Baby Shower Giraffe Cupcakes!

By: Christine

My co-worker asked me if I could made cupcakes for a baby shower that her sister was going to be attending. The baby shower party supplies were jungle themed and I needed to make matching cupcakes. The main color of the party supplies was a bright blue with a slight teal tint. Giraffes were the main animal used in the party supplies also.

 I started out by making one dozen cupcakes, using my favorite chocolate cake recipe.

Using a 1M swirl tip, I piped on the blue/teal frosting.

I made the small giraffes with milk chocolate candy wafers a candy mold that had mini giraffe shapes. I placed these mini chocolate giraffes on top of the cupcake!

These adorable cupcakes matched the jungle themed baby shower perfectly!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes!

By: Christine

After receiving this recipe for cookie dough cupcakes in my email inbox, I knew I had to make them! I used my favorite recipes for the chocolate cupcakes and for the cookie dough.

I decided to make these mini cupcakes instead of the standard size. After scooping in a small amount of cake batter into the mini muffin tin, I added a small scoop of cookie dough, then I covered the dough with more cake batter. On a separate baking pan, I dropped small spoonfuls of the cookie dough and baked little cookies.

I baked these cupcakes and cookies for 10 minutes and allowed them to cool. While they were cooling, I prepared the frosting using the recipe from the original email that I received. After the cupcakes cooled, I piped on the frosting using a 1M swirl tip.

I added mini chocolate chips to the top of the cupcakes and then stuck the mini chocolate chip cookies on top. These cupcakes were complete!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We both decided to make some delicious treats to celebrate Valentine's Day. Jill made nutella filled hearts & Christine made mini red velvet cheesecake bites!

Jill: Nutella Filled Hearts

The crust for the hearts is made with a tasty pâte brisée crust. A pâte brisée crust is made using flour, butter, and ice water with a small amount of vinegar mixed into it. This crust is characterized by all the ingredients being mixed together at a cold temperature. This ensures a wonderful flaky texture and taste.

After I rolled out the crust, I cut out heart-shaped pieces.

I put a small scoop of Nutella on half of the hearts.

Then, I put a small amount of egg-wash around the edging and placed another heart cut-out on top. I used a fork to close the hearts.

I also put an egg-wash on top of all the hearts and sprinkled them with sugar.

The sugar on top of the hearts gives them this wonderful brown color after they are baked.

They were so delicious!

I will definitely make these again for another occasion and try other cookie cutter shapes.

Christine: Mini Red Velvet Cheesecake Bites

After seeing this recipe, I knew that I had to make these mini cheesecakes for Valentine's Day. I started out making the crust using crushed Oreo cookies and butter. Then, I made the cheesecake batter and added the cocoa powder and red food coloring to get the red velvet look and taste!

After baking the cheesecakes, I let them cool for a few hours in the refrigerator.

After they were completely cooled, I took the cheesecakes out of the mini muffin pan and added some whipped cream to the top! I also sprinkled on pink sugar to complete these mini cheesecake bites.

These mini red velvet cheesecake bites were a perfect size and they were a delicious Valentine's Day treat!

Ian's Birthday-Cake and Mini Cupcakes!

We were asked to make a birthday cake and one dozen mini cupcakes for a child's 2nd birthday. The only two requests for this cake/cupcake order were the flavors; red velvet cake and vanilla cupcakes. We knew that, since this cake was going to be for a child, that we needed to make this a fun cake.

We started out frosting the mini cupcakes with white buttercream. We used bright multicolored round sprinkles to add to the tops of the cupcakes.

After baking the red velvet cake and allowing it to cool, we frosted the cake with white cream cheese frosting, which is the traditional frosting for a red velvet cake. We tinted the remaining cream cheese frosting red, blue and orange. We used the red and blue as the border color and piped on stars along the top and the bottom of the cake.

We used the blue cream cheese frosting to pipe on the words "Happy Birthday Ian"

We added orange stars and bright multicolored round sprinkles to the sides of the cake.

On the top of the cake, we added two balloons and a large "2nd" to represent the celebration of this child's second birthday.

This was a fun cake to make, we were able to experiment with using cream cheese frosting to not only frost the cake but also to add decorative details to the cake.