Coffee and Tea Cupcakes

Again I was given the liberty to provide whatever flavor cupcakes I wanted to do for a ladies only, mid afternoon gathering. I recently bought some green tea powder at the international market and thought it would be fun to do a green tea cupcake - which led me to thinking I'd pair it with some kind of coffee flavored cupcake.

I wasn't set on what my frosting would be for the green tea cupcake until I went to the refrigerator and took out the gallon of my favorite ice tea - Turkey Hill Green Tea with Honey and Ginseng. This is what inspired my Honey and Ginger cream cheese frosting (where in the world would I get ginseng? ha ha).

The coffee inspired cupcake was a chocolate cupcake, made with coffee and espresso powder, topped with an espresso Swiss Meringue Buttercream - which BTW, was absolutely to die for - I couldn't stop eating the frosting. I topped these cupcakes with a fondant blossom and in the center placed a chocolate covered espresso bean.

Cherry Blossom Cake

This past weekend I went for a one on one cake lesson with Dusty for DoCakes (the same person who taught the Topsy Turvy class from a few months ago.) I wanted to practice covering square cakes with fondant as well as learn a new way to make cherry blossom branches.

The class was great as I learned quite a few new tricks with fondant. I also learned that when they say a fondant is transparent, it really is - you can see the cake right through it!

Each cherry blossom is individually wired which makes it very easy to position them accordingly on the cake.

The cake got a little "smashed" up in transport. But practice makes perfect and every cake from now until September will be square!

Housewarming Cupcakes

I love when some asks me to make them cupcakes and says - do what ever you feel like doing! This is all too rare - normally I get, "chocolate and vanilla, please." (Not that there is anything wrong with that, I think I may have found my favorite chocolate recipe). For the decorations, I ws inspired by a recent blog post I saw of a red and turquoise dessert table.

I thought this would be a good time to try two new recipes and provide a tried and true favorite. I've been wanting to do a Dulce de Leche cupcake ever since I had one at Hello Cupcake, DC a few weeks ago. My first batch, a new found recipe did not come out so great...the cake was very dense and lacked any real flavor - so those went into the freezer for a future cake bites. I baked another batch using my vanilla cake recipe but substituting caramel syrup for the vanilla. I then made a Swiss Meringue Butter cream and added Dulce de Leche syrup. These came out moist and delicious - much better!

My second new attempt was a Mango Mojito. I saw this flavor on a Cake Nouveau newsletter and they sounded so good - Vanilla cupcake with fresh mango, filled with lime curd and topped with a mango mint buttercream and a sugared mint leaf. Only problem was, no recipe. For the first time concocting these, they came out pretty good. Next time I will know not to put so much mango in the cupcake - they may have needed another minute of 2 to bake.

I included my red velvet with vanilla cream cheese frosting as the third selection - these are always a crowd fave.

Graduation Cupcakes

What would the month of June be without Graduation Caps and Diplomas? I'm getting pretty good and quick at making these fondant caps (practice makes perfect)! I was also happy that my most recent order was for red-I was able to switch it up a bit - I was a bit nervous however. I normally buy anything that needs to be red in color...I usually find it hard to get a true, nice red color. This FondX fondant really took the color on nicely though.

Vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla and chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream frosting.

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream frosting.

A Weekend of Cupcaking

I had a busy weekend of cupcaking. My first task was to complete an entry for the Hello Cupcake DC cupcake decorating contest co sponsored by Kitchen Aid. We had to design a cupcake inspired by DC or a DC neighborhood.

I chose to do my Cherry Blossom cupcake (vanilla cupcake with fresh chopped cherries inside and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting). On top of the cupcake I placed a fondant elephant (who could also be representing a political party - not mine of choice - but hey it works...) with a rainbow of blossoms. The rainbow of blossoms also had two meanings - first they represented all the DC Metro lines and second, they represent Gay Pride - I guess there is a bit of political satire there? The red band behind the word zoo represented the Red Line - which is the metro line you take to get to the zoo and my favorite metro line because I ride it everyday!

My second project was to create a batch of cupcakes for the arrival a new baby boy to the family! My husbands cousin and wife welcomed their new baby boy, Dustin to the family just a short time ago and we were going to head out and visit them after dropping off my cupcake for the competition in Dupont circle. These too were the Cherry Blossom cupcakes.

My last project of the weekend were for a coworker heading out to a high school graduation party. Her school colors were red, white, and black. To accompany the red, white, and black customized fondant decorations, I chose to make red velvet cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting, and chocolate cupcakes with a hint of caramel Swiss meringue buttercream.