The Fireworks are for You

I have not blogged in a long time... I blame it on finishing up school for the year and getting into the swing of summer.
My Grandpa's birthday is on July 4th. Every year, my extended family gets together for a few days to celebrate independence day and my Grandpa Al's birthday. When we watch the fireworks, we joke about the big celebration that is being put on for my Grandpa.
I was asked to make cupcakes this year. The classic July 4th dessert is a cake, with vanilla frosting and strawberries and blueberries for the stars and stripes. That doesn't work with cupcakes. Because I didn't have very much time, or a refrigerator for the car ride to Miami, I tried to stay away from fruit.'Try' being the operative word.
I ended up using the same recipe that I used for my first batch- a hit because of its simplicity and even picky children like it.
For a spark of patriotism, I mashed some strawberries and used the juice and some of the fruit in the frosting, tinting it with red and another flavor.
Who can stay away from shimmery white and blue sprinkles? Not me! We topped Grandpa's cupcake with a sparkle, and in the end, I captured all three colors of the great country of the United States of America, and even more importantly, my Grandpa loved them.

cinnamon apple

Question-Do you know what it's like to grate 2 large apples?
Answer- It's not pleasant.

So after mixing together 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (X2 because I doubled the recipe), I grated two large apples.
I added the apple to 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture,
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

It was pretty simple, and they turned out really get except they were a little too oily.
Hopefully, my music theory class tomorrow morning will enjoy them :)
That's all for now!

Not crummy, definitely crumby:)

This is the second batch of cupcakes I've made in 2 days. It's all worth it though! They were cinnamon-brown sugar crumb cupcakes.
There was a crumb mixture that doubled as a topping and bottom-ing? I guess there's not a word for that, but a topping on the bottom? I suppose a mixture that's put at the bottom of the cupcake too. That work? k.
The Crumb Topping/Bottom
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks butter

Cupcakes
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream


I made such a messs but they smelled really good! Then I put a little bit of powdered sugar on top of them:)
They were simple, but delicious!

Coconut (cubed)

Named for a joke I have with my mother, but dedicated to my father for his love of coconut, this recipe called for quite a bit of work. It included the basic cupcake, a lemon filling, and a meringue topping. There were so many eggs in it, my mom had to run out to the store to get more. We had to rig a double boiler and use a mixer while the meringue was on the stove. The filling called for two separate electric mixers.

'Lemon coconut snowballs' by Elinor Klivans

Cupcakes

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 large egg whites
• 1/4 cream of tartar

Filling

1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 eggs, 2 egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch

7-minute-that-took-way-longer-than-7-minutes frosting

1 1/4 cups sugar, 1/3 cup water, 3 egg whites, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, 3 cups shredded coconut

Thoughts..

1)This recipe was intense, I just finally took a breath.

2)I'm becoming very skilled at separating yolks and whites.

3)For some reason, I always have a HECK of a lot more frosting than I need, so I'll be cutting the frosting recipes in half.

4)You can get lost in meringue. It sounds crazy. But when you stand there with a mixer over the stove beating egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar for 10 minutes, you get mesmerized. The color of it is just about blinding.

That's about it

By far the craziest batch yet.. Birthday Chocolate Mint?!

This was definitely an insane batch of 12 jumbo layered cupcakes. The process started at 9:30am and finish around 1:30pm. Occasion? My little brother's 14th birthday. He of course chose the most difficult recipe he could find:)

Type: Chocolate covered mint meltaway

Cupcake- Filling-

3oz unsweet chocolate 3/4 heavy whipping cream

1 cup flour 2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 1/2 cups semisweet choc chips

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 stick butter Chocolate glaze-

1 1/4 cups sugar 2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 eggs 4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla 6 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup sour cream 3 cups semisweet choc chips

1/2 cup water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I can't even begin to explain how I did this. Let's just say it involved a double boiler, stand-up mixer, candy thermometer, all the burners on the stove, and my friend Alexa. There was chocolate everywhere. It was pretty ridiculous, but we got it done! In the end it was most definitely worth it. That's what my brother wanted for his birthday, and he loved them.

I've learned that when baking it's a necessity to listen to music, especially 103.9 on saturday mornings. Rihanna, Ke$ha, and Lady Gaga help a lot too:)

Feedback?

Heck yes! I got two thumbs up, a lot of smiling, and basically silence once the cupcakes were served. They were inhaled rather quickly. I was told that they were delicious, realllly good, I really did it this time, fantastic, yum!

I topped them with gold sprinkles. Good stuff, I loved these cupcakes too!

Bananarama:)

Sometimes, life takes unexpected turns. Today, I had not anticipated any friday night plans, but my friend Alexa invited herself over. We ended up making cupcakes, which we had not planned on. The computer was blasting Ke$ha and Lady Gaga, and the recipe was whipped up to the beat of Bad Romance.

The creation was banana-butterscotch cupcakes.The recipe is:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar

2 bananas

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup milk

1 cup butterscotch chips

We also made up a frosting recipe, and covered it with brown sugar.

They were delicious; when we took the paper holders off, the cupcakes just melted and gave us a much needed sugar rush.

Basically, these cupcakes were bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s.(please, hollaback girl)

Wonderful batch :) ps. the picture is alexa, not me!

Feedback:)

I have gotten very positive feedback, both about my blog and my cupcakes.

The cupcakes were described as 'freaking amazing', and many other fantastic ways.

I'm off to a great start, and can't wait for the next batch!

Today, I bought a shnazzy cupcake transport container. It's pretty cool, I have to say, I feel rather pro :) keep an eye out for the next post! I appreciate the feedback I've gotten!