Princess Castle Cake

I was asked to make a cake for my niece's third birthday. I was told she had her eye on a castle cake from  a local grocery store. I went to check out the cake and knew I could do better. Then there was a heat wave. I'm talking five days of over 90-degree temperatures, with one day coming very close to 100. So I decided to forgo the huge castle cake and make the birthday girl her own personal castle cake. This cake was very easy to make and came out better than expected, despite the weather. My niece loved it and was so surprised!

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

My cousin is an artist in his spare time. His latest art show featured sea creatures done in ink and mixed media. He asked me to make mini cupcakes for it. Right away, I knew I would make red velvet with brown sugar cream cheese frosting, but I blanked on a second flavor. I wanted something summery and refreshing. The first thing to come to mind was lemonade, so I decided to make lemon cupcakes and top them with raspberry buttercream. They were the perfect summery flavor I was looking for. They were also a hit at the art show, as was my cousin's art.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

As soon as I saw the recipe for these brown sugar oatmeal muffins, I thought of the cranberry white chocolate chip cookies I make at Christmas time. I decided to use white chocolate chips and craisins as my mix-ins. I love that these muffins were a base for any ingredients you want to add. These looked and smelled amazing, but the texture was off. They were very moist and greasy. I double-checked the recipe and thought that it called for buttermilk. That must have been the problem, or the 90-degree weather we've been having. Next time I make these, I'll use the correct milk.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

Source: Ommy Noms

Ingredients:

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup mix-in of your choice
(I used 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup craisins)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.

Mix together oats, milk, and brown sugar and let stand for 15 minutes. Stir in egg, oil, and mix-ins (white chocolate chips and craisins).

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir flour mixture into oat mixture until just moistened.

Fill paper liners 3/4 full and bake 16 - 18 minutes. Transfer muffins to wire rack to cool.

Wedding Cupakes (The Big Day)

I recently was asked to take part in a couple's special day. I was so honored to be asked to make a wedding cupcake cake. After a few weeks of planning and numerous test cupcakes, I was ready for the big day. I spent the week before the wedding making drop flowers for the tops of the cupcakes and side of the cake. Two days before the wedding, I baked a carrot cake and 120 carrot and vanilla cupcakes. On the night before the wedding, I decorated the cake and cupcakes to look like roses. On the day of the wedding, I set up the cake and cupcakes on my new Cupcake Tower, which I love and highly recommend. It was a lot of work, but I was thrilled with the way everything came out and the buzz the cake generated at the wedding. It was a hit! Congrats to Carol and Paul!

Here's a close ups of the cake and the cupcakes:

The white ones were carrot  with cream cheese icing and the purple ones were vanilla with vanilla buttercream. I decorated them with white edible pearls and purple and white flowers.

The cake was carrot with cream cheese icing.

Happy Birthday Carrot Cake

I was recently chatting with my hair stylist about the upcoming wedding cake and cupcakes I was making. I told her the flavors and she told me her husband loves carrot cake. She asked me to squeeze in a cake order for her. (What girl in her right mind would say "no" to her stylist?) I added walnut and raisins to my grandmother's carrot cake recipe and decorated it with orange roses as requested. I usually love decorating round cakes, but had problems smoothing the icing on this one. Plus I had shaky hands and was worried about my roses, which were not my best. My stylist and her husband loved the cake, which is all that matters in the end. 

Wedding Cupcakes (Round 3)

And we have a winner! After a few different cake recipes, we finally found a cupcake clear winner. The bride originally wanted yellow cupcakes and gave me two recipes that she wanted to try. I made them and wasn't pleased, so I asked her to let me make her my go-to vanilla cupcakes. These vanilla cupcakes never disappoint. They quickly won over the bride and were chosen as the clear winner. These cuties will be decorated with purple and white icing and adorned with white edible pearls and white and purple flowers like this:

Vanilla Cupcakes
Source: adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
2 cups sugar
5 eggs (room temperature)
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

Beat butter on medium-high speed for 3 minutes (with either a hand mixer or stand mixer), until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for an additional minute.

Add the sugar to the butter mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the eggs one, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Combine buttermilk and vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. Beating on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, and ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full (I had enough batter for a half-dozen more cupcakes) Bake 18 - 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

My Favorite Vanilla Buttercream
2 sticks butter, room temperature
4 - 6 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 - 2 tablespoons water

Cream the butter. Add vanilla and water. Beat well. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. Beat well.

Wedding Cupcakes (Round 2)

After I made the Martha Stewart cupcakes, I whipped together a yellow cake recipe I had used as a base for these root beer float cupcakes. Instead of root beer, I substituted buttermilk. The batter was delicious, unlike the batter for these MS cupcakes. I popped them into the oven and waited. When I opened the oven, I found small mishapen cupcakes. They didn't rise very much and looked like little lumpy muffins. I tasted them and while the flavor was much better than the MS cupcakes, they were very dense and kinda dry. I don't know what happened since they came out great with the root beer, so I blame the buttermilk. I sent them along to the bride with the MS cupcakes and being the nice person she is, she said they were delicious. Again I went back to the drawing board and asked her if I could make her my go-to vanilla cupcakes, even though she wanted yellow cupcakes.

Yellow Cupcakes
Source: Betty Crocker Big Book of Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 and 1/3 cups flour
2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake tins with 24 cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds on medium speed. Gradually add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for two minutes and scrape down the sides of bowl as needed.

Add eggs one at a time and vanilla and beat well.

Reduce speed to low and alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk in three additions, ending with flour and mixing until just blended.

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.