Baby Shower Cupcakes

My first baby face cupcake order! I was very happy with the results. When I got the order, I decided to call upon my one of my baker friends to help me with these and the baby accessories.  It was a fun day making these cute cupcakes.  It was also my first order using real fresh cream instead of buttercream. The result was a more 'fresh' and light frosting that was not as sweet than buttercream.  Very delish!  I also created the baby accessory cupcake toppers using chocolate molds. The result was a more precise and perfectly molded decorations.

Baby faces: chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream
Baby accessories: vanilla bean with pistachios and fresh cream with pistachios

Vanilla Coconut Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

Happy 2013! I have been MIA on the cupcake making front because it's been so cold I just want to hide under my blanket. But alas, my itch to make yummy cupcakes has returned and I'm back in action.  I had bought some raspberries this past weekend and thought I needed to try to make some more 'healthy' cupcake flavors.

I love anything coconut so I mixed coconut flakes into vanilla cupcake base. I then pureed fresh raspberries, filtered out the seeds then added the juice into buttercream.  If you like a more fruity cupcake, then this creamy raspberry buttercream on top of a golden vanilla cupcake is just for you.

 

"We'll Miss you" Cupcakes

My co-op's last day was last week and I wanted to give her some "we'll miss you" cupcakes. The only thing I didn't have time to make was an actual sign that said 'We'll miss you' which would give more context to the cupcake faces.

These were pretty complicated cupcakes to explain the flavors to people:
1. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle, with cookie dough buttercream
2. Vanilla bean cupcake with chocolate filling, topped with mocha cookie crumble buttercream (I 'reused' the icing name from a Starbucks drink)

The chocolate filling was a bit sparse but I did get to try out a new tool that my Secret Santa gave me and I know how to make it better for the next batch. It's too bad I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the center of each of these cupcakes.

Snowman Cupcakes!

Adding to my x-mas decorations for cupcakes is a cute little fondant snowman! My friend had asked for some Christmas themed cupcakes so I made the x-mas tree from the previous x-mas post, some flat gingerbread man toppers and a snowman topper.  I really enjoy making x-mas decorations since they are so colorful.

For this particular snowman cupcake, I had made some chocolate cupcakes using Soma coco powder and European butter. These were topped with cookies and cream buttercream.  So yummy for any Oreo lover! I blended a few Oreos in a food processor and added it to the buttercream.

Christmas Cupcakes

Its Christmas time in the city!  Houses are all lit with pretty Christmas lights, everyone is drinking hot chocolate, what better time to make some Christmas cupcakes.  My friend asked me to make some cupcakes for her with three different flavors. I decided to have some fun with it and make really cute Xmas decorations.

• Pistachio (Madagascar) vanilla bean with pistachio buttercream: fondant candy canes and gingerbread man
• Red velvet with white chocolate cream cheese: Xmas tree made out of the frosting topped with jujube star
• Pumpkin spice with maple cream cheese: Xmas sprinkles with Walkers shortbread Christmas cookies

All of these cupcakes were made with European butter. I really do find a difference using European butter vs regular butter. It makes the cupcake more creamy and velvet-y.  Which makes it more yummy!

Red Velvet and Vanilla Bean Cupcakes for Aunt and Uncle's Anniversary Party

My first cupcake tower! My cousins had asked me to make some cupcakes for their parents 35th anniversary party. So of course I was so excited to do this for them.  Red velvet was the top flavor of choice and for some variety, I also made vanilla bean cupcakes.  The red velvet was made with European butter, Soma cocoa powder and topped with white chocolate cream cheese.  I think I've also finally mastered making a cream cheese frosting, making it perfectly fluffy without it being too runny.  The vanilla bean cupcake used Madagascar vanilla beans and was topped with vanilla buttercream.

The decorations had a romantic theme to them, with lots of hearts and romantic colors to celebrate the occasion. The roses on top were made from scratch by yours truly. My first real looking roses which turned out surprisingly well. 

Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream

It's almost 1 month before x-mas and everyone is getting in the holiday spirit. That includes gingerbread everything including cookies, lattes and of course cupcakes! The holidays wouldn't be complete without it.  I made these chocolate gingerbread cupcakes with Soma Chocolatier cocoa powder and European butter, and topped it with white chocolate buttercream and a cute little shimmery gingerbread man made out of fondant. I thought it would be more artistic to not put faces on these little fellas.

Black Sesame Cupcakes and Pistachio Cupcakes 

Its a couple of my friends birthdays this week so I wanted to surprise them with some cute cupcakes. Plus it gave me an excuse to make some more figurines with fondant.  One of my friends loves pistachio so I made half batch of pistachio and the other half black sesame for a more asian flavor. Black sesame is big in Asian desserts and has a nutty flavor to it. My favorite is black sesame rice balls in sweet soup and black sesame ice cream.

I roasted the black sesame to bring out the flavor and made a vanilla bean base with black sesame mixed into it, with black sesame buttercream.  Then I crushed up pistachio and made a vanilla bean base, with pistachio mixed into it, with pistachio buttercream. This time I added a very small bit of green food coloring to give it some more color. Both flavors used European butter.

For the figurines, I made a different cupcake topper for each friend... race car driver, roses and makeup. It was a lot of fun making these, its just like playdough!

Pistachio Vanilla Bean Purse Cupcakes

My close friend's birthday is coming up and she really likes pistachio and designer purses so I decided to make her some pistachio cupcakes with super cute fondant purses as the topper.  The purses were made from scratch and I'm super excited they turned out so well! The cupcake was a vanilla bean base with grounded up pistachios, topped with pistachio buttercream. Next time I might add some green food coloring to make the buttercream 'pop' a bit more.

It was the first time I've baked cupcakes using Madagascar vanilla beans and it really made the cupcake a lot more flavorful. I'll definitely be using that spice from now on for my vanilla cupcakes.

Mocha Chocolate Project Deployment Cupcakes

My company was having a major overnight deployment this weekend so I thought I'd bring in some mocha chocolate cupcakes to help keep the team awake.  Our project themes use the Dharma stations from the tv show 'Lost' so there was an Arrow project (left) and a Looking Glass project (right). There is a very popular and high end chocolatier store in Toronto called Soma. The mocha chocolate buttercream used Soma's cocoa powder to give it an even more yummier chocolate flavor.