Butter Pecan Cupcakes topped with Buttercream Frosting

I made these cupcakes the other night, at Steven's (my husband for anyone that does not know...) request. No recipe necessary. I simply used Butter Pecan cake mix and store-bought Buttercream frosting, piped through my brand new piping bag and topped with brown sugar and chopped pecans. Easy and simply delicious.

Cautionary tip - do not eat large amounts of butter pecan cake batter. While temporarily pleasing to your taste buds, you'll regret it. Trust me.

Bake Sale Mini Cheesecakes

When I baked cupcakes for the bake sale at work, I also waned to find something unique for the parents. Yet again, I merely used a google-found recipe, but they turned out great.

Recipe from allrecipes.com

Yields: 12
Ingredients:
 12 Vanilla Wafers
2(8oz) Pckg Cream Cheese, softened
2 Eggs
2 TBS Lemon Juice
2/3 C White Sugar
1 (21oz) Can Pie Filling ( I used lemon and cherry)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Line muffin tins with 12 paper baking cups. Place a vanilla wafer in each one.
3. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy (this part is VERY important, in both this recipe and my previous oreo cupcake recipe. The cream cheese is very hard to work with and will not come to a desirable texture if this step is skipped) Add eggs, lemon juice, and sugar. Beat until smooth and thoroughly combined. (this step takes a while, but is well worth it)
4. Fill each baking cup 2/3 full with cream cheese mixture.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 15-17 minutes. Cool on rack. Top with fruit pie filling. Pipe whippe cream or sweetened cream cheese in to a rosette on top of each cheesecake prior to serving, if desired.

I topped them with whipped cream. I aso added yellow sprinkles to the lemon and cherries to the cherry. I provided spoons for customers to use to eat them with and everyone very much enjoyed them. It is very important to not top with whipped cream, etc. until immediately prior to serving or they end up looking pretty gross...remain tasty though.

I also sprinkled both finished products with Graham Cracker Crust Crumbles :)

Bake Sale Cupcakes

I wanted to find something that would intrigue the kids and go along with our "Giving Garden" theme, as well as soething that was super tasty. So I found this recipe for Oreo Dirt Cupcakes:

http://bumblingbaker.blogspot.com/2008/04/dirt-cupcakes-for-earth-day-or.html

I wanted to make the cupcake itself special, so I found a recipe for "Mini OREO Surprise Cupcakes", which uses Chocolate Cake Mix ( I used Devil's Food Cake) and adds a sweet cream cheese filling and a mini oreo. They were delicious!

Two days later was St. Patrick's Day and I wanted to make the same cupcakes because they were a huge hit, while at the same time adding a green-twist to them. I simply added green food coloring to everthing (including the chocolate cake mix - not the prettiest color) and the result was deliciously fun.

I also added some green food coloring to simple White Cake cake mix and Vanilla Frosting and topped them with geen sprinkles -

 They were very tasty and St. Patty's Day appropriate.

All of these cupcakes turned out amazing, but again, I cannot take credit for anything but successfully following a good recipe. They will definitely be made again in the future.

Lions and Tigers and Cupcakes, Oh My!

So, as I predicted, I have been seriously neglecting this thing. But today I have set myself to a strict day of laundry and studying- so, naturally, I am blogging. Writing hasn't been something I have had a lot of time to do lately, so aside from two for-class sonnets, it has been put on the back burner. Baking, however, I have found some time for. A few weeks ago, we had a bakesale at work to raise money for our Annual Giving Campaign. I found a recipe for cream cheese-filled and oreo-stuffed chocolate cupcakes, covered them in Chocolate Frosting and doused them with oreo crumbles, topped with gummy worms. The kids (and parents..and teeachers) absolutely loved them. On St. Patrick's Day, I used Vanilla Frosting mixed with green food coloring and also made the cream cheese filling green - also a big hit. I made a batch of Green White Cake Cupcakes with Green Vanilla Frosting as well and they sold out in one day. Since then, I have become a bit obsessed with cupcakes. It's all I want to do. Earlier this week, I made Butter-Pecan Cupcakes topped with Buttercream Frosting and adorned with a sprinkle of brown sugar and chopped pecans. This was after my impromptu trip to Williams-Sonoma, where I spent a $50.00 wedding-gift-gift card (and $5 out of my pocket) on Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, a Cupcake Corer and a beginner's Frosting Decoration kit. When asked by the cashier if I'm "big in to baking cupcakes," I replied with, "I'm going to be..."
 I used my new frosting bag to pile my Butter-Pecan cakes high with Buttercream frosting. They were great, of course, but I can't take much credit for from-the-box cake mix and from-the-can frosting. Now that I have my trusty Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat recipe book, though, I will be able to begin making from-scratch cupcakes and fashioning my own recipes and decorations. As I embark on this new confectionary journey, I hope to post pictures, recipes, and stories of sucess or learning experiences(a.k.a. complete disasters) to this blog. After this post I will post pictures of my Bake Sale Cupcakes and Butter-Pecan creations for your viewing pleasure. I'm really enjoying this. I find new  interests often, but hopefully this will be one of few that becomes a passion. Only time and blogging (or lack there of) will tell...