Mint Choca Lotta Cupcakes

First off, no those are not grapes in the photo. They are mint maltballs from To The Moon Marketplace in Wilton Manors, FL. They are yum! They were also the inspiration for this cupcake! I hadn't done anything mint yet and I do like mint...especially with chocolate. And no, mint is not the same as peppermint...at least in my mind it isn't.

My sister wanted a new cupcake for her birthday so I set off to make these.

The Mint Choca Lotta (pronounced to the tune of Boom Chakka Lakka) is a chocolate cake with a mint maltball center, mint marshmallow buttercream and garnished with a Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint.

As a friend of my sister's said

‎this beast is FANTASTIC! ♥ - Jenn MacDonald

They were really good!! Very rich!! The mint marshmallow buttercream was nice and light and not too minty.

I don't know how often I will be able to get ahold of the maltballs but I can replace the center with something minty chocolate for future needs!

What kinda cupcake would you like to see?

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Three Milks Cupcakes

I am a huge fan of tres leches cake or milk cake. But I wasn't sure how well it would work as a cupcake. I have two mottoes - I can make anything a cupcake and I like to try unique things.

I used a tres leches cake recipe I found and just converted it. These cupcakes are BEST served right away and cold. I LOVE the sweetened condensed milk in the buttercream it came out so nice and that was a shot in the dark. Adding the evaporated and whole milk would have made the butterceam liquidy. And we just can't have that.

I added cinnamon as a sprinkle and you know what? It looks like pepper doesn't it. It's actually a sugar cinnamon mix so will have to work on something else for the topping. Could mix the cinnamon with the evaporated and whole milk and add as a drizzle....heeeeyyy....light bulb just went off!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

So while browsing blogs and websites, I keep seeing people talk about Orange Creamsicle cupcakes, how good they are and how favored a flavor it is. So I thought I might as well try one.

Although I'm really into the unique flavors, the "what can I do with this" flavors, going back to something simple is good therapy I think!

I made a basic vanilla base and then split the batter. One half of the batter I tinted orange and added a little bit of orange extract but mostly I added orange juice. The extract isn't that bad but I think some of these fruit flavored extracts give off an artificial flavor. Sometimes a medicinal taste too. Of course I could have used orange flavored jello and that would have worked too.

Then I teaspooned the batter on top of each other into the cups (1 tspn white, 1 tspn orange, 1 tspn white etc) to get a swirled like effect.

The little teardrop shaped bubble hole was purely by accident.

The buttercream is a vanilla bean and orange twist.

It was rather yummy! And I can see why it would be a favorite!
Now I have this desire to make other Twisted Cupcakes! oooooo! O.o that might be something too, twisted cupcakes!

Better get to work! Have a great day!

Love Potion # 9 Cupcakes

Not as in the song but as in the recipe. Yes, there is a love potion # 9 recipe. Google it :)

I wanted to get more creative with decoration but with a sick kiddo at home I didn't have the time. But these little heart sprinklettes are cute!!

Anywho, the cupcake is a vanilla based cupcake with the following love potion ingredients - strawberry, apple, clove and basil. I added cinnamon for another taste. I did not add ginseng as I don't have any and was going to add rose water but that stuff is really strong. Next time I might consider sugared rose petals. That should work!

I was afraid after looking at the ingredients that it might taste awful, as you probably did too. However, it is actually good! You just have to be careful about HOW you incorporate the ingredients. You can definitely taste the clove and strawberry which is nice together.

The buttercream is a vanilla bean buttercream.

You're suppose to make the love potion and give it to the person you want to fall in love with you. I don't think my cupcakes can do that for you but, maybe you'll fall in love with them? :)

Blackberry Vanilla Cupcake with Lemon Buttercream

This one was made for a friend of mine when I stated
"watch out or I'll name a cupcake after you!"

I'm still waiting for him to approve the name I gave it! So for now we'll just call it what it is.

This is a vanilla cake made with real blackberries. I chopped some of them up as well as put in whole berries. The buttercream....well I wasn't happy with it. In my quest to find a really good lemon buttercream I'm just not finding what I want. So...time to experiment a little.

Adding fresh lemon to buttercream is not working. And it's probably a citrus versus dairy thing. I wanted a light lemon flavor without it being sour or falling a part. So I took out a pack of lemon jello. Guess what? It works! It gives the buttercream a light lemon flavor AND it turns it a pale yellow. I may start doing this with other buttercreams that I want to turn color and add flavor too. Sometimes the food color liquid and paste makes it taste funny.

This is the first in 5 "Spring" cupcakes I want to make. One will have an apricot mousse! I can't wait to try that one! I'm planning a lavender one and a cherry one too! oooo maybe a cherry pie in a cupcake cupcake!!

Anywho, I will be recreating these as minis soon and shipping them Darren :)

Next Up: Girl Scout Cookies inspired cupcake "Tagalongs"

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!

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!

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.

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.

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

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.