Retirement Party Cupcakes

I was asked to make the cupcakes for a retirement party here in Kogod. The only direction I was given was there must be chocolate.

I was excited that my new cupcake tower arrived just in time for the event. Anyone in the market for a nice tower should check this one out.

The cupcakes are as follows:

Peanut Buttercup - Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting topped with a Reese's Peanut Buttercup.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry - Chocolate cupcake with fresh strawberry buttercream frosting filled with a bittersweet ganache and topped with a chocolate dipped strawberry.

Lemon Surprise - Vanilla cupcake with lemon zest cream cheese frosting filled with homemade lemon curd and topped with a personalized fondant stamp.

Strawberries and Cream - Vanilla and fresh strawberry cupcake topped with vanilla buttercream and a fondant blossom.

Triple Ginger and Lemon Mini - Triple ginger (freshly grated, powder, and candied) mini cupcake with lemon zest cream cheese frosting.

Happy 13th Birthday!

My coworkers daughter will be celebrating her 13th birthday this weekend. She likes bright colors so I tried to make these three cupcakes as bright as possible - I realized while trying to do so that this buttercream recipe does not take on color well and ended up with some pastel colors. But I think the flowers came out bright enough to satisfy.

The cupcakes are as follows:

• Very Vanilla - Traditional Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream topped with a large pink Gerber Daisy.
  
• Hot Pink Velvet - Traditional Red Velvet Cupcake colored pink with Vanilla Buttercream topped with a small Gerber Daisy.
• Cherry Lemonade - Vanilla Cupcake with chopped cherries and fresh lemon zest with lemon cream cheese frosting and topped with a fondant blossom stamped with the birthday girls first initial "X".
  

Birthday Cupcakes

Very Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting topped with a pink fondant blossom.


Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting topped with a yellow fondant blossom.

Chocolate Cupcake with Semi-Sweet Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting topped with a pink fondant blossom.

Very Vanilla Cupcake with Lemon Zest Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting frosting topped with a yellow fondant blossom.

Strawberry Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcake with fresh strawberry buttercream frosting sprinkled with pink sanding sugar and topped with a strawberry slice.

Cherry Blossom and Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

This weekend I tried out 2 new cupcake recipes. One was inspired by my recent trip downtown with the family to see the Cherry Blossoms. We also stopped by Georgetown Cupcake on the way home and I challenged myself to make a better cherry blossom cupcake - my hubbie claims I succeeded. The other was an Irish Car Bomb cupcake - I had some leftover Bailey's Irish Cream frosting in the freezer so I thought I would try these out.

Cherry Blossom Cupcakes - Vanilla Cupcake with Maraschino Cherries topped with a Vanilla Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting and a pink fondant blossom.

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes - Guinness Chocolate Cupcake filled with an Irish Whisky Ganache and topped with a Baileys Irish Cream Buttercream frosting. For the party these were topped with a Congrats message made from fondant stamps.