Hydrangea Cupcakes

For my Mom's birthday, I made her these hydrangea cupcakes. I bought all sorts of different shades of purple and blue to make the right colors. They turned out great, but the cream cheese frosting was a little loose and goopy. It didn't get as fluffy as it was supposed to. They were delicious, though!

 

I think they're beautiful, despite the frosting! Next time, I'll have to figure out where I went wrong. Maybe the cream cheese was too soft.

I tried to use a white liner, thinking the batter would seep through and make the liner look brown, like dirt. You know, because these are flowers. Sadly, it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. Brown liners would have been better.

Anyway, these turned out so great. The cupcake was so moist and delicious, and the frosting was to die for. The recipe can be found here, where the idea came from. Glorious Treats' rendition is much better than mine! Her frosting wasn't goopy at all. Mine will look like that next time! 

Happy baking! 

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake, filled with chocolate raspberry ganache
and topped with a chocolate raspberry frosting.

For my birthday, I decided to make this recipe that I found on Pinterest. Chocolate raspberry cupcakes. And they were soo good. The cupcake was moist and stayed that way unusually long (good thing?), the filling melted in your mouth, and the frosting was velvety and delicious. They took a while to make, but they were definitely worth it.

First, I made the cupcake batter and put them in the oven. When they were done, I left them to cool and while I was waiting, I made the ganache. The ganache was runny at first, but after a day or two in the cupcakes, it hardened to the point of being almost like a soft truffle in the middle. That made the cupcakes hard to bite into without them falling apart! Definitely use a plate when eating these. And have napkins handy. After the ganache was done, I cored the cupcakes using the cone method, and filled them. Then I made the frosting and piped it on with a Wilton 1M tip. Something weird happened when I was piping them. The frosting started to come out weird. This happened because a little bit of chocolate that hadn't gotten melted got stuck in the tip. To fix it, I just took the tip off, washed it out, and put it back on. That's the only problem I had when making these!

Here's the recipe:

http://www.thecurvycarrot.com/2011/12/10/chocolate-raspberry-cupcakes/

This is probably the best recipe I've ever made. Give them a try! 

Tiramisu Cupcakes!

Second post of the day! Another delicious cupcake. I made these tiramisu cupcakes out of my love for tiramisu. I'm not sure they're quite as good, but they're pretty delicious.

This is a white cake filled with espresso chocolate mousse, topped with mascarpone whipped cream frosting and sprinkled with cocoa powder, with a piece of ladyfinger on top. Yum yum.







So these are somewhat labor intensive. But worth it. You have to make the cupcake, the filling, and the frosting. And it also takes forever to core the cupcakes.

Core the cupcake using the cone method.

Fill with espresso chocolate mousse.

Replace top.

They don't look so good now, but after
frosting they will!

                             







































Here's the recipe:  http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2013/01/02/tiramisu-cupcakes/

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

So I recently made salted caramel chocolate cupcakes. It's taken me quite a while to get around to posting them, but here they are!

It's a moist chocolate cupcake filled with salted caramel, topped with a delicious chocolate frosting, drizzled with caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. It just sounds amazing. In the picture though, it looks a little odd. After sprinkling the salt on and leaving it for a night, it seemed to soak into the frosting, leaving it with a strange looking texture. The caramel also was absorbed by the frosting to an extent. I suggest waiting to drizzle the caramel and sprinkle the sea salt until you're ready to serve the cupcakes. That way they'll look good as well as tasting amazing!
Another issue I had with the cupcakes was that after filling it with the salted caramel, it soaked in. I'm not sure how to fix that problem. Anyone know how to fill a cupcake with caramel without the cupcake absorbing it?

Anyway, even with those mishaps, the cupcakes were FANTASTIC. They were rich, moist, flavorful, everything you want in a cupcake. They were also very messy, haha!

First, I whipped up the batter and stuck the cupcakes in the oven. Once they were done, I let them cool and then prepared them for filling using the cone method, shown here. Then, I spooned some store bought caramel sauce mixed with some sea salt into each cupcake, and replaced the top of each cupcake (you could use the caramel sauce in the first link below, if you're patient enough to make it!). Lastly, I frosted them, drizzled them with caramel, and sprinkled them with sea salt. Although, as I mentioned above, it would be better to save the caramel and sea salt topping until right before serving.

I would really recommend these cupcakes! They were soooo good.


If you want to make them:

Cupcake: http://www.shemakesandbakes.com/1/post/2013/01/salted-caramel-chocolate-cupcakes.html

Frosting: http://www.laurenslatest.com/the-best-and-easiest-chocolate-frosting-birthday-cake/

**I only used the best and easiest chocolate frosting because I didn't have enough chocolate for the frosting that was used in the first link. If you do have enough chocolate though, I'm sure that frosting might be even better!**

First Post: Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream

Hi there! So this is my first post on my cupcake blog. I made The ULTIMATE vanilla cupcakes, and frosted half of them with vanilla buttercream, half of them with chocolate buttercream. And they turned out fabulous, as always. This is THE BEST vanilla cupcake recipe out there. They turn out uniform in shape every time, and always taste great. 

Here's a pic of two of the delicious cupcakes.

I frosted them with a 
1m tip from Wilton. 
For the cupcake on the 
left, I started at the 
middle and worked
my way out to make
a rose. For the cupcake 
on the right I started on the outside and swirled 
in and up, for a classic 
1m swirl. Pretty, right? I love these silver cupcake liners. 

A pic of the rose from the top.

If you want to give making these a try, here's the recipe. The vanilla bean seeds definitely make a HUGE impact on the flavor. They make the cupcake much better than an ordinary vanilla cupcake recipe. 
The chocolate frosting is from here, and the vanilla frosting is from here. They all came from different places, but taste great together! Although I found with the chocolate frosting that it somewhat overpowers the vanilla cupcake. It still tastes great though! Maybe it would be better paired with a chocolate cupcake. I used this chocolate frosting recipe because i didn't have any semisweet chocolate bars. Usually I would use a recipe with real chocolate in it, but this is a great substitute! These are three of my staple recipes, so if you're looking for a great recipe for vanilla cupcakes, vanilla buttercream, or chocolate buttercream, look no further!

Here are the links again!

ULTIMATE Vanilla Cupcakes: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2011/09/ultimate-vanilla-cupcake-test-baked-by.html

Best and easiest chocolate frosting: http://www.laurenslatest.com/the-best-and-easiest-chocolate-frosting-birthday-cake/

Magnolia bakery's vanilla buttercream: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/MAGNOLIA-BAKERY-VANILLA-CUPCAKES-WITH-VANILLA-BUTTERCREAM-ICING-50055058