Cupcake Takes the Cake!

It seems like we've been spotted by the lovely girls over at Cupcake Takes the Cake! Thanks for the look see!

You can read the short blurb here - but make sure you look through the rest of the blog. It's one of my favourites!

Cheers!
C & C

Dias de los Muertos Cupcakes

The colours. The smells. The sights. The skulls.

Dias de los Muertos is a holiday I can really get into.




The idea for these cupcakes came from a cute little skull mold I found digging around the local craft store. As soon as I picked it up, I new it was destined for greatness. I have always been in love with Calaveras art and thought perhaps I can incorporate it into cupcake form. The cake would, of course, have to be pumpkin - but with a little kick. This is how Dias de los Muertos Cupcakes were born.




The cake is not your average pumpkin cake. It's light and moist (an effect which always shows up in any one of my yogurt-cake recipes) with a real kick at the end. The kick is the cayenne - something I'm really getting into. There's nothing I love better than a sweet cupcake with a spicy surprise at the end.

I thought this cupcake was special enough to enter in October's Cupcake Hero - I hope it does well and, above all, I hope you enjoy it!




Dias de los Muertos Cupcakes
Cayenne-Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese buttercream

Ingredients
1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup yogurt with 1 tsp vanilla mixed in
1 1/3 cup pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift or wisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, nutmeg, all spice, and salt black pepper. Set aside.

Cream together butter and both sugars with a mixer until nice and fluffy (around 5 minutes). Add eggs and mix. Then mix in yogurt and dry ingredients, alternating between the two. Add in the pumpkin.

Spoon into cupcake papers and cook in oven for about 20 minutes (or when your cake tester comes out clean). Leave out to cool before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups of icing sugar (plus more - just in case you want your icing thicker)
1/4 cup real maple syrup
4 tsp cinnamon (plus more, if you add more icing sugar)

Put all ingredients (room temperature) in a mixer and mix until thick and yummy. Tint to any colour you like (or just leave it the natural cinnamon colour) and add to the cupcakes. Decorate accordingly (I'd suggest marigolds, sugar skulls, and lots of lovely bright colour!)

Enjoy! I know we did!

Spider Web Pumpkin Spice Cookies

It's only September and I've already got Halloween on the brain.



It is my favourite holiday (if you can could call it as a holiday). I love the spooky and the weird and the gross - if I can combine that with baked goods, then all the better right? I've been imagining up Halloween treats for a while now - most of which were pretty elaborate. After pondering for a while, I decided that maybe I should start off slowly -- like I said, it's only September.

These are simple pumpkin spice cookies - nice and thick. Super chewy in the middle. I thought I'd toss some lemony royal icing, with some extra web on top. Next time, I think I'll pipe the icing out instead of spreading so I can get a cleaner look.



Now where's the itsy bitsy spider?

Yeti Cupcakes

I created these guys in almost 30 degree heat. Could you guess what was on my mind at the time?



I love it when cupcakes are inspired by candy. I found the little penguins after wandering around the grocery store, trying desperately to avoid the head wave going on outside. I had no idea what they tasted like - I just new I had to make Yeti cupcakes out of them. (Turns out they taste like those peachie fruit chew rings. Huh, who knew?)



Yeti cupcakes are one of my favourites just because the I can refine the process each time I make them. The cake is vanilla and marshmallow, with a 7 minute frosting on top. Oh yeah, and coconut. Lots of coconut. The result is something that resembles a snow ball and that tastes like a light, fluffy, vanilla/coconut cloud. Mmmm. After my last cake disaster (aka, the dreaded d20 cake), this was a nice refined change.



Frosty and Frosted

d20 Cake

I'm a huge geek. I'm talking super huge. Like, so huge I'd make a dodecahedron out of cake. Crazy? A bit, yes. Especially when I had to finish it in a matter of hours. That meant no fondant, no fineness, just buttercream and tears. Oh sweet lord, so many tears. As you can see, it was a bit of a mess.



For those of you who aren't nerds, this is a d20 die -- usually used for RPG games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Basically, we sit around a table with our paper, pencils, dice, and mountain dew and pretend we're saving a village from some sort of evil doer. It's more fun than it sounds, I promise.



This cake was for our dungeon master - the person who runs said DnD games - and boy was she happy. The cake was vanilla bean with a lovely swiss buttercream frosting. Simple enough, yes. But, man oh man, what an ordeal.

Colin was in charge of the d20 (just simply because he is more into math than I am) - after two hours of scale models, swearing, and yelling, we finally got it. Just in time to slap some buttercream on it before our DM showed up. Next time I think we're going to make the d20 out of rice krispie treats - and leave plenty of time to construct it. Also, I think I'd fondant this sucker next time - just so it doesn't look so messy and rushed.



"Epic fail. Dragon eats your bee."

Mini Burgers

I'm a vegetarian. But these are some burgers I wouldn't mind stinking my teeth into.



Based on Bakerella's creation, these little burgers are made out of vanilla cupcake, brownie, and multicoloured royal icing. Perfect for Father's Day, but you didn't have to be a father to enjoy these puppies.



These were sent to one of Burnaby's BC Hydro offices and disappeared in a matter of hours. I think all that was left was "'s Day" and a half of bun. Next time I'd love to make sugar cookie french fries to go along with these guys. Someone just has to give me an excuse to keep experimenting :)



Seriously cute. Seriously delicious.

So Many Cupcakes, So Little Time

Sometimes, while baking, I get into "The Cupcake Zone".



There's a fine like between "The Zone" and a horrible, stressful place where I just want to slap buttercream on a plain vanilla cake and call it done. The Zone occurs when I've got to make, say, six dozen cupcakes in only a handful of hours. This could very easily turned into a nightmare. Instead, I put my blinders on and dive in head first. And love it.



Here's a small look at the seven dozen cupcakes I did for a graduation barbeque. This included three of my favourite flavours: Lime in the Coconut, Black Forest, and Red Velvet (with Cream Cheese Buttercream). I love experimenting with different flavours - these three, however, are my go-to varieties.



You can keep your plain ol' vanilla. I'll take a Lime in The Coconut any day.

Spring Break Rainbow Cake

Remember oh-so-long ago when I presented you with the rainbow cupcakes?



This is like that - only bigger.



Looks pretty radioactive, eh? Just how I like it! This was a spring break cake for the staff room of my practicum school. Boy, was everyone pretty taken-aback when they cut into this sucker. Nice white fondant (homemade), some chocolate work, strawberry buttercream, and BAM - rainbow!



mmmmm, taste the rainbow

Bacon Cookies

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Bacon. Cookies.



Unfortunately, these cookies do not taste like bacon. Alas, they're just some special sugar cookies that were manipulated into everyone's favourite fatty breakfast food.



There is no real reason why we made these -- I think we did it just because we could. Maybe next time I'll make them taste like bacon . . .



Or maybe a bacon cake. With a maple glaze. Mmmm . . .

Dessert Sushi

I never understood the appeal of sushi.



Maybe it's because I didn't grow up around here, but I can't even force myself to swallow anything wrapped in seaweed. I'd rather not have the taste of low tide in my mouth, thank you very much. I'm allergic to shellfish, so there goes anything with shrimp/prawn/crab/lobster on top. And raw fish . . . meh . . . maybe I'll build up the guts one day. I do live in Vancouver now - I can't hide from it forever.



Anyways, after being invited to a potluck, I wanted to bring in a form of sushi that didn't include seaweed. So dessert sushi was born.



Rice krispie treats dipped in white chocolate. Dried fruit as the fish. Fruit leather painted with food colouring served as the seaweed. Colin even painstakingly cut little candied mandarin orange slices into little shrimpies. How cute.



Now this is a bento box I could really get into.

Box O' Chocolates Cake

Sometimes, teachers need some love too.



A box of chocolates with mini-cupcake bon bons surrounding it - simple and cute. I brought this one into my practicum school on Valentine's Day. Staff ooh-ed and aww-ed and coo-ed, and then ate. Boy did they eat.



First, the little mini-cupcake bon bons started to disappear. Those were my favourite part of the cake - I cut marshmallows in half, dipped them in chocolate, and decorated it accordingly. Before I knew it, the cake was cut and demolished. I don't think I even got a piece. Teachers can be ravenous.



Ah, L'amour!

The Dam Cake

Sadly, only one picture of this one. It's a shame, really - the green fondant was wonderful, as was the cream cheese buttercream water (which was a hit with everyone).

This dam cake was made for Colin's birthday, celebrating his co-op with working with hydro dams up north. Jeez, that was ages ago! I feel so old!