White Chocolate Passion Cupcakes

White Chocolate Passion Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by CupcakesByTara

Tara won the magic box cupcake challenge this month so will look forward to receiving a prize pack from us! Congrats to you!

Zebra Cupcakes

Zebra Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Brenda's Cakes - Ohio

Love these cuppies by Brenda again! <3

Ice Cream Cookies

Ice Cream Cookies
Originally uploaded by Brenda's Cakes - Ohio

I love Brenda's work so here I must share it again. Happy Thursday! Royal Frosting is so perfect to add that extra depth on your cookies! Brenda is truly a master at using buttercream, fondant, and royal frosting to create the perfect cakes and cookies! Do visit her flickr stream

Baking Bears

Baking Bears
Originally uploaded by Brenda's Cakes - Ohio

I adore these little bears by Brenda from Ohio, are these just not the cutest little bundle of bakers you ever saw?

Looking for a fun cuppie to bake? Try these out!!

Banana Cuppies with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting with Nutella, so yummy and great anytime of the day with coffee or late tea..

The other cuppie is a super fresh raspberry cuppie, I used local raspberries from a farm close to my home, if you can use local fruits and veggies when you bake and cook it makes your creations even yummier!! The frosting is the same as the banana cuppie but topped with homemade raspberry sauce and a sweet raspberry.. Have fun.

Hedgehogs and Mushrooms

Hedgehogs and Mushrooms
Originally uploaded by Three Honeybees

As I was checking out the amazing sugar artistry in my web groups I came across my 2 most favourite things. Hedgehogs and mushrooms. To me they are the first thing to creating a magical tale of fairies and castles with trolls and gnomes and journeys that take us to the happiest places we could ever imagine.
Who wouldn't want a plate of these?
You can now get all these cutters and more in my little Webbie Shoppe Sweet Cuppin Cakes. Thank you to Three honeybees for these lovely photos.
Don't these make you smile?

Ices San Diego Vendor List 2010

Need to find something cake? Here is a list of vendors from the ICES show this year,
I hope you enjoy as a go to resource but do not forget our little shoppe Sweet Cuppin Cakes because we would love to have you!

It's product review time!

Most of the time I love doing product reviews because it's so rare for me to find something I truly dislike, and today's review of Nielsen-Massey's coffee extract is no different!

Mmm...coffee....

Good morning! I've been graciously asked by Lyns to do a product review of Nielsen-Massey's coffee extract. Well, here goes...
When it arrived, I opened the bottle and took a deep, deep breath of all the wonderful coffee goodness inside and I could not wait to get started. I just wanted to bathe in it, it smelled THAT amazing. I had so many ideas swirling around in my head but I finally settled on a basic chocolate cupcake that would be filled with coffee flavored ganache then topped with amaretto buttercream frosting. I had a weekend trip to Michigan with my lady friends planned so I figured I would use them as guinea pigs. (Cue evil laughter while I twirl my mustache. Just kidding! I don't have an evil laugh.)
I got to taste the ganache before and after the coffee extract so I at least had something to base my review off. The ladies were just going in blind, so to speak. I felt the extract most definitely did give the chocolate a deeper, more nuanced flavor. However, the general consensus was that while the ganache was rich and flavorful (pats self on back) you could not really taste the coffee in it.
To be fair, there could have been a few things going on here: Perhaps I didn't add enough of the extract. Maybe the amaretto buttercream was overpowering the ganache. Possibly aliens could have come down from Mars and....nevermind. My suggestion for next time would be to step up that coffee flavor with a little Starbuck's coffee liquer, one of my most favoritest things in the whole wide world to bake with.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Xsa, Nicole, and Amber for testing out my baked goods so that I may write about them here. And of course thanks a bunch to Lyndsay for asking me to write it in the first place!

Hi, Doggies!

Hi, Doggies!
Originally uploaded by amy teoh

A very pretty fondant topped cupcake showed up in our flickr group this morning. I wanted to share this because it gave me a huge smile and the colours are just perfect. Amy has done just a beautiful job, thank you for the smiles Amy.

Champagne Cupcakes The Easy Way

Pink Champagne Cupcakes Tiny bubbles. Beautiful cupcakes. Super easy!   Champagne Cupcakes 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix 1 1/4 cups champagne 1/3 cup vegetable oil 3 egg whites 4 to 5 drops red food coloring Champagne Frosting 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened 4 cups powdered sugar 1/4 cup champagne 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 to 5 drops red food coloring Garnish Pink decorator sugar crystals Edible pink pearls 1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Place pretty pink cupcake case in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. 2. In large bowl, combine dry cake mix and champagne. Add oil, eggs and food color. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. 3. Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. 4. In medium bowl, beat frosting ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Frost cupcakes. Sprinkle with pink sugar and pearls. Make the Most of This Recipe With Tips From The Betty Crocker® Kitchens Success Champagne is a sparkling wine, and while many expensive champagnes are available, this is one time you might choose less expensive champagne. Have the champagne at room temperature when preparing the cake.

Seven Minute Frosting

7-Minute Frosting Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon white corn syrup
1/8 tsp. salt
1/3 cup water
2 egg whites
1 ½ tsp. vanilla

Directions:Place sugar, corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, making sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the top pan (otherwise your frosting will be grainy). Beat constantly on high for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla.

George Carlin One tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila Floor Pineapple Cake

This is for you Dawn Trott-Keller xox
The pineapple: Day before, using a syringe pierce pineapple and infuse with 4 ounces of gold tequila.

The Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soft cinnamon (grated)
6 tablespoons butter (soft but NOT melted)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3 tbsp gold tequila
3/4 cup buttermilk (remove 1tbsp and reserve)
Whisk all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In Mixer add butterand sugar and beat until light (at least 4 minutes) Add the eggs one at a time beating for 1 minute after each egg. Beat in the tequila in a steady stream on medium speed. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Leave batter stand while preparing pinapple. 

Core and cut the pineapple into small pieces for cupcakes or slightly larger for cake. (Cupcakes I cut into 1/4 inch cubes) For the Cake I cut rings that are just over 1/4" thick.
For the topping (bottoms up) 4 tbsps butter, 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, 1 tbsp gold tequila, Your prepared pineapple.

Cupcakes: place a small amount 1 1/2 tbsp pineapple topping in bottom of each liner (must be foil) you can fleck with maraschino cherries if you like
Cake: Lightly grease 2 sandwich pans and arrange your pineapple topping on bottom, you can fleck with maraschino cherries if you like
Cupcakes: using a server, drop in batter so that your cake liners are 2/3 full (you need size 70 or 75 for these) Top with brown sugar cake filling. Bake 23 minutes @ 350 degrees
Cake: Pour batter divided equally between both pans. You will layer these after cooled with brown sugar cake filling. Cake bakes for 45 minutes @ 350 degrees
Brown Sugar Cake Filling:
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 cup brown sugar
8-oz. sour cream + 1 tbsp reserved buttermilk
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp tequila or vanilla
Directions:In a saucepan, mix together all the ingredients except the nuts and vanilla. Cook and stir the filling over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Add the vanilla, stir well.

Seahorse Cake

Seahorse Cake
Originally uploaded by Leeroy Rokkenröhl

This is absolutely gorgeous!

Birthday Gift Cake

Birthday Gift Cake
Originally uploaded by Leeroy Rokkenröhl

This is a very fun cake very inspiring for sure.

Summer time is the perfect time for key lime cuppies!!

Tea Cup Cupcake Pans

IMG_7822
Originally uploaded by acupcakery

We decided to bake our cupcakes and pop them into the cups for convenience and efficiency. Either way you decide they are waaaay too much fun! You can dainty them up for high tea or have your own Mad Hatter tea! I love them

                                    Photographer: Nicholas Friesen Winnipeg, Manitoba

This is my coconut cake..you will all love this!!

3cups cake flour not self rising
2tsp baking powder
1cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp Madagascar vanilla
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2tsp coconut oil extract (Loraines)
1 can (13.5) coconut milk
1 cup sweetened flake coconut,chop finely

now you can frost with traditional butter cream or vanilla bean cream cheese.. I like both I also fill with strawberry preserves

so yummy

No Honey for your Cakes?

We do live in a world now where running out of things is not a huge issue, we just drive to the store. That being said, I still get all whoopee dooey over being able to utilize and improvise so when I learn a trick from days of yore I am more than eager to share!

When I came across this 1906 recipe for mock honey I was delighted and imagined Miss Etta must have made her mock honey in the early spring and lived in Florida. I do not have a lot of info on Miss Etta so you will have to imagine as well! Not having a pic of Miss Etta I have added a photo of my sweet sweet Aunt Rose.

The recipe is simple as I am sure most things seem to have been back then, however that may not necessarily be so. Cooking over fire, such a delicacy could be intense.

1 pound sugar
1 orange
4 eggs well beaten
1/4 pound of butter
juice of 2 lemons
grated rind of one lemon
Stir over a fire until smooth.

That is all! I cooked mine for 20 minutes, medium heat and was very similar to making a hard sauce for a Christmas Plum Pudding. It does set up as a honey and keeps for a week.You can use this measure for measure to replace honey in your cake recipe or just eat it on toast! Freezing works but you will get a few crystals of sugar form.

Jamieanne from Sweetest Kitchen Peeked into the BOX! Ready everyone!!

Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge #2

Aug 1st, 2010

by Jamieanne.

I am so happy that the first month of the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge was such a success!  In case you missed it, the mystery ingredient was tea, and the cupcakes that were created were all fantastic!
This is our second month of the challenge, which means I will now be announcing a new mystery ingredient.  I will also welcome back some of our prize sponsors, and introduce a couple of new ones, so let’s get to it!

The Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge ingredient for August 2010 is:

WHITE CHOCOLATE!

This is a food that I think is often overlooked, as most everywhere you look you can see regular brown chocolate – milk, semisweet, dark, unsweetened and flavored.  White chocolate isn’t quite as popular, but if you can get a good quality bar of real white chocolate then it is absolutely delicious.
My tip:  Do aim to use the best quality white chocolate you can find/afford, as it will give you the best-tasting result.  Make sure to read the ingredients and choose a bar that uses a high percentage of real cocoa butter – over 30% would be fantastic.
Please take note that the email address associated with this competition has changed from last month to mysteryboxcc@gmail.com.
The winner of August’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; 3 Indian + 3 Tahitian vanilla beans & a jar of Ground Vanilla
  
• CT2Designs; a handmade cupcake ring
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

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To introduce you to our prize sponsors…

Bake It Pretty, the cutest online shop for all your baking needs, will be donating a $5 electronic gift card every month for the winner of this competition.

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At Beanilla you can find 8 different types of Grade A whole vanilla beans (Grade A is the highest possible quality grade for vanilla) and a wide variety of other vanilla products.  Beanilla will be donating some of their unique vanilla products every month for the winner of this competition; August’s winner will receive a package of:
* 3 Indian vanilla beans
Indian vanilla beans are very similar to Madagascar vanilla. These gourmet grade vanilla beans are HUGE and contain a very large abundance of seeds. Many will contest that the sweet woodsy flavor profile of these beans are superior to that of the Bourbon-Madagascar variety. India is fast emerging as a major vanilla producer and vanilla beans cultivated in some parts of India are of the world’s best! You will not find such high quality vanilla from India anywhere else. We take great pride in being able to offer such wonderful beans.
* 3 Tahitian vanilla beans
Tahitian Vanilla beans are generally shorter, plumper, and contain a much higher oil and water content than Bourbon beans. The aroma is flowery, fruity and anisic with a smooth flavor. They are often described as smelling like licorice, cherries, or wine. Gourmet and pastry chefs love to work with the Tahitensis variety, which is perfect for many applications. Our Tahitian Beans are A-Grade and will suit all your baking needs.
* and a jar of Ground Vanilla Beans
Made from 100% Certified Organic finely ground Indonesian Vanilla Beans. Indonesian pure ground vanilla is sweet with a unique woody flavor that is rich and creamy. Ground vanilla beans can be used to add visual appeal and flavor to ice cream and baked goods. Ground vanilla can also be used as a substitute for vanilla extract in many recipes. We use only premium whole vanilla beans and not post-extracted vanilla beans to make this ground vanilla. Pure ground vanilla should not be confused with our Vanilla Powder, which contains dextrose and is entirely different.

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Cindy from Etsy shop CT2Designs will be donating a cupcake ring for this month only.  This adorable ring is made from sterling silver that has been buffed and oxidized for texture.  Check out Cindy’s shop for more beautiful handmade jewelry.

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On my blog, I recently reviewed some cupcake charms created by Wendie of Miss Kitty Creations – I really liked them because of how realistic they look and their fantastic smell.  Wendie has happily agreed to donate one of her handmade cupcake charms to the winner of this competition each month.  The winner will be asked to choose any one cupcake available at Wendie’s website.

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Some of you may be familiar with Sweet Cuppin Cakes, as this online shop was a prize sponsor for Iron Cupcake: Earth.  Sweet Cuppin Cakes will be donating a $25 prize pack of baking-related goodies every month to the winner of this competition.

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How to enter:

• Only one entry per person.
• You have until the 20th of the month to bake a cupcake based on the Mystery Box ingredient, WHITE CHOCOLATE.  Post your baking story, photos and recipes on your blog (posting your recipe is optional).
• Provide a link to the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge information page somewhere in your post.
• Provide links to the prize sponsors for this month in your post by copying and pasting the code below into the HTML of your post (you may edit and style the code, as long as the links to the prize sponsors remain intact):

Torre

Torre
Originally uploaded by Pastelera Bakery Shop

Pastelera Bakery has to be one of my all time fave as far as design and sugar work. What girl would not be happy having this for her party? Very inspiring indeed.
Lyns