Double Trouble: Cupcakes at Callie's

I'm back! Sorry it's been so long. There's no excuse, really. Just laziness. But lets hop-to!

These are some cupcakes that I made for my office for our Halloween party. Since I made them over at Callie's that means we had to make more than one batch of cupcakes. That's how we roll.

I made Carmel Apple Cupcakes

and Callie made Boston Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes.

I have to admit, I kind of took the easy way out with these. The base for the cupcakes and the icing are both from a box (gasp!!! choke, falloverdead!!) I know, I'm not proud of it. However, they were still fun to make and they were still pretty yummy. Callie stayed true blue and made everything from scratch.

I added some reduced apple sauce to a box-mix spice cake batter for the cake, and added caramel to some store bought butter cream icing. In the end there wasn't as much apple flavor as I would have liked but it definitely tasted like a Fall cupcake.

Callies were super delicious. It started off with just a simple vanilla cupcake, but got pretty complicated from there. There was tempering involved which included a bit of unintentional scrambled eggs...but try, try again.

Both of our cupcakes were filled with goodness. Callie's had banana cream in the middle, and mine had dulce de leche. Callie like to cut little cones in to her filled cupcakes, put the cream in an then put the "top" back on. I like to stick my pinky in to each cupcake. I obviously was the lazier of the two of us that night.

I used some new sprinkles for my cupcakes and they are officially my favorite to use. They add a little bit of a crunch but aren't super hard like some sprinkles. And they're so PRETTY! They make any cupcake look super fancy and sophisticated. It's like the equivalent of putting on fancy fur coat -- you're immediately fancified. I realize that's not a word, spell checker. Thankyouverymuch.

Not Exactly Better Than Sex Cupcakes

These cupcakes were my first try at using multicolored fondant. I made the fondant as usual, but just separated the mixture in half before adding color. I think it turned out well. As far as the cupcakes themselves, eh...I wasn't so impressed. These cupcakes were supposed to be "better than sex" chocolate cupcakes but I nixed the chocolate ganache in the center and that might have changed the flavor a bit. But they're sooooo pretty! I had to use my camera phone again for this picture. Where is that damn digital camera?.....

Banana Sour Cream Cupcakes with Honey Cream Frosting

There is a cupcake cookbook out there that I believe is the best ever. It's called "Cupcakes: a fine selection of sweet treats" by Chriatabel Martin. This woman is a genious. Every type of cupcake that Kat or I have baked from this book has been AMAZING. They are so fluffy and light, and always have interesting and delicious flavors. The latest cupcake I made from this book was a Banana and Sour Cream cupcake with a Honey Cream frosting. Every step in this recipe was in line with keeping the cupcake light and fluffy; a lot of sifting, folding, whipping...airy and yummy!
Kat and I think that the reason all the cupcakes in this book come out so light and fluffy is that every cupcake recipe calls for self-rising flour and superfine sugar, and most of the recipes call for you to sift the flower.
I tried a lot of different decorating ideas for these cupcakes. I experimented with yellow spray paint, black food coloring, sliced strawberries, bannanas, and drops of honey. In the end, my favorite was dipping a toothpick in to the honey and making a tiny little swirl in the middle of the dollop of icing. Sweet and pretty!

My room is a disaster zone and I can't find my camera :/ so I had to take this picture with my camera phone.

The next cupcake recipe...Hawaiian macadamic cupcakes! nomnomnom!

Drue's First Bento Box!

Drue has been obsessed with bento boxes lately, and who can blame her? Have you SEEN them?
This type of bento is called Kyaraben (character bento). These cutesy bento boxes originated with Japanese housewives who wanted to come up with some way for their kids to be interested in eating their vegetables. If you make a cucumber look like a flower or make a rice ball look like pikachu's head, it's pretty much a ton of fun to eat it. Drue got all sorts of bento box gadgets in the mail yesterday so she made her first bento box.

This one is flower themed if you couldn't tell. Spring rolls along with cucumber, blueberries, edamame, rice, and quail eggs. The little container on the left is in the shape of a strawberry and holds a tiny portion of soy sauce. Adorable! Good job Drue!

Ginger Lime Cupcakes

Last night was full of cooking and baking. Drue made her very first bento box lunch (I'll explain what that is in another post) and Kat and I made Ginger Lime Cupcakes.
I don't like ginger usually but these cupcakes are delicious. Since it's finally getting warm and pretty outside we decided to make these spring themed cupcakes...mainly because Kat loves themes. They're cute though! Check them out...Too cute! Yes, I know. Kat has also made Orange Poppy seed cupcakes from the same recipe book, and we both agreed that for some reason the cupcakes in that book always come out super fluffy and light, which is awesome. The book is called...well, I can't find it right now but I'll put it up here soon. Good book, great book, awesome cupcakes.
So! For Ginger Lime cupcakes you need lime zest and juice, chopped candied ginger (which is about as easy as finely chopping gummy bears), coconut, milk, eggs, sugar, and flour. Am I missing anything here? Like I said I can't find that damn book...
It's a pretty quick cupcake. The weird thing is the icing which isn't really an icing at all - more like a lime glaze. Hopefully you can see it in the pictures. I was positive I was screwing up the recipe when making it, but no. It's supposed to look that way. And you only use a very little bit when putting it on the cupcake. Probably only about a marble-sized amount.
We decided to add the sprinkles and spring-time decorations but of course you can add or not add whatever you want. Personally, I would have liked to use these...

WHICH can be found at the Cake Art Party Store in Tucker, Georgia. I've never been but that's where blogger Bakerella gets all of her stuff. What's that? Kat and I should go there next week and lose our minds over sprinkles, edible glitter dust, air brushing tools and cupcake pans? OKAY, WILL DO! I'm a little scared of how much money may be lost in this store. Poof, gone.

Happy Easter

I know that dying eggs doesn't count as baking or cooking. However, easter eggs are extremely cute, and after you're done dying them, you can use them to cook or bake! So I figured I could at least share some pictures of our afternoon dying easter eggs at home on our front porch.


To create the striped effect we used thin strips of electrical tape on a plain white egg. After dying it in one color and allowing it to dry, remove the tape and apply once again slightly overlapping the parts of the egg that are still white. These were my favorite eggs that was made that day.

The eggs that we put our names on didn't turn out as well as we had hoped. The stickers kept falling off in the dye, but you get the gist of what we were trying to do. Using sticker letters made for mailboxes would probably work better than stickers made for scrap booking. Hmm...live and learn ;)The roomie's initials

Olive Oil Cupcakes with Lemon, Thyme, and a Balsamic Vinegar Whipped Cream

One of my favorite things to bake here at home is cupcakes. I'm always looking for new and different cupcake ideas, and when I came across this one at cupcakeproject.com, I knew I had to try them out. I present to you, Olive Oil Cupcakes with Lemon and Thyme and a Balsamic Vinegar Whipped Cream!
Okay, so I know the picture isn't great but my refrigerator had the best lighting. And I know the idea of cupcakes made without butter and with savory ingredients sounds gross but...get over it because these cupcakes are amazing! You won't regret trying them. Moving on!
To make these cupcakes you need everything mentioned in the title (olive oil, lemon zest and juice, fresh thyme, balsamic vinegar, heavy whipping cream) along with sugar, flower, a pinch of salt, baking powder, and eggs.
It's not a very hard cupcake to make, and I managed to do it without a hand mixer which decided to die on me as I started to combine the ingredients. Making the whipped cream by hand was a bit tiring but in no way impossible to do. I also didn't have a piping bag so I put the icing bag using a fold-over sandwich bag. Not the prettiest, but I made it work.
Some foodies might insist on using a very high quality olive oil for this recipe since you are using such a large amount (2/3 of a cup), but I used Kroger brand olive oil and they were still delicious in the end.
Now, a lot of my friends were wary to try these, and the first bite is off-putting, but by the time you're done you only want more!
To see the full recipe be sure to visit http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/05/olive-oil-cupcakes-with-lemon-thyme-and.html