CookieD-oh

So we finally moved to another house. Not that that’s why I haven’t blogged in almost two years, but whatever. 😜 Vanilla almond cupcakes with raspberry filling and raspberry frosting for a bridal shower. I also brought brownies, but I posted That recipe a few years ago. Anywho, that’s all for now. I’ll post pictures of my sweet “new” kitchen soon. Enjoy! CookieD-oh

The chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and ganache that I made last year was so popular that I turned it into cupcakes. Because, honestly, they're easier to deal with sometimes. Go-to dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a ganache drizzle. Very tasty, if I do say so myself. They're best if eaten with a fork. Just being honest. The cake recipe is here . To make cupcakes, fill cupcake liners 1/2 full and bake in a 375 F oven for about 16 minutes. Cool completely before frosting. Here is the frosting recipe: Peanut Butter Frosting 1 cup butter 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy...not natural, sorry) 1/2 cup shortening 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 lbs powdered sugar 1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream Mix butter, peanut butter, shortening, salt and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer until well-combined. Add the powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. Add cream until the frosting reaches the desired consistency. Beat for 5 m...

Because who doesn't like a nice orange creamsicle? Nobody who enjoys summer, that's for sure. Orange cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese filling and orange cream cheese frosting. Yum! The folks at work seemed to like them. :-) That's all for now. Enjoy!

Actually, it was my church's 50th Anniversary. And how better to celebrate than with cake! And lots of it! Ok, I'll start from the top: 6" Coconut, 8" Lemon, 10" Red Velvet, 12" Almond, 14"Chocolate. It was very heavy. And for my gluten-free friends, gluten-free cupcakes to match! Well, that's all for now! Enjoy!

Themed because I don't do character cakes...I'm not that talented and I don't want to run afoul of copyright laws...I'm funny that way. Cake: Topper: Matching cupcakes: I think there were 30 cupcakes, so I got to make 30+ fondant strawberries. But it was fun. And I think they came out cute. The topper was to be placed, upright, on the cake. But it didn't fit in the box so I left it off. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. That's all for now. Enjoy!

The kids' school had a bake sale on Friday, so I made cupcakes.  I think I would have made cookies, but the girl has been sick (for an entire WEEK), and it has sort of thrown off our schedule. Fortunately, she seems to be over it now, though she's still a little worn down.  Poor kiddo. Anyhoo, the boy and I decided chocolate cupcakes with peppermint icing would do the trick. They were pretty amazing. My standard go-to chocolate cake recipe and my favorite buttercream with peppermint bakery emulsion instead of vanilla extract.   Funny story, I took lots of pictures, but this is the only one that came out because the battery on my camera was so low.  And by "came out" I mean the only one that was still on the camera after I charged the battery and turned it back on. *sigh* Well, enough of that.  Guess what Tuesday was?  My blogiversary.  The second one.  So to celebrate, I am having my second annual blogiversary giveaway! Yay! ...

Enough with the healthy food, already.  Let's get back to the bad stuff!  Who wants cupcakes?!?!?! I saw these over on Make Me Cake Me ages ago, and I finally got around to making them.  They're lime cupcakes with lime Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) frosting.  I've been meaning to try SMBC for some time, but because I'm lazy, I haven't. What does lazy have to do with trying another kind of frosting?  Dishes, that's what. I plan entire dinners by how many dishes I have to wash afterward. And this frosting uses extra dishes. But you know what?  After trying it, I may not care about the dishes.  It was delightful. Silky and smooth and not too sweet.  Perfect! Anyhoo, it was the boss' birthday, so I brought cupcakes.  And because I took them to work I opted not to use the booze that the original recipe calls for. That, and I don't really drink, so I don't have any Tequila in the house and I didn't want to go to the liquor store f...

My, it's been a little while since I've posted.  Things have been rather up-in-the-air around here lately with school starting and our schedules being upended. I'm sure we'll adjust eventually, but right now we're just trying to work it out. A coworker of mine was throwing a bridal shower for her sister and asked me to make cupcakes.  She sent me a photo of some cupcakes and asked me to recreate them. I did my best, and I think they came out kind of cute. They're high heels!  I had never seen such a thing.  If anyone knows who came up with this idea, please, let me know.  They're cupcakes with Milano and Pirouette cookies. Making them fit in a cupcake box was an experience. The lid just barely fit over them without squishing. Anyway, these were a lot of fun, but rather time consuming.  Sorry for the awful pictures.  I fell off the wagon and went back to using my phone.I need to charge my camera. Well, that's all for now. ...

About a year ago a friend of mine asked if I would be willing to make cupcakes as favors for an event her porcelain-painting group was holding. Of course I would be happy to! Fast forward 12 short months, and it's time for the big event. Because the cupcakes were favors and not technically a dessert, my friend thought it would be cute to put them in teacups. I agreed. This is what we ended up with: I thought they came out cute. Half were vanilla and half were chocolate. She needed five dozen, so I had stacks by the time it was all over. There were cupcakes everywhere! I think the purple swirls with the pearls were just about my favorites. I may have been a little more partial to the pink ones. I saw the design over at Bird on a Cake and had to give it a go. The blue ones were fun, too. All-in-all, not a bad cupcake haul! But when it was all done, I had some leftover cupcakes and some extra blue and purple icing.  So I made hydrangeas. Do you...

When I asked the girl, some weeks ago, what flavors of birthday cake she wanted this year, she promptly responded, "Strawberry and grape." Grape.  Really. She opted for strawberry cake and grape cupcakes, instead of a 2-tier cake.  And she wanted her cupcakes to have rainbow frosting like she saw on the Wilton cupcake book in the grocery store.  So I got to mix rainbow colors again.  Joy! But back to the grape cake.  There are really no recipes for grape-flavored birthday cake on the internet. At least not that I could find.  I found cakes with actual grapes in them, but that's not what she wanted. So we got to experiment. First, I used my scratch strawberry cake recipe and adapted it for grape.  The cupcakes tasted good, but they didn't really rise very well.  And they were a strange color. So I set the rest of the batter aside and we moved on to plan B: These cupcakes rose and were purple. Here's a side-by-side: ...

The boy's school had a bake sale on Friday.  I forgot about it until Wednesday.  Really, his school tells us about things waaaaaay too early.  Like I'm supposed to remember in April, a notice that got sent home in January.  Sheesh. I guess what I'm trying to say is: some people are organized.  I am not one of them.  So instead of making fabulous, beautiful, amazing, creatively genius-y sugar cookies for the bake sale, I made cupcakes.  Go me! But, I remembered to take a few pictures for anyone who's interested in seeing the process.  I can seriously whip this recipe out in no time these days.  I make it that often. First things first, boil 2 cups of water and mix it with one cup of cocoa powder.  Let that cool to room temperature. That looks kind of weird, right?  Here's a tip: Mix the cocoa and water the night before and leave it in the fridge.  Shake it up a little when you're ready to use it.  You'll ge...