Cupcakes Galore

Lately, it seems that all my cake adventures involve cupcakes.  I love the flexibility of cupcakes.  They're quick to bake.  I can pipe the tops lickety-split.  You can easily have multiple flavours available. There are so many pretty wrappers easily available. No need for forks and plates, so they’re fast on clean-up. 

If you’re making the mini ones, they’re adorable just because of their size.   Who can resist things like two-bite brownies or the mini cinnamon rolls.  Mini cupcakes are just the same. Only potential downside, needing to make extras since you know people will want more than one!

It started with Hunter & Chris’s wedding. 

When scheduling craziness meant we didn’t have a large room we could use while we celebrated a co-worker’s upcoming marriage, I decided cupcakes were a good choice for their portability. 

Lemon Nutmeg cupcakes with Blueberry Buttercream was perfect for a bride-to-be who loves lemon and whose wedding colours are dark purple and lime green.  I made my own blueberry syrup and added it to the buttercream along with a little extra colouring to achieve a good purple colour. I  thoroughly enjoyed doodling lime green circles on top for decoration.

I do have to confess to a near transportation disaster.  I was in a rush that day.  I had five extra cupcakes that didn’t fit on the big tray, but I thought I should bring them along just in case. The big tray and the little plate were sitting on the back seat of my car, in what I thought was a reasonable secure fashion.  Not so much!  The first stop the bottom of my hill had me reaching fast to ensure the large tray stayed put, but the little plate … sigh… they became closely acquainted with my floor mat and squeegee brush.  Sad.

Thankfully, the big tray survived; it turned out we didn’t need the extras; and you get to see the really cute cupcake wrappers I found. 

Did I mention that the Lemon Nutmeg cake that I made for Noah’s birthday and then for Hunter & Chris’s wedding have become a family favourite? Thought I’d point that out just in case you missed how often it’s been made lately. You can find the recipe in this post.

When my dad needed dessert for a community group picnic for almost 80 people, cupcakes were the right choice for ease of distribution and consistent portions. Those Lemon Nutmeg cupcakes appeared again, but this time they had Mexican Vanilla Buttercream and coloured sugar sprinkles.  Add gingham print cupcake wrappers and you’ve got picnic perfect.  To give some additional flexibility, I also made some mini cupcakes for those who wanted just a little bite of dessert.

This weekend, I was busy making Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting for a surprise birthday celebration at work.  Have I mentioned how much I like using Wilton’s mini cupcake stand.  It’s so easy to assemble and always looks pretty.

Today’s bonus discovery.  If you freeze the mini Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (perhaps because you’re desperate to stop the icing from melting in the heart!), they are delicious straight from the freezer.  Because of the small size, they’re not too hard to bite into, and the frozen Cream Cheese Frosting is, well, awesome!

Cupcakes, Pandas and a Wedding

Two of my favourite people got married on Saturday. 

I had the privilege of helping officiate their wedding and of making a crazy number of cupcakes for the reception.  I’ll admit my feet are still a bit sore (should have picked comfy-er shoes) but all of the work was entirely worth it.  I’d do it all again for them in a heartbeat.

We wanted some fun flavours so I got to work.  I hunted for recipes and then I  them to create new recipes with just the flavours we wanted:  Cookies ‘n’ Cream cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream with Oreo Crumbles, Lemon Nutmeg cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream, and Coconut Chai cupcakes with Coconut Chai Buttercream.  I still can’t decide which is my favourite flavour. 

A few days before the wedding, Hunter and I were discussing what we should put on the large cupcake they were going to cut.  The traditional cake toppers weren’t an option so we started browsing Etsy to see what might inspire us.  We found some adorable panda bears which had us giggling with glee.  We obviously didn’t have time to order the ones we saw online, but they were a great inspiration for me to create two personalized fondant pandas.  The best part was seeing the look on Chris’s face since we kept them as a surprise for him.

I’d hoped that I would have recipe cards available at the wedding, but I ran out of time and energy. So here they are.

Lemon Nutmeg Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

Cream until light and fluffy
     3/4 c margarine, softened
     1 1/4 c white sugar

Add and blend well
     3 eggs

Mix in
     1/2 tsp baking soda
     1/4 tsp salt
     1/8 tsp nutmeg
     2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
     3/4 c  lemon yogurt (I like this one by Liberté)
     1 1/2 tbsp grated lemon peel

Bake at 325 degrees F for 14-15 minutes for mini cupcakes.

Once cool, frost with Chocolate Buttercream.

Makes approximately 3 1/2 dozen mini cupcakes.

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Cookies ‘N’ Cream Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream and Oreo Crumbles

Cream thoroughly (2-3 minutes)
     1 c butter/margarine
     1 c sugar
     4 eggs

Add in and mix thoroughly
      2 c all-purpose flour
      2 1/2 tsp baking powder
      1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend in
      10 Oreo cookies, crushed

Bake at 350 F for 12-14 min for mini cupcakes.

Make one batch of Wilton Buttercream.  Blend in approximately 5-7 crushed Oreo cookies.  Frost cupcakes once they are completely cool.

Makes approximately 3 dozen mini cupcakes.

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Coconut Chai Cupcakes with Coconut Chai Buttercream

Melt and warm 1 1/4 c unsalted butter

Add 3 tbsp Zhena's Gypsy Tea's Coconut Chai and steep for 4 minutes

Strain tea from butter. Allow butter to cool to room temperature

Cream
     1 c steeped butter
     1 c sugar

Add and beat well
     4 eggs

Blend in
     1 tsp vanilla
     2 1/2 tsp baking powder
     2 c all-purpose flour

Bake at 350 F for 12-14 min for mini cupcakes.

Steep 1 1/2 tbsp of Coconut Chai tea in approximately 1/4 c milk.  Strain and cool milk.

Once cool, use steeped milk when making Wilton’s Buttercream.  Frost cupcakes once completely cool.

Makes approximately 3 dozen mini cupcakes.

Congratulations Hunter and Chris! May the years ahead be sweet and filled with everything you dream for each other.

Happy Birthday Train

It’s not sensible, but when someone asks me if I can make a cake for them, my first question is not when they need the cake. That would be the practical question, but it’s not what I need to know to make up my mind. 

My first question … well, actually, two questions … who is it for and what do they want the cake to look like.  That’s what makes the difference to whether or not I want to invest the time and effort in making a cake.  If it’s a cake that I’m intrigued to make or it’s for someone I care about or someone who is important to someone I care about, I’ll figure out a way to make the date work.

When a colleague asked me several months in advance if I’d make a cake for his son’s birthday, I knew I was going to say yes.  His son is adorable and I delight in the pictures his proud dad regularly updates on his computer.  The original idea was for something Max and Ruby related. I’ll admit that wouldn’t have been my favourite option for a design choice, but imagining the delight on a two year old face when his favourite characters were on the cake in front of him completely trumped any hesitation I had about the design.  I was all ready to use my piping gel transfer skills, or maybe even try out a frozen buttercream transfer.

When we confirmed the details a month before the birthday, my co-worker asked if there was any way I could do something train themed. His son had recently become a huge fan of trains.

I started to grin as I calmly asked, “Something flat on a cake or something 3D?” The wheels in my head were already turning.

I debated between carving a train or using the Wilton Choo Choo train pan.  When a flyer from the local craft store arrived with a fabulous coupon, I knew which way I was going. 

My first attempt with the train cake pan was, how shall I put this? … an unmitigated disaster. It is a very bad feeling when you look in the oven window and discover that more than a third of your batter is on the tray outside the cake pan.  ACK! 

I wish I’d thought to take a picture.  Looking back, it was pretty funny. In the moment, I was too busy panicking. After I took a moment to breathe, I looked at the other 3D pans I had and read through their instructions to see what I might have missed.  End result, I tied some butcher cord around the pan to help make sure it didn’t leak.  Second try, perfect … and it even came out of the pan well.

We’d also arranged that I would make some additional cupcakes for to take to his daycare, and some for the party as well, because we couldn’t resist the jungle cupcakes holder and picks.  Did I mention the first batch of chocolate cupcakes were too big to fit in the wrappers?  It was clearly a bad day for baking.  LOL!

The train is made from a very solid chocolate cake that I’ve used before in 3D pans so I knew it would stand up well.  The train car is a yummy lemon nutmeg cake which is particularly amazing when you add chocolate icing. 

While you couldn’t see a lot of it in the finished product, I wanted to include a train track under the cake.  Strips of black fondant with some cookies and cream sprinkles for the gravel worked really well.

To finish things off, I’d originally wanted to make a little fondant boy to peak out the engine window.  There wasn’t a solid way to attach him, so I decided that if a little boy couldn’t be driving the train, he’d want to be riding on top.  From the look on the birthday boy’s face, I know I got it just right.

I couldn’t resist taking one more picture once everything was loaded in my car for delivery.  My new car worked great!