A Busy Week

It has been a very busy week this week.  I am finally posting some photos from our test kitchen day on Tuesday.  I have had a few cupcake orders this week and have a lot to do for Valentines Day (which is also my birthday-- so Suzy Sweet Tooth is making Suzy some red velvet cupcakes- yum!)... Needless to say, I've been a little behind on a couple of blog entries.


I have a very short time left to create and test new recipes with my accomplice, Coco, until she leaves for a church mission to Argentina in the beginning of March.  We have a few things left on the docket to make (coming soon: cake pops!), and we tried two really delicious recipes this last week.  


The first thing we made: raspberry swirl cheesecakes in the shape of little hearts.  We did a chocolate graham cracker crust underneath a creamy cheesecake center.  We made the cheesecake with egg yolks and whipped whites (to make it fluffy), as well as some Greek yogurt, which gives a great luscious texture to the cake.  We cooked raspberries with orange juice and sugar to make the pretty red marbling on top.  They turned out to be a very decadent success.

Our second treat was a Snickerdoodle Cupcake which has been getting rave reviews amongst its taste testers around town.  These are little cinnamon sugar butter cakes with just the right combination of spice and sweetness.  We frosted them with a cinnamon buttercream icing that has a mock cookie dough consistency from two types of sugars we added to it.  Then they were dusted with cinnamon sugar and topped with their namesake: a tiny crisp-yet-chewy snickerdoodle cookie.  Ta-da!  Snickerdoodle cupcakes are born!

Superbowl Sundae

Packers or Steelers?  The more important question may be ice cream or cupcakes?  And the correct answer is: both.  It's Superbowl "Sundae" and I'm celebrating with Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes!

Come on, how cute are these?  It's a rich chocolate cupcake with just a bit of sticky caramel sauce in the center.  On top is a creamy vanilla buttercream.  My mock hot fudge is a semisweet chocolate ganache.  And they are decorated in classic ice cream parlor style with rainbow jimmies and a maraschino cherry on top.  I am going to resist any cherry-on-top puns and just say that they're the sweetest way to enjoy the big game.

Ice Cream Sundae cupcakes are a "specialty cupcake" flavor and are only $14 per dozen and $11 per additional dozen.   Suzy Sweet Tooth pricing is available here.

CocoNilla Cupcakes

My kitchen cohort is named Corinne Orton, but I call her Coco.  She doesn't always like this, but that will not sway me from calling her that.  A few weeks ago 'Coco' made a delicious cupcake that we made again this week on our test kitchen day.  It's a vanilla coconut cupcake.  So what better name is there for it than the CocoNilla cupcake?  She may hate it, but that's what I'll call this 'til the day I die.  For those who don't know, Corinne and I plan to open up a bakery when we're both done with culinary school.  If our dream pans out and we still make and sell this cupcake, I will still call it the CocoNilla.  ...Mainly to bug her.  :)

The cake portion of the cupcake is a recipe that I love of an old-fashioned vanilla butter cake.  But Corinne had the brilliant idea to make it with coconut milk and coconut extract.  The coconut milk makes it so moist and fluffy, and it's just the right combination of sweet and fruity.  The frosting for it is a thick cream cheese frosting with some more coconut and vanilla in it.  And because these CocoNilla cakes are just as ladylike as their namesake, they are all wearing (edible) pearls.

So far these cupcakes have gotten rave reviews.  I love them.  And the smell of these baking makes me want to float away to some private island.  Mmm... Thanks, Coco!

Nuts for Nutella

Nutella?  Ciao, bella!  For those who don't know, Nutella is a hazelnut and chocolate spread.  It's kind of like an Italian peanut butter.  It's delicious.  One of our two test kitchen recipes this week was this Nuts for Nutella cupcake.  I really love this cupcake and I think most people who tried it did, too.  


I channeled my inner Giada with this one: It's a moist chocolate cake filled with a creamy center of Nutella.  The frosting is a whipped Nutella buttercream.  And finally it's topped off with a chocolate drizzle.  Sound good?  Grazie!

Passion-ate about Cupcakes

I know that title is terribly kitsch, but as Nigella Lawson says, it's okay to put the kitsch in kitchen.  The passion I'm referring to here is actually passionfruit, which I used in these vanilla passionfruit cupcakes.


The cake is an old-fashioned butter cake recipe made with lots of vanilla and passionfruit juice.  It's iced with a cream cheese frosting that also has passionfruit juice flavoring it.  On top of each pink cream cheese blossom is a butterscotch chip.  

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

January for me should be called Cupcake Month.  I swear I bake other things... really I do.  But between orders for birthdays and parties, and all the cupcake ideas I have been testing out with Corinne (my partner in kitchen crime), it seems like cupcakes are just on the brain recently.  (Corinne who, by the way, made a delicious Coconut Vanilla cupcake that we'll have to get up here soon... it's scrumptious.)  So here's another one of January's babies:  the Hot Chocolate cupcake.


I was trying to think of a way to transform one of my favorite wintertime treats into a cupcake and I think I've got it down.  It's a moist chocolate cupcake made with Stephen's hot chocolate in the batter.  A marshmallow frosting that looks and tastes like a giant melted marshmallow "floats" on top.  And to crown it off are a few mini marshmallows and a sprinkling of cinnamon.  And the best part?  It will never burn your tongue!  

Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes

Our second at bat in this week's test kitchen (and second home run) was a Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcake.  If you are a fan of sweet and salty, which I am-- BIG TIME, you'll love this one.  This cupcake is based off of a cupcake made at a bakery I like; we didn't think up this combination of flavors.  But we were very excited to try our hand at it with our own recipes for its components.

The cake is a chocolate cake made with melted bittersweet chocolate that packs a pretty strong chocolate punch.  The frosting is our fluffy peanut butter frosting we recently invented for our Elvis cupcakes.  On top of the frosting we rolled crushed salted pretzels that give the cupcakes a great crunch and that delicious salty and sweet combination.  And because one kind of frosting is just not enough, we added a chocolate buttercream blossom and kissed it with a peanut butter chip.  Ta-da!

Even cuter than the big ones?  The minis with their little chocolate buttercream dollops!