Newest Creation

My newest cupcake creation is chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes.  I made chocolate cupcakes then filled them with chocolate-peanut butter ganache that I whipped, then I topped them with peanut butter frosting and sprinkled them with cocoa.  They are soooo... good!  I can't wait to share them with friends and family to see what they think.  

Luckily, I also seem to be getting faster. Today I was able to bake and decorate 21 cupcakes from scratch in 2 and half hours.

I took a picture, but it is taking forever to send through email and I'm too lazy to take out the SD card and load it that way...

First Success!

I made my first cupcakes today. I wouldn't call them gourmet...yet. I am hoping to advance to gourmet at some time in the future.  However, they are more than just cupcakes someone would take to a birthday party. I allowed myself to eat one cupcake before giving them away to anyone, and I have to say they turned out moist with a good blend of chocolate and mint flavors. The chocolate cake had about a cup of Andie's Mint pieces mixed in, and the butter cream icing had a touch of mint flavor and was topped with more mint pieces.

Mint Chocolate Cupcake

I used a chocolate cake recipe from an old 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook that I inherited.  The recipes are a little confusing, so I didn't get the ingredients added in the correct order, but I decided to go ahead with it and just really beat the mixture well to try to make up for adding the ingredients in the wrong order.  I may use the recipe again, but I'm still searching for the perfect chocolate cake recipe to use for my cupcakes.  I may try my chocolate sheet cake recipe, but I'm not sure how it will work with cupcakes.

I have a Sunday School party in two weeks; I plan on taking cupcakes. I may make a half batch of the chocolate mint and also try chocolate/peanut butter.

I didn't think about it until after I had already given away most of the cupcakes, but I plan on taking pictures of my cupcakes (the above is just with my phone and doesn't show off the cupcake well). It will be a good opportunity to practice my food photography and some macro photography as well.