Cupcakes…

UPDATE: So I guess ya’ll want to know the names. That would be nice of me right? HEHE!

Okay so I’m just going to let the photos speak for themselves! If you are ever in Augusta, GA you need to go Downtown to Sundree’s Urban Market and pick up some Delightful Bites Cakery cupcakes! One of the best foodie finds by far. None went to waste.. that is for sure!

 
Left photo: Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and Black Forest with chocolate cake and vanilla butter cream.
Right Photo: Banana Split with strawberry cake, banana butter cream and chocolate fudge drizzle.

Left to right: Yellow cake with chocolate butter cream, Chocolate cake and
peanut butter butter cream

  
Right Photo: Yellow cake and vanilla butter cream

My all time favorite.. Carrot cake! So moist, very carroty and the best cream cheese frosting.

She also makes a killer red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting but there were none the day I bought some. That is another all time favorite LOL. They are honestly all delicious. The lady knows how to make great cupcakes.

Love and cupcakes,
Fallon

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Ever since my birthday I've been in the baking itch for cupcakes. I want to try different flavors and make delicious frosting. Which means I must bake cupcakes and try them. Isn't that horrible? ;) 


I decided I need to own Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I must put that on my list of cookbooks to buy! Being not the cupcake baking expert but definitely at eating I went on my Google search for cupcakes. I also had a specific ingredient I wanted to use. Bananas. I have TWO bunches of bananas in my freezer right now. My mom likes to go a little crazy with the grocery shopping when it comes to produce. There is just so many bananas I can eat. Therefore they head into the freezer for future baking projects.


I found two recipes during my search but went with the one that had a deliciously different frosting. Thank you Martha Stewart! These cupcakes were the bomb! So moist, light and full of banana flavor. The honey-cinnamon frosting was the best pairing for these cupcakes. Very creamy and smooth. I didn't use as much powdered sugar because I wanted the honey to be the star. I also loved the very pale tan color the cinnamon made, almost like a natural tint for frosting! 


I split the dozen cupcakes so my dad would enjoy them as well because he does not like frosting! Hello that is the best PART! So his were baked with a banana on top. He ate all the cupcakes within one day and said he really enjoyed this banana recipe. As for my leftover cupcakes, I ate one and 1/2 cupcakes. There was one lonely cupcake left and I wanted my dad to have it, so I cut the top part off with the frosting and saved him the bottom part. I wasn't letting no frosting go to waste!!

I love the simple garnish because it tells you what the main ingredient is in the cake

Click HERE for the Banana Cupcake recipe. Click HERE for the Honey-Cinnamon frosting recipe.


You also have to check out this link because it is a list of the 50 Best Cupcake Recipes on the Internet. Enjoy!! Fallon PS: Don't forget about the giveaway I'm hosting! You have till this Wednesday by Midnight to submit your entries!

Fallon

Yellow Cupcakes with Sticky Chocolate Icing

I woke up one morning and decided I want to master cupcakes. Okay maybe not master but definitely brush up on my cake baking skills and decorating. Cake and decorating are definitely a challenge for me when it comes to baking. The cake either falls apart or too dry. Then I rush to decorate it and it looks awful. You know what I mean? If I start making cupcakes I will learn to have more patience with decorating and hopefully learn how to cook a cake properly. Plus they are so darn cute and the perfect serving! A while back I bookmarked a recipe from Pioneer Woman who made Yellow Cupcakes with Sticky Chocolate Icing. It looked easy but the frosting is what had me! Over the weekend I was invited to a get together to watch UFC, and I figured cupcakes would be the perfect item to bring! Cake Flour. The recipe calls for cake flour and I've experienced with this item before while trying to bake a cannoli cake. I actually bought cake flour and my sponge cake was not moist and pretty hard. I thought cake flour was suppose to make everything lighter! I wasn't about to buy cake flour again and I remember reading I could make my own! I found how to make cake flour from this blog. 1 cup of flour minus 2 tablespoons that are replaced with 2 tablespoons of corn starch. I sifted it 5 times and the flour looked beautiful. I followed Pioneer Woman's recipe exactly for her yellow cupcakes. The batter looked silky and beautiful. I baked them for 22 minutes, and by the time they came out they were cooked and lightly brown on the sides. I let them cool overnight covered and frost them a few hours before I had to leave.


My cupcakes felt hard and dry. I overcooked them, 20 minutes would probably been just enough time. I still went with it though because I still had to bring something. The frosting came together and I went ahead to top the cupcakes. The frosting was sticky, gooey and everything it is suppose to be. It was everywhere! The table, hands, sticking to other cupcakes etc. It was dripping like crazy. It eventually set and left a nice shiny top. Of course my icing/frosting skills looked nothing like Pioneer Woman's cupcakes but this will take time and patience. Right?

Don't worry after I cleaned up, I was eating the frosting off the table with my finger. ;)

Whoa hold your horses frosting!

As she stated she had 12 cupcakes and 2 extra ones. I had the same thing! So I was able to taste test a cupcake. It was good but dry. Darn it! Yellow cake should be moist and buttery. The next time I bake these cupcakes with be for 20 minutes. This recipe has potential! If they are still hard and dry after 20 minutes, then I believe it the cake flours fault. ;)

I love my cupcake carrier! Holds a cake too.

The cupcakes went well, but I think it because people thought they looked good and took one. Two of my friends thought the frosting was way to sweet, but between my best friend and I we loved the frosting, just not the dry cake. I think this frosting be good for something else but not cupcakes.

Click here for Yellow Cupcakes with Sticky Chocolate Icing recipe.


So I was VERY excited to have leftover frosting. I was thinking an oatmeal topping, stuffed french toast, stuffed between a banana, or melted on top of vanilla ice cream! Well not so much because it is gone. Yes gone. My mom ate it all by microwaving it and eating it with a spoon. I was sad, very sad but guess what! It just means I have to make this all over again! bahaha!!

Always,
Fallon

Cupcakes, Sprinkles Cupcakes!

Well here is the second posting about my vacation to California. After spending almost 6 days at Huntington Beach we went down to visit our family for a day. The adults split up and my cousin and I headed to Beverly Hills. We had it planned, we knew we'd be having lunch and for dessert cupcakes from Sprinkles! We both have heard of the place and people rave of how it is so "good." So we had to try it. Just the name is cute! Well for lunch her Aunt mentioned a french type of restaurant that specializes in sandwiches and salads. We said perfect because we wanted something light and dainty. The place was called Le Pain Quotidien. They are everywhere like Australia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Spain, and several other places internationally. I must say it was a very cute place inside. I loved the fact that the middle of the restaurant is 1 long table. Something you'd see in Italy at their Trattorias. Then they had several tables that served 2-4 people. It was unique because they also sold their own baked goods, jams and spreads. I noticed a spread that was a praline spread. I really wanted to get it but I knew when I got back home, it was time to focus on being healthy and cutting out added sweets! So I behaved. Plus I knew I was having a cupcake. At lunch we both ordered tartines, which are open faced sandwiches. They have a delicious whole wheat bread they use made fresh in their own bakery inside the restaurant. My cousin ordered their Grilled Chicken and Smoked Mozzarella tartine with arugula and basil pesto. As for a drink, she ordered their homemade lemonade. I took a taste from her and it was so delicious! The lemon flavor wasn't overpowering and it was sweeten perfectly. Very refreshing. I ordered from their special menu the Turkey, Avocado and Sprouts tartine. They were both delicious, but I liked mine a bit more because I'm not a huge arugula fan (weird huh?), but if that wasn't present then it would of been a tie with mine! Both our plates came with cantaloupe, cucumber, and radishes. My cousin plate had these cute little pickles on them, which were really good. I can't remember the last time I had a pickle!! I wish I had a place like this in Las Vegas. We felt so healthy and not bad about anything we ate afterwards. We figured our cupcakes would even out everything. ;)

The restaurant. My cousin took this photo on her camera. Here with my cousin and I waiting and chit chatting! Here was my plate. Definitely not cheap on the avocado! As soon as I got home I made this again but without the turkey. Just as good!

After lunch we walked around! The stores were very expensive but we found some affordable stores like Coach and Juicy Couture. We even ended up going into Tiffanys. Can you believe I've NEVER been into a Tiffany's store before? This one was huge, I think it was 2 or 3 levels. I found a cute silver peace sign charm. I love jewelry, I can never have enough! Of course I emailed a picture of it to my mom. ;) We walked some more, took pictures with the beautiful flowers and just pretending to be like "tourists." Then I saw another bakery. Crumbs! Now silly me I thought they were known for their compost cookie that has like potato chips, pretzels, and coffee grounds in it. Cookie Madness would talk about the cookie on her site, well I ended up remembering it is a bakery in New York called Milk's bar. So I went into Crumbs asking about this cookie and they looked at me all weird! I checked out their cupcakes and they looked delicious. They had fun ones like twinkie, ding dong, and such. They were a nice size for their price as well. I overheard the people working there that the cookie is described would actually make an interesting cupcake! Sadly, we had our heart set on Sprinkles and decided next time we would try Crumbs!

I'll be back!

Once you get to Sprinkles you know you made it because it always has a line outside the store! The place is small inside and only so many people can fit. Also they don't want their door to constantly stay open because it ruins the freshness of their cupcakes. We waited for about 10-15 minutes. It didn't seem long at all really, plus the weather was great outside! So I can't complain. We had to get 6 cupcakes because everyone in our family heard we were going and wanted us to bring some home for dessert that night. My cousin had her heart set on a red velvet cupcake and I had no idea what I wanted! We finally got in and this is what they had for the day: black and white, chocolate coconut, chocolate marshmallow, cinnamon sugar, dark chocolate, ginger lemon, peanut butter chocolate, pumpkin, red velvet, strawberry, vanilla and vanilla milk chocolate. We ordered a box of 6 and were only saving 4 cupcakes for that night. My cousin got her red velvet and I decided on chocolate marshmallow. I've been on this marshmallow kick lately so that wasn't a hard decision at all for me. The remaining cupcakes we ordered was another chocolate marshmallow, dark chocolate, peanut butter chocolate and vanilla milk chocolate.

Sorry for the blurry words, but I think you can figure it out! ;)

We stayed inside and ate the 2 we chose for ourselves. I never had red velvet before so my cousin let me try her cupcake. The cake was moist, good flavor and held well together. The cream cheese frosting, delicious. I really liked the red velvet but I don't think it is something I'd ever make at home. I think it is too messy!

They gave a nice cake to frosting ratio. I don't like when frosting overpowers the cake.

The chocolate marshmallow cupcake was good. It was like one of those hostess cakes with the marshmallow creme filling. It had a chocolate ganache top that was very rich. Being a chocolate girl it was my favorite part of the cupcake! I spilt the cupcake open and it had a nice filling of marshmallow. It was light, just like the chocolate cake. It was good, but I thought it would be different. I guess I was expecting s'mores!

I wish I could have one now! Only 5 hours away. LOL Beautiful!

My overall thought of Sprinkles. It something we had to try because everyone raves about it. They had a line out the door. They are cute! Were they the most amazing thing in the whole wide world? No, but they are good. Are there better cupcakes out there? I can't say yes, but I'm sure there are. I'm sure I could come up with my own cupcakes and they would taste just as good. Afterwards I kind of wished I tried a Crumb's cupcake! They were bigger and they had different flavors than Sprinkles, kind of felt like a candy shop when we were inside. Out of 5 stars, I give Sprinkles a 3. Average cupcakes, in my opinion. Later on, we spilt the remaining cupcakes into 4 slices each so everyone could taste each one once. My favorites were the peanut butter chocolate and the dark chocolate. Those were amazing! I enjoyed it more then the red velvet and chocolate marshmallow. The peanut butter chocolate had chunks of peanut butter cups and a peanut butter cake which was dense and had a firmer hold. The dark chocolate one was heavenly. This was my cousins favorite one out of the bunch. The frosting was dense and rich, and the cake was moist packed with chocolate flavor. The vanilla milk chocolate was also good. It was light and the milk chocolate frosting pair well with the vanilla cake. We had fun and that what matters! I can't wait to get back there and have another day with my cousin. Being so far apart it hard to get together. We are 3 years apart and now that we are both older we can talk about anything! We try our best to keep in touch. Usually facebook and email works best. It is better then nothing. What can I say, I love my cousin and if she lived closer to me I would spoil her! I tend to spoil the people I love. I'm good like that! Goodnight, Fallon

100 Cupcake Bites Later

WOW! I'm so exhausted. I'm hosting my best friend's baby shower tomorrow and all the last minute stuff just piles on up. Today we made mini cupcake bites for people to take home. I found these over at Bakerella. When I first saw them I knew I had to make these for my best friend's baby shower. They are so cute! They are really easy to make, but so time consuming. That why I made my pregnant friend help me out with them. LOL. In return I made her lunch, chicken caesar salad! We both enjoyed making those cake balls! It was also great bonding time. I don't get to see her very often because we are both busy with our own lives. She is married and now has her first son on the way, so who knows when we will ever get this one on one bonding time again!

I decided to keep it simple and just use boxed cake and packaged frosting. It was enough labor just putting the cupcake bites together. The mommy to be requested her favorite, yellow cake. YUM! I loved the buttery smell. Then we used cream cheese frosting to mold it altogether because well cream cheese is the best! We spent about 4 hours in the kitchen making the cake balls to assembling them into goodie bags for the guest to take home.We ended up with about 100 cupcake bites altogether, give or take a few we sampled. We have to make sure they are safe for others to eat. That is always my excuse. ;) Tomorrow is the baby shower and I'll be taking ton of pictures. So I'm sure I will share them with everyone soon. I'm really excited that this is my first baby shower I get to host, along with our friend Shannon. I didn't realize how much work it takes to plan everything, organize everything, and make sure we have everything we need. But it was worth it in the end!!

It is an army of cupcake bites! I love all the different 
variations we came up with. It looks so cute!
 

The goodie bags we made. Aren't they cute? 
We also added a butter mint to the bag. Those are addicting. :)

I can't really explain how well they tasted because they were fabulous. The yellow cake really is delicious. I think it is the buttery flavor and the sweetness from the chocolate that make them really a great bite of cake to eat. Of course it is impossible to only eat one! Please check out Bakerella's blog. She deserves it! Thank you for sharing your cupcake bites.

Have a great weekend,
Fallon

**EDIT: I forgot to share, M= Mason!**