MSC: Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

So I'm a few days behind on posting this month's challenge, but here they are a few days late.  This month for our Martha Stewart's Cupcake Challenge, Rebecca of The Baking Sisters chose the Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book.  Please forgive my grainy cell phone pictures! So I boxed up the cupcakes and delivered them cupid style on Valentine's Day.

I think my Dad was pretty excited!

I thought these cupcakes were fairly simple to make. I chose to make chocolate buttercream frosting instead of the dark chocolate frosting. No one in my family really likes dark chocolate, so I figured chocolate buttercream was the way to go.

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Next month we are baking the Candied Hazelnut Cupcakes.

MSC: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

For the month of July, Lauryn from Bella Baker chose the Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes from page 108 of the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book.

Ugh, another failure for me this month.  I was so excited to make these cupcakes because I had never attempted any kind of flourless cake before.  I didn't have any trouble making these, and the ingredient list was fairly simple.  My cupcakes even looked exactly like the picture in the book.

I must admit, I've never had flourless cake before. But this cake turned out really soggy and overly moist (and not in a good way). I was looking forward to taking these to share with my new co-workers, but there was no way I was going to make my first cupcake "impression" with these things.

I've come so close to quitting this challenge because honestly, the cupcakes so far haven't been so great, with the exception of the Pumpkin cupcakes. But, I've committed to this challenge and I'm going to keep going, dang it! :) I'm sure most of the failure is on my part, but I've got to keep going so I can be a better baker.

Next month, Marthe from Culinary Delights has chosen the Triple Citrus cupcakes. I have wanted to make these cupcakes since I saw them featured on the Martha Stewart TV show, so hopefully they will be a success!

Be sure to check out all of my other baking buddies' posts. You can view our list of bakers at our Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club website.

MSC: S'mores Cupcakes

I was excited to make these cupcakes from the start! I LOVE S'mores, so I thought they would be terrific in cupcake form.

Mary Ann of Meet Me In The Kitchen chose this month's Martha Stewart Cupcake challenge recipe.

Now, I know I said I was excited to make these cupcakes, but that doesn't mean I wasn't slightly intimidated by it. Chocolate ganache? I'd never made that. Marshmallow frosting? I'd never made that! Heck, unflavored gelatin...I'd never even BOUGHT that before! And graham flour, what the HECK is that?! But that is the point of this challenge: trying something new and different, and challenging oneself. :)

So I made my way to my favorite health food store in Denton, Cupboard Natural Foods, and bought me a package of graham flour. By the way, if you love dried papaya spears, this is THE place to buy them, they are the best!

Anyway, I'd been feeling a little under the weather, but decided that it wasn't going to keep me from making these cupcakes. I found the cupcakes very simple to make, and they smelled absolutely amazing while baking. I halved the recipe.

I also thought that the chocolate ganache glaze was fairly simple to make. It turned out smooth and glossy, just as I had imagined it would.

As for the frosting, well, I have decided that any frosting that requires preparation on the stove tends to be a little bit of a challenge for me. I think I just need more practice. After heating the water and sugar to the soft ball stage, I whisked it with the gelatin/water combo as instructed. I then put it in my stand mixer for the required amount of time. After five minutes on speed setting '6', nothing had happened. So I upped the speed to '10' and started to see some progress. But, I think I let it go for too long, because the frosting was difficult to pipe onto my cupcakes in the end. But that's okay, now I know to up the speed.

Here they are:




I haven't actually tried these yet. I'm a little nervous that they won't be good! And, I was too stuffed from last night's Valentine's Day dinner to even consider eating one of these! My co-workers will be arriving soon, and they are my usual guinea pigs. I'll update when I have some opinions from them.

On a completely random note, look at what my awesome mother-in-law got for me:

It's a t-shirt! She got it from cafepress.com. So cute!

Be sure to check out everyone else's baking experiences! Our blog roll can be found at our MSC Cupcake Challenge website. Have a great day everyone!

UPDATE: I tried one and enjoyed the flavor of the cake very much, just like graham crackers. Since I made my frosting last night, it had turned into an actual marshmallow overnight! I thought it was pretty cool!!! And the ganache had a great flavor. I would definitely make these again, and apply the things I have learned.

A Challenge Revisited

Last month, for the Martha Stewart Challenge I am participating in, hosted by Sugar B at Eat My Cupcake, I made Chocolate Salted Caramel cupcakes with Dark Chocolate frosting....see them here. They were such a success that I got another request for them.

This time I made standard size cupcakes instead of the mini cupcakes. I liked these much better. Mostly because I didn't have to cut the centers out of 50+ mini cupcakes!




Like the last time I made these cupcakes, I had WAY too much frosting left over. I froze some of it in case I need to use it in the future. I've never frozen frosting and then re-used it at a later date, so we'll see how that turns out. Overall, I was very pleased at the way these turned out.

Cupcakes for Charity

I made 165 cupcakes for my friend Giuseppe, who owns Giuseppe's Italian Restaurant in Denton, Texas. He and a local bank were sponsoring a fund raiser for the United Way. My Mom made all 150 of these tiny little flags! WOW! They read "Point Bank Supports United Way"



We made half Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and half Vanilla cake with Chocolate Buttercream. This is only one pan of the five pans it took to transport these to Denton. Many thanks to my Mom for delivering them, and for all of her help.

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!!!!! :)

A Concert and Chocolate Cupcakes

In June, Jordan and I went to see one of my favorite bands, Gomez. Jordan didn't really know much about the band, but went with me anyway because that's what best friends do. :)

We stopped at Boston Market before the show and ate dinner. I had never been there, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially when we got to the register and saw these beauties:





Obviously we had to try them! They were yummy, moist, chocolatey! We knew from then on the night would only get better! Or so we thought!

It was a stormy night in Dallas, and the tornado sirens were going off as we left the restaurant. The storm was following us all the way from Plano to downtown Dallas. Right when we were pulling in the lot to park, it started to rain and the wind was blowing crazy-like. We had made it just in time.

Here we are at the show


And here is a great shot of the band.


Gomez is a band that I had been wanting to see since I first discovered them working at Sam Goody back in 1999. I would always miss them every time they came through Dallas. But not this time! It was well worth the ten year wait. They were fabulous, and I can't wait for the opportunity to see them again!

Pampered Chef Party Cupcakes

My awesome mother-in-law Lori hosted a Pampered Chef Party in her home a little while ago. She asked me to make cupcakes, and of course I accepted! The color theme of the party was pink, in support of breast cancer awareness. I decided to keep the pink subtle, and made a golden cupcake (or yellow cake) with chocolate buttercream frosting, with pink dot sprinkles.





The cupcakes went over very well, and I even sent some home with the Pampered Chef lady! I even got some sweet things from Pampered Chef, like this...

Bamboo serving bowl...Alex likes all things wooden in the kitchen....bowls, serving, etc.


And these adorable polka dot bowls, we have used them so much already. They are perfect for pasta, or rice dishes with lots of liquid.


This little mini-serving spatula is awesome for lifting cookies off of baking sheets, and I used it this morning for some help with fresh cinnamon rolls I made.


The BEST ice cream scoop EVER!


This garlic infused canola oil is amazing! Even though it's probably not the healthiest thing on the planet....all things in moderation, right?


Okay, okay, so I may have gone a little overboard with the Pampered Chef stuff, but this is good stuff! And I spend so much time in the kitchen, these items will certainly get lots of use. :)

Cyle's Graduation Cupcakes

One of my oldest friends, Cyle, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin on May 15th. In honor of his big day, I decided to make cupcakes (big surprise, I know!). When I asked him what kind he wanted, it was definitely a new request for me. Cyle wanted Chocolate cupcakes with Key Lime Cream Cheese frosting. He asked me if I had ever made that kind of cupcake, and I told him that I had made them separately, but never together. But, I'm always up for a cupcake challenge...and here is the result:

A close-up...






I saw this idea on another cupcake blog, and decided to give it a try. I made little flags to go in each of the cupcakes. My picture turned out kinda blurry, though. They say, "Congrats Cyle!" on them, in UT orange.


Here is the graduate with his cupcakes....I may have caught him off guard in this pic.....


For being such an odd combination, these were very good together. But most importantly, Cyle loved them.

Here's the recipe from Wilton.com
* 2 cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips divided
* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
* 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
* 3 eggs
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups water

Makes: Cake serves 12.
Chocolate-Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray pan with vegetable pan spray. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and butter together either in microwave oven or on top of range over low heat. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into electric mixer bowl. Add sugar; beat until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at time. Add vanilla. Stir in 1/2 cup flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Add remaining flour and water; mix until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40-45 minutes or until cake tests done. Place pan on cooling rack. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup chocolate chips over cake; let stand 2-3 minutes or until chips have softened. Gently spread melted chocolate over top of cake. Cool completely in pan before covering.

And for the frosting, also from Wilton.com:
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter softened
* 8 ounces cream cheese softened
* 2 tablespoons key lime juice
* 1 teaspoon key lime zest or lemon zest
* 4-5 cups confectioners' sugar

Makes: About 3 cups.

In large bowl, cream butter, cream cheese, juice and zest with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add 4 cups confectioners' sugar, one cup at a time; continue beating until light and fluffy. If icing is too thin add additional confectioners' sugar 1 tablespoon at a time.

Alison's Bridal Shower

On April 4th, I co-hosted my dear friend Alison's bridal shower at our house in Frisco. A family friend of Alison's was originally going to host the shower, but had some medical problems arise so Lauren and myself accepted the honors. We had about a month to put the whole shower together, so we quickly got to work during the first week of March. We put a lot of attention to detail, and the end result was something that we were both proud of. Here is the arrangement that we had made for the shower, made by Holly's Gardens and Florist in Denton. If you look closely on the table you can see the confetti that I made using a paper punch. Alison is incorporating fleur de lis into her wedding theme, so this punch was perfect.


The gifts....


As part of the shower festivities, we gave each guest a clothespin and told them that they couldn't say "wedding" or "Will" (Alison's fiance). If someone heard them say either one of these words, their clothespin could be taken away, or if they heard someone else say it, they could take it from someone else. I also made these favor boxes that housed the homemade chocolates I made as favors for the guests.


Alex was incredibly kind to be our "panini master" for the bridal shower. He set up his workstation on our kitchen island and went to work making paninis for all the ladies at the shower. They were incredibly yummy and he was the hit of the party!


Here are a couple of shots of the food we served.


I wanted to take a few more detailed shots before the guests arrived, but I ran out of time! We served red velvet cupcakes (Alison's favorite), deli spirals, fresh fruit and veggies, jelly bellies in Alison's colors, brie with garlic toast, and phyllo cups with different fillings.

My Mom and Alex were tremendously helpful throughout the whole process, and I couldn't have done it without their help. Here are the thank you flowers that Alison's Mom Beth bought for Lauren, myself, and my Mom as a thank you. They were so beautiful.


Here is Alison opening a few of her presents.


Lauren and I got so many compliments on the shower. She and I worked really hard to make the event memorable for Alison, and she had a great time. I think we did a great job since it was the first shower we had ever given!

Edibles Incredibles - A Review

Last month Alex and I went to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew in Virginia. I really wanted to visit a new bakery, and Shannon knew of one called Edibles Incredible. One evening, we all went to Restin, Virginia in pursuit of cupcakes. Once there, it was hard to get inside, it was a tiny little place with lots of people standing in line.

They had what seemed like 15 different varieties of cupcakes, and it was a tough decision. I ultimately chose the "Snowball" cupcake which was coconut cake with what seemed like a coconut filling, pink buttercream frosting and shredded coconut on top. These cupcakes had a giant mound of frosting on top. I think we paid about $3.50 per cupcake, but there was so much to them, it was worth the price.



My brother chose the chocolate covered cherry cupcake with cherry filling. These cupcakes were BIG! I had to cut mine into quarters. I had a bite of his cupcake, and I really liked the cherry filling.





And they had a great idea for takeout cupcakes!


I thoroughly enjoyed these cupcakes, and will definitely be back when Alex and me visit in the future.

Trying something new.

Next Friday, my studio is hosting a football tailgating "potluck." I am known as the cupcake queen around the studio, so of course I signed up to bring cupcakes. After searching online for inspiration, I found some cute ideas for football cupcakes. I'm thinking I will make a butter or white cupcake, topped with chocolate buttercream frosting.....sadly, I have to wait until next week to work on them. Pictures to follow!