packaging is everything

these are perfect for summer cupcakes and muffins. making what's cute even cuter! perfect to house lemonade cupcakes or strawberry banana muffins with toasted coconut.

vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

i needed to make some cupcakes for my friend's baby shower and she likes white cake and white frosting. so i looked all around to find a recipe that wansn't too airy or too dense. and i wanted to do a cream cheese frosting. so i found this recipe on cupcake bakeshop.

i adjusted it to fit the ingredients i had on hand.

3 Vanilla Cupcakes
20 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

3/4 cup (1-1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2/3 cups vanilla sugar (i just used regular sugar)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2-2/3 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (i didn't have this so i just doubled the vanilla extract)

1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.
3. Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine.
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
6. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

For the frosting:
Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your
taste.

lemonade cupcakes

my oldest sister sent me this recipe the other day and i have to say, it's all she said it would be. moist deluxe and lemony.

Lemonade Cupcakes

white cake mix
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
8 oz sour cream
6 oz lemonade concentrate, thawed; reserve 2 T for frosting

Mix together on high for 3 minutes. Fill muffin tins
3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes.

Frosting:
1 can cream cheese frosting
2 T reserved lemonade from above

Makes 30 cupcakes

these are messy but so worth it!

ps- happy mother's day mom!

molten(ish) cupcakes

so i FINALLY made these cupcakes i've been wanting to make. my oldest sister sent me this recipe from a cookbook we gave her for her birthday and after she sent me the recipe she said she's not as much a fan of them as she expected. she didn't really like the cake part. so i figured i'd try them with the birthday bundt cake recipe.

so i mixed that cake recipe with this

Cupcake:
1 pkg Devil's Food cake mix
1 cup water
1/2cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup powdered sugar for dusting

Prepare ganache (recipe follows), cover with plastic
wrap and place in fridge to chill.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly mist 24 cupcake
cups with spray and dust with flour. Mix together
cake ingredients. Spoon 1/3 cup batter into prepared
tins, filling them 3/4 of the way full. (will make 22
to 24 cupcakes). Drop heaping teaspoon full of
ganache onto the top of the batter in each cup. Bake
until cake bakes up around ganache 12-14 minutes. Let
cool one minutes. Run a knife around edges of cups,
lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups
using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the
cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on
dessert plates, sift with powdered sugar and serve.

Ganache:
3/4 cup heaving whipping cream
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Place cream in saucepan over medium heat and bring to
a boil, stirring. Meanwhile, place chocolate chips in
a large stainless steel mixing bowl. Remove the cream
fro the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir with
a wooden spoon until the chocolate has melted Stir in
vanilla. Let sit at room temp for 1 hour or chill
20-30 minutes.

i just did the ganache part, then added it to the other cake recipe, put it in cupcake liners and cooked it for 20 minutes at 350° (325° on my crazy oven.)

pictured is one with powdered sugar all over it. unwrapped from the wrapper and upside down.

next time i'll just make hot fudge sunday cake for really molteny (not a word, i know) cake. but these weren't a bad way to eat a cupcake.

packaging is everything

these would make my cupcakes so much better! thanks for the link, whoolia.

oreo mini cheesecakes

i'm posting pictures now and will post the recipes when i have time, later this week.

picture time

ok, so i finally made those cupcakes and peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. and these are the photos to prove it. enjoy!


ok, so i didn't have lime oil yet for the cupcakes so i just used the zest and juice of two limes. and i didn't have a blowtorch so, i broiled them on low in the oven, which worked great and is actually probably easier and faster than the blowtorch method.



these cookies are such a great version of peanut butter cookies. i swear, oats make everything better. i did one batch, cooking them at 11 minutes, and the second batch at 12, which made for a slightly chewy/crispier texture which i love in peanut butter cookies. also, i tried 4 different ways of storing them to see what help up the flavor/texture/etc. the best. method 1: wrap cookies in towel and put them in the microwave (too dry), method 2: cookie jar (too dry), method 3: tupperware (pretty good), method 4: ziplock bag (the best). none of them kept the perfect crispy texture that you have the same day that you cook them, but the ziplock kept the chewy moisture the best.

stand by me

how dreamy is this??



i covet it. you can find this adorable cupcake stand here.

i will be posting about banana bread, amish friendship bread and something else i might have forgotten. please don't be mad, it's been a crazy few weeks.

ps- happy birthday, whoolia!!

knitting factory

these are like two of my favorite worlds colliding. i'm gonna have to try this. now i will have to learn how to make pies and be a "fly girl" at the same time.