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I may still use the blog from time to time but am posting most of my information on the website and Facebook site since there has been a need for one.

Golden Oreo Cupcakes

The summer never fails.  It's always busy and almost too hot to bake!  LOL

I get a lot of people telling me they LOVE the regular chocolate Oreo Cupcakes that I had never thought of the fact that some people don't like chocolate.  And so a friend asked me if I could make a vanilla Oreo cupcake for her daughter who doesn't like chocolate.

So here it is:

The base is a vanilla cake, with a vanilla bean buttercream with crushed Oreos, and a vanilla Oreo to top. 

Here is the cookie bottom, just like the chocolate ones:

And for anyone who wants to make them, here is the quick and easy method:


Golden Oreo Cupcakes  (makes 24)

32 Golden Oreo cupcakes (24 for bottom and 8 for the buttercream)
1 box vanilla cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tspn vanilla  (<-- I always add extra vanilla to a box mix as it's never vanilla enough for me :)  )
1/2 cup oil

Line your cupcake tin with liners and then place one Oreo cookie flat on the bottom of each liner.

Mix the cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and oil until well incorporated.  Add the 1 tspn vanilla to give it a little more vanilla flavor.

 Place 1 1/2 tablespoons of the batter on top of each cookie in the liners.  Bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees.

Buttercream (makes 5 cups)

4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tspn vanilla
crushed Oreos

Pulverize the Oreos into a fine dust (if you are going to pipe), otherwise it doesn't matter how fine you crush the cookies.

Place the butter in a mixing bowl and mix on medium until smooth.  Add confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time on low speed.  Then mix on high speed for 10 seconds.  Return to low and add the other 1/2 cup, incorporate, then on high speed for 10 seconds - repeat until all sugar is gone.   Add the vanilla.  Mix in the crushed Oreos.

Frost and serve!  ENJOY!

Cupcakes for 5th Grade

A fifth grade teacher at the local elementary school approached me about making cupcakes.  The occasion was graduating to 6th grade and finishing the FCAT.

I colored the cupcakes in the school colors and then created the picks to give it some decoration.  The picks say DES Class of 2012, Tigers! Congrats! and NO MORE FCAT!  Well, at least until middle school.

Mother's Day Bouquets

I have to say these are really pretty.  And I'm glad I've had the opportunity to make a few for the local people of Ocala and Dunnellon.

This one was made for a dear friend.  Almond cake with honey buttercream.  A really nice combination.

And new things are coming along at Cupcakeables!  Cupcakes in a Jar have been introduced.  So far they are the easiest way to ship.  Also Frosting Shocks - 2oz "shots" of frosting.  Working on a list for that!

Now must come up with an idea for Father's Day :)

Amaretto Rum Cupcakes

I made these for my uncle's birthday since he's been mentioning I haven't given him a taste test yet!

This is a simple yellow cake that I added about 1/4 cup Capt Morgan to before baking and 1 1/2 teaspoon rum extract.

After I baked the cupcakes I soaked them with about 3 tablespoons of the rum.  The buttercream has about 1/4 cup DiSaronno in it.

I also created an amaretto syrup to top the cupcake but it was way too potent.  I think next time I will make the syrup and mix in the buttercream.

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup amaretto

cook until sugar is dissolved

I also toasted some almonds and tossed them with butter and sugar and put them on top of the cupcake.

They were really really good!  Definitely would make again and could make non-alcoholic.

Rainbow Cake Balls

Yes yes I know.  These aren't cupcakes.  But I just had to try this.  It also stems from a little "experiement" I'm doing in an effort to make my cupcakes more...available I guess is the word.  I've got people out of town who would love to try my cupcakes, but it's so hard to ship them.  No matter how many times I put  "This Side Up!" "Don't Flip!"  "Contains Yummy Cupcakes!"   "Keep Level Or Pay The Consequences!" my packages always end up tossed and turned and crushed.  I've come up with several ways to secure the cupcakes in their containers for shipping but....I still worry.  Sooooo as the name of the "business" suggests, I can make anything a cupcake (hence something is cupcakeable).  So why not the opposite?  More on that later.

Here are three pretty simple (but delicious) cake balls.  No, they are not perfectly round.  I still can't figure out how to get them nice and spherical.  I've been considering maybe a mold?  Suggestions?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyhow, these are as round as they get.  As nice as these may look it was the inside of the cake balls I was more concerned with.

HOW FRICKIN COOL IS THAT!?  I was so stoked at how these came out!  It took a little more effort but I got my rainbow stripes into the cake balls!  This is my Rainbow Cupcake recipe.  The cake is mixed with my Cotton Candy flavored frosting and then coated with white chocolate.

So having finalized this experiment with cake balls, I think I'm ready for the next phase.  But again, more on that later.  Stay tuned! Below are instructions on how to create this.

Cake Box Method (as always if you want the longer version, email me and I'll give them to you):

Makes 36 to 42 - 1 inch cake balls

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

Mix all ingredients together.  Divide evenly among 6 bowls and color each batter one color of the rainbow.  Fill six 6" cake pans (one with each color) and bake at 350 degrees for a bout 12 - 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Frosting

3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

2.5 sticks butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cotton candy flavoring

Cream butter.  Add confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time.  Mix until completely incorporated.  Add vanilla and cotton candy.  Set aside.

Crumble each color cake into fine pieces and place in individual bowls.  Starting with 1 teaspoon of frosting, mix with the crumbled cake with back of a spoon (more like mash it in).

Take a small cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Here comes the tricky part.  In the palm of your hand, place about 1/2 to 1 tspn of the red cake mix, on top put 1/2 to 1 tspn  of the orange, then the yellow, green, blue and purple.  Stack them on top of each other.  Now gentle roll the pile into a ball.  Place on cookie sheet.  If the cake become too soft to roll, place in freeze for a bit.   Once you've rolled out all the cake balls you want, place the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes (or until cake balls are firm).

While waiting, melt some white chocolate.  I use Almond Bark.  To me it was the easiest to work with, wasn't too think or thick and seemed to coat the cake balls well.  I am sure there is better chocolate to use but for now this is what I used. 

Place a small wire rack over an empty bowl.  Take the cake balls out and place one at a time on the wire rack with the purple side on the bottom (mine are inverted with the red on the bottom).  Using a spoon, pour the white chocolate over the cake balls and allow them to "dry" for about 5 minutes.  Remove and continue with remaining cake balls.  Sprinkle some rainbow sugar or glitter on top.

Enjoy!

Rockstar Cupcakes - Leap Year Cupcakes 2012

I thought it would be neat to make a "Leap Year" cupcake - something over the top that I hadn't tried before.  I didn't want to put frogs on it though or anything else that signifies "leaping".  I just think something different should suffice :)  I had these really neat wrappers I made for them but my printer went on strike.  Phooey.

There are a few things about this cupcake I learned while making it that I probably won't be able to do again to them and a few things, like always, that I'd tweak.

Rockstars are a deep chocolate cake, filled with a marshmallow cream and topped with shortbread cookie crumbles, piped over that is a vanilla buttercream, sprinkled with gold and rainbow discos dust, crushed rock sugar and pop rocks.  This cupcake has a lot of texture.  If you don't like cupcakes with texture (crunch with the cake) then it's not for you!  But it was yummy!

I originally wanted a white chocolate ganache in the center but though, hey, I've done that before.  So marshmallow it was - since I don't get to use marshmallow cream that often and I really like it.

What I learned - pop rocks melt the longer they are exposed to the air.  I did not know this.  The one cupcake that I ate was just made and the pop rocks were the neatest thing!  You could feel them fizzling as you ate the cupcake!  This might be something where I have to supply the pop rocks in the packs and let people put them on themselves.

What I want to tweak - I wanted it to be a little more BLUE.  Closer to a neon like blue.  I also wanted to add edible blue disco dust but it was on back order.  Phooey.

Otherwise I like the way they look.  They're colorful :)

Recipe below!

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
4oz chocolate fudge pudding mix

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all together.  Place in cupcake liners (makes 24)
Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Marshmallow Cream

1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tblspn cream

8 - 10 shortbread cookies, crumbled

Mix all together and set aside.

Cut a hole in the middle of each cupcake and fill with marshmallow cream.  Top with a few pieces of the crumbled shortbread.

Icing

3 sticks butter
3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tspn vanilla
blue food coloring

Mix all together.  Pipe over and around crumbled cookies.

Top cupcake with crushed rock candy, disco dust and pop rocks.  Serve immediately :)