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

Spooktacular Treats Workshop

October 21, 2012 by 9 Comments

Today was my first workshop here in Germany!  Although it was a small class due to some last minute cancellations, the two wonderful ladies who attended had a blast and made some super cute Halloween cupcakes!

Before they arrived, I made three dozen cupcakes, a quadruple batch of buttercream and a big bowl of meringue frosting.   Now, I had a lot of all the frostings left over… but I wanted to make sure the ladies had enough to work with!

Spooooooooooooooky Ghost

So… on to the cupcakes!  I taught them how to make three different cupcakes.  First, was the ghost cupcake.  I was inspired by the cake that Lemon Sugar made with the most adorable ghosts on top and thought they’d make the cutest cupcakes!

I showed them how to use a piping bag and large round tip to create these ghosts and then added black decorating gel for the eyes. Chasity got super creative and added a scary “ooooooooooooooooo” mouth to her ghost! (above)

Next, it was on to the Spiderweb Cupcakes.  I’ve made these in the past and they are one of the easiest cupcakes to make!  In the picture below you can see the ladies frosting their cupcakes with the spatulas… another technique they learned at the class.

Making spiderweb cupcakes

Finally, we made my favorite… the Monster Cupcakes!  As soon as I saw these little cuties on the Sweetology blog, I knew I had to make them myself and decided they’d be another great addition to this workshop.

Emily got super creative with a couple of her monster cupcakes… added lots of eyes, eye lashes and combining the colors!  But, I think my favorite came from Sue.  She made a monster with three eyes!  SOOO CUTE! I mean SPOOKY! hehe (below)

Bug-eyed Monster Cupcake!

I had about a dozen extra cupcakes, so I let the ladies decorate them anyway they wanted.  We ended up with a table full of some pretty spectacular cupcakes!

Some of the Spooktacular Treats made at today’s workshop!

Chasity, Sue & Emily with their creations!

 A big GIANT THANK YOU goes out to Sue and Chasity for coming to my first Workshop here in Germany!  I had a ton of fun preparing for this class and even more fun teaching you how to make these Spooktacular Treats!!

If you’re interested in coming to a JavaCupcake Workshop… I’ve got two more this year.  Visit my blog for all the details!

Spooktacular Treats Workshop – October 2012

Take a peek at all the pictures from today’s workshop!

Filed Under: baking and blogging community events, events/meet ups, halloween, seasonal, workshops

Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and an Owl Tutorial

October 5, 2012 by 4 Comments

The winds are blowing, the leaves are rustling around the streets and the rain is falling from the grey skies.  Fall is upon us here in Bavaria!

And what is better for Fall than another pumpkin recipe! This cupcake is a one bowl batter that tastes just like pumpkin pie! Because I wanted to decorate these with owls, I had to top them with a chocolate frosting.  Instead of my favorite chocolate fudge frosting that calls for melted butter and baking chocolate, I used a basic chocolate buttercream which used cocoa powder.  I needed something that I could easily pipe and spread and my chocolate fudge recipe can get a bit thick.  This buttercream worked perfectly!

I know these cute owls on top have been floating around the internet, but I just had to give them a try!  Especially since I kind of have this fascination with owls.  (Our son Matthew, now 7 months old, well his baby theme is owls!) Below the recipe, you’ll find a full tutorial on how I made them!

Enjoy!

Print
Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 17 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12-16 cupcakes

Cupcakes that taste like pumpkin pie topped with a spicy chocolate buttercream! Nothing better!

Ingredients

    Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
    • Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Frosting
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup Hershey's Dark Chocolate cocoa
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1lb powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

    Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees and line cupcake pan with liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, melt the butter in your microwave.
  3. Whisk in the sugars, eggs, vanilla and pumpkin puree.
  4. Sift the dry ingredients onto the pumpkin mixture and whisk until just combined. It will still be lumpy at this point.
  5. Add the milk and whisk until smooth.
  6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. NOTE: Don't be afraid to fill these liners full! These cupcakes do better with more batter in the cups and puff up nicely!
  7. Bake 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
    9. Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Frosting
  9. Cream together the butter, cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla.
  10. One cup at a time, add the sugar and beat on high until smooth.
  11. With the mixer on low, slowly add the heavy cream until you reach your desired consistency. NOTE: If you're just going to basically frost your cupcakes, you'll want the frosting stiff enough to pipe onto your cupcakes. If you're making the owls, make it a little looser so that you can easily decorate your owls.
  12. Mix on high for 4-5 minutes or until fluffy.
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Owl Cupcake Tutorial

Supplies:

  • 1 package OREO cookies
  • 1 box Junior Mints candy
  • 1 box Reese’s Pieces candy
  • Frosting (recipe above)
  • Spatula or knife

Directions:

  1. Prepare the OREO cookies by separating one cookie layer from the cream center, leaving the center in tact.
  2. Pipe a drop of frosting onto each cream center and place a Junior Mint candy on top.  This will create the eyes for the owl.
  3. Separate out the orange Reese’s Pieces candies and set aside.
  4. Using the spatula or knife, frost cupcake creating a flat surface.  At the top of the cupcake, make two little points with the frosting for the owl ears.
  5. Place two eyes on the cupcake, making sure to leave room for the beak and not to cover the ears.
  6. Place an orange candy under and between the eyes for the beak.

 

Filed Under: buttercream, chocolate, chocolate frosting, cupcake recipes, dark chocolate, frosting and icing, halloween, holiday, pumpkin, pumpkin cupcakes, recipes, seasonal, spiced

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