Hockey Cupcakes

I found these in my drafts too.  I made these for Max's high school hockey team.

Print out a copy of the school logo

Put waxed paper over the logo

Melt some chocolate melts in your team color, pour melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle that you get at Michael's (think ketchup bottle at a restaurant) and squirt chocolate to cover the logo.  Chill, peel gently and stick onto cupcake before serving.  Don't put these in until you're ready to serve or they can melt and break.

How I got the striped look with icing?  Take a throw away piping bag that has a star tip on the end.  Take a wooden skewer and run food coloring up the side of the bag in a line.  Three lines around the bag.  Fill with frosting.

Start squeezing frosting on cupcake in a clockwise pattern finishing in the center.  Top with chocolate logo.  Impress your friends:)

Baby Carriage Cupcakes

One of my favorite people came over to help me make some cupcakes.  Baby shower cupcakes to be exact.  These are putsy and a bit time consuming.  I would only do these for someone I love because putsy is NOT my thing but having this cute face helping made it all a little better:)

What you'll need:
Cake mix made according to package directions (use milk instead of water)
Mini Vanilla Wafers
Frosting in a couple of colors
Assorted sprinkles or baby M&Ms if you want to make them more fun

Bake, cool, frost with your favorite frosting.  I forgive you if you want to use canned:)  Frost half white and half with pink or blue.  Put your mini vanilla wafers on now so they stick.  Use a third color, we picked yellow to pipe on the wheel spokes and carriage portion over the white.  If you look at the photo it will all make sense.

We opted to use mini chocolate chips for the eyes because honestly, I was too lazy to use another frosting bag.

Putting the liners in.

Mixing it up.

 TA DA!

Sweet Sixteen

Savanah had her Sweet Sixteen back in July.  She did something pretty cool.  She asked to have her party at Feed My Starving Children.  It's an organization that depends on volunteers to package meals to send to "starving" children all over the country.  So that's what we did.  25 of us (the youngest was 5 and the oldest was 82) put on hairnets and packaged meals for an hour and a half.  I can't remember how many boxes we did but let's just say, we were ROCK STARS!

 Getting directions

 At the food packaging station.

 All done and waiting to hear the total for our hard work.

Then we headed back to Chantel's to celebrate how fabulous she was.  Chantel did this awesome treat station in Savanah's favorite colors.  Yes, all the candy was blue, pink or purple!!  We each got to make our own goodie bag of treats to bring home.  Between you and I, I think this should be at EVERY party.  Heck, it should be at anything you go to;)

The problem was she didn't want a cake.  She wanted cookies and brownies which I made but you can't have a Sweet 16 without a cake?!?  What the heck was that child thinking?!?  I told her she was getting a cake and she agreed on one condition, NO stars.  All the Sweet 16 cakes I could find had stars of some sort on them.  I thought they were super cute.  She didn't share my opinion;)  So, I came up with this.  The 16 and her name is made out of white chocolate.  Those little purple balls?  Those are over-sized Sixlets.  Brilliant!  They're my new favorite thing.  Inside the large cupcake were pink and purple M&Ms.

Here's the beautiful birthday girl!

Banana Cupcakes

Do you have some ripe bananas on your counter you don't know what to do with?  Here's what you're gonna do:)

Make a white cake mix according to directions EXCEPT instead of adding oil, add 3 mashed bananas AND use milk instead of water.  These cupcakes are a little more dense than your regular cupcake and they kind of deflate a little as they cool but don't worry, they're yummy.

Bake according to package directions.  Cool, frost with cream cheese frosting and pop a banana chip on top to make them pretty and to let your guests know what flavor to expect.

Easter Cupcakes

We had a few desserts for Easter.  Claire was in charge of cupcakes.  She did another awesome job:)

Tiger Cupcakes

I have to admit.  I think Claire is a chip of the ole block;)  BUT she's much more creative than I am.  She made these cute tiger cupcakes to kick off spirit week at her school.  She made the cake orange, white and black and used orange chocolate melts from Michael's cut in half for the ears.  FUN!

 

Hockey Cupcakes times two

Alanna's son plays association hockey so I made these tie-dye Orange, Purple and White cake topped with purple frosting and orange sticks.  To make tie dye, check it out here.  The boys LOVED them.  Much more fun to work with three colors AND bake them for boys who still thinks stuff like this is FUN.

To make the sticks, check it out here. 

Hockey Cupcakes

How can hockey be done?!  I seriously feel a tad cheated this year.  With cold/snow cancellations and it being a high school sanctioned sport, we only had 20 games!!  Twenty, as in TWO ZERO!  Stop the madness, last year we had 51!  I'm one of those weird hockey Mom's who actually like the game and watching the kids play. 

 

So this season left me feeling a little empty even though Max finished as the 3rd leading scorer on the team.  That was a pretty big thing because he is a defensive player. 

 

He played all his shifts as a Varsity player, another big thing because he's only a sophomore. 

 

He broke 3 sticks, big thing for his parents because the cost of those kind of suck:(  The day after he broke the first stick, a friend of his came up and said, "hey, I sat by your Mom last night at the game.  Max wrinkled his face and said, "okkkkk.  "Yeah, I knew it was her because when your stick broke she swore."  Probably not the nicest thing to be known for, but at least I keep it real and I didn't say the naughtiest of words;)

 

But today's post isn't really about hockey.  It's about the cupcakes that were served at one of the team dinners.  I got a little funky with it and colored half the batter green since their colors are green and white.

 

I bought some green melts from Michael's and made hockey sticks on waxed paper.  My little tutorial is found here on how to do that.

 

I piped the number of every player on the cupcakes and stood the sticks up in the middle.  My favorite #3 is Gluten-free so he got special brownies:)

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Claire had a party in one of her classes and wanted to give Cookie Monster Cupcakes a try.  She colored regular white cake mix blue.  Made some matching blue buttercream.  Used a star tip, white chocolate chips, bite size oreos and a little bit of canned chocolate frosting and TA DA!  I am SO proud of her!!

Cream filled Cupcakes

I'm making these tonight for something kinda special tomorrow.  Stop back to find out why.

So..you'll need
Devil's Food Cake Mix prepared according to directions
1 brick of Cream Cheese~softened
1 C Sugar
1 Beaten Egg
Pinch of salt
1/2 bag mini Chocolate Chips

Mix cake mix in bowl.

Mix beaten egg, cream cheese, sugar and salt in another bowl. When mixed, add chocolate chips. To make cupcakes, pour batter half full into cupcake liners. Drop a spoonful of cream cheese mixture into center and bake according to cupcake directions on box. Makes about 28 cupcakes. Frost with your favorite chocolate
canned frosting. YES, you know my secret..I use canned frosting on these babies;)

Ready for oven
Ready for frosting



Frost with favorite canned frosting or yummy chocolate buttercream and eat!!

Cupcakes

My niece's came over to hang out for the day.  We went to a movie, came home so they could play tag, do manicures, play hide and seek and make cupcakes.  It was a fun day having them in the house.

They got a little funky with the batter and did three colors and made the top look like a flower.  I've made these before, as has Claire but we don't typically do every single cupcake because it takes time.  They took the time and were quite happy with the result.  I think they did an awesome job!

Over The Rainbow Cupcakes

Claire's dance group had a bake sale to raise money for her trip to the Outback Bowl.  She was so excited when she saw something similar to these on the internet.

We went to the store and found Airhead Extremes.  2 packages was plenty with a few extra pieces to eat:)

Next up, a white cake mix made with milk instead of water, a couple teaspoons of vanilla and blue food coloring for the "cloud" cake.

Frost with blue buttercream.  Put white buttercream in a piping bag.  We used a large circle writing tip to make the clouds on either side of the cupcake.  Shape airhead into rainbow and TA DA!  Instant sell out!!  Claire's cupcakes were the first to sell out and people were asking for more! 

NICE JOB GIRLIE!!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Ok, so I know I've said that I don't think Claire takes after me but maybe she does just a little bit.  She volunteered to make cupcakes for her Spanish class but she wanted them to be "fun".  She made a regular white cake mix according to the directions except using milk instead of water.  Split the batter between two bowls, one having slightly more.  She colored the "more" batch orange and the other one yellow.

Spoon about a tablespoon of yellow into bottom of cupcake liner, put 2 more tablespoons of orange.  Bake, cool and frost with white icing.  Top with a candy corn.

  It's hard to see in this photo but the bottom of the cake really is yellow and the top orange.

 Share with your friends!!

Frankenstein Cupcakes

I think I'll make these for dessert on Halloween. 

What you'll need:

Cake Mix made according to directions for cupcakes
24 Large Marshmallows
1 Bag of Green Chocolate Melts from Michael's
48 Green Tic Tacs
Can of Chocolate Frosting

Melt your chocolate melts in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir, stir and stir some more. Typically it will look like it's going to be lumpy but if you keep stirring the melts will in fact melt. If they are still chunky, try another 15 seconds. The thing with chocolate melts is you don't want to over cook, or it will dry up and you won't be able to dip. The "safest" way to melt the chocolate melts in a double boiler. I am not a fan of that process because it takes a LOT longer. But if you want to be "safe", try that route.

So, you've got your chocolate melted. I used a wooden skewer and poked the marshmallow and then dipped it like fondue and tap, tap, tap the stick against the side of the pan to get the extra choocolate off. Then gently pushed the marshmallow off onto wax paper, push from the top because you'll be covering that up with frosting. Sorry about not having photos of that process but my trusty assistant wasn't feeling well. Immediately push a tic tac into each side of the head and allow to cool. If you want to use a spoon, you can do that instead. Decorate the face of Frank.

When the heads are dry, frost your cupcakes. Push a Frank head into each cupcake and pipe some hair on. I used a leaf tip, but you can use any tip you want.

In hind sight, I would put them so they are standing up to dry so Frank doesn't get a flat back of his head.
Make the scary face!

Pipe on the hair...All done and ready for fun!

Mixed Berry Cupcakes

Remember the bake sale from a few weeks ago?  Well this was cupcake number 2 that I made.  A simple white box cake mix made according to directions except use milk instead of water and add 2 t of Vanilla.  Fold in (that means gently stir in) 1/2 C Blueberries, Raspberries and Blackberries.

Scoop into cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 14-17 minutes, when you touch the top of the cake, it should pop right back up.

Remove from oven, cool, frost with cream cheese frosting and top with a berry so your customers know what they're buying.

Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting and top with a berry

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 brick Cream Cheese~softened, yep low fat
1 stick butter~softened
2 t Vanilla
4 C Powdered Sugar

Mix together, put in a frosting bag with a star tip and decorate OR simply frost the cupcakes with a knife.

Makes 30 cupcakes.

Black and White Cupcakes

I had never heard of the "Black and White Cookie" until I saw a Seinfeld episode years ago.  Didn't quite get what the fuss was about because the cookie was a sugar cookie with half chocolate and half white frosting?  And?  Since I'm a fairly literal person, I also didn't get why it's called Black and White when it's technically Brown and White?  So yeah, it kinda bugged me.

At any rate it also stuck with me when it came time to make some cupcakes for a bake sale.  I always want to make something that isn't too crazy but that people wouldn't make at home so they'll buy.  I typically go BRIGHT for bake sales because they sell the best in my experience when kids are present.  But this was going to be a more mature crowd so this was time to break out the Black and White Cupcakes.  An added bonus people can see what they are getting.  And, did I mention they are EASY?

What you'll need:

One Devil's Food cake mix made according to directions using milk instead of water

One White cake mix made according to directions using milk instead of water

Fill cupcake liner with half of each cake mix, 3/4 full.  Bake according to box directions.

Cool.

Frost with

Chocolate Buttercream

Vanilla Buttercream

Half of each batter.  Ready for the oven. 



 Out of the oven

 Frosted with a zig zag pattern because I'm fancy like that;)  But you could just as easily frost with a knife and use canned frosting to make your life easier.

Makes 48 cupcakes

Crazy Daisy Tie-Dye Cupcakes

Claire's dance team had a really good season.  At the three competitions they placed 1st twice and 2nd.  She had asked me a few weeks ago if I'd make cupcakes for the last day.  I kinda grumbled because there are 36 girls and asked if cookies would work instead.  She ignored and didn't mention it again. 

Well, she was feeling kinda sad on Sunday after the spring show.  The realization that she had one more hour with some of these girls was making her feel pretty blue.  So, I decided to make the cupcakes.  I decided to make her some cupcakes that would make her smile.  I decided to make ones that I have made before and received good results.  I just changed up the decorations.

What you need:

Cake mix prepared according to directions.
Separate mix into three bowls.
Add food coloring to each bowl
Put a heaping tablespoon of each color into cupcake liner
Bake according to directions
Decorate top with your favorite frosting dyed to match.  I used my favorite buttercream.
I picked Daisies because that was the theme of the spring show.  The good news with the cake being colored, you don't have to frost perfectly.

 

You can see how I spooned in the batter

 

This is what the inside looked like. 

 

And, this was what the finished product looked like.  My daisies were a little messy, I'm out of practice but Claire declared them "the best cupcakes I've ever made":)



Penguin Cupcakes

I saw these darling cupcakes here and just had to make them for Claire's dance class. I decided to use canned frosting just because I wasn't in the mood to make "homemade". That made them super easy. And, they were a hit! How fun would these be at your holiday party??

What you'll need:

Cupcakes that you've made from a box mix
Canned White Frosting
2 Tubes of colored frosting~Red and a color for the eyes, I had gold;)
Coconut...probably about a cup
Oreos

Separate your Oreos. The side without the filling, cut those in half, those are the arms. I probably broke about every 3rd or 4th cookie. If you don't have a child like Max who is standing behind you asking if he can eat them, you could put them in a ziploc and use for ice cream topping later or simply toss.

Frost your cooled cupcakes. You will want to immediately put the cookies on because you don't want the frosting to start to harden. Stick the filling side on the top for the face. Put a half on each side for the arm and sprinkle with coconut in the middle. Go back and put the faces on the Oreos with your tubes of frosting.

You're done!

Something to note...I made these about 4 p.m. for a 9 p.m. dance class and they were fine. The next day at lunch time, the Oreos had softened. Tasted fine, just a different texture.


As you can see this was a tad messy. Make sure you have a full container of Oreos for the breaking.

One little penguin all by itself.

The whole crew or here's a little of my Dad coming out...if they were real penguins on land, they would be called a Waddle.

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes

Here's what happened. I went looking around for recipes. I copy and print them and typically always attach the link. Well, don't know what happened but a particular batch of recipes I found, I missed the link part. So, I apologize in advance to the person that created this because I know this is a TWEAK for some.

Although, when looking for the direct source, I found several recipes that were close and it's actually really similar to my Skor Cake.

At any rate, I don't know what the recipe was actually called because the name also was cut off BUT I know that it reminded me of Chocolate Mousse so I named them that.

Are you tired of the explanation and ready for the recipe?? Here you go!! Enjoy!

What you'll need:

1 Chocolate Cake Mix without pudding in the mix ~ Duncan Hines
Large box Instant Chocolate Pudding
4 Eggs
1 C Sour Cream ~ I used reduced fat
1/3 C Oil
1/2 C Water
1/2 bag Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips melted

Mix everything together. I used an ice cream scoop and scooped into cupcake liners, 1/2 full. But you could also just dump this into a sprayed 13x9 cake pan.

Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. Makes 30 cupcakes.

Frost with chocolate buttercream frosting

To make butter cream frosting
1 stick soft Butter
4-5 C Powdered Sugar
1/4 C Cocoa Powder
2 t Vanilla
4-7 T Milk

Start out with 1 stick butter, 4 C powdered sugar, vanilla and 3 T milk. Mix it with your mixer. Keep adding milk by the T until it's the consistency you want.

IF you add too much milk, add more powdered sugar. I've never used a true recipe for frosting, it was an add and adjust philosophy. When it's done, separate into different bowls and add food coloring. If you are using liquid food coloring remember it will thin the frosting a bit.

I got sassy and added different toppings on 5 of each cupcakes. Chopped Andes candies, white chocolate chips, Skor candy, sprinkles and milk chocolate chips. But you can stop at frosting or even just top with some cool whip:)

Here's the trick to melting chocolate chips. Melt for about a minute with a half bag. Stir, you might have a couple stubborn ones..look closely at the photo. Keep stirring and they will melt in. You don't want to put this back in the microwave when you're this close or you'll overcook the chocolate.

BUT..If you have a LOT of stubborn ones, try another 15-30 seconds.

See how yummy and creamy the batter is??

DONE

Chocolate Cupcakes

It was Lisa's birthday and she loves dark chocolate so I wanted to make a rich, deep, chocolately cake. I looked up "best chocolate cake" recipes and I would give credit where credit is due but I found the same recipe on 6 different sites before I stopped looking. I thought, "this must be a great recipe if this many people thought so".

Grabbed the only thing I needed at the store, buttermilk, and got to baking. As I was mixing it up, I had deja vu? Yep, I've made a very close variation of this recipe before. This one had different measurements and HOT coffee but it was close. I decided to make cupcakes because I didn't have time to make an actual cake.

At any rate, it's a really good cupcake. It didn't hit "great" for me but I'm not a "great" cupcake kinda girl. But Max, who doesn't typically like cake, ate two and was looking for more. He loved how moist they were.

Another nice thing, it made 34 cupcakes. Sometimes, you just need more than 24 but you don't want 48.

Here's what you'll need:

1 3/4 C Flour
2 C Sugar
3/4 C Cocoa Powder
2 t Baking Soda
1 t Baking Powder
1 t Salt
2 Eggs
1 C Buttermilk
1/2 C Vegetable Oil ~ I used Canola
1 t Vanilla
1 C Strong Hot Black Coffee ~ I used Espresso Roast

Combine your dry ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients with the exception of coffee. Give it a couple of minutes with the electric mixer. Pour in black coffee and mix until incorporated. The batter is a bit thinner than a cake mix.

Fill cupcakes liners half full and bake at 350 for about 16 minutes. You can test by touching the top. If an indentation doesn't stick, they are done.

Cool, frost with your favorite chocolate frosting and enjoy.