The Cupcake Thread!

[Lottie]

Danci Andi they are amazing! I haven't made cupcakes for months but after seeing those I know what I will be doing tomorrow!

 

[Skippy123]

Those are gorgeous bravo!

 

[Dandi]

Hi LV! I tend to cream the butter, cream cheese and strawberry puree/jam together, and then add a bit of strawberry essence/extract to make it more strawberry-ey without having to add too much jam. Then I add the icing sugar to get the consistency right, so I can control how thick it is or isn't. It doesn't usually have that light buttercream consistency, it's typically thicker, but I prefer that so I stick to cc! I bet yours tasted delicious though! And yes, my goodness you have a wonderful memory! I went to one of the Magnolia bakeries in NYC. I bought a carrot cake and a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream. The carrot cake was pretty good, but OH the vanilla was amazing! I appreciate it moreso because I struggle to get a really good vanilla cuppie for some reason, it's the toughtest one to master, for me!

Hehe thanks Lottie! Do it do it do it! I can enable more things than just jewellery purchases yanno

Thankyou so much Skippy! How are those beautiful boys of yours??

 

[lliang_chi]

Dandi, wow, your cuppies look so professional! Are you just an avid hobbyist or are you thinking of doing a cupcake business? You totally should. I can see people paying big money for your gorgeous cupcakes!

 

[VRBeauty]

I just gotta say... I love this thread!

 

[Jennifer W]

Every time I start to get thin, this miserable, damnable thread pops up again...

Oh, how I love cupcakes.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

These cuppies are so dam cute--I can't stand it! Keep up the cute work, ladies!

cheers--Sharon

 

[Loves Vintage]

Hi LV! I tend to cream the butter, cream cheese and strawberry puree/jam together, and then add a bit of strawberry essence/extract to make it more strawberry-ey without having to add too much jam. Then I add the icing sugar to get the consistency right, so I can control how thick it is or isn't. It doesn't usually have that light buttercream consistency, it's typically thicker, but I prefer that so I stick to cc! I bet yours tasted delicious though! And yes, my goodness you have a wonderful memory! I went to one of the Magnolia bakeries in NYC. I bought a carrot cake and a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream. The carrot cake was pretty good, but OH the vanilla was amazing! I appreciate it moreso because I struggle to get a really good vanilla cuppie for some reason, it's the toughtest one to master, for me!

Hehe thanks Lottie! Do it do it do it! I can enable more things than just jewellery purchases yanno

Thankyou so much Skippy! How are those beautiful boys of yours??

Hee-hee. You're too kind. It was like spackle, really! I redeemed myself, however, when I baked some vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting a few weeks ago. I just double up on the vanilla extract and am happy enough with the vanilla flavor, but I know those of you with more experience tend to obsess over your vanilla. Oh, these were good cupcakes though. Very light and the frosting was light, airy and perfect. I haven't piped yet, so just a big dollop o'frosting, and they were good to go!

I've never been to Magnolia, but was at a Crumbs (not in NYC), but a satellite location, and had a not-so-good vanilla cupcake. Seemed that the batter was over mixed. Oh well, glad that you were able to make it to a Magnolia's.

Are those first cupcakes you posted (18th birthday) a cream cheese frosting? Those do look yum!

Lottie - Did you make your cupcakes? What kind?

 

[Lottie]

LV thanks for asking, I made Red Velvet following the recipe from the Hummingbird bakery and they were nice, but the amount of red food colouring used really put me off - didn't feel comfortable giving them to the kids. I had forgotten how fun cupcakes were to make so I have two macaron orders to make for friends this week and after that I am going to have a few weeks of cupcakes, starting with carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - will pop some photos on if they come out well.

 

[Dandi]

Thanks lliang! Nah it's just a hobby, I couldn't find the time to do cupcakes full time, and if I did I think I'd go looney! I do a couple of orders a fortnight at the moment which is plenty.

LV, yep, I tend to only use cc now, I just love the consistency. If anyone asks for buttercream I get a bit snarky as I constantly stuff it up!

Ooooh Lottie, pleeeeease post pics! They sound divine!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one still hooked on cuppies!

 

[Lottie]

I thought I would make the carrot cupcakes from the same book as the velvets but got completely distracted by some strawberry cheesecake cupcakes and thought I would make those instead. Disaster - I cannot see how filling a cupcase with chopped up strawberries and pouring the runniest batter I have ever made was ever going to work but never mind. Made some boring (but lovely) chocolate ganache cupcakes instead. Love how the blue cases look with the dark chocolate. Am definately going for carrot cupcakes on Friday along with some lemon macs.

 

[Dandi]

Lottie, yuuuuuuuuuum!!!!!!!!! They look absolutely wicked. And I love the contrast of the chocolate and blue, so striking!

 

[Lottie]

Thanks DA, I can feel a period of cupcaking beginning (such a quick hit!) and I completely blame you

Today - Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and brownie crumbs sprinkled on top. Piping was a pain because the kitchen was warm and I should have put it in the fridge for 15 mins before I started piping.

 

[Dandi]

Thanks DA, I can feel a period of cupcaking beginning (such a quick hit!) and I completely blame you

Today - Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and brownie crumbs sprinkled on top. Piping was a pain because the kitchen was warm and I should have put it in the fridge for 15 mins before I started piping.

I'm not just a bling enabler, yanno Your pumpkin cupcakes look absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS. I ate pumpkin cake for the first time when I went to the USA last year, and YUM!!

 

[Mara]

It's so great this thread is still going!! I don't make as many cupcakes anymore, but I did make cake shooters last month for J's 2nd bday party. It was fun and a kind of a nice departure from cupcakes. I used extra batter to make cupcakes for us and a few others to eat!

 

[Dandi]

OMG Mara, wow!!! Those are gorgeous!! I've never seen a cake shooter before, what's in them??? Well other than cake obviously

 

[Mara]

They are just like layered cake and frosting inside, or you can layer things like jam or whatever. It's basically a plastic push pop so you push the cake up to eat it. I did red velvet and vanilla cake and chocolate cream cheese frosting since the theme was sock monkey so i wanted red, cream, brown as the colors. And mini chocolate chips on top. I made one a little while ago that was banana cake, with bourbon caramel drizzled on the cake and then caramel cream cheese frosting layered in as well. I love that it keeps everything moist (moister than a real layer cake IMO) and you can get super creative with your layers, like if you did a s'mores one it could have graham cracker crust, then chocolate cake, then marshmallow topping, some chocolate chips, then rinse and repeat til you get to the top. Plus they are super easy to STORE...way easier than cupcakes! I need to get off my butt and market them to my old clients here who still email me about cupcakes, lol.

 

[Lottie]

Mara those cake shots look delicious, I don't think I have ever seen them before - a great idea for loading up with layers and fillings.

So this evening I made Chai Tea and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate orange icing. I am thrilled with how they taste but very disappointed with the piping of the icing, I think a wider nozzle held closer to the top of the cakes would give a slightly better finish - need to practise as I can't bear falling at the final hurdle!

 

[Dandi]

Oh Lottie, they look ridiculously YUM!! I am dyyyyying to try chai cuppies, were they easy to make?? Haha I'm so lazy, my decision on whether or not to try a new recipe is based on how easy it is!

Here's some white chocolate mud cupcakes I made this morning for a work morning tea. I'm currently working on some fireman cupcakes for one of the guys at work whose last day is tomorrow before he starts his firefighting training! I'm having a lot of fun with these. Shall post pics tomorrow hopefully!

 

[Lottie]

Beautiful DA, your piping is so professional - I am very envious. I love the colour of the frosting.

The chai cupcakes were really easy to make, I used the Eric Lanlard Cakeboy recipe but instead of using chai mix I heated the milk and infused it with chai tea which I think is nicer. I didn't put the chai in the icing either because I thought it was a bit too much chai-ness.

Here is the recipe if you are interested - http://www.cake-boy.co.uk/view_recipe.php?id=19

My sister is leaving her job this week and has asked me to make some goodbye cakes for her, so I am making Oreo cupcakes, chocolate and hazelnut cupcakes and some lemon macarons. Will use a wider nozzle for piping than last time and hopefully post some better looking results later.

 

[Dandi]

YES!! Thanks heaps Lottie, I can't wait to try them!! I think 5 days off work over Easter might be the perfect time

 

[Dandi]

Here are the fireman cupcakes to take to work, making the toppers was heaps of fun! DH thinks I'm a nut

 

[Lottie]

I can't decide if i like the boots or the hat best! like the icing colour though - looks v tasty.

Made the Oreo and the Hazelnut cakes along with some macs for my sister. I like the way the oreo cakes look and I definately prefer the big round piping nozzle, but the hazelnut cakes tasted the best despite the slightly wonky piping. Ah well, the macs will do for the fruit lovers.

I also bought an amazing book called Cupcakes with Lola and cannot wait to try out some new recipes from that.

 

[Dandi]

You've been one busy lady Lottie! That all looks phenomenal! I'm dying to try some of those macarons, mmmmm!!!!!!!!! YUM!!!!!!

 

[Loves Vintage]

DandiAndi - You're Amazing! Are those boots? Oh my goodness, so cute!!

Lottie - Love those cuppies and macaroons too! Yum! I'd be finding a way to sneak one of each. Hee-hee!

 

[Dandi]

Hehe yes sorry ladies I should have described them a bit better, it's tricky to see them in the pic! There are flames, fireman boots, fire helmets and fire hoses.

 

[Dandi]

Caramel crunch! Well OK they're just meant to be plain old caramel but I stuffed up the icing and got crunchy bits through it, so I ran with it

 

[mia1181]

Mmmm! Dandi those look soo good!


I have a question for you ladies:

I want to try and make Peanut Butter & Jelly cupcakes but I am looking for a good recipe. Most of the recipes I find have a peanut butter cake, a peanut butter frosting, and a dollop of jelly in the center of the cupcake. This seems a little too rich for me. I'm looking for something a bit more similar to a PBJ sandwich. I was thinking of a vanilla cupcake with peanut butter frosting , but I'm stumped as to how to incorporate jelly into the the cupcake besides just sticking some in the middle. Does anyone have any ideas or recipes that will accomplish what I am thinking of?

 

[Lottie]

Dandi they look delicious, love the new cupcake wrappers too.

My niece turned 11 this week and she requested blue and green cupcakes so I made a dark chocolate base with a blue peppermint cream core and vanilla-mint buttercream frosting. She helped with the glitter and although they are not my cup of tea she LOVED them!




Mia11981 How about using the basic recipe for a strawberry cheesecake cupcake (vanilla with strawberry pieces), then glaze the top of the cakes with jam (jelly) and put your PB frosting on top of that?

 

[rosetta]

OMG.

MARRY ME Andi!

(oh and bring cupcakes. much obliged.)