Red, White, and Blue

Happy 4th of July everybody! These are my patriotic red, white and blue cupcakes. They are a white cake with red and blue sprinkles mixed in the batter for a "confetti" cake look. The flag design on top is made from small vanilla buttercream rosettes. Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday.

Confetti Cake

This particular cake was for my big sister, Stephanie. She is truly a super star! She loves confetti cake. I made this cake using a cake mix, you can find several different varieties of "confetti" cake mixes. My favorite one is rainbow chip by Betty Crocker. It's frosted with ready to use rainbow chip icing by Betty crocker. It is also very easy to make your own version, just add multi-colored sprinkles to white cake batter and vanilla icing.

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients:                                                        
2 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. butter
1 1/4c. sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 c. milk

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Grease
and flour muffin cups, or spray with baking spray and flour.

2.In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside

3. In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 c. at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, alternately add flour mixture, about 1/3 of mixture at a time, and milk, about 1/2 at a time, beating just until blended.

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

5. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans; place on cooling racks to cool. Frost with chocolate buttercream.
*Recipes for cupcakes and frosting from Betty Crocker's the Big Book of Cupcakes
Frosting Recipe:

Combine 3oz unsweetened baking chocolate melted and cooled and 1/2c. butter softened in large bowl. Stir in 3 cups powdered sugar. Beat in 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 3 to 4 tablespoons of milk until smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, add more milk. Or, if frosting is too thin add more powdered sugar. Frosts 24 regular cupcakes.

All-Star Graduation...

I made these cookies for my sister's kindergarten students' graduation. They all loved them so much, they even made me thank you cards. How sweet!

These are just a simple sugar cookie with vanilla icing, decorated with large confetti sprinkles.

Click here for the cookie recipe
                               

                                             

Cupcake Bouquet For My Mamma

My mom is an outstanding baker. Let me tell you, she can make a pie like no one else. She started teaching me to bake when I was a little girl and her passion for cooking definitely got passed down to me. I love my mom. Since today is Mother's day, she deserves to get something special from me. This is a cupcake bouquet made with vanilla bean cupcakes. It's pretty simple to make one of these bouquets. You need a clay flower pot, a Styrofoam ball, toothpicks and of course cupcakes!

Step 1: Bake cupcakes, cool completely.
Step 2: Place Styrofoam ball in flower pot. I used a 6" Styrofoam ball.
Step 3: Insert 2 toothpicks into Styrofoam, then place cupcake on toothpicks, keep repeating until Styrofoam is no longer visible.
Step 4: Once all cupcakes are in place, then frost. I frosted these cupcakes with a rosette design using a piping bag with Wilton tip 1M.

Video Tutorial on How to make Bouquet. (Video is not in English, however it is pretty easy to follow what's going on).

Recipe for: Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
A cake mix can also be used, just add the seeds of 2 vanilla beans into the batter. A french vanilla or white cake mix works the best.

Lots of Lemon Cake

It was my Dad's Birthday this week and this is what I decided to make him:

Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream Icing.
It is decorated with a basketweave design on the sides which is actually much easier to do than it looks ;) And of course, for spring, daisies on top.
Lemon cake is pretty easy to make. I think everybody has a favorite basic yellow cake recipe or cake mix. Use that as a base, and just add 2 tablespoons of lemon zest. If you don't have a good yellow cake recipe here are links to a couple really good ones.



Betty Crocker recipe
Wilton cake recipe



As for the icing; it's just a basic buttercream.
2/3 c. butter softened
6 c. powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2t.  lemon zest
I also added some yellow food coloring.

Pina Colada Cupcakes

                  











Ingredients:
For the cupcakes (makes 24 regular cupcakes):
1. 2 1/3c. all purpose flour
2. 2 1/2c. baking powder
3. 1/2t. salt
4. 1 cup butter softened
5. 1 cup sugar
6. 3 eggs
7. 1t. coconut extract
8. 1t. rum extract
9. 1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple in juice undrained
10. 1/4 c. milk

Topical Frosting:
1. 2 egg whites
2. 1/2 c. sugar
3. 1/4c. light corn syrup
4. 2 T. water
5. 1/2 t. coconut extract
6. 1/2t. rum extract

Garnish ideas: toasted flaked coconut, cherries, chunk pineapple, or small cocktail umbrellas

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper baking cups in muffin pans.

In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium speed 30 sec. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 c. at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in coconut and rum extracts. Drain pineapple, reserving juice in small bowl. Stir in milk. On low speed, alternately add flour mixture, about 1/3 at a time, add milk mixture, about 1/2 at a time, beating just until blended. Stir in pineapple.

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

Bake 20-25 min. or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 min. Remove cupcakes from pans, place on cooling racks to cool

Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed just until stiff peaks form.

In 1-quart sauce pan, stir 1/2 c. sugar, the corn syrup and water until well mixed. Cover, heat to rolling boil over medium heat. Uncover; boil 4 to 8 minutes, without stirring, to 242 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Pour hot syrup very slowly in thin stream into beaten egg whites, beating constantly on medium speed. Add 1/2 t. coconut extract and 1/2 t. rum extract. Beat on high speed about 3 min. or until stiff peaks form. Frost cupcakes and dip into toasted coconut.


 *recipe extracted from Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Cupcakes"