Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Just because I really wanted to have my own batch of red velvet cupcakes :) They didn't come out very red because the recipe called for more red food coloring than I had on hand! I liked that these cupcakes were subtly sweet in combination with the moist frosting. This batch isn't the most pretty thing to look at (it doesn't take much imagination for one to make a comparison between the chocolate cream cheese frosting and...something not quite as appealing). And it seems somewhat ironic that my red velvet cupcakes turned out to be more like a burgundy? Maroon? But at least they were yummy, I've already had two tonight!

Bachelorette Spa Day Cupcakes

I was so so SO excited to make these cupcakes today and had been looking forward to doing so for quite some time! A co-worker of mine is the Matron of Honor for another one of our co-workers, who is having her bachelorette party at a local day spa tomorrow. These luscious strawberry and lemon cupcakes are for the bride, her bridesmaids, as well as the spa employees (who will be pampering the heck out of them... me = jealous!).

The wedding colors are pink and green so I made sure to use those colors throughout the decorating process. Since the girls will be doing something super girlie by going to a spa, I wanted to make the cupcakes look as girlie as possible too! The pearls, bows, and flowers were the perfect way to go. None of my previous batches of cupcakes had been quite this feminine, so it felt great to release my inner girlie girl ("I feel pretty, oh so pretty...." Sing it! Come on, you know the words!).

While going for ultra-pretty cupcakes, I tried to tie in the spa day theme by making fondant girls wearing pink or green facials and by icing the word "Relax." How can you not relax when you're hanging at the spa all day?! Hope you ladies have a great time tomorrow, thanks for giving me the opportunity to pamper you a bit :)

My own strawberry cupcakes recipe

I was really excited to make these last night for Justin! It's my 2nd attempt at my own strawberry cupcakes recipe even though Justin and our friend David absolutely LOVED the first batch (I thought they were terrible because they came out so soggy). I've never made up my own recipe for anything before (besides something like, Tuna Sandwich!) and I was all proud of myself for knowing how to make them better.

Just as a testimony of how good these little tasties are, Justin ate four of them...one right after the other...in about five minutes...that's FOUR whole cupcakes! Complete with strawberry buttercream frosting and everything! Now I know exactly what you're thinking: "oh well that's because he's married to you and it's his duty as a husband to not hurt your feelings so OF COURSE he's going to eat half the batch!" Well, let me tell you something, my friend. My husband is the most honest person I know and I always try to encourage that, even if it means he tells me he doesn't like something I cook or bake. I would much rather he tell me that he's "not a big fan" of a new recipe I tried instead of me continually making it and him fake smiling through nauseous chewing (okay I don't think my cooking has ever been THAT bad). I always appreciate his feedback, good or constructive.

So last night, I have to say that I had overwhelmingly good feedback from Justin on how good these strawberry cupcakes were. Let me know if I can ever make them for you!

Twitter

And by the way, you can follow me on Twitter now and see what orders I'm working on!

http://twitter.com/LePetiteSweetCC

Wall-E

These were probably my most difficult cupcakes to make but so fun nonetheless. I made these Wall-E cupcakes for a co-worker's grandson, who just turned 3! He LOVES Wall-E (who doesn't?!) and my co-worker asked me to make Wall-E themed cupcakes. I knew making a Wall-E out of fondant for each cupcake would be extremely tedious and I wasn't about to go that route.

I ended up writing out Brock's name with the number 3 in a similar font as Wall-E's name. Each cupcakes has a royal blue marbelized fondant covering along with homemade buttercream stars and swirls.


Here's Eva! I had to use a couple of short wooden skewers to prop her up.

And of course, Wall-E himself. He was hard to make just because he is so detailed, but I did the best I could. I think the hardest part was making a neck that was thin enough proportionally speaking, but strong enough to support his big 'ol honkin' eyes. I tried smoothing out the cracks in his neck but it ended up making his eyes fall over. The end result was this...

I feel I need to explain the yellow bunny grass. Unfortunately, there are absolutely zero places in Fresno where one can purchase cupcake boxes complete with inserts. The best I could find within a week's notice of Brock's birthday was a sheet cake box that is advertised as being able to hold 28 cupcakes (thank you SO much for that, Wilton...because I know of so many people that just whip up 2 dozen and 4 cupcakes at a time...give me a break).

My dear co-worker has been blessed with an extremely sporty convertible car that she frequently puts to use what it was made to do (go really really fast). I could just picture myself slaving all day over a couple dozen cupcakes just to have them fly through the back windshield of this car. There was a superfluous amount of space in this cake box so I tried shoving them into one corner and stuffing the remaining space with bunny grass...it was cheap and better yet, was on sale. The cupcake boxes and inserts I will be using in the future were ordered online and I currently have them in my possession. Can't wait to have the privilege of putting each cupcake in its own special holder...bring on the super fast convertibles, I say!

Bird Bath

Today I attempted to make my own recipe for Nutella cupcakes and ended up with two horrible batches of baked goods. One resembled cupcakes in exploded lava form while the other batch didn't taste like anything at all. I was getting kind of frustrated but had to realize that I've never developed my own recipe before so it's going to take a few mistakes before I get a good end result.

To try and make a good thing out of something so crappy, I made a bird bath out of one of the 2nd batches of cupcakes. Enjoy! In the meantime, I'm still working on Wall-E cupcakes, which I'll give to my co-worker in 3 days!

Working on WALL-E

I was at work yesterday and mentioned to a co-worker that I was now taking cupcake orders, so she told me her grandson's 3rd birthday is on the 21st and asked if I could make him "Cha-kit" (chocolate) cupcakes with Wall-E. What? The 21st? As in, like, one week from now? Oh my goodness, that's coming up quick....um, sure! While working with fondant is still kind of a new concept to me, I couldn't say no to helping Brock celebrate his birthday with the lovable Wall-E and Eve. If someone offered to make cupcakes for my birthday, Wall-E would definitely be one of my top choices! Justin and I saw the movie two nights in a row when it was in theaters, we really enjoyed it.

Last night I decided to try working with gum paste just to see if it would be any better than fondant as far as making figures. I tried making different parts of Wall-E, but none of them really came out looking how I wanted. So today I went back to working with fondant and made Eve (she is a little bit easier of the two to make, I think!).

Yes, I realize her head is supposed to be floating above her body, but I'm too scared to cut it! To be honest, it took me probably a good 10 minutes just to roll the main piece of fondant. Making Wall-E is definitely going to be a bigger challenge. But luckily I've got a whole week (minus the three days of work between now and then!) :)