Pool Ball Cupcakes!

I've had this up as my "Next Idea" since I made the blog. I finally decided to make them for Josh's birthday (which is tomorrow). So, first I need to say...

HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY, JOSH!!

Now that I'm done with that... Here's everything I used for the (48) cupcakes:

For the Cupcakes: Two Marble Cake Mixes, Water, Eggs, Vegetable Oil, Black Cupcake Liners, Two Cans of White Icing, Four 12ct Cupcake Containers.

For the Decoration: White Chocolate Melts, Black Icing Dye (not shown), Sugar Sprinkles: Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Black, Purple, Maroon (or Brown), and Red.

 First, I mixed together the cupcake batter (yellow):

Then you pour some of it (about a cup) into a small bowl:

Next, mix in the cocoa:

I used black liners this time:

Filled them about half way full with the yellow cake batter:

 Then added some of the chocolate:

 And mixed it into one another:

Marble cake always looks neat after you bake it:

 Then, doing then in sets of 16 cupcakes, put icing on them by hand:

Next, simply dip one cupcake into each of the 8 colors to make your 8 "solids." Leave one of the cupcakes plain white as the "cue ball." Then cut strips of wax paper like these:

And place them on the sides of the other cupcakes before dipping them into the sprinkles.

After doing all of the "pool balls," place one of the white chocolate melts in the center of the "ball" with the flat side facing up:

The picture on the left shows the first 12 in the set. The picture on the right shows the last 4 of the set, along with the beginning of the next set.

After you've placed the white chocolate melt in the center, you use the black icing dye to dye a bit of the white icing. Place the black icing in the corner of a ziplock bag and cut a very small corner off in order to pipe on the numbers.

1= Solid Yellow

2= Solid Blue

3= Solid Red

4= Solid Purple

5= Solid Orange

6= Solid Green

7= Solid Maroon (or Brown)

8= Solid Black

9= Striped Yellow

10= Striped Blue

11= Striped Red

12= Striped Purple

13= Striped Orange

14= Striped Green

15= Striped Maroon (or Brown) 

Here are my finished cupcakes:

P.S. After eating them, I found that the majority of the chocolate stayed in the middle. From the outside it appeared to be a yellow cake, but bite into it and you find the chocolate!

St. Patrick's Day!

First of all,

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Of course, I decided to make St. Patrick's Day cupcakes. These are peanut-butter-chocolate cupcakes! This is the original one that I found

 

I didn't really decide to do anything different to the recipe this time, except that I didn't make my own batter like it tells you how to. Here's all the ingredients I needed:

Batter: Mix, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/4 cup water.  Filling: 3 oz cream cheese, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp milk, 1/4 cup peanut butter. Decoration: vanilla icing, wax paper (I was going to use parchment, obviously) and sugar sprinkles.

The filling was made first. It was quite easy to mix together and turned out quite yummy!

After mixing together the filling and mixing together the batter, I filled the cupcake lines about 1/3-1/2 way full of batter.

I then place a small spoonful of the peanut butter filling into the center of the cupcake.

Then, I went back through and covered the peanut butter with some more batter.

After baking them, some of them ended up cracked. As before, I assume they were just over filled. The recipe was meant for Texas size muffins and well, that's not what I did. =)


While they were cooling, I found two different pictures online that I wanted to use for decoration:

 

I printed off both pictures and then traced them on wax paper. After that I cut the images out and used the piece of wax paper that had the cut out image in it.

After they cooled, I did them one at a time.

Then I put frosting on by hand, no piping or anything:

I then placed one of the images on top (the 4 leaf clover in this one, but it's kinda hard to see):

After dipping it in the green sugar and taking off the wax paper, this is what you have:

Not too bad for the first one. They came out better as I went:

My New Book

Josh decided to buy me a new book, just because:

What I like about this book, is it's not really about decoration... It's about recipes for different cakes and frosting.

Goodbye mixes, hello homemade!

The first section of the book is "Easy Peasy Cupcakes:"

• Easy Vanilla cupcakes
• American-style cupcakes
• Orange Poppy seed cupcakes
• Lemon cupcakes
• Coconut cupcakes
• Spiced Sultana cupcakes
• Light Ginger cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream
• Coffee and Walnut cupcakes
• Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing
• Almond cupcakes with jam and buttercream

  "Chocolate Cupcakes"

• Easy Chocolate cupcakes
• Peanut Butter and Chocolate cupcakes
• Chocolate Pecan cupcakes with chocolate fudge icing
• Rich Chocolate Cakes with white chocolate ganache
• Marble Chocolate and Orange cupcakes
• Chocolate Snowballs
• Chocolate and Banana cupcakes

"Tea Tine Cupcakes"

• Light-as-a-Feather cupcakes with rose cream
• Apple and Blueberry cupcakes
• Iced Gems
• Sticky Ginger cupcakes
• Iced Cake Selection
• Pear and Blackcurrant Crumble cupcakes
• Orange Blossom Cakes
• Raspberry cupcakes
• Lemon Curd and Mascarpone cupcakes
• Lavender Cakes

"Kids Cupcakes"

• Breakfast cupcakes
• Caramellos
• Nostalgic cupcakes
• Blueberry Bliss cupcakes
• Cookies and Cream
• Marble Chocolate Chip cupcakes
• Holly Dolly Cakes

"Celebration Cupcakes"

• Devil's Food cupcakes
• Christmas cupcakes
• Halloween cupcakes
• Raspberry Ripple Valentine cupcakes 
• White Rose Wedding cupcakes
• Easter Cakes
• Disco Cakes
• Fondant Iced Cakes

"Dessert Cupcakes"

• Bitter Chocolate and Peppermint cupcakes
• Sticky Toffee and Date Muffins
• Moist Apple Cakes
• Banoffee cupcakes
• Pistachio cupcakes with Pistachio Cream
• Expresso cupcakes
• Fresh Fruit Petits Fours
• Strawberries and Cream cupcakes
• Chocolate Shots
• Lime and Vanilla Syrup Cakes

"Icing and Filling Cupcakes"

• Glacé Icing
• Vanilla Buttercream
• Raspberry Sauce
• Hot Chocolate Sauce
• Lemon Curd

Devil's Kiss Cupcakes

Another book! Once again, thanks to Sara!

The cupcakes I'm making this time is a combination of a cupcake in this book and a cupcake in the other book:

"Chocolate Cupcakes with White Truffle Frosting" and "Secret Kiss Cupcakes"

Since I am making them with devil's food cake and the kisses in the middle, I named them "Devil's Kiss Cupcakes." Here are all the ingredients I used:

 Cake: Eggs, water, vegetable oil, cake mix, and kisses.

Frosting: two jars of icing, white chocolate chips, drop flowers.

I also (finally) purchased a couple of cupcake trays to use! I got them from Karen Ann's. They were actually fairly inexpensive. $1.10 for the twelve holder, and $0.55 for the six holder:

Also bought at Karen Ann's are the drop flowers that I am going to use as decoration. They come in a bag of about 36 and cost $2.25.

I decided just to use plain white cupcake liners this time:

After mixing the cake batter, I use an ice cream scooper to help be sure I evenly distribute the batter into the 24 holders. Before, when I didn't use the ice cream scooper, I almost ALWAYS ended up with 23. Now, I use the scooper and I just fill each one about half the way full and then go back to even them out with what is left:

Before baking the cupcakes, you place a Hershey's kiss inside. However, I decided I didn't want to pay for the bag of Hershey's Kisses, or have to open each one, so I bought a bag of mini Hershey's kisses for baking:

Typically, if you use regular kisses you just place one in the middle, but since these are smaller, I decided to use two. I found that if you place the flat ends together and twist them a bit, they will stick together when you put them into the batter:

After putting them into the middle of the batter, I used a butter knife to push it down into the middle and cover them with batter:

They baked for about 15 minutes and came out pretty nicely done (in my opinion). 

For the most part, they were all pretty even. I have a new book (thanks to Josh; I will post about it next) and in it, it explains that when cupcakes crack like the two on the bottom left of the left photo, it's because:

1.) The oven was too hot.

2.) The cake mixture was too stiff; add more liquid next time or use a larger egg size.

3.) The paper cases were over-filled.

Considering only two of mine cracked, I assume those two either got too hot, or were a little too full.

I let them cool for about a half hour before I started making the icing. When doing this recipe, be sure to let them cool COMPLETELY before you try to frost them. Part of the frosting is melted chocolate, and anyone who has worked with melted chocolate before, knows just how quickly the chocolate will harden, making it nearly impossible to pipe the frosting.

To begin with, I used a bag (11 oz) of while chocolate chips. You are supposed to use 6 oz for every jar of icing. I used two jars and 11 oz. However, I had a decent amount left over, so I advise to only use one.

You place the chocolate (in a microwave safe bowl, of course!), into the microwave for 45 seconds and then in increments of 15 seconds until it is melted and creamy.

You then let it cool for about 5 minutes so you aren't mixing hot chocolate with your icing. After cooling, mix the jar(s) of icing into the melted chocolate.

Quickly out the frosting into your piping bag and frost the cupcakes!

Some did NOT turn out very pretty but most did. After piping the icing on, I let them cool for another five minutes or so before putting the drop flowers on.

I picked out twelve of the better looking ones to be given to Pam. =)

Next time, I'm going to tint the icing red to go along with the "Devil's Kiss" idea. I would've this time, but I already had bought the flowers. =)