S'More S'More Cupcakes, Please!

Hubby's birthday was quickly approaching, and I asked him what type of cupcakes he'd like for his birthday dinner.  He quickly said s'mores.  I think he'd been thinking about it for awhile.  I sent him several recipes, graham cake, chocolate cake, etc.

As we all know, the three essential ingredients for the all-american s'more include the following:
- graham crackers
- toasted marshmallow
- chocolate.

Three of my favorite!

And for whatever reason, graham crackers, crushed up and mixed with melted butter, taste oh, that much better!

I use this handy tasting glass from a Beer Fest long ago when I make cupcake crusts.  It works great!

So, I forgot to mention one of the best parts of a s'more is the melted chocolate.  So my cupcakes had to have a bit of melted chocolate, right?

(Melted chocolate on top of the graham cracker crust, soon to be topped with chocolate cupcake batter, more melted chocolate, and more graham!)

And you simply can not have a s'more without marshmallow.  How's some homemade sound?

Come on baby, light my fire!  Oh yeah!  This kitchen torch was the most fun, and I let hubby do the honors!

Add some decorations and voila! Beautiful cupcakes.

*Eat with caution.  After my boss ate these she told me to quit my job.  You just lose all rational thought!

Red, White & Berry

My many apologies for such a late and outdated post.  The good news is that in the world of Pinterest, someone will find this post around the Fourth of July and then if I'm lucky, a few people will re-pin the image!

If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with berries.  I hear that berries will help you live longer.  If that's true, I'm going to be 100 because I eat them nearly every single day.  I've used berries in my baking before, but I'm really more of a chocolate person.

I got the idea that I wanted to swirl strawberries and blueberries and use some super cute liners that a good friend sent me at least a year ago.  I couldn't find the exact recipe I was looking for, so I put a bunch together.

Here's the results:
Shortbread Cookie Crust
Vanilla Cupcake swirled with strawberry sauce & blueberry puree.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Simply Delish.

Cupakes with Cakepops

I love to bake.  You know that.  But guess who loves it even more than me?  My hubby.  He loves to eat the treats of my labor.  He's a chocoholic from way back. 

When his birthday came up this year, I really wanted to do something special for him.  He had supported me through yet another job change, and I had a good idea of what I wanted to do.

A cakepop, on top of a cupcake!  How perfect is that?

I searched and searched on the internet and couldn't really find any examples of this.  So I decided to wing it!  I used my intoxicated cupcakes recipe book to find a "chocolate stout" cupcake recipe.  Steve loves beer.  He probably loves beer more than he loves my baking!

I got really busy around the time I made these, and I never was able to blog them.  So, here are a few of the amazing picture of my cupcake/cakepop tower!!!!

Pink Rolled Flower Cupcakes

I absolutely fall in love quickly, and passionately.  When I love something, I can't get it out of my mind.  That is exactly what happened when I stumbled upon this amazing cake on Facebook. I saved the image to my desktop and thought & thought about how I could emulate this look with cupcakes.

I have a super supportive friend who I've mentioned on this blog before.  We work in the same building, and we ran into each other in the hallway about a month ago.  I mentioned that I was working with a mom on a first birthday party (the mom ended up making cupcakes on her own) and my friend piped up with her own need for first birthday celebration cupcakes.  I told her I had a great idea, sent her the picture, and it was a deal!

I knew that I wasn't going to modify a caulk gun to get super perfect tubes of fondant, but I did use some science, weighing, & measuring to make sure the flowers were as uniform as possible.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and I hope my friend & her family enjoyed them!

Bourbon Ball Cupcakes

My good friend was celebrating a birthday, and I've never made him cupcakes before.  I decided on Bourbon Ball Cupcakes!

My friend is a gin lover, but I really didn't think gin cupcakes would be good on any level, so I searched through my "Intoxicated Cupcakes" recipe book.  I used this same book last summer to make hubby's chocolate stout birthday cupcakes.  They were amazing:

When I saw "Bourbon Ball" cupcakes, and read through the recipe, I knew it was a must-try!!

Step one: make the bourbon balls!

Step two: sift the cake flour with the amazing spice combination of All Spice, Nutmeg & Cinnamon!

Step three: amazing butter, and dark brown sugar. 

Step four: one scoop of dough, drop one bourbon ball in each, another scoop of dough & bake.

Step five - try not to eat the cupcakes before you've frosted them.  The smells were amazing.

Step six: make amazing frosting with melted chocolate, butter, sugar & bourbon.  Yummmmmm.

Step seven: Now you can enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Mascarpone Cupcakes

My friends are awesome.  Every month we have a potluck.  We rotate houses, and the hosts cook the main course & choose the theme.  In February, the hostess wavered between Mardi Gras (ultimately the holiday fell too early this year) and Oscar Movies, but ended up going Italian.  Although I was dying to sign up for salad-in-a-bag or garlic bread (something easy since I was working on a huge conference for my day job and needed something easy), I got stuck with dessert.  Well, I wasn't going to make tiramisu!!!  So I started looking for an Italian Cupcake recipe.  I'm always willing to try something new, something different.  :)

I found this recipe from food network, and Giada*. I don't watch Food Network (except for Cupcake Wars of course) nor am I a huge fan of cooking shows (only Martha Bakes).  But I watched this little video and made these little cupcakes, and if I do say so myself, they turned out AMAZING.  Super delish!  A must-try!!!

Delicious Chocolate Chip Mascarpone Cupcakes!

Ran out of mini choc chips for the tops, so I used pretty, pretty sprinkles.

Amazingly delish!

*There is a great food podcast out there called "Dining with Doug & Karen."  One of those hosts, Doug Benson, is my favorite comic of all time.  But I am quickly falling in love with Karen Anderson, the other host.  On a recent episode, she asked a guest if they liked Giada.  Karen said that she didn't like Giada, and it was because she always tries to make words "all Italianey."  I laughed out loud because in the video for this cupcake recipe, she pronounces mascarpone "all Italianey."  It's hilarious.  I <3 you, Karen!  Thanks for making me laugh on my drive to and from work.  And you, too, Doug.