My first order

These are for a coworkers son's birthday. He said he liked sharks, so this is what I ended up with. I think they're cute.

Iron Cupcake Milwaukee - Spice.

We had a great time in Milwaukee, and a blast at the Iron Cupcake, spice, tasting. I was interviewed by the local paper, and got my picture with Sandy, our cupcake queen. I will post more pictures, and recipes later.

Iron Cupcake Milwaukee - Spice

I'm off to Milwaukee in an hour or so, gonna stop by the Iron Cupcake Milwaukee challenge. I got up at 2:30 this morning and baked Coconut spice cupcakes with a spiced rum cream cheese frosting and Spiced Pineapple cupcakes with a coconut spice buttercream.

I am extremely disappointed in how things turned out. I made the buttercreams last night, and rewhipped them this morning with exceedingly bad results. It got flat, seperated a bit, and I couldn't beat out the graininess. It wouldn't even hold up the cookie topper I had planned to put on it. On top of that, my coconut cupcakes exploded in the oven....And God only knows how these things are gonna hold up on a 6 hour road trip.

Nevertheless, I am going...with the cupcakes, and intend to have fun. I just feel bad that the Cupcake queen will only know my cupcakes by these......

Oh, BTW, the cupcake carrier was a gift from my friend Frostie. Nice, huh?

Vanilla cupcakes.

6/8/09 update: I have made this recipe several times now, and it has turned out really good. I've made some adjustments, that I will print in red.

If you've been reading my blog, you know I've been having issues with vanilla cupcakes. I have a recipe for vanilla that goes really well with a flavored Swiss or Italian Meringue buttercream, but not one that pairs well with a regular ol' American Vanilla Buttercream (Of which, I have a kick-ass recipe)........Well, not anymore......This is a great recipe, especially for kids. Sweet, dense, tastes a little like cake mix....

Sandi Oh's Vanilla cupcakes

2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

scant 1 tsp sea salt

2 cups super fine sugar (heaping 1 1/2 cup)

1 small package vanilla/white chocolate instant pudding

1 stick room temp, unsalted butter, cut into Tbsp chunks

4 oz softened cream cheese, cut into Tbsp chunks also

1/4 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp Amaretto

4 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 cup half and half

Make sure all ingredients are at room temp.

Preheat oven to 350 (340 degrees if you can) degrees. Line cupcake pan. I got 24 + cupcakes out of this recipe.

combine oil, vanilla , amaretto and half and half in small bowl or glass measuring cup. (I actually kept my half and half in another bowl, but technically you can put them all together.)

In mixer bowl put all dry ingredients, including sugar and whisk well. Add butter, cream cheese and liquid ingredients and mix on medium for 2 minutes. Scrape bowl as needed.

Next add eggs one at a time and mix for another 2 minutes on medium.

fill liners 2/3 full and bake approx 20 - 24 minutes. (Always check your cupcakes at 18 minutes, cuz you never know....you don't want to overbake these).

or, you can use the creaming method, which works better....cream butter and cream cheese with sugar, til lite and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing and scraping well after each addition. Stir in oil, vanilla and amaretto until incorporated. Now add flour (with the other dry ingredients) and half and half alternately on low speed, being careful not to overmix. After everything is in, turn mixer up and mix on med for 10 seconds.

It's a busy recipe, I know. But it's worth it. Very tasty, and moist even the next day.

My first fondant figure.

Not perfect, I am well aware....but, still cute. They are for some birthday cupcakes I'm making later this week. This shark will be holding a sign that says happy birthday, and the other cupcakes will have the shark fins coming out of the lighter blue frosting. Should be cute.

The garden's coming along....

I have been spending some time in my hummingbird garden, even made a new smaller one. It's only one year old, so it's not as lush as it will get. But it's already attracting the hummingbirds. One dive bombed me yesterday while I was weeding!

Strawberry Italian Meringue Buttercream on some pretty damn good Vanilla cuppies...

I tried 3 different recipes today to try, once again, to find Nirvana Vanilla. But(sigh), it still eludes me....However, I am getting closer, and this recipe is pretty damn good...although, I'm still gonna tweak it some more. We'll see how moist these cuppies are tomorrow to see how much I tweak it.

On top of these cuppies is an Italian Meringue Buttercream made with strawberries and lemon. I tried THREE times today to make Swiss Meringue, and each time it was an utter disaster. My problem always occurs at the end when I add the strawberry. It turns into a curdled mess (I continued to beat it for a long time, and it never came together). So, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I was bound and determined to get this right, because I have fallen in love with meringue buttercream. The taste is so much clearer, brighter, and doesn't leave that nasty tang of too much sugar on my tounge afterwards. (sorry, I digressed)...anyway, I tried Warren Brown's recipe, and it turned out fantastic. I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU, SWISS MERINGUE....I WILL CONQUER YOU....but for now, the italian meringue was super yummy.

note: I took this recipe off. the next day, they were still moist, but way too dense.