Cupcakes are booming!

It's been a fairly busy last 10 days - creating cupcakes to welcome home my neice Maddie, from a vacation that ended in the hospital - thankfully she seems to be doing better - and to also make birthday celebration cucpakes as well.  I will try to include some of the recipes this time!

Only 13 days left of my summer, though - that makes me sad.  (Maybe I should make some "sympathy" cupcakes!)  I have a wedding party to make cupcakes for this Saturday - so THAT's happy!  And, I have been wanting to try some gluten-free cupcakes to honor friends who have unfortunately developed an allergy to that darn gluten found in most baked goods.  The ingredients for those are rather expensive, but I may have to just take the plunge and gather them up.  I have another baker friend - who is marvelously talented and has shared recipes on her own blog (check out the Every Day blog listed on my site).

Thought I would share the most recent cupcakes from the past couple of weeks.  And here they are...!

 Above and just below - these were actually sugar-free (yes, from a box and can) for my buddy, Cathy's birthday.  She has had recent surgery and is not supposed to have sugar.  Of course I did add some edible glitter to make them sparkle!  And I also added my usual "mix additions" of sugar free instant pudding and sour cream to the cake mix.  They actually tasted pretty good!

 Above and just below - my chocolate coffee creation - I call it my Chocolate Coffee Double Decadence.  Chocolate cupcake filled with khalua cream cheese and frosted with Bailey's butter cream.  Decorated "just for fun" with chocolate swirl on top photo; (idea from http://nonnaluna.wordpress.com/recipes/mocha-cappuccino-cupcakes-caramel-buttercream-frosting/)%20decorated; decorated with birthday balloon picks,surrounded by chocolate "balloon" on bottom photo.

 This birthday girl wanted chocolate peanut butter for her party.  So chocolate peanut butter she got!  I started with my own chocolate cupcakes and filled them with a chocolate/peanut butter ganache and a really yummy peanut butter frosting (http://www.cakeandallie.com/2011/06/chocolate-peanut-butter-cupcakes/.  I will post entire recipe soon.

 Another birthday wish cupcake.  My version of pink lemonade, found on http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2010/04/pink-lemonade-cupcakes.html with my own sparkly additions!  I call this my "Pink Lemonlade" in honor of my own daughter, Erica, (no relation to website, but how ironic is that?!) who LOVES these cupcakes and when she was about 3, called it "lemonlade" - she's 23 now! 

And for Maddie, upon her return home -a red velvet cupcake frosted with cream cheese frosting and topped with chocolate shavings and pink and purple edible glitter!

I also made a trial batch of the bam-bam shooter (amaretto, Bailey's, and Malibu rum) cupcakes that I'm doing for an upcoming "post-wedding" party this Saturday.  Wasn't sure how the combination of liquors would turn out, but according to my "official" taste-testers (Erica, some employee/friends of mine at the local liquor store, and friends of Erica's at the tire store) they are actually pretty darn good!  I started with the amaretto cake and then divided the first 24 into half  and on 12 did the Bailey's glaze and Malibu butter cream and on the other 12, did the Malibu glaze and the Bailey's butter cream.  The first combination was the majority favorite, so that's what I will do for the wedding gig on Saturday.  Since I made mini cupcakes (they are shooters after all!), I ended up with 84 total cupcakes!!!  Plenty for the taste testers; plenty for the wedding party!  Will post recipe and pics when complete.

Cupcake photo update

Summer time means a bit of a slow-down for new cupcake orders, but at least it's given me a chance to get a little bit caught up on some much needed house and yard work. Of course, some grass in my back yard would be nice but with large shade trees and four dogs who run around, that will be quite the challenge. And I would love to have a magic wand to do SOMEthing with my garage, but that's another day or two or three...  My most recent cupcakes went to a very special young lady - my niece, Maddie - who had some unfortunate medical issues at the end of the family vacay.  She is better now, but I just had to have some red velvet chocolate cupcakes waiting for her upon her return home.  They were very sparkly - sprinkled with pink and purple edible glitter along with the chocolate shavings.  She LOVES chocolate!  She and I also have a date to go see the new Winnie the Pooh movie!  I LOVE Tigger!

I do believe today will be a "trial and error" kind of day - as I attempt to make the special "shooter" cupcake for the upcoming wedding party.  I will do my best to create a "bam-bam" cupcake to honor the new bride and groom and their friends. I have never heard of these ingredients together, but I will attempt to create a cupcake deliciousness with amaretto, Malibu rum, and Bailey's.  However, before I retire to the kitchen to start my "creation", I do have some photos of other cupcakes from recent weeks.  So thought I would share some of them here:

Margarita in a cupcake!  Basic vanilla cupcakes filled with margarita/rum flavored vanilla pudding.  Frosted with margarita flavored butter cream and garnished with fresh lime slice and green edible glitter.

Cupcakes for future Mississippi State student!  Lemon filled lemon cupcake frosted with fresh blueberry butter cream and garnished with white chocolate bulldog and fresh blueberry.  The Mississippi State colors (maroon and white) are vanilla cupcakes frosted with butter cream and garnished again with white chocolate bulldog.

Mojito cupcake.  Vanilla cupcake glazed with mojito mix and rum.  Frosted with mojto butter cream and garnished with fresh lime slice and mint.

A week-night creation - made with some "left-over" goodies.  Neapolitan goodness! Vanilla cupcake frosted with chocolate and strawberry butter creams - just like the ice cream!  Topped with maraschino cherry.  Alex and friends loved it!

Something a little different - a root beer float in a cupcake!  Vanilla cupcake with root beer soda substituted for the water.  Glazed with root beer liqueur and frosted with root beer liqueur butter cream.  Topped with maraschino cherry. A definite summer treat!

Happy Birthday Baby!  A combination of pink (blue) lemonade and angel food cupcakes.  Baby shower centered around a train theme, so the cupcakes went into the shape of a train.

Happy Birthday America!  Vanilla cupcake frosted with a trio of red white and blue butter cream.  Sprinkled with white edible glitter.

So, off to the kitchen to see how my Bam-bam creations turn out!  I will post results!

Beach time cupcakes!

One of my favorite friends and cupcake customers called for cupcakes for his step-daughter's birthday.  He and his wife wanted a beachy theme and I asked what her favorite colors were - her dorm room for her first year of college coming up is going to be aqua, lime and a hint of yellow.  Needless to say, I had a lot of fun gathering some cute beachy decor and serving pieces.  This is what I came up with! 

I am very happy to say the cupcakes AND the presentation were big hits.  I even met a new friend at the party who asked me to do cupcakes for her upcoming "post-wedding" party!  YAY!