Devil's Food Cupcakes W/Chocolate Ganache Frosting....ummmm

Well I have made my Devil's Food Cupcakes. I was super excited to use the Cocoa I bought at Costco (it is Dutch Process, which the recipe asks for). The batter ends up being really thick and rich. I only got 30 cupcakes, although it claims to make 34; however mine did rise really nicely so depending on how high you want your cupcakes if you cut a bit off per cup you probably will end up with 34!

Devil's Food Batter...nice and rich

Unfrosted Cupcakes

I am also going to make the prescribed Chocolate Ganache frosting...hopefully I shall have better luck than the Meringue Buttercream.LOL Because the sauce gets hard quick I have procrastinated to insure I have time to quickly ice the cupcakes, so I need a "no interruptions" time. We have had a sample of the un-iced cupcakes. Fred finds them dry...although he was eating a chocolate mint cookie at the time, which may have impacted his taste. I felt they were lighter than I expected them to be, but a rich taste. Fred has "tasted" another now (I hope this is not so confusing as I have been adding through the day) and still feels they are a tad dry, but not really dry? WTF I will hopefully get a batter taste tester. I try to reinforce to my husband how lucky he has it...a Martha Stewart like wife in the house, but I am not sure he gets how lucky he is!

So right at the minute I am making the Chocolate Ganache frosting (its 9:00 pm) these are all day events for me.LOL I  had to chop up blocks of chocolate and then simmer some cream and corn syrup...then add the cream and corn syrup mixture to the chocolate chopped up...careful not to over stir...WTF does that mean? Anyways I just bloody stirred it in a "slow" fashion until the bloody stuff mixed together! Duh. I am now at the "put in the fridge and stir every 5 minutes until it starts holding its shape"...with the bloody warning that "use it quickly as it will harden up quickly and you will need to reheat if that happens" Oh joy and I thought buttercream Meringue was bad! LOL Lucky I am not piping this stuff but slapping it onto the cupcake, very nicely I am sure with swirls. Than I get to make some lovely chocolate curls...I am using my multi grater to do this so wish me luck. I am sure to grate my skin off....promise not to get on the cupcakes...at least I won't tell you, but just be forewarned.

Cream & Corn Syrup added to Chocolate Chunks

Chocolate Ganache Frosting now blended

So stirring every 5 minutes until it takes shape has actually taken roughly 20 minutes so far, but it still not at that magic stage. But this frosting is very, very rich! Beware...I doubt Fred will appreciate this amazing frosting...nope probably scrap the stuff off! Need better taste testers so I will bring some to work, and for students on Tuesday. I am also planning on just trying to whip up some other cupcakes this week as I go, so stay tuned for those. I am thinking a pumpkin one as well as this Banana Pecan one, but may not be able to take those to school due to the nuts...hmmm, may need to rethink this.

Okay stirring we are now at 30 minutes....

I am figuring out why in the recipe it says nothing of how long these "5 minute" stirs happen for...so my warning to anyone is that you need a lot of time and patience to make this frosting...has to be stirred every 5 minutes so figure that in if you are  multi-tasking. You will also need the time that when this magic frosting is done to quickly frost your cupcakes, because remember the warning "its going to get hard quick and you will have to reheat" and start this LONG process again"...okay now tried my hand at curls...not so cool. Will need to work for these chocolate curl decorations...may mean only a few will get them!

Okay so lets call this the 1 1/2 hour frosting...OMG this took forever!

Finished cupcakes, without chocolate curls

Okay so Mike tested one for me....says its really good, but very rich...that half a cupcake would be good! So be sure to serve with milk.LOL

X and O Valentine's Day Cupcakes

X and Os Valentine's Day Cupcakes

OK - I was not going to make these cupcakes this week I was going to save them for coloser to Valentine's Day but I wanted to make the swiss meringue butter cream icing in order to figure out what went wrong with Leah's.

As you can see my icing turned out great! It took a long time and the whites never did form stiff peeks. I beat them for 20 minutes and whne they were still flacide at best I figures that it was all ready ruined. But it was fine after another 20 minutes for beating the icing all of a sudden separated and looked curdled. I was being sprayed from head to toe with icing as my heat safe bowl is not that big and Brad, my son, was trying to cover my clothes as I was leaving in a few minutes for a fundraising event. I got mad and started to whip the beater around and I could see some of the icing reforming and it smoothed right out. I took the bowl and immediately put it in a huge bowl of ice water and used my spatula to evenly fold the icing over and over until all the bubbles were gone. The icing got thicker and thicker (it's been in my fridge for two days and it is like a rock). It was easy to use but I did not put it in an icing bag and I put the cupcakes in the fridge because I felt the icing was softening sitting on the warm counter.

This time around I used straight corn flour instead of wheat flour and I had some suprising results. It did not rise very much which I did not expect and it would need more vanilla flavouring in future, too. The first cupcake I had (

hot out of the oven with no icing) was wonderful soft and firm no crumbling at all. But after they sat on the counter to cool and they were iced the cake was a little too dry (good thing for the super buttery icing). Next I am going to try a brown rice and corn flour blend to see if I can get a better consistency.

The cupcakes and the icing stated that they made 28 of each and I know that my family will have a hard time eating 12 so I cut all the ingredient in half and there was WAY to much icing. As Mindy noted the icing amounts are insanely huge.

The cupcakes themselves were very simple to make, they are simply the vanilla cupcakes.

My kids went crazy for these cupcakes. Angel licked all the icing off her cupcake and grudgingly ate the cake. Bradley loves them so much he has eaten 5. He says that they are the just all around very good cupcakes even if they are a little dry. Mike really likes the icing but he was a bit taken back by the corn-ish flavour of the cupcakes and he did not like that they were dry (I don't think they would have been dry if you made them with regular flour). I liked the cinnamon hearts they made the whole thing come together.

I loved this cupcake!

Blueberry cupcakes with whipped cream

So I woke up later today thanks to my wonderful husband, who entertained our daughter Taylor all morning to let me sleep in. I decided today was going to be blueberry cupcake day, since I had purchased a large container of blueberries and don't really like to eat them on their own, so I had bought them with the intention of baking with them.

I read in the recipe book - which unfortunately this recipe I wasn't able to find online - that these cupcakes do well as muffins to be eaten on their own, as they freeze well. So, I decided to double the recipe. I should also mention that my husband had to run and grab me milk just so I could make these, and he had come home an hour or so before I started baking.

So, away I go, measuring and mixing, and then I realize in order to double the recipe, I need 8 eggs...and I only have 6! I forgot the home grown eggs that my co-worker and friend bring me, in the fridge at work, so, I had to run to the store again to get eggs.

So...everything is just ticking along, and then I realize that this isn't all going to fit in the stand mixer...the double of the recipe was about 3/4 together and the mixer was FULL...so, I had to move it to another large mixing bowl to add the remaining ingredients and mix it with a hand mixer (which again, my husband to the rescue, purchased for me yesterday while out and about in the city). Then the recipe calls for folding in the blueberries...which I had JUST enough of since I was doubling and all...so that is why there are none on top for garnish...I figured they would do better in the cupcakes than as garnish!

The icing is just whipped cream which can only be stored for 3 hours or it will get all watery, so I only made half of the recipe so we could dress a few cupcakes for pictures and eat some tonight. Since I made 5 dozen of them!

I have split them into packages to place in the freezer, so I can either pull them out if entertaining and just make some whipped cream, or we can eat them as muffins and take them to work for breakfast on the go.

These are nice and moist cupcakes that are lighter than a muffin, but the fruit is a nice kick to what otherwise would be a vanilla cupcake. I plan on taking them to work without the whipped cream, as it will be much too messy and would require me to make the whipped cream at work - which is a tad crazy since people already think I am nuts for bringing in cupcakes every week...no need for them to explain why it sounds like a hand mixer is going in the background of their conference calls at work!

Next weekend will be VALENTINE'S DAY inspired cupcakes...can't wait!

Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcakes

So today has been off for me, I have been sick, and slept until about 4:00 this afternoon. I was debating going to bed around 10:00, but decided to make cupcakes as I was feeling like something sweet, and have done absolutely nothing all day.

So, my husband Landon voted on Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcakes first, as I had two recipes I wanted to make, but I would have ended up with these anyhow as I don't have any milk in the house for the other one, so perhaps tomorrow I will bake some more, but we will see how I feel.

So this was a nice and easy recipe. It was very thick almost like cookie dough, so spreading it among 30 cupcake holders wasn't in the cards for me...I made 24 instead. I am glad I did though, as they don't rise much, and it would have made for a short cookie with lots of icing...perhaps that was her plan?

They took a little longer to bake, as they suggested 13 minutes and when I poked them they were very gooey in the centre...so I added 5 minutes, which may have been a tad too long, they are a little darker brown on the bottoms than I would have liked, but they aren't burnt...so keep this in mind if you try to make them.

A friend of mine at work made these at home and mentioned how much icing the recipe calls for, and that she cut it down and made 2/3 the recipe...and still had way too much icing, so I cut it down to 1/3 of the recipe and it worked out JUST perfectly...I probably would have slathered a whole lot more icing on if I had it - just because I like it...but I had just enough after scraping the bowl right clean.

We have found this is a recurring theme in Martha's recipes...the icing recipes seem to make way more than is necessary! Except for the meringue buttercream I had made was JUST enough for 3 dozen cupcakes...so perhaps we just need to make more cupcakes to utilize the icing...

Landon had a taster - he threw in some semi sweet chocolate chips into one of the cupcakes before I threw them in the oven...and he quite enjoyed that...so incase you chocolate/peanut butter lovers want to add a twist, this one worked. I would also like to try maybe a chocolate frosting on them.

I used natural peanut butter in the cake part, and creamy Kraft peanut butter in the frosting, as I wanted a sweeter frosting, and the recipe specified natural peanut butter for the cake part, but didn't mention anything in the frosting section.

The recipe states that after the frosting has set for approximately 10 minutes in the fridge to use a fork to create the traditional peanut butter signature pattern on top...I didn't have room in my fridge, so I set them outside in my travel container for 5 minutes (its -20 outside right now) and figured that would be long enough...it wasn't - but at this point I don't really care LOL

SO if you want them to look prettier, I would recommend putting them in the fridge for at least 20 to 30 minutes so it is good and firm...the frosting is quite soft, so it kept sticking in the fork, and then I kept placing it in icing sugar and it was just making a bloody mess in the end...which I ended up cleaning off the fork pretty well every time I tried...hence why they look sort of messy.

They taste like a moist peanut butter cookie with a nice creamy peanut butter frosting that isn't too sweet, but just a little sweeter and tangier than the cake part. A great recipe that is quick and easy. Enjoy!

So this weekend I will try some Devil's Food!

Well I am going to try my hand at Devil's Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache icing...I am sure my success rate will be much higher with Chocolate Ganache icing.LOL Seriously it still makes me mad about that buttercream Meringue. I have tried it on the cupcakes and it tastes great, just gets runny when out for long. My amazing Mom gave me some suggestions as she was figuring that there was way too much butter in the recipe and that the butter sounded like it was not bonding with the sugar...I think she may be a genius so I will try out her methods of suggestions on doing it different ways and let you know...she also suggested making it smaller batches so that it was not so wasteful.LOL Trust a Mom!

SO I will try the Devil's Food and see if I can sneak in some extra ones seeing as school will be back in session next week and I would really like to bring my students some treats! Will update soon!

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Buttercream...

So I have been frothing at the bit to make the Strawberry Cupcakes with the beautiful Strawberry Meringue Buttercream icing....yeah, well not anymore!

The Strawberry cupcake part was easy and straightforward...tastes good, light cake with some strawberry chunks (I would add a tad more the next go around of strawberries as it is a bit stingy when eating). I have been waiting to make the icing as I made the cupcakes on Monday, but haven't gotten around to the icing...

Okay so today was the day. Last time I tried making the meringue buttercream icing I was really angry as it did not work. It was the day I made the creepcakes for Aaryanna's birthday and the bloody stuff went seedy when I started adding the butter. It was just hours before her party so I just ended up whipping up regular butter icing.

So needless to say I was a tad nervous how these would turn out, but figured that maybe it was the butter was not soft enough the last go around. Well I always seem to have it flop at the butter stage. Not sure why but I am thinking I will never try the stuff again. I am soooooo MAD! Totally pissed off when I did everything right. Why the hell does it not say how f*$!ing finicky the stuff is? Well Martha I am not impressed! Basically the icing is no longer fluffy but a runny mess. I have put it in the fridge hoping that maybe it just needs some cooling down, but I am not really believing this. I have pics, may not get to ice the damn cakes now as I don't f-ing feel like it! Sorry for the potty mouth but I was so excited about these and now they have FLOPPED!

Please if ANYONE knows how this magic icing works, please fill me in! Okay just watched her and Jennifer Garner making it...may actually have succeeded and the picture I have is deceiving...damn pictures! Okay well, nope the jury is in...icing SUCKS!!!!

Coconut Cupcakes & Red Velvet's

Coconut Cupcakes with seven minute frosting - I made these because they look delicious, and a friend told me that she loves coconut - so I offered to bring her some today...but still haven't heard back from her!

These cupcakes were pretty simple to make...unique ingredients are coconut milk, coconut extract, and flaked coconut as well as shredded coconut.

So after a quick run to Stony Plain for these less common ingredients I made these fairly quickly. The icing is seven minute icing...Leah had expressed her dislike for this recipe as she had to whip the one bowl while pouring boiling hot syrup in with the other hand...LOL I determined that this isn't really all that bad if you have a stand mixer, which I was lucky enough to get for my birthday this year. I also didn't have a candy thermometer for the side of the pot while boiling the syrup...so I just boiled it for quite some time...just incase!

The frosting tastes like marshmallows with a hint of coconut...and then I topped with more coconut...and then some more frosting, and then more coconut...the recipe makes an insane amount of icing and I didn't know what else to do with it, as it won't keep.

My helper was up to her usual tricks, helping me mix and of course being my taste tester...I would have had some super cute pictures of her eating the icing with her fingers, but my camera battery died and I didn't know where the extra one was...

My husband came home and had one...said it was heaven...I can only imagine as I tasted the frosting and coconut flake combination and it was lovely...perhaps I will have one tomorrow.

So, I had intended on making the Red Velvet cupcakes as well, but I had run out of sugar! My daughter Taylor was having a nice long nap...so it would have been perfect timing to make these, but alas I had to wait until she woke up...which was a whole 15 minutes before my husband came home and we had to run to the city to pick up my car from the dealership from getting serviced.

So, I stopped at the store on my way home and got a LARGE bag of sugar, we came home and ate supper...since I was super wife today and even managed to cook a pot roast (via slow cooker) LOL.

So Taylor is off to bed...husband quick to follow, and I get to bake my Red Velvets. These are my all time favorite cupcakes...the cupcakes that made me love cupcakes...

So I am gathering my ingredients...even managed to get everything to room temperature since I had planned on making them all day! So, in the cupboard I notice a bag...looks an awful lot like the bag of sugar I just picked up...DAMN IT!!! I had sugar all along!!!

SO...I quickly whip up the cake batter...seems very runny...hopefully this is the way it is supposed to be...my taste testers were in bed...so my co workers will be the judges.

I even had Red GEL food coloring...weird! Cupcakes come out looking normal...this is a good sign, but now to make the frosting...

I threw the ingredients in the stand mixer (thank goodness for my new best friend) and after sifting 4 cups of icing sugar, which manages to travel all over the counters and such, add the vanilla...still tastes too sugar like...so I added a squirt of lemon juice and a bit more icing sugar...and voila! I LOVE CREAM CHEESE ICING!!!

So...I iced the cupcakes quickly...and am heading off to bed - I just had to make sure I had this posted before going to bed, or I would likely not be able to post for a while.

My Amaing Icing bag lol!

Just before they go into the oven The curd took a lot longer than they said to

set up

Pink Meringue Cupcakes

Martha's Valentine Cupcake

Pink Meringue Cupcakes

Pink Meringue Cupcakes

Warning this recipe bakes for 3 hours!

Ok - so this is a cheat they are not really cupcakes but they look like a cupcakes and smell like a cupcakes and are found on Martha Stewart's cupcake section of her website so I am going to make these ones!

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pink-meringue-with-raspberry-curd (if the link does not work you can just copy and paste it into your goggle)

I have no idea what creme fraiche is; well, wiki told me that it is a soured fresh cream and it is less sour tasting than regular sour cream, that it is originally French and that it has a PH level of 4.5. For the science nerds out there we know that the majority of all food and humans fall within the 3-6 range on the PH scale. We are all acids which no one belives when you tell them because we automatically interpert "acid" as a strong poison that will eat through cement. It is actually interesting to note that high Alkaline or basic items are as distructive as the acidic ones for example, bleach and petroleum products (gas).

I also have no idea what raspberry curd is I think I saw lemon curd at Super Store but I am not sure what it is. I may have to change the flavour if the store does not come through for me. Eurika! fruit curd is the fruity pudding/jam stuff inside of doughnuts! I love wiki

The major reason I selected this recipe is that it is wheatless and I do not need to adapt or change anything and I love raspberries so when I saw it I knew that I had hit the jack pot! Raspberries are hard to find in the winter time here in Edmonton AB Ca but I think I have a bunch of frozen ones from my garden so I think I will add them instead of trying to find fresh ones.

After heading over to Sobey's I was very sad to learn that they do not carry creme fraiche. A funny thing happened while I was inquiring about the creme. A gent (an obviously hetro male 40ish) was standing next to me while I was asking and he looked over at the lady and said, "Yeah, I know what that is, it's a type of whip cream. You know the kind Matha Stewart is always going on about." I turned and dropped my jaw and told him, "I am making one of Martha's cupcake recipes" he blushed and looked down at his feet and said, "I guess I don't have anything better to watch right now with all the snow" lol I swear it was the funniest thing :)

No raspberries - No creme fraiche - No red food colouring - No icing bag - so I made a whole load of alterations. I used blackberries (we picked them last summer when we went to Vancouver for the first time) and sour cream (I thought it was close) instead of creme fraiche. So you start by making the mergine cupcake batter and spoon it into (it is super shinny and stickier 'n all hell! It is just like runny melted marshmellows) the bottom of a extra large ziplock (my jerry rigged icing bag) and snip a 1/4 inch hole in the corner and use that to squirt the mergines in circles and leave the top looking like Dairy Queen sundaes.

My cupcakes were pure white because I did not have any red food colouring. But later I turned the sourcream pink with a little of the blackberry juice.

I made the curd with all the egg yolks instead of four because I did not want them to go to waste in the garbage. It did not do any harm. The curd was the most amazingly tasty thing I have ever had! It was not like any jam I have ever had! It was melted thick hot gelato and it was like ambrosia!

The creme fraiche did not turn out at all like what the recipe wanted. The sour cream would not fluff; even after it was half and half with whipping cream and I whipped for more than 20 mins. But taste wise it was heaven - the sour cream and sugar were like they were meant to be together. I think the next angel food cake I make will have a sourcream/whip topping mix on if for sure!

It took 3.5 hours to bake and then the cupcakes were so stuck the they burst apart when I tried to take them out of the pans. After last weeks sticking debacle I took Mindy's advice and heavily sprayed the pans and the wrappers before putting them into the pans but this time the sugar batter seeped through the wrappers and bonded to the pans. Soaking and scouring got the pans clean. The ones thart were in the silicone pan turned out better but they cooked differently and were not as cooked and the middles were a bit raw (I know, even after 3.5 hours in the oven!). I knew that I have to take the tops off the cupcakes anyway to put the curd and creme inside so I took the tops off pried the bottoms out and they went back together like a dream come ture. Make sure you are very careful and you should not have any problem.

These are the most incredibly tasting cupcakes ever! However, they don't last once you put them together you must eat them there is no wait time as the toppings melt the mergine in a short time you are left with mush - tasty mush mind you lol.

My family went bonkers over them and ate the entire 12 in one evening! The left over curd and cream has been put on ice cream and cereal (damn teenagers are gross!) and just drank by the spoon full as they pass the fridge

I don't think I would ever make these cupcakes again they are way too finiky and don't last but they are proably the best dessert I have ever have! The curd and the cream will become a staple at my house from now on. :)

White Cupcakes with Pastel Buttercream Peaks

Well last night I decided to make some white cupcakes with pastel buttercream peaks for uncle Wayne, who requested white cake with white icing, so this is what I chose. I had my little helper Taylor assisting me...well making me crazy by touching everything and trying to stir everything, etc. She didn't end up helping much in the end, other than setting up boobie traps for me to trip over...such as her step stool.

The cake part was quite simple, other than I needed egg whites instead of yolks...and realized I was throwing away the part I needed after egg number two! Things were going along just fine, and then my hand mixer broke...so it only has one mixer instead of two...this seamed to make things take FOREVER!! I was about ready to send my helper to bed after she ripped out a page of my cookbook...

Cake part was baking and I started the frosting part...my stand mixer was extremely helpful as I needed to make the meringue part first requiring egg whites and sugar to be whisked in a bowl over simmering water until the mixture was warm and the sugar was dissolved...I let it get super hot as I was worried about salmonella poisoning LOL...I am so paranoid!

Anyway, that part took about 10 minutes, and then I put it in the stand mixer on medium for about 10 minutes until it became meringue...thankfully I didn't have to hold a broken hand mixer for two hours...as it would have taken forever!

After the meringue is the right consistency you slowly add a WHOLE pound of butter by the tablespoon until it is all mixed...holy cow - not sure I will ever eat buttercream after seeing how much butter is in it!!!

Then it required to be beat with a paddle attachment for two minutes...again, very thankful for the mixer or it would have been hand mixing with a spoon!

Okay...so now we get to the exciting part...icing the cupcakes. It was about 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, and I realized at this point that the actual recipe calls for buttercream peaks...which looks like a flower when it is done, and doesn't sound hard in theory...but after doing 24 cupcakes and realizing I used the wrong tip to start with (much smaller starburst than I ended up finishing with). Once I realized they weren't going to be perfect, and that the buttercream melts extremely fast when it is in your hand...I decided time was worth more to me than perfection...so I piped them as quickly as I could, and ended up having to alternate colors and placing the piping bags in the fridge to help firm the icing up.

All in all, everyone seemed to LOVE them at work...I took about 16 cupcakes to work and took 6 for uncle Wayne...and the ones at work were gone by lunch time...with a few repeat taste testers...muah ha ha...they will all be fattened up at this rate...LOL - Kidding...they are all healthy skinny people that could use the fattening anyway...

So...this was a good recipe...I found the cake was a tad dry...and I only cooked them for 14 minutes instead of the 18 to 20 recommended - as they tested as done at 14 minutes...they probably would have been rocks if I had left them the extra time. The buttercream was quite tasty...very smooth and silky and not too sweet.

I am thinking a coconut inspired cupcake will be next...stay tuned!

Hi, well so far this cupcake fun time game has given me nothing but headaches!

As I was trying to get the photos of my very tasty Chocolate Spice Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Glaze to transfer from my camera to my lap top travesty hit. I was making coffee, the nasty instant kind (because I am the only coffee drinker I have to endure it on the weekends before I go out for and Shell coffee) and stepped back from the laptop which is sitting on top of a laptable up top of the kitchen table - ok »I guess I should have heeded Yurddle the Turtle (you remember the Dr. Seuss turtle) and recognized my kingdom was too tall - but instead I tripped on the cord and sent the computer and the camera and one of my most favourite cups shattering to the floor. (only bonus is that my kids are now up and doing their chores hahahaha!)

Well thankfully my computer and camera are all right - how ... I do not know unless there is a cupcake God that wanted to see my work done for the betterment of his wheat intolerant subjects mahhaha lol



So right, ok, yeah, cupcakes that is why we are here!

Well here is a picture of all the ingredients I used in the cupcakes (except baking soda) I did not have Dutch cocoa so I just used Frys and I did not have unsalted butter so I used margarine. I have no idea what unsulfured molasses is so I just used the regular kind. For this recipe I chose to use brown rice.

I used the exact measurements for this recipe - I have a tendency to just make up my own measurements for thing (toss in this ooh I bet allspice would be better you know) It looks really chocolaty but it is not. NOT in the least. You would be surprised in the flavour as it is defiantly a ginger bread with a little chocolate flavour.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze - this is not icing!

I had no idea what I was not sure that I was suppose to be making when I starting to make this topping. It is not icing and it is not syrup it is literally runny chocolate and is tremendously rich. It is way too over powering for the gingerbread cupcakes. Angel my daughter loves the topping but not the cake. I used chips instead of chopping regular chocolate.

I left the hot cream mixture on the chips while I buttered and dusted the pans - use lots of powder on the pans - this recipe sticks really badly.

You can see how much of the cake was stuck to the pan. I dug all the extra crumbles out of the pan and drenched it is the leftover ganache ... ahhh that is what diabetes feels likes. I swear my sugar levels went through the roof and I had an instant stomach ache. So don't try this at home :)

So the end result looks pretty close to the picture in the book. I do not have my own copy of this book The girls are just sending me copies so I am not sure if it was a colour picture in the book or not but they look close to me.

Mike says that they are spicy, rich and wonderful and he really wants me to make them again.

Angel says: I do not like the cake but the icing is really good.

Brad says: I like the cake part better it tastes good.

Wendar says: Mmmm gingerbread but the ganache is a bit too much unless you have a strong cup of black coffee.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

This week's cupcake was German Chocolate. I have been looking at the picture in the recipe book for a while now, and am happy to have it completed!

First off, I didn't have any semi-sweet chocolate left since I had made Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Swirl cupcakes previous to these...will post pictures at the bottom. So, I used unsweetened chocolate and then added a bit of icing sugar and butter to get the consistency back, but it was certainly not very sweet - so don't worry...I think it wouldn't have mattered.

The cake part only took 20 minutes to bake which seemed very quick, and the consistency was very light and fluffy...hence the cupcakes are very light and fluffy as well - which I wasn't expecting by looking at the picture in the book. I was thinking a heavier cake would go better with the icing. Anyway, I started preparing the icing, which says it takes about 10 minutes in a saucepan on the stove on medium. This certainly did not take 10 minutes until it became the thickness of sour cream...more like 25 minutes! I was getting excited to be done with this darn icing, as I had to stir it constantly and had been baking for a long time at this point. Then I read the next step...pour through a fine sieve...well let me tell you...this was a PAIN in the butt. Took me about 15 minutes to get it through the sieve as I have a small one (about the size of a cup opening) and the mixture was somewhat textured...I had to push it through with a spoon and then it came out smooth...

So...at this point, you just add the toasted pecans and coconut and such and voila...stir until completely cool...I stirred until it was luke warm and covered and put it in the fridge. It was 1:00 am and I figured I would assemble them in the morning.

Assembling was fine, I placed them in cupcake liners so that when taking them to work or to people's houses it was easier to serve.

Next thing I realized is that they need to be iced and served immediately!! So, into the freezer they will go - these certainly don't have much of a shelf life, so beware.

My husband Landon had the first taste tester and thought they tasted weird...but good. I think it is a different type of cupcake then he is used to...not typical cake or icing...it has a nice nutty flavour and the coconut and icing is sweet, but not super sweet. The cake is light and fluffy, but I think I would like a heavier cake next time I make them.

I also baked some NON Martha cheesecake cupcakes for a friend's birthday. They are Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes. They are quite scrumptious...and I just took a recipe from the Kraft recipebook online for chocolate cheesecake based on similar ingredients to Martha's - and then used Martha's Raspberry sauce from the recipe for Raspberry swirl cupcakes. Landon and Taylor both thoroughly enjoyed these this morning after breakfast...and I am going to have mine very soon!

Wendy's Intro

Hi I am the 3rd member of this crazy party. I have no experience making cupcakes and I suck at baking. Well that is except for butter tarts I kick butt at making butter tarts but as most of you know cupcakes are not tarts so you won't be seeing my amazing tarts. Just my failing cupcakes :(

Last year learned that I have a wheat allergy and thus I cannot even eat the cupcakes that we are making so I decided that it was not fair for me to have to make cupcakes that I cannot even eat so I am going to be adapting all of the recipes to be completely wheat free and mostly gluten free. The baking I have done using rice flour has tasted great but fallen apart because ... if possible ... it is too fluffy and light. I am going to try and find ways of making the cake a little stronger (I cannot seem to get them out of the pan without a mess!) .

As Leah said I am a teacher and a mum so I spend my time building a brighter future - pish that is a cliche if I have ever heard one! My kids are older that Mindy and Leah's they are 15 and 16 and my hubby likes to eat so I am going to include their reactions to the cupcakes as well as my own.

Angel youngest love chocolate, mint, vanilla and rich flavours
Brad eldest loves caramel, bubblegum, cotton candy, and pretty much anything lol
Mick my hubby loves toffee, licorice, hazelnut, and jube jubes
Me, I don't like cake very much so we will see if I actually like anything I make lol

Wendar

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes w/Seven Minute Frosting

So I have now made the Snickerdoodle cupcakes. They are a nice simple recipe with ingredients that most people will have on hand, sugar, milk, eggs, cinnamon, butter, baking powder, salt, Cake and regular powder. The recipe had no unusual steps, but you do have to make sure butter and eggs are at room temperature...something I always forget. The cake part is lovely and can be eaten alone.

The Seven Minute frosting was a bit more of a challenge...you will need corn syrup, sugar, water and egg whites(at room temperature). The first mixture requires you to heat water, corn syrup and sugar together until it reaches 230 degrees, so you will need a candy thermometer...something I did not have so I "made an educated guess". You need to warm the first mixture, while whipping up your egg whites. When you finally get to room temperature things got more complicated with my hand mixer (I don't have a fancy mixer) so I had to slowly mix while slowly pour in the warmed mixture, it was awkward to say the least, with moments I thought it might fly onto the floor. You need to continue whipping until it is cool, which certainly takes awhile. I am therefore not too sure where the name "seven-minute frosting" came from as I am pretty darn sure it took longer than that. The recipe for the frosting says it makes 8 cups, it did not lie. There is way too much frosting so I need to figure out how to make it smaller (math is not my strong suit). I would divide it back by 3, there is soooo much left, so unless you want to just sit and eat the frosting I really do not recommend making the whole amount. The frosting is also one of those "eat now" types so depending when you want to eat or serve them, keep that in mind.

So I went to do the fancy topping, but found I did not have the right size pastry tip, so the topping does NOT look like Martha Stewart! I thought it would be soooo easy, but alas I was sooo wrong. Overall I definitely think these are going to be one of my favourites as it is a simple recipe that is tasty.

This week

So a few updates for you all. The carrot cupcakes were a hit, thank goodness! I stayed the night at my sisters on Wednesday night and tried one of the banana cupcakes. They were indeed very pretty, although they had been in the freezer so the banana's had turned brown and slimy...so I didn't eat my banana slices. The cupcake was quite tasty, however not "the best cupcake I have ever had" ...very plain jane with a hint of banana flavour. It was quite dense and the icing was INSANELY sweet as I think the only liquid that was added to it was honey...but indeed they were something different.

I beleive Wendy is trying to create wheat alternative cupcakes...so we are waiting to hear about her progress...perhaps she will update us this weekend!

I am planning to bake some chocolate cheesecake cupcakes with raspberry swirls for a friend's birthday, so I will let you know how that goes...not even sure if I will be using Martha's recipe book for that...perhaps bits and peices. If I don't use one of her recipes, I will bake something else from the recipe book so we stay on track with our focus!

If anyone knows of good and/or cheap places to buy cupcake and baking supplies such as cupcake liners, icing tools, specialty items such as fondant and decorating tools and supplies...it would be greatly appreciated...

Okay so I have had my first Cupcake Nightmare...

Well I figured I should share my nightmare last night...first post and I have a bloody nightmare! LOL So I dreamed that I went on the blog to read if Mindy or Wendy had made a post...I was reading along when BAM I realize that the person posting was NOT Mindy or Wendy! This woman was sitting there tearing all our cupcake creations apart, and demonizing the bad ingredients we were using...that we were trying to get people fat. She then told everyone that she had a blog they should follow and she only used good wholesome ingredients...the nerve. So funny really but I remember being very upset and angry as I dreamed all this! LMFAO okay so you can see I am a whole bag of nuts! I promise Mindy and Wendy aren't...but you never know what cupcake baking could do to a person....like that nasty lady in my nightmare....

Roasted Banana Cupcakes

Just completed my cupcakes...started yesterday and quickly discovered I did not have supplies, which was why I went with the Roasted Banana ones.LOL Ridiculous as it seems I had sour cream, but no milk! Then when I was considering doing the icing after I had the cupcakes baked, I realized my butter was not "at room temperature", ugh! Needless to say I came home after a day of teaching and "supervising" curling (I won't say I coached as that would be a lie) to do the kids homework and whip up some "Honey-Cinnamon Frosting"!

So what I think personally is that the cupcakes themselves are bland. I would add some spices like cinnamon or some other spices...not sure what I want to recommend further than that as I need to look at that...a.k.a lick a bunch of spices to see what I like (LMAO I am so serious). The icing also was basically butter icing with a pinch of cinnamon and then honey. I ended up adding a tad more cinnamon.

This recipe is not on Martha's Website...but I have not made it that appealing so may be a good thing.LOL

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

So while I have been home sick from work, all I can think of is baking...

I forgot my Martha Stewart recipe book at work, so I had to find one of my old recipes for carrot cake and made a few modifications. I haven't tried one yet - I have no idea if they are any good, but I remember the recipe being pretty tasty the last time I made it, as it includes pineapple, carrots, raisins, coconut, and walnuts (but I skipped the walnuts this time).

I will taste test them later, but I know that the cream cheese frosting is delicious...there was a little left over after frosting 36 cupcakes, so I had me a little taster :)

Welcome Cupcake addicts!

I have finally created the much talked about blog to document our journey of baking Martha's cupcakes. I'm not sure if everyone knows us, but this blog will be for me (Mindy - some of you know me as Miranda...my alter ego), my sister Leah, and our friend Wendy.

My sister and I have talked about doing this for over a year now...and we decided to make this our 2011 goal...making hundreds of cupcakes...fattening up all our coworkers and friends all the while learning how to master the art of cupcake baking and decorating. Our friend Wendy has heard us talk about this for so long that she has decided to get in on the action and help us out...and she is very creative, so we welcome her decorating and baking skills!

We welcome all of you to join us on our baking extravaganza - we will post which cupcakes we plan to bake each week, if we are allowed (still need to research this) we will post the recipes, and we will take pictures and document the good, the bad, and hopefully not too ugly.

I must say that anyone who knows us, will laugh hysterically at some of these pictures and stories, as we aren't exactly the most talented decorators...I am sure we can find some pictures of gingerbread houses and men gone way wrong, and various arts and crafts we have attempted and likely given our children the credit for...since no respectable adult could possibly be that bad...LOL

Anyway, we look forward to sharing this experience with you, and feel free to send us comments or emails, or recommendations!

Mindy (a.k.a. Miranda)