Cupcake Decorating Party and Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

My sisters birthday is on the 21st of December and so close to Christmas so we usually try to have her birthday party after the holiday craze is over.  

She came up, all on her own, with the idea of having a cupcake decorating party! We got adorable take away boxes, which fit 4 cupcakes perfectly so each of her friends could take their creations home.

I spent the night before making 48 cupcakes, half of which were vanilla and half of which were chocolate. 

I also made chocolate and vanilla cream cheese frosting and filled four separate pastry bags with the frosting so all the girls could be decorating at the same time!

We had a wide array of candies, sprinkles, and chocolate chips to decorate the cupcakes!

Here are just a few of the extra cupcakes that I decided to decorate with the left over heath bar, chocolate chips, and frosting!

Have any of you had the peppermint Oreo's from Trader Joes? They are SO good!  For ten of the vanilla cupcakes I placed an Oreo in the bottom of the cupcake liner before filling it with the batter.  I put chocolate cream cheese frosting on the top of these and they were delish.  Here is a photo of one of them: 

I used store bought cake mixtures for the cupcakes but made the frosting from scratch.  

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter (at room temp, but still cool)
8 oz. cream cheese (chilled)
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Cream butter in an electric mixer slightly for about a minute and then add in the cream cheese and mix together until combined. 

Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar until it gets fluffy (don't worry it will be a bit clumpy for a few minutes but just continue to mix on medium speed). 

Start by adding one tablespoon of heavy whipping cream and beating for 1 minute (add more if it is not the consistency you are looking for). 

Make sure to keep it refrigerated once you're done!

For chocolate cream cheese frosting add 1/4-1/2 cup of good quality cocoa powder before adding the vanilla and powdered sugar and incorporate fully!

This party was really fun and all the girls loved it! Happy Baking!

Puppy Dog Cupcakes!

My little sister turned 10!  Becca, along with my entire family, are huge dog fans! We love all dogs of all ages, shapes, and sizes.  So I was inspired by my Hello Cupcake book to make an army of Westie dog cupcakes.  Here is one of the adorable little buggers:

This recipe made 12 big cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes but you can make more big ones and less little if you like.  It's all up to you!  The cupcakes definitely have some personality and looked so hilarious all lined up on the platter. 

As you can see I used the extra frosting and mini cupcakes to make decorations around the edge of the platter including paw prints and dog bones.

This recipe is going to be for vanilla cupcakes and a cream cheese frosting that you can pipe quite easily.  I also cheated and bought one can of chocolate frosting in order to save time and used it on some of the cupcakes (both alone and tie dyed with the cream cheese frosting).

I am finally home from college for a long month so be expecting lots of posts in the next few weeks! I am so happy to finally have a break from the craziness and be able to spend valuable time with my family and friends. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa Claus was good to you.

Once again, I would like to acknowledge "Hello Cupcake" and Glorious Treats blog for this recipe!

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 12 normal cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes.

For the vanilla cupcakes: 

2½ cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tps. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

For cream cheese frosting: 

1 stick of butter (at room temp, but still cool)

8 oz. cream cheese (chilled)

1 tsp. vanilla 

4 cups powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Other items needed:

A bag of mini marshmallows

Mini chocolate chips

Red jelly beans 

Small pink sprinkles 

Food coloring

Ziploc bags, tape, and scissors for piping bags

Directions:

For the vanilla cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line one normal sized cupcake pan and two mini cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Also in a separate bowl combine wet ingredients: milk, oil, and vanilla.

In an electric mixer beat butter and sugar for a few minutes until smooth and creamy. 

Add eggs one at a time on medium speed.

Turn down to low speed and alternate additions of dry and wet mixtures (beginning and ending with the dry ingredients).

Beat well until fully combined. 

Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full with batter.

The mini cupcakes will take 8-10 minutes to cook while the normal sized cupcakes will take about 15-18 minutes (or until toothpick inserted comes out clean).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before proceeding.

For the cream cheese frosting:

Cream butter in an electric mixer slightly for about a minute and then add in the cream cheese and mix together until combined. 

Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar until it gets fluffy (don't worry it will be a bit clumpy for a few minutes but just continue to mix on medium speed). 

Start by adding one tablespoon of heavy whipping cream and beating for 1 minute (add more if it is not the consistency you are looking for). 

Make sure to keep it refrigerated once you're done!

I also died about half of it a light orange color by using orange and brown food coloring. 

Assembly of the dogs:

To create the "fur" effect with the frosting you will need to use Ziploc bags and reinforce one of the corners on each bag with a few layers of scotch tape.  Then you will need to cut a small M-shape into that corner.  Fill various bags with your frostings.  In my case I had some plain white, orange, chocolate/brown, and mixtures of the three.  To create a 2-tone frosting place the 2 different colors of your choosing side by side in the piping bag and it will give you this effect.

For the ears you will need to cut 12 mini marshmallows diagonally.  The inside of them will be sticky so you will dip the sticky part into a bowl of small pink sprinkles and set them aside. 

Beginning with the face of the dog, secure the 2 ears on the rim of the cupcake with frosting.  Using another mini marshmallow (that has 1/3 of it removed) for the snout/nose of the dog secure it somewhere around the middle of the mini cupcake. Using the piping bag cover the entire mini cupcake with frosting.  Start on the surface of the cake while applying pressure and pull away quickly while releasing pressure.  For the eyes and nose, use mini chocolate chips, and for the tongue cut a red jelly bean in half and place directly below the snout. 

For the body of the dog, use a large cupcake and create fur like lines using the piping bags. Start in the center of the cupcake and move towards the edges with the frosting.  You may need to experiment a bit in trying to figure out if you want long or short fur and how to make the frosting look how you want. 

Place the mini cupcake on its side on top of the bigger cupcake.

These cupcakes definitely take some patience but they are fun and adorable!

I really hope you all decide to try these out! What is cuter than a little doggie cupcake! Let me know if you have an questions, concerns, or comments, as always. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Baking! 

Kappa Sigma Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

These are red velvet cupcakes, which I have never actually made before, with a decadent cream cheese frosting, red sprinkles around the rim, and Kappa Sigma lettering!

As most of y'all know by now my boyfriend, Jake goes to Willamette University and I go visit him there once a month or so.  He is in the Kappa Sigma fraternity there... and no it is not a "frat." 

I love to bake there because I get to be in the house kitchen and my treats get enjoyed and devoured in a very short amount of time with much appreciation.  

This past weekend when I was visiting was the fraternities initiation for new pledges (which I have somehow managed to be there for 2 years in a row).  So... because of all the events that were going on I had a good amount of time to kill so I figured what better to do than to bake! I spent 3-4 hours in a quiet kitchen with my music and enjoyed the heck out of it.  It had been way too long since the last time I had a date with the mixing bowl.  

I was inspired by Joy of Baking for this recipe. 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 32-36 regular-sized cupcakes.

For the red velvet cupcakes:

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. cocoa powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2-3 tbsp. red food coloring

1 1/2 tsp. white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

For the cream cheese frosting:

24 oz. cream cheese (this is 3 packages)

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream

Also used: 

green food coloring

red sprinkles 

Directions:

For the red velvet cupcakes: 

Preheat the oven to 350.

Prepare 3 cupcake tins with cupcakes liners. 

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. 

Beat butter on medium speed in an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.  

Add sugar and mix well.  Continue by adding eggs one at a time, followed by the addition of the vanilla extract (continue to scrape down the sides after each step).

In a separate bowl measure out the buttermilk.

Begin adding red food coloring drop by drop, while whisking, until you reach a deep red color.

Switch off adding the red buttermilk and the dry ingredients to the butter mixture (beginning and ending with the dry ingredients). 

In a small separate bowl or cup combine white wine vinegar and baking soda.  Let it fizz and once it has settled down fold it into the batter.

Divide the batter amongst the cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 full, and baking for 18-23 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean. 

For the cream cheese frosting:

Beat room temperature cream cheese in an electric mixer until creamy.

Add vanilla and then in increments add sifted powdered sugar.  

Slowly add in the heavy whipping cream and mix on high until the frosting is thick enough to pipe.  

Decoration:

First, begin by piping the cream cheese frosting using a wide star-shaped tip onto the cupcakes.  (Optional: Save some to make the leftover frosting green to use for writing)

Pour a bottle of red sprinkles into a large bowl to coat the bottom. 

Dip the edges of the cupcake into the sprinkles and do your best to make sure they are coated evenly.

 

Using the leftover frosting, dye it green, and create lettering of your choice! I used the Kappa Sigma letters but if you want you can draw a christmas tree or write something creative! 

Now all you have to do is eat it and enjoy!

Not to mention the house is beautifully decorated for Christmas! Hope to be back there soon! Props to Jason!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all get fat and happy! 

And as always... happy baking!

Timeline Birthday Cake

So I actually made this awhile ago, for my Mom's 50th birthday last year but I wanted to share it with you all! This post is going to be more about the decorating techniques than the recipe itself, so stay tuned if you are interested.

You can use any kind of cake, but my Mom is a chocoholic so I made a devils food cake with a rich chocolate buttercream.  But for the purpose of this experiment lets say use your favorite cake and frosting. 

I wanted this cake to be really special so I got photos from all different times in my Mom's life: childhood, teenage years, marriage, each of my siblings being born, and present day.  

From left to right: her and her siblings when they were little, my grandpa with my mom and aunt, and my gorgeous mother at her engagement party. 

From left to right: my parents wedding day, me and my mom, and my brother and my mom.

From left to right: my sister and my mom, and our family with my dogs puppies!

If you decide to make this cake for someone, just try to think of defining moments in their life and/or people who are very important to them.  

What you will need:

- cake/frosting

- log cookies for the circumference of the cake

- toothpicks

- tape

- pictures or printed photos

- sprinkles (I used these light pink pearl candies)

- ribbon

- a birthday boy/girl!

Procedure (sounds like a science experiment?):

1.  Frost the cake with a thick layer of your frosting of choice and put it the fridge to set for 20-30 minutes.  

2.  Place the log cookies along the edge of the cake vertically until you cover all sides.  These cookies can be bought at any grocery store but I honestly cannot remember the name! They come in a big tin and shouldn't be too hard to locate.  They also come in vanilla and chocolate filled versions.  I broke them up into varying sizes for effect but that is your decorative call.

3.  To prepare the pictures, I printed them out from my color printer and attached them to a toothpick by taping the toothpick to the backside of the picture.  If I had more time I probably would have made the pictures double-sided so that the toothpick was not visible but I was in a crunch.

4.  Evenly place the toothpicks around the cake (with photos pre-attached) as seen above.

5.  Optional: Some sort of decorative feature in the center.  I put a big heart of pink pearl candies but you can do writing, sprinkles, etc.

6.  Tie a big bow around the cake to make it look like a present! 

Hope you try this out! It meant a lot to my Mom and I'm sure it will have an impact on whoever you want to make it for!  If you have any questions as always, let me know.

Happy baking!