Bridal Shower Cupcakes and no Martha Stewart Challenge...yet.

To my fellow Martha Stewart Challenge Bakers:  I'm going to be a little late on my Tres Leches post.  Saturdays at our store are super busy and I just didn't have the time.  I do plan on making them, though!

Last week I made these cupcakes for a Bridal Shower that a friend was hosting.  The hostess requested Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream frosting and Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting.  The super cute liners were from Bake It Pretty. Being a cooking enthusiast,  I absolutely love Bake It Pretty, and I would spend my entire tax return there if I could!

Sprinkles....Is That You?

My brother and sister-in-law had given me a Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcake mix not too long ago, and I decided that my Friday night Scrapbooking Crop would be the perfect occasion to use the mix. Our group leader, Clare, absolutely loves Red Velvet.



Here is the end result:


I even tried to replicate the signature Sprinkles cupcakes frosting style...I think I better stick to my favorite open star icing tip. :) The kit also included Sprinkles signature fondant dots to decorate the cupcakes with.


I also used the Sprinkles Cream Cheese Frosting recipe listed on the can. I thought it was pretty good. Very easy to work with. But I still prefer my go to recipe in Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella.


In the end, these turned out to be a beautiful red color, and I enjoyed presenting them to my Scrapbooking girls!

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Mini Golden Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

My friend and stylist Julie asked me to make these for her Phyto event at her salon. This was the first event I did for her.

Here is a shot of me setting up the cupcakes. It was about 7:45am when I delivered these. Mom met me at the salon and helped me set up.


Mini Golden Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (gotta love the morning sunrise for the best pictures!)


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (I think I make this type of cupcake most frequently!)


And the end result....very pretty.


If you look in the background of the last picture, you can see a picture frame sitting on the table. My wonderful husband Alex designed a graphic with my website on it for others to view my work. Then my fabulous Mom put them in a double frame. I couldn't do this without either one of them!

Martha Stewart Cupcakes August Challenge

One of the blogs that I enjoy reading regularly, Eat My Cupcake, decided to host a Martha Stewart cupcake challenge. Each month, a big 'ol group of foodie bloggers will each make a cupcake recipe selected from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. I am such a cupcake nerd, I pre-ordered this book from Amazon.com so that it would be delivered to our house on the day it was released!

The first cupcake challenge was the Chocolate Salted Caramel cupcakes with Dark chocolate frosting. I read the recipe a few times over, and was a little intimidated at first. But, I love a challenge (especially a cupcake one!) so I went for it. Unfortunately, I had too much chocolate and butter on my hands constantly, so I didn't take many preparation pictures.

The cake was simple enough to make. I used regular Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder, mostly because I can never find the Dutch unsweetened cocoa that many recipes call for. The cakes were incredibly shiny and glossy. After they had cooled completely, I cut cone shaped holes in the cupcakes to make room for the salted caramel I was about to make. I managed to get six and a half dozen mini cupcakes from this recipe, even though the book said it would make 56 total minis.

Next up was making the salted caramel filling from scratch. This was a first for me. In the recipe, it stated that the mixture may splatter, and it sure did! It actually scared the crap out of me, but with stirring, it quickly calmed down and turned into a smooth caramel. And it was YUMMY!

Then came the dark chocolate frosting. It was very easy to make and incredibly chocolately! I'm not a real big fan of dark chocolate, but this frosting was good. Very rich, easy to work with, and it had a beautiful glossy sheen to it.

I had a event to cupcake cater at this morning, so I made these for the event. Here is the final results, along with the Red Velvet cupcakes I made. The pictures didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.


A close-up:




The event was a success for Jovie Salon, and the salon called me to let me know that a client of theirs wanted my contact info to place an order...yippee!!!!! :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes for Clare's Dinner Party (And a lightning strike!)

A few months ago, I made cupcakes for a Friday night Scrapbooking Crop that I am a part of. They were a big success. One of my fellow scrappers, Clare, asked me to make cupcakes for an upcoming dinner party of hers. Obviously I accepted!

Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting:




While I was out (for 45 mintues) delivering the cupcakes to Clare's house (she also lives in Frisco), lightning struck our house! When I walked in, our house had a funny burnt smell to it. When I walked further into the house, I saw on our fireplace that some tiles had been shattered and there were a few burn marks. I called the fire department and they brought out the whole crew to check our house for anything that could still be smoldering. Luckily there was no structural damage, and we are so lucky and blessed that our house didn't catch on fire. It turned out to be a crazy day. Alex and I stayed with my parents in Denton for a few days since the firemen turned off our power to prevent anything else from happening.