Edible Flower Cupcakes

Edible Flower Cupcakes!

I made these cupcakes yesterday for a teacher at my sons school who was celebrating her birthday. It was a little surprise for her as I had some leftover mini cupcakes from her order, so I decided to do something special for her and make some unique pretty suprise cupcakes. She ordered 3 1/2 dozen mini cupcakes for all the children in the kindergarten classes to celebrate her birthday with her at school. Since she was so sweet and kind to do that, I  thought I'd give her a little of my own kind of sweetness!! What better than adorable little cupcakes with edible flowers? I'd been wanting to try these out and I am just delighted with them--now I have a little case of them in the fridge leftover and need to find someone else to share them with!! I think she was pleasantly suprised!! 

They did look really cute-almost too cute to eat. Thank goodness they were for someone else, or I might have popped a few in my mouth when no one was looking, lol!

Gummi Bear Mania

GUMMI BEARS AND CUPCAKES!

When I had a request for some cupcakes that incorporated gummi bears,  wasn't sure what I'd do! I started with a nice thick basic mound of fluffy cloud-like buttercream on a vanilla cupcakes! I started to have a vision-what about gummi bears sitting on cloud 9? These little gummi's were so cute and colorful against the white dreamy frosting. All I had to do was sprinkle a pinch of jimmies on top and "viola"--my new creation was born! They even look cute without the sprinkles added on-which do you like best?? See below:

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes with Crushed Peppermint Candies

CHOCOLATE MINT CUPCAKES WITH CRUSHED PEPPO-MINT CANDY

I thought these peppermint cupcakes came out too cute!! I started with a chocolate cupcake infused with mint extract and a buttercream frosting. I piped it half pink and half white and then added chopped bits of classic peppermint candies. I photographed them on pink tissue paper to really bring out the color and I think it did the trick! They really had a cool minty flavor and the kids gave them an "A-plus" rating; oh well, who am I kidding--there really hasn't been a cupcake they didn't like! Thank heavens for my family, they are my biggest fans!! lol

Another photo

Chocolate Chili Cupcakes!

Chocolate Chili Cupcake Naming Contest in honor of Cinco de Mayo~

Well, I put the radar out there on my facebook group, www.katiskupcakes.com, for help in naming my Chocolate Chili Cupcakes. This is the recipe and the story that follows. I used two different icings for the final presentation-you'll have to let me know which you like best and if you are patient and read to the end, you will also find out the winning name of the cupcake--I'm keeping you in suspense for now!

Chocolate Chili Cupcakes (Adapted from "125 Best Cupcake Recipes)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon chipolte chili powder

2 teaspoons finely ground coffee

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

(Chocolate Glaze or Chocolate Frosting for frosting cupcakes)

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin tins with paper liners.

In a small bowl, I mixed together the dry ingredients; including the flour, cocoa powder, ground coffee, baking soda and salt. 

In a large bowl, I whisked together the sugar, oil, egg and vanilla until smooth.

In a separate bowl, I stirred together the buttermilk and instant coffee.

Next, I alternately whisked the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture into the oil mixture, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk mixture and beating until smooth.

At this point, I mixed in the chocolate chips.

Now it was time to scoop the batter into the prepared pans. I baked them for about 22 minutes (Baking times can vary from about 22-27 minutes depending on your oven; tops of cupcakes should spring back when lightly touched).

I let these cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and transferred them to a cooling rack. After they had completely cooled, it was time to ice them!! As I stated I tried some with a sticky fudge frosting and others with a smooth chocolate ganache glaze. This recipe made 12 cupcakes.

Well, for those of you who are still reading, I am ready to divulge the winning name!! Meet the official winning cupcakes: The Cha Cha Cha Chipotle Chili Chocolate Cupcake! (Winning entrant was Cris Candelori--thanks again for the great fiery name! Loved it!!)

Give me SOME-MORES!!!

Smores--that old campfire favorite is still as delicious even without the camping out, as my kids informed me the other day. They were my official testers for these yummy looking cupcakes. I started out with a graham cracker base, added the chocolate batter equipped with mini chocolate chips, topped it off with gooey marshmallow topping-added some graham cracker crumbs and plopped a big square of Hersheys chocolate on top! If you could have smelled the kitchen--to DIE for!!! Who says you need a campfire or a tent to enjoy Smores??

Well, I have embarked on making my Smores cupcakes! I used Bake and Destroy's Smores Cupcake recipe and it was a great payoff--they smelled, looked and tasted amazing!! Here's some photos of the finished product!

Frosting. Frosting. Frosting

I made some chocolate frosting tonight for a cupcake order and it smelled delish! It had semi-sweet chocolate squares, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla-but what really made it amazing was the heavy cream-yummo! It wasn't as hearty as a usual buttercream since I didn't pipe it in a pastry bag so I decided to give the cupcakes a little "star power". I made some royal icing (not my fave--consistency was way wrong for piping). I died half of the batch robin's egg blue and the other half a light brown. Then I scooped each of these halves into the sides of my pastry bag. I used a ribbon tip and I was so thrilled with the results. They felt very springy to me and it was amazing how the colors took on  a life of their own. Each beautiful cupcake was topped with a baby blue chocolate egg--I'd say this was a sweet success.

Easter Cupcake Fun

This was my Easter Cupcake Extravaganza!! Hope you enjoy looking at them-I had a blast creating them! Too cute to eat-thank goodness they were for someone else-it would break my heart eating those precious little bunnies and chicks, lol--so cute!! Happy Easter!

Loved dipping the Peeps bunnies in chocolates--their ears look soo cute that way, heehee!!

Chocolate and Vanilla Easter cupcakes! Found these adorable little Easter picks at craft store!
Here is an assortment of the different cupcakes I decorated-so much fun!!
Decided to put some peeps on my cupcakes--isn't Easter without Peeps!!
Here is some edible Easter grass imported from Germany-I thought it looked adorable! 
 This was def. a lot of fun-but intense--supplies everywhere!! I felt like I was back in Art school again in the studio, late at night just experimenting with colors and textures while I created these gems!!

I started with a basic chocolate and vanilla cupcake, each topped with buttercream icing. I think the chocolate cupcake came out better than the vanilla, however, after they were all dolled up-it didn't matter really-the "fancy schmanciness" of them deflected from any flavor issues-lol! But the only downside--lots of cleaning up-you wouldn't believe what the kitchen looked like--I have some work to do in that area--I'm still just a messy artist at heart!! Happy Easter