Playing with food...

My friend Dao recently made up a new sandwich. He called it "THE McGANGBANG"!

A McGangBang is what you get when you jam a McDonald's Junior Chicken Sandwich in between a McDonald's Double Cheeseburger! He was quite proud of his creation and I thought it was genius, so I decided to make a cupcake version of the McGangBang.

The McGangBang!

Dao suggested I jam a cupcake into an eclair, but I suggested a Jos. Louis! A Jos. Louis is very sandwich-like!

So I happened to have an extra black bottom cupcake and I picked up a Jos. Louis at the corner store (I almost went for the SUPER Jos. Louis...but refrained).

Delicious Black Bottom Cupcake with a Cream Cheese Centre

Mr. Jos. Louis

Of course this creation needed a name, and it needed a dirty name! So since there is a cream cheese center in the cupcake and a cream filling in the Jos. Louis, I came up with.....

THE BJ CREAM EXPLOSION!!!

Pre-Explosion

BJ Cream Explosion Post-Explosion

And I ate it and it was delicious!!!!

Update on Black Bottom Cupcakes

I made the black bottom cupcakes for Mother's Day using the Martha Stewart Chocolate cupcake recipe and they were AHHH-MAYYY-ZING! Probably a million times better then the first ones I made. Me my mom and my sister each ate 2! They were probably one of the best cupcakes I've ever made! Seriously!

"N" is for Neapolitan Black Bottom Cupcake

I've been wanting to make something "neapolitan" for a while because I love the combination of brown, white and pink. The colours compliment each other so well and are just plain pretty! So I decided to try a black bottom cupcake, which is a chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese centre. How delicious does THAT sound! And in preparation for a cupcake I'm making next week, I wanted to try this 7-minute frosting with added raspberry puree for colour and flavour. While the actual chocolate part of the cupcake was a bit sub-par for my liking, the combination of chocolate and cream cheese was magical to say the least and the frosting was just amazing. I had some leftovers and put a huge dollop of it on a big bowl of fresh berries (that I got on sale to boot!). What a perfect treat!

This recipe has 3 parts:
1. The cream cheese filling
2. The chocolate cupcake
3. The 7-minute raspberry frosting

Part 1: The Cream Cheese Filling
My mom has requested these beauties for Mother's day, so I'm going to experiment with swirling the cream cheese mixture right into the chocolate cupcake batter instead of adding it as a big drop into the batter once it's in the cupcake liner.

Cream Cheese filling
For 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese, regular or low-fat
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 oz semisweet mini chocolate chips

Method
1. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
2. Stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Part 2: The Chocolate Cupcake
This recipe, including the cream cheese filling comes from the HTEAC website which came from The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz. I'm going to use a different chocolate base the next time that I try these. I'm no baking expert, but I have been baking a lot of cupcakes lately and I'm just thrown off by the fact that this recipe doesn't have any eggs or milk in it. The flavour was definitely lacking in this recipe. It kind of reminds me of the vegan chocolate cupcakes I made...kinda gummy and dry and flavourless. I think I'll use my stand-by chocolate cupcake recipe, Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake Recipe as used in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake recipe.

Chocolate Cupcake
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp white or cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.
5. Divide the batter amond the cupcakes liners. Spoon a few tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the centre of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely, which is fine.
6. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed.


Part 3: The 7-Minute Raspberry Frosting
Simply put...this frosting is AH-MAY-ZING!

Seven Minute Frosting
Enough to generously top 12 cupcakes with a little extra left over

Ingredients
1.25 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
~4 tbsps raspberry puree (raspberries pushed through a sieve to discard the seeds)

Method
1. Put the sugar, water, egg whites and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler with at least a 2 quart capacity and beat with a handheld mixer on high speed until opaque, white, and foamy, about 1 minute.
2. Put the bowl over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmer water (or the bottom of the double boiler). The top container should sit firmly over the pan of hot water; be sure to keep the cord of the electric mixer away from the burner.
3. Beat on high speed until the frosting forms a soft peak that stands straight up if you stop the beaters and lift them up, about 7 minutes. The frosting should register 160F on a thermometer.
4. Remove the container of frosting from the water, add the raspberry puree and continue beating for 2 minutes, to further thicken the frosting.

Final Assembly
Pipe at least 1/2 cup of frosting onto each cupcake. Don't be afraid to pile it high. You can also use a thin metal spatula to spread a thick layer of frosting over the top of each cupcake, dipping the spatula gently into the frosting to make swirls. If you have any left over frosting, put a huge dollop on top of a huge bowl of fresh berries! It's just like whipped cream, but better for you :)

"R" is for Raspberry Ripple Cupcake

I recently got a new cookbook simply called "cupcakes". It's a beautiful book and in it I found this beautiful recipe for delicious raspberry cupcakes. Fresh berries remind me of summer and I made these on a beautiful warm sunny day. Dao saw a picture of them and requested them for his birthday and I must admit that the second time around they were waaaay better. The first time I made them I topped them with a lemon meringue, but the second time I used a lemon cream cheese frosting, both were very good, but the cream cheese was amazing! I made a few extra and brought them along with me to meet Kellie and Steve on a patio for afternoon, sunshine beers. They were gone within seconds, and luckily so because soon after they were devoured a freak hurricane/tornado/storm blew in and whisked the container away! These are light and fresh and perfect!

This cupcake has 2 parts:
1. The raspberry ripple cupcake

2. The lemon meringue (or lemon cream cheese frosting)

Part 1: The Raspberry Ripple Cupcake

The instructions for the recipe state: "Using 2 tsps, put a teaspoonful of the cake mixture into each paper case. Add a dollop of reaspberry puree, then top with more cake mixture. Swirl a knife through the mixtures to blend them slightly together." The recipe also calls for "a splash of milk". Neither of these things work! For one, the batter is VERY thick, thus making it essential to add more then a 'splash' of milk. I added a good splash after each addition of flour. This ended up being about 1/3 of a cup. Even with this extra milk it was impossible to "swirl" the mixtures together. For a more uniform batter with a decent consistency, I added the raspberries right into the batter and stirred just to incorporate. Also, as a side note, I've finally purchased a seive and started sifting my flour. I now believe that sifting flour is what makes a perfect cupcake! Silly me...what was I thinking!?!

Raspberry Ripple Cupcake

Makes 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients

7 oz (200g) fresh or frozen raspberries

2 tbsp icing sugar

squeeze of lemon juice

2/3 cup very soft unsalted butter

2/3 cup superfine sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup self raising flour (see *note*)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

splash of milk

*Note: Self raising flour is 1 cup of flour with 1.5 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Push the raspberries (if using frozen then defrost them first) through a sieve to remove the seeds, then mix with the icing sugar and lemon juice. (I added a few of the discarded seeds back into the raspberry puree just cause I like seeds and there's a lot of good flavour left in the pulp.)

3. Put the butter in a bowl and beat to make sure it is really soft. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Sift together the flours then sift again into the creamed mixture and fold in with a metal sppon. Add a splash of milk to give a soft dropping consistency.

5. Using 2 tsps, put a teaspoonful of the cake mixture into each paper case. Add a dollop of raspberry puree, then top with more cuake mixture. Swirl a knife through the mixtures to blend them slightly. (Use this method or the method I described above.)

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until nicely risen and golden brown. Remove the cakes from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Part 2: The Lemon Meringue frosting

A lightly flavoured lemon meringue goes so well on top of this fresh cupcake. Alternatively, a lively lemon cream cheese frosting is a tasty, richer and sweeter option. Both are great, so you decide. Below is the recipe for the meringue and you can find the recipe for the cream cheese frosting in the Earth Day cupcake post. I added at least 2 tbsp of lemon juice and the zest of half a lemon to get a more intense lemon flavour. Adjust the amount to your liking, but don't add TOO much as it will thin out the meringue.

Lemon Meringue

Enough to top 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

4 large egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Pinch cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

Method

1. Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a mixer's bowl above the water.

2. Whisk the egg whites, sugar, lemon juice and zest, cream of tartar and salt in the bowl by hand.

3. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes. You can tell when the sugar has dissolved by taking a little bit onto your finger and feeling the mixture. You won't be able to feel the grainyness of the sugar anymore!

4. Remove the bowl from the water and beat at medium-high speed until the meringue is cool and holds a soft peak, about 5 minutes.

Final Assembly

Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and top with a fresh raspberry. Enjoy!

"E" is for EARTH DAY Cupcake!

Today is Earth Day! And in celebration I thought I would make a cupcake to honour Mother Earth and all her splendor! Somebody was recently telling me about the Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes topped with Lemon Curd that they had for breakfast at Stone Face Dolly's and I thought I would use that as my inspiration. How perfect is it that blueberries are blue and water is blue and half the earth is blue! ;) Every little bit of this cupcake is inspired by our lovely planet, down to the sprinkles and liner.

the blue and green cupcake = PLANET EARTH

the yellow liner = SUNSHINE (enveloping the earth as well!!)

the white frosting = THE CLOUDS

the sprinkles = RAINBOWS

I love fruit paired with lemon and these sure hit the spot! The blueberries 'melt' when they cook and get all runny and sweet and the frosting is so light and delicious! I think Mother Earth would be proud! :)

This cupcake has 2 parts:
1. The Blueberry Ricotta Cupcake

2. The Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Part 1: The Blueberry Ricotta Cupcake

I could only find a recipe for Strawberry Ricotta cupcakes, which made it easy to subsitute for blueberries. In doing my googling I realized that these cupcakes have very similar ingredients to actual blueberry ricotta pancakes! I made the batter green by using gel food colouring (I mixed blue and yellow) and adding it to the last little bit of milk/ricotta mixture before adding it into the rest of the batter. I needed to add extra milk as well then what the recipe called for. Hopefully you can find yellow cupcake liners to use as "sunshine". You can also omit the food colouring and just make these as regular non-earth day cupcakes! :)

Blueberry Ricotta Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup (half a stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 egg

8 ounces ricotta cheese mixed with 1/4 cup whole milk (I ended up using about 1/2 cup of milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon soda

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcakes papers and set aside.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

4. In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

5. Add the egg and beat for another 1 minute. Beat in the vanilla.

6. Add the ricotta mixture alternately with the flour mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

7. Fold in the blueberries.

8. Divide among the 12 cupcake tins and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until risen and very lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before frosting.

Part 2: The Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I loooooooove lemon. Normally when I'm making a lemon frosting I like to make a meringue, but today I thought I'd try something different, and I sure am glad that I did! This frosting is so light and delicious I could eat it right out of the bowl. I always like to add a bit of extra lemon then what I recipe calls for, so use your judgement and adjust the amount of lemon to get the desired flavour. I found this recipe on the Cupcake Bakeshop by Chocklit website.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

8oz of cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Method:

1. Soften the butter in a mixer on high speed

2. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined

3. Sift the confectioner’s sugar

4. Add about half of the confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice and zest to the butter/cream cheese mixture and beat on high speed to combine

5. Add the remaining confectioner’s sugar in stages until desired consistency and sweetness is achieved

Final Assembly

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcake and top with rainbow coloured non-pareils (sprinkles).

"L" is for The Big LEBOWSKI Cupcake

Every time anyone has a birthday or a party now, I get asked to make cupcakes! I am, after all, the Cupcake Queen! These were requested for Ryan's 31st birthday party. The theme (because you know we all love theme-parties) was THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Now I admit that I don't know much about the movie, so I was tipped off that "The Dude" drinks a lot of White Russians and I should make a cupcake that resembled his favorite drink. A White Russian is made with vodka, Kahlua and cream or milk. So this would be a boozy cupcake! Fun!

Of course, I googled "The Big Lebowski cupcake" and "White Russian cupcake" and "Kahlua cupcake" and anything else I could think of to find a good recipe. And really, the only thing I could really find that was anything close included a cake mix from The Cake Mix Doctor! Not what I wanted at all. I ended up finding a recipe from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes on a website and modified them to my liking. They ended up fairly dense but with the whipped cream frosting tasted Oh So Good! They were a big (LEBOWSKI) hit!

This cupcake has 2 parts:

1. The White Russian Cupcake

2. The Kahlua whipped cream

Part 1: The White Russian Cupcake

This cupcake is a modification of a Kahlua cupcake. My modification is that I used less milk and more alcohol to include vodka. They were pretty dense, so if I make them again maybe I'll use the indicated amount of milk and just add extra alcohol. Sounds like a good idea!

The White Russian Cupcake

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Pinch salt

½ cup Kahlua

½ cup Vodka

2 tbsp instant coffee granules (I used ground up chocolate covered coffee beans!)

1½ cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

4 egg whites

½ cup buttermilk (I would add 2/3 cup instead)

Method:

Heat oven to 350F

1. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt (set aside)

2. In a small bowl, mix together Kahlua and vodka (set aside)

3. In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy

4. Add egg whites one at a time, beating after each addition

5. Alternately beat in the flour mixture, buttermilk and liqueur mixture, making three additions of flour and one each of the buttermilk and liqueur, beat until smooth

6. Stir in ground up coffee beans

7. Scoop batter into prepared cupcake pan (about ¾ of the way full)

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back slightly when touched

9. Let cool completely on wire racks

The cupcake is full of holes. I'm assuming it's from the alcohol evaporating!

Watch out when you open the oven door to check on your cupcakes. You'll get a face-full of...alcohol? You'll get a face-full of something that's for sure! I burned my eyeballs a little!

Part 2: Kahlua Whipped Cream

Whipped cream goes so well on these cupcakes, for one to include the "cream" part of the White Russian, and two because it is so light and luscious. Whipped cream is great because you can play around with the quantities of icing sugar and Kahlua to get the flavour and texture that you want.

Kahlua Whipped Cream

Makes enough for 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup icing sugar

3 tbsp Kahlua

Method:
1. To get the fullest whipped cream, start with a chilled bowl and utensils. The cream should be cold as well.

2. Whip the cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form.

3. Add the Kahlua and mix on low until incorporated. Adjust flavour and consistency by adding more Kahlua or icing sugar.

4. Remember: Don't overbeat or you'll end up with butter!

Final Assembly

Pipe the whipped cream onto the cupcake by using a piping bag or spoon it on in a big dollop. Sprinkle with crushed chocolate covered coffee beans. Place one whole chocolate covered coffee bean on top. Enjoy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!

"B" is for BACON Cupcake

Ohhhhh....the BACON cupcake! How I love thee!

Who out there loves bacon???

Who out there loves chocolate???

Everyone, right!? So why not combine them together! Now I must admit that I do get quite a lot of funny faces when I mention the words 'bacon' and 'cupcake' in the same sentence and I have gotten a mixed bag of reactions to these cupcakes, but I still think they're great and I will defend them forever and ever.

It is safe to say that you either love 'em or hate 'em. My sister and her boyfriend hated them and thought they were the most disgusting thing they'd ever tasted (harsh...). Evan, the bacon lover himself, did not really enjoy them, or maybe it was just the frosting that threw him off. However, me, Sara and Dao loved them and thought they had a really unique, delicious flavour, they were the only cupcakes at Cupcake Camp to get a cheer from the crowd and they were mentioned on CKCU radio as the BEST cupcakes at Cupcake Camp. One of the bartenders at work proposed to me after eating one, the other bartender ran to the restaurant when he wasn't even working just to eat one, and I've been given the nickname "bacon cakes" by one of the cooks. So...I think it's a matter of personal taste and what you're willing to try!

The first time I made these I used a beautiful, luscious, swirly frosting on top, but it didn't really taste good, so the next time I tried a new recipe and it didn't LOOK as good. Now I just need to find something in between. I'm still working on it!

This recipe has 2 parts:
1. The Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcake

2. The Salted Caramel Frosting

Part 1: The Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcake

When I wanted to make a Bacon cupcake, I searched all over to find just the perfect combination of flavours. There were a lot of recipes to choose from as there is, apparently, a huge bacon-in-dessert following out there! My favorite that I found was on the Noone Puts Cupcake in a Corner blog. A perfect blend of salty and sweet!

Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup cold brewed coffee

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

12-20 slices of bacon (gooooood smokey bacon)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Chop and then fry bacon until crispy, drain and cool. Or fry and then crumble, as I did. 3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, coffee, buttermilk, and oil. Mix until smooth, batter will be thin. Gently mix in the the bacon.
4. Fill cupcake liners to half full.
5. Reduce oven to 350F degrees. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Part 2: The Salted Caramel Frosting
The Salted Caramel Frosting is the same as the frosting that I used for the Caramel Apple Crumble Cupcake, but I used salted butter instead of regular butter to make the caramel. The recipe can be found here.

Final Assembly

Pipe the Salted Caramel Frosting onto the Bacon cupcakes and sprinkle with Turbinado Sugar and Course Sea Salt.

"A" is for Caramel APPLE Crumble Cupcake

I have made the Caramel Apple Crumble Cupcake twice already and the second time it tasted way better then the first. It is easily one of my favorites that I've made to date. And judging by the reactions of a few people who ate them, they may be their favorites too! I originally saw the recipe for the Caramel Apple cupcake on the HowToEatACupcake blog and I really wanted to try it. Wanting to make it a little different I thought of how much I love Apple Crumble, so I decided to combine the 2 ideas together.

A few notes on this Cupcake:

1. The batter is REALLY thick and looked like muffin batter, so I added about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of apple juice to thin it out to get a good cupcake batter consistency.

2. I struggled with the 'caramel' for this cupcake until I came across a recipe in my Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. The most amazing caramel recipe EVER! This goes for the Caramel Frosting as well!

3. The first time I made the cupcake, I rolled the edge of the frosting in apple "crumble". The second time I made them, the frosting was so thick that there was no way that I could do this. It's too bad, because that's how I envisioned them from the beginning. A bit of experimenting and I'll get it right!

There are 4 parts to this recipe:

1. The Caramel Apple Cupcake

2. The Caramel

3. The Caramel Frosting

4. The Crumble

Part 1: The Caramel Apple Cupcake

I found this recipe on HowToEatACupcake.com. And like I mentioned already, you will probably need to add at least 1/2 cup of apple juice to the batter. You can add more or less depending on the consistency you get/want. These smell SOOO good when they come out of the oven!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Makes 16-18

Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 medium sized tart apples, peeled, cored, and chopped small (about 2 cups)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.

2. In a large bowl beat together the brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.

3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Beat until blended. Stir in apples. (I added the apple juice here because this is when I realized the batter was really thick.)

5. Fill the cupcake liners 1/2 to 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on wire rack.

Part 2: The Caramel

This recipe is from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. This is a book from Australia, so it uses some terms and ingredients that are not familiar to me here in Canada. I tried to find them online, but apparently the bakery has closed down due to some VERY bad reviews. I will not go into detail, but it made me loose A LOT of interest in this book. Which is unfortunate because I love the book and there seems to be a lot of good recipes in it. Regardless, the Caramel recipe is amazing! This recipe called for "golden syrup" which is NOT corn syrup or molasses or any combo of other sweeteners. I ended up finding golden syrup at Bouchey's on Elgin Street. It's made by Lyle's. It cost $2.99 (no tax!) and is well worth it!

Real Caramel Sauce

Makes 1 cup sauce Keeps 1 month

Ingredients:
100g butter (there are about 115g in 1 stick)

2/3 cups soft brown sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup

1/2 cup cream (I used whipping cream)

Method:

1. Combine the butter, sugar, golden syrup and cream in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat.

2. Stir occasionally with a flat-bottomed wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved.

3. Turn heat up to high and boil for at least 5 minutes.

4. Take off the heat and cool to room temperature.

**Note: Don't turn the heat up TOO high and remember to keep stirring the sauce the whole time so that it doesn't burn or scald. My mom makes something very similar to this and she recommended that I lift the pot off of the burner every once in a while as well so that it wasn't getting direct heat. To check the consistency of the caramel you can take a little spoonful and drop it on a plate and wait a few seconds. It will cool and you will know how thick it will end up. Boiling it for ~4-5 minutes will make a really thick gooey caramel that is fairly solid.

***Note 2: The caramel can also be used for other things. For instance, I made chocolate with it by filling a mold with a thin layer of chocolate, then adding the caramel and then another thin layer of chocolate on top. Delicious!

Part 3: The Caramel Frosting

The frosting uses the same recipe as the Caramel, but with added icing sugar to make it...well...frosting! The author of this recipe wrote in the book that she boiled the recipe LONGER then the caramel and THEN added the icing sugar. I have NO IDEA how she did this because you would end up with a rock solid mass of something! I boiled the caramel for a lot LESS time and still couldn't add that much sugar and still ended up with very thick frosting. This one will take some experimenting to get right, but the flavour is worth the effort! I literally blew holes in the piping bag and nearly sprained all my muscles trying to pipe this frosting!

Real Caramel Sauce Frosting
Makes 4 cups frosting

Ingredients:

100g butter (there are about 115g in 1 stick)
2/3 cup soft brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup cream (I used whipping cream)

8 cups icing sugar (I could barely get 2 cups into the caramel before it was super thick)

Method:
1. Combine the butter, sugar, golden syrup and cream in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat.
2. Stir occasionally with a flat-bottomed wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Turn heat up to high and boil for at least 5 minutes.
4. Take off the heat and cool to room temperature.

5. Add half of the sifted icing sugar to the cooled caramel mixture and use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat for 3 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat for a further 3 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy and of a spreadable consistency. Add extra cream if the mixture is too dry or extra icing sugar if the mixture is too wet.

**Note: I would boil the caramel for only about 1 minute and add only as much icing sugar as you can to get a spreadable consistency. Maybe next time I'll try using a lighter cream to see if it doesn't turn out as thick.

Part 4: The Crumble

The first time I made the crumble, it was AMAZING. The second time, not so much. I was having stressful day the second time and I think Murphy's Law was starting to kick in! I adapted this recipe from standard Apple Crumble recipes that actually use apples and this as a topping.

Apple Crumble

Makes enought for 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1-2 tsps cinnamon (I love cinnamon...don't be afraid to add a lot!)

Method:
1. Blend the butter into the brown sugar.

2. Add the flour, oats and cinnamon

3. Spread on a baking sheet in a thick layer and bake in the oven at 350F for about 20 minutes or until the mixture is a crumbly texture. Make sure you constantly mix the crumble to ensure all of the dry ingredients get coated in butter.

4. Crush with a fork to make smaller bits of crumble suitable for rolling. Or quickly pass it through a food processor.

Final Assembly

Before the Caramel has a chance to cool completely, spoon about 1 tbsp of it onto each cupcake and spread into over the top into a thick layer. For the frosting, but a dollop onto the cupcake and smooth it out over the entire cupcake until you have a flat, smooth surface with a visible edge. Roll the edge in the crumble. Top with a Green Apple flavoured jelly bean.

Cupcake Camp Update

Yesterday was Cupcake Camp!

It has taken me a whole day to get to writing about it because I was so tired from the weekend with baking and working and enjoying the sun and then so full of sugar and goodness from the camp, that I came home and immediately passed out!

Cupcake Camp was a lot of fun and I was surprised to see how many people showed up, and I think maybe the organizers were too! There were over 100 bakers with nearly 3,500 cupcakes and close to 400 people eager to eat cupcakes, making it the largest camp to date! Yay Ottawa!

I made 3 kinds of cupcakes for Cupcake Camp:
1. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

2. Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

3. Caramel Apple Crumble Cupcakes

I started preparing on Friday by buying all of the ingredients that I would need for baking on Saturday. I was planning on baking Saturday and doing the frosting on Sunday morning. It was gloriously sunny and warm on Friday, so I had to go and enjoy the weather with a few friends on a patio!

I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and went and got myself a coffee, a few more ingredients I forgot to get on Friday and a new cupcake tin (and a fresh croissant!). I was making 3 different kinds of cupcakes, so I had to organize how I'd get through all of them in one day. I also had to be at work for 5:15pm so I was faced with a time limit too! And Bruce, the reporter from the Citizen, was coming over to watch me bake so I knew I could have company too.

I started off by making the cookie dough for the Cookie Dough cupcake. The balls of dough had to go in the freezer for at least an hour before I could use them, so that gave me time to start on some of the other cupcakes.

Bruce showed up right about at the point when I was cooking up the bacon for the Bacon cupcake. I'm not much of a bacon cooker, I love eating the stuff though, so it was an interesting experience to say the least. Bruce was laughing at the fact that I was cooking it in a wok! What? I love my wok!

As the bacon was cooling I made the Caramel Apple Crumble cupcake. These went off without a hitch, except for not having enough brown sugar, but luckily my roommate had some. Phewf. Then I made the Bacon cupcakes, and I ran out of oil, so I went out onto the lane and borrowed some from my neighbor! I made 2 extra large cupcakes lined with bacon for the 2 bartenders at work too...by special request! And last but not least, I made the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes. Surprise, surprise, I didn't have enough cocoa for these, so I had to go out to the Bridgehead to buy some. It was soooo nice outside that I didn't mind going out for a walk, and to get a bit of a break.

It took me pretty much the whole day to get all the baking done with all the talking I did while the reporter was over and with all the breaks I had to take to find my missing ingredients. I finally hopped in the shower at 4pm! Can you say 'time crunch'?

Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30am!! That is WAY too early to be up on a Sunday. But, I knew I wanted to have plenty of time to get everything done and not be stressed out. My mom came over bright and early too to help, with extra missing ingredients (I obviously didn't plan very well!!) and coffee in hand! What would I do without my mom?!?! My mom organized and cleaned while I made the apple crumble (twice because I messed up the first batch) and the chocolate chip cookie dough frosting.

My biggest challenge of the day was going to be the caramel and the caramel frosting, which I had yet to find a good recipe for. I decided to try a recipe that I found in The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. It called for Golden Syrup which I luckily found at the Bouchey's on Elgin! I love Bouchey's! OMG, it was AMAZING! The first batch I made was too thick for frosting, so I used it to coat the cupcakes with. It was so thick and gooey and tasted like those little square caramels that you can buy for Halloween. The second batch I used for the frosting, which ended up being way too thick to add 8 cups of icing sugar to. But it was still really good, and I only added 2 cups. I was straining pretty hard to frost the cupcakes and I blew holes in the piping bag to boot! Pretty funny!

I put all the finishing touches on the cupcakes, including some Hawaiian red sea salt that my mom brought over for the bacon cupcakes, and then I was done! Yay! And with plenty of time to spare. AND my mom had cleaned all of the dishes too! I took a shower, got ready (made sure my hair looked okay because I knew there would be a pro photographer there!!) and then we were off!

Caramel Apple Crumble and Bacon Cupcakes ready to go

It was a miserable rainy day, but that didn't put a damper on anyone's spirits at Cupcake Camp! There was a HUGE line-up of bakers registering their cupcakes that took quite awhile to get through. You had to give them your cupcakes, they tagged them all in a pre-set order, photographed them and then whisked them away to be set up on the tasting trays and the judging trays. We got there early enough that we had some time to kill before the doors opened to the public.

By 2pm, when the event actually started, the room was already full and there was a MASSIVE line up outside of people wanting to get it! I can't believe so many people showed up! Obviously the rain didn't stop people from coming to get their Sunday afternoon sugar-fix!

There was a big table set up in a "U" shape in the middle of the room and every 15 minutes they would bring out a new batch of cupcakes. There were 10 batches and each batch contained about 15-20 different kinds of cupcakes. They set down the trays and the feeding frenzy began! My cupcakes were all in Batch #2, so they were brought out early when everyone was still really excited, which I was happy about. But since there was such a huge line-up, none of my friends were able to get in in time to taste my cupcakes :( (but this was okay since I had extras in the car!) Every time a new batch came out they would announce what kinds were on the trays. I was happy to see that mine were included with a wide variety of 'chocolate' and 'vanilla' cupcakes, making mine stand out all the more! When the announcer came upon the Bacon Cupcake he stumbled a bit, said "wow, that's different" and asked the crowd who was excited for a Bacon Cupcake and they all cheered! And I must note that the Bacon Cupcake was the ONLY cupcake that got ANY reaction from the crowd...THANK YOU VERY MUCH! :)

Tons of people at Cupcake Camp!

All the while the judges were up front EATING all of these cupcakes! I have no idea how they did it! They each had a jug of milk to wash down all those tasty treats!

Cupcakes ready to be judged!

A few of my friends showed up, but not all of them were able to wait that long to get in. But Kellie stuck it out and waited in line for over 30 minutes to get in!! Thanks Kellie!! Evan only had to wait for about 10 minutes despite the length of the line-up. I was very impressed with all the cupcakes that Kellie ate! She had 1 of each of mine and then some! I was afraid she would go home and fall into a cupcake coma! Evan ate a bunch of cupcakes and then I tried to make him eat my Caramel Apple Crumble cupcake, but he said he was so cupcaked out and plus it didn't look very moustache friendly. But I made him try 'just a bite' and then he asked if he could eat the whole thing! They're THAT GOOD folks!

My mom at Cupcake Camp!

The judging took place at 4pm. My heart was racing, which could partly be due to the extremely HOT temperature of the room. It was sooooo hot in there, I thought I would pass out! So many people, so much energy! Anyway, I was kind of nervous and I really wanted to win. They announced each category and the winner and I was pretty disappointed when I didn't win. I totally wanted to win! But I'm okay with the fact that I didn't. My friends and family still think mine are the best and that I'm their Cupcake Queen. PLUS...I'M the one who was featured in a HUGE article in the Ottawa Citizen!

So, all in all, the event was a HUGE success, I had a lot of fun, I ate a lot of cupcakes (but not as many as some) and I got to see what everyone else was up to in the cupcake world in Ottawa. I'm looking forward to next year's event and I'm positive I'll win then! And now I'll see where this whole Cupcake thing takes me. Who knows, maybe someone famous will read the article in the paper or read my blog and ask me to bake cupcakes and then they'll fall in love with them and then maybe I'll be whisked off to NYC to become some world famous baker to the stars!!! Who knows...a girl can dream, right?!

Oh, and I'd like to thank my mom for helping me out through out the whole process, including calming me down, bringing me ingredients and coffee and sticking it out for 4 hours in the cupcake sauna! THANKS MOM! :)

Oh...and don't forget to check out the article in the Ottawa Citizen! The link doesn't include the picture of me, so I'm posting it here for all to see!

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/Fundraising+piece+cupcake/1443317/story.html

A Girl Can Dream....

So, I was walking by J.D. Adam in the Glebe the other day and saw the lovely-est display of purple and green dishes and kitchen supplies. And I saw THIS...

IT'S PURPLE!!! I WANT, I WANT, I WANT!!!

"C" is also for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake

I've already made quite a few different kinds of cupcakes prior to starting this blog. I've posted some pictures on Facebook and have gathered quite a collection of positive comments and buckets of drool! Thanks guys! I have had some requests for recipes so I'm going to start going back and posting the recipes for those cupcakes.

The first one is for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake, as requested by Sara and Ange-Tina. I first made these a few weekends ago for a birthday party. Of course, after making them and taking pictures, I had to try the cupcake to see if it was good or not! Since I cut the cupcake in half to take a picture of the delicious hidden centre, I ate just one half first. It was so rich and delicious that I had to save the other half for later. So I ate the other half while getting ready to go to the party and called it dinner! Yum! At the party the cupcakes sat on the table with everyone glancing over at them for half the night. I guess everyone was waiting for it to be 'dessert time'? and no one wanted to be the first to dig in. Also, no one knew what kind they were. So finally someone took the first cupcake and needless to say, within 10 minutes they were nearly all gone! We all worked off our sugar highs by playing Wii Bowling!

So here is the recipe for quite possibly my favourite cupcake so far! Wait...I take that back...my favourite Chocolate-based cupcake so far! (Like I've said before, I'm indecisive!)

If you're looking for a quick and easy cupcake to make, then skip over this one! There are many parts to this creation!

There are 4 parts to this recipe:
1. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - You can use store bought cookie dough, but this recipe is really easy to make and probably tastes way better then anything you'll find in the frozen aisle.
2. The Chocolate Cupcake - You can use any chocolate cupcake batter recipe. I've tried a few different recipes and I've found that the Martha Stewart recipe is really rich and tasty and easy!
3. The Egg-less Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - This cookie dough is incorporated into the frosting, which is obviously not cooked, so it's safe to eat.
4. The Frosting (that includes the egg-less cookie dough)

Part 1: The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
I found this recipe on The Cupcake Review blog, which led me another blog, etc. etc. It is for "The Chewy" by Alton Brown. I baked a few of the cookies while I was at it, and they were really tasty!

"The Chewy" by Alton Brown
Makes 2.5 Dozen

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat.
- Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
- Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Chill the dough.

- Form the dough into balls using about a tablespoon of dough. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze for about 1 hour.

If you want to make the actual cookies themselves follow these instructions:
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

- Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet.

- Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Part 2: The Chocolate Cupcake
I used Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe, although any chocolate recipe can be used.

Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 18-24 cupcakes (I always half the recipe and get a perfect dozen)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons safflower oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

- Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes.

- Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

- Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

- At this point add 1 ball of frozen cookie dough to each cupcake. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed.
- Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

**Note: If you don't have buttermilk, or don't want to buy an entire 1 litre container of it (because seriously, what would you do with the rest!) you can make buttermilk by combining 1 cup of milk and 1 tbsp of white vinegar, stirring it and letting it sit for 10 minutes. Make sure to stir it again before you use it because it will be a little clumpy.

Part 3: The Egg-less Cookie Dough

Okay. So now you have your cupcakes cooling and it's time to make the frosting. I found this recipe on the Lovin' from the Oven blog. I never said this recipe would be easy and it sure wasn't easy to find exactly what I wanted to make! I spent a lot of time googling...!

Eggless Cookie Dough

Makes enough for 1 batch of frosting (which is enough for 12 cupcakes...so if you made 2 dozen cupcakes double this recipe and the frosting recipe as well)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons

2 teaspoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

a bit of milk (I added this ingredient myself because I found the dough to be a bit too crumbly. Add about 1 tsp of milk at the end just to make it more dough-y. You can add more if you don't like the consistency.)

Method:

- Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well.

- Add flour and salt and stir to combine.

- Stir in mini chocolate chips.

**Note: I'm not sure how easy or hard it is to find mini chocolate chips, but you can use regular chocolate chips and just chop them up. I initially tried doing this by hand and was extremely frustrated when it came time to pipe the frosting. I would recommend just blending the chocolate chips in a food processor until they're fairly small pieces but not powdery.

Part 4: The Frosting

The frosting is essentially a basic buttercream with cookie dough added in as the flavouring. When you make the buttercream it will look like you won't have enough to even frost 6 cupcakes, but remember, you'll be adding a whole batch of cookie dough to the mix! I also found this recipe on the Lovin' from the Oven blog.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Buttercream

Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes (if you made 2 dozen cupcakes double this recipe)

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

Eggless cookie dough

Method:

- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.

- Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary.

- With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.

- At this point you can mix in the eggless cookie dough. Mix in enough cookie dough to suit your taste.

**Note: I added almost all of the cookie dough, for flavour purposes, but then found that the frosting was too thick to pipe. If this happens you can add a little splash of milk to thin it out a bit. But remember to mix the frosting with an electric mixer again or your frosting will be grainy looking.

***Note 2: Any cookie dough left over you can gladly eat! There are no eggs in it so it is safe. Yum!

FINAL ASSEMBLY

Now that you have your cupcakes and your frosting ready, it's time to frost the cupcakes. If you want to get that fancy, pro-looking swirl then use the fitted into a piping bag! It's super easy! This is the part that has caused me frustrations every time, without fail. Chunks of chocolate chips get stuck in this tip very easily and ruin the whole swirly effect because all the frosting gets backed up. So, either make sure your choco chips are small enough to begin with, and if they're not then you can use a hand blender to mix up the frosting to crush up the chips some more. This also blends the chips into the frosting and makes it taste a whole lot more chocolatey! YUM YUM YUM!

Introducing THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH CUPCAKE!!

Take a look INSIDE this beauty! I think this is pure perfection right here!

Cupcake Camp

This is my long-winded story about Cupcake Camp and how we came to meet...

A few weeks ago I went out for my best friends birthday. She requested vegan cupcakes. While at first I cringed, I finally decided to adapt a recipe I wanted to try into a vegan recipe. It was for the Meringue Hi-Hat Cupcake found on my newly discovered favorite cupcake blog - HowToEatACupcake.

So I made the cupcakes, and they were a huge hit!

While we were at dinner, my friend Corey asked me if I had heard about this Capital Cupcake thing-a-ma-jiggy. So of course I went home and googled it and up popped CUPCAKE CAMP! http://cupcakecamp.ca/ . Oh boy, was I excited to see this.

Basically, "CupcakeCamp was originally the brainchild of a group of folks in San Francisco. The idea was to bring together cupcake lovers, bakers, and eaters. The first Canadian CupcakeCamp took place in Toronto at LabSpace Studios on January 25, 2009. CupcakeCamp is an opportunity for our community to come together and share their enthusiasm for cupcakes with all proceeds going to Ottawa’s Woman Alive/Femme Active Program! Everyone who brings cupcakes will have the opportunity to brag about their creations which will be presented to the Tasters for a cupcake tasting frenzy!"

CupcakeCamp Ottawa will be taking place on March 29th, 2009 at Jack Purcell Community Centre from 2-5 pm. It's $5 to get (with all the proceeds going to Woman Alive/Femme Active Program) and you can eat all the cupcakes you want!! How cool is that!!

So, I registered as a baker and submitted my 2 recent favorite cupcake creations: The Bacon Cupcake and a Caramel Apple Crumble cupcake. All I did was tell them what kind I would be bringing, no photos, no recipes, nothing! (Although I've included pictures here of the cupcakes!)

Last Friday I got a "Media Request" email from a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen telling me that he wanted to write an article about CupcakeCamp from the points of view of two of the competitors and the organizers gave him my email address. Naturally at first I thought this was some crazy guy who somehow got my email address and wanted to meet me to do 'an interview' and then chop me up into little bite sized pieces and eat me! After my wave of paranoia subsided, I contacted the organizers and they confirmed that YES they had given the reporter my name and that they were really sorry that they didn't give me a heads up warning! The reporter had requested 2 bakers that the organizers considered unique to the event, and they thought my submissions were in their top favorites, so they gave him my name! Can you say FLATTERED??!! Hell ya!!

Seeing as I was being interviewed about cupcakes, I had to MAKE some cupcakes for this guy. So I made some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes that I had made last weekend and were a HUGE hit. My mom had really wanted one, so she came over in the morning before the interview and picked up a few to take home to my dad, the vacuum cleaner.

I met with Bruce, the reporter, this past Monday at the Bridgehead around the corner (funny enough we live 3 blocks apart) and we talked about cupcakes and baking, and cooking - how long I've been baking cupcakes (ummm..2 months?!), why I like cupcakes, if I see a future in cupcakes, my background in baking and cooking, etc. etc. We both kept staring at the cupcakes that I brought, so we finally split one. It was definitely a rich treat for 10:30 in the morning. But he really liked it - which was great seeing as he's a baker himself but doesn't really like sweets or cupcakes...hmm... - and brought the remaining 2 to his food editor at the Ottawa Citizen! I pretty much rambled on for about an hour and every time he said he had to go and get back to work I would just start talking about something else. It was pretty funny thinking back on it.

Anyway, the article is going to be in the Ottawa Citizen on Monday March 30th, 2009. I'll post a link to it when it comes out. Bruce will be coming by this Saturday to watch me bake. Uhhh...that'll be kinda weird, especially if he brings a photographer! I better get up early and make sure I look good!! I will be baking on Saturday and then doing the frosting and finishing touches on Sunday, with the help of my mom :) And then it's off to CupcakeCamp.

There are 4 categories that the cupcakes will be judged in:
1. Best in Show
2. Most Unique
3. Best Decorated
4. Best Chocolate

I'm hoping to win in all 4! Go big or go home, right?! Most of my friends already think I'm the Cupcake Queen and their Cupcake Hero, but I want all of Ottawa to this so too! :)

Come one, come ALL to CupcakeCamp next weekend! I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Cupcake Liners

While a cupcake has to taste good, I think it actually has to look good too. I'm all about the whole kit-and-caboodle! And I like things to look pretty. Sooo...that set me off on a quest to find pretty cupcake liners.

First I tried Loblaws, and then the Bulk Barn, and then Michael's, The Great Glebe Emporium, J.D. Adam and every other baking, cooking or supplies store I could think of. All I could find were the plain ol' white cups, silver and gold cups, ugly pastel cups, and cheesy 'themed' cups. Nothing fun or different...not even just plain colours.

I've seen many pictures of cupcakes with dark brown liners and I thought that they were the most beautiful and elegant things and I really wanted some of my own. So, after A LOT of googling and researching online, I finally found a great CANADIAN site that sells a whole array of pretty cupcake liners as well as cupcake and baking supplies.

http://www.acupcakery.com/
http://www.sweetcuppincakesbakery.blogspot.com/

I got a little over-whelmed and wanted to buy ALL the different liners, but I whittled it down to about 8 different kinds (which is still A LOT!...I'm very indecisive!). I placed my order and sat patiently waiting for them to arrive....

Finally, earlier this week THEY ARRIVED!

I opened up the box and there they were all nestled in a lovely bed of pink tissue paper...my new cupcake liners! It was an exciting day! :) Who knew someone could get so excited about PAPER! (I just checked the website today and there are a whole bunch of NEW liners. OMG...I might need to place another order...yikes!)



I definitely think these liners will add that perfect finishing touch to all of my cupcakes and I'm excited to start baking with them!!

CUPCAKES!!!

So, I've finally taken the 'blogging' plunge! I read a ton of blogs, all my friends have blogs, so that made ME want MY OWN blog! And...as you can guess, this blog will be all about things CUPCAKE!

I recently got asked why I like cupcakes and the answer is simple (apart from being soooo delicious)...they let you be creative, which is something that I pride myself on being. There are so many aspects to a cupcake - the cake, the frosting, the filling, the 'look', the liners, the taste -that let you be creative and try different things, which is definately something that I like doing! So it's a perfect fit. Even though cupcakes are something that I've recently just fallen into, it's something that I've become a little obssessed about!

Soooo...come back often and see what's new in my cupcake world!