My creative juices are seriously flowing!
I have an unbelievable blessing in my life- a standing order of "three dozen of whatever you feel like making" for every weekend. SOOOOO I get to make yummy treats of my choice AND it gives me a chance to experiment. Most often, I make cupcakes because I am starting to get a little bit obsessed with these adorable bites of sweetness. So obsessed, in fact, that I decided to join a group called Martha Stewart Cupcake Club.
In order to find inspiration for cupcake flavors and other kitchen creations, I've been doing a lot of blog-reading. I have found a few really awesome blogs suggested from friends... check these out: Annie's Eats, Sweetopia, and i am baker. Those are just a few of the greats I've been stalking. Another page I'm addicted to is pinterest. My sister got me hooked on this a few weeks ago, and I've never looked back. This site has seriously made hours of my life magically disappear. I even found ideas for Ben's first birthday which isn't for 5 months!
While I was doing some of this blog-stalking, I've often seen this:
A club? Can I be in this club? I like cupcakes! I bake cupcakes! Sign me up!
So I did some research. To be in this club, you have to have this cookbook. I've looked for it everywhere but didn't want to pay $30. Finally, I stumbled upon it at TJ Maxx (another sick addiction of mine) and it was less than half that price. Purchase? Uh... I didn't have to think twice! There are a few other requirements for the club (can you walk a straight line with a cupcake delicately balancing on your head? Can you make marshmallow frosting from scratch with one hand tied behind your back?....... or holding a 7 month old in my case? Can you hop on one foot while piping icing roses?) I'm totally kidding about these, but there are other requirements that you can read about here. As if I needed an excuse to bake more often, I decided to apply for the club. And guess what??? I was accepted!!!! This way I would have some other bakers who could give me some constructive criticism about my work and *hopefully* teach me a few things about food photography. Because unless you haven't noticed, my skills in THAT are ridiculously poor. Thank goodness Lorrin helped me out with some pics, but it's hard to run every baked good I ever make to her so that she can snap a few shots of it.
SO starting in June, I'll be posting my MSCC treat. This month it will be a special cupcake for Father's Day... can't wait!! Stay tuned!!! :) :)
I am totally behind on posting images of my recent treats, but here are a few:
My proudest moment... a White Chocolate covered Cookie Fruit Tart... delish...
Raspberry cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream frosting, and a Blackberry filled cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting... mmm...
S'mores..... mmmmmm........
An experiment... Cinnamon scented cupcake with cinnamon chips, topped with cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and a few extra cinnamon chips
A classic... red velvet with cream cheese frosting
A coffee cake muffin -- next time this will have a crumbly streusel topping
An arial shot of a cherry almond muffin... not the pretties but one of the yummiest!
Super soft banana muffins.... as Lorrin put this, "You hit the nail on the head!"
Ok now here come the uglies..... These are images from my cell phone:
Watch for an upcoming blog post about these cookies.... these were a LOT of work but totally worth it! In the words of A, "These were the best sugar cookies I've ever eaten." :) :) :)
Yowzas... it's a good thing this tasted good. Creative? yes. Cute? yes. Got a good response? yes. RIDICULOUSLY SLOPPY? YES!!!!
Like I said, my creative juices are flowing... A few years ago one of my students' moms brought these in for my class. The teachers thought they were the cutest thing that we'd ever seen. The kids wanted nothing to do with them. This time I tried my luck with them at the Spaghetti Dinner at church... I think because it was mostly adults I got a better reaction :) Reports said "they were DELISH!"
Another experiment.... sweet potato cupcakes with toasted marshmallow frosting made from scratch. Yikes. These were a LOT of work!
Did someone say Nutella? Uhhhhhh yes, please!
Nutella swirled cupcakes with Nutella buttercream frosting
Caramel Apple cupcakes.... these are super sticky sweet......
Apple spice cake with caramel buttercream frosting.... yummo :)
