Pina Colada

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.