June 28th - part 4, Triple Vanilla Brown Butter Cupcakes

You know when you have an idea, and you think it's going to be fabulous....and then it's not. Well, that's these. Brown butter cupcakes with a cream cheese caramel frosting and topped with more caramel....how could that be bad? Well, not bad but not great. My daughter gave it a 2 out of 5. I was just upset that both of my cupcakes today were not fantastic.

Upside - the frosting is good. I will make it again, the caramel sauce is phenomenal, I will make it often. The cupcakes....well, I will try and tweak them to make them work out better for my tastes.

Triple Vanilla Brown Butter Cupcakes

from Field of Cakes

(adapted from "The Sweet Life" by Kate Zuckerman)

3 Vanilla Beans

2 tsp. vanilla extract
24 Tbsp. (12 ounces) unsalted butter

1 1/3 Cups vanilla sugar (you could use plain sugar I use vanilla)

2 whole eggs (room temp)

4 egg yolks (room temp)

2 1/2 Cups + 2 Tbsp. flour
3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cup whole milk (room temp)
Directions:
2-24 hours ahead of time brown the butter with the vanilla bean.

1. Run a paring knife down the center of the vanilla beans. Split them open and scrape out the seeds into a sauce pan. Add the butter and the scraped vanilla bean and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook the butter with the vanilla beans and seeds until the butter caramelizes and emits a rich nutty vanilla aroma. Remove the vanilla beans, dry, and save for another use. Refrigerate the brown butter until it solidifies, 1-2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position the rack in the center of the oven.

3.Place the chilled brown butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium high speed for 1 minute.

4. Add the sugar and beat on medium high speed. Toward the beginning of the creaming process the mixture will look dry and seem as though it will never come together. Continue creaming, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until the mixture becomes fluffy and almost beige in color, 8-12 minutes.

5. Add the whole eggs and yolks one at a time, continue to beat until they are fully incorporated and the batter looks smooth and glossy, 1-2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract.

6. In a dry bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

7. With the mixer set on slow speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter in 3 parts, alternating with the milk. Once you have added the 3rd portion, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and briefly beat the batter on medium speed until just incorporated, 20 seconds

8. Portion batter into muffin tins (only 2/3 full please) bake for about 30 minutes

These smelled so wonderful, I don't even understand why I didn't love them. They just didn't have as much taste as I was expecting, I guess.

For the caramel and frosting I tried these recipes from Chockylit. I made her salted caramel, but I let the sugar get too amber, and ended up with a more bitter caramel - so I instead I used the caramel filling from the other post - which is what I should've just used to begin with, but this recipe is good, just be careful to stop when your a light amber.

Salted Caramel
4 tablespoons water

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt, kosher or sea (I used Fleur de Sel)

1. Combine the water, sugar, and the corn syrup in a deep saucepan and cook over medium heat.

2. Stir together with a wooden spoon until the sugar is incorporated.

3. Cover the saucepan and let it cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.

4. After 3 minutes, remove the lid, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil.

5. Do not stir from this point on, but it is important to carefully shake the pan so that one area of the caramel doesn’t burn.

6. Continue to cook until the caramel turns an even amber color then remove from the heat and let stand for about 30 seconds.

7. *** This is the dangerous part *** Pour the heavy cream into the mixture. Wear oven mitts, stand away from the pan, and be careful. The mixture will bubble up significantly.

8. Stir the mixture, again being careful. Add the butter, lemon juice, and salt. Stir until combined.

9. Measure 1 cup into a Pyrex measuring cup. Stirring occasionally, allow to cool until thick like molasses and warm to the touch, about 20 minutes.

Salted Caramel Frosting
2 sticks butte8 ounces or 1 package of Philly cream chees

5 to 6 cups powdered sugar

1 cup salted caramel (I only used 1/2 cup and the rest to drizzle on top of frosting)

1. Bring butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours.

2. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.

3. Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar into the butter/cream cheese mixture and beat to combine.

4. Add 1 cup of the salted caramel and beat to combine.

5. Sift 2-3 cups of powder sugar, in 1 cup increments and beating between each, until you arrive at the thickness and sweetness you desire. I used 6 cups. The frosting wasn’t super thick, but it was starting to get pretty sweet.

June 28th - part 3, Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes

Boy, I had high hopes for these. I found the recipe in the new Martha Stewart Cupcake cookbook, 'cept I didn't want to use her chocolate cupcake recipe, and I didn't want to use her salted caramel recipe - but was super excited about her "Dark Chocolate frosting" recipe.

WELL....for the cupcakes I used Field of Cakes dark chocolate recipe (which I adapted slightly, as it is so similar to my Devils Food cupcake), I used the salted caramels that I had made previously and melted them down with more cream for the filling and then used Martha's frosting.

End result: the cupcakes with the filling were fabulous, I ate 1 1/2 before I had frosted them. But then I put the frosting on (without really trying the frosting first....shame on me) and UGH. All you could taste was that blasted frosting. Which I guess is good, but just way overpowered the whole effect I was shooting for. I drizzled some more caramel on top and put some Fleur de Sel on top, but still all you can taste was that frosting.

Moral of the story: very good cupcake, find a different frosting.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch process cocoa)
1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup cooled, strong coffee
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).In a large bowl, stir together the flour, 3/4 cup cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt.Make a well in the center and pour in the eggs, coffee, creamer and oil. Stir just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. So, what I did differently was to heat up the coffee, mix everything together minus the coffee for 2 minutes, then add the heated coffee...this is to bring out the flavor of the cocoa.

Salted Caramel Filling

from Baking Obsession

6 oz salted caramel (from previous post)

3 Tbsp cream

microwave together on med for 1 - 11/2 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes.

I'm not going to post Martha's recipe, as I will not make it again, and I don't recommend it.

Bake cupcakes, let cool. Either put filling in pastry bag and pipe into cupcake (which I attempted to do initially and it just made a huge mess) or cut a hole out of the center of each cupcake (I used an apple corer, which works wonderfully) and fill with a teaspoon of filling, the put cores back in cupcake. Frost, then drizzle with caramel and sprinkle with some more Fleur de Sel.

June 28th - part 2, Salted Caramel

I found this recipe at Baking Obsession, it is absolutely delicious. I opted to make vanilla instead of cardamom, but probably will try the cardamom in the future.

Salted Caramel Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
10 cardamom pods, bruised (I used 3 vanilla pods)
3/4 cup light corn syrup
¼ cup honey
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks, softened
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾ tsp fleur de sel

Preparation:
Line the bottom and sides of the 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and grease the foil. If you don’t use butter but oil spray, spray the foil just before pouring the cooked caramel. Otherwise, the oil will accumulate in puddles leaving some ungreased bare spots, to which the caramel will seriously stick.
In a medium saucepan, combine the cream and crushed cardamom pods (vanilla pods). Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover, let steep for 30 minutes.
Combine the corn syrup, honey, and sugar in a heavy 3-quart saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to simmer around the edges. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. (Meanwhile, rinse the spatula or spoon before using it again later.) Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once more. Attach the candy thermometer to the pan, without letting it touch the bottom of the pan, and cook, uncovered (without stirring) until the mixture reaches 305°F.
Meanwhile, reheat the cream until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Turn off the heat and cover the pan to keep the cream hot.
When the sugar mixture reaches 305F, turn off the heat and stir in the butter chunks. Gradually stir in the hot cream pouring through a fine mesh sieve and leaving the cardamom pods aside; it will bubble up and steam dramatically, so be careful. Turn the burner back on and adjust it so that the mixture boils energetically but not violently. Stir until any thickened syrup at the bottom of the pan is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, to about 245F. Then cook, stirring constantly, to 248F for soft, chewy caramels or 250F for firmer chewy caramels.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and fleur de sel. Pour the caramel into the lined and greased pan. Let set for 4 to 5 hours, or overnight, until firm.
Lift the pan liner from the pan and invert the sheet of caramel onto a sheet of parchment paper. Peel off the liner and turn the caramel right side up. Cut the caramels with an oiled knife. Wrap each caramel individually in wax paper or cellophane.

June 28th - part 1, Homemade Vanilla Extract

Homemade vanilla extract using rum and vodka with approx 3 vanilla beans per cup of alcohol. They will steep in a dark place for a few months. Can't wait to use them.

Iron Cupcake Berries #2 - Lemon Blackberry

Light and Lemony Cake
by Warren Brown

Dry:
8 1/2 ounces unbleached AP flour (approx 1 1/2 cups + 3 Tbsp) - I measured, read the book and you'll understand why.
2 Tbsp potato starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda (no, that's not a typo. that's all you use.)
Liquid:
2 lemons
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tbsp limoncello
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon oil (I did not have lemon oil, so I use 1 tsp vanilla extract)
Creaming:
1 stick unsalted, room temp, butter
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
16 ounces extra-fine granulated sugar ( approx 2 cups)
2 Tbsp turbinado sugar (look in the organic section of your store)
1 tbsp lemon zest
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk.

24 blackberries

zest the lemon, set aside. segment the lemons (basically, you cut the peel-with white- off the lemon and then cut the fruit out as you would a grapefruit, being careful not to get any seeds or membrane in with the pulp.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift flour directly into a bowl on a scale for accurate measuring. Measure the other dry ingredients into a seperate mixing bowl, add the flour and whisk for 10 seconds.
Measure liquid ingredietns into a seperate bowl, whisk to combine - don't try to break up the lemon, the mixer will do it.
In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugars and lemon zest on lowest speed for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs one a time, fully incorporating after each addition (scraping bowl when needed).
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry. this should take a total of 60 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl and all the way down, then mix on med for 15 to 20 seconds.

fill liners 2/3 full, then add a blackberry on top of each cupcake. Bake 18-22 minutes.

Blackberry-Lemon frosting:

1 pint blackberries

1/2 lemon zest and juice

3 sticks butter

4 oz cream cheese

7 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract

mix blackberries and lemon together, puree then push through a strainer. Cream butter and cream cheese together, add sugar and blend together, scrape down sides of bowl and add blackberry puree mixture and almond extract. blend together well.

As always check out Iron Cupcake at http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/
Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ .

The Ultimate Mojito Cake/Cupcake Recipe

Seriously, an explosion of taste in your mouth....you gotta try it. It's simply a revision of Warren Brown's Light and Lemony Cake, which in itself is wonderful.

Mojito Cake

(adapted from Warren Brown)

Dry:
8 1/2 ounces unbleached AP flour (approx 1 1/2 cups + 3 Tbsp) - I measured, read the book and you'll understand why.
2 Tbsp potato starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda (no, that's not a typo. that's all you use.)

Liquid:
2 limes

1/2 lemon
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp rum

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon oil (I did not have lemon oil, so I use 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Creaming:
1 stick unsalted, room temp, butter
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
16 ounces extra-fine granulated sugar ( approx 2 cups)
2 Tbsp turbinado sugar (look in the organic section of your store)
1 tbsp lime zest

2 Tbsp minced fresh mint
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk.

zest the lime, set aside. segment the lime and lemons (basically, you cut the peel-with white- off the lemon and then cut the fruit out as you would a grapefruit, being careful not to get any seeds or membrane in with the pulp.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour directly into a bowl on a scale for accurate measuring. Measure the other dry ingredients into a seperate mixing bowl, add the flour and whisk for 10 seconds.
Measure liquid ingredietns into a seperate bowl, whisk to combine - don't try to break up the lime, the mixer will do it.

In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugars and lime zest on lowest speed for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs one a time, fully incorporating after each addition (scraping bowl when needed).

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry. this should take a total of 60 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl and all the way down, then mix on med for 15 to 20 seconds.

Bake approx 18-22 minutes. I got 23 cupcakes, both times I made these.

Unfortunately, the above is the only picture I took of the cake. I made both a cake and cupcakes from this recipe, and it was awesome. I have a housewarming party coming up, I might make these into cuppies and I'll take another picture then.

As far as frosting, I used my macerated strawberry mixture, instead adding lime juice and lime zest, and a Tbsp of rum, with chopped mint to the mixture and made an american buttercream. But use your imagination. Next time I think I'll use a blackberry buttercream to make Blackberry Mojitos....mmmmmm.

Transformers Cupcakes

My son Daniel has a Transformers party at daycare today, so I made some vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with some chocolate Autobot and Decipticon symbols.

Monkey La La Recipe

Monkey La La is a drink with coconut, vodka, Kahlua and Bailey's. A coworker asked me to recreate the drink in a cupcake, and this is what I came up with....BTW, it's super good.

Cupcake:

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Special Dark)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp b powder

1 1/2 tsp b soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup Kahlua

1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

1 cup boiling water (I actually use half coffee/half water)

preheat oven to 350 degrees. This recipe makes approx 28 cupcakes.

Sift all dry ingredients into large bowl (It's a pain to sift b sugar, but it really helps break it up), add all wet except boiling water, mix with electric mixer for 2 minutes on high. Add boiling water and mix until incorporated.

Make sure when you fill you cupcake pan, that you only fill these a little less than 2/3 full, they will make a mess if you fill too full.

Monkey La La mix:

1 oz vanilla vodka

1 oz Kahlua

1 oz Bailey's

2 oz cream of coconut or reduced coconut milk

3 oz cream or half and half

Monkey La La buttercream:

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 stick salted butter, softened

pinch salt

5 cups sifted powdered sugar (or more to suit the consistency you want)

2/3 cup of monkey la la mix

Cream butter till lite and fluffy, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until well blended. you can add more powdered sugar if you want too.

with the rest of the monkey la la mix you can put it in a blender with a little ice, and have a little taste of the tropics.....

Oreos

I made an oreo cake today, and with leftover batter, some cupcakes.

The cake is filled with a whipped cream oreo mousse, and frosted with a vanilla buttercream. I ran out of buttercream, and since it was just for us left it as is....so you can see it's not the greatest frost job.

The cupcakes have half an oreo on the bottom, then topped with a vanilla cake.

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

I made two kinds, Pina Colada with coconut frosting and Monkey La La's. The bride-to-be's colors are royal blue and black, so I chose black liners with blue accents made of coconut flavored marshmallow fondant.

Inside the birthday cakes

Not to toot my own horn, but both of these cakes tasted fabulous. beep, beep.

Happy Birthday Frosty!

So, I made these cakes for my friend Frosty's birthday. The chocolate cake is a Baileys and Kahlua infused devils food, alternately filled with whipped Kahlua chocolate ganache and Bailey's buttercream. The wolf on top is an (attempted) copy of her tattoo made out of chocolate, and wolf prints on the side also made out of chocolate using the Whimsical Bakehouse's chocolate method.
I really envisioned this being better. My excuse is that I don't feel well and haven't for about 4 days.

Strawberry Mojito Cake....

I made a Strawberry Mojito cake today, one of two cakes for my friend Frosty's birthday. It is a triple layer mojito cake filled with a Strawberry Mojito buttercream, and Mojito macerated strawberries and frosted with the same buttercream on top and a Mojito Swiss Meringue on the sides. I meant to garnish the top with strawberry, lime and mint---but used all the strawberry and limes in the mix. Oh well. My excuse is that I've been under the weather for a few days.

The cake is Warren Brown's Light and Lemony cake, but I changed the lemon to lime and added mint and rum instead of the limencello. I highly recommend it.

Monkey La La

These are a coconut based cupcake with Kahlua, Baileys and Vanilla Vodka added to the batter, topped with a similar frosting - coconut, vanilla, Baileys, Kahlue and Vanilla vodka.....All in tribute to the Monkey La La.

It's a yummy cupcake, but next time I'm gonna try it in a chocolate based cupcake. Recipe to come...

Happy Birthday Jonah!

Here's the birthday boy with the cupakes I made for him.

HOLY MOJITO, BATMAN!!!!

FOR IRON CUPCAKE - BERRIES

I would like to insert swear words into this description of the best #*@! cuppies. I'm pretty proud of these, cuz I LOVE THE TASTE, don't care if anyone else does.......

They are for Iron Cupcake Earth - Berries. (Unfortunately the digital camera is not here today, so I had to take a regular picture - I'll scan it and post it after I get it developed.)

Introducing Strawberry Mojito Cupcakes with a swirled Strawberry and Mojito swiss meringue buttercream:

I used the Blackberry Mojito recipe I had posted before from Baker Girl and played with it a little, here it is:

3 cups sifted cake flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp b powder
1/2 tsp soda
1 cup (2 sticks) RT US butter
1 cup + 1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 limes, segmented
zest of 1 lime
1 oz spiced rum
1 1/2 Tbsp frest mint, minced
3 eggs
3/4 cup half and half
1/2 cup pureed strawberries (I used leftover macerated strawberries, you can see my previous post for that recipe)

Glaze
2 Tbsp spiced rum
1/2 juice of lime and zest
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp fresh minced mint

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan, I got 24 smaller cupcakes.
Mix dry ingredients together in seperate bowl. Put half and half, mint, lime, rum and strawberries in large glass measuring cup.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping bowl as needed.
Alternately add dry and wet ingredients together, beg and ending with dry (do quickly over 60 seconds), stop mixer and scrape bowl, mix a few seconds on low, then turn up mixer to med and beat for 10 seconds.
Bake 18 - 20 minutes.
Stir together glaze ingredients into small saucepan and bring to boil, stirring as needed. Take off heat and let cool.
When cupcakes are cool, poke holes into tops, then brush glaze on top. Let sit for a bit, then frost.
Mojito Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
adapted from How To Eat A Cupcake:
5 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 sticks softened, but still cool, unsalted butter cut into tbsp chunks
1/2 lime juice and zest
2 Tbsp spiced rum
1 Tbsp fresh minced mint

In double boiler over simmering water, whisk egg whites, salt and sugar. whisk constantly until mixture reaches 160 degrees.
Transfer to mixing bowl and with whisk attachment beat on high for approx 7 minutes, mixture should have stiff, but shiny stiff peaks, continue beating for another 7 minutes until mixture is cool (feel bottom of bowl, it should be cool, not warm at all).
Stop mixer and put on paddle attachment. On med speed, add butter 2 Tbsp at a time, mixing well after each addition, after all butter is in turn up mixer to med high and beat for another 2 - 3 minutes.
On low speed, add lime, rum and mint. mix until incorporated (If it curdles, turn up mixer to med and let it come back together - it might take a few minutes).

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Exactly the same as above, only instead of adding the mint, rum and lime, I added 3/4 cup macerated strawberry puree. (See my previous post for that recipe).

I put the strawberry and mojito buttercream and piped it on the cupcake, creating a swirl effect. You could add food coloring to strawberry to make it a more pronounced color difference.

As always check out Iron Cupcake at http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ .

More birthday cupcakes!

I made vanilla and chocolate 'Cars' themed cupcakes with the "Chocolate Method", as well as chocolate and vanilla with strawberry buttercream Tiara cupcakes.

Inside the dinosaur cake...

Vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream filling.....

I made two different vanilla cakes for this project. the first was Warren Brown's Yellow Butter Cake, which was a huge disappointment. There is one layer in the middle of this cake.

The other recipe is my Vanilla, and it didn't translate well into cake either...It deflated after it came out of the oven, and really pulled away from the sides, However, it was yummy. Dense, moist and flavorful....definitely pound cake like, which is what I prefer. It is the top and bottom layer.

Dinosaur Cake

I did some dinosaurs out of melted chocolate wafers, by way of Whimsical Bakehouse. I made a dinosaur cake as you can see...I made the Trex too big, and his tail broke as you can also see. I made the mountains and the rocks out of chocolate marshmallow fondant, so everything on the cake is not only edible, but yummy.

Happy Birthday Grayson...

The birthday boy with his cupcakes.
I learned a lesson with these cuppies. Fondant cannot be put into a sealed container or it will go soft.....as you can see by some of the fins in this picture.