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.

Fruit Tart Cupcakes

I was browsing recipes and came across this one the other day and I knew that I had to get to bakin. I had some issues making the custard. I actually substituted the custard for instant vanilla pudding with soy creamer. Only to find out after trial and error that the soy creamer just wasn't enough substance for the pudding to get thick. So my lovely husband went on a adventure to four different grocery stores trying to find another packet of pudding to add to the original mix.

Long story short I added the extra box to the original mix and it came out awesome! So voila I had fun making these and my husband had fun eating 3 in a row and is now lying in bed unable to breathe because he is so full of cupcakes. Mission accomplished.

I came across this cute poem while searching the deep abyss also known as the internet

I miss my cupcake

where has it gone

i wish it were here

at the wave of my wand

we've been through alot

we were together til the end

i was even there to help him

when strangers ate his freinds.

im the one who gave him life

he was created by my hands

i dressed him up in sprinkles

it was the cupcakes latest trend

where could he be hiding

i cant find him at all

but wait i see a sprinkle trail

leading down the hall

i followed it with joy

cause i thought i finaly found him

what i found was a murder

what a ghastly aweful sin

i began to look for the killer

but just couldnt find him

i turned and saw a mirror

there were crums upon my chin....

End

Examples of past work...

Bananner split cupcakes!

Pumpkin head cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

Valentines box of mini cupcakes(some of the candies do contain gelatin, I can leave them on or off it is your choice)

Chocolate mint cupcakes with ganache!

Tiramisu cupcakes with kahlua and espresso tonic and cream cheese frosting!

Snickerduderino cupcakes with honey cinnamon frosting!

I call em the "I don't give a Hoot cupcakes"

chocolate cupcakes with chocpeanuttery frosting!

Chocolate love bombs for valentines day with cream cheese frosting!

Double chocolate cupcakes with ganache and espresso buttercream frosting!

Roasted toasted coconut cupcakes with espresso buttercream frosting!

Strawberry wish I was tall cupcakes!