The Cupcake Thread!

[Mara]

Cute pictures steph! Isn''t it fun?

fleur... that book does kinda grosses me out when you think of it hehee...I LOVE the presentation, but when I took that class I could not eat any of the stuff I made really....well I tried but it was so sweet. Kids would love it though...and the presentation is super fun of course. It''s so fun thinking that you can use almost anything to be creative!! I try to think outside the box more.

I have been watching Ace of Cakes and it''s so fun...I love how creative these decorators are...!! It totally gives me inspiration as well. Speaking of inspiration...I have a bunch of Halloween orders coming up so I have been playing around with fondant ghosts and the like...is anyone else doing Halloween baking?! Photos!!!

Oh here is a photo of the Tiff blue cupcakes...they were chocolate mint...and pretty friggin amazing actually...I love perfecting chocolate!

 

[marcy]

I come over here to check out your latest yummy and beautiful looking cupcakes and my docker''s just got tight thinking about them. Just kidding! Keep up the good work!

 

[lili]

Mara--
Your cuppies are like a piece of art.
They are just too pretty to be eaten!

 

[Kaleigh]

Mara,
You have created works of art with your cuppies. You do amazing work girl!! Congrats. You have found your niche. Oprah has always said it''s all about your passion. I think you have found your''s. Best of luck to you. I want one now!!!

Do you send to the east coast?

 

[steph72276]

Wow, Mara. I think those Tiffany blue cupcakes are your prettiest yet! Yum!

What are you doing for Halloween cupcakes? Andrew''s teacher asked me if I would do some for his Fall party at his school. I''m thinking of making the pumpkin cupcakes from Hello Cupcake but they have sooo much sugar and frosting. Can''t wait to see your pics!

 

[steph72276]

Date: 10/26/2008 3:48:20 PM
Author: Skippy123

Date: 10/26/2008 2:50:51 PM

Author: steph72276

hey, guys. Just got back from a Breast Cancer charity event. My cupcakes were a hit, so that was great to do something for a good cause. I made vanilla with pink frosting, chocolate chip, and coconut. Enjoy the pics!

Oh wow beautiful Steph; awesome job!!! Your new granite is pretty too! hehe

Thanks, Skippy! That''s funny you noticed the new granite too, thanks!

 

[steph72276]

Date: 10/26/2008 11:19:43 PM
Author: lili
Steph --

Those cuppies are gorgeous.

Love the colors.

Thank you lili!

 

[Skippy123]

Oh la la, those are works of art Mara!!! Great job

beautiful

 

[dragonfly411]

oh my goodness those look fantastic and HAHA too the corn cob cupcakes!!!

 

[littlelysser]

Mara - I cyberstalk this thread, waiting for more pics of your amazing cuppies!

You have got SUCH a skill. LOVELY!!!!

 

[fleur-de-lis]

+1 on the gorgeousness of the Tiff Blue cupcakes, as well as Steph''s coconut-coated beauties. Well done, ladies!

Date: 10/27/2008 12:05:16 AM
Author: Mara
Cute pictures steph! Isn''t it fun?


fleur... that book does kinda grosses me out when you think of it hehee...I LOVE the presentation, but when I took that class I could not eat any of the stuff I made really....well I tried but it was so sweet. Kids would love it though...and the presentation is super fun of course. It''s so fun thinking that you can use almost anything to be creative!! I try to think outside the box more.


I have been watching Ace of Cakes and it''s so fun...I love how creative these decorators are...!! It totally gives me inspiration as well. Speaking of inspiration...I have a bunch of Halloween orders coming up so I have been playing around with fondant ghosts and the like...is anyone else doing Halloween baking?! Photos!!!

I wouldn''t say it was Halloween baking per se, but a few different types of mini-cupcakes have been coming out of the kitchen in droves recently. You know, so I can continue practicing various icing and decorating techniques.

Anyhow, my first foray into sugaring involved the orange-colored sugar that is readily available this time of year, so I guess these are kind-of "Halloweeny"! (I might try something more adventurous with my new food dyes and Royal Icing later this week, though, perhaps involving creepy-crawlies, spider webs, and tombstones.) These are Sour Cream Cinnamon Spice Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting. I love the little dark specks in the frosting (reminds me of Vanilla Bean Haagen-Daas, yum), and the field of orange sugar throws off light sparkles like diamond melee in certain lighting...

 

[steph72276]

Date: 10/28/2008 1:17:27 PM
Author: fleur-de-lis
+1 on the gorgeousness of the Tiff Blue cupcakes, as well as Steph''s coconut-coated beauties. Well done, ladies!

Date: 10/27/2008 12:05:16 AM

Author: Mara

Cute pictures steph! Isn''t it fun?



fleur... that book does kinda grosses me out when you think of it hehee...I LOVE the presentation, but when I took that class I could not eat any of the stuff I made really....well I tried but it was so sweet. Kids would love it though...and the presentation is super fun of course. It''s so fun thinking that you can use almost anything to be creative!! I try to think outside the box more.



I have been watching Ace of Cakes and it''s so fun...I love how creative these decorators are...!! It totally gives me inspiration as well. Speaking of inspiration...I have a bunch of Halloween orders coming up so I have been playing around with fondant ghosts and the like...is anyone else doing Halloween baking?! Photos!!!

I wouldn''t say it was Halloween baking per se, but a few different types of mini-cupcakes have been coming out of the kitchen in droves recently. You know, so I can continue practicing various icing and decorating techniques.

Anyhow, my first foray into sugaring involved the orange-colored sugar that is readily available this time of year, so I guess these are kind-of ''Halloweeny''! (I might try something more adventurous with my new food dyes and Royal Icing later this week, though, perhaps involving creepy-crawlies, spider webs, and tombstones.) These are Sour Cream Cinnamon Spice Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting. I love the little dark specks in the frosting (reminds me of Vanilla Bean Haagen-Daas, yum), and the field of orange sugar throws off light sparkles like diamond melee in certain lighting...

Wow, those are so pretty fleur

I am going to make some pumpkin patch cupcakes either tomorrow or Thursday for my son''s class. I will post pics when I am finished!

 

[lili]

fleur--
those swirls are sooo neat.
looks like something you''d see in a drawing

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Oh My GOD! How have I not seen this thread until today?!?!? These cupcakes look absolutely delicious!

 

[akw94]

Hi,
I made these Smores cupcakes for my son''s October Fest. As usual, I can''t seem to make any kind of icing that I can use my tips with but they were fun (and gooey) to make. There was a graham cracker bottom, german chocolate cake batter w/chocolate chips in it and a marshmallow icing. Yum!

Thanks for the thoughts on the M&M cupcakes. I may try them again if I can find the mini''s and try mixing them into the batter also, otherwise, next time I''ll use food coloring to get my tie-dye effect.

Steph, Mara and Fleur, your cupcakes look amazing!! Skippy, thanks for the compliments. I do like how all the cupcakes have tasted, I just want to work on presentation.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 10/29/2008 7:05:07 PM
Author: dixie94
Thanks for the thoughts on the M&M cupcakes. I may try them again if I can find the mini's and try mixing them into the batter also, otherwise, next time I'll use food coloring to get my tie-dye effect.

Rainbow sprinkles work for this too! Like in the funfetti cake mix, but if you put in more you get more color. You just mix them in with the batter.

Food coloring will probably just make a brown mess unless you stick to two primary colors and make sure not to beat it very much.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Can anyone suggest or post an amazing, moist, tender vanilla (cup)cake recipe that they''ve made themselves and highly recommend? Thanks!

f-d-l

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 10/29/2008 9:33:06 PM
Author: fleur-de-lis
Can anyone suggest or post an amazing, moist, tender vanilla (cup)cake recipe that they''ve made themselves and highly recommend? Thanks!


f-d-l

I really like this recipe from Magnolia Bakery, I make it all the time and it''s always a hit:

http://www.kitchenlink.com/cookbooks/2005/0743246616_2.html

Just make sure you follow the technique exactly in order to yield the fluffiest lightest cupcake.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Date: 10/17/2008 4:10:48 AM
Author: FrekeChild
One thing I want to mention, because I know I'm the crazy lady who beats most things by hand, is that I make my tools work for me. Depending on the job, I will use one of three whisks--I'll attach a photo of what I'm talking about. The one with a ton of wires would be what I use when I make a creme anglaise, because you need as much agitation as you can get to not cook chunks of eggs on cream instead of a smooth creamy sauce. And a creme anglaise is what I used as a base for my ice cream the other night. Then when I was freezing the ice cream, I did it by hand using the left whisk again, until the ice cream began to freeze-when I switched to the middle whisk, that wouldn't freeze solid with ice cream stuck in the wires. The flat one is supposed to be used for sauces, and it normally gets used to make Kraft Mac and Cheese, because there is so little liquid in the pan, a big fat whisk doesn't really do anything, and the flat one can get into the corners of the pan.


The key though is to know what you need to do to the products and which tool to use them for. For whipped cream, whipping air into egg whites, I use the left one, because it has so many wires. If I were to use the middle one, it would take twice as long to get the required result. So using the big one for whipping air into something makes my life easier, and my arm a LOT less sore. And for making cookies, or butter based cake--really, butter based anything that has to be creamed, I'll use my flat industrial grade spatula, and some arm power. But because butter doesn't deflate instantly like egg whites or warm up and turn into butter like whipped cream, I can take breaks--which really saves my arms.


And I should mention here that my mom tried to steal my left whisk, but I managed to get it back. You guys should see what she does to utensils! It should be illegal!


Here are my whisks!

Freke, I love that you posted a picture of your whisks! Seeing the one on the left in your photo reminded me of one my college roommate had that I LOVED; the thick, solid metal handle is so much more comfortable that the wire-spring handle which I used in my childhood home.

(In the years since university, I've been fortunate to live in a variety of exciting cities. The downside of moving so much to pursue various opportunities for adventures is that one has to seriously cull through one's belongings before cross-country or intercontinental moves, so most of my kitchenware has been passed on to friends or donated. With all the baking this last week, I figured I'd head off to Target to get some cheap-y handmixer to tide me over until Christmas. But as I stood in front of the craptastic bottom-of-the-heap mixer which had been made in China... I longed for a great whisk!)

Eh, so I visited Williams Sonoma instead and am now the proud owner of a double-balloon whisk with a solid metal handle. Oh, and some vanilla bean paste, and some spatulas, and some veal glaze....

You know, Freke, I'm pretty certain that every time I use it over the years, you will come to mind! Of course... each time I get a cramp in my forearm from trying to beat egg whites into stiff peaks using it and some elbow grease instead of merely swirling around a cheap-y Oster blender because you had romanticized the old way so effectively, it may be your name I curse as I shake my fist high in the sky! LOL

 

[steph72276]

Hi, guys....I've been busy baking away today. First I did the pumpkin patch cupcakes from the book Hello Cupcake. Now, I have not purchased the book yet, so this is actually just from looking at a photo on the internet of it, so I kind of did my own thing, but I think they turned out darling. This is for Andrew's class party tomorrow. I did a different one for his teachers b/c I didn't think they would want as much sugar, so I just melted some chocolate and cut out leaves to put on top of orange cupcakes for them. Finally, I did some Wall-E cupcakes for Andrew's birthday this weekend...that is what he requested. Enjoy the pics!

 

[steph72276]

closeup...

 

[steph72276]

Fall cupcake with chocolate leaf

 

[steph72276]

Wall-E cupcake for birthday party

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Steph, they look so cute! I still love that Andrew and Tessa have the same birthday!

 

[steph72276]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:32:51 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
Steph, they look so cute! I still love that Andrew and Tessa have the same birthday!

Thanks, Tacori! I know, that is too funny. We are leaving to go to the beach for the weekend, so we are celebrating Andrew''s birthday early. When are you making Tessa''s cupcakes? I''m sure they will turn out great! Have fun at her party!

 

[puffy]

steph those pumpkin cuppies are so cute! they turned out really well especially since you were just looking at a picture! congrats on the new business too!!

 

[canuk-gal]

Date: 10/29/2008 9:35:45 PM
Author: neatfreak

Date: 10/29/2008 9:33:06 PM
Author: fleur-de-lis
Can anyone suggest or post an amazing, moist, tender vanilla (cup)cake recipe that they''ve made themselves and highly recommend? Thanks!
f-d-l

I really like this recipe from Magnolia Bakery, I make it all the time and it''s always a hit:

http://www.kitchenlink.com/cookbooks/2005/0743246616_2.html

Just make sure you follow the technique exactly in order to yield the fluffiest lightest cupcake.

HI:

I have never used self rising flour nor a mixer for cake, but am willing to try. I love a fab vanilla cup/cake!

cheers--Sharon

 

[steph72276]

Date: 10/30/2008 7:48:11 PM
Author: puffy
steph those pumpkin cuppies are so cute! they turned out really well especially since you were just looking at a picture! congrats on the new business too!!

Thank you Puffy!

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 10/30/2008 9:23:28 PM
Author: canuk-gal

Date: 10/29/2008 9:35:45 PM

Author: neatfreak

Date: 10/29/2008 9:33:06 PM

Author: fleur-de-lis

Can anyone suggest or post an amazing, moist, tender vanilla (cup)cake recipe that they''ve made themselves and highly recommend? Thanks!

f-d-l

I really like this recipe from Magnolia Bakery, I make it all the time and it''s always a hit:


http://www.kitchenlink.com/cookbooks/2005/0743246616_2.html


Just make sure you follow the technique exactly in order to yield the fluffiest lightest cupcake.

HI:


I have never used self rising flour nor a mixer for cake, but am willing to try. I love a fab vanilla cup/cake!


cheers--Sharon

They are yummy! It''s pretty easy, just make sure you read the recipe once first all the way through.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 10/30/2008 6:42:47 PM
Author: steph72276

Date: 10/30/2008 6:32:51 PM

Author: Tacori E-ring

Steph, they look so cute! I still love that Andrew and Tessa have the same birthday!

Thanks, Tacori! I know, that is too funny. We are leaving to go to the beach for the weekend, so we are celebrating Andrew''s birthday early. When are you making Tessa''s cupcakes? I''m sure they will turn out great! Have fun at her party!

Her party is Sunday so we are making them tomorrow. Have a great time at the beach!