A little piece of heaven

I have officially given up on trying to make perfectly decorated cupcakes. After last year's attempt to make flowers with fondant, I have realized my efforts are better spent on the taste, not the design. At least, this is my plan for now. We'll see if the decorating bug strikes again.

For Valentine's Day I made delicious cupcakes with a lovely frosting, which my children enjoyed...and enjoyed again, and enjoyed some more. You see, I made them for my family and for some friends. However, between a family birthday and leaving my keys in my husband's car leaving me with no way to drive my van, the cupcakes began to loose their peak of freshness. My family happily ate them up for me! And I was not sad to make some new ones.

Thus, my discovery of the best cupcakes I have ever made. The recipe is from the Cake Mix Doctor's Cupcake book:

website: www.cakemixdoctor.com

These little pieces of heaven are called Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups. The cake batter is lightly peanut butter flavored and moist:


Once in the pan you set a Hershey's Kiss lightly on top of each cupcake:



Which gently descend into the dough while baking, producing a perfectly rounded cake:


Miniature peanut butter cups, divided into smaller pieces make the perfect topping:


To a Delicious chocolate buttercream, sprinkled lightly with bright dots:


And delivered in cute little boxes:

These cupcakes were moist, tender, perfect little replicas of a peanut butter cup - inside out!

Spring Fun

A new love of mine - the cupcake! They are little bits of joy and deliciousness that can be creative, sweet and fun at the same time. I have a recipe book (another love) from the "Cake Mix Doctor" all about cupcakes. Then I found a new cupcake book at the book fair which fueled my fire.

A little more fuel is the Food Network Challenge show, Katie and I love to watch the challenges with cakes. Actually, if we have it on the boys will come watch with us. It is amazing to see them put together masterpieces, works of art out of cake and fondant, sugar and sculpting.

So I got some fondant, a design idea from Wilton.com and spent some time this week creating. It was a lot of fun, and some of the kids joined in with me.

Kneading in the color and flavor:


Rolling it out:


Cutting the pieces:


Variety of colors:


Peter's creation:


The final result:


They were nummy strawberry cake. I tried two different frostings, the first (a marshmallow kind) was too soft. The second, and final, was a lemony buttercream that was perfect! Certainly not Challenge worthy, but it was a festive Spring project that gave us a chance to do something fun together and enjoy the end result.

Happy First Day of Spring!