Apple Cider Cupcakes!

Halloween is approaching folks and what better way to celebrate it then by ordering some Apple Cider Cupcakes!

Made with real apple cider, apple butter, cinnamon, all-spice and cloves these refuse to be ignored. Topped with a caramel and cinnamon buttercream frosting and drizzled with creamy caramel and a candied apple slice.

I don't think my home has ever smelt so good!

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

I started with a moist chocolate cake substituting 1/2 of the soy milk with Kahlua coffee flavored liqueur. While waiting for the cupcakes to cool I made some caramel. Caramel was fun, it was a waiting game mostly with the candy thermometer. So as I was waiting for the caramel to get to it's specific needed temperature I watched "Who's That Girl" a classic 80's film starring

Madonna- LOVE HER!!! So good times while making the caramel! Then it came time to start whippin up the frosting. I chose to do a dark chocolate frosting. It's a deep, dark satiny frosting and it has a wonderful sheen to it. So after putting the whole hot-mess together with the caramel center hiding under the piped peak of satiny chocolate frosting, I topped it off with some sea-salt. The salt draws out the caramel's (vegan) buttery taste and highlights the sweetness.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream and garnished with walnut's and dried cranberry's! Hoooo wants one says the owl.

Chai Cupcakesalaganza!!!!

So fall is here and I love it! And what better to accompany you on a chill day than a deliciously smooth Chai Cupcake. Chai is a black tea that is brewed strong with a combination of spices and is mixed with milk and sugar. The spices vary from recipe to recipe, but for my recipe I used cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom and a pinch of pepper.

I loved making my very own chai for this recipe to include in the cake batter and frosting. For the cake itself I opted for brown sugar and maple syrup as sweetener instead of organic sugar. The sweetness is needed to bring out the full flavors of the spices. Topped with a mini cinnamon stick who could possibly say no.

Starbucks Bake-Off

So I personally am not one to promote Starbucks Coffee. I would much rather support my local cafe's that are not big nasty corporations eating your soul. But due to my husband being an employee at Starbucks I due frequent there on occasion. Any-who the point is that Starbucks today is offering a bake-off, and free swag to the winner plus recognition as an awesome bakerista.

The baking rules consisted of incorporating Starbucks VIA Ready Brew Instant Coffee into your recipe. Of course cupcakes is how I roll so I came up with these stunning beauties, up for grabs for the contest are Double Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes brushed w/ Kahlua liquor, topped with rich Ganache and Chocolate VIA Buttercream Frosting. POW!!! So let the games begin HAyyyy-OOOOhhh!!! Sadly I am left waiting in anticipation for the announcement of the winner till this afternoon. So I'll keep you posted.

-Winner Update

I received 2nd place ; )

Neapolitan Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

The perfect cupcake for a perfect summer. Vanilla and chocolate cake with strawberry frosting, topped with a gorgeous cherry. Seriously who could resist?

Banana's Foster Cupcakes

Since I have only eaten banana's foster on top of vanilla ice cream, I thought why not use it with cupcakes. Bananas Foster is a dessert made from bananas and vanilla ice cream, with the sauce made from butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and dark rum. I of course used margarine in place of butter to keep it vegan and added vanilla bean.The butter, sugar and bananas are cooked, and then the alcohol is added and ignited. The bananas and sauce are then served over the ice cream and in this case cupcakes!

I love starting fires, I'm very good at it. And not in a pyromaniac kind of way just in cooking and fireplaces that sort of thing. Since I've grown up in larger cities the majority of my life. I pride myself on my talent of fire making in the big bad mountains. So due to the fact that bananas foster requires the art of fire and liquor I was extremely excited about it!End of fire rant...

To prepare these I made the bananas foster in advance allowing it to cool before folding it into golden vanilla batter. I used my wilton jumbo sized cupcake pan and got to baking these scrumptious little morsels. While these were in my tempermental beast of an oven grrrr, I made a brown sugar frosting to top off the cupcakes.

They were everything I had hoped them to be, and they would have been even better served with a small portion of vanilla bean ice cream. But that will just have to wait till the next time around.

Blueberry Compote and Lemon Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

It's summer time ya'll well almost. I'd like for it to be summer already. So in celebration of this fine sunny day outside of my tiny apartment, I made these cupcakes to refresh myself with the hope of summer. The moist cake features fresh vanilla bean and a light lemon flavoring. The blueberry compote is heavenly, just the right texture and sweetness topped with a lemon buttercream frosting! I used my wilton jumbo cupcake pan for these which worked excellently, which was a plus due to me not having much luck with wilton baking pans. You will want to eat these with a dish and fork, as they demand elegance. Now I am off to enjoy my hard-work while I listen to David Bowie and dream of more sunny days such as today.

Need a Mint?

Mint and chocolate are just two things that when combined make something great. I began with a moist chocolate (cup)cake, and for the frosting a mint buttercream with chopped swiss dark chocolate infused with mint flavoring inside of the frosting. Then a nice ganache swirl. I also used chunks of the dark chocolate to top the cupcake along with a fresh mint leaf and peppermint.

German Chocolate-Oh My & a feature of Sweet Elites on Cupcakes Take the Cake!!!

So let me first start off this blog with a huge thank-you to cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com for featuring Sweet Elites on their site, much respect for those gal's! I am extremely flattered and surprised. So to all my fellow cupcake fanatic's please check them out and give them some lovin.

I had an order placed a few day's ago for some German Chocolate Cupcakes with Heath bar toppings (heath bar's are not vegan but were asked for on request). So I got to bakin and shakin myself today to make the order. I L-O-V-E-D these cupcakes. So much so that I had a hard time letting them go. I started off with a moist chocolate cake brushed with kahlua liquor, followed by a layer of rich ganache, topped with ooey gooey German chocolate frosting *nom*nom*nom* and broken heath bar chocolate bar pieces and finally some ganache drizzles.The frosting was definitely a party in my mouth to say the least.

Thank-you again to Cupcakes Take The Cake and for my awesome supporters!

-Valerie

The Pink Flamingo

Lets just say I was in a "pink" mood!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy be-lated easter everyone! I of course had to make these to celebrate yesterday. What's an Easter without carrot cake right! These were packed full of chopped walnuts and fresh grated carrots, topped with a rich cream cheese frosting.

Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes with Green Tea Glaze

Ok I am head over heel's in love with these cupcakes. The matcha green tea powder mixed in with almond flavoring is so so so GOOD! The green tea glaze went perfectly together with the cupcake. Definitely a new favorite!

Haleznut Cupcakes w/ Mocha Hazenut Mousse Filling

I was really impressed with these lil lovelies. The mousse was so rich and delectable with a bit of Kahlua and espresso inside. The cake itself was extremely good as well, and I would consider it even mildly healthy due to it containing ground flax seeds and brown sugar. Inside the cake was also cinnamon and a wee bit of Kahlua liquor. Very yummy! When the cupcakes were finished baking I lightly brushed them with some more Kahlua and patiently waited for the ganache to cool down. I stuffed them as full as possible with mousse and topped them with the ganache and sprinkled carmel brulee to finish them off.

I made sure the husband and I ate a few, and then gave the rest to Zoombie and the rest of the crew over at "DEATH OR GLORY TATTOO". Zoombie had a few hours prior finished a piece on my arm so I thought I'd give em some sweets. Gotta take care of your tattoo artist!

Now I get to finish off the remainder of the mousse mmmmmmm!

Double Chocolate Chip with Pomegranate AND Chocolate frosting, topped with Ganache spackle!

So last night I had the hugest craving for something oozing with chocolate and thought pomegranate would be a good combination with the chocolate. I love fruit and chocolate together- sooo good! I also LOVE pomegranate so VOILA. These hot little babies would definitely be the cure for any chocolate cravings one may have. I added chunks of semi-sweet chocolate into these little morsels before putting them into the oven and also some pomegranate flavoring to the mix as well. Originally I was wanting an all pomegranate frosting but I decided to add chocolate to it and make it even more delish! To top it all off I made some ganache and drizzeled it on top of the mound of heavenliness. I will definitely be making these again and they made my home smell like warm hearted brownies. Loved it!

"The Big Lebowski" in a cupcake

So one of my favorite films is definitely "The Big Lebowski" John Goodman's character in that movie is my all time favorite of his work, at least in my opinion. If you've seen the movie then your well aware of The Dude drinking white russians all throughout the movie. I wanted to capture "His Dudeness" in a cupcake hence the white russian cupcake. It has a coconut buttercream frosting to match with the kahlua inside the cake. The cake has both kahlua, vodka and cream (coconut cream that is) inside of it. I attempted to try and layer the cake the bottom half with kahlua the top with cream/vodka but it didn't get the defined line I was hoping for. But you still see in the pictures that there is a difference in the colors of the cake. So I give honor to you Dude with a cupcake!

Superfragilisticexpialidocious cupcakes!

I've been meaning to use my wilton giant cupcake pan for ages now and so I finally broke it out again today. Which by the way I will be throwing it in the trash tomorrow morning. Every time I have used that pan it has given me nothing but problems. It refuses to cook evenly. So "poof" it is gone! I'm going to look into other brands of large cupcake pans instead. You would think that wilton being such a huge presence on the cake community would test out it's products before hand. Oh well.

Any-hoo I was inspired through flickr early this morning to also use rolled fondant. It's so much fun,but also A LOT of work! The end results look amazing though so it's worth it. I also really liked the frosting on the Big Momma Cupcake. I made a carmel buttercream for it. I'm extremely happy with how these cupcakes turned out. Seriously are they not just too adorably cute! I love the pastel colors and the child like look of the fondant. Well enjoy, now to clean up the mess-joy.