Easter Peeps!

My favorite Easter candy is marshmallow Peeps! In fact, I prefer to eat them a bit stale. So I made Easter Peeps cupcakes! They are carrot-ginger cupcakes, with lemon cream cheese frosting, tinted pale green. I topped them with chicks and bunny sprinkles, then with either Peeps or jellybeans. Can you believe not everyone likes Peeps? They were a big hit at the Easter BBQ. I just love how colorful they are!

Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

So, the other day, my friend Amy suggested that I make Cadbury Creme Egg cupcakes for Easter. So after some research and thought, I decided the easiest way would be to make chocolate cupcakes with the eggs inside them. Then when you cut them open, the yummy egg centers are gooey. So, I put Cadbury mini and regular sized eggs into the cupcake batter before I baked them, and they seemed to turn out great. Until I cut them open. The eggs had sunk to the bottom, and the chocolate shell had hardened, making it hard to eat. The larger eggs did a little bit better, but still didn't give me the results I wanted. Back to the drawing board! I'll have to assemble my own version I think, and fill the cupcakes with pastry creme after baking, to give the appearance of a Cadbury Egg. Oh well! They were still delicious!
Here's the inside:

Peanut butter and jelly cupcakes

So, after reading a post on cupcakes take the cake, http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2009/04/would-you-eat-peanut-butter-and-jelly.html, I decided to post about my own peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. I've tried this twice, with differing results. The second time was definitely better. These were the first try, a little messy looking. I put dollops of jelly on top to show what flavor was filled inside.





These are also peanut butter cupcakes, filled with jelly, topped with peanut butter frosting. I added purple sanding sugar to indicate the flavor of jelly inside. I just love cupcakes with a surprise! Both times the liners fell away from the baked cupcakes, not sure why. These are super rich and must be enjoyed with a cold glass of milk.

Springtime!

The weather is so beautiful here in Phoenix, so springtime cupcakes are only appropriate! Here are fantastic orange creamsicle cupcakes, made with oranges off my very own tree! They're also filled with orange cream for a yummy surprise. They're a big hit and remind me of my childhood, when the ice cream truck would come around every evening.
ps- there is actually an ice cream truck in my neighborhood today! But sadly, all the ice cream varieties are different from what I remember.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli

So last week we went to a free screening in the park of the Godfather. One of my favorite lines from the movie includes cannolis, so I made cannoli cupcakes! They are an almond cake, filled with traditional cannoli ricotta filling, and topped with a vanilla buttercream with chocolate chips. I shared them with people sitting nearby, and everyone loved them. I just can't resist a theme!




I cut open a cupcake to see the filling, but it's hard to distinguish because the cake is about the same color. You can kind of tell, it's the denser-texture stripe in the middle. Although I had put chocolate chips in the filling, not every cupcake got some, and this one didn't. It was still delicious! Even better after being refrigerated for a while.
I love trying new recipes, because I always learn something in the process.

Sugar-Free

One of my friends is diabetic, so I've been experimenting with sugar-free or reduced sugar recipes. I've found it easy to do in the cupcakes, but harder in the frosting. I use agave nectar in the cakes, which is sweeter than sugar, so you use a lot less, but it's all natural and the body metabolizes it slower, so it doesn't cause a spike in insulin. But for the frosting, it's more difficult. I usually use an easy buttercream, with multiple cups of powdered sugar. I've also attempted a swiss merenge buttercream, which only uses a small amount of regular sugar. This is the easiest to convert to sugar free. I use either agave nectar or stevia, a natural sugar alternative, in lesser amounts. This technique is a lot harder, so it's taken me a few more tries to get it right. But the result is yummy! No one can tell these cupcakes are sugar-free! And although it's not wise for anyone, much less a diabetic, to eat all 6, one or two is ok.

St. Patrick's Day 2009

Here are the photos from this year's batch of Irish cupcakes! Again, chocolate-Guinness cupcakes with (green) Bailey's buttercream. So yummy! I used a different cocoa powder this time, and it was amazing! I'll have to continue using it in the future. My husband ate 3 last nite :)