July Cupcake

cupcake of the month.4: peanut butter on chocolate

Here’s my cupcake of the month, just in the nick of time! I was really craving chocolate, last weekend, but never got around to making the cupcakes. I had some extra time, yesterday evening, and whipped these up. I used the chocolate cupcake recipe on joyofbaking.com and a peanut butter frosting recipe from allrecipes.com.

They came out pretty delicious. The cupcakes were moist and not overly sweet, which is a plus for me. The frosting tasted like the center of a Reese’s peanut butter cup, so that was pretty rad. My kids absolutely LOVED them. Especially Nathan, who usually isn’t into baked goods if they don’t involve a certain song and presents afterward. I’d call these a success.

!!PLUS!! Anytime I get to use all of my mixing bowls at once makes me smile inside. There’s something about these vintage Butterprint Pyrex bowls that gets my blood a-flowin’.

cupcake diptych

Taste the rainbow [cupcake]

Today has been all sorts of awesome. Andrew actually slept in and so I got to putter around in the morning. After breakfast, he noticed my [naked] cupcakes on the table and promptly requested one. I couldn’t deny the birthday boy a cupcake, so I split it with him. He loved it. A little bit later, I frosted them and sent two on their way with my mom, who was picking up Nate at school, to give to his teachers.

While we were waiting for Nate & Grandma to return, my sister and I took Andrew outside for some birthday photos with the cupcakes.

cupcake of the month.3: Happy Birthday!

I told you they were pretty! I didn’t get a chance to get a photo of the insides, but believe me when I say they are awesome! It was a beautiful little surprise when you split it. Everyone who had one loved it. Especially this little guy.

happy cupcake face [2]

Nathan requested a giant rainbow cake for his birthday (2 weeks away)! I can’t wait! I used this recipe as a general guideline to making them. My only tip would be to put only 1t of each color batter in the [baking] cups, instead of 2. You wouldn’t have enough batter to do 2 and they’d be huge with 10t of batter. One was sufficient!


#4 on my 25 before 26 list is to try a new cupcake recipe each month.

Chocolate attack!

double chocolate chip cookies

I made cookies, today. I used this recipe. I only had about 6oz of chocolate chips, so I ended up melting 3 and then folding 3 into the batter. I also added about half a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of chipotle chili powder into the cocoa-flour mixture. The spice is like a little echo in your mouth. You don’t really feel/taste it until you’ve swallowed. It’s YUM.

Now, go make some cookies!

p.s. Until Mother’s Day, EVERY order from the goodknits shop will receive a free mini-brooch! I ran out of pins, so I haven’t been able to update with the sweet little brooches I’ve made, but I hope to do so this weekend. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

p.p.s. goodknits is now on Twitter! Specific blog/shop/crafty updates: http://twitter.com/goodknits Add me, pretty please! I’ll reciprocate.:D

Red Hot April cupcake!

cupcake of the month.2: red hot!

The cupcake of the month (and maybe the year..) is Chocolate and Chilli! Again, I got the recipe from 500 Cupcakes. The batter was pretty hot and I was a little worried. Then, I ate a warm cupcake and it was kind of amazing. THEN, I made the frosting (!!) and oh my God! It was DELICIOUS! Like, all the flavors melted together and kindly left me ugghhhmmming in the kitchen for a few minutes. Yeah, I ate two cupcakes today. SUE ME!

The frosting calls for Tia Maria, a coffee liqueur. I’m sure you can find it in any liquor store, but we used it as a reason to go to our favorite liquor/specialty foods & cheeses store, Spec’s. We visit the downtown Houston location, which is a pretty big warehouse with endless amounts of beer, wine, liquor, gourmet foods, cheeses, and an awesome deli ($2.50 po-boys! get ’em! they’re amazinggg). It was pricey, but I think it’s worth it. Same goes for the dutch-process cocoa and chipotle chilli powder. These are probably the priciest homemade cupcakes I’ve ever made! But. Seriously, guys. I wish I could email them to everyone I know because I think I’m going to marry it. They were that good.

I want to share the recipe, but that might be illegal, since it’s from a book. You should probably buy it, anyway. It’s cheap and there are 500 variations of cupcakes in it. A cupcake book! Everyone loves cupcakes.

I Heart Desserts!

I always want seconds. That’s how I remember how to spell the word. It’s true, though. Ask my gut.

If you’re friends with me on Flickr, you probably saw this photo, last week.
#4 on my 25 before 26 list was to try a new cupcake recipe each month. I JUST made the deadline, as it was already the last day of March. I made banana cupcakes. This isn’t the first time I’ve made these, but it is the first time I’ve shared a photo of them, so I’ll count it off my list.

cupcake a month.1: banana!

I’m not too big on frosting, so these were naked. The recipe (in 500 cupcakes, which was gifted to me by my awesome mother-in-law on Christmas) called for a cream cheese frosting. I think the reason I don’t usually frost my cupcakes (MUFFINS?!) is that I suck at making frosting. Maybe I should practice, this year. Perhaps by my next birthday, I’ll be able to successfully ice an entirely from-scratch cake.

Check out all the desserts entries at I ♥ Faces, this week. They will make you crave something sweet, even though it’s almost midnight, you’ve just brushed your teeth, and are all ready for bed. Perhaps that cheesecake in my fridge really did call my name, as I was walking down the hall. Perhaps…