Howdy Kitchen….Baby Showers

The first weekend in April,

I was hired to make a rainbow cake for a baby shower.
Because I was going to use a frosting technique that hadn’t used before,
I did a practice cake the weekend before, which happened to be Easter,
as well as my dad’s birthday.

Perfect timing!

The cake was 6 layers tall, in ROY G BV order. {No ‘I’.}



This frosting technique took awhile, but I think it’s fabulous! 

If you search around online or even Pinterest,
you will see lots of different styles and ideas for this technique.

Finally, the inside of the cake…..

It was a Noah’s Ark themed shower, so of course the cake as rainbow,
and the frosting blue to resemble water.

But this frosting isn’t just colored blue.

It is actually blue raspberry flavored.
And is currently my favorite frosting!



Last weekend, I was hired to make cupcakes for another baby shower.
I went with the following flavors:
Wedding Cake with Blue Raspberry Frosting
Chocolate with a frosting I made up
Strawberry lemonade with a whipped cream frosting

 

I’m a fan of cupcake tablescapes!

So much better than picking them up out of a pan!

{Note….I did not do ANY of the displaying of the cupcakes or the work to set it up.
I just made the cupcakes, and shared some of the items
around my home to help pull it together.}



After making all of these….I must admit that my current favorite cupcake is:

Wedding Cake with Blue Raspberry Frosting.

Up next for the Howdy Kitchen…..

Making a couple hundred {likely more} mini cupcakes for a graduation party.


What flavor of cupcake would you want to enjoy a graduation party?

Cupcakepalooza!

I survived the

WEDDING CUPCAKEPALOOZA!!

This past Friday morning,

I headed a few miles down the road 

to the wedding/reception venue.

It was time to get my baking on!

I decided to bake the cupcakes at the venue...
because there were 3 ovens!  

As well as lots of counter space.

 

The 3 recipes I used are all from scratch.

No boxed mixes for this wedding!

{I'll share the recipes another day.}

 

Flavors:
Strawberry Lemonade

Red Velvet

Chocolate

 Saturday, I frosted the cupcakes.

I thought it would be best to break it up in to two days.

Plus, I didn't know how the icing would hold up.

The red velvet had cream cheese.

Chocolate has chocolate buttercream.

Strawberry lemonade with strawberry lemonade wedding cake frosting.
{I made this recipe up myself.  Kind of proud of it!}

 In the end, there were over 300 cupcakes.

I made sure each of the piping tips was different, 

so each cupcake looked different.

 When I left the reception Saturday night, there were only a handful left....

and there were still over 2 hours of the reception/dance to go!

Believe it or not, I think I'd do it again if asked!

So, who needs some cupcakes?

:)

Cupcake Crush

I have some serious lack-of-blogging trouble going on!

Sorry about that!  

I guess I am just living life, and forgetting to share about it.  

And I know Gina doesn't like that.  

So for you sister, I am going to do my best to recap some of the things
that have happened that you wanted to see pictures.

But that will start later. 
Today, it's about cupcakes {and resumes}, since that was my life last week.

{Strawberry Wine...regular and mini size}

 A couple few weeks ago, Mama Peacock and I did a little bartering.

I'd do some baking for her in exchange for some jewelry for me!

That's my kind of barter!

 So last week, I got to baking.  I started the baking on Tuesday evening.

I made a batch of strawberry wine cupcakes. 
Because of the frosting I like to use, I did not frost them yet.

I then ended the night reading a couple resume's for work.

Wednesday I made red velvet.  No picture there.

I did NOT want to get red food coloring on anything.  

Just know, they are from scratch and delicious!

Of course, I ended the evening reading a couple more resumes again.

{Stack of resumes/applications!}

Thursday night, I decided to frost the strawberry wine cupcakes.  

The frosting is a fun lime/mint green color, topped with fun sprinkles.

Then, of course, I got back to the resumes.

{Cupcakes & Resumes}

At some point, Thursday night, I made up a batch of doctored up devils food cupcakes,
with cream cheese frosting.

I really don't remember if I made them to make them, or who they were for!  Jeesh.

But, at some point well after midnight, I enjoyed a little snack while reading resumes.

:)

{Doctored Up Devil's Food}

Maybe I had extra regular sized cupcakes from making a bunch of mini ones.

I can't remember.  Man, where is my mind going?

{Update:  3 hours later I remember....
I made them for the Search Committe meeting on Friday at work!}

To the cupcakes, obviously!

These little guys were for Mama Peacock & family's going away party Sunday evening.

 These little cuties were for the party as well. 
They are strawberry lemonade cupcakes, with lemonade frosting.

Due to some of my recent pictures I've posted on Facebook, I was asked if I take orders.

Sure?  

I usually just make cupcakes because I enjoy it, and I enjoy eating them.  :)

But I'm happy to make them for people as well!

With that, I added a new tap at the top of my page.

It is titled 'Cupcake Crush'.

I have listed some of the cupcakes I've made, as well as others that interest me.

I'm pretty sure that all the ones I have made aren't on the list.

I don't always remember what I do when I doctor up a recipe.

In July, I get the pleasure of making a bunch of cupcakes
for some friends' wedding reception!

If you have any fun/favorite cupcake recipes, please share!

I always like new and fun ideas.

Happy Baking/Eating!

Cupcakepalooza!!

This past Friday, I finally got to host my long awaited Cupcakepalooza!

 

Thanks again to Duncan Hines Frosting Creations House Party

for letting me host a night of tasty fun!

After a late return home a quick baking of partial batches of 3 different cupcakes/brownies,the fun began!

Of the 12 flavors available, the ladies and I selected 8 to sample.

The flavors were:

Chocolate Almond

Cinnamon Roll

Chocolate Marshmallow

Mint Chocolate

White Chocolate Raspberry

Cotton Candy

Caramel

Strawberry Shortcake

 The flavors we didn't sample:

Bubble Gum

Cherry Vanilla

Mocha

Orange Creme

Instead of making full cupcakes, I decided to make mini cupcakes and brownie bites.

Knowing we'd be trying 8 frostings, a full size cupcake would be too much!

It got to the point where we even used half the mini cupcakes instead of a full one.

 There were some favorites, and there were some disappointments.

In the end, we voted on each flavor.

The winner...Mint Chocolate!

 For mint, this flavor was right on!  Not too strong, not to weak.  Just enough.
Nice job, Duncan Hines!

We gave each flavor a score of 1 {yuck} to 5 {YUM}!

The rest of the results in order of most favorite:

Mint Chocolate:  25

Cinnamon Roll:  24

Strawberry Shortcake:  23

Chocolate Almond:  20

White Chocolate Raspberry:  17

Cotton Candy:  13

Caramel:  13

Chocolate Marshmallow:  11

Now a look at my plate...

I didn't even mess with the Cotton Candy.  

Gross.

Chocolate Marshmallow....it needs more marshmallow flavor.

To us, it tasted like regular chocolate.

Caramel...it was just wrong.

We all had a different taste other than caramel.  Someone even mentioned coconut.  YUCK!

White Chocolate Raspberry....you need a little more flavor.
It was a hint, but a little more flavor would have been lovely.

Duncan Hines...why don't you have a
Peanut Butter or Peanut Butter Chocolate?

That would be delicious!

 If you want to add a little fun to your cupcakes, definitely try the

Duncan Hines Frosting Creations.

You'll have some great flavor, as well as potentially fun colors!

Howdy Kitchen: Chocolate Reese's Cup Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Yet again....Pinterest is causing me problems.  I see some awesome desserts, and want to make them all!

My find today, The Absolutely Best Chocolate Reese's Cup Peanut Butter Cupcakes You'll Ever Eat!

 

So, I decided to make them.  

For the direct recipe, head on over to 52 Cupcakes and Layla.  They are easy to make. 

However, I have a couple of recommendations. 

1.  The recipe says Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures.  But looking at the picture on the blog, I could immediately tell it wasn't a mini cup at the bottom.  It's the regular size cups.  

{Luckily, I had an 8 pack of cups that I picked up for a buck, in addition to a few others hanging out in my frig.  {I like the PB cups when they are cold!}  I also had a 2 pack of cups that you would find with the candy bars.  The 8 pack cups fit the best.  Plus, much cheaper than the 2 pack!}

2.  Because of the batter seeming a little greasy, the rest of the cupcakes I used a white liner.  Once they were baked and decorated, I will put them in the fancy liner. 

To start, I put all the PB cups at the bottom of the cupcake wrappers. 

{Remember, you will want to use plain wrappers during this part.
The above picture was the first batch I made.}

The recipe uses a box mix, but you don't follow the box instructions. 

So it makes it feel more like scratch!  :)

To fill up the cups, I use a large scoop from Pampered Chef. 
I learned about this trick from Kevin and Amanda.
If you haven't tried it yet, do it! 
You can thank me {okay...well Kevin and Amanda} later.

 

 

 

After I got the first pan in the oven, I had no more big PB cups left.  So I went to my pantry and pulled out the Trader Joe's Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.....

  

and dumped in the rest of the container.  :)

  

 

Fresh out of the oven.  Yeah....they are a little 'done'.  The inside were great! 
But the outsides got a little crunchy.  Next time, I'll turn down the temp in my
oven to about 300-315 degrees. 

 

I cheated on the frosting.  I wasn't in the mood to make any tonight. 
So whipped tub frosting it was. 

And it was yummy!

 

 

These will be made again.  I like the little surprise inside.

I have yet to eat one that has the mini PB cups in them. 
But I'm thinking it will be delicious as well.

Chocolate and peanut butter....how can you NOT like them together?  

:)

Howdy Kitchen: Orange Cream Pop Cupcakes

Recipe via Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Cupcakes magazine.

One afternoon while kid wrangling my country kids, their mom had a cupcake magazine that I had to get.  So, we rounded up the kids' Border's gift cards and headed to town.  I picked up my magazine {and the last one I saw on the shelf!}, and the kids each got a new book.  I think we were all pleased with our purchases.  However, I was the most thrilled!  :)

A picture of the magazine, from Cupcake Project.  {Go check out this blog as well!}

The first recipe I tried from the magazine...Orange Cream Pop Cupcakes.

I love everything Orange Cream, so this had  to be my first recipe I try. 
But, in my true fashion,I altered the recipe a bit.  :)

Thinking 'Orange Cream', I thought it would be fun to have a little 'cream' inside the cupcake.

So that is what I did...in vanilla pudding form.  

First up, follow the recipe and bake up some 'orange' cupcakes.

 

I then used my fun new cupcake tool that I picked up from Williams-Sonoma.  

You can see the Cuisipro Cupcake Corer here. 

I cored out the cupcakes after they were nice and cool.  I tried a little to early, when they were still warm.  That was no good.  Cupcakes need to be cooled.

 

The best part.....    :)

 

Prior to coring the cupcakes, I whipped up a batch of vanilla pudding.  I let it set up for a few minutes in the frig.  Then I added it to a pastry bag, because any other tool I use to use for something like this has seen better days.  

 

 

I then topped it with a version of the frosting recipe in the magazine.  I had some runny cream cheese frosting already in the frig, so made do with what I had.  Therefore, they don't look the greatest.  But this is one of those things where things taste better than they look.

 

 

Next time I make these or something similar to these, I won't put as much pudding in them.  It was a little too rich for me.  What I will do instead, after I take out the core, I will cut the cored part in half, fill the hole with a little pudding, then put the top back on.

Now, how about the recipe?  If you are in central Iowa area and make these, I'd be happy to taste test for you.  :)

Orange Cream Pop Cupcakes

Prep:  40 minutes

Bake:  18 minutes

Cool:  45 minutes

Oven:  350 degrees

1 3-ounce package orange-flavor gelatin

1 2-layer-size package white cake mix {any white cake mix should work for this}

1 4-serving-size package cheesecake instant pudding and pie filling mix

1 1/4 cups orange juice

4 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 350*.  Line muffin cups with wrappers.  Set aside 2 teaspoons of the gelatin for the Cream Pop Frosting.  In a mixing bowl beat the remaining gelatin, the cake mix, pudding mix, orange jice, eggs, oil, and vanilla.

2.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full.  {I use a medium Pampered Chef scoop to add batter to my muffin cups.  One full scoop is a perfect size for even-sized cupcakes.}

3.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.  Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes.  Remove cupcakes from muffin cups.  Cool completely on wire racks.

4.  Spoon orange-flavor Cream Pop Frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip.  Spoon the vanilla flavor Cream Pop Frosting into another pastry bag fitted with a small star tip.  Pipe orange frosting onto each cupcake to cover the top.  Pip a medium-size star of white frosting onto each cupcake.  If desired, insert a craft stick into top of each cupcake.  {Or, if you are me, you add a straw, thinking about an orange float or orange julius.}

Cream Pop Frosting:

Prepare 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting.  Place one-fourth of the frosting in a separate bowl; beat in an additional 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.  To the remaining bowl of Cream Cheese Frosting add the reserved 2 teaspoons orange gelatin from the cupcakes and 1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel.  If desired, add a few drops orange food coloring.  Beat to combine.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

5 1/2 - 6 cups powdered sugar

Allow cream cheese and butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.  In a large mixing bowl beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency.  Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Enjoy!  :)

Howdy Kitchen: Red Velvet Cupcakes {Updated}

Well folks, I finally made the cupcakes. 

For some reason, this batch doesn't look all that grand on top.  But they still taste just great!

I believe I baked these about 15 minutes....and that was plenty of time!  Next time, I will shoot for 12 minutes instead, and work my way down until they look just right.

Plus, I won't complain if no one else wants to try them.  :)

On a different note, I finally talked to my long-lost Germany sister on Monday!  {Hi Gina!}

The reason for the call.....how to make the mini cheesecakes.  Jeesh!

She didn't even want to just chat with me.  She just needed to use me for my recipes.

Can you feel the love??  :)

Maybe it's because it was 9p her time, and she hadn't even made them yet.

So, I guess I can let it pass this time that she didn't have time to chat.

I can't wait until she and her husband are finally back in this country!  It has been a long 3 years! 

If you have any fun dessert ideas you'd like to share with me, please do so!

I have a couple of cheesecakes to make in the next week or so. 

But I'd welcome some new ideas!

Howdy Kitchen: Red Velvet Cupcakes

{I apologize for the quality of photos.  These were taking about 2 years ago.}

A friend on facebook shared that she made the tie dyed cupcakes.  She also mentioned red velvet cake.

That got me thinking about red velvet cupcakes.

So I'm sharing this delicious recipe!

It was given to me a couple of years ago, when I was asked to make 50 cupcakes for a birthday party.

And I haven't parted with it since.

Ingredients:

-1 teaspoon cider vinegar

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1 ½ cup sugar

-1/2 cup butter

-2 eggs

-2 teaspoon cocoa powder

-2 oz bottle red food coloring

-1 cup buttermilk

-2 ½ cups cake flour sifted

-1 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-1 teaspoon vanilla

 

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350

-Combine 1 tsp cider vinegar and 1 tsp baking soda stir & let stand

-Make a paste with 2 tsp cocoa powder & 1/3 bottle of red food coloring set aside

-Sift together 2 ½ cups cake flour, 1 teaspoon salt & ½ teaspoon baking powder

-Cream 1 ½ cup sugar, 1/2cup butter

-Add 2 eggs, one at a time

-Stir in red food coloring paste

-Add rest of food coloring

-Add 1 cup buttermilk

-Slowly add the sifted flour, salt and baking powder

-Add 1 teaspoon vanilla

-Then add the vinegar and soda

-Bake at 350 for 30 min for cake. 15-20 min for cupcakes....I think.

I will confirm the cupcake baking time when I make them Tuesday night.

Frosting:

Use your best cream cheese frosting!

 Sure, this recipe will take a little more time to make than it would to use a box mix.

But man, it's delicious! 

I have a feeling I will be making these tomorrow night!  :)

Good luck Holly!