parenthesis.

2 cups flour (1 cup flour)

2 cups sugar (1 cup sugar)

1/2 teaspoon salt (1/4 tsp salt)

2 sticks butter (1 stick butter)

4 heaping tablespoons cocoa (2 TBS cocoa)

1 cup boiling water (1/2 cup water)

1/2 cup sour cream (1/4 cup sour cream)

2 eggs (1 egg)

1 teaspoon baking soda (1/2 tsp baking soda)

1 teaspoon vanilla (1/2 tsp vanilla)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place water (or other liquid substitutions) in a small saucepan and bring to a light boil. Add butter and cocoa to water and stir to combine. While still stirring bring back to a light boil then remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar and salt. With the mixer on slowly add water and cocoa mixture. Mix until combined.

While still mixing add sour cream, when fully incorporated add eggs one at a time. Add baking soda and vanilla and mix until just combined.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 12 minutes.

So there ya go. Chocolate cupcakes, how I make them, and the tips I've learned along the way. I feel like I have a lot of good tips I've learned from baking and cooking. Especially as a mom of 3 who has the impossible task of both making something my kids will eat and exposing them to new cuisine, tastes, and flavors.

It's hard work to figure out the cooking and baking world on your own, and I've spent about 10 years doing just that. So I'm going to try to add a new element to this blog, and my "work". If you have a question, post it. I don't always catch every post on here, so feel free to email me or post on CupKates facebook page (where I get email updates on postings) and I'll get back to you. I might not know all the answers, but I'd love to try and help.

I'm also going to start trying to post some of the recipes I make for dinner, and my meal plans for the week. Sometimes it will be something I just threw together, and others it will be recipes I tried and tweaked (which lets be honest is most of where "new" recipes come from now days anyways. There is nothing new under the sun...). I also have lots of shortcuts I'll share that I have found make my life easier while trying to make things that are as healthy and natural as possible.

So that's where we're headed on here. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Chocolate or Vanilla?

2011-07-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

Of course I've been making cupcakes. But I also have some other desserts I've been making and playing with that I look forward to sharing with you soon. For now here is a glimpse at what I've been up to:

My sons bubble themed three year old birthday party

They were double vanilla bubblegum cupcakes

Baby shower cupcakes. Sorry for the horrible pics, the lighting was impossible

These were coconut cream (with pink tinted coconut) and raspberry almond with chocolate frosting

More baby shower goodness, and a new flavor. The ones with chocolate frosting and pink dots are the raspberry almond (one of the most popular flavor in case you haven't noticed), the yellow dotted ones are double lemon and the ones in the cute little cups with black stuff sprinkled on top are....earl grey cupcakes with honey buttercream.

Mind you I'm a tea person. Not just that, I'm an earl grey person. A cup about every morning, even in the summer. So I do have a bit of partiality, but seriously...these were so. stinking. good. Like I would eat them for breakfast without shame.

So I recently put up a post on my facebook site (become a fan if you aren't...I do giveaways, more pictures and interaction there) asking if anyone would be interested in my recipes for making their own CupKates. There were quite a few interested and with my lightening up on orders (although I'm itching for a few more for fall...I will have two boys in school and will need a distraction!) and many fans in other parts of the country (mainly STL, woot woot!) I thought I would aid in your own cupcake creations.

Almost all of my cupcakes are either vanilla based or chocolate based. Meaning if you have a strong basic recipe for either of those all you have to do is get creative to come up with new cupcakes. So for example my Guinness and Bailey's cupcake (chocolate cupcake made with Guinness topped with Bailey's buttercream) is a chocolate cupcake with the Guinness beer substituted for the water it typically calls for. To make my snickerdoodle cupcake all I do is add cinnamon to my vanilla cupcake recipe. Make sense?

Great. So I'm going to get together the recipe basics and their deviations. Now the only question is which to start with, chocolate or vanilla?

Update and CakePops

2011-06-17T11:07:00.001-07:00

Well I've been busy making cupcakes and keeping up with three kiddos. It's been so nice to have more time with the kidders and not feel so stressed. I love summer schedules!

I have lots of cupcakes to update on with more to come, so here is a just a glimpse at what I've been up to.

Rede Velvet popcorn themed cupcakes for a "She's about to pop" themed shower. So cute. Sorry for the poor iPhone pic

Cupcakes gift box. Can be made with any flavor, but these were double vanilla. These were made as end of the year teachers gifts.

Cupcakes favors in vanilla with chocolate cream cheese frosting. Made to match wedding/shower colors.

So there is a quick glimpse with more to come.

If you are interested in ordering, don't forget to defer to the previous post for what I am/am not doing right now. I think I'm open for accepting larger orders again come September.

I've been asked a couple of times about cakepops. I wanted to explain why I prefer not to do those.

The main reason I started CupKates was because I was tired of having mediocre cake that I knew was made with ingredients that were really bad for me. If i do say so myself I think my cupcakes are some of the best I've tasted (and yes I do check out the "competition" from time to time : ). Not only that, but I don't put hydrogenated oils, or high fructose corn syrup in anything I make. Even when it comes to toppings or additions I try to use something I would be ok with my kids eating . I won't go so far as to say my cupcakes are healthy, but if you're going to eat a cupcake, mine are on the healthier side. I make all organic cupcakes for an additional charge, and am starting to experiment with different sweeteners like agave and sucanet.

That said, cakepops are dipped in a "candy coating" which is made up mostly of hydrogenated oils and food coloring. It's not something I'm ok with giving to my family, so I would prefer not to sell it to the masses as well.

That said, they are cute, I just don't make them.

Silly that the cupcake girl is taking a stance for health, but that's how I roll. Thanks for understanding!

What I've Been Up To

2011-03-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

In the past few months we've been consumed by all things baby. First we got her room done:

Which was quite the process as we decided to redo all the furniture, meaning it all was repainted by my wonderful husband. I worked on the things I could (namely not that with lots of fumes-the painting) like the artwork, and reupholstering the rocking chair and making the pillow. As well as making sure our daughter had a plethora of bows ready to go (see below).

And for the last few weeks we've got to enjoy of the girly sweet wonderfulness that her arrival has brought.

EvaKate Liana was born on February 15 and weighed 7 pounds 4 oz and was 19 inches long.

Now that we've gotten a taste for what being a family of 5 is like, and her temperament, I feel like I'm in a better place to determine what I want to do with CupKates.

Admittedly, (and maybe this is the post baby hormones talking) I've wanted to do nothing but spend a ton of time with my kids feeling extra sensitive to how quickly this parenting little ones is passing by.

That combined with baseball season (the highlight of my oldests year) and being heavily involved with our church and I've seriously questioned shutting the business down.

As much as I love doing this, I know I will never regret giving more time to parenting well. That said, I know in a few years when all of my kids are in school and I have more time on my hands, I think I would regret that decision. So I've been trying to come up with a happy compromise where I get to spend more time with the family and am not as busy as I was before the baby and get to keep the business going.

And here is where I think I'm at, and what I'm going to try at least through the summer:

-I'll take orders that are 100 or less

-Cupcakes only, for now no more cookies or pies

-I'll probably only take one or two orders per weekend (depending on the size)

-All orders must be picked up Friday (this will allow us to have one family day a week on Saturday, which is very important to us)

-No weddings through August at the least

That's where I'm starting. Some of this may change as I still figure out what will work best for me and my family, thanks for being co-operative and understanding!

I've been asked about March availability, and I'm going to not take any orders until April.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Final 2010 Wedding and Maternity Leave

2010-12-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

I finished my last wedding of the season, and am officially putting myself on maternity leave. As much as I love my job I'm breathing a bit of a sigh of relief.

I think it's the fact that we decided to refinish all the nursery furniture (on top of painting the room and making the curtains and bed skirt and recovering a chair) and the amount of time that is taking combined with the lack of weather co-operation. And the fact that standing on my feet more than two hours at a time makes them start to go numb that is helping breathe a bit easier being able to focus on her room and Christmas.

So here are the pictures of the last wedding I did.

120 key lime pies

120 mini chocolate guinness cupcakes with Bailey's frosting

120 mini pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

A few details as far as future booking goes:

I will be on maternity leave until at the least the end of March
I won't be taking any bookings until then (since I won't really know the temperament of my new child so I won't be able to anticipate how much I can handle with her addition). As big of an inconvenience as it may be, this includes weddings.
I will post on the blog and on facebook as soon as I am open to booking again.
Even though I won't be making bookings, I am happy to respond to emails and phone calls providing you with all the information you may need in order to make a decision.

I plan on occasionally updating the blog and facebook during this time and will respond to all correspondence, just more than likely at a slower pace than usual.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to email.

Sugar Cookies

2010-12-14T06:34:00.001-08:00

So I really was thinking through how I was going to do a step by step video post for y'all on how to decorate christmas cookies, then after checking several of my favorite blogs as the cookie season rolled around, I realized it would be a bit of a waste.

These tutorials are probably better than anything I would have done (being new at it), so I figured I would give you my recipes and tricks and then direct you to their sites for more guidance.

Here is the biggest tip I can give you ahead of time...I make sugar cookies in at least a two day process, some times three. Not only does this make it less stressful, but I feel the process produces more fool proof cookies. So before you decide to jump head first, consider instead of making it a whole one day process taking an hour or so over three days to make these cookies.

Here is what my timeline usually looks like:

Day 1- make cookie dough, refrigerate

Days 2- roll out and cut out cookie dough, refrigerate

Day 3- bake and frost (admittedly if I'm doing 200+ cookies these get split up into separate days as well)

Sugar Cookie Recipe

¾ cups Butter
1 cup White Sugar
2 whole Eggs
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine room temperature butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and combine.

In a separate bowl, blend together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Slowly add dry ingredients into wet batter until fully incorporated.

Drop dough onto a large piece (or two) of saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to roll out the cookies, generously flour a flat surface and roll out the dough to desired thickness (I like mine on the thicker side). You can use as much flour as you need! Side note: with other recipes I used powdered sugar to roll out on, but with this one I find the flour works best.

For best results, bake on silpat or parchment paper or well oiled cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes. You want to remove from the oven before the edges brown at all. Let sit about a minute or two before taking up from the cookie sheet, if they start to break, let them sit longer. I recommend using a metal spatula.

After I roll out the cookie dough and cut it out into the shapes I want I place them in a tupperware container lined with parchment or waxed paper and stack them in the container and refrigerate as long as I need to, usually over night. When ready to bake I simply place on the cookie sheet. If you're producing lots of cookies, or doing it with kids this usually make life much more simple.

After the cookies have cooled and you've gotten the flour off your shirt, apron, pants, floor, cabinets and sink you are ready to make the frosting. What, am I the only one that cooks messy?

I'll be straight with y'all, if you're going for taste (and most baking with kids is usually more about that) I would stay away from the royal icing and go with buttercream. One of the tastiest and easiest Christmas cookies I'll make is to make small sugar cookie circles, take buttercream and place it in the middle of two, slightly squeeze together and roll the edges of icing peeking out in Christmas sprinkles (sometimes I just mix red and green sanding sugar together for this). These will transport fairly well.

The other option is to just spread buttercream on top and cover with sprinkles. These will get messed up if touched so they are a bit more precarious for travel.

If you are interested here is a very general vanilla buttercream recipe (general because I can't give away my exact secrets!): 2 sticks room temperature butter, powdered sugar (2-4 cups depending on how sweet you like it), vanilla and salt. Blend butter and sugar first and then add other ingredients.

Now that I've given you the tasty easy way let's move on to the more involved but oh so pretty method:

Royal Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon powdered egg whites (also called meringue powder, can be found at places like Hobby Lobby and Michael's, but take you 40% off coupon as the smaller containers will run you about $8 before hand. While it may be an upfront investment it lasts forever and really is the secret to safe, well made royal icing)
3 tablespoons warm water (guesstimate, may need more or less depending on humidity)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring

Lightly blend sugar and meringue powder together. With mixer on slowly add vanilla and almond flavorings, then slowly add warm water.

Remember the more you mix the wetter the mixture will become so always start with less liquid and add more. Also remember if you plan on adding food coloring (even gel ones) those will add moisture to the frosting later on that will make it more liquid.

Once you think you are close to the desired consistency crank up your mixer and whip away. For at least 5 minutes. You can add more water at this point if you think it needs it, then mix some more.

This is a great blog for showing you the proper consistency the frosting needs to be.

I typically make the thicker outlining frosting first because I can always add more water to that and use it to flood the cookies. I love getting away with only using one large bowl. I then divide up the amount I think I'll need into smaller bowls and mix in the coloring I want. When I'm ready to make it into flooding icing I just add a little bit of warm water at a time.

A few more tips:

Don't forget royal icing dries VERY quickly! Always keep it covered (even your frosting tips, a damp paper towel works well for this). I even rinse my beaters off right after I'm done making it so I don't have cement on my hands later. If you forget, a long soak in hot water usually does the trick.
This requires a steady hand which is typically learned over time. While you are in the learning process a damp (not wet or it will mess up the icing) finger tip can smooth out quite a bit.
Keep your tip clean. This helps to make those clean lines.

If y'all have any questions before hand, or while you are in the process of making these, feel free to post them on the facebook wall or in the comments section and I will answer them as quickly as possible. Good luck!

Beach Wedding

2010-10-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

I got to do my first destination wedding.

An excuse to go to the beach, in October....count me IN!

Admittedly transportation and finishing touches ended up being a bit more time consuming that I had originally planned, but thankfully the husband and I had planned to spend the night in Savannah so I got a little extra rest, kiddo free. And he makes a great sous chef when need be.

Did I mention we used the wedding as an excuse for a babymoon?

*Tangent* I never really got babymoons, or even date nights before or after our first. We could make all the time we needed to get whatever we wanted done, or have our own little date night after bedtime. All that changed after two. No more co-ordinating naps (or naps at all sometimes!), sleeping in, or checking every thing off our to-do list, and especially no time for after hours date night. After bedtime is now used to work on the to-do list, and date nights only happen when grandparents come in town or we hire a babysitter. Which we try to do often for our own sanity.

All that to say, if you're about to have your second, rock out the babymoon and start saving for a date night fund. Mom and Dad time makes everyone so much happier!

*Tangent Over*

Peanut Butter Cups. I wanted to do chocolate curls to make it a bit fancier (since chocolate sprinkles don't scream "wedding" to me). Hubs did a fantastic job or expertly placing these while I tried to crank out the rest of the frosting at 1am.

The only specification the bride had was lemon. She didn't care what, just lemon. Thankfully I did her wedding shower and made key lime pies, I told her I could do a lemon version of those and she was sold. This tower is the lemon pies with whipped cream and double vanilla cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Cups and Double Vanilla.

The dessert table.

So admittedly, the key lime pie recipe I mentioned earlier isn't mine. The first time I made key lime pie it turned out so perfect I couldn't think of anything to change, so it's my go to recipe. And I've given it to y'all before here. To make the lemon version, you essentially use the same recipe, but I would do just over 1/2 cup of lemon juice instead of 2/3, especially is you're using the fresh stuff. Lemon is a bit sour than I find lime to be so I dialed it back. It doesn't effect the recipe at all.

After the last post I heard back from several of y'all interested in the sugar cookie information. I'm for sure going to give y'all my recipe and tips, and I'm even contemplating doing a video instructional to go along with it, probably focusing on icing because that's the more tedious part. We'll see how the month goes though : )

At the latest I hope to have that up by early December.

I'm also about 95% sure that my last week of orders will be the week before Christmas, so if you're considering placing a holiday order (for Christmas, parties, Thanksgiving, or cookies) contact me SOON. There will be very limited availability. There may be one or two weekends I'm willing to exceed my 100 count limit as well. On cupcakes, not sugar cookies- those things take too much time : )

A wedding and the scoop on ordering. Thank y'all again for your flexibility and continued loyalty! I can't tell you how hard it has been to tell some of you no. And admittedly, some of you I haven't been able to say it to yet. Oh well, I'm transitioning into maternity leave, right?

Thanks!

2010-10-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding! I've had quite a few questions about the parameters of my "stepping back". The short answer would be, just email me. There are lots of unique circumstances that several of you have proposed and really it all depends on how crazy my week is.

Our baseball season just ended as well so I have a bit more free time to fit things in. Weekday orders will also be the easiest for me to say yes to.

I don't think I will be completely shutting things down until sometimes in January.

Hopefully that answers a few basic questions for y'all.

Despite not taking as many orders for the future, I've still been quite busy fulfilling orders already in place. I've had two weddings in the last two weeks that I've done that I'm looking forward to sharing with you.

This one was for a fall wedding outside of Atlanta. They had several people coming in from out of town and wanted something to put in the hotel rooms to greet people as they arrived.

These are the cookies all bagged and tagged ready to go.

These are the autumn leaf cookies before being bagged up. Maybe it's my love for fall, but I adore these cookies and the different color combinations (I had several more not pictured) turned out really pretty and added a fun dimension.

When I put these up on my facebook page I had several people ask how I get the icing so smooth. Basically I use royal icing, and make sure to have the right consistency.

I'm not sure I have time to do a video, but would y'all be interested in written directions and recipes for the cookies and royal icing to get you ready for the holidays?

Getting Real

2010-09-20T08:20:00.001-07:00

It's always hard to know how much personal to share on business oriented blogs, and how much to hold back. I'll be honest though, I generally just lay it out there. I say what I think (often to a fault) and believe in being real. I don't do much fake.

That being who I am, I'm just going to put some of who I am and where I'm at on here and hopefully not offend too many people in the process.

Life is changing for the Kelly family right now. Not only are we adding a baby girl to our numbers but my oldest son has started kindergarten. Honestly that's been a pretty rough transition in of itself for him and for us and we're still working through a lot of it.

We have also been following God and where we feel He has us. Right now that is to a new Acts 29 church plant called Emmaus Church. In the process of really praying for what God has for our lives through some crazy chain of events, my husband is currently leading worship each week at this church plant. On top of his 50 hour a week full time job and assistant coaching baseball.

We are really excited about what God is doing in our lives right now, but once you add baseball games and practice, a molar cutting two year old, cupcakes and one tired mama it makes for a pretty crazy mix.

When I first started this business a year and a half ago I was looking for ways I could best serve my family. At that point one of the biggest ways I could serve was to help bring in extra income. God graciously allowed the opportunity (literally, I was asked by someone) for the start of CupKates. It was perfect timing and was a way I could serve my family while still doing what I felt was my primary calling.

I've often been asked if I would ever open up an actual store front, and unless life throws any crazy changes my way the answer will be no. While I love my job, it's not where I feel called in life. I've always felt called to ministry and eventually hope that can be my full time (although potentially unpaid) job. Right now my main ministry is my family and hopefully raising children that love Jesus and want to serve Him. I try to serve in our church as much as time will allow, and have lots of areas that I'm passionate about, mainly teaching.

All that said, times are changing. While a few years ago the biggest way I could serve my family was financially, right now it's with time. My oldest needs all the love and attention I can give him when he is home from school. My husband who is amazing around the house and has always helped clean, do laundry and watch kiddos while I kept up with cupcake orders now has more demands on his time. Not only can he not do as much as he previously could, there are lots of ways I can help him in order to allow him more time to be with our family instead of working.

And that is what I'm feeling I need to do. Give our family more time.

I have a few weddings the remainder of the fall and no more bookings after that. I for sure will not be taking on any more weddings until at the earliest May (an even then we'll see where life has us). Other than that, I'm not entirely sure. I'd love to give more specific details, but I think it will just depend on the week and where we're at. If it's been a low key week without much drama then I'll be able to take the time to do orders. If it's a week where we've been going nonstop and I'm having to schedule pick up times in half hour increments because of my crazy schedule, I won't be taking orders for that weekend. Y'all will probably be hearing "no" a lot more.

I also don't think I'm going to be doing any large orders (like over 100).

All of this will be reevaluated come this spring and I may very well be back in full fledged cupcake mode (for the sake of supporting my desire to buy baby girl all the pretty things out there!). But for now, what I and my family need most is time and rest and cupcakes are making that a bit difficult.

That was a lot of me you just got : )

I still have lots of cupcakes to blog about and will blog about the weddings as well. I also hope to get some more recipes up for y'all in the coming months. Something fewer cupcakes will allow me the time to do!

Here are some cupcakes and cookies I did for a wedding shower a few weeks back:

These are caramel apple cupcakes (cinnamon apple cupcake with dulche de leche frosting)

I forgot to take pictures of them in the box before I packaged them up so these are actually the "mess-ups". They still taste great though!

These are monogrammed sugar cookies with tags on them that say "thanks"

These were actually a new request for me. Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting. I had never made chocolate cream cheese frosting before, I'm not sure why. As soon as I tasted them though I was kicking myself for having thought of it myself, they were amazing! I'm not normally the biggest fan of cream cheese frosting, but add the chocolate...goodnight they're delicious!

Originally when I thought of writing this post I was really intimidated and a bit anxious. But then I reminded myself how awesome and encouraging all of my clients have been about happenings in my life so far and realized it was all in my head. Not to mention, the majority of you are moms as well and I think most moms are pretty sympathetic to wanting more time with their family and giving their family the best.

I'm so grateful for such awesome clients that allow for me to be flexible like this! Thanks for being awesome!

General Announcements

2010-09-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

So since we had a brief glimpse of fall weather last weekend (unless you are up about 7am each morning, and then you may still be getting a bit of it) I thought I would remind you that along with the Pumpkin Spice late now available at Starbucks, so are my fall flavors.

Caramel Apple:

Cinnamon cupcake with bits of fresh apple in it topped with a dulche de leche frosting

Pumpkin Spice:

A pumpkin spice cupcake topped with your choice of cinnamon buttercream or cinnamon cream cheese frosting

I classify my snickerdoodle cupcake as more of a fall flavor, but it's available year round so not quite as special.

These as well as mini pies, and regular sized pies are available. The pumpkin, pecan and apple crisp pies get pretty popular around Thanksgiving. Warning though, I have a wedding the weekend before Thanksgiving so I will have very limited availability.

While speaking of availability I have a few openings available the end of September and the last few weekends in October.

The fall flavor cupcakes are great to take to class parties and fall festivals that are starting up in a few weeks. I admit I already have a few debuts planned for them along such lines.

One more announcement, and it's more of a personal one so you may not be all that interested (but I have awesome clients, so I think you may). As most of you know, and have heard me talk about I have two wonderful, handsome boys. And while we love our boys we both admittedly were really hoping for a girl this time. Well we were very excited to find out a few weeks ago that is what we have been blessed with!

So amidst cupcake baking I will be painting and decorating a baby girl nursery! The boys are pretty excited over having a baby sister and already ooh and ahh over all the little girls they come in contact with. They're going to be great (maybe to her dismay at times) big brothers!

Hope y'all are not going too crazy being knee deep into the school year schedule yet!

Star

2010-08-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

So far each wedding season I've been a part of so far there is a surprise star. Last year I was surprised how big a role sugar cookies had started to play in everything from hotel greetings to favors and decor.

I love that more and more people are relying less on tradition (lackluster vanilla cake with buttercream) and finding a dessert option that reflects them as a couple.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a traditional girl. I don't think you can go wrong with a classic. I searched for literally 3 months for a person/place that could do my wedding cake but make one that didn't well, suck. I mean really, apparently making really good cake is a lost art. You can put all the pretty fondant on it you want, but if it doesn't taste good, what's the point?

I ended up finding someone who coincidentally enough, ran an out of home bakery. To this day that is some of the best cake that I have ever eaten. We had quite a bit leftover that we got to freeze (we had a cake and punch reception for the masses, and then at the smaller dinner reception had 6 other kinds of cakes besides our wedding and grooms cake). We got to eat some through out the year leading up to our one year anniversary and that cake was just as good a year later as it was on our wedding day.

All that to say, if you're going with tradition, do it well. If you don't mind breaking out of the box a little bit, not only are cupcakes all the rage right now but I have been getting several requests for these little guys:

Mini Key Lime Pies. Don't let their cuteness fool you. For something so small they pack a punch of flavor. The perfect balance of tart and sweet and salty topped with homemade whipped cream.

Honestly I've made a couple batches up this summer just for our family. It's a perfect fit for all those BBQ's we gt invited to or just a fun dessert treat to cool you off.

If you think they would make the perfect addition to your next event, you are in good company this season!

Cupcake Free

2010-08-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Warning, this is a cupcake, picture free post. More just the musings of a self proclaimed foodie.

So as I've mentioned, I love cooking just as much as I love baking. Admittedly, sometimes even more...I just produce more creative, consistently good baked goods. That said, I am no chef nor proclaim to be one. So view this post as notes from a well trained, self educated home cook.

I got to go to a fun new place today. I love exploring cities. A friend of mine and native Atlantan took me to a place she knew I would enjoy called Star Provisions. It's a restaurant and a market. They sell things like meats, seafood, cheese, bread and pastries (as well as ridiculously cute service ware, linens and other such fun things for all your entertaining needs and wants). They also have a gourmet cafe menu with breakfasts with luscious looking large quiches and lunch with sandwiches and other such things served on wonderful vessels like tomato parmesan focacia.

It's in an area with lots of other great restaurants and fun little shops, all within a block. A fun place to go, but very tempting on your wallet (unless of course spending $50 for a kids shirt isn't even comprehensible and then not so tempting, like it was for me.)

Now the food however...good ingredients are expensive. They just are, as much as it pains me to say, but they really do make a big difference. If you are only putting 5 ingredients in a dish it will taste infinitely better if you get the best quality of those ingredients you can find. As much as I would love to have an unlimited grocery budget to play with fun high end ingredients reality and practicality reign me in. Whole Foods and I used to be frequent friends, now we settle for quarterly or so minglings.

I knew I wanted to sample some of the glorious ingredients (like the $60 a pound Foie Gras!), but reality and practicality again needed to balance me out. So I thought about dinner. Local slab bacon, parmigiana reggiano and freshly made baguettes all were reasonable (the parmesan in small amounts) and looked great. Spaghetti Carbonara was now on the dinner menu (with bread and a salad with a honey balsamic dressing) with plenty of leftovers for lunch and enough baguette to make a breakfast bread pudding or french toast with. One of the nice things about these small specialty markets is you can buy however much you want or need, not a packaged quantity that will probably go bad before you get to it.

I walked out for $8 and change. $2.50 for the baguette (which was bigger and better than comparable at Kroger or Publix and theirs are $2), $4 or so for the parmigiana reggiano (1/8 of a pound which was enough for dinner and probably another 2 dinners) and about $1.50 for the bacon (1/4 pound).

I was happy. My gourmet lunch cost more than the main ingredients for at least 3 meals. They even had cupcakes to try. Which looked delicious and I probably would have been tempted by if I weren't full, in a bit of a rush and knew I had homemade chocolate chip cookies at home.

All this to say, if you have the least bit of foodie tendencies or just enjoy a fun place to eat really good food you should take a trip down to Star Provisions. I'm not really very familiar with all the areas of Atlanta, but I think it was considered more in the west side. It wasn't that far from downtown in my opinion. The bacon alone made it worth the drive!

If I intrigued you with my spaghetti carbonara, here is my favorite recipe. I use bacon instead of pancetta, more like half an onion, a little extra white wine (1/3 cup instead of 1/4) and just Parmesan, no pecorino. Also since I'm pregnant I went ahead and added the eggs while the pan was still on and cooked it a little bit to make sure the eggs were cooked. No longer than 2 minutes. The best part is this can easily be made in less than a half an hour. I sometimes make the sauce an hour or so before hand and just reheat it while I'm boiling the water for the pasta. Quick easy, and gourmet looking. Can't beat that!

Do you have a favorite place you go to satisfy your inner foodie?

Fancy Nancy

2010-08-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Recently a customer contacted me to do cupcakes for her daughter who was really into Fancy Nancy books. Being immersed in a world of baseball and testosterone I had never heard of the books, but was excited to learn more. Apparently they are all about a girl who wants to be fancy and loves all things wonderful like pearls and heels, and feather boas and generally being a bit over the top. My only starting point was that her daughter asked for strawberry fuchsia cupcakes.

Brace yourself for girliness:

Strawberry, fuchsia (or as close as I could get!) cupcakes. To make a bit more...fancy, I went with the rose frosting technique and dipped them in purple sprinkles

I also layered some of the cupcake wrappers for a fun look

Feathers, you may ask? Feathers! Maybe one of the most fun cupcake accessory I've gotten to work with! These are double chocolate cupcakes with hot pink sprinkles accessorized with pink feathers.

A side view.

I had a lot of fun making these. They were just so wonderfully girly. I love getting to do fun and creative stuff as well. I think these would be great fun for a bachelorette party.

Now for a complete change of topic. I don't know about most of you, but it seems like we have been either going to, or hosting quite a few cook outs recently. It seems like with school starting up these are actually increasing with friends getting back together or kicking off new groups or seasons.

While I'm sure it may be assumed that I always bring something very homemade and usually sweet to these types of events, you would be wrong. Not only am I more of a salty person there for bringing mainly more savory dishes (plus that way I have something I know my kids will eat, just in case), sometimes I'm tired of baking cupcakes for my job and just want something quick.

This is where I'm going to share a few shortcuts I have with you. This weekend we were invited to a cookout. We wanted to go but had already had a very full day planned. We would have 45 minutes in the house in which I needed to make something, get me and the boys changed, freshened up and swing by the store to grab drinks.

Confession: I make things from a box. Well, maybe not things, but I do make one thing from a box. Brownies. In particular, Ghiradelli. I buy the box from Costco that has 6 packages, and in 45 minutes I can have wonderful brownies ready to go. Bringing vanilla ice cream usually makes me a rock star as well. They have no hydrogenated oils and are just a shade less tasty than homemade.

Now for an easy savory side dish for cook outs. I don't know about y'all but my family loves baked beans. They can be easy and are usually a crowd pleaser. While I have tried numerous recipes making baked beans from scratch, I haven't found one yet that beats this shortcut. Buy Bush's baked beans, the family size can in the vegetarian flavor. Poor the can in a pretty bowl, add about 3 (or more) tablespoons of your favorite sweet and smokey BBQ sauce. Stir, heat for 3 minutes, cover and walk out the door. These are really good and really simple. In fact there was hardly any we got sent home with and I got irritated at my husband for throwing them out without asking. I was going to eat them as a snack with potato chips. Because I'm pregnant and I can do things like that.

Hopefully that gives you a few easy go to options for you next get together. Fanciness and convenience all in one post. Amazing what I can get done with only one child around!

Wedding Brainstorming

2010-08-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sure in August more than anything y'all have back to school on the brain...not weddings. And while my house is immersed in getting ready for school (I have a kindergartner this year!) I am also prepping for wedding season.

For me the busiest wedding times are May and then October. June and September are usually pretty busy as well. Right now I'm brainstorming lots of ideas and option for weddings and getting ready to do several tastings. And busy returning lots of emails regarding such.

I've been coming up with (what I think) are fun ideas like a cupcake bar (with margarita, mudslide, pina colada, type flavors), mini key lime pies for a beach wedding and doing some fun monogramming on the cupcakes as well.

I also have been trying a few different decorating options apart from the standard. I think this is sweet and elegant. They're also great for anniversary presents!

Explanation

2010-07-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

So I think I owe y'all an explanation for going almost two months without posting anything. I really do not consider myself a slacker by any means, and I haven't stopped making cupcakes. I simply become a little more...limited in my capabilities.

Really it can all be explained in two words: morning sickness. Now I know there are some women that are incredible graceful and glowing during their first trimester. Let me clarify: I am not one of those women. I consider survival alone through that period a blessing, forget functionality.

So while I did not shut down making cupcakes, some days making cupcakes occurred by the grace of God alone. Dealing with two active boys on top of that was about all I could handle. So for nearly two months there has been no blogging.

But I'm back, and ready to make up for lost time. Before I fully transition into cupcakes though I will say that while I have not taken a leave of absence for morning sickness, I will be doing so for the baby. While I won't set hard and fast dates (because having done this twice before I know it all depends on how I'm feeling and how fast I recover) but I'm thinking from mid January to the end of February I will for sure be out of commission. I'm due at the beginning of February.

On to cupcakes.

So one of me new favorite things are cupcake favors. Mainly because they are adorable.

These were for a baby shower for a little girl. The colors were mainly pink and brown, so I made color co-ordinating cupcakes (raspberry almond with chocolate frosting) and put it all together with matching tags and ribbon as well. These would also be fun for other types of showers (I'm going to do some for a bridal shower...), birthdays, and weddings!

Cake Tips and a Recipe

2010-06-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Among my friends talking about cake mixes around me used to be taboo. For some reason they thought I was going to judge them for using a box mix.

I realize not every one views cooking and baking as therapeutic and fun like I do. I even realize that there are some people that have the exact opposite view on cooking and baking as I do. Which is good, it keeps me employed : )

I have no judgement against cake mixes (other than my hydrogenated oil phobia). It was all my mom used growing up and my first experiences in cake making. You can make a decent cake using the box mixes and following the directions. But really...who wants just a decent cake? Obviously I think you can get a superior cake from scratch (and if y'all just knew how easy it was you wouldn't be the least intimidated!), but there are also some things you can do to cake mixes to get a pretty good cake out of them too. I'm going to share my wisdom with you so you never have to eat lackluster cake again (made by you any how).

Don't follow the directions. All the oil and water, eh. There are only two cakes I make using oil and neither of them are any thing vanilla based or chocolate based. You can find the cake mixes that call for butter. GET THEM. Butter makes every thing better. Seriously. Once equipped with the right kind of cake mix, continue to ignore the directions. You are going to be asked to add water. DON'T DO IT. You could pretty much add any thing else in your refrigerator and it will taste better than adding water. Here are some suggestions:

Chocolate:
Sour Cream
Buttermilk
Whole Milk
Coffee
Guinness Beer
Yogurt

Vanilla:
Sour Cream
Buttermilk
Whole Milk
Coconut Milk
Yogurt
Any type of citrus juice (obviously it will flavor your cake)

Just add the substituted ingredient in the amount that the cake calls for and you can follow the directions from there.

If there is one area that I promise will take your cake to the next level it's making your own frosting. Again, for some reason people find it super intimidating, but I promise it's ridiculously easy. If the thought of butter cream intimidates you, you could start off a bit easier with something like a ganache or just using homemade whipping cream. A frosting 101 post may be coming soon.

However if you think you may be up for trying a cake from scratch that takes about the same amount of effort as a box mix, you MUST try this cake! It's ridiculously easy and super tasty. It's perfect for summer as well because it's light and fruity. Plus, if you make it right...almost healthy.

I'd been hearing people rave about yogurt cakes and hadn't ever tried one, so I wanted to give it a go. It being a different cake base than I was used to I used a trusted recipe as a starting place. However I wanted to do some thing differently. So here is the recipe I ended up using:

Cake
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (normally I would recommend just regular olive oil but I didn't have any, I like the extra depth it added to the cake)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Strawberry Sauce:
I don't have an exact recipe, these are guesstimates, if you like less sugar add less, more add more.

20 strawberries sliced and hulled (or 1 bag frozen strawberries)
1/3 cup sugar
squeeze of lemon juice

Place strawberries in a container with sugar and lemon juice (I may be known to occasionally add a drop of Grand Marnier as well) stir slightly and refrigerate over night. Puree with blender, or food processor. To obtain a thicker sauce, boil for a few minutes on the stove, adjust sweetness to taste.

For frozen strawberries, defrost and them place them in saucepan with sugar and lemon juice, bring to a boil, and let boil until desired thickness, tasting and adjusting sweetness to taste. Cool then puree in blender or food processor.

The sauce takes more time but I always make a lot of it and freeze it when fruit is fresh in season. I do the same thing with peaches and will use the fruit purees to make home made ice cream, and to add to cupcakes.

Not so good iPhone pic of the final result

Secret Desire

2010-06-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

So I have this secret desire which I occasionally get to entertain: to be a party planner. I love planning things, and apparently I am "dual brained" which gives me the ability to be creative and attentive to detail. So when my own childrens birthday parties come up, or we have people over my husband gets the not so easy task of reigning me in.

Thankfully this time he didn't have to work too hard. My oldest (Josh) and I are both born in May. Two days apart as a matter of fact (and if you were wondering, yes it is kind of a bummer to have to spend two of your days...Mothers and Birth, making my sons day special. But it's worth it, right?).

Being in the baking business, May is a busy month. Between weddings and showers and Mothers Day and birthdays, I'm going non-stop. This May was no exception. So when we were trying to pick out a time to have Josh's birthday we ran into a bit of a conundrum. Do I have to after a wedding, or...after a wedding? Pretty much leaving me 48 hours to get every thing ready for his party. EVERYTHING. Like buying every thing too.

Some how we managed to pull together and give my son the superhero party of his dreams. He had no idea about all the great ideas mommy wished she had time to execute (like the superhero emblem on the driveway, or the sign that said "welcome to superhero training camp", or the mask decorating table, and the very grand city block cake with all of his favorite superheros on it I was going to make...). Either way he loved every minute of it.

The final cupcake product. Like I said, I had some thing grander in mind, so this was kind of my cop out, but I think it turned out pretty well.

The "tablescape". We were decorating superhero star cookies

After I made these my husband told me I had a sickness. Apparently he thought napkin rings were unnecessary for kids parties. Huh.

In case you are wondering about how I made them I had them custom made for me from etsy. I printed them and then used a special pinch to cut them out. Easy and cheap.

Iron man loved his cupcakes. He likes pretty much any thing with sugar. We had a bunch of fun and played games like superhero training course (which was a failed to attempt to tire out the boys) and practiced our shooting skills. That was a big hit, we had Iron Man and Spiderman waterguns for everyone (which late became part of their goodie bags) and I made an awesome bubble recipe (may come soon). They had to shoot down the bubble with their water guns. Boys and guns. You can't really go wrong there.

So for 48 hours I was happy, my secret desire got it's fill for the time being, or at least until my youngests birthday now 20 days away...gulp.

May weddings, Cookies!

2010-05-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

I lumped these two weddings together because they are all about the cookies. I had two weekends back to back of 150-200 monogrammed wedding sugar cookies. I learned that you can get blisters from baking-who knew?

This was for a wedding at the Carl House, which is one my favorite venues here in the Atlanta area (the other being Trackside 550). It is gorgeous!!! Their colors were light blue and yellow. When I made a test run to give them some choices they couldn't choose between two so we did 100 of the blue background ones and 100 of the yellow background ones. The mainly blue ones have yellow ribbons on the bags and the mainly yellow have blue ribbons.

This next wedding was in St. Louis for my cousin. I also ended up helping co-ordinate the day of the wedding so I was wiped once I got home. I consider myself a fairly organized person, and secretly love event planning so I didn't mind one bit, but I am telling you- weddings are a complicated business! Wedding lingo is like a foreign language! I think one of the best things I did for my wedding day was hire someone who I knew would be just as anal and detailed as I was so I didn't have to worry about a thing the day of. It was such a blessing to have that peace of mind!

Now I got married in St. Louis, so you can't hire her, but I know someone down here just as fabulous. She has a meticulous eye, is creative, budget conscious, detailed and has amazing taste! If you want to check her out you can go to her website to learn more.

This is how I packaged the cookies for travel. However if you don't want to have them at every place setting this would be a fun display as people are walking out to take a favor.

Just a few of the black and white themed cookies in process.

This is what the cookies looked like on the table and how they had them displayed. My aunt also has a secret passion for event planning so the decorating was beautiful and fun!

May wedding #1

2010-05-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

I have spent the majority of May to date baking. Mainly cookies, so I was thrilled to have at least one all cupcake wedding. Since it is kind of my thing. And in case y'all hadn't heard...cupcakes are SO in. Get on the bandwagon!

We were leaving EARLY the next morning for STL so my pictures are not very good and just of the cupcakes themselves. Maybe I'll throw one up of what they looked like at the wedding if I get one. After all, that is the best part!

These were for a small, low key wedding. We did chocolate with Bailey's, double vanilla, snickerdoodle, coconut cream, and one other flavor I can't remember : )

double vanilla and snickerdoodle
jumbo bride and groom cupcakes in double vanilla and double chocolate

double chocolate

Chocolate with Bailey's

More wedding goodness coming soon!

Absence

2010-05-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

So I had big plans for posting after I did my last post. However the day after I wrote that within a matter of hours my grandma went into major surgery and then passed away. Needless to say it's kind of thrown life into a whirl wind. Thankfully we had already planned a trip home (St. Louis) for my cousins wedding. So instead of posting I got to help with funeral arrangements, and then days later make 150 monogrammed wedding cookies and play wedding co-ordinator for the day.

Life has been a little crazy.

I'm looking forward to getting back into my routine which includes posting and cupcakes. It's been almost two weeks since I've made cupcakes y'all!

These sugar cookies are all well and good (I'm doing another wedding with them this weekend) but cupcakes are my thang. And I look forward to getting back to it.

So while I'm still unpacking, doing laundry and processing, here is some thing to give me a few days:

I don't typically do cupcake cakes like this. I think I do a better job when they are flat and I can do my buttercream magic. But it was for a dear friend whose daughter I adore and is one of my sons close friends....and I just wanted to do some thing fun. Is it immaculate-no, but is it whimsical and fun yes, and that was perfect for the birthday girl!

They were double vanilla cupcakes

Guilt

2010-04-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

So I feel really guilty about not posting for about a month.

In fact I gave some cupcakes away this weekend to make me feel better about it (by the way, I do fairly regular cupcake giveaways on my facebook site, you should check it out), I'm not sure it worked.

So instead of continuing to give away cupcakes (not that I'm stopping...) I figured I would finally ease my conscious by doing that which the lack of had made me feel guilty to begin with...blog!

I'll give you my good reasons why it's been a month since I blogged.

First, I made this cupcake cake for a twelve year old girl. She told me it was exactly what she wanted. High praise from a twelve year old!

Then, I made these little cuties for Easter. They also happen to be two of my summer flavors: coconut cream, and sunshine (lemon cupcake with orange cream cheese frosting) cupcakes.

Bright and early at 5am the next day was my trip to Philly, which was wonderful. I came home and hit the ground running, making these for a fun networking event I got to go to. Red Velvet minis.

After that I had put the finishing touches on my husband's surprise 30th birthday party. I would like to say that it's really hard to plan things without your significant other knowing. It was a given that I was going to make cupcakes for his birthday, so it wasn't difficult to get a flavor request from him. Normally his request would be red velvets, but he had gotten spoiled with leftovers recently, so instead he requested (my favorite!) raspberry almond with chocolate frosting. If you don't order them though, you might not get to...because those are too good to give away, no matter how cupcaked out I am!

I have a few other things I've been doing in the last month, but I have to save some things to show you, or else I won't post for another month!

I have weddings almost every weekend in May, so my weekend availability is almost non-existent. I still have some week day openings if you want to try to get in on that. I'm already getting requests for August and September as well. All that to say, if you have a date in mind you think you might want something for, let me know! I will pencil you in for that date!

I have difficulties saying no, so it would just make my life easier if you book early so I don't have to tell you no : ) That's another thing that makes me feel guilty...

Spring and Life

2010-03-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

I consider it spring when the daffodils have bloomed and I can wear flip flops out at least once with out regretting the decision. Due to my calculations, it's officially spring! Spring always brings about the thought of flowers and Easter. I've been doing some experimenting with both:

These are half of another set that spelled out "Happy 28 Kate", the purple ones were flower inspired

This is a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream decorated to look like a hydrangea

These are my Easter cupcakes. Admittedly, I'm not very into chicks or the Easter bunny, I don't want to distract from the focus of the holiday. That said, I don't mind eggs because they represent new life. So they are chocolate cupcakes with a mini Cadbury egg baked inside (and on top) frosted with vanilla buttercream and toasted coconut.

Good Friday brings the start of spring break here. My kids are not in school yet, so typically this wouldn't effect our family however I lead a small group of high school girls with the youth at our church. Every year they go on mission trips during spring break and this year I get to go with them. I'm super excited to go and serve in the inner city of Philadelphia, but that also means that I will be out of touch for a week.

So if you email me or call, I may not get back to you right away, and won't be able to do any orders for that week (April 5-10). I will have my email on auto reply with some information and my number for if there is something you need right away, but even that make take some time, so please be patient!

If you are interested in Easter orders though, I'm taking those until Thursday!

St. Patty's Day Birthday

2010-03-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is my last St. Patrick's Day related post until next year, I promise! I must say, the Guinness chocolate and Bailey's cupcake was my new favorite, but after taste testing for the umpteenth time...even I'm burnt out.

But when I made these I was still in love! And I love the idea of a St. Patty's day themed party.

a jumbo cupcake used as a first birthday smash cake

green velvet cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and shamrock sugar cookies

green velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and four leaf clover sprinkles

Wedding Season

2010-03-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! I must admit, it's a bit of adjustment for me. I've been out of the wedding loop for at least two years now. Almost all of my friends are married and I was just starting up last year so missed out on most of the wedding fun.

Admittedly, I thought I was over all the weddingness. Coming up on 6 years of marriage, I thought the fun of weddings was past until my (mythical at this point) daughter went through it. Thankfully I was wrong!

I had delivered cupcakes to my first wedding of the season a couple of weeks ago. She, her mom, mother in law, friends and wedding planner were all there setting up. It was gorgeous. I went home and told my husband I wanted to get married again and have it be just like hers. And just like that I was sucked into it all over again!

I still look back on my wedding and remember all of the details fondly, particularly my wedding cake. Maybe that's because even back then I was a growing foodie who had a special fondness for cake, but I think it really impresses you when people go out of their way to make a particular part of your special day extra special just for you.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to do that for my customers!

monogrammed sugar cookie favor test run for an upcoming wedding

delivery: the most dreaded part. I have nightmares of dropping one of the boxes on the way in or something!

Just a few of the snickerdoodles, although they were slightly different than my typical ones, these were made with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting instead of the typical cinnamon sugar buttercream

At the wedding. Champagne, hydrangea, cupcakes and the man of your dreams, where could a girl go wrong?

Helper

2010-03-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

Using my high tech method again my handsome helper picked a name for me:

I must admit I'm partial to the name. It was actually my maiden name, but I got called by that more than my first name. It's a great name!

Congrats Libby!

Feeling the Love

2010-03-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

I got a lot of love from the last cupcake giveaway. Maybe it went to my head a little bit, because I'm doing another one! I'm giving away another half dozen Guinness stout chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's frosting. The world needs more of them!

Details:
You can get multiple entries on this one, the more entries you have, the higher your chance are of winning. Here are the ways you can enter:

write a comment on my blog
write a comment on your facebook status about my cupcakes, either linking to my blog or putting @CupKates to link to my FB site
write a comment on the CupKates FB site

IMPORTANT: In order to be officially entered (so I know to look at your site to see you did them) you must comment on my most recent FB status letting me know you have entered and which ways.

Go here to access my facebook site. The winner must be able to pick up late afternoon Saturday or sometime Sunday.

And the winner is....

2010-03-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

So I did my first giveaway last night. Half a dozen St. Patrick's Day cupcakes. I did it for a couple of reasons.

1. I love my customers. Seriously, y'all are so great and sweet.

2. I wanted to do something special to celebrate my first year in business. It was almost exactly a year ago that I started CupKates.

That said, I think I am going to start doing this more often. Goodness knows we don't need any more cupcakes sitting around our house!

Sometimes the giveaways may be on the blog only, and sometimes on facebook only, or something both. So keep your eyes peeled to both sites!

And with out further ado....

I used a very high tech method to decide the winner

Thanks again for all of your support!

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just in time!

Chocolate Guinness Stout cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Buttercream. Topped with a wee bit o' green!

Also, for those unaware, I have a facebook page where you can become a fan and get updated on CupKates news, events and giveaways. You may be especially interested in checking it out sometime this evening!

Behind

2010-03-10T13:29:00.001-08:00

I've got my St. Patty's day cupcakes itching to get pictures of themselves on the blog. But they are still in my camera : )

I'm just teasing you so you know what to look forward to. They are Guinness chocolate cupcakes topped with a Bailey's Irish Cream frosting.

I like St. Patrick's Day. Not because I'm big into the alcohol (contrary to the way my cupcake sounds...) but because I married into an Irish family. When I met my husband he had red hair. It's more auburn now, but it was red. His mom and brothers hair still is red and him mom's maiden name is Kennedy. There's a lot of Irish in them.

Plus if you've ever had Irish butter, that would be enough to make you want to be Irish. Seriously if you haven't tried it- go. Now. Most grocery stores have it this time of year, I saw it at Costco (in bulk, I seriously considered it) but picked mine up at Trader Joe's. The most popular brand is Kerrygold.

It's fun to celebrate our history with the kids on a fun holiday too.

Other than the cupcakes I have a wedding I'm doing this weekend so hopefully I'll be posting pictures from those soon. They are going to be Snickerdoodle (although with a slight change of cinnamon cream cheese frosting), I'm hoping there are leftovers.

All that to say...go get some Irish butter.

Polka Dot Cupcake Cake

2010-02-26T06:21:00.000-08:00

Here is another cupcake cake I have made. Don't judge my writing please. I did it on my counter and my shortness played a factor. I apparently need to start frosting on my table where I can be looking over the whole thing instead of down at an angle.

Despite that, I really like this cake. Not only do I like polka dots, and the color scheme, but it was snickerdoodle flavored (one of my most popular flavors). I love that people think they are getting ready to just eat a conventional cake and then biting into these.

Girls cakes are just so fun to make.

Soccer Balls and Booking

2010-02-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

I had a crazy busy weekend. That being said, I am going to do a quick rant on booking.

CupKates is a one woman show. I don't have a sous chef, a babysitter, or even a maid. I do it ALL. And I like doing it all. But sometimes there is only so much one person can do.

Which is why some weekends I will book up. There will only be so many orders I can do, which means you may have to hear me say "no". I have issues telling people no, and I'm sure in business it will be no different, but for my sanity and my families there will be occasional times when it will be necessary.

The moral of the story being: contact me early. As soon as I get an email from someone about a potential date, I pencil it in and give you first priority. Even if you are unsure, you still have first dibs.

So that's the deal. On to the cupcakes.

One of the orders I had this weekend was for soccer ball cupcakes. I loved how these turned out. The black frosting wasn't a walk in the park (lesson learned: start with chocolate frosting), but I think it ended up tasting better with some slight tweaking. The chocolate vanilla frosting was great. Reminded me of those old school ice cream cones you would get. I feel a potential new cupcake flavor forming from this...

Toy Story Cupcake Cake

2010-02-18T14:35:00.000-08:00

Finally! It turned out!!! I'm not going to lie I had my first major baking mishap on this one. It was just a rough day. I originally had envisioned the bed being made out of tinted sugar cookies (I don't know why, it seems like a foolish idea hindsight, I think I must have been on a kick from V-Day or something...) which was a failure of epic proportions. Mainly because I spent all day on the failing.

Then, when I went to go get my boxes that I get from a specialty cake store 1/2 an hour away, they had forgotten to put my cake boards in the bag. The pretty shiny, white GLOSSY cake boards.

So I was a day behind with no time to get the right boards. Hobby Lobby it was. Their cake boards were cardboard. And not exactly the right size for my boxes. Boo. So my pretty piping and any tiny slip of the cupcakes touching the cardboard left lovely grease spots. Yay.

But I triumphed over the day of doom! And I was pretty happy with the results.

The whole thing is edible. Vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. It's all cupcakes too.

Favors

2010-02-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have been getting more and more request for favors, and I must say I love it.

Not only do I get to make super cute cupcakes, but favors allow me creative freedom in making a unique and special cupcake as well as fun in the packaging.

Besides there is something special about knowing that the people you are making them for are giving them to other people as a unique and special way to say thank you/you're special/i love you, etc. It's fun to know you are part of something that will make someone smile.

These favors were for Valentine's Day and went to students teachers. As you can see some have two cupcakes in them and come have one.

Also, I will apologize for my stinky food photography. Photography 101 is pretty much NEVER use a flash, unless you absolutely positively must, but even then avoid it at all costs. I was in such a hurry when I was taking these pictures, and it was so gloomy outside. Not only did I use a flash but I (gasp) put it in automatic mode (where the camera does everything). Forgive me.

I also cannot wait to show y'all this cupcake cake I'm making for a Thursday birthday party. If it turns out anything like what I have pictured in my mind I will be impressed by myself. Hopefully it equals my expectations!

healthy cupcakes

2010-02-12T11:47:00.001-08:00

Just because I have a cupcake business, doesn't mean I like my kids having sugar.

In fact I'm not a big fan of it at all and try to limit it whenever I can.

When we have leftover cupcakes I usually push them on other peoples children (or just other people) to get them out of my house. And unless they my kids have been cupcake deprived, they usually don't notice that they're gone.

That said, my 20 month old knows the word "cupcake". Him and big brother hadn't had cupcakes in quite sometime and I had just gotten my Kiwi magazine (focused on parents and health) for the month that spotlighted a chocolate zucchini cupcake. I conveniently had several bags of shredded zucchini still in my freezer from my garden this summer so I thought I would put it to use.

Here is the recipe with my modifications in parenthesis:

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes from Kiwi magazine:

2 cups white whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup extra light olive oil (I used canola)

2 cups turbinado sugar (I used regular sugar)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

3/4 cup dark chocolate chopped (I used 3/4 ghiradelli dark chocolate chips)

Preheat over to 350

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa in a bowl, set aside.

Using a mixer cream the oil and sugar until smooth, add eggs one at a time beating about a minute in between each addition. Mix in vanilla.

Add the zucchini and chocolate and mix well. Add dry ingredients in three batches, mixing in between.

Line muffin cups and fill 2/3 of the way full. Bake about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces dark chocolate (I used more of the ghiradelli dark chocolate chips)

1 teaspoon vanilla

(They have other directions, but I'm going to give you the easy way, because that's how I roll)

Place all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, heat in 30 second intervals stirring well in between. Should need no more than a minute, be careful not to overcook.

Dip cupcakes in ganache, top with pretty sprinkles and allow 15 minutes to set.

Made with Love

2010-02-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day, the holiday of love. Personally I have never been the world's biggest Valentine's Day person (I know I'm terrible). I have good reasons! Everything is marked up twice it's normal price, all the good restaurants are booked a month out, and the biggest one: I think most people use it as a cop out. They seem to think if you do all the right things that day your exempt from showing people around you that love them on a day in and day out basis.

I'm all for showing people I love them any and every opportunity I can, and love it when people do the same. Sometimes the most loving thing is a random note from a friend or unexpected date night with the one you love.

That being said...I love Valentine's Day with kids. It's just a whole other entity. You have the opportunity to emphasize what showing love looks like and have a day to demonstrate it. And it's impartial, at least at Josh's school. Every kid gets a Valentine, no body gets left out or feels lonely.

And the cupcakes...who knew Valentine's cupcakes could be so much fun. I think this may be one of the more fun holidays for themed cupcakes. Who knows, between the boys being old enough to enjoy it and the fun cupcakes, maybe Valentine's Day will win me over yet.

Chocolate covered strawberry minis. Eventually I plan on doing a regular sized version of these with an actual chocolate covered strawberry on top.

Red Velvets with sugar cookies laid on top

Red velvets with sugar cookie "suckers"

Coming later this week: a healthy cupcake and the recipe!

Are you Ready for some Football?

2010-02-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

I've been gearing up for game day by baking lots and LOTS of cupcakes. Football themed cupcakes. Here are some of the results:

These are chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes, strawberry cupcake with chocolate frosting decorated like a football
In case there is any confusion who we are rooting for... Go Colts! Instead of "red" velvet, I made "blue" velvet cupcakes with the horseshoe emblem on top

These are a new flavor I tried out (also I couldn't decide which way of frosting the football I like better): Neapolitan, which are vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry cream and topped with chocolate frosting.

Feel free to let me know which football you like better so I can make notes for next year! Hope ya'll have a fun day tomorrow!

I can't wait to show ya'll the Valentine's Day stuff I've been working!

Chicken Ratatouille

2010-01-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

A recipe for ya'll.

This is a great, easy, healthy and delicious meal, you can't beat that!

I've got several other recipes I'm backed up on sharing with ya'll because I have this problem. I don't measure things. Which doesn't bother me a bit, but when it comes to recipe sharing it makes things...complicated. So I'm going to give you the general outline and you will just have to experiment and tap into your inner cooking creativity.

Chicken Ratatouille

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

2 zucchini (the zucchini looked the best, but sometimes I'll do a yellow squash and a zucchini)

1 orange pepper (because I like the color, I would do any color but green I don't like the taste)

1 large yellow or sweet onion

7-10 Campari tomatoes (these are the small on the vine tomatoes in plastic containers, I think they have great flavor year round but you could probably do 2-4 regular tomatoes instead just make sure they are ripe)

a couple of cloves of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

two chicken breasts

herbs de provence or italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 375

I chop the veggies up all in a uniform size and dump them into a 13x9 pan. Peel the garlic and if I'm not breaking up an argument or tripping on toys at this point I might even give it a rough chop, but the whole clove is fine if you're in a hurry. Throw that in with the veggies. Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the vegetables (enough to coat all of them) and liberally season with salt and pepper. I probably use about just under a tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of fresh cracked pepper. Toss it all together and make sure all the veggies are covered in oil.

Liberally season each side of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and make little wells for them in the veggies and place them on top. Sprinkle a little olive oil on the chicken and then sprinkle either herbs de provence (what I used) or italian seasoning on top. Stick it in the oven. Put you timer on for 15-20 minutes. When it goes off stir the veggies around slightly and sprinkle some of the juice or the veggies themselves on top of the chicken for moistness. Then let cook another 15-30 minutes, depending on how thick you chicken breasts are and how done you like your veggies. The chicken should be an internal temp of 160 in it's thickest part, don't overcook it!

Take it out of the oven and throw some foil over it while you get the rest of dinner on the table (about 10 minutes should be sufficient). This will let the chicken absorb some of the juices from the veggies and make it extra moist.

I served this over quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) but it would be great over brown rice or cous cous, or even mashed potatoes (but healthy points go down for that). Quinoa is one of the healthiest whole grains that there is and I think it tastes really good as well. Plus you can make it in about 20 minutes. Brown rice can't touch that! I follow the directions on the box (that I get from Trader Joe's) but use chicken stock instead of water.

The veggies and quinoa both heat up nicely for a healthy lunch the next day. If you want something different you can throw the veggies on a roll spread on some herbed goat cheese or boursin cheese top with some sun dried tomato paste and caramelized onions and you have one heck of a sandwich on your hands. I love multi-purpose meals.

Hopefully this will give you and additional recipe to add to your repertoire. And who doesn't need an extra easy healthy meal on hand?

Cupcake Throwdown

2010-01-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

I cannot decide.

I like to play around with different ways of decorating the cupcakes and usually in the process I find one more aesthetically appealing.

However with my cookies and cream cupcakes I am at an impass. I can't decide which one I think looks better.

The lightly sprinkled cookie crumbs

Or the completely covered ones

What do you think?

Like Grandma's...a new flavor

2010-01-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to have a couple of blog posts last week, what happened?

I'll blame it on being distracted with painting projects we started this week and spending a good amount of time blogging on my other sites about what is going on Haiti.

I have a new flavor to introduce.

Actually it's not really that new, it's more of a classic, just new to my list.

Chris's grandma makes this coconut cream cake which is delightful, every time we see her she makes one for us. For whatever reason I had a really bad hankering for it. The problem being her recipe calls for a boxed cake mix (which I don't use) and cool whip (which I avoid because of the hydrogenated oils). So I was off to creating, and if I'm going to perfect something, might as well add it to the list so everyone else can enjoy, right?

So here it is, the new (read: classic) coconut cream cupcake:

Available for order immediately. It's a lightly coconut and vanilla flavored cake topped and filled with a coconut cream and rolled in shredded coconut.

Chris told me it tasted just like his grandma's. Score!

If you are interested in a full list of available flavors please contact me.

Project Craftiness

2010-01-11T13:23:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes coming soon, in fact I even have a new flavor to introduce to you. I'm also backed up on recipes I want to share, so hopefully lots of blogging will occur within the next couple of weeks!

Monday's, my oldest son (Josh) has off of preschool, and this being his last year before kindergarten I've been trying to be diligent with that time. This was our first Monday together in awhile without things being off from the holidays, so it was fun to get to enjoy that time together. We met some friends at Chick-Fil-A where he got to play an extra long time and then we came home to work on a project.

My friend Kristin recently introduced me to this blog which is my new favorite. She has all kinds of fun crafts as well as photography, plus some great ideas for kids. While looking through some of her great crafts I found this post on a DIY apron that was thrifty and cute. I can use up some aprons so thrifty caught me. It was also simple enough I could make with Josh.

So that was our Monday bonding, aprons and his favorite muffins. The aprons only took me 5 minutes to make. For 2. I will be making these more often! Plus they would make fun gifts to stick in stockings, or a bridal shower gift, or to take to someone with some goodies, a recipe and an apron. We also cranked out the muffins pretty quick since Josh is an old pro (he can even crack eggs!), and the recipe gets made a minimum of once a month in our house.

Here are our results:

Josh's apron

Creaming the butter and sugar

My apron, not so graciously photographed!

Our muffins

Now it would be mean of me to show you our wonderful muffins and not give you the recipe. Being the nice person that I am, here you go:

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffins:

2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large or 5 small bananas extra ripe (I throw mine in the freezer until I'm ready and then defrost)
dash of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oatmeal, you can use more or less depending on your preference
1/2 to 3/4 bag of chocolate chips, I use ghiradelli dark, for this recipe

Preheat over to 350 F. Cream butter and sugar (by hand or in mixer), add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add bananas and mix until just combined. Add baking soda and salt, stir a few times to incorporate and add flour. Mix well. Add oatmeal, mix well. Add chocolate chips, stir until evenly distributed. Place heaping tablespoons into a greased muffin pan and bake about 19 minutes. Makes about 18.

Tiramisu, Bread Pudding and recipes!

2010-01-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Hope ya'll enjoyed your holidays.

I enjoyed a nice vacation with lots of cooking and baking, but no cupcakes!

It was nice to take a cupcake break and rediscover some other desserts I love. For Christmas I made tiramisu and bread pudding with a bourbon currant sauce. And since I have been lacking on the cupcake love I thought I would throw some dessert recipes your way to make up for it!

This was my tiramisu, which is surprisingly easy. It takes maybe 20 minutes of hands on prep and then you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. Easy and elegant! My favorite tiramisu recipe is here but I half it. Half of it was plenty for 6 people! I would buy a few more ladyfingers than what it calls for though, I like extra and needed it to cover both layers. You can't always find them at regular grocery stores but Whole Foods has them in the cookie aisle. Also, I was out of Marsala wine so I used Madeira (as they are comparable, and I may have another recipe coming up soon that will help you use the rest of your Madeira wine!), I also just used Kahlua as the coffee liqueur.

For Thanksgiving we were in STL and took advantage of grandparents and their free babysitting (a luxury for us!) and went out to a nice meal at Harvest in Clayton. I'm normally not a big bread pudding person (unless it's a chocolate brioche bread pudding!) but theirs sounded intriguing and came highly recommended so we gave it a shot. It did not disappoint. When I started asking my husband if he had any opinions on Christmas dessert he reflected back to the bread pudding telling me if I could make that it would "awesome".

I knew it was a fairly standard bread pudding, but the sauce made it extraordinary. The restaurant strangely did not have their dessert menu online so I called them and asked what the sauce was. Bourbon currant. Just for kicks I thought I would google it to see what kind of recipes were pulled up. To my amazement this appeared. The exact recipe the restaurant had given a magazine!

My modifications were to again, half it (I did 2 eggs and 2 yolks for the custard), and I baked it longer since my dish was a bit deeper. Don't be afraid of it getting brown on top as the crispness adds to the texture. On the sauce, I would completely ignore their recommendation to take the sauce off of the heat before adding the bourbon and currants. Their is a decent amount of alcohol which needed to cook out or else you were left with nothing more than the taste of bourbon from the sauce. Also since the currants were dried they could use a good soak to plump them up. I also found the currants at Whole Foods, but I think fried blueberries or golden raisins would be a suitable substitute.

Sorry I don't have a picture of the bread pudding, it went too fast!

So that's part of what my holidays looked like, hope ya'll enjoyed yours and are having a great start to the New Year!

I Do More Than Cupcakes!

2009-12-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Here is some of my non-cupcake work:

I do mini pies:

Pumpkin

Pecan

And frosted Sugar Cookies. I can do them in specific designs and colors, but I don't use royal icing (the stuff that turns hard) I use a light fluffy frosting that tastes much better, although doesn't lend itself to neatness the way royal icing does. I choose taste over appearance any day!

Holiday Flavors

2009-12-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

Vacation over, and I hit the ground running with an order for over 200 cupcakes almost 100 mini pies. Tis the season right?

Well along with the Christmas season comes some new holiday flavors!

Introducing:

Eggnog Cupcakes, that in my opinion are way better calories spent than drinking the stuff, and they taste just like it! I think I am going to make these a Christmas tradition for our family!

And Peppermint Mocha cupcakes

So far I've had these compared to Andes mints and girl scout cookies, all I know is that from a person whose typical Starbucks order during wintertime is a peppermint mocha, I've found something new to snuggle up with!

I am now accepting all holiday orders and the closer we get to the holidays the more limited availability will be, so book early!

Both of these flavors are great for holiday parties and get togethers, in fact I'm planning on making them for my own!

Cookies and Cream

2009-11-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

I've added a new member to the family

My new Cookies and Cream cupcake. It's a chocolate cupcake with an oreo type cookie inside topped with cookies and cream frosting.

If I do say so myself, they were delicious! Actually my taste testers deemed them as one of their new favorites as well.

My father-in-law's birthday co-incided with it's conception so I thought I would give shipping another go and see how they fared.

They made it in tact with no harm done. You just snip the tip of the frosting bag and frost the cupcakes yourself. They may not be quite as pretty, but they still are tasty!

Halloween and a Party

2009-11-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late in getting the last of my Halloween cupcakes up. Oh well, ideas for next year!

These are vanilla cupcakes tinted orange with chocolate buttercream. I had the cute bat liners so I thought I would match that. I had some leftover pie crust from something so I used that to cut out tiny bats and baked them. After they cooled I piped chocolate on the tops of them and took orange sprinkles and cut them in half for the eyes.

Sometimes I'm a little hesitant to reveal my secrets because then ya'll will know how easy it all really is : )

In addition to the Halloween cupcakes I did this cute cupcake tower this weekend for a surprise 50th birthday party. I'm a little rusty on cakes (as in it's been a year since I've made one?!), so I was thrilled with how it turned out. No worries though the cake pans are officially dusted off and my cake skills are returning.

The cake and bottom layer cupcakes are Snickerdoodle cupcakes and the other ones are double chocolate. All the decorations are edible.

So now that Halloween has passed (in my mind) it's officially Christmas season. I am SO excited. I have so many Christmas cupcake ideas swirling in my head that I can't wait to try out. and show ya'll. Except we just have to get over this whole Thanksgiving pie phase I'm in. Oh well, only a few more weeks!

Thanksgiving Flavors

2009-11-02T09:35:00.001-08:00

I've had some more questions regarding holiday orders. So here is my attempt to answer some of them:

I do cupcakes and pies (among other things, but for the holidays...)

I can do full size pies or mini pies (pictures below)

Recommended cupcake flavors for the holiday would be: caramel apple (apple cinnamon cupcake with a dulce de leche frosting), pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, or snickerdoodle cupcakes, but all flavors are available and feel free to do something crazy, like Pina Colada!

Pie flavors: apple pie, apple crisp pie (instead of a crust on top it's topped with a crisp topping), pumpkin, pecan, and chocolate

All holiday orders must be placed by November 20th. ATL day for holiday order pick ups will be the Monday of Thanksgiving week. STL order pick ups will be the day before Thanksgiving (Wednesday). My hope is to do most of the pick ups in STL around the Chesterfield Valley area.

If you have any other questions, or want pricing information, please feel free to email me at cupkatesforyou@gmail.com

Mini Pumpkin pies

Mini pecan pies

Apple Crisp Pie

Snickerdoodle cupcakes

Caramel Apple Cupcake

Spider, Bats and Cupcakes, Oh My!

2009-10-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

My cupcakes (and one of my children) were featured in a photographers blog!

They were round 1 of my Halloween cupcakes I made for a playdate. Pumpkin spice with cinnamon buttercream. Those are chocolate bats and spiderwebs on top of the cupcakes.

Baby Shower and Favors

2009-10-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

I have so much stuff I have been doing in the last couple of weeks. I'm so excited to get to show it to ya'll! Keep your eyes open for additional posts this week.

I did a baby shower this weekend for a friend. It was a boy and we went with the blue and brown theme. To compliment it we did double chocolate cupcakes and pina colada cupcakes (her favorite of mine, and I tinted the frosting blue to match).

We also did cupcakes as the favors. They were pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I have a Halloween themed version of these I will put up soon.

Proof that I can do more than bake cupcakes! I made those letters for my friend to use in her new babies room. It helped that they matched the decor as well!

I know I have had several requests for the cupcake towers so I wanted to give some of ya'll a visual for what they would/can look like. I put scrapbook paper underneath the cupcakes that co-ordinated with our decor. I have also seen people put ribbon around the edges that really makes it pop. I hope to get to try that soon!

Also, just a heads up for my STL and ATL clients. I am starting to take orders for the Thanksgiving holiday right now. I can do the pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese frosting cupcakes or the caramel apple cupcakes (apple cinnamon cupcake with dulce de leche frosting) I also do mini or full sized pies including pumpkin, apple, apple crisp(my husbands person favorite), pecan pie, and chocolate pie. I will be in STL the day before Thanksgiving so people from ATL and STL can get orders in. ATL orders must be picked up the Monday before Thanksgiving (pies freeze well, and will also keep in the fridge great until Thanksgiving). I am limited on the amount of orders I will be able to fill so let me know what you want early! As always, feel free to call, or post comments with any questions!

Bananas

2009-10-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Growing up my mom had two (major) things things she was allergic to: bananas and tree nuts. So naturally as any deprived girl would, I dived head first into experimenting with these two culinary sensations as quickly as I could. I love them both, but for today we will focus on the bananas.

They are a staple in our home, and I love their frugality. If at any point the bananas start to look like they are going bad, I simply pop them in the freezer to use for a host of recipes. I never waste money on bananas and they never go unused. One of our family favorites is my banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffins (someone remind me to give ya'll that recipe at some point!). Another trick I learned from a friend who is a dietitian is to take frozen bananas and pop them in a container you can use your immersion blender in. Add a tiny bit of milk and start pulsing away. After a few minutes you will have a substance that looks like ice cream, and which with young unsuspecting children easily passes for such as well. A touch of peanut butter is delicious in it too. Add some sprinkles and you are a mommy superstar.

So banana cupcakes seemed fairly natural to me, the hard part however, was picking out the frosting. I personally think chocolate and bananas were made for each other, but some people feel that way about the cream cheese frosting. Not wanting my personal tastes to bias things, I made both. And they both had fabulous reviews (although my personal favorite was the chocolate, just as I knew it would be!). They blended in well, and only my discerning tasters were able to distinguish the flavor before I told them.

Double Chocolate

2009-10-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

Back to our previously scheduled program : )

These are some double chocolate cupcakes I made this week. I did something a little bit different with the sprinkles on the mini ones, and I kind of like it, they are more fun I think.

I finally found the perfect cupcake tower that I had to go to three stores to find. For the record, I ended up finding it at Hobby Lobby at my trips to Michael's were fruitless (as they usually are). Hobby Lobby has my heart and I would drive half an hour to go there, but thankfully I have one about two minutes away.

All that to say, I hope to be posting pictures within the next couple of weeks of some projects I am doing featuring the cupcake tower and the possibilities of customizing it for personal use, or for rental.

Here are my top requested (and loved by non-chocolate lovers too) cupcakes:

Salmon

2009-09-28T08:51:00.001-07:00

Now for the salmon recipe!

Ya'll will have to bear with me a bit as I start the recipe documentation process. Most of my cooking (and baking for that matter) is a conglomeration of several recipes with my own tweaks, or something completely formulated in my head. That being said, specific ratios and measurements are something somewhat new to me. So feel free to ask any questions about anything that I put here if you are unclear or are getting different results.

Mustard Glazed Salmon:

equal parts dijon and brown sugar (i.e. 2 tablespoons of each is usually what I use), my favorite dijon is Emeril's
salt and pepper
salmon fillet (I prefer without skin)

Preheat your grill (this could be made in an over probably at 400F). Place salmon on aluminum foil and season with salt and pepper, place on top rack of grill (if you place it on the bottom the glaze will burn) and let cook for about 5 minutes. While salmon is cooking mix dijon and sugar together until the sugar is mostly dissolved. After 5 minutes paint the glaze onto the top of the salmon, with any of the extra drizzling right along the top middle of the fillet. Let cook an additional 4-10 minutes (depending on how hot your grill is and how thick the salmon is) until an internal temperature of 140F is reached.

In the picture I made this with quinoa, which is a tasty healthy whole grain. I get mine at Trader Joe's but I think you can find it in any grocery store now. I make it according to the direction on the box but instead of water I use chicken stock (vegetable would be fine) about a tablespoon of lemon juice and some garlic powder. Normally I would add some chopped parsley too, but I was rushed. Basil or mint would be good with it as well.

I love this meal because it has a gourmet feel yet can easily be made in half an hour and is so easy.

Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie- with recipe!

2009-09-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

I debated which recipe to give you first, salmon or key lime pie, and since summer is quickly coming to an end (as in today...), I thought I would throw the key lime pie your way before it's time for all my apple recipes.

I saw this on Oprah, and I thought I would give it a try. I'm normally not a huge key lime pie person, just because it's usually too tart and not very well balanced. This exceeded my expectations. Not only was it delicious, I was impressed with how easy it was too. They also freeze really well. I made some mini pies in ramekins, and I've got six waiting for me in the freezer.

Mar-A-Lago Key Lime Pie

Ingredients:Serves 8

Graham Cracker Crust:

3/4 pound graham crackers

4 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 sticks melted butter

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Filling:

4 egg yolks

1 can (14 ounces) condensed milk

2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice

1 lime , grated zest

Topping:

1 cup heavy or whipping cream , chilled

2 Tbsp. confectioners' sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

To make graham cracker crust: Preheat the oven to 325°.

Break up the graham crackers, place in a food processor and process to crumbs. Add the melted butter, sugar and salt and pulse until combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan, forming an even layer on the bottom, sides and edge. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the crust to cool.

To make filling: While the crust is resting, in an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and lime zest at high speed until fluffy, or 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to whip until thick, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Lower the mixer speed and slowly add the lime juice until incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until the filling has just set. Cool on a wire rack, and then refrigerate for 20 minutes.

To make topping: Whip the cream, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until nearly stiff. Evenly spread the whipped cream on top of the pie, and place in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to serving.

On the show he put a ton of white chocolate on top. I did this at home as well (since it is what attracted me to the recipe) and I would really recommend doing this as well, it really helps the taste balance, texture and just gives it that something special.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

2009-09-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

A few changes coming to this site. As much as I love cupcakes, and this site is meant to be focused on cupcakes (as the general focus will remain) I plan on expanding a little. I often get asked what I enjoy more, cooking or baking, and I always have difficulty answering that question. I love baking for the creative freedom it allows me, but I also love cooking and the ability to comfort and replenish.

That is why I am going to start including some of the meals that I make here and there (and hopefully the recipes if I am organized enough!). This will help me to document what I make and give me a source for brainstorming weekly meal plans, plus it will hopefully inspire you or give you some new recipes to try.

I have a few recipes waiting to share as soon as I have a little bit more time to type them out, but for now I wanted to inform you of the inclusion.

I will leave you with these:

My twist on a caramel apple: apple cinnamon cupcakes with a dulce de leche frosting

Minis

2009-08-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have made a whole bunch of fun new cupcakes recently, but have been a big fat failure when it comes to documenting them. I just have too many people chomping at the bit to eat them! My new favorites, raspberry almond, with chocolate frosting should have pictures coming soon since I have an order for this weekend, which I will be SURE to take pictures of. I'm pretty excited to share those with y'all anyways.

But for today, I have cute, petite mini red velvets.

I do regular and mini size cupcakes, but I must admit I am a little partial to the minis. They are a bit more complicated, but for parties, gatherings with large people, and kids, they are absolutely perfect! They are easy to manage, make you feel less guilty, are less of a sugar buzz for the kiddos, and give you the option to try several flavors. I'm dying to do a wedding cupcake stand with regular and mini sized cupcakes in different flavors mixed together. With toppers like the ones in the post below with a monogram on top. Not that I have it planned out or anything... now if only I knew people who were getting married!

Baby Boy shower

2009-08-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some cupcakes I made for a baby shower (obviously boy). They are double chocolate cupcakes with baby themed chocolate toppers. There is a baby buggy, bootie and bottles. I was pretty happy with how these turned out. I would love to do these for a wedding in co-ordinating colors with a monogram on top. How pretty would that be?

Side View:

Top View:

Again, I realize that I may be biased, but my double chocolate cakes are SO good. I normally don't like getting double chocolate cupcakes (or cake for that matter) because people usually don't know how to make them well. Either they are too rich to eat a whole one (which come on, it's a cupcake!) or they are too sweet with no salty balance.

Mine fall into neither of those categories, and still have enough chocolate punch. My husband is not a cake person. His sweet default is ice cream every time. I know my cupcakes are really good when he will eat two in a row (or more), if he only eats one, I know they need more tweaking. Let's just say I lost count of how many of these he ate the other night.

Cupcake Cake

2009-08-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Another example of a cupcake cake. This cupcake cake was 15 regular sized double chocolate cupcakes filled with strawberry cream that I made for my doctors office.

I called in today to get some test results I had done and the receptionist went out of her way to tell me how good they were. I was quite flattered. My cupcakes may not always win the prettiest on the block competition (not that they are ugly by any means...), but when it comes to taste, I like to think of myself as a cupcake rockstar.

This is a side view so you can see the cupcake part:

Top View:

Peach Ice Cream- with recipe!

2009-08-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been so busy baking the cupcakes, I haven't had a chance to blog about them. Hopefully this week I will be able to make up for lost time. For now I will attempt to redeem myself with a recipe.

Peaches are in season here in Georgia, and ridiculously cheap. Having such a bounty of the luscious fruits I decided to get a little creative. Sure anyone can make peach cobbler, or crisp, but boys aren't big fans of that and quite frankly I was a little bored by that thought too. However, if there is one thing my boys like it's ice cream.

So why not give peach ice cream a go? When I first got my ice cream maker I used to use it all the time, but recently I have let it be neglected for my cupcake pan. I was glad to have an excuse to dust it off (and after my success I think it will stay in a more consistently used spot!). My go to recipe inspiration website is usually epicurious.com or chow.com. Epicurious gets first dibs, and they happened to have a recipe that was exactly what I was looking for with glowing reviews.

What resulted over the next 24 hours (yes it's a process, but a rather simple one) was one of the best things I have put in my mouth this summer. Unlike my boys, I usually find ice cream lacking a little something. Whatever that is, this version had it. I plan on making it again soon, and the same basic concept to give blackberry ice cream a try too.

Here is the recipe, and the results :

My only notes would be to not add the chunks of peaches, but to puree it all.

I had such success with the ice cream I thought I would give peach cupcakes a try. Somehow though they were eaten before I remembered to take pictures of them. Bummer. My taste testers all said they really liked them. I wasn't as thrilled with the texture, and I thought that they could have been more "peachy". Although that is what everyone said that they liked about them, that they weren't overly "peachy". Maybe I will just work on the texture and call them vanilla peach cupcakes instead! To give them the peach flavor I used the same concept that the ice cream uses to make the peach puree, and added that to my cake batter.

Anyhow, hopefully you can get some inspiration from this post to use whatever produce is most fresh in your area to experiment a little in your cooking/baking!

Pina Colada

2009-07-19T09:19:00.001-07:00

CupKate hiatus #2 now over. I hoping to return to a state of normal cupcake production here soon. Summers are slow because there aren't as many gatherings to bring them to!

Here is one I made a couple weeks back, and if I do say so myself I think it is one of of my favorites to date.

When I made these I was just experimenting to see if I could get the taste profile I was looking for, of which I was very pleased turned out dead on. As far as the presentation though, well, as I said I was focused on taste and not taking much time on appearance. I'm looking forward to making them again so I can have the presentation and taste perfected.

Here are my Pina Colada cupcakes, perfect for any summer gathering.

Red, White and Blue

2009-07-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

I have been on a cupcake hiatus. However, I couldn't let the Fourth of July be passed up without making some patriotic cupcakes. These are all red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Red, White and Blue swirls

Red, White and Blue "Stars"

My attempt at the "firework" cupcakes

I am headed out of town first thing Monday for a little over a week, but am backed up on cupcake sharing, so expect more upon my return. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Strawberry Shortcake with recipe

2009-06-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Strawberries are abundant here in Georgia (and cheap!) and I wanted to do something with them, the obvious place to go from there is always strawberry shortcake. My mom and Chris's mom have always made the easier healthier option of this dessert which consists of angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream (or cool whip). Neither of us have had the real deal, and I decided we, and our children would be deprived no more.

So I pulled out my go to biscuit recipe (omitting cream and pepper and adding 1/3 cup sugar to the mixture) and went at it. While making the biscuits I macerated the strawberries (meaning I cut them up and put them in a bowl with 1/3 cup sugar and a squirt or two of lemon juice), and made up the whipped cream (whipping cream + vanilla and powdered sugar to taste).

It turned out delightful. To get the biscuits to look like this, I used a large flower cutter I had and sprinkled the tops with sugar (raw sugar would be best, and the regular stuff wasn't that noticeable) before I baked them.

They were everything I had hoped they would be. I think I'm a shortcake convert, no more angel food cake here!

Chocolate and Bailey's

2009-06-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

I have two words for you:

CHOCOLATE and BAILEY'S

Enough said.

(but to clarify, it's a chocolate cupcake with Bailey's frosting)

Favors

2009-05-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

For Josh's birthday, I couldn't resist making some take home favors for the parents. Just vanilla cupcakes with a light chocolate frosting.

I made these again later in the week, and filled them with strawberry cream. I will definitely be adding those to my regular circulation, and I think I will call them neopolitan cupcakes.

Backyardigans Cupcake Cake

2009-05-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

So I've started dappling in cupcake cakes. Because they are so cute, practical, and stick with the whole cupcake theme. Plus I think they give you a little more artistic freedom than a regular sheet cake because of the different shapes you can make with the cupcakes.

Josh loves the Backyardigans, so obviously, we decided on a Backyardigans themed birthday, and a long with it, a cake. The cake consists of vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry cream, or whipped chocolate ganache, and a vanilla cream cheese frosting. The characters are all in their "backyard", and the green is the closest to grass you can get with a piping bag. The dark green blobs are shrubs. I wanted to make them a little taller, but to get them that dark required a lot of coloring, and the amount of powdered sugar to get them stiff enough to stand taller was never ending, so I settled for these.

All in all, I was pretty happy with it!

Front View:

Top View:

Peanut Butter Cup

2009-05-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm on blog back up due to a stomach flu that hit our house two weeks ago, and then all the preparation for Josh's birthday, and that fact that baking takes time. So expect a slew of posts in the next couple of days.

For Josh's real birthday I had planned on making him peanut butter cup cupcakes. In case you haven't realized yet, my family and my small group girls are who I do most of my experimenting and perfecting on.

I made homemade peanut butter cups to go inside the cupcakes

They turned out fabulous on their own, but I had made them for a purpose, so inside the chocolate cupcakes they went. Then I topped the chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. And chocolate sprinkles. They were everything I hoped they would be.

Chocolate Chip Cookies, my favorite recipe

2009-05-07T11:29:00.001-07:00

I love cookies. I think it is something about the salty/sweet combination that really does me in. In a perfect world, chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. Yet the perfect chocolate chip cookie is rather elusive. Not to mention, depending on the season, time of day, or what kind of day I am having, what constitutes the perfect CCC changes. Some days I want nothing but soft goodness, other days I like a little crisp on the outside, and some days I like chewy.

All this considered, I think I have found my perfect CCC recipe. It may not be yours, and I won't take offense if it's not, but I do think this recipe has a little of all the types in ones. It's worth a go anyhow. Jacques Torres is kind of a big deal, so he must be able to lend something to the world of CCC's. So here is the recipe, courtesy of Jacques: (I usually half this recipe, or freeze the other half, and I use regular all purpose flour without any issues, and Ghiradelli semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips)

Makes twenty-six 5-inch cookies or 8 1/2 dozen 1 1/4-inch cookies

1 pound unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds Jacques Torres House (60 percent cocoa) Chocolate or other best-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.

Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

The result:

Experiments in frosting

2009-05-04T08:42:00.001-07:00

I tried a few new things with cupkates last week. One of them was a new kind of wrapper:

I think they turned out very cute. However, I am not sure I will be using them again. First off, they are very difficult to proportion correctly. If you fill it up the typical 2/3, they overflow, and when you do it only 1/2 full, they don't come all the way to the top. Not to mention you can add the exact same amount of batter to two cups and they will rise to different levels. For someone who values uniformity in her cupkates, this was a big negative.

Then there is the eating factor. As in, no one knows how. You can't really pull them off, so do you just squeeze it in your mouth? Try to take a bite without pulling the paper down? I too have been left guessing as to the proper technique.

So like a lot of pretty things, these just aren't practical.

I also tried a different icing technique:

I like how the flowers turned out, especially considering I didn't have the right tip for them. I hope once I get the right tip I can perfect this look. I think it would look really cute with a brightly colored frosting also.

And finally, here is a quick picture I grabbed of some cupkates I took for my small group girls:

Notice the one on the bottom and the right, these are chocolate cupkates with orange cream cheese frosting. I had more of that icing on hand than any others this week, and the combination sounded good, so I thought I would give it a try. I was very pleased with the result! I'm not even the biggest orange fan, but these just really seemed to lighten up the chocolate a bit. A chocolate cake with orange cream cheese filling, covered in ganache sound heavenly. I think I'll have to work on a cupkate version of that...

Assorted minis and my Card

2009-05-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Here are the products of yesterdays job:

All the little cupcakes

Chocolate with Strawberry Meringue Buttercream

(which did not like the heat as much as I would have hoped!)

Red Velvet with Cream cheese frosting :

Sunshine CupKates:

(lemon cupkate with orange cream cheese frosting)

Nestled in their box all ready to go:

The lady who I did the cupkatering for sent me and email with the following:

"The party was horribly attended and yet, we only had 12-18 of them left…everybody oogled over how perfect they were and how cute they were and their total yumminess! "

I also got my business cards in, and am rather happy with how they turned out. Although the next ones will have the new logo on it, but this has all come together rather hastily, so again, pleased with the results!

I also did some experimenting with icing techniques that I want to post some pictures of soon. Stay tuned for those!

Vanilla Bean Coconut

2009-04-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Vanilla Bean and Coconut yumminess:

A Start!

2009-04-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

My cupcake ("cupkates") blog is finally up and running!

What has finally motivated me to finally start this, really is the start of finally getting paid for all the previously pro bono baking I have been doing. Mind you the pro bono baking will continue, but man, am I excited to make a little side money to fund the pro bono baking that I've been doing!

This will also be a place where people can see some of my work, get inspiration, sometimes recipes, or just to drool on your computer screen!

Just remember, if you have any questions or would like to contact me for any reason, please feel free to do so at cupkatesforyou@gmail.com.

Now for your viewing pleasure, my sunshine cupcakes (lemon cupcake with orange cream cheese frosting):

Believe it or not, Josh (my oldest boy, and almost 4) helped decorate these! That boy is a sprinkle machine, although he calls them sparklings, which makes it even cuter.

CupKates

Grilled chicken caesar wraps

Bacon Apple Cheddar Stuffing

Pumpkin Bread

Salted Caramel Spread

Cupcakes I've been cooking

Chicken and Dumplings

Hot Fudge Sauce

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Chocolate or Vanilla?

Update and CakePops

What I've Been Up To

Final 2010 Wedding and Maternity Leave

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Beach Wedding

Thanks!

Getting Real

General Announcements

Star

Cupcake Free

Fancy Nancy

Wedding Brainstorming

Explanation

Cake Tips and a Recipe

Secret Desire

May weddings, Cookies!

May wedding #1

Absence

Guilt

Spring and Life

St. Patty's Day Birthday

Wedding Season

Helper

Feeling the Love

And the winner is....

St. Patrick's Day

Behind

Polka Dot Cupcake Cake

Soccer Balls and Booking

Toy Story Cupcake Cake

Favors

*healthy* cupcakes

Made with Love

Are you Ready for some Football?

Chicken Ratatouille

Cupcake Throwdown

Like Grandma's...a new flavor

Project Craftiness

Tiramisu, Bread Pudding and recipes!

I Do More Than Cupcakes!

Holiday Flavors

Cookies and Cream

Halloween and a Party

Thanksgiving Flavors

Spider, Bats and Cupcakes, Oh My!

Baby Shower and Favors

Bananas

Double Chocolate

Salmon

Key Lime Pie- with recipe!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Minis

Baby Boy shower

Cupcake Cake

Peach Ice Cream- with recipe!

Pina Colada

Red, White and Blue

Strawberry Shortcake with recipe

Chocolate and Bailey's

Favors

Backyardigans Cupcake Cake

Peanut Butter Cup

Chocolate Chip Cookies, my favorite recipe

Experiments in frosting

Assorted minis and my Card

Vanilla Bean Coconut

A Start!

healthy cupcakes