Army Man Cupcakes

I'm currently a nanny for a family of three children, two boys (11 & 9) and one girl (3). A few weeks ago, as he's running out the door to catch the bus, the 9 year old requested army and camouflage cupcakes for his family birthday party...that night. I had about a billion errands to run that day as well as a pile of sports uniforms to wash for weekend games/practices, but I had to give it a try. He hardly asks for anything and is such a sweet boy! With my limited time, he had to settle for a boxed cake mix..but I did manage to make homemade buttercream frosting. 

Don't judge me for the picture...it was taken with my dying blackberry and is horribly blurry! But it gives you an idea of how they came out! I forgot to take a picture of the camo ones, but they came out ok. A little more like a globe than camo, but he didn't mind. 

It was super simple too! I just crushed up a bunch of oreos and rolled the frosted cupcake in them...and stuck an army guy down inside so it looked like he was hiding in the mud. They were a big hit and he was thrilled!

He later told me that I would win in an awesome contest...as the "Awesomest Nanny Ever"

Score!

It's amazing how a simple gesture can make a child's day :)

Cupcake Quilt

SO I'm going to be honest...I did this project a WHILE ago! In fact, the baby that this was made for is now 6 months old...and this was her shower gift. YIKES! But as I mentioned, there's been a lot going on recently, so I can't get too bent out of shape over it ;-) 

So once upon a time...my lovely cousin was having baby! For her "sprinkle" I wanted to make her and the baby something special..one of a kid and from the heart! 

So I thought for a while and this is what I came up with!

The best part is, it turned out so close to what was in my head! That almost never happens. Know what I mean? I always seem to come up with these ideas and I get so excited about them but they hardly ever come out the way I had hoped. Not this time! I was really pleased! And it was soooo simple...other than the fact that I didn't know how to quilt. Details. Details. But even that turned out ok! 


I went to Christmas Tree Shop to get an inexpensive lamp shade. As a matter of fact, the Mommy-to-be-again, was shopping with me. She probably wondered why I was buying such a boring shade! Now since I used hot glue, I had to work quickly so these are the only pictures I have. But seriously, you don't need them. It wasn't hard. I just measured the shade from top to bottom...which luckily for me was 12 inches so I didn't have to cut my paper! I folded the paper like an accordion, every 3/4 inch or so and hot glued them to the shade. Easy peasy! 

The quilt on the other hand was harder for me since the only one I've ever made was TINY and several years ago. I played around with some patterns, but ended up going for tried and true...squares! Just to ensure that this pretty Mama actually received a gift on time. haha I fell in love with the pattern of the polka dot fabric and since it the gender was a secret, I thought it would be a good choice! 


I was so thrilled with the way it came out..and having some left over red felt and a fake flower stem was just the "cherry on top." HA! Sorry, bad pun. But that's all it was really, a little red felt sewn into a circle and a fake flower stem that I clipped the flower off of and hot glued it inside. Done and done. 

Here's the woman of the day and her giant cupcake!

(I promise she's not naturally this orange!)

I think she liked it! And thought it was...dare I say..."Sweet?" 

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

If there was one treat I wish I could eat...all the time...for no calories...it would be raw chocolate chip cookie dough. mmm At my friend's college, they served partially baked cookie dough in little parchment wrappers...I was always jealous! Last year I found an awesome egg-less cookie dough recipes that I used in truffles and for snacking purposes, but I always wondered how it would taste on a cupcake. Now, if I'm being honest, this recipe is not as good as the eggless cookie dough, but it is really yummy and tastes super great on graham crackers...just saying! I want to try and thin out my other recipe and use that as frosting, but I haven't gotten a chance yet. Don't worry, it will happen.

Cross my heart.

For now, let me share: 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting 

From: Perry's Plate

 

*This makes a LOT of frosting, I halved it and it worked fine*

Ingredients: 

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. milk
• 2½ tsp. vanilla extract 

Procedure

1. Beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.
2. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
3. Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I put a piece of cookie dough in the batter before I baked them. It was pretty awesome, but next time, I will fill the cupcake with raw cookie dough. It was lost a little by baking it.  

Don't hate me :)

Coconut Rum Cupcakes

I have more cupcakes I want to try than I have events to bake them for! This is a flavorful little guy, so if you don't like coconut...it's not the one for you. I have had my eye on this baby for a while, but never got around to making it. Then I saw that Kate, from A Healthy Passion, took this awesome recipe and and brought the calorie and fat count down a bit, which is awesome! I know that it's difficult to lighten a coconut recipe, it's just naturally high in fat...but so yummy! I just had to try them.

 

Coconut Rum Cupcakes-Lightened up!

adapted by A Healthy Passion, originally by How Sweet

Ingredients:

3/4 cup raw cane sugar

1/2 cup salted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup light coconut milk

1/3  cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup coconut rum

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy. Add vanilla and coconut extracts and mix until combined.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients. Add coconut rum and fold in shredded coconut.

Pour into cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 mins at 350. Let cool, then frost.

Malibu Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup coconut rum

1 tablespoon vanilla

Cream butter until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, alternating with rum and vanilla, until desired consistency is reached. Feel free to add more or less sugar or liquid based on how thick you want your frosting.

Hole in one.

 

 

I don't have a lot of time tonight, but I wanted to share these cupcakes I made for my boss' dad's birthday! He's a big golfer so I thought these would be fitting. I'm sure I'm not the first person to make something like this, but I've had the idea in my mind for over a year and finally had a reason to make them! I made my first batch of golf balls using Oreo truffles dipped in white chocolate...but I couldn't make the little indentations. It looked like a ping pong ball. HA. So I ended up making some marshmallow fondant instead. It worked a lot better, but certainly didn't taste as good. I hope he liked them, I certainly had fun making them!

Here is the recipe I used for the fondant. It can be found on Cake Central.

Easy Marshmallow Fondant

Ingredients

• 1 16oz tub of Marshmallow fluff
  6-8 cups of confectioners sugar
  2 tsp of flavoring of your choice
  paste colors (Optional)

Instructions

Empty contents of marshmallow fluff in large bowl. add flavoring and stir with spoon. If you desire to color the fondant add your desired color at this stage. Then add confectioners sugar two cups at a time and mix with spoon until no longer sticky, then place on large pastry board or mat lightly rubbed with vegetable shortening and knead until smooth and pliable. Roll out to desired size for covering cake.

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes

With only two people in our home, I find it difficult to try many of the recipes I would like to...because I don't want to be the one to eat it all! Now, I've got a pretty big family, many of whom are more than willing to help me out here...but there are only so many occasions to make cupcakes and sweets.

Well,  thanks to my high school science teacher, I've fallen into a lovely situation! I now have my very own group of "taste testers!" My sister is taking a class taught by my Mrs. D and I asked if she would like to bring something in to share with her friends. Well many of them loved it and the teacher said any time I want to bring something in...the kids would be thrilled to eat it. (Surprise, surprise!) Well I hope Mrs. D knows what she's getting herself into! I can now make whatever I want and don't have to worry about who to send it to! Yippy! I can't even tell you how excited this makes me.

I've had these cupcakes in my head for a while now and finally had the chance to make them....and send them far far away from my home. Now, I'm not ready to share the recipe just yet. They were good, really good...but they still need some work. For now, just enjoy some calorie-free eye candy! 

 I promise to share the recipe as soon as it's done! Promise!