Melody's Cookie Cupcakes

Last night I decided to make some treats intended for my co-workers and some friends coming to visit from Atlanta this weekend. Luckily an adorable Facebook acquaintance of mine happens to be quite the culinary queen and shared this recipe with me. They taste a bit like a chocolate chip cookie and a cinnamon bun spawned a cupcake. The work buddies LOVED them and of course the boyfriend isn't shy about devouring them either.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

"wet ingredients:

-3/4 cup sugar... See More
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup (236 grams) butter, softened
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon natural almond extract

dry ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon

other ingredients:
- at least 2 cups of chocolate chips (dark or milk up to preference)

mix wet ingredients with hand mixer until very smooth. combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. then combine wet and dry ingredients with hand mixer until very well blended/sort of stiff. once dough is mixed, fold in chocolate chips and whatever other fun stuff you may decide to add to your cookie cupcakes. i like to chill the dough for an hour or 2 before i bakethese, but not everyone does, and this recipe does not require chilling the dough before use.

drop the dough in to greased muffin tins (i prefer butter) and bake 10-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven @ 375. allow to cool for an hour or so before decorating.

buttercream icing is just a stick of room temperature softened butter, a ton of confectioner's sugar (i used the entire box), and a touch of cream (milk will also work well) blended with a hand mixer for about 3 minutes and piped out all ghetto style with the tip cut off of a plastic sandwich bag stuffed with frosting.

i should add that these keep longer and taste better if they're refrigerated. they tend to melt in the summer heat otherwise."

Emma's Rainbow Cupcake

My tiny three year old niece is just about the cutest little girl in the world. So adorable in fact that she would fit comfortably in a Disney animation. She lives in PA so I've only gotten the pleasure of meeting her once. I get to see pictures of her though and she's growing up to be a beautiful little girl. For her birthday I made her this little rainbow colored cupcake that will be on it's way to her shortly. I really hope she likes it as much as I liked making it for her!

Proof of the cute, little Emma!

Mr. Lego Cupcake

Last weekend I sent my best friend a baby gift package for her newborn little girl. In that package was the cupcake mobile I made some weeks ago and her two year old son fell in love with it! Well, I can't have him being jealous of his little sister so I decided to make a big cupcake plush that a two year old can kick around with. Will try and mail this out on Saturday with a little UNbirthday card! I hope he loves it :D




Here's a closeup of the strawberry and one with Clover for size reference...haha! mr. Lego Cupcake is the largest plush I've made thus far but I'm happy he came out so well for working pattern-free. I even free handed the strawberry!

Cupcake Noms!

Today I decided to take on the task of baking cupcakes from scratch. Now, having baked cakes and caked goods from a box my entire life this was a bit daunting. I really should have attempted this sooner. Not only was it fun, but they taste AMAZING! I really had no idea there was such a difference in taste!

First came the preheat(350) and cupping of the muffin pan.


It's a huge deal that my mise en place is fully prepared before I cook/bake anything. I get easily distracted while cooking so if things aren't measured out and ready before I start tablespoons get confused with teaspoons and amounts become easily skewed. I'm a spaz, what can I say?

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113 grams)butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup (60 ml) 2% milk



To make my batter I use a KitchenAid Mixer, which btw is a magical device! I beat the room temperature butter and sugar together until fluffy(nearly doubled in volume). Add eggs one at a time and make sure each is completely mixed in before you add the next. After that, add the vanilla and mix until completely blended.

Separately whisk the flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

With your mixer on low alternately add the flour and milk in three intervals. I always start and end each interval with the flour (flour/milk/flour, flour/milk/flour, flour/milk/flour). Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go so you make sure to mix everything.



Now it's time to fill up our cups and bake our cupcakes! I fill each cupcake cup a little over halfway to make sure they don't overflow and cause a cupcaketastrophy! Bake them for about 16 minutes or until you can push a toothpick through the center and it comes out clean.

After they're baked I put them on a wire rack to cool while I made the frosting.

Frosting was a breeze!

Ingredients:

2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar or powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 cup (113 grams)butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons 2% milk

1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (for thickness)

I creamed the butter in my mixer then added the vanilla until it was completely blended. Mixed that on high for about a minute just to make sure none is seperated. Then, with the mixer set to low, I added the powdered sugar gradually. Scrape down the sides and add the milk and mix on high for about 3 minutes. Add the cream cheese and cream of tartar and mix on high another 3 minutes. It should start to whip up a little. I put it in the fridge for a little over an hour to get nice and cold before I frosted the cupcakes.


So there you have it, my cupcake adventure!

Cheers!!

Cupcakes Over the Rainbow

Made this mobile over the past few days and listed it on Etsy today!

Rainbows and Cupcakes

Working on another mobile with rainbows this time :D

Cupcake Mobile

Made a cupcake mobile to add to the gift package I'm sending to my best friend tomorrow. I hope she likes it and I REALLY hope the new baby enjoys it as well!

Cupcake Ninja

I made a pink ninja today! Had some cupcake charms leftover from a project last year and thought one would go nicely instead of making a star. I plan to open an Etsy store by the end of this week featuring some of these creatures and more tag pockets as some people have requested them.

Birthday!

Well, I've officially made it to 29 and just like every other woman in the world I wish I could remain 29. I'm terrified of 30! Since I have no family here to celebrate with and no Mom nearby to bake me a cake, I made chocolate cupcakes with crushed Andes Candies on top YUM!

diy card

Making this card was fun and I really like how it turned out! I used embroidery thread and some paper from Sam Flax to make the cupcake and envelope. The actual card is just some cute card stock glued together.

This week in CUPCAKE art!

So much thought goes into these little treats! I can't believe how intricate some of these bakers get. I need more patience ;)

Birthday

I’ve never been one to take birthdays too seriously, but as the clock ticks away toward my inevitable future, I figure I might as well take stock of my current situation in life.
Things are good, relatively speaking. I recently finished school, with freelance opportunities here and there. I interviewed with a local portrait studio last week that looks promising as well. Because I would like a lot more flexibility in terms of what I can do, it’ll probably be part time with the studio to begin with. I’m slowly working my way toward my own studio, though it’ll probably take longer than I think it will. I need to work up the business process of it all though, because I’ve never experienced that side of the photography business. The photographer I’d be working for has been in a business for awhile now plus he has an amazing eye and the ability to capture people beautifully. With his artistic mentoring and the ability to work closely with him I look forward to learning quiet a bit and hope to apply it to my future as a good, if not, great photographer.
Another huge aspect of my life tends to be my friends. My social life has always ruled my life, but it’s actually not that bad anymore. I think part of my problem was that I was somewhat left to my own as a kid, and because of that I’ve surrounded myself with tons of friends and acquaintances but I’m really a very self-possessed person. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but one that consumed my life whether I liked it or not. It also created a weird “growing up” stage later in life where I was trying to get the attention of friends, but at the same time wanting to be aloof and quiet, thinking that it wouldn’t work that way. After a few years in and out of social circles, I now realize that I could be both quiet *and* social, at the same time. It’s a nice thing to finally understand this after all these years. Spending time with friends that appreciate who I am, instead of what I can do for them, builds relationships I value more.
I think I’ve also entered one of the more trying years of my life. I need to work smarter, and harder. Long-term goals have to be integrated into short-term ones. This year, I need to stand out, and I’ve not yet reached that precipice, but I hope to get there ultimately. I want to be deep in career mode by the end of this year.
Of course, life is a lot more complicated than this, but right now, it’s not bad. I hope my 28th year ranks with the best, so here’s to another year!