As much as I haven't been busy, I've been just as busy in the kitchen during nap and late at night finishing up several dozen orders over the past 6 weeks. It's gross to think about the pounds (and pounds) of butter, sugar, flour and eggs I have gone through to make sweet tooths happy! I've done everything to just plain ol' vanilla, to creamsicle and purple (for a psuedo clemson party), to my new fave-Reese cup (both regular and GLUTEN FREE!!), and Raspberry Lemonade. I've had so much fun trying new recipes and of course indulging in a cupcake or two myself. Here are a few pics and recipe links to the ones I've really enjoyed:
Our friends are chocolate fans. We are chocolate fans. So I took my favorite
chocolate cake and frosting recipe and found a good addition in the peanut butter filling from
this cupcake recipe and created a wonderful masterpiece. This is way more worth wasting your calories than a reese cup - even if it is shaped like a tree or an egg!
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| Reese Cupcakes (PB filling with cookie on top) |
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| I filled most of them with PB gooeyness! |
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| And some I topped with the delectable filling |
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| Beautiful Raspberry Lemonade |
When I started on this cupcake journey back in the spring, I had found ideas for a pink lemonade cake in a Southern Living magazine. I stored it away, saving it for a summer treat. Well, now that summer is almost over, I got the craving and went in search of ingredients, but decided to try a Raspberry cake instead. Who knew finding raspberry lemonade concentrate would be so flipping hard?! After visiting 4 grocery stores, I found the welches brand at good ol HT. Came home and immediately made
this batch. It only made 10 cupcakes, but could easily be doubled and no need to buy another can of concentrate.
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| probably the most perfect looking cupcake to date! |
Then, I got word from Jeremy's boss at work (who is a super health nut and competitive athlete) that he wanted me to try my hand at some gluten free cupcakes to mimic the Reese cup ones I had made a few weeks prior. So I did a bit of research, since I've never made anything gluten free, found a few recipes, and went on my search for ingredients. I basically learned all you have to do is replace the flour and tweak the measurements of other ingredients, but when you use gluten free flour substitutes, you've got to add Xanthan gum to help everything stay together. But when I found it at each of the 4 stores I went to (when I was searching for the lemonade concentrate), the price only got higher and higher. So I settled for an 8 oz bag of it for $13. It does seem like a lot of money, but in the scheme of things, a little goes a long way. So from that 8 oz bag, I only used 1 TEASPOON!!! Which is like pennies of the whole cost of the bag. I'm hoping that J's boss really likes these and wants more, so I don't have a bag of that expensive gum lying around!
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| Cooling in the pan |
When I mixed everything together, it was super thick - unlike my perfect chocolate cake recipe - I guess thanks to the xanthan gum. I think I may have overfilled the cupcakes because they came out as tall as they are deep. The picture above does no justice as to how risen they really were. Who knew gluten free had so much rising potential?!
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| Peanut butter filling- check! |
So I proceeded with the next step: peanut butter filling. Thankfully, he didn't ask for gluten AND peanut free, or else this would have been a major bust!!! I had to try out the filling just to make sure it didn't taste gluten free :)
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| They may not tasty as heavenly, but they still look good and are chocolate! |
And the dense heavy cute finished product. I sent Jeremy off to work this morning with 23 (it made 2 dozen but we had to make sure that they didn't taste like poop!) and have been anxious all day to hear whether or not he liked them.
I have more orders coming up this weekend for a cowgirl party. Hoping to make chocolate and strawberry cakes topped with their respective frostings then a candy cowboy boot! Yay for fun and baking!
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