My most popular request

So, the cupcakes that most people love, and that I get the most requests for, are chocolate stout cupcakes. I make them with an Oatmeal Stout from a local brewery, Four Peaks, and the stout and chocolate flavors are so perfect together. Plus, they smell amazing while baking! Although I've made them many times, I most recently made them for a birthday party, by special request. I used a Bailey's buttercream frosting to top them off. And because it's a party, chocolate sprinkles! In my opinion, it's not a real party without sprinkles :)

Every time I make a new recipe, I send it with my husband to his office to get opinions from his coworkers. Now, he works with mostly guys, so the stout cupcakes were the hand down favorite. Even now, when I send another recipe with him, as soon as he enters the door with cupcakes, everyone asks, are they beer cupcakes?? And although they always love whatever I make, these are by far their #1 favorite. Boys and beer, who figured?

Maple Syrup

So on a recent trip to Canada to visit relatives, we took a drive on a small island near Quebec City. We stopped at a farm stand on the side of the country road, and bought some edible souvenirs to take home. I got a can of dark grade B Maple Syrup, as well as hard maple sugar.
So as soon as I returned home, I of course made cupcakes with both the maple syrup and maple sugar. The sugar came in a hard block, and in order to use it I had to grate it, and it resembled brown sugar. The cupcakes were so moist and tasty, with a light maple flavor.

Independence Day

For the 4th of July, I made red white and blue cupcakes, of course! I arranged them like a flag and decorated them accordingly.

Here are the cupcakes before frosting. Red=raspberry, Blue=blueberry, and White=vanilla.





Then, after adding frosting and sprinkles, the final result!

Mini cupcakes

I recently made these cute mini cupcakes for a bridal shower. They're simple, just vanilla with vanilla or chocolate frosting, with little hearts sprinkles. Simple and Sweet! They didn't last long :) Who knew that you could tame a Bridezilla with cupcakes?







Then I had some left over, so I used red white and blue sprinkles for a patriotic spin on the same cupcakes. Just as tasty!

Pretty!

So, last nite I went to Max's 1st birthday party, and I'll post pics of my cake and cupcake creations soon.
But for now, here are some fun cupcakes I did with my friend Emily before she moved away! They're just vanilla with pink vanilla frosting, but we went kinda berserk on the decorations, and raided my sprinkles cabinet. Yes, I have an entire cabinet of sprinkles. The rainbow nonpareils are my favorite.
On a side note, I think it's weird, but my husband doesn't like sprinkles on top of cupcakes. He doesn't like the crunchy texture mixed with the softness of the cupcakes. I think it adds some excitement, making each bite different. Any opinions on this controversial subject?

Jason's birthday cupcakes

For my husband's birthday, I made his favorite, peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.

They are moist peanut butter cupcakes, filled with his favorite grape jelly, topped with peanut butter frosting. I added purple sugar on top to indicate the flavor of the filling.








I tried these once before, with grape and strawberry, and although they were tasty, they were not as pretty. I've come a long way in six months!

Batman and Joker cupcakes

To honor the new film, The Dark Knight, (which I saw twice in 2 days), I made Batman and Joker cupcakes. The Batmans are triple dark chocolate with double dark chocolate frosting. I made a stencil from parchment paper and decorated with black sugar. The Joker cupcakes are neon green Mountain Dew! Filled with purple Mountain Dew frosting, topped with green Mountain Dew frosting. Designed to keep you bouncing off the walls for hours :) They were a big hit!

Intro

So, a little bit about me. My name is Tania, I live in Phoenix, Arizona. In the past year, I have become enamored with cupcakes. I bake at least once a week, trying new flavors, having friends be my testers. I have recently started to consider cupcakes as a career. Hopefully this will be a forum for my trials and errors. I live with my husband and two cats, who are always appreciative of my efforts. My goal is to post pictures and descriptions of my work, hopefully to get some feedback and buzz going so I can make cupcakes my full time job. Not only do I love to make cupcakes, but I also love anything cupcake related! Hopefully I can help bring a love of cupcakes into more people's lives.

Fi

Having been inspired by a phrase from an Eddie Izzard standup, finally I have created a blog! I am obsessed with everything cupcake, from baking to merchandise to pop culture references, and hope to share my obsessions with everyone. Please to enjoy!