Baking with the Hamiltons!

I had a good weekend, a very good weekend indeed! It was a great joy to spend Sunday afternoon baking with our friend Heather and her kiddos. They were such great helpers and so fun. One of the things I love about cupcakes is that they make everyone a little bit like a kid again. Austin and Abbey helped measure, mix and of course taste test! And they were in charge of sprinkles!! We gave them each a bowl to sprinkle over to catch the extras. After all the cupcakes were sprinkled, I was planning on emptying the bowls into a canister to use another day. But, before I could they had planted themselves face down and were licking the sprinkles off the bottom. It was hilarious....and so fun, I just had to capture it on film. I hope that you all will take some time and bake with your kids. If you don't have any kids, have a baking party with your nieces or nephews or friends that have kids, it is so worth it! love ya'll....I'll have new cupcakes up soon. P.S. In all the cupcake baking of Sunday my mixer got a name: MAX. He's a Heavy Duty Kitchen Aid and lately I've spent more time with him than I would care to admit. haha.

Wales Cupcakes

I forgot to post about my experience in Wales and England with cupcakes! I had this grand idea that I would get to go to a cupcakery across the pond, but I searched and searched and never found the one in London. But I did go to Harrods and they have a huge bakery area and I found fairy cakes (the equivalent to cupcakes) They were more like a chocolate brownie and super rich. Definitely not awful.

Then I stumbled into a bakery in Cardiff, Wales and bought a pink Mother's Day cupcake. It had a strawberry poured fondant icing. and white cake. It was tasty but dry. I wasn't mad at it though.

I will be having some cupcakes when I go back this summer though. My friend is on the hunt there to find the exact location!

Back Again...

Ok, so I realize I haven't blogged in much more than a week...but I was just a little bit busy. But I do have two tasty treasures to share with you. First off, I'd like to say that nothing relaxes me more than baking up cupcakes and giving them to friends! This past weekend I had a retreat for work and I was really excited to see all of the students and leaders. I determined that I would make cupcakes for each person even if I had to stay up late. Right before the leaders arrived on Friday evening, I was baking cupcakes and had to run outside real quick. On the way back into the house I twisted my ankle, and passed out for a second. Thankfully, I had a friend helping me and she checked the cakes in the oven. But oh my the pain and timing of my injury was less than wonderful. I ended up having to miss the beginning of the retreat, BUT I made my friend prop me in the kitchen so I could frost the cupcakes. Needless to say, all 50 some odd people ate cupcakes and enjoyed them. And I am still icing my black and blue bruised ankle. Now on to the treasures...My cousin and best friend Britt had a birthday this past week! She has always had an aversion to chocolate cake but somehow now all she ever requests from me is chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and it had to be Pink!

Next, my friend Katelyn had a b-day and she requested Fuzzy Navel Cupcakes. I know, I know that's a drink, but I got the recipe here and tweaked it a little and it's very tasty! One of my favorites.

What I did last week...

OK friends so I find myself wanting to blog all the time but realizing that I really only have time to blog once a week. But it's worth it isn't it? If I had more time to blog then I would have nothing to blog about. First up we have a new cupcake flavor: Mom's pina colada. My mom has always loved pineapple and coconut so this is the perfect cupcake for her! It's a moist butter cake flavored with 100% pineapple juice and coconut milk, then it's finished with two kinds of frosting!: Pineapple butter cream and Coconut whipped cream. This might be my new favorite frosting. Originally I had planned to swirl them together but still separate but the pastry tip I was using got clogged with the pineapple so I just folded the two frosting's together and piled it on top with an open pastry tip. Next time I'll start that way first.

Next, I made some cupcakes for my friend Cameron for his birthday. Cam loves baseball so of course he had to have baseball cupcakes. I will definitely do those again if anyone wants some!

Then I went to North Carolina for a wedding and was able to visit Cupcake Shoppe Bakery in Raleigh. The atmosphere was great! The shop is downtown in the heart of coolness. And they stay open till 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights! I tried as many of their cupcakes as possible. I had, carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese, chocolate cake with mint butter cream, strawberry cake with strawberry butter cream, chocolate cake with peanut butter butter cream, chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream and red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I did not eat a whole one, just a taste of each over the course of 4 days. Taste testing cupcakes is hard work! A box even travelled all the way back to Texas with me. I think, even with the days later testing that the carrot cake cupcake was the best, mainly because of the cinnamon cream cheese. However, I will say that this cupcake shoppe has the best chocolate cake I've had at a shop so far. The only negative at all is that the butter cream frosting's were overwhelming. They were too sweet and too much. I know, I know who ever heard of too much frosting. but coming from this frosting lover, believe it. They have the friendliest staff who put up with my ridiculous excitement and stupid questions. It is worth a trip to see them!

I'm going to be very busy over the next few weeks, but hopefully I'll have a little time to bake up some new flavors. Love ya'll.