New Year's Cupcake - 2011 Almond Anise

Ok so I couldn't wait until January 1, 2011 to make this cupcake. Mostly because I would like to relax for at least one holiday this year! :)

I wanted to do a cupcake with a light blue icing and a snowflake.
My sister said no. I say NYAH NYAH!!

This is a white cake infused with almond and anise. "what the heck is anise" you ask? Do you know what black licorice is? That's the flavor of anise. However I tend to think black licorice is a bit more bitter than anise itself. If you are a coffee drinker, try Sambuca. Yummo.

I digress. I was truly afraid of the anise. I didn't want it to be too licorice. But it actually came out really good! The buttercream is a vanilla bean buttercream (hence the black specks) and I just added blue food coloring. The 2011 and snowflake (made by freehand, thank you very much) are made of white chocolate (forgive my squiggly 1 in the year...it's my first time). Here is a picture of the cupcake with just the snowflake:

White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake

So in making cupcakes for Christmas (for family) I had 2 chocolate based cupcakes that were requested. I thought vanilla might feel a little betrayed so I turned the Peppermint Chocolate cupcake into a vanilla cake.

This is a vanilla peppermint cake with a white chocolate cream cheese buttercream topped with peppermint pieces and shaved white chocolate.

It was an "on the wimb" kinda cupcake but it came out really good! The peppermint was not overbearing and the cream cheese just lent to it.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Coming up!

New Year's Cupcakes
Baby Boy & Baby Girl Cupcakes (my first out of town order)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
Ocala Cupcake Party

Cupcake Party

OMG! Did I really make 265 mini cupcakes!? I DID! The work involved was immense but it was so much fun! Two dozen cupcakes of eleven flavors including four new ones! Take a look at all the photos posted below.

With the help of my sister (watch out! one day Cupcakeables! may become Two Sisters Cupcakery) we cranked out two dozen minis of the following: S'mores, Key Lime, Coconut, Mocha Frappuccino, Vanilla Almond, Chocolate Peppermint and Dannen O'Donnels (Pretzel Caramel). The four new flavors were Gingerbread with a Maple Buttercream, Oreo Surprise with a Cookies and Cream Buttercream and a White Chocolate Raspberry with a White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting in two varieties (one filled with white chocolate, the other with raspberry jam). Oh! And I made an Almond Cinnamon Vegan Cupcake with Cinnamon Glaze. Believe it or not, non believers, it was really good!

I rather like the minis. Most people, I'm finding, prefer them. They are bite size, you can have more than one flavor without filling up on a standard sized cupcake and you can get more for your buck. I may stick primarily with minis but also offer standards. The minis look pretty too with all the little decorations you can put on them.

Here are some photos from the party in Fort Lauderdale. I'll be having one in Ocala after the New Year! :)

Mocha Frapps ^

Gingerbread ^

Coconut ^

Dannen O'Donnells ^ aka Pretzel Caramel

Key Lime ^

Oreo ^

Peppermint ^

White Chocolate Raspberry ^ 1st Variety

Vanilla Almond ^


Pamphlets coming soon!

Mocha Frappucino Cupcakes

My cousin requested this flavor mix. I was quite pleased with the flavor! The espresso isn't too strong but just enough that it tastes like mocha.

This is a mini cupcake, one of my sampler sets from the previous post. This of course can be made into a standard cupcake, as I'll be doing for Kim in a few weeks.

The Mocha Frapp has a chocolate cake infused with espresso, a vanilla buttercreme with espresso infused to give it a mocha flavor and then drizzled with dark chocolate sauce. I actually have or rather had (think I ate it) espresso sauce. Something for ice cream I think. But it has gone away and I think made it's way into one too many bowls of vanilla ice cream.....

Side note: I love the 1M tip on the minis! After the debacle with my previous 1M tip, where it met its maker in the garbage disposal (not sure how that happened), I bought 5 more 1 M tips! YAY!

First Sampler Set - Minis

This was my first request for samplers (for a small fee). I do them in minis because I feel that one bite is usually enough to tell if you like something and also if you don't like it, the rest of the cupcake isn't wasted :)

I did these for a friend in the area who requested them for work.

Clockwise from far left: Peppermint Chocolate, Mocha Frappuccino (first time I made these and they came out REALLY good), S'mores, Vanilla & Almond with Salted Caramel Buttercream and Coconut.

I'm glad they were a hit!

Almond Dream Cupcakes

First, NO, despite how they look, this is not the Vanilla/Almond with Salted Caramel Buttercream Cupcake. I hadn't realized when I put the almonds on it how closely they looked. From now on the Salted Caramel cupcakes will not have almonds on them if I ever reproduce a photo.



This is a Jumbo cupcake. I love the Jumbo cupcake. There's more to love! The cake is a white cake with almond paste and chopped almonds baked in, almond cream center, and an almond paste buttercream. If asked yes, I would add alcohol in the form of Amaretto. I also added some edible glitter to the buttercream :). I had a photo of the center of the cupcake but my camera must have, in thinking how delicious it looked, ate it.

I have my first request for samples! WOOT! I will be working on those later this week and will post about them. I do samples (yes for a small fee) in the form of minis. I also should get to the Twilight Cupcake here shortly.

I've decided to do a Cupcake Party for my South Florida friends so I hope that will turn out well.

Hope you all had a wonderful turkey day!

OMG I WON!!

I want to thank Lindor Chocolates for taking the time to do this contest. It was so yummy to read everyone's entries! I have new inspiration too!

And I am honored to be their winner! I am so excited!! This is my most favorite chocolate hands down!! I can't wait to go and buy more Lindt Chocolate!!

I think I will go buy a box to celebrate! :)


http://blog.lindtusa.com/dessert-recipe-winner

Chocolate Cupcakes with Lindt Hazelnut Truffle Centers and Lindt Stracciatella Buttercreme

Ok so I made these to enter a contest Lindor Chocolates is holding this year. The object is to create a dessert using their chocolates. I couldn't pass up a cupcake with my favorite chocolate. I want to visit Switzerland just to go see where they make all this fabulous chocolate!

I'm distracted.......anyhow. This is a simple Devil's Food Cake base to which I folded in chopped up Lindt Milk Chocolate Truffles. After the cupcakes are out of the oven, I pressed a Lindt Hazelnut Truffle partway down the middle while it was still hot. This makes the truffle melt. While they cooled, I made a simple buttercreme base, melted about 12 stracciatella truffles (they melt very fast) and then poured the melted truffles into the buttercreme base and mixed. Once the cupcakes were cooled, I piped the Stracciatella buttercreme on top and shaved some Lindt Dark Chocolate on top.



They were VERY rich. But they were also VERY good. Quite an expensive cupcake to make as you might know the truffles aren't really cheap. The three bags of truffles alone was close to $12.00 for about 10 - 12 pieces each. But I had fun and maybe I'll have my recipe featured on their site and win that $100 gift card so I can have all that decadent Swiss lusciousness I want!

Almond Dream Cupcakes & Lindor Lindt Truffles Cupcakes

School keeps getting in the way! Grrrr! Well that and holidays but HEY! Time to bake.......

This weekend I will be making two cupcakes because one is for a contest and the other is well...because I love almonds!

Photos and such to follow!

Week of November 15th - Twilight Cupcakes (Spiced Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting)
Week of November 22nd - Peanut Butter Cupcakes, Rainbow Cupcakes and Turkey Cupcakes (no it's not made with Turkey! But should be cute when finished!)
Week of November 29th - Gingerbread Cupcakes

Also want to do the Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Planning a cupcake party in South Florida in December! Let me know if you're interested!

Oh forgot! Lindor is doing a contest on dessert recipes. I've been dieing to use their truffles in a cupcake recipe so this weekend I'll be making one. Just have to decide which truffle(s) to use! I LOVE Lindt chocolate!

Pumpkin Pie in a Cupcake

OK so I DID make these. However thanks to the gods that be (sarcasm) the photos are no longer on my camera and the cupcakes are all gone. Sighs....

HOWEVER.....they were sooooooooooooo good. OMG were they good. I had to substitute the icing because I can't find Cinnamon Chips anywhere. I've seen them before but I'm thinking maybe they aren't out yet?? I made a simple Cinnamon Buttercreme that turned out really nice! Mom gave me the idea to actually make a cake with these flavors. That is definitely doable.

The recipe did take a very long time to do since I decided to make my own pie crust. So I had to make the pie crust, make the pumpkin pie (used Paula Deen's recipe and it WAS mouthwatering), cook it, make the cupcake batter, pour it into liners, add the pies and bake. Then make the buttercreme.

I think these are in need of a do over. I may introduce my southern family to these at Christmas time this year.

Next: Almond Dream Cupcakes

On Hold: Amnesia Sparklecakes (waiting for my sister)

Tinkerbell Cupcakes - I did make these but due to time constraints they did not come out as decorative as I wanted.

Dannen O'Donnell Cupcakes

These were inspired by a character Kim created in her novel. I asked her if she were Dannen, what flavors would she like? The result was this monster. A chocolate cupcake with liquid salted caramel center topped with salted caramel buttercreme, crushed pretzels and salted caramel drizzle. Oh, the caramel was home made by the way. I used to hate making home made caramel but after a bit of practice, it comes out nice. I didn't add the buttercreme as the center because I thought it would be overwhelming. The caramel I did pour into the cupcake became absorbed by the cake. However it still worked. Will try next time to see if I can thicken it up.

Cut open. You can see the darker section inside the cupcake is where the caramel went. I wasn't so sure about the pretzels on the top but it really was good adding that crunch!

I hope to be making these again soon!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Yes I know I deviated from my list of cupcakes for a bit here. Brother-in-law was in town and had to make them for him since his poor Hurricanes took a beating from the Seminoles (Go Noles!)

And I was shocked to hear he had never had pumpkin cheesecake! Blasphemy! This turned out really good and I can't wait to make other cheesecake cupcakes. I love this idea as opposed to a full cheesecake because you don't need to dirty my dishes to eat it. Oh, they also fit in the fridge nicely.



The crust is made from crushing pecans (you can toast them first too) and gingersnap. The center is of course pumpkin cheesecake. Then I made a home made vanilla whipped topping and sprinkled crushed pecans and gingersnap on top and drizzled it with caramel. I bet a chocolate drizzle would work well too....hmmm....think it's time to taste test that! :D

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN!!

OH....MY...GOODNESS! I found this recipe. The recipe of all recipes!

Pumpkin Pie in a Cupcake

No I am not yanking your chain...it's an actual pumpkin pie complete with crust baked into a standard sized cupcake. Well...of course the pumpkin pie itself is not your standard size.

These WILL be made next week! I am a pumpkin pie fanatic! I am a cupcake nut! They have created a recipe that satisfies all dimensions of the baking universe for me! To merge my two obsessions into one! Why.....it's almost as good as....I'll let you fill that in.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercreme

Doesn't that look yummy? For anyone who likes strawberries this is the cupcake bomb! Although with the recipe I don't taste a whole lot of lemon in it which is probably nice. It is slightly tart, however. I can't remember where I got this recipe from, but the buttercreme was a nightmare. No matter how much confectioner's sugar I put into the mix it would still be loose and runny. So I switched gears and pulled out a tub of vanilla buttercreme I had made last week (it turned out awesome) and added strawberry jam and some lemon juice. VIOLA! That worked. I believe from this point on I will not stray from my own buttercreme recipe and will just add to the vanilla base what I want. I thought it might be fun to try other people's recipes for buttercreme but it turned out to be a not so good idea. Not saying other people don't have good buttercreme / icing recipes, just the one I selected wasn't as good as some others. Plus the jam (I recommend jelly next time) has small pieces of strawberry in it that adds to the buttercreme. This one might be good with a straight lemon buttercreme but I was afraid it would be too sour.

Mayan Chocolate Cupcakes with Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercreme

When I first saw chocolate with chilies in it I was like.....whaaaaaaaat?! Who the heck eats chocolate with chilies in it? ..... apparently the Mayans did. Yes yes I knew that just at the moment had forgotten about the long arduous history classes I've had to take to complete my degree.

So anyhow, once again I got this recipe from gimmesomeoven and tweaked it a bit. Yes this chocolate cupcake has a bite, a sting, a kick, whatever you want to call it. But the cool creamy buttercreme mixes so well with the heated chocolate. Although it all tasted good together (hello? it's chocolate!) I was not a huge fan of the cocoa cinnamon buttercreme ONLY because it tasted more to me like a royal icing than a buttercreme. So next time I will tweak the buttercreme a but more and hope to get a more buttercreme texture out of it.

The little white flakes you see in the photo is sea salt. I didn't have any really coarse sea salt and wish I had since....believe it or not.....this added immensely to the cupcake. Since I was skeptical, I didn't go out and buy coarse sea salt in case it failed taste wise to me. But alas, I was wrong. It was actually really good.

These cupcakes are good with regular Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercreme and Salted Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercreme.

* also decided I don't like that piping tip. Will stick to my 1M and 2A.

What's Coming Up!!

I try to do a cupcake a week...but sometimes life gets in the way. Boo life! So this is what I have planned (in the next few days) and hope to get them up to you soon!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercreme
Dannen O'Donnells with Salted Caramel and crushed pretzels
Mayan Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Cocoa Buttercreme
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Next week will be Pumpkin Cheesecake 'Cupcakes'
Tinkerbell Cupcakes the following week (for my daughter's birthday party)
Amnesia SparkleCakes Cupcakes the week following
and something Halloweenish the last week of October.

If you have a request, let me know either by the blog or email Cupcakeables@ymail.com

You can look at my list on the first blog or come up with something all your own :D

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

When it comes to a carrot cake recipe, I turn to one person. Mom. This cupcake is completely her recipe, and despite having to modify it just a bit, it came out wonderful and tasting just like mom's cake. Of course the base is carrot cake and the frosting, because it's not buttercreme, is real cream cheese. It was so yummy I just had to eat two. One to test the taste of the cake, the other to test the taste of the frosting. I think I need to test one more.........

Vanilla/Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercreme

Oh...my....goodness! This was one of the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had. The recipe was picked up from www.gimmesomeoven.com. The cake base is a white cake with vanilla and almond flavoring. The salted caramel buttercreme is made from scratch caramel and then mixed with a basic buttercreme base. It was very yummy! I added the almond slices on the cupcake and the thing that really made it was the caramel drizzle! It added 100% to the cupcake. These are my new favorite cupcakes!

S'mores Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye

I didn't expect these to be the big hit they were! I found lots of recipes for S'mores cupcakes but decided to try my own. As long as I had graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow, I couldn't go wrong. The base of this cupcake is indeed crushed graham crackers. I tried the graham cracker in different ways (on top of the buttercreme, on top of the cake) but I loved this version better. The cake is of course chocolate. An option is to add a melted chocolate middle. I didn't do that on this batch but it would have worked just fine. The buttercreme is a true marshmallow buttercreme. I was worried it wouldn't come out right but I was oh so wrong. It came out perfect and had a wonderful marshmallow taste. Furthermore, it wasn't really sticky so I could pipe it. To decorate the buttercreme I tried a few things and decided that dusting it with graham cracker and sticking a piece of chocolate in the buttercreme was best. Another option is to actually toast the marshmallow buttercreme. Will have to try that next time. I know it works and I know it tastes amazing!

Pistachio Cream Cupcakes with Pisatchio Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye


So most people don't like pistachio as I'm finding out. But I promise you you'll like these. While on a cruise for my tenth anniversary, we went on a tour of the ship. While in the kitchen, the corporate pastry chef for Princess had made several desserts just for us to try. One of them was a dark chocolate with pistachio cream inside. It was heavenly! And so his creation is the inspiration for this cupcake. Not to mention my father loves pistachio. The cake is chocolate and I really don't think this would do well with a vanilla cake. The pistachio itself is sweet and the chocolate cake isn't overly sweet. So I think they work well together. The pistachio cream buttercream is dusted with ground pistachios.

Photo by Diana Fye

As you can see in this photo I filled the cupcake with a pistachio cream that I made. My father said it didn't have enough pistachio flavor, I think it was just fine. I don't like one flavor to overpower the other, the object is for you to be able to taste the chocolate too. I could do with or without the filling. I really like how this one came out. It was my first real "let's see what we can make out of these flavors" cupcake.

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercreme

Photo by Diana Fye

These are so good. The recipe in the cake is just awesome! It calls for coconut milk in the cake so it has a strong but not overpowering coconut taste. To make the buttercreme, I wasn't sure what to use to make it taste like coconut. There are some things for which extract should be a no no. Buttercreme is one. There are also certain flavors of extract that should never ever be used - but more on that later.

The buttercreme is a vanilla buttercreme but to get the coconut flavor I added about a cup of the coconut milk and it worked perfectly! I added about a 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar to stiffen it up in order to pipe. Although here I didn't pipe it because I had made these in South Florida and
had forgotten my 2A tip.

The toasted coconut on the top was my sister's idea. It was good and gave it a little crunch, but I'm not opposed to using regular unsweetened coconut flakes. Which was my first choice.

If you love coconut, you'll absolutely love these. Everyone who has tried them has raved about them.

Cupcakes Cupcakes Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. Who doesn't? I'd rather bake cupcakes than a huge cake, or anything else for that matter. So I've started experimenting with recipes that I've seen, or have in my head. Below is a list of cupcakes I've come up with. Some I've made, some I haven't yet. There are several I have no photos of so I'll have to make them again (schucks). The ones with the comments were taste tested by a friend of mine, Kimberly, and her family and given a thumbs up or thumbs down. The list is pretty big. So far I've got maybe 10 that have made a final list and are available for people to choose when making an order. There will be more, I assure you.

Coffee Cupcakes - coffee flavored chocolate cake, coffee flavored buttercream, dark chocolate shavings, option Bailey's infused buttercream filling. (taste tested by Kimberly - thumbs up)

Oatmeal Raisin Cupcakes - oatmeal raisin cake, cinnamon maple buttercream, cinnamon sugar sprinkles. (taste tested by Kimberly - thumbs up.) These actually were really really good. I was pleased with the turnout on this recipe.

Key Lime Cupcakes - vanilla or coconut cake, real key lime filling, almond infused buttercream, almond slices (optional). (taste tested by Kimberly - thumbs up.) I was pleased as well with the turn out on this recipe. The flavors came together really well.

Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes - chocolate cake, cherry pie filling, pink cherry buttercream, chocolate shavings (taste tested by Kimberly - thumbs up).

Sugared Lemon Cupcakes - vanilla cake, lemon buttercream, lemon filling, lemon sugar sprinkles. (taste tested by Kimberly - thumbs down). I know why she gave it a thumbs down and I've corrected the recipe. Sometimes you should never use extract in a recipe. Lemon is one of them that comes across tasting medicine like. Next time will use real lemon.

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes - chocolate cake, melted chocolate mint center, vanilla buttercream with crushed peppermint. (test tasted by Kimberly - thumbs up). I saw a version of this buttercream on Cake Boss and decided to try it. It's really yummy!

The Kimberly Cupcake - coffee flavored chocolate cake, melted chocolate mint center, chocolate buttercream (taste tested by Kimberly - thumbs up of course. It was made for her and named after her!)

The following are recipes I have but have yet to make:

"The King" Cupcakes - Banana Cake, Peanut Butter Buttercream

Fluffanutter Cupcake - Banana Cake, Peanut Butter Buttercream, Marshmallow filling

The Cremesicle Cupcake - Orange cake, Vanilla Buttercream, Orange sprinkles

Swirls and Sprinkles Signature Cupcake - chocolate cake, almond cream cheese filling, vanilla almond buttercream in hot pink and turquoise swirl with chocolate jimmies.

Strawberry Amnesia SparkleCake Cupcakes - strawberry cake with real strawberries, marshmallow buttercream, pink/gold/and white edible glitter. (this is only the 2nd cupcake I've made in honor of someone I know).

Carrot Cupcakes - carrot cake (my mother's recipe) with cream cheese frosting.

Harvey Wallbanger Cupcakes - Orange cake laced with Vodka, hazelnut liquor infused buttercream, orange sugar sprinkles, topped with a chocolate covered hazelnut (yes I do have a few alcohol related cupcakes...us adults have to have fun too right?)

Snickers Cupcakes - vanilla cake, Snickers stuffed middle, chocolate buttercream, peanuts on top

Oreos Cupcakes - chocolate cake, cookies and cream center, cookies and cream buttercream, crushed Oreo sprinkles.

Kit Kat Cupcakes - vanilla cake, Kit Kat stuffed middle, chocolate buttercream, crushed Kit Kats on top.

Bailey's Lovers Cupcakes - vanilla cake laced with Bailey's, Bailey's infused buttercream. (optional Bailey's cream filling).

Black Tie Cupcakes - chocolate and white marbled cake, chocolate and vanilla buttercream, chocolate and vanilla sprinkles

Banana Split Cupcakes - banana cake, strawberry filling, chocolate fudge buttercream, cherry and nuts to top (nuts optional).

Banana Split Lick Cupcakes (adult version) - banana cake laced with banana liquor, chocolate buttercream icing infused with chocolate liquor, strawberry filling infused with strawberry schnapps.

Almond Dream Cupcakes - almond cake soaked in Amaretto (optional alcohol), almond cream filling, almond paste infused mascarpone buttercream, almond slices to garnish

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes - vanilla cake split and layered with strawberry filling, vanilla whipped buttercream (the adult version has the strawberries in the middle mixed with an orange vanilla liquor).

Caramel Cupcakes - caramel cake, melted caramel center, caramel buttercream

Chai Tea Cupcakes - Chai tea cake, honey ginger buttercream

Pumpkin Cupcakes - pumpkin cake, cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes - pumpkin cheesecake with graham/pecan crust, cinnamon buttercream

Cannoli Cupcakes - vanilla cake with cannoli filling and vanilla mascarpone buttercream

Mayan Chocolate Cupcakes with Cocoa Cinnamon Buttercream

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Caramel Drizzle

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Marshmallow/Maple Buttercream

Banana Caramel Pecan Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Black Forest Cupcakes

Pina Colada Cupcakes (see the post about the Coconut Cupcakes)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Gooey Butter Cupcakes (adapted from a recipe of Paula Deen's)

Dannen O'Donnell - chocolate cake filled with salted caramel, salted caramel buttercream, rolled in crushed pretzels (this cupcake is named after a character in a book Kimberly is writing).

Honey Hazelnut - vanilla bean cake, honey hazelnut mascarpone filling, sweet honey cream cheese frosting, honey glaze and chopped hazelnuts

Cranberry Orange Clove Cupcake - vanilla clove cake, filled with orange curd, orange buttercream and white chocolate frosted cranberries.


Some of these idea I haven't complete worked the recipe out for. If you have an idea for a cupcake, let me know :) Give me your thoughts and comments as we go along. I have no problem with criticism. It helps me to fix what's wrong, or enhance what's good :)