Gooey Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes and Orange Cupcakes

This weekend, we went from having no plans at all to being booked!  We were invited to a BBQ at a friend's house, and I was asked to bring cupcakes.  I wanted to make something different but delicious.  I recieved two new cupcake cookbooks from my godmother for my birthday, and I thought I'd flip through them looking for something interesting. 

I have been craving freshly squeezed and zested citrus lately (if you couldn't tell from my previous post), and when I saw a recipe for Orange Cupcakes with Orange Blossom Buttercream Frosting, I knew I hit the jackpot. 

Yum!

For some reason the batter seemed to have exploded in the oven.  Not sure why they came out looking so funky.

I used my new Cricut Cutter to cut out little flowers and leaves.  So easy, and I think they came out adorable.  Can you see the little specs of orange zest in the frosting? 

The next recipe jumped off the page when I read the word hazelnut.  I have been craving Nutella lately! 

I wasn't sure where to find hazelnuts, but the very nice guy in Whole Foods helped me find them.  Gotta love the service there, even if the parking lot is ALWAYS a nightmare!

After making the simple batter, you add a dollop of Nutella in the center of the cupcake.

The icing was basically a hazelnut ganache.  So.Freaking.Delicious. I decorated them simply with some chopped hazelnuts. 

The center was very fudgy.  Yum.

I wanted to make a cute presentation for my friends, so I grabbed two Janie & Jack boxes.  They have adorable gift boxes that I try to swipe every time I'm in that store.

I wrapped the boxes with a simple ribbon and added one of my personalized seals.



Mike and Dave's daughter, Abby, enjoyed hers...well at least one bite before she was off to play!

Look at those curls!!

Thanks, Mike and Dave, for a wonderful afternoon!

p.s.  We are also heading up to see Matt's aunt, and Luke's godmother, tomorrow in Long Island, and we are taking the other half a batch.  Two birds...one stone :)

Go Phillies!

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Several months back, I was contacted through the fabulous world of Facebook by a friend of mine to make her son's 4th birthday cake.  Kelly and I played basketball together in high school and even ended up at the same college.  We have been out of touch for awhile, so I was thrilled and surprised when she asked if I could make a Phillies themed cake for Connor.  Although the cake was needed for only a few short weeks after Luke was born, I couldn't pass up an oportunity to make a Phillies themed birthday cake.  As you probably remember from posts past, my husband is a Mets fan.  I am, however, not.  And I am determined to make my child a Phillies Phan!!! 

Kelly asked for a cake for the party and cupcakes to take home as favors.  Conor is allergic to nuts and likes vanilla cake, so I made my simple vanilla cake recipe from my Magnolia Bakery cookbook.   I will admit that the design of this cake is all Matt.  For a Mets fan, he really got into making this cake (I think he's a Phillies Phan at heart!). 

I cut all of the designs out of fondant for the cake and just piped on some red icing for the cupcakes.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Kelly wrapped the cupcakes up in these adorable boxes and tied them with a pretty red ribbon.

I will admit here that I am terrible at covering entire cakes in fondant.  I need a lot of practice.  Because of that, I had a lot of cracks along the side of the cake.  Matt came up with the great idea of covering oreos with fondant to make baseballs.  Genius.  Necessity is the mother of invention...

In order to cover up another large crack, Matt cut out this great MLB logo out of fondant.  I think he may be better at this than me!



Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Speaking of the Phillies and trying to make Luke a Phillies Phan, we got one step closer a couple of weeks ago while on our way to visit my parents in Raleigh, NC.  While waiting for our plane, the Phillie Phanatic and a few players were helping out at Southwest Airlines.  Luke got in pictures with a few current players, a few past players and the Phillie Phanatic!  He even made the local news...CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

Here is Luke with Larry Anderson, Gary Matthews and John Mayberry, Jr.  A few weeks later, my brother and sister-in-law met John Mayberry, Jr. at a charity function, and he said he remembered Luke!!  So cool.

Here is Luke and I with Shane Victorino. 

And of course with the Phillie Phanatic!!!

It was such a cool experience that we ended up missing our flight!  Luckily, Southwest Airlines was very gracious and put us on the very next flight and we were only an hour later than we originally planned. 

GO PHILLIES!!!!



Holly turns 3!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Holly!

I'm sure you all remember Holly from birthdays and showers past...

Well, Holly turned three this year and decided that she wanted a "Pink Piggy" party.  With some help from my mom, Matt and a baby who sleeps well, we were able to accomplish some cute cakes and cupcakes. 

I will admit that in my new mom stupor, I messed up one of the batches of cupcakes, but we recovered and produced a small chocolate cake and two batches of cupcakes...one chocolate and one vanilla.

After mulling around some design ideas for a few weeks, my godmother stopped by and gave me a new cupcake book.  Wouldn't you know, they had a cute idea for piggy cupcakes!?  So, after a few modifications, this is what we came up with...

I was a little preoccupied in that Luke was less than two weeks old so I didn't get any pictures.  Luckily, Matt was a little more on the ball and snapped these gems. 

Happy Birthday, Holly... We love you!!!

A slightly inappropriate post...enter at your own risk :P

A swim team baby shower...

One of my bestest friends, Denise, asked me to make her a small cake and cupcakes for a baby shower her swim team is throwing for a teammate.   She asked that it be swim themed but baby girl-ish, too.  After about a month of googling, thinking and brainstorming, I came up with an idea for the cupcakes. 

They asked for purple, hence the purple frosting.  

The ducks are made of homemade fondant that took a little while to get to the right colors.  I definitely recommend gel food coloring when using fondant.  Much more vibrant colors.  I used a food coloring pen for the eyes and to fill in the goggles.

When it came to the cake, I was going to make a bigger ducky to go on it, but after talking to Denise last night, she made a special request.  This is what she came up with.  Slightly irreverent but very hilarious.  She swears the girl will find it funny, and I hope she does!  I was hesitant to post this but I think the warning in the post title should be enough! 

This cake speaks for itself....there are no words....

Here is everything all together.  I hope the team has a great time celebrating the newest member of their swim team!

A review, and Happy Birthday, Jess!

The Barefoot Contessa Rocks...

My friend, co-worker, and fellow gestatation buddy turned 27 this week, and I thought I'd make her a yummy treat to get through the long work day.  I've had a box of cupcake mix from the Barefoot Contessa that my cousin gave me a little while ago.  I've been wanting to try it out, but the box only makes 12 cupcakes, so I was waiting for a time when I only needed a half dozen.  This was the perfect chance! 

As I've mentioned previously, I'm not usually a fan of the boxed mixes, but this one was great.  It called for real butter instead of oil that most boxes require.  I also liked that it came with a mix for the buttercream frosting.  Everything came out moist and fresh, which tasted delicious, but made it a little difficult to decorate.  The cake was so light that when I went to decorate, some of the cake was coming apart.  So, I had to stick with a simple design.

Can you see how creamy the frosting was?  Soooo yummy.  These were a mess to eat, but worth it!  They were perfect to snack on after lunch!

Happy Birthday, Jess!  I hope it was a great day!  Next year, you'll get to celebrate with your adorable little girl!

Happy 1st Birthday, Meah.

Meah turns 1.

A friend of mine's niece turns one this weekend, and she and her boyfriend asked me to make a cake and cupcakes to commemorate the occasion.  The only direction they gave was that she was turning one and she is very "girly."  I did some  googling and came up with a cute but simple idea.  Again, I stuck with chocolate cake and vanilla cupcakes, since most kids like simple flavors.  Again, I used Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Icing recipe, which I think is the easiest to work with and tastes fantastic.  All of the other details are made of fondant...

Its snowing here, which always puts me in the mood for baking...

I think the look of the daisies is simple and cute.

I really wanted the cupcakes to coordinate with the cake, and I think it turned out great.

The cake...

The cute little teddy bear...I am digging teddy bears these days and have been wanting to do something with them on a cake...

I asked Matt to come up with a cake board for me since I ran out of them and didn't want to run out to the store in the snow.  This is what he came up with.  Cute, right? 

Happy 1st Birthday, Meah!

Happy 6th Birthday, Kate!

I feel old...

My girl Kate turns six on Monday.  I cannot believe how quickly she's growing.  She's a thoughtful, sweet, beautiful little girl who wanted a Unicorn Birthday Party.  She asked for unicorns and rainbows on her cupcakes.  This was actually more challenging than I thought it would be in terms of design.  Ultimately, I think I did a decent job.   From past experience, I've realized that its best to stick with basic chocolate and vanilla when it comes kids...any other flavors never seem to go over very well.  I used the chocolate and vanilla cake recipes from my Magnolia cookbook, and used the chocolate frosting recipe off of the Hershey's cocoa box.  I used Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting Recipe, as well. 

For the rainbows, I found Extreme Airheads candy and just bent them into the icing.  Viola!  Simple, but kind of neat looking. 

For the unicorns, I did A LOT of googling to try to come up with something feasible.  In the end, I combined a few different ideas to come up with the final product.  I used white fondant for the faces and eyes, chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the horn, a black food coloring pen for the eyes and mouth, and tinted vanilla frosting for the hair.  I hope think they look like unicorns!  Hopefully, Kate will like them for her friend party tomorrow. 

I boxed them all up in nice boxes and again used the label embosser that I received for Christmas.



Have I mentioned how much I love the embosser?

Kate's mom is making a cake for her family party on Sunday, but she asked me to make a unicorn to put on top of the cake.  Not quite my best work, but the first time I've worked with shaping larger fondant figures.  Matt helped me try to figure out how to do it, and I think the end product is okay....

I used a birthday candle for the horn...not sure how I feel about it...

Anyone out there have any tips or suggestions for how to shape figures out of fondant?

Happy 6th Birthday, Kate.  We love you and are so proud of the sweet young lady you are becoming!

Snickerdoodle Mini Cupcakes

Merry Christmas!

My aunt and uncle host a Christmas party every year, which centers around Santa, who comes around the neighborhood on a firetruck.  Its always a great time, and I get to see a bunch of cousins that I don't get to see nearly enough.  I wanted to make something festive, bite-size and delicious.  I decided to flip through Marth Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook and see what would inspire me.  I saw the Snickerdoodle Cupcakes that I've been wanting to make for awhile.  I changed up the recipe a little to make them mini cupcakes.  It also forced me to make Martha's Seven Minute Frosting, which has always intimidated me.  It requires egg whites, corn syrup and a candy thermometer...all things that usually intimidate me.  I don't have a candy thermometer, but I seemed to be successful without it.  I think on a cake, this frosting would be way too much but on a mini cupcake, it was perfect.  These cupcakes were light and cinnamony (I know, that's not a word), and I think perfect for the occasion.

I should have cut this recipe in half as it yielded almost 100 mini cupcakes!  I took some over to a neighbor, and will also be taking some today to a Christmas Tree Trimming Party. 

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all have peaceful and happy holidays....

Congratulations, Lauren and Shawn!

A work wedding shower...

My coworker and friend, Lauren, is getting married on New Years Eve.  We decided to throw her a small shower at work to celebrate the big day!  Lauren is using a shade of purple for her wedding colors, so I thought the Lavendar Brownie Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Cookbook would be perfect.  First of all, the brownie recipe is to die for.  So. Flipping. Delicious.  Then, the lavendar icing added such a subtle spice punch.  Fantastically indulgent.  Martha added sugared edible flowers to the top, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that.  So instead, I simply piped the Bride and Groom's initials onto them.  Not as pretty. 

The recipe says that it should yield 24 cupcakes.  After making one batch, it seems to only yield 12.  So, I had to make another.  Turns out I just put too much batter into each cupcake liner.  I used the same scoop I use for regular cupcakes, and I think I should have used about half that batter.  However, still delicious...

Congratulations, Lauren and Shawn.  Can't wait to rock out with you on New Year's Eve!



Happy Birthday, Erika!

To be 25 again...

Our friend, Erika, celebrated her 25th birthday last weekend.  Although she isn't a big dessert person, she still needed a cake to blow out her candles!  I made some vanilla cupcakes with Hershey's Cocoa frosting....simple and delicious.  For the cake, I made a devil's food cake with chocolate ganache icing.  It didn't turn out quite as pretty as I had hoped, but Oh Boy was it delicious!  Perfect dessert for a late night party!

I topped off the cupcake with a chocolate covered sunflower seed.  Looks purple in the picture, but it was actually pink...one of Erika's favorite colors.

I found these decorative cake wires at Michael's and thought they might be fun.  I topped them off with some sparkly baubles.    The only problem was that my battery to my camera died while I was taking pictures, so this is the only one I got of the cake...





Happy 30th Birthday, Jennifer!

I love the 80's!

One of my bestest friends, Jennifer, turned 30 in August, and her sisters and friends decided to throw her a totally awesome 80's suprise birthday party.  Not only was I excited to celebrate Jen, my mind was spinning with ideas for the desserts!  I thought about this party for months and couldn't wait to get started. 

This is the first time I've used fondant in such large quantities.  I decided to try out Duff's line at Michael's and used a lot of his products.  I have to admit, I loved most of them.  Well, except the white fondant.  Awful.  When I opend the package, the fondant was liquid!  I don't know if I got a bad batch or what, but I was definitely disappointed.  I will stick with my homemade recipe for now.  However, the black fondant was fantastic.   Also, I used some of his cake tatoos.  They were fun to use and worked well for the tie dye cake. 

First, we have Michael Jackson gloves and neon RayBan sunglass sugar cookies.

Next, we have a Rubix Cube chocolate cake!

Miss Pacman chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

Simon vanilla cake.

The total package. 



The cake for Jen to blow out her candles.  Neon tie dye cake!

The inside of the cake..so much fun to make.

And finally, the fabulous Repetto sisters, all decked out in their 80's gear (Jennifer is on the right).  Jen was completely surprised, despite my bad acting trying to get her there.  And her sisters picked her the perfect outfit for her to change into once she arrived.  Happy (belated) birthday, Jennifer!  We love you!