Recipes for a Cure

UPDATED NEWS -

Well my cupcake recipe did not win the Hello Cupcake contest but to my surprise, they posted the pics of all the entries on the Kitchen Aid page for a community vote. I had to wait an entire weekend to see if something of mine posted on Facebook could finally pull in enough votes - Official word came in on Monday morning that I won! (I never win anything...ha ha). For this win I get a pink hand mixer - not sure when I'll actually use it...but it will be a nice addition to my growing Kitchen Aid collection!

Recipes for a Cure? Wouldn’t it be sweet if my cupcake could aid in the cure for cancer? Well it
can during the Hello Cupcake for a Cure KitchenAid Promotion. I submitted
a cupcake recipe of my favorite pink-frosted cupcake - the Chocolate Covered Strawberry! The winning cupcake recipe will be re-created and sold on July 17th during the Hello Cupcake for a Cure KitchenAid Promotion. A portion of the sales will go to Susan G. Komen for Breast Cancer research.

If you have a Facebook account please log on now and vote by going to the Hello Cupcake DC Fan page. You have to "Like" Hello Cupcake DC first then you can vote for my cupcake! I'm contestant number three!

Surprise Baby Shower (s)

This weekend I was asked to make cupcakes for two "Surprise" baby showers - Surprise meaning neither know what the sex of the baby will be and one is getting a surprise shower! I've been craving some summer flavors and since I wasn't told I had to make a specific flavor, here is what I came up with.

Orange Dreamsicle - For this cupcake I used my vanilla cake recipe and added a couple packets of crystallized orange that I found at Whole Foods (while I was looking for orange extract). This stuff is really good! I then made a fresh orange curd and mixed that with some whipped cream - making a sweet and creamy orange cream filling. I topped the cupcake with my Swiss Meringue Buttercream - again I added a bit of crystallized orange as well as some vanilla and orange oil.
Lavender Lemon Drop - For this cupcake I used my favorite lemon cupcake recipe (Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon recipe) and topped it with a Lavender Buttercream frosting. I normally wouldn't use a powdered sugar frosting now that I have found Swiss Meringue but to make the Lavender flavor, I had to steep the buds in some milk. I plan on making some lavender sugar soon - which I hear takes a month or so to really develop it's flavor.

Carnival Elmo Birthday Party

This past weekend I had so much fun planning my nephew's second birthday party with my sister. We decided a while back that Elmo was the obvious theme to go with since he loves sesame street - but to make it even more interesting, we decided to make it a carnival theme! The color scheme went well with it being 4th of July weekend too! Because there was so much going on - this will be a bit longer of a post - with lots of photos!

First - Colin absolutely loved his Elmo cake. He just stared at the big fondant Elmo cut out on the side of the cake for a long while before blowing out his candles. With the cake, I tried to pull in decorative elements from the dessert table rather than go all cute and sesame street with it...a bit more swanky and sophisticated right?

For the longest time I have been wanting an occasion to do a "dessert bar". I absolutely love the work of Amy Atlas and I look to her blog (and many others including Swanky Tables) for inspiration all the time! Colin's dessert bar consisted of his cake which was chocolate cake with Oreo creme filling, vanilla cupcakes, red velvet cake pops (from Bakerella), cotton candy (freshly made from the cotton candy machine in the backyard) and some fresh popped popcorn. On the other side of the room, my sister created a hot dog, nacho, and hot pretzel bar to round out the carnival theme! I also had a lot of fun creating Colin's Happy Birthday pennant banner!

Yum - The Nacho Bar was a big hit - tons of toppings!

The outside setup which include a snow cone and cotton candy machine, fresh squeezed lemonade and fresh brewed iced tea.

Colin's best friend enjoying the frosting on a cupcake - I made sure to add extra frosting to the cupcakes for this very reason!
Colin loved his cotton candy machine!
I was excited to see Cracker Jacks! What happened to the cute box they used to come in?