Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Hockey Birthday Cupcakes

Well looky here! Fondant hockey jerseys on cupcakes. What were we thinking? NHL hockey logos? Thank goodness edible ink exists - we are ever so grateful for AmeriColor and FoodWriter pens! Sometimes, you just can't custom cut fondant into ity-bity pieces.

Sometimes you have to mix and match fondant the edible ink. Like for the Calgary Flames.

Or use the pens for the design entirely, like the Detroit Red Wings jersey.

Happy 16th birthday Alex!

The Cupcakery

The Cupcakery
at Monte Carlo
9680 South Eastern Avenue #100
Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 207-2253

Surely you didn't think I'd go to Las Vegas and not visit a cupcake shop? Well I did. Twice. The first day I went it wasn't open, that was disappointing as business hours weren't posted on the screen. But we didn't give up and came back on our last day to see the cases filled with cupcakes:

Lots of different flavours to choose from, let's take a closer look!

Here were some of my top contenders, Strawberry Shortcake: strawberry cake with heavy cream and strawberry buttercream.

The Coco Frauline that looks like a giant Ferrero Rocher is a devil's food cake with German chocolate filling, iced with ganache and covered with chopped pecans.

Always present, Southern Belle: red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Peanutbutter Jammer: peanut butter cake with grape jelly filling and peanut butter topping.

The Julius: orange and pineapple cake with orange buttercream. Well, I haven't seen this one around before!

The Julius it is!

The cupcake smelled good, just like an orange smoothie from... well Orange Julius! The cake was moist and while I didn't find orange chunks, I did find the pineapple ones. The buttercream was smooth and worked very well with the cake. Notice that there's edible disco dust on top, everything is flashier in Vegas!

Orange Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Icing

Hi! Around this time, Howard and I are flying over America, on our way to Las Vegas. I felt that I shouldn't go anywhere without leaving you some eye candy. So I made these cupcakes last Friday! We hope you love citrus as much as we do.

Orange Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Icing
Recipe from Food & Drink (Spring 2010)
(Makes about 12-15 cupcakes)

Orange Cupcakes:
2 eggs
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2 cups of sifted cake and pastry flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cupcake liners and pans ready.
2. If you forgot to take out the eggs to have them reach room temperature, place the eggs in a small bowl and cover with hot tap water.
   
   
3. Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
   
4. Add in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.
5. Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt. Sift the dry ingredients again.
6. Combine the milk with the orange juice.
7. Pour half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture, then half of the milk mixture. Repeat. Mix well.
8. Add in the zest to the batter and mix until combined.
   
   
9. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly divide the batter among your cupcake liners.
10. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool before frosting.
    

Icing:

1/3 cup of cream cheese
2 tablespoon of unsalted butter
2 teaspoon of honey
3/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 cups of sifted icing sugar

1. Beat the cream cheese, butter, honey, vanilla, and salt together.
2. Gradually add the icing sugar until it is smooth and creamy. Add a tint of orange gel colour if you like.
   
3. Spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes.
   

Piping fail! My intentions were to pipe beautiful flowers and be all zen in the afternoon. Instead of reaching a calming state, I became frustrated with my lack of practice. It just looked like piles of... oh I don't know! I can just imagine how disappointed my Wilton instructor would be! I later smoothed out all the icing with a spatula. Do you ever do that? =)

I really liked the icing, it was quite delicious! The orange cupcakes had a wonderful citrus aroma with each bite. I personally found the orange cupcakes a bit dense due to my lack of sifting, but my mom and Howard both said it was fine.

We wish you a happy holiday season! We'll be home for Christmas, so come back to read about our adventures in Nevada!

REESE'S Pieces Cupcakes

I have some REESE'S Pieces...

...and chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes.

I think you know how to do the math here! To create your REESE'S Pieces cupcakes, use your favourite chocolate cupcake and the peanut butter frosting below.


Peanut Butter Buttercream
(Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes)

250g of cream cheese
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
4 cups of icing sugar
2/3 cups of peanut butter

1. Make sure your cream cheese and unsalted butter are at room temperature. Leaving it out for 1-2 hours will work too.
   
2. Using a stand mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter until combined.
3. Add in 2 cups of icing sugar, mix well. Add the remaining 2 cups of icing sugar and mix until combined. This way the icing sugar doesn't fly out of your bowl!
4. Finally, add in the peanut butter and mix until the buttercream is smooth. Pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes and top with a REESE'S Pieces.

If you also live in Ontario, we hope you had a yummy Simcoe Day!

We're off to visit New York City in a couple of weeks. *So excited!* What do you suggest we do for sightseeing? Most importantly, where do you recommend we eat? I've started making a list of bakeries, let me know if there are any you recommend!

Construction Birthday Cupcakes

Someone is having a birthday and he works in construction! So, for the birthday party, we were asked to make red velvet cupcakes with a construction theme! We hope you enjoyed the fondant toppers - we like to make everything edible! As always, there are more photos posted on our facebook page and flickr account!

1. Blue vanilla buttercream frosting on red velvet cupcake.

2. From head to toe: hard hat and steel toe boot for construction!

3. Need to have the blueprints for instructions.

4. Set up the construction zone with signs and pylons!

5. Have to have the wrench, screwdriver, hammer, saw, and drill handy!

6. Oh no! Spilled paint!

7. All set for delivery. Have a happy birthday Rowan!

Spiders, Mummies, and Ghosts Cupcakes

Halloween is here and it wouldn't be complete without some creepy cakes! Here is a scary assortment of spiders, mummies, and ghosts! Our friend asked for these custom cupcakes to share at work. I'm sure these will be a great hit at the office! We hope your co-workers enjoy them! As always, there are more photos posted on our facebook page and flickr account!

1. Big, black, juicy spiders made from fondant.

2. Spider webs made from royal icing.

3. Those innocent eyes! Ghosts made from fondant, royal icing, and marshmallows.

4. Chocolate cupcakes with orange vanilla buttercream.

5. Woof! The brave little dog can sense ghosts.

6. Mummies made from candy and fondant.

7. Spider webs made from royal icing.

8. Fondant spider on royal icing web.

9. Spiders, Mummies, and Ghost cupcakes!

10. All ready for Halloween!