The Day of Happy Birthdays!-- Surprises-- (recipe for Peanut Butter Buttercream)

If any one knows me.. They know I am one who LOVES birthdays!

I tend to over do a bit but I like to make people feel special on their special day!

Yesterday I was able to help celebrate 2 birthdays!
One for a friend/Doctor at my weekend job/awesome lady! She was going to be out
of town for her husbands birthday but wanted to do something nice and surprise him!
She asked me if I would be willing to deliver them to his work and surprise him
before his work meeting on Wednesday morning. I LOOVVEEE surprises!
so I said duhhh!

8:15- Stopped at home to grab the cupcakes and finish topping them
830-840 ish I arrived at his work
I walk in and the receptionist said he wasnt there yet and he usually
doesnt come in til closer to 9:00

Soooo I didnt get to see his reaction to them buttttt the receptionist did put them
on his desk and they were all going to get to eat them for the meeting
and throughout the day

I have been getting so bad about taking photos and I really wish I would have!
I wrapped up the boxes to look like presents with just ribbon.. I was too scared
to wrap them up in wrapping paper for fear he was the type that goes crazy when
opening gifts and just mangle the crap out of the cupcakes

Second Birthday was for a co worker at my week job! She is the type that never
forgets anyones birthdays and always gets them a card or does something special!

So another co worker suggested making her cubicle into a hawaiian theme
Over our lunches we went and bought some fun stuff to decorate her cubicle with
But you would not believe how hard it was to find party supplies here!
We got a towel and put it over her chair so it was like she was laying down
Put up banners and streamers and balloons
put fake grass on her desk
Got her a plastic margarita glass to drink her Hawaiian punch with :)
Then the main event!
I found a confetti cannon! I HAD to have it! it was sooo awesommeeeeee!
It made quite the mess and was extremely loud but it was fun!

Along side of the decorating and confetti cannon, I also brought along
her favorite cupcakes-- the Reese's and the Snickers

I have had a few people ask me for the recipe for the Peanut Butter Buttercream
 and have given it to them but I thought I would share the recipe on here so other
people could use it and just in case i ever forget it I have a reference :)

This frosting I use on the reeses peanut buttercup cupcakes

Peanut Butter Buttercream
3 sticks of unsalted butter
1 cup of creamy peanut butter
5.5 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)
2 teaspoons of Vanilla
5 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream

Cream the butter and peanut butter together until fluffy
slowly mix in the sugar until combined
then add in the vanilla until combined
then add 1 tablespoon at a time of the heavy cream until combined
then what makes it really light is whipping it in your standing mixer
on high for 3-5 minutes
Dont skip the last step!
This makes enough to pipe 24 cupcakes generously-- plus some
I always have at least a cup of frosting left over-

and thats it! I could seriously eat that by the spoonful! It pipes very well
or if you don't have a piping bag and tips you can just spoon it on and spread it..

 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie dough filled cupcakes or "Half Baked"

A few weeks ago I was asked to make 30 Bronco cupcakes
for an 11 year olds birthday
and Mom told me just to think of some ideas of what
11 year olds would like and go with it

(I completey forgot to take a picture of the denver bronco toppings for the cupcakes)

I had remembered seeing this recipe on a blog of a recipe something like the one
I did  a while back
(I wish I could remember what blog it was so I could give them credit!)
I ended up kind of making up my own recipe
My grandma makes the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever!
So I figured they had to of been even better as a dough!
I used her top secret recipe- used my small ice cream scoop and formed the
cookie dough into balls onto parchment paper and put them in the freezer
Next I made a vanilla cupcake and filled the cupcake liners 2/3 way full of batter
after the cookie dough was pretty frozen I dropped a ball on top of each cupcake
Then baked them and topped with a cookie dough buttercream

It baked over perfect! The only thing I noticed was that the cookie dough in
 the middle seemed to kind of hollow out in the middle or sink to the bottom
Next time I'll bake them for less time  so it stays full  through the middle
Joey said these were HIS FAVORITE!




Next time on the blog-- SURPRISEEEE! I get to surprise someone
with cupcakes at their work :)
SOOO exciteeedd!
Until next time!

PS... I finally made a Facebook page--- go like it!
http://www.facebook.com/rumorhasitcupcakes

 

Cupcake-a-Palooza! 300 cupcakes, 25 dozen, 5 varieties

This last weekend was the big Cupcake-palooza!
I could not have been more happy with the outcome of the night

My mom, Logan, and I began at about 5:30PM

I am so fortunate to have the resources I do as far as a facility with a commercial kitchen to bake in.
I baked at The Hampton Inn & Suites-- My best friend is the assistant general manager-- I worked at this business for 5 + years so I know everyone who works there as well

It was so nice having the extra hands to do the dishes, build boxes, and unwrap reese's and snickers

We ended up making:
Twinkie
Snickers
Reese's
Better than Sex
Red Velvet

Starting with the chocolate based cupcakes, then the yellow cake, then on to red velvet since I always seen to make the biggest mess with red velvet!

We were done with all 300 in a matter of 5 hours. Then we cleaned up swept, mopped, everything packed back into the vehicles and were out of that joint by 10:30. Below is what 300 cupcakes look like in boxes stacked 5 boxes high along with Logan modeling :)

I cannot thank my mom and Logan enough for all the help! They were soooo great! I didn't have to ask for one single thing from them! As soon as a dish went into the sink someone was there doing it and hand drying them.

I frosted and decorated the cupcakes the next day which didn't take long!
They were off for delivery at 3:00 PM as asked
I forgot to take pictures of them individually but the graduates' Mom took photos for me and this was one of the cake table- Not all 300 are shown
(Left to right: Twinkie, Snickers, Better than sex, Reese's, and Red velvet)

Everyone was in love with them- Says Jana the graduates mom-So they must have been pretty tasty :)

Top three cupcakes from the last few weeks

Its been a veryyy busy last few weeks!
I have been a Baking fool! I told my self I wasn't taking anymore orders for the month of May but I couldn't say no! I am actually really glad I didn't they all turned out really well and I'm getting my practice in!

Now on to the Top 3 Cupcakes:
Red Velvet
First, I made Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting for University of Nebraska- Nursing program- They requested the red velvets to coincide with the school colors and they wanted an N for Nebraska on top. Easy peezy... or so I thought.. I had a baking nightmare this night when making them-- First batch came out perfect! then I tried to cut the recipe in half to just make a dozen and they came out tasting like corn bread.. ( when this happens usually there is too much baking soda)
So I remade them again checking my measurements to make sure I did everything exactly half.. I sure did! yet again corn bread.. By this time it was midnight.. I was tired and cranky and wanted to go to bed.. so I said forget it.. went to walmart bought a boxed mix and left..
I doctored it up the best i could.. got them out of the oven.. they were AWFULLLL!!! Hints why I never used boxes... Lesson learned..
I went back to walmart again bought more sour cream to remake the original recipe again
This time I didnt cut them in half.. just made another 2 dozen
They came out perfect! 

 

Next up:

 German Chocolate Cupcakes

 

Story behind this one- I had a woman call me and request cupcakes for her son's 39th Birthday

She said he wasnt a sweet eater but everyone else absolutely loved german chocolate!

Boy was she in luck! I had a great recipe for German chocolate cupcakes

I am not a coconut fan but these turned out tremendous!

The chocolate buttercream was literally good enough to bathe in!

 

 

Last but not least:

 

White chocolate Raspberry cupcakes

I ended up making 7 dozen of these cupcakes

2- dozen for a nursing students graduation

4-dozen for a bridal shower

1-dozen for my mama for mothers day

 

These were veryyy good and they were all so satisfied with the outcome

The nursing students are pictured below

She absolutely loved them!

I could not get a very good picture of them at the time as my phone was completey covered in powdered sugar and the pictures kept coming out blurry!

 

Thanks for looking :)

 

 



Thats right-- These cupcakes are on FIRE-- Literally

I had a gal order a dozen chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes

 for her in-laws wedding anniversary this last weekend

I really wanted to try something different and wanted it to be

kind of avant-garde ish with somewhat of a wow factor

So I emailed her and asked her if she would be willing to let me try it

 and I would throw in another dozen of the regular

She agreed to it Thank god! :)

It was hard to get a good picture of them

I rushed taking it because I wasnt sure how long they would keep burning

 

I made the cupcake with my normal recipe:

Chocolate cupcake

Dipped in ganache

Topped with strawberry buttercream

But when it came to the strawberries I usually cut them in half then dip them and let them harden

 

I dipped the full strawberry in chocolate let it harden

after it hardened I cut the top off and hulled out the center

When it was time to serve I told her to fill the center with a high proof liquor

Then light on fire

I had experimented at home and it did work! I was sooo excited! And it worked for her as well! Picture proof above! Lovedd it!

 

I had a few left over-- So I took them down to my favorite bartender/ #1 fan

He filled one up with Yukon Jack and we lit it on fire

 

Ironically it was a bar patrons birthday so Bartender Mike gave him the one we lit on fire

He decided to eat it while on fire, it was pretty comical :)

 

Thanks for looking :)

its seriously been 18 daysss?!-- Hamburger Cupcakes and a little catch-up

The last few weeks have just flown by!

 

I spent one weekend in denver and got a new edition

I am obsessed with it! My artist has done my last 2 and I really really love his traditional work. He completely exceeded my expectations with this one :)

I really want to show what I did last night :)

I was asked to make some cupcakes for a birthday treat for a 7 year old boy.

 I was told they didnt like sweets that much. Other than starbursts and skittles.

What kind of young kid doesnt like sweets?!?!

I was flabbergasted! Well I was back and forth between possibly

 trying to throw starbursts into the mix.

Finally I had remembered seeing on pinterest where someone had made cupcakes

 and they made them look like hamburgers.

I thought well if they dont look sweet then it would fool the kid :)

His mom thought it was a cute idea and I went with it

 

 

Sorry for the horrible photos

My camera would not focus

 

My original plan was to make sugar cookies and shape them like french fries and put them in a little basket to make it look like a happy meal

It was attempted but they didnt turn out-- so casey indulged

(do you see why I could not serve these to first graders HAHA)

 

 

 

Needless to say that didnt happen :)

I ran out of time and ran into a little bum with miscommunication.

Casey came over and drank a few brewskis while I got the baking out of the way.

He was a trooper and stayed until 11:00PM and helped me

as you can see-- Perfect Bun to Burger ratio :)

 

 Thanks for looking :)

To freeze cupcakes and cakes or not?

Since the beginning of my baking days,
I have always been very skeptical of freezing cakes, breads, cupcakes, cookies, and ect

I am worried with the freezing that it will suck the moisture out as it thaws out

I have read a lot on a few blogs that they say they freeze up nice
but only last for a couple of months

I have a few big events to bake for coming up in the near future
1- for 300 cupcakes or 25 dozen in Gering
2- 200 cupcakes for a wedding in Denver

For the wedding in Denver, I am considering freezing the cupcakes the night before so they stay good for the ride down
I am going to frost them once I get to Denver for the wedding

Then I thought I would just make all the cupcakes the night before,
place them in sealed boxes and then drive the 3 hours to denver.

Any advice on freezing?

Begin discussion :)