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!

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!