~ Autumn Cupcakes~

It's that time of year...family....baking....brisk air....pumpkins....all the things that make me love Fall! I've been asked to make a few different types of fall style cupcakes so this is kind of a compilation of them. Great spices for fall can be just about anything...but when it comes to baking I love the ones that fill your home with that warm toasty smell like clove, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and of course vanilla. Hope your Thanksgiving Day is wonderful!

Vanilla Spiced Chai

More of the same

Maple and Pumpkin Butter Cream

Ginger Spice

Black Tea Chai with whipped cream

Toasted Walnut and Carrot with Vanilla Cream Cheese

"Pumpkin" spice

More of the same

Tiger Spiced Chai with chai syrup

There are so many different ways to add some spice to a cupcake these are just of a few of my favorites.

~Merci!~

They sell the most amazing White Chocolate Macadamia nut cookies in the mall here in town. So I did my version cupcake style. They were delish! Most went to the bake sale at my place of work to raise money, but a few lucky people got a free sample before they were all gone.

Fresh out of the oven

Swirls of white chocolate butter cream

"Merci" pressed fondant as a thank you for buying them at the bake sale

~Merci!~ with a little love

One pink heart to give a little pop of color.

For the "merci" I used a rubberstamp from the craft store.

Very easy, but make sure to "emboss" the fondant right away so it doesn't dry.

Otherwise your words or design might not be as prominent.

~Jumping on the Macaron Bandwagon~

I admit it. I made fun of those girls who first wore skinny jeans...now I wear them. Does that make me a follower? Maybe. Well...I've always loved cupcakes so I am proud to say I didn't just jump on that bandwagon...however...the Parisian or French or Macaroon or Macaron (who knows the real name?) bandwagon just showed up and I'm trying to get behind the wheel let alone just on the wagon. I am so enticed by these little clouds of sugar and egg in all their bright colors that I just had to give it a go....so here is my attempt at the "Parisian Macaron"...

My first try was Martha's recipe...I used way too much pink gel food coloring. As if I was licking a marker tip. They were very pink...and other than the chemical taste from the gel they were very sweet and pretty much tasted like nutty textured meringue. Almost like coconut which is what an American Macaroon recipe calls for. The French recipes call for Almonds... "pulverized" blanched almonds...so I took slivered almonds I already had and blanched them (boiled for 1 min. then shocked with cold water). I put them in the food processor and tried my best to beat the life out of them, but they were still gritty in texture. I assumed that was okay as they refused to get any finer. I followed the recipe as it stated and when they were all done baking they were as I described above...like a little cloud of chemical sweetness. Ick. My mouth was pink until noon the next day. They had no "feet" as a macaron should have and they did not flatten out at all...the peeks from piping them baked in position like little witch hats.

Second attempt...I found a recipe adapted from The Sweet Life In Paris by David Lebovitz. No food coloring just cocoa powder to color and add flavor. Still called for almonds only I opted not to blanch them and they pureed down to a nice powder texture. After following all the steps carefully, I piped them onto the parchment paper then banged the pan on the counter as it said to do to flatten them, but the peeks stayed in place tall, pointy, defiant. So I dipped my finger in cold water and smoothed them out. This worked very well, next time I'll use a spoon. The final product was good, some very uniform photo worthy "french macarons" and some odd shaped, cracked or blown open by hot air. So here are the "presentable ones" and I'm eating the other's as I type this. So they won't feel left out. I filled my macaron's with chocolate butter cream and orange and vanilla butter cream.

You can find the full recipe at: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/

All in all they are gorgeous and delicious...but one or two is plenty.

Chocolate with Orange Cream

Chocolate & Chocolate
First batch of pink flops... : (
Perfect little "feet"
One good one out of many messed ups...but they all tasted the same!

~Jack's Birds~

These are practice cupcakes...I wanted to try a bird design and these turned out really well. I like the texture of the wing...I used an embossing tool. Just royal icing for the letters, next time I'll either tint it a color or use something else to fancy it up a bit. Very cute for a baby boys birthday or something. These are for my dog Jack's birthday...he loves birds. Or he just wants to catch them. Either way I'm sure he'll enjoy the cupcakes!

The only bird Jack will ever catch... ; )

~Metallics and Cupcakes~

These were just for fun...I received an order from the UK with lots of great cupcake "stuff". The edible glitter used on these cupcakes is called " Disco Mocha" by EdAble Art. Added to a little brown food gel and extract to make it more of a liquid and it made these embossed fondant covered cupcakes look like copper. I love the look and will definitely use this again soon.

I added a little fondant bow also painted with the glitter.

~Lady Bug Cupcakes~

These Lady Bug cupcakes are red velvet and cream cheese frosting...they seem to be so "in" right now. Everything is made of fondant and I used an edible pen for the dots.

They turned out so very cute!

Buzzing around the flowers...

Two by Two

Red Checked cupcake liners went perfectly with

the greens and reds of nature.

~Scooters & Cupcakes~

My husband asked me to be in a scooter calendar....gulp....and I agreed. The scooter that I sat on for the photos is a Vespa Allstate. It was a pretty sea foam color and I really had fun despite the fact I was so freaked out about having my picture taken. So I decided to try to recreate that same scooter on a cupcake. I guess it's our two loves in one! I included one of the pictures from the photo shoot as well. His sister Allison is a professional photographer at www.creativeimagesbyallison.com and she was able to make me feel comfortable through the whole thing...well her and one large margarita! The fondant scooter is a little messy not nearly as pretty as the real one but with a little practice I think these could be cute for birthday cupcakes or maybe for his scooter shop www.greentreescooters.com anniversary.

Me and the Allstate scooter cupcakes
side view
the color of the fondant is much closer to the

actual color of the scooter than it looks in these pictures

scoot leaning on a cupcake

~Fondant~

Fondant is officially my friend. It took me a while to come around but I do like working with fondant. It's messy at times and dries out pretty fast but it can make for some really pretty decorations. Here are a few fondant decorated cupcakes...I realize there is a craft to this and I am slowly getting better. Slowly. :) But I am open to trying anything.

Fondant Hearts in shades of blue and green

Script letters on fondants then painted with edible luster dust

Fondant Hearts

Fondant Script letters

Fondant Paw Prints and Bones with Letter C

and fondant hearts

Fondant hearts layered in different colors

Fondant flowers that come in different sizes and colors

I like the look of layering them too. But no pics yet of that.

Script letters, gift boxes and flower bouquets all of fondant

White and pale pink rose bouquet

Front of flowers

Fondant letters layered and hand painted with luster dust

Side of roses with ribbon all fondant

Front of pink roses

Top of flowers on fondant disk

Fondant Script
all letters painted with edible luster dust on fondant