Fun With Cupcakes

Here is my second attempt to create some cool cupcakes. They were for an anniversary party honoring LeLe's in-laws. Congratulations to them, by the way, for 40 years of wedded bliss....

The blue ones represented the ocean with coconut waves and big red fishes. They were pina colada flavored with Swedish Fish candy. They tasted pretty good, but were a bit crumbly, due to the fact that I didn't pay attention and put too much cream of coconut in them.

The brown ones represented the beach with little flip flops. They were butter pecan and tasted great! Graham crackers and brown sugar were the sand, and I cut out (with scissors) the flip flops from fruit roll ups. Took a while I can tell you that!  I piped the straps with just a dab of icing. We were supposed to add little umbrellas, but didn't find any in town. Bummer.

Why the beach theme? Because the mother-in-law is even crazier about the beach than I am and is wacky for flip flops. She's a fun gal. I really wanted to try to make some fondant starfish or sea horses, but didn't get time. Maybe next go around...

I learned to pay much closer attention to the recipe, use my metal muffin pan and not the silicone one, and plan ahead better. I also decided I need to invest in some flavorings because I could barely taste the coconut and pineapple in the blue cupcakes. Everything is a learning experience but maybe the guests enjoyed them and I was able to help LeLe out.  If any of you out there are cupcake chefs extraordinaire, I could really use some pointers. Thanx.

Trying to Be Gourmet

With all the new cupcake shows these days, I began to think I might just wanna try something new. I'm a decent baker. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I usually stick with my tried and true recipes. But, I have had a hankering to branch out and try some gourmet type cupcakes.

I looked online for recipes, but nothing really appealed to me. Or if it did, it called for all kinds of expensive ingredients I never buy. So, I improvised.  I bought a package of Hershey's peppermint kisses and some butter recipe cake mix and experimented a bit.

First, I chopped up some kisses into tiny tiny pieces.

Because my first experiment with regular vanilla chocolate chips ended with all the chips on the bottom of the cupcake, I thought to try just putting the little pieces on the top of the batter, thinking they would sink a bit.
(Aren't you supposed to coat the chips in flour to keep them from sinking?)

This is how they turned out.

No sinkage. So, I tried adding batter on top of the little pieces.

This is how they turned out.

Not very gourmet looking are they? But, I learned that I can mix them up in the batter and they won't sink to the bottom. That's helpful! I made the icing from cream cheese, real butter, and powdered sugar, then dusted the top with bits. They tasted really really good. So, I will definitely make them again.

So class...
Butter recipe cake mix + Hershey's peppermint kiss bits + cream cheese icing with peppermint kiss bits = Delicious!