Girl Scouts Again!

I love Samoas. Thank goodness girl scout cookies only happen once a year. Never mind the Samoa copycats in the store (Keebler, I think). I've had them once, and they don't even come close to Samoas.

So, tonight I tried Samoa cupcakes. They are very tasty! Chocolate cupcake with coconut flakes baked in the batter. Topped with caramel buttercream (the caramel is homemade), toasted coconut, chocolate ganache, and caramel drizzle.

Vanilla Cupcakes With Fresh Fruit

Today was a snow day so of course I had to make cupcakes! These are vanilla cupcakes with diced strawberries and blueberries. The frosting is vanilla buttercream. These have a light sweet taste, and I love the added touch of the fruit. Perfect for summer!

Birthday Cupcakes

Today was my cousin's sweet little boy's first birthday party. She asked me to make cupcakes which I happily agreed to!

I was planning to make cookies and cream and salted caramel, but my caramel failed me last night :( I forgot to buy heavy cream so I substituted (after looking online) butter and milk. I learned that that substitution does not work for caramel. I went to plan B and made vanilla instead.

Cookies and Cream: Vanilla base with crushed oreo and vanilla cream cheese frosting (tinted a light blue to match the birthday colors).
Vanilla: My new vanilla cupcake with the secret ingredient ;) and buttercream frosting tinted a brighter blue.

Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes!

These were delicious! I told my students (the girls) that if they brought their order form to school, I would order girl scout cookies. I didn't realize how many girl scouts are in my class! I knew I wanted to make cupcakes, of course.

The mint looking ones are Thin Mint cupcakes: chocolate cupcake with bits of Thin Mints and mint buttercream frosting with bits of Thin Mint on top.

The other ones are Tagalong cupcakes: chocolate cupcake with bits of Tagalongs and peanut butter cream cheese frosting with a chunk of Tagalong on top.

These are mini which are the perfect size.

My Son's 5th Birthday

The other week we celebrated my son's 5th birthday. He is obsessed with Transformers so that was the theme he chose. He really wanted a cake (I tried desperately to talk him into cupcakes!). I agreed to the cake and thought I would make it. It was A LOT of work. It doesn't look like it would be, but IT. WAS. Cakes are a lot more work than cupcakes.

The bottom layer is chocolate and the top layer is vanilla. The frosting is my favorite buttercream.

More Cupcakes!

My mom recently had her work friends over for a party, and she asked me to make cupcakes! She wanted something simple so I made vanilla cupcakes (my own recipe!) and buttercream frosting and milk chocolate frosting. These are the BEST vanilla cupcakes I've ever had, and I have made a ton of vanilla cupcake recipes. These contain my secret ingredient. ;)

Salted Caramel

Oh my. These cupcakes were a little piece of Heaven. They were ah-ma-zing! They had the perfect combination of sweet and salty. The caramel was fabulous too.