A Toast To Myself

Good news everyone!! I'm all moved in and the house looks great! I am living with two of my sorority sisters, Sheriyln and Julia and my suitemate, Kerry. These girls are all super sweet and they arn't too upset about me being obsessed with making cupcakes(teehee). I have made 3 different cupcakes since I moved in, but the first one I am going to tell you about is the one I made for my birthday party.

My housemates and I decided to have a birthday/housewarming party the first week after we were all moved in. Guess what guys, I'M 21!!!!! (Thanks to my mother and Ken, I got a pink KitchenAid). WOOOHOOO!!! (Thanks!) But, back to the party, we went shopping for snacks to have at the party and then it hit me, I'll make margarita cupcakes! I"ve never made these before but I've heard from a chili friend that they are superb (Thanks Becky)! I also got a new cupcake book for my birthday from my Aunt and there it lay, a recipe for Margarita Cupcakes. They sounded phenomenal and they looked so pretty. So I started making the cupcakes and ended up having to make another batch because we figured 12 cupcakes wouldn't be enough. After the two batches of Margarita cupcakes were all cooled off, I started with the icing. Lime Juice, powdered sugar, and that "other stuff" you put in margaritas. I had a lot of icing left and my housemates definently took advantage of the yummy icing, they all poured it into mugs and drank it straight like a real Margarita! After the icing was put on top of the cupcake, I sprinkled it with edible glitter and sugar and stuck a straw in it. Perfecto!

I also made Snickerdoodle upcakes because everyone LOVES those! I ended up with over 50 cupcakes and even got to use my new Wilson cupcake stand! I made regular size snickerdoodles and also mini, some people don't like sweets so I thought the mini would give people a good alternative.

The party turned out really good and everyone LOVED the cupcakes. Tootles!

Another Cupcake Competition: White Chocolate

This will probably be my last post for a while because I am currently moving to a STUNNING house in Georgetown with 3 of my best friends. So remember in my last post how I explained about my Chocolate Lab stealing my cupcakes? Well, I caught him this time!



Little Thief!! He couldn't help it this time, my White Chocolate Pistachio cupcake was HEAVENLY!!!! This is The Sweetest Kitchen's second month at doing the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge and last month was a HUGE hit. The secret ingredient was Tea, and I made a Chai/Matcha cupcake that turned out okay, but I wasn't very impressed. This month, when I found out the secret ingredient was White Chocolate, I couldn't resist using Pistachio's! I love this little nut and believe it or not, they are phenomenal in cupcakes! And, Charlie agrees!


Good luck to all the competitors, and here are the sponsers this month:

The winner of August’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; $5 electronic gift card


• Beanilla; 3 Indian + 3 Tahitian vanilla beans & a jar of Ground Vanilla


• CT2Designs; a cupcake ring


• Miss Kitty Creations; a cupcake charm of your choice


• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25

Thank you times a million to all of our prize sponsers!

For more information on the competition go here: http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/mysterybox/

Cupcake Hero August!

Hello y'all!

I didn't win last month but I came in 2nd, so I'm giving it another go!Congradulations to (vegan) CUPCAKES and Other Culinary Creations! My oven has been broken so I haven't been able to make many cupcakes but I was able to make a cupcake for the August edition of Cupcake Hero! I had many different cupcakes that included raspberries so picking which cupcake I would make for August was pretty difficult. I made one cupcake that had a full cup of squished raspberries in the batter and that cupcake came out WAY to dense. The fresh whipped cream was also not the right choice for the icing. So that cupcake was easy to mark off the list. The second cupcake that was a close runner up was my raspberry vodka cupcake that I have previously posted about, but I don't like the idea of putting alcohol in my Cupcake Hero contender incase the host for the month doesn't drink alcohol (Yes I'm thinking about you CUPCAKES and Other Culinary Creations)! So I ex'd that one out pretty quickly as well. And then I had a lightbulb moment and BAM the PERFECT cupcake was born. Introducing the Lip-Smacking Raspberry Cupcake:




Ingredients:

3/4 cup raspberries
12 paper liners
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in one 12-cup cupcake tin.
2.) Whisk flour, baking powder, and ssalt together in a small bowl to combine; set aside.
3.) Whisk egg whites and milk together in a small bowl to combine; set aside
4.) In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl once or twice.
5.) Beat in vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in 4 additions, alternating the egg and milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture, make sure everything is combined.
6.) Fold 3/4 cup raspberries into the batter.
7.) Divide batter evenly using an ice cream scoop or two spoons.
8.) Bake for 20-23 minutes or until golden brown. You can also test them by touching the tops of the cupcakes, if they spring to the touch then they are ready!

Raspberry buttercream:

1 stick butter
3/4 cup raspberries
4 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.) In a large bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy
2.) Add the icing sugar and beat on the lowest setting until fully combined.
3.) Add vanilla extract and beat on medium-high until it is a light brown color
4.) If the icing is too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk
5.) If it is too runny for your liking, add more icing sugar
6.) Add the raspberries to the mixer. Adding the raspberries in the mixer will make the icing turn a pretty pink and you will see the loverly raspberry seeds.

Put in a icing bag with your favorite tip and pipe on this beautiful icing onto your cooled cupcake.

Eat and ENJOY! (I sure did!)

TOOTLES!