Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Last time I baked a cake with this recipe (the one decorated into Rilukkuma teddy bears in Japanese hot springs bath) it became a big hit. Also I myself wanna eat more :D So I baked it again but this time in form of cupcakes.

The cake texture was incredibly soft. Both the sponge and the frosting smelled and tasted fantastic. Thinking that peanut butter should taste good when pairing with chocolate, I melted some and drizzled it on top -- they did make the cupcakes taste better! I could never stop at just one piece each time I started nibbling those yummy cuppies :)

The recipe is from Martha Stewart. I must say I really love it and will definitely bake them again.

iPhone / iPad Devils

October is the birth month of two of my very close family members: my father and my husband's big brother. The challenge is that their birthdays are very close to each other, say 2 days. Thus, if I set up 2 separated cake projects, there wouldn't be adequate time to bake & decorate both cakes properly. So let's combine them into one then!

I {HEART} decorating cakes. So, for birthday cakes, I always try as much as possible to customize them according to the birthday persons.

Good that these two persons, in spite of all their differences, clearly have one thing in common: IT savvy. The picture of amazing, cute little iPhone cupcakes I've come across years ago then popped up in my head. At that time I could even barely bake. Now as I'm learning cake decoration, I'll give it a shot.

As usual, I started out making sugar plates. You might notice that there're many plates than needed. Because it takes time to dry sugar plates, spares needed to be prepared at the first place. You don't want to end up having 11 usable plates for 12 cupcakes 2 hours before the delivery. Once they were completely dry and harden, I decorated each one with sugarpaste and royal icing.

How colorful they are!

For the cake, I baked Nutella devil's food cupcakes. Such a safe choice. Nutella and chocolate are hard to fail :)

I decided to serve it in the cupcake pan to mimic the iPad / iPhone actual case. In fact, that's because I didn't have time to make a proper background. Anyhow, it turned out perfect to me. Easier for the delivery also. Great!

Somehow, when serving, these cakes were apparently not practical for holding candles, or I'd have to put it through the sugar plates! No way. I wouldn't do it definitely. So I placed the candles on the sides instead. Wasn't it nice?

Though it took me so many hours to make that my palms hurt, it does worth it. Everyone were so excited with the decoration and enjoyed the cake, including my 2 year-old nephew :)

For the recipe, please see this post.

Strawberry Marble Cupcakes

I like marble swirls, especially of those marble cakes, and been wondering whether it'd look nice through cupcake paper cups too. So I baked some.

Is there a spy among us? Lol :D

I picked the recipe from Martha Stewart in the book "Martha Stewart's Cupcake". In the original recipe it is suggested to serve these cupcakes 'naked' with a lightly springkle of icing sugar. But I'd like to utilize leftover strawberries. So I made extra strawberry buttercream to give those cuppies a little 'icing on the cake' ;)

Nutella Devils

Who can resist the aroma of the hazelnut and chocolate paste called Nutella? Even only the name can provoke our test buds :)___ ....And what if Nutella becomes devil's food cupcakes? A double dose of pleasure, I think.

These cupcakes are a combination of Martha Stewart and Hummingbird Bakery creations. The base cake is Martha's devil's food cupcakes. But I adjusted the amount of sour cream to see how it would affect the finished goods. For the frosting, I took the recipe from "The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook." But I reduced the amount of icing sugar to control the overall taste not to be too sweet.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Its name is 'pie' but actually it is cake. I love Boston cream pie for two reasons: chocolate and pastry cream. Well, that's two out of its three elements already :D The cake is a combination of 3 things: plain vanilla cake + pastry cream filling + chocolate topping.

As many other cupcakes, Boston Cream Pie is originally made as layer cakes. In this version, they are baked into little cuppies.

A twist in cupcake version: instead of spreading the cream between cake layers, core cupcakes and fill in the pastry cream. I followed the the recipe from Une Deux Senses, except the cream filling because it's hard for me to find instant French vanilla pudding mix. I used this universal pastry cream recipe from Raymond Blanc instead. Turn out that it tasted fabulous together!! As other sweets with pastry cream, these cupcakes are best to be served chilled. I'll definitely make it again :)

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

Though not a big fan of chocolate mint, I couldn't resist the color of its minty green frosting. Too cute. Thus, Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake was the first recipe I baked after I'd got the recipe book by Cupcake Carousel Bakery.

March of the {Royal} Swine Troop!

One of my BFF since childhood loves baking and making desserts, in fact it's been her life. She's been into it since at very young age. Almost every birthday celebration she's the one who baked. Everyone knew, without any actual agreement, that if she was invited, just left the cake issue on her. She would be the one responsible for it -- yet impressed us every time. Now she owns the phenomenal dessert cafes, with 4 branches in Bangkok and still growing.

Sadly, on the birthday of her who baked us decent cakes, we could only order some store bought cakes for her. So this year, as I'm climbing up my baking ladder, another friend of mine suggested I bake 'pig-theme' cake for the birthday gal.

At the beginning, I planned the theme would be a combination of piggy (her fav creature) + royalty (she's the dessert "princess"). Somehow at this point, I think it might be wonderful if I can personalize the cake to be more spoken -- to be hers, and hers only.

That further touch could be but her beloved famous dessert cafes. But the addition must harmonize with the main theme. Think.. think.. think.

Logo should be the most obvious element to stand for the brand. So I'd play around with it. The original one is ram head in scallop border. So I made a mimic one featuring a pig head in the same gesture ;)

 Let's see the work

The {mimic} logo and the heads

The crowns for little piggies

Here they come!

 

 The base cupcakes were Maple Walnut Cupcakes and Monkey Devil's Food Cupcakes (Devil's Food cake with bananas). You can see the recipe on my earlier posts.

• Maple Walnut Cupcakes
• Monkey Devil's Food Cupcake

Monkey Devil's Food Cupcakes

Airy texture, intense flavor

 i L-O-V-E chocolate. It was almost impossible to me to pass this recipe without try it out. Besides, seeing people raved over it in reviews, I was curious how sour cream would make differneces in chocolate cakes. However, as I love the combination of Banana + Dark Chocolate, I added banana into the recipe. So these cake should rather be for 'monkey' devils. Lol.

Whenever working with chocolate recipes, use only the FINEST chocolate / cocoa powder you can find. Trust me, the results form different qualities are distinct. 

Maple Walnut Cupcakes

The original recipe can be found on Martha Stewart's website. Somehow I think coffee might complement the rich flavor of maple syrup in the frosting. So it was added into the milk required in the cake recipe. Also, I added more nuts than in the original recipe.

 { Bear in mind }

* Nuts should be gently heated in the oven before use. The heat releases the oil in nuts, enhancing their flavor and aroma. I like to 'roast' them either when preheating or cooling the oven. But be careful. Nuts can get easily burnt. Do not leave the oven unattended when roasting. Take them out once you smell the aroma.

* Frost buttercream less than usual, for this given recipe, due to its strong flavor especially the sweetness.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Scent of lemon is charming to me. It brings the sense of freshness and delight, brightening up those around them. So I decided to make birthday cupcakes of something lemon for my sister-in-law to reflect her being optimistic and gaily.

Lemon Zest // Butter & Cream Cheese

I paired lemon cream cheese frosting with cream cheese cupcakes. The subtle tang and creaminess of cream cheese goes well with lemon scent as well as lemon zest. Cream cheese cupcakes also taste nice on their own. So I made it more than needed to have it without frosting later. Hehehehe :P

The birthday girl, with her beloved son, at her vanilla moment

Strawberry Cupcakes (with Recipes)

And so I did it again.... Strawberry Cupcakes from Spinkles Cupcakes Bakery.
But this time I only did one batch with lots of strawberries stirred in the batter as per request of strawbery-lovers. This earlier post shows the last time I baked it.

Above is how I puree strawberries for the buttercream with a knife. Such a labor work. I should consider getting a blender ;P

Strawberry Cupcakes

I live in tropical area. Winter is the season for strawberries. So I made some strawberry cupcakes as a 'test bake' for the upcoming Valentine's Day. The recipes are from the renowned Beverly Hills cupcakes bakery "Sprinkles Cupcakes".