Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2012 by 3 Comments

Today is the spookiest day of the year!!  Are you dressing up?  My 12 year old daughter is so indecisive… she has yet to pick out a costume or even attempt to put anything together.  I told her to wear her football jersey and be a football player – but of course she can’t find it in the jungle of a bedroom.  Ahhhh teenagers.  My almost 8 month old baby boy, however, he’s going as Link from The Legend of Zelda!  Last week before the snow came, we were able to take a few pictures of him in his costume.  This one is my favorite.  Isn’t he the cutest lil thing you ever did see?

Middle School – it’s not the most fun place for a pre-teen or teenager to be.  So, as a Mom I try to make Emily the “cool girl” by baking awesome stuff and bringing it to school for holidays and special occasions.  This time, I made cakes for her Halloween Dance & Party.  During the party, they were to have a cake walk and I wanted one of Emily’s friends to go home with the coolest Halloween cake ever!

I found the inspiration for this first cake from Lemon Sugar.  She made an 8in round chocolate cake topped with ghosts a few weeks ago and I fell in love.  I used the ghosts as inspiration for one of the cupcakes I taught during my Spooktacular Treats Workshop.  Since I didn’t need a huge cake, I used 6in cake pans and made smaller cakes for the cake walk.  I think it turned out pretty awesome.  I wish I could have sliced it open for you because on the inside there was white cake and orange buttercream in the the middle!

I used a basic vanilla cake recipe, filled the cupcake with colored vanilla buttercream and the outside is covered in dark chocolate buttercream.

The second cake is made with the same vanilla cake but this time the cake was tinted orange and I used a bright blue tinted buttercream for the filling.  The same dark chocolate buttercream is on the outside.  The orange pumpkin and dots are buttercream tinted orange.

To make the dots, I used a small round tip on my piping bag and just squeezed them onto the outside of the cake.  Using the same round tip, I drew the pumpkin onto the top.  The stem is made out of some extra meringue from the ghosts tinted green.  Pretty darn easy if you ask me… and such a great effect!

I found out later that the cakes didn’t get used during the cake walk… the teacher who put the event together said they were put aside and the adults who volunteered ate them as a “thank you” from the school for helping.  I was disappointed that none of the kids got to see it and Emily didn’t get to be the “cool girl” at the dance.  I wanted the kids fighting over it during the cake walk.  All that work wasted.  I hope the adults enjoyed the cakes.  Emily didn’t even get a chance to see them completed.  Oh well.

Today, I’ll be making one final cake for Halloween.  I have 3 bags of candy corn that need to get used so I’ll be making an ombre style candy corn cake!  I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Hope everyone has an amazing Halloween!  Bake lots of goodies for your kids and remember to stay safe while Trick or Treating!

Filed Under: cake, cakes, decorating ideas, halloween, holiday

Blue Ombre Cake Tutorial

August 26, 2012 by 19 Comments

One of my closest friends celebrated her husbands birthday this past weekend and asked me to make his birthday cake and cupcakes.  Jody didn’t want anything special, “just something simple… vanilla is good!” he told me.  Hmmm… I don’t do simple .  Ha!  But… I do make a killer vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream!  And a blue ombre cake would be even better!  This is an easy ombre cake tutorial that anyone can follow!

So, simple cake it is… but definitely not simple decorating! I decided that I’d use this cake as another opportunity to make an Ombre style cake.  This cake, however, couldn’t be like my last cake… pink and girly.  This cake had to be fit for a soldier and a man!  Blue ombre cake layers covered in blue ombre buttercream.  PERFECT!

I found the process to make this cake pretty easy.  Only a few extra steps were needed to color the cake layers and the buttercream frosting.  Having a cake turntable and the right supplies really helped the process too!

 How to Blue Make Ombre Cake Layers

Supplies:
Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes & Buttercream (I used a double batch)
Wilton Food Color Gel in Sky Blue
Toothpics
4 bowls & spatulas

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Use 4 8in cake pans and grease, flour and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Step 2: Prepare batter as recipe described.  Divide batter evenly into 4 bowls.  Set one bowl aside, it will not be colored.

Step 3:  Dip a toothpick into the food coloring gel and transfer a very small amount of food color gel into one bowl of batter.  Use spatula to incorporate until uniform in color.  Set aside.

Step 4: Dip another toothpick into the food color gel and transfer a slightly larger amount of gel into a second bowl of batter.  Use spatula to incorporate until uniform in color.  Set aside.

Step 5: Finally, dip one last toothpick into the food color gel and transfer a large amount of gel into the last bowl of batter.  Use a spatula to incorporate until uniform in color.

Step 6: Spread batters evenly in the 4 pans.  Bake about 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Step 7:  Cool in pans for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.


How to Frost a Blue Ombre Cake

Supplies:
4 Cake layers (double batch of the recipe above)
Buttercream (triple batch of the recipe above)
Wilton Food Color Gel in Sky Blue
Toothpicks
4 bowls & spatulas
Small offset spatula
Cake turn table

Step 1: Wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap & freeze for about 30 minutes or until ready to use.  Spread a generous layer of buttercream between each layer of cake and apply a crumb coat of buttercream to the outside.  Freeze for another 30 minutes.  Remove from freezer and place cake on a cake turntable.

Step 2:  To prepare buttercream into Ombre colors (light to dark), separate the buttercream into 4 parts (reserve a little extra for the white) and place in 4 bowls.  Set aside the white buttercream.  Using Wilton Food Color Gel in Sky Blue, dip a toothpick into the food gel getting a VERY SMALL amount of color onto the pic.  Smear the pic into one bowl of the buttercream and use a spatula to incorporate until uniform.  Set aside.  Repeat this process for the rest of the buttercream, but use a little bit more gel color on the tooth pic each time.  In the end, you should have three shades of blue and white buttercream.

Step 3: Begin with the darkest shade of blue.  Using a small spatula (I used an offset spatula), spread an even 1/2 inch thick layer of buttercream around the bottom 1/3 of the cake.  Using the edge, hold the spatula flush against the dark layer to smooth out  any massive bumps of buttercream.  Wipe the spatula clean before moving on to the next color.

Step 4 & 5: Repeat Step 3 using first the next lightest shade of  blue buttercream to spread on second 1/3 of the cake.  Overlap just slightly the two colors where they meet.  Finally, use the lightest shade of blue buttercream to spread on final 1/3 of the cake.  Remember to smooth the sides with the edge of the spatula.

NOTE: Leave a 1/4 border of non-frosted cake at the top.  You’ll need room for the white to come down from the top in the next step.

Step 6: Using the white buttercream, spread 1/2 inch layer of bc on the top of the cake making sure to cover all the way to the edges. It’s okay if the buttercream goes over the edge, you want to fill in that 1/4 inch of cake that you left unfrosted in Step 5.  Using the edge of the spatula, smooth side and top of the white buttercream.

Step 7:  Create the ribbon effect by holding the tip your spatula sideways against the darkest color & bottom edge of the cake.  Pressing gently,  slowly & smoothly spin the cake turntable while simultaneously dragging the spatula up the side of the cake.   You may need to stop and wipe any excess frosting after each revolution if you are pressing too hard.  Continue turning the cake and dragging the spatula up until you reach the top of the cake.

Step 8:  Wipe the spatula clean.  Gently press the tip of the spatula into the middle of the top of the cake and spin the turntable while simultaneously dragging the spatula towards the outside of the cake.  You may have some excess frosting along the edges, simply press your spatula on the edge where the top and side meet and spin the turn table until it is smooth.

NOTE: Imperfections are very easy to cover up with with style of decorating.  Don’t be afraid to go over the ribbon of swirls until the colors have smoothed together how you want them.

Step 9:  Place cake back in freezer for about 20 minutes so that the buttercream sets up.  Transfer cake to your cake stand or plate for serving.

Filed Under: buttercream, buttercream, cakes, decorating ideas, desserts, frosting and icing, ombre, tips & tricks, tutorials

Chocolate Raspberry Ombre Petal Cake

August 17, 2012 by 19 Comments

Since I’ve been on a cake kick lately, I’ve been daydreaming non stop about what flavor to make next.   I’ve been craving my favorite chocolate cake recipe and my fridge is fully stocked with raspberries so I knew I had to incorporate them into this cake.  Next week I’m baking a cake for a birthday and thought today’s cake would be the perfect opportunity to practice a new decorating technique before I have to make the birthday cake!

I really took my time putting this cake together.  I started it about 11am and finished it around dinner time.  The most time consuming part was the frosting, not making the frosting, but decorating with the frosting. The cake itself only requires 2 bowls and a small pot, no mixer required.

Ombre is a style of decorating where you use several shades of the same color to frost your cake, beginning with the darkest and continue with lighter and lighter shades of your color until it becomes white.  This cake being raspberry, I figured pink would be the best choice.  I used Wilton Gel color pink, separated my frosting into four parts, thentinted my frosting three shades of pink and left one white.

The Petal Technique uses a round tip on your piping bag and a small spatula to create the effect.  It’s a simple process, just very time consuming.

Since I’d never made a cake like this before, I did my homework and read several blogs about how to successfully create these looks on a cake.  My favorite was from The Hungry Housewife.  She posted a tutorial on her blog that demonstrated both the ombre and petal effect to decorate a cake.  So, I watched this video, prepped my frosting and got to work!

I’m not going to include my step by step on how I decorated the cake, I’m going to let you read what The Hungry Housewife wrote… why reinvent the wheel.  But, I will give you the recipe for the cake I made and the raspberry filling.

Let’s talk about the cake for a second…

Dark chocolate, rich, dense and moist.  This is my FAVORITE chocolate cake recipe OF ALL TIME.  Yah, it’s that good.  And like I said before, no mixer required to make this cake… which makes it even better.  I’ve used this recipe for cupcakes before, but I’d never transitioned it into a cake, but it preformed wonderfully in cake pans!

Raspberry filling… nothing better next to chocolate than this raspberry filling.  Can I tell you a secret?  Last night, after the cake was finished, I spooned this raspberry filling onto extra pieces of chocolate cake and shoveled it into my mouth.  Actually, I made raspberry sandwiches with it… two pieces of cake filled with raspberry.  Decadent.  Heavenly.

A few things I realized during this cake that will make your cake making process a lot easier…

  1. PLAN AHEAD!  Decide what colors you want to use, what cake flavors you want to use and go over all your recipes and tutorials before you begin.  Be thorough so there are no surprises.
  2. Make sure you have all your tools ready.  You really want to have enough bags with the same tip prepared and ready to go when you start piping.  It will make this process 100x easier.
  3. Go slow.  Take your time.  Don’t rush it.  I know I get excited making new things and sometimes rush… but really, take your time.  Breathe and enjoy the process!

I really hope you try this cake for your next special occasion.  Your friends will be super impressed.  I’m even impressed with myself.  :)

 

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Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Ingredients

    Chocolate Cake
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
  • 1 1/2 cups brewed coffee
  • 1 Tbsp espresso powder
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
  • 2/3 cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
    • Raspberry Filling
  • 4 cups fresh raspberries
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • juice of a lime
  • 2 Tbsp corn starch
  • pinch of salt
    • Vanilla Buttercream for filling
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1-2 Tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1lb powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • vanilla bean - split the bean and scrape seeds from one half of bean
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2-3 Tbsp milk
    • Vanilla Buttercream for icing
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3 Tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 2 1/2 lbs powdered sugar (about 10 cups)
  • 2 Tbsp vanilla
  • seeds of 1 1/2 vanilla beans
  • 1/4-1/2 cup milk
  • Wilton Food Coloring Gel - Pink

Instructions

    Dark Chocolate Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease and flour 4 8in cake pans.
  2. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the coffee, espresso powder, cocoa powder, and vanilla and whisk until combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
  3. In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream and the eggs. SLOWLY add a few tablespoons of the chocolate mixture to the sour cream and eggs. Whisk to combine. In a slow stream, whisk in the remaining chocolate mixture until combined completely.
  5. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in wet. Using a whisk, stir until no more lumps remain.
  6. Divide the batter evenly into the 4 prepared pans. Each pan should get about 1 1/2 heaping cups of batter.
  7. Bake 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pans to cool on a wire rack.
  8. Once the cakes have cooled, but are still warm, using a cake leveler to cut off the round mound on the top of the cake. Make sure all four layers are the same size.
    9. Raspberry Filling
  9. In a large pan, melt the butter.
  10. Add the raspberries, sugar and lime and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir continuously so that the raspberries begin to break down.
  11. Add the corn starch and stir to combine. Continue to cook until the raspberries thicken, about 2 minutes.
  12. Stir in the salt.
  13. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before filling cake.
    14. Buttercream (you'll use the same method to make both buttercreams)
  14. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese (shortening too if you're making the bc for the outside of the cake).
  15. One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
  16. Mix in the vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds and salt.
  17. Add enough milk until you reach your desired consistency. Mix on high for about 5 minutes.
    18. To color the frosting:
  18. Divide frosting into four bowls. Set one aside that will remain white. Using a toothpick, dab a VERY SMALL amount of the pink dye into one bowl and mix until uniform in color. Use a little bit more color in the next bowl and even more color in the final bowl. The colors should get gradually darker.
    19. To assemble the cake:
  19. Place the first layer of cake on a cake board/cake stand. Using the first batch of buttercream, make a border of frosting on the top of the cake along the edge. This will create a space for the raspberry filling and keep it from oozing out the sides.
  20. Fill the top open space with 1/2 cup of raspberry filling, spreading evenly.
  21. Place the second layer of cake gently on top. Spread a 1/2 inch thick layer of buttercream evenly on top.
  22. Place the third layer of cake on top of the frosting and repeat the process used for the first raspberry layer.
  23. Finally, place the last cake layer on top. Using the remaining frosting to crumb coat the cake.
  24. Freeze cake for 20 minutes before frosting.
    25. Petal Cake Frosting Technique
  25. Visit The Hungry Housewife for a complete petal cake frosting tutorial.
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Filed Under: buttercream, cake, cakes, chocolate, chocolate cake, dark chocolate, decorating ideas, featured, fruit filled cake, ombre, ombre cake, petal cake, raspberries, raspberry, recipes

Rainbow Pom Pom Cake

July 29, 2012 by 5 Comments

Last week I had my first adventure in making a real cake.  Not just slapping on frosting and calling it a day… but really putting time, thought and effort into creating something beautiful.  I researched and read about how to make i am baker‘s vertical layer cake and frosted it using her rose buttercream tutorial.  It turned out beautifully (click here for the whole blog post on that cake)!  It also left me with a half a cake that needed frosting since I only used half for the rose cake.

My neighbors daughter, Katie, celebrated her 4th birthday this weekend and I offered to frost my extra cake for her party.  Katie’s party theme was rainbow and I had a pretty good idea of how to decorate it.  Immediately, I turned to i am baker again and searched for a cake she made that looked like it had little pom poms of frosting in a rainbow of colors all over the cake.  The cake used a Wilton grass tip to create the little pom poms that completely covered the came.  Seemed simple enough.

So, I took my extra cake and made a batch of buttercream frosting.  I separated the frosting into 6 bowls and used Wilton Gel Coloring in every color of the rainbow… red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple… then put that frosting into disposable bags fitted with a coupler to fit Wilton tip #233, the grass tip.

And… off to frosting I went!  This cake took about an hour to completely cover, but it was well worth it.  It came out beautifully and the birthday girl LOVED it!

The cake was so cute, but it didn’t have much height so I decided to add a banner to the cake.  I’d never made one before, but I figured it couldn’t be too difficult. I turned to Joy the Baker for her tutorial on how to make cake banners.  I cut triangles out of card stock, wrote the birthday girl’s name on them and attached to string.  I used two paper straws to anchor them to then placed them on top of the cake. Super cute, easy and added the height I wanted to the cake!

Here’s the breakdown on how I made this cake…

Vertical Layer Cake Tutorial

Using Wilton tip #233 (grass tip) Tutorial to frost a cake

Cake Banner Tutorial 

 

Filed Under: cakes, decorating ideas, frosting and icing, vertical layer cake

Mardi Gras Cupcakes

February 20, 2012 by 12 Comments

Tomorrow, I’ll be ON THE RADIO!!!!  AFN Bavaria here in Germany is hosting me for a 2 hour segment to talk cupcakes and baking!  And, well… since it’s Mardi Gras tomorrow, I thought it’d be a perfect reason to make some party cupcakes!

Since I needed to color the batter, I needed a basic white base to start with.  So, I whipped up a simple vanilla buttermilk cupcake.  But… you know me, nothing I do is ever basic.  These cupcakes have my favorite Madagascar vanilla beans, buttermilk and some added sour cream for flavor.  There is nothing basic about the flavor of these bad boys!

I topped them with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and them embellished them with some fun sprinkles and mini cupcakes made with pb cups.  Topsy Turvy Cupcakes!

These cupcakes will be READY TO PARTY tomorrow morning!  I hope the radio station is ready for the sugar rush!

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Mardi Gras Cupcakes

51

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

These cupcakes are ready to PARTY for Mardi Gras!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • the seeds of 2 Madagascar vanilla beans
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 ¼ cups Buttermilk
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 3 ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Green, Purple and Yellow food coloring gel (I used Wilton brand)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pans with white liners.
  2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes.
  3. While that is creaming, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
  4. In another medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the buttermilk, vanilla beans, vanilla extract and sour cream. Whisk until combined. It will look lumpy, which is okay.
  5. Add the wet mixture to the butter/sugar and mix on medium speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl and make sure everything is incorporated. NOTE: It will look curdled. DO NOT FRET! It will smooth out once you add the flour.
  6. Add all the flour at once and mix on low to medium speed until smooth. Don't over mix!!
  7. Separate batter evenly into three bowls.
  8. Add food coloring and mix until uniform in color.
  9. Using a tablespoon, scoop one color into the liner against one edge. Quickly, scoop the second color next to/overlapping the first color. Finally, add the third color. NOTE: By the time you get to scooping the third color, you should still be able to see a 1/3 of the bottom of the liner.
  10. Add another smaller scoop of each color until the liners are 1/2-2/3 full. NOTE: Do not fill these more than 2/3 full. They puff up nicely and you don't want overflow!
  11. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Rotate pan after 12 minutes.
  12. Cool in pans for 7-8 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and decorating.
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Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Enough to frost 2 dozen cupcakes

Is there anything better than cinnamon and cream cheese together?

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 lbs powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • pinch of salt
  • green, purple and yellow sprinkles
  • Rolo candies
  • Mini Reese's peanut butter cups

Instructions

  1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
  2. 1/4lb at a time, add the powdered sugar. After the first addition, add the vanilla extract and cinnamon. Beat until smooth.
  3. After the next additions of powdered sugar, add whipping cream and beat on high until smooth. After the last addition of sugar, add enough cream until you get your desired consistency.
  4. Add the pinch of salt and beat on high for 5 minutes.
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How to assemble Mardi Gras cupcakes

Ingredients

  • Baked & cooled Mardi Gras cupcakes
  • Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting
  • green, purple and yellow sprinkles and rainbow jimmies
  • Mini Reese's peanut butter cups
  • piping bag with star tip
  • purple food coloring gel

Instructions

  1. Reserve 1/2 cup of frosting and tint with purple food coloring gel. Put it in a piping bag with a small star tip. Set aside.
  2. Using the white frosting and a large star tip, pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake. Embellish with sprinkles and jimmies.
  3. Put a swirl of the purple frosting on top of the Reese's pb cups and embellish with sprinkles and jimmies. (You want it to look like a mini cupcake.)
  4. Place a pb cup on top of each cupcake, off center.
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Filed Under: buttermilk, candy cupcakes, cinnamon buttercream or frosting, cream cheese, cupcake recipes, cupcake toppers, decorating ideas, featured, frosting and icing, holiday, Madagascar vanilla beans, Mardi Gras, novelty cupcakes, recipes, seasonal, seasonal and holiday cupcakes, tips & tricks, vanilla, vanilla cupcakes

Vampire Diaries Cupcakes

December 14, 2011 by 3 Comments

A special client of mine ordered a dozen Chocolate M&M cupcakes for her nieces birthday… but had a special request.  She wanted to use special liners and wanted them topped with Vampire Diaries edible transfers.

I whipped up the cupcakes for her today and I think they just turned out so great and had to share them with you!

NOTE:  You can order edible transfers from various vendors on Etsy.com.

Filed Under: cupcake toppers, decorating ideas

Blood Orange Candy Corn Cupcakes

October 30, 2011 by 1 Comment

You may have read about the Graveyard cupcakes I made for the Fall Festival at my husband’s work.  Well, I also wanted to make candy corn cupcakes.  The first batch I made I knew I screwed up.  I told myself… hey, there’s citrus in these cupcakes, CHANGE THE RATIO OF BAKING POWDER.  Did I listen to myself?  No.  I also didn’t listen to myself when I KNEW I had over mixed the cupcakes when adding the food coloring.  BAD BAKER!

Are you wondering how my errors screwed up my cupcakes?  Well, to begin with they sunk in the middle.  They also overflowed the edges AND their texture was too light and crumbly for my taste.  Not a good combo for a cupcake.

So this morning I decided to have a second try at them and fixed my errors.  I omitted the baking soda and added more baking powder (this helps combat the acidity of the citrus) and I also added the coloring BEFORE I mixed in the flour.  This allowed me to fold in the flour just until combined, making the perfect cupcake consistency!

These cupcakes are “Blood Orange” Candy Corn cupcakes because I’m using flavored candy corns.  My best friend sent them to me…. Blood Orange Candy Corns.  Unfortunately, my store didnt’ have any blood oranges, so I used a naval orange.  :)   I’d suggest using an actual blood orange if you can!

Blood Orange Cupcakes
Makes 18 cupcakes

zest of 1/2 a large Blood orange (I used a Naval orange – read above)
1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 tsp orange extract
juice of 1/2 a large Blood orange (I used a Naval orange – read above)

2 cups cake flour
(to make cake flour, measure AP flour, remove 4 tbsp and add 4tbsp corn starch. sift together 2-3 times)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk

Yellow Gel food coloring

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Line your cupcake pan with liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the orange zest and sugar.  Press the back of a spatula into the sugar and zest, releasing the oils from the zest into the sugar.  Keep doing this until sugar becomes fluffy and fragrant.
  3. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and orange sugar.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, scrape the sides of the bowl and beat on high for 2 minutes.
  6. Mix in the sour cream, orange extract and orange juice.
  7. Add the food coloring and mix until there are no streaks of white batter left.
  8. Fold in the flour in three parts, alternating with the milk.  Mix ONLY UNTIL JUST COMBINED.  Do not overmix!
  9. Bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Orange Buttercream
12 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 lbs (about 6-7 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream
3-4 tbsp fresh sqeezed orange juice, strained
1 tsp orange extract
1/4 tsp salt
Orange Food Gel food coloring
Blood Orange Candy Corns
  • Cream the butter.
  • One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.  Between each of addition, add the orange juice and extract.
  • Once all the sugar has been added, add the heavy cream until you get your desired consistency.
  • Add the salt and mix until combined.  Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl.
  • Remove 1/3 of the white frosting.
  • Add orange gel food coloring to remaining 2/3 of the frosting and mix until no more white streaks are left.
Assembly
  1. Pipe a large swirl of orange frosting on top of the cupcake.
  2. Place a small dollop of white frosting in the center of the orange frosting.
  3. Garnish with a Blood Orange Candy Corn.
Filed Under: cupcake recipes, decorating ideas, featured, frosting and icing, fruit frosting, fruity cupcakes, orange, recipes, seasonal, seasonal and holiday cupcakes

Graveyard Cupcakes

October 29, 2011 by 4 Comments

Today is the Fall Festival for my husband’s Battalion here in Germany.  I am also an FRG Leader for one of the companies in the BN so I had a huge part in planning the festivities for today!  One of the events is a Bake Off (my idea, of course!  hehe)!  I wanted to make something that was not only delicious, but spooky and on theme for Halloween!

I decided to make an Oreo cupcake and decorate it like a graveyard as well as an orange flavored candy corn cupcake! I know that candy corn typically isn’t orange in flavor, but my friend Sarah sent me a package of blood orange candy corns… so this works out perfectly!

For the Graveyard cupcakes I made this oreo cupcake… it’s a favorite recipe of mine that works out perfectly every time I make it!   Instead of a cream cheese frosting like the recipe calls for… I used a standard buttercream and added oreos.  I made 1.5x the amount I’d normally make for a dozen cupcakes, just to make sure I had enough frosting.  Here’s that recipe:

Oreo Buttercream
12 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
10 Oreos, chopped
1/4 tsp salt

  1. Beat the butter until smooth.
  2. Slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with a small amount of cream at a time, and beat until smooth and creamy.
  3. Mix in the vanilla.
  4. Add the chopped Oreos and mix on high for 2 minutes or until all the big chunks of Oreo are gone.
  5. Add more cream until you get your desired consistency.  You may not need all the cream.
  6. Mix in the salt until well combined.
Assembly of the Graveyard cupcakes is really a quite simple process.
Here’s what you’ll need:
6 Milano chocolate cookies, halved
Wilton Foodwriters pen
10 Crushed Oreo cookies (just the cookie, not the cream)
  1. Top the cupcakes with a generous mound of frosting.
  2. In a medium bowl, dump the cookie crumbs.  Turn your frosted cupcake upside down and dip it into the cookie crumbs.  You’ll want to put some pressure into the crumbs so that the cookies coat the entire top of the cupcake and frosting.  Roll the sides too if needed.
  3. Using the palm of your hand, pat the cookie crumbs until they form a nice round mound, like a grave.
  4. Using the food pen, write any spooky phrase you want on the cookie halves.  I wrote RIP. Place each cookie into the frosting.
  5. You could also put hands or bones, maybe gummy worms or other spooky creatures in your grave… really, the possibilities are endless!
Filed Under: buttercream, chocolate, cookie cupcakes, cooking icing, cupcake recipes, decorating ideas, featured, frosting and icing, halloween, holiday, recipes, seasonal, tips & tricks

Independence Day Cupcakes

June 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

With the 4th of July right around the corner, I wanted to share with you these Independence Day cupcakes I made!  These cupcakes will be available to purchase at Emi Nails & Coffee Bar in Grafenwoehr. [Read more...]

Filed Under: cream cheese frosting, cupcake recipes, decorating ideas, featured, filled cupcakes, flags, frosting and icing, holiday, recipes, seasonal, seasonal and holiday cupcakes, velvet cupcakes

Tips & Tricks: Valentine’s Day cupcake decorating ideas

February 3, 2011 by 2 Comments

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought I’d do a round up of some of the love themed cupcakes I’ve made that would be perfect for your Valentine’s Day party! [Read more...]

Filed Under: decorating ideas, holiday, seasonal, tips & tricks, valentine's day