Red Velvet Cake Balls

Red Velvet Cake Balls are the perfect dessert for a company party! Especially if your company color is red! Enjoy.

Cake Ball Gift Bag

I made some chocolate fudge cake balls and decided to drizzle them with different flavors. I did vanilla (blue), mint and orange drizzles. 3 Cake balls in 1 batch! They were tasty too! Enjoy.

French Macarons and Cupcake Ruffles

My first attempt at French Macarons was a blast. They actually turned out quite good! I thought it was going to be really hard. I did go a little crazy with the food coloring though. :) I had never tried them before and they are actually quite tasty!  

 I also tried out a buttercream ruffle on my mini spice cupcakes. They turned out cute too. Enjoy.

Cocoa Cream Cheese Cake Balls with Mint Drizzle

I made these a while back for a cookie exchange for MJ. They were definitely tasty. This was my first attempt at cake balls and they turned out great! I think they are perfect for cookie or treat exchanges.

Try them next time! Enjoy.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Another birthday cupcake! I made a batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting this time. Red Velvet is the most requested flavor for both cupcakes and cake balls that I get. It is quite enjoyable. Enjoy.

Print Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

Strawberry Cupcakes

A while back I made cupcakes for my niece's birthday party. She is really into flamingos and pink stuff so, naturally, I had to make strawberry cupcakes!  I supplied the cupcakes and mom supplied the Hot Pink Flamingo Sprinkles! They were both darling and delicious! Perfect Combo! Enjoy.

Yields: 2 dozen regular cupcakes

Ingredients

7 oz (1½ cups) fresh or frozen strawberries (thawed)

375 g (1½ cups) all-purpose flour , sifted

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup whole milk at room temperature

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

440 g (1 cup) sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

4 large egg whites at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners and set aside.

Place strawberries in a small food processor and process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree if you measured the strawberries by volume. Save any extra for the frosting.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. In a small bowl, mix together the milk, vanilla and strawberry puree.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until pale and fluffy. Sprinkle in the sugar and beat until fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium and slowly add the egg and egg whites until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended. You don’t want to overmix the batter.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin tins filling the cups ¾ full. Place in the oven and bake until tops spring back when lightly touched and/or a toothpick comes out clean, 18-20 minutes. Transfer the muffin tins to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool completely in the tin before frosting.

Store in the refrigerator if not eaten immediately.

Strawberry Frosting

Yields: Enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients

5 oz (1 cup) fresh frozen strawberries (thawed)

3 sticks (1½ cups) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold

½ cup Butter flavored shortening

Pinch of salt

875 g (7 cups) confectioners' sugar (Can use less if desired for decreased sweetness)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Puree strawberries in a food processor. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree. Mix until well blended.

This recipe is very sweet as well as slightly tart from the strawberries. It is extremely flavorful and tasty! Color for both the batter and frosting are naturally pink from the strawberries!

Cupcakes Anyone?! Blue Velvet Cream Cheese, Pumpkin Spice Honey Cream Cheese, Chocolate Buttercream

So, I am going to play catch-up with my posting. I have a lot of treats that I made last year but haven't posted about. I'll post them as soon as I can. Stay Tuned...

Back in November....
My little brother's 8th birthday party was outrageous. Hosted at the Jordan Commons IMAX theater, we had some chaotic fun and good treats and then everyone headed into the theater to see Megamind 3-D. Let me just say that I loved it! Entertaining for adults and kids! 4 stars!

Besides having some great entertainment, we had some good eats! I made the cupcakes for his birthday (as is tradition) and had a ton of fun doing it. The party theme was obviously Megamind, who is a blue space villian, so the color blue and stars was the major theme!

I was a baking fool (I baked over 100 cupcakes!). I'm not sure how many actually ended up at the party because Ben had to keep taste testing them for me. He's so sweet like that.....actually I really did make him taste test these because I ended up having to change quite a few of the original recipes. I made Chocolate Cake with Blue Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Blue Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. They were fabulous!  Enjoy.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Blue Velvet Cake with Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Blue Velvet Cake with Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting
Yields: 24 regular cupcakes +  24 mini cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

½ pound (2 sticks) butter, firm and slightly cold

2 eggs (beaten)

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 tablespoon Wilton royal blue gel food coloring

1 small dab of Wilton violet gel food coloring

2½ cups cake flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

4 oz (1/2 cup) unsalted butter (slightly cold)

4 cups powdered sugar (or less depending on how sweet you like it)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/8 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cupcake pans with cute paper liners.

Cream together the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs in a slow stream and mix until combined. Mix the cocoa powder and food colorings together to form a thick paste (wear gloves and an apron!), add to the sugar mixture and mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Combine the milk and vanilla in a cup. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix only until just combined. Add ½ of the buttermilk and mix only until just combined. Again, add 1/3 flour and mix until just combined, then rest of buttermilk mixing until just combined, then finally the last 1/3 of the flour. Mixing until just combined. Try not to overmix or you will get dense cupcakes that may not rise. In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and vinegar (let fizz) and add to mixture and stir until just incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop even amounts of batter into each of the cups. The batter should be thick. Bake for 25-30 minutes for regular cupcakes or 9-10 minutes for mini cupcakes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed beat until incorporated so it doesn’t fly all over like Mt St Helens. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy (a few minutes).

To Decorate:

Place the cream cheese frosting in a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip. The size of the tip will determine the size of your swirls. I used a Wilton 1A. Using 1 hand to squeeze from the top and the other hand to guide, start in the middle of the cupcake and slowly squeeze as you swirl to cover the top of the cupcake with frosting (this should only take about 2 rows of frosting). Once you have covered the whole top continue on to do a second layer slightly smaller than the first but starting on the outside and ending in the middle this time. Pull up to make a cute point at the top.

To make the stars, take your few ugliest plain cupcakes (not that there would be any…;) out of their papers and mash them together so they feel like a dry paste. Flatten it onto some parchment paper as thick as you want your star or other shape to be. Use a cookie cutter or a knife to cut out the desired shape. Carefully peel off the parchment paper and place on the cupcake.

For mini cupcakes: You can use a different technique by squeezing frosting straight down onto the middle of the cupcake top and letting the frosting spread as far to the edge as you want. Pull up still squeezing slightly and then let go pulling straight up.