~Chai Cupcakes~

I'm practicing Chai Cupcakes for my besties birthday...my first time making tea infused cupcakes. For those of you who don't know what Chai is...it's black tea with different spices... Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, Star Anise and I then added Vanilla Bean. This cupcake is one I would prefer in the fall...but it's not my birthday so I just do what I'm told. :) I topped these with vanilla bean butter cream and then a little of the mixed spices. I would do a simple whipped cream with vanilla bean and same spices as it seams like a more appealing topping...maybe the same way they might top a Chai beverage at a coffee shop. They turned out pretty good.

Ground spices

Black Tea and chai spices

My fave vanilla bean paste

Chai Tea cupcake in a tea cup

Spiced cupcake

~cupcake paraphernalia~

Just pics of the things I look forward to all day long...well some of the things!

Most people wouldn't be as excited but if you love cupcaking you will understand the joy of

getting all the baking paraphernalia in the mail! Including fancy little cupcake business cards...

How cute are these? Made by me on Zazzle.com

I love these pretty girly cups from Etsy.com


Also from Etsy.com (a little small but cute)

Sugar hearts in all sorts of colors

perfect for cupcake topping!

I think these will be great on birthday cupcakes for my gorgeous little sis Samantha

who turns the big 20 this Saturday!

These are fancy "Cherries Jubilee Pinwheel Cupcake Toppers"

from Cupcake Social at Etsy.com

I love the preppy look they will bring to some rich chocolate

and cherry cupcakes or maybe cherry vanilla cupcakes...

~Pirate Cupcakes for Father's Day~

Happy Father's day to all you proud dads!

These cupcakes were made for a friend on a holiday that is bitter sweet for her. Her dad passed away last year and this will be her first father's day without him. She order these for her husband's dad for his Father's Day treat. So...on a lighter note...she requested Pirate theme cupcakes and although I've only done a few themed orders I was more than happy to give it a go...I did not make the sugar skulls...again I am not that good at decorations yet so I special ordered these on Etsy.com. They are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter cream frosting. I did a few with gold sugar crystals as they kinda looked like little gold bars...which might I add Pirates really love! Though I've never met a pirate, I'm gonna assume I right. Anyways, just my basic choc. cupcake recipe and my favorite choc. butter cream. Very rich...again...like a pirate would want to be. ;)

~Baby Shower Cupcakes~

I is for Izabella

These darling little cakes were made for my sister Emily's friend Jen. She is having a baby girl to be named Izabella (not sure on the spelling). I did not make the fondant tops, I ordered them on Etsy.com because the larger size of the order, I was not confident enough to do my own...but now that I've seen them I think I could make them...not as well but practice makes perfect! They are all chocolate cupcakes with either chocolate or vanilla bean butter cream frosting. I love the look of the over all cupcake and maybe soon I can display some of my own fondant work.

Chocolate butter cream piled high on a Chocolate cupcake

working on getting them all ready to go.... Baby Giraffe for Baby Izabella

~Cherry & Chocolate...take-two!~

~ A Marriage of Chocolate & Cherries ~

So...I liked the last recipe for these sweet cupcakes...but I wanted to try it again with just a few tweaks. I really like this version of the recipe better. Plus the frosting (vanilla cream cheese) and one fresh Bing Cherry on top kinda made the cupcake complete. I'm very happy to present these to a friend...hope they're just as happy to accept! They consist of my basic chocolate cupcake recipe then I folded in coarsely chopped dark chocolate and tart dried cherries that I had soaked over night in 100% organic cherry juice and a little sugar. I like to keep things simple and I think this cupcake is a perfect example of delicious simplicity. Glad I saved a few for myself ; )

~Lemon Cupcakes~

Lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon zest cream cheese frosting....my kitchen smells like summer! I love love love lemons so I used the extra ones to make Cherry Lemonade too! This recipe is just my basic lemon cupcake recipe and I decided to buy some organic lemon curd I saw at the local grocery store. The cream cheese frosting is pretty basic too...then I decided to candy some of the lemon peel to top it off. Fresh pretty cupcakes.

If life gives you lemons...

candy them?

and make cupcakes!

I decided to use these simple cupcake liners
because one of my fave blogs "Cupcake Bake Shop"
posts cupcakes in them all the time. They're classic and
gorgeous!

Fresh Cherry Lemonade

~Chocolate and Cherry~

These are practice cupcakes for a request I have in 2 weeks...and I'm really feeling like an amateur at the moment. I feel passionately about quality ingredients in addition to putting time and effort into all my cupcakes so naturally I did that with these Cherry Chocolate cupcakes. I used dried cherries and "rejuvenated them" with 100% Cherry juice (thought about using a nice liquor....maybe next time). Coarsely chopped dark chocolate and lots of butter! The cupcake itself was very moist and the cherries were slightly bitter yet went very well with the chocolate. Although I followed all my recipe rules to a "t" they still fell in the center. But the result was so rich and delish that I can't complain. I used cherry juice and one whole vanilla bean to make a butter cream frosting. I love the pale pink color next to the dark chocolate cake. Pretty little cupcakes. I'm not 100% happy with them yet...so I'll keep working on them for now. I loved the red cupcake liners I bought but the color dyed my cupcake pan?! Oops! Well...at least they tasted good!50% cocoa chocolate chopped

folding in cherries and chocolate

cooling off

the results

just having a little girly fun with cupcakes & my fave tea cup