18 Burgers, Hold the Fries

These started out as a request for a hamburger cake, but after seeing the burger cupcakes posted by Bakerella, I knew they had to be cupcakes. I have a clear preference for cupcakes over cake (and actually for all things miniature), and these were just too cute.

Cupcake "buns" waiting for assembly

To make these, I made 18 vanilla cupcakes. Once they were baked and cooled, I cut them each in half to form the "bun." The tops were a bit sticky after being stored in an airtight container overnight, and I sprinkled a tiny bit of sesame seeds over the top so they looked authentic. I also baked a batch of brownies in a rectangle pan. Using a 2" cutter, I cut out 9 brownie circles and cut each of these in half lengthwise to form the "hamburger patties."

Assembled cupcakes

After using a bit of frosting to adhere the lower bun to the brownie, I divided the remaining frosting into 3 bowls and dyed it green (lettuce), red (ketchup) and yellow (mustard). The frosting then got piped onto the brownie, and the rest of the vanilla cupcake was placed on top.

Box of burgers

Throughout the process of assembling these, my dad was sitting at the kitchen table watching me make them. The whole time, he kept saying "I just don't understand how these are going to look like burgers..." Finally when they were all put together, he goes, "WOAH! Those look exactly like hamburgers." Mission accomplished.

Cupcakes to Accompany Beer

Every year friends of my family host a huge beer pong tournament in August. Everyone partners up, comes up with a creative name, and competes based on their seeding. This is hands down one of my favorite events of every summer, and this year was no different. I was partnered with my sister Melissa, and we settled on the team name MC Hammered. I have to give Melissa credit because she pulled our whole awesome team uniform together.

MC Hammered

While Melissa was running around finding Hammer pants and choreographing our victory dance, I was busy baking 6 dozen cupcakes to bring to the party. After much debate, I settled on Irish car bomb (what better than cupcakes baked with beer for this event), vanilla, and cherry vanilla. The cherry vanilla is my favorite, and I was happy to have an excuse to make them again.

Cupcakes before most were taken

The cupcakes got set up well after the tournament was underway and most of them disappeared as I was setting them up on the stand. I had to keep shooing people away in order to set them all up and take a picture.

Dunkaroos enjoying their cupcakes

Although MC Hammered did not win the whole tournament (we actually were out in the 1st round), we did win the prize for best team name/uniform, which I consider a major victory.

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Last week it was my brother Eric's 23rd birthday. If you read the comments on this blog, he's the one always talking about the calorie content of cupcakes or making fun of our little sister, Melissa, for eating too many. See, Melissa and I are normal, cupcake-loving people, but Eric's strange and doesn't eat really anything that's bad for you. His ideal cupcake would probably be a mix of chicken, tuna, and protein powder.

Workspace around 1:00 am

Having decided that was not going to be my ingredient list, I went for a banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting. And I used no butter. Which is no small feat for me being as I use that stuff by the pounds. I also reduced the sugar in the cake. This was just about the "healthiest" cupcake I've baked yet. I also made a dozen regular vanilla for the people who wouldn't prefer the protein cupcakes.

Finished cupcakes

I really don't like bananas, but the banana cupcake wasn't bad at all. It definitely had more of a muffin texture, but that's probably due to the absence of butter. The combo of peanut butter and banana was good; each flavor held its own nicely.

Close-up of the suits cupcakes

Because Eric was having his birthday celebration down in Atlantic City, I went with a poker theme for the cupcakes. I covered the peanut butter banana cupcakes in rolled green fondant to look like a poker table and topped them with edible fondant poker chips I hand made and painted with gold luster dust. The vanilla cupcakes were covered in white fondant and topped with a card suit cut out of red and black fondant. I actually bought those fondant cutters about two months ago in preparation for these cupcakes. I also found tiny suit sprinkles at NY Cake and used those on the white cupcakes as well.

Poker chip cupcakes

All of this baking and decorating went down around midnight last Thursday. By the time I finished, I was exhausted and covered in corn starch (you roll the fondant on it).

About to sing Happy Birthday

Fortunately, when Eric and his friends returned from Atlantic City, most of them had won. It would not have been good to have a cupcake reminder of the big losses suffered at the poker tables.

Cupcakes for Birthdays

These liners even say they're for parties on the packaging

I just got done with the poker-themed cupcakes I made for my brother's birthday this weekend. I'll post those later, but for now I have pictures of cupcakes I made for a birthday party last weekend. I hate showing up to any kind of occasion with empty hands, and this party was for a birthday, so I definitely needed to bake cupcakes.

Purple cookie dough

I've had these fun cupcake liners from Reynold's that I picked up in the grocery store near me a while ago. They're good to use in my parents' oven because they're not greaseproof, so they don't slip away from the cupcake, but are still more fun than basic white. There was some purple ones, and I baked cookie dough cupcakes in them and dyed the chocolate chip frosting light purple to match the liner. I also baked a dozen margarita cupcakes into the pink & green argyle wrappers.

Margarita cupcake - Matches the liner!

These cupcakes were a pretty big hit at the party. I'm excited to see if Reynold's or any other supermarket brand puts out more decorative liners in the future.

Box of cupcakes, ready to go to the party

The Cupcakes I Almost Dropped on the Port Authority Floor

Due to time constraints and other plans this weekend, I had to bake an order that was due in Toms River Saturday on Friday in Hoboken. I left my apartment early Saturday morning in order to make it down in time, anticipating shore traffic that I did eventually hit.

Cupcakes, post near-fall and frosted in Toms River

While I was standing on line for the bus to Toms River, I reached into my bag to grab my bus ticket while balancing the heavy box of two dozen cupcakes in one hand. As I was just about to grasp my ticket, I lost my balance, and the box began wobbling out of my control. I immediately panicked, fearing these cupcakes would soon be scattered on the floor in front of me. For those of you who have never been to Port Authority (which is possible now that my blog has visitors from 37 countries and 45 U.S. states!! - yay!), it is by far one of the dirtiest places I have been. In all my years of traveling through Port Authority, I have never once witnessed anyone mopping the floor. I suppose there's no point though being as pigeons and other creatures are plentiful in the terminals.

Safe, secure, boxed and ready to go

If these cupcakes had hit the floor, it would have been nothing short of a disaster. I'd have to toss the infected cupcakes, and after that, I'm not sure what I would do. Probably cry for the entire bus ride and quit baking forever. Okay, maybe not that severe, but I would have had to show up with something at 1:00 pm at the person's house expecting a dozen Oreo and a dozen toasted coconut cupcakes. I'm wondering if Entenmann's would work in a pinch. Fortunately by some crazy maneuvering that pulled no less than 10 muscles in my back, I regained a grip on the cupcakes, and no cupcakes were injured in the process. Because they weren't yet frosted, it didn't even matter they all got jumbled in the box. This was extraordinarily lucky. The cupcakes arrived in TR unharmed and ready to be frosted.

Lessons Learned (White Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes)

I learned a very important lesson this morning. I will never again put a container of cupcakes on my lap while wearing a pretty silk dress. I have since realized that the outside of the container is likely to have traces of frosting on it which will undoubtedly leave oil marks on the dress. This was a major bummer this morning.

Folding the strawberries and white chocolate into the batter

I had baked these white chocolate strawberry cupcakes last night for a coworker's birthday today. I started with my basic vanilla recipe and once it was mixed, added some white chocolate chunks and diced fresh strawberries. The frosting I used is white chocolate buttercream with fresh strawberries. These were seriously good, despite the melting issues they encountered in the heat.

Cupcakes fresh out of the oven, unfrosted

When I was younger, white chocolate was my favorite type of chocolate. Every Easter I'd get a white chocolate bunny in my Easter basket, that I probably ate that morning for breakfast (are you getting the sense I'm a healthy eater?). I was pretty surprised years later when I learned white chocolate actually has no cacao in it. It's just cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar.

Finished cupcake on my desk, slightly melted

Medical Cupcakes

For the record, these cupcakes were approved by a (future) physician. A lot of people (namely my brother) often request cupcakes that are "healthy," but I'm conscientiously opposed to low-fat baked goods. They just never taste even slightly as good as the unmodified versions. Another thing is, how often do people really eat cupcakes? I mean, aside from me, cupcakes are a once in a while indulgence. And you shouldn't skimp calories on your indulgences. The diet can wait until Monday (or Tuesday...or Wednesday). Trust me.

Red velvet with a mini stethoscope

Ok, off that spiel now. This past weekend I baked 5 dozen cupcakes for a graduation party that was occurring on Saturday. The son of my parents' friends was graduating college and heading to medical school in St. Maarten. Why didn't I think of that when I was graduating college? Maybe not the med school, but definitely grad school in the islands.

Box of medical cupcakes

I know I've been talking about my summer time baking (bad) habits, and this bunch went just about the same. After returning home around 10:30 am from the night before, I went straight to making mini fondant stethoscopes to adorn the cupcakes. When it was evident the fondant wasn't going to work for the tube portion of the stethoscope, somehow through my hangover-induced haze, I was able to improvise and whip up some royal icing to replace, while baking the last dozen cupcakes. After finally getting the full five dozen baked, frosted, stethoscoped and boxed, I was immediately out the door to drop these off.

Full cupcake tower

The full order was for 2 dozen red velvet with the stethoscopes, 1 dozen Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, 1 dozen chocolate with chocolate ganache, and 1 dozen orange cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting. I thought it was a pretty good assortment for a party with a mix of adults, 20-somethings, and kids.

Also, it's worth mentioning a friendship was almost lost in the baking of these cupcakes. SOMEONE who will remain nameless (Morgan) promised she'd bring me a bagel & Diet Snapple and never showed up with it. I will let it slide this time, but don't let it happen again! You should know better than to mess with me when I am baking hungover. Tears were almost shed when no bagel arrived at my door.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes (Minus the Whiskey)

For a graduation party request I baked this weekend, one of the flavors they asked for was chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's frosting. The party was on Saturday, and I knew I would never get everything baked on time if I waited until Friday night to start (especially since I knew I would be going out with friends Friday night). Because of this, I started the baking before leaving Hoboken for the weekend. This was a crucial call, especially being as I struggled to complete the order as it was.

Guinness post-explosion, still foaming at the top

There's a convenience store named Delite two blocks away from me that has been my go-to place for all of my pre and mid baking needs. I am terrible when it comes to running out of ingredients in the midst of mixing, and these store owners have seen me in various states of panic, desperately running in for eggs, cocoa powder, etc. Last Thursday, I stopped into Delite pre-baking to pick up some eggs and Guinness. The cashier looked horrified when I insisted I could just put the Guinness in my purse to carry home (it was raining really hard and I just didn't have enough hands).

Butter melting into the Guinness - two delicious ingredients

Not surprisingly, when I went to open one of the cans to use for the recipe, it exploded all over me & my kitchen. Excellent way to start the whole baking process. After finishing the Guinness cupcakes, I still needed to make plain chocolate cupcakes and realized that I had no milk in the apartment. Running back out to Delite, I realized in a mix of slight amusement and embarrassment that I not only was covered in a fine layer of flour, but also reeked of alcohol from the Guinness explosion that occurred. Standing as far back from the register as possible, I quickly paid for my milk and ran out of the store, praying the cupcakes I had left unattended in the oven hadn't burnt down my apartment. I got back and the cupcakes were perfectly baked, there were no fires, and I had all the ingredients needed for the rest of the night.

Buying mini bottles of alcohol always makes me feel like an alcoholic for some reason

I don't have any pictures of these cupcakes on their own, but in the next couple days I'll post all the cupcakes from the weekend and you can see the Car Bomb ones set up on the stand with the others.

Mardi Gras Cupcakes

The last of the cupcakes I made last weekend were for my parents' annual summer party. Their summer party is an event both their friends and my friends look forward to every year. Because my mom loves themes, this year's theme was Mardi Gras. I knew I wanted to do flashy cupcakes to go with the theme. I also knew I was likely going to be hungover from Friday night and needed to keep them simple. Hence, I went with all vanilla cupcakes with edible glitter in green, gold, and purple.

Cupcakes waiting to be set up after they were baked

Sure enough, Saturday morning I was not in good shape. The night before my best friend's brother got married and we all took full advantage of the open bar (sorry Mr. & Mrs. O!). I stumbled out of bed some time in the late morning and got to working. With the oven on, the kitchen was hot and it felt like I was sweating vodka. This was not one of my finest baking experiences.

Top tier of my new stand!

When they were finally done and sprinkled with the glitter, I set them aside for the party later that night. After I got ready, I accidentally dragged my arm through some of the spilt glitter, which quickly migrated all over me, making it look like I applied body glitter. I haven't worn body glitter since 1995, so I was pretty unhappy about that.

Set up in the "desserts room" as my friend used to call our dining room

Morgan's mom made me a new cupcake stand so that was on display at the party. The party was great and the cupcakes were a hit. By the time they actually came out with the rest of desserts, almost half of the cupcakes were already pilfered in secret by the party guests.

Bachelorette Party Cupcakes

In the past couple months, I have received several requests for cupcakes for bachelorette parties. Immediately upon hearing this request, I think, "oh no, no erotic cupcakes." My cupcakes are supposed to be pretty, not have fondant genitals on them. Not to mention, one of these requests was from a coworker where I would have to bring them into work. I'm sure my company's HR department has never even contemplated that nightmare of someone bringing erotic cupcakes into work. Or maybe they have...it's a pretty big company.

Red Velvet Cupcake

Fortunately, everyone I have dealt with wants pretty cupcakes, not raunchy ones. This weekend I made 2 dozen cupcakes for my brother's friend to to take to a bachelorette party she was going to. She wanted a dozen red velvet and a dozen cookie dough, specially made pink.

Packaged Cupcakes

I had some hot pink edible glitter I had picked up a while ago at NY Cake, a cake supply store in Chelsea, and I used that on the red velvet cupcakes. I dyed the cream cheese frosting a very light pink color and sprinkled the glitter over it. Very nice effect. For the cookie dough cupcakes, I dyed the frosting a darker pink before adding in the mini chocolate chips. I thought the end result of the cupcakes was very pretty - perfect for a girls' night out!

Cupcake Jars from Last Week

The cupcakes in jars idea has solved the whole dilemma of shipping cupcakes. Since my friend Dan's request, I've shipped out several more boxes of cupcakes. Last week a friend of mine asked me to send half a dozen to her friend as a gift. The recipient is the co-chair of 80 Million Strong, a coalition advocating for jobs for millenials. Because of this, my friend wanted rainbow cupcakes in the organization's colors - blue, red, orange and green - with green star sprinkles on top.

Cupcakes fresh out of the oven

I may have mentioned this before, but when it comes to my cupcakes, I'm an obsessive perfectionist. I was able to find multicolored star sprinkles, so I picked out the green ones individually much to the astonishment and dismay of my mom who watched this.

Finished cupcakes, before lids

I really liked the way the rainbow cupcakes looked in the clear jars - very pretty. The rainbow jars are something I'd like to experiment more with in the future.

Carefully selected sprinkles

Happy Birthday Jackie!

Today was one of my favorite coworkers' birthdays, and I knew I wanted to make her cupcakes for it. After unsuccessfully trying to stealthily figure out her favorite flavor, I decided to go with just plain vanilla cupcakes. For some reason, when I think birthday cake (or cupcakes), vanilla immediately pops to mind. Probably because it's my favorite flavor. I feel like birthday cupcakes need sprinkles too.

Standard cupcakes on my desk shot

Having no sprinkles in my apartment (yes, I know, it's shocking), I decided to decorate with some of the new tiny silver dragees I bought a while back. Dragees are balls of sugar covered with a metallic coating. There was some confusion with me for a while whether these were safe to eat because on the bottle I first bought it said "For decoration purposes only." After some intense research (aka Wikipedia), I discovered that while the FDA does not consider these edible, they are perfectly safe for you to eat. I have tested this personally myself. Apparently they used to be made with mercury finishing, which is not safe to eat, but they no longer contain mercury. Despite this, they are still banned in California.

The piping tip I used kind of made them look like roses

Have I mentioned my apartment kitchen does not have air conditioning? Halfway through this baking process, I was dying and sure that the frosting was just going to melt clear off the cupcake.

Jackie with the cupcakes!

I then made it to work today with my dozen pink birthday cupcakes with edible silver sprinkles despite also juggling my backpack (yay - my weekend starts today!) and purse and attempting to feed money into the bus machine. I would have sworn I was going to drop the cupcakes upon getting on the bus.

Jackie looked pretty surprised when I handed these over this morning. Hopefully it was a look of good surprise, not a look of "wow, pink is my LEAST favorite color" surprise.

Chocolate Ganache

In addition to the rainbow cupcakes I made for 4th of July this past weekend, I also baked 2 dozen for a friend's family party they were having. It was an order for 12 red velvet (which remains the leading favorite) and 12 vanilla with chocolate ganache. When I first heard they wanted chocolate ganache with vanilla cake, I was a bit thrown off guard. Ganache is the smooth, shiny cake coating that is comprised of dark chocolate and heavy cream. It's also frequently paired with chocolate cake.

Cupcake from 4th of July

The only other time I had made chocolate ganache was for my housewarming party last October. I had made four different types of mini cupcakes (which was crazy considering all the other things I had to do) - chocolate with chocolate ganache and Halloween sprinkles, caramel apple, red velvet, and orange vanilla.

Tower of cupcakes from last year's housewarming - Chocolate ganache in middle

There were a couple extra vanilla/chocolate ganache cupcakes left over from the batch so I got to try them. I think I'd label these as cupcakes for adults. Before you get any ideas, I don't mean that kind of "adult" cupcake - I've had so many requests lately for cupcakes for bachelor and bachelorette parties lately with inappropriate cupcake toppers. I mean in that the taste is more sophisticated, probably due to the quality chocolate in the ganache and the absense of traditional frosting. These are definitely the cupcakes I would serve at a dinner party.

4th of July Weekend

I always feel like 4th of July is the turning point in the summer. It's generally when summer starts to take its course and establishes how the remaining summer months are going to be. Fortunately we had some good weather down at the shore and a lot of good times over the past weekend.

In honor of the holiday, I put together some red, white & blue rainbow cupcakes. Over the course of the whole weekend, I toted my cupcake carrier around from bbq to bbq. By Monday, almost all of the cupcakes were gone.

Cupcakes from the Past Weekend

First of all, I'd like to apologize for being negligent about baking & blogging lately. It's summer and it seems like a million other things have been demanding my attention, depriving my friends, family & coworkers of delicious baked goods. What can I say? The call of the bar is just too strong, and when you're getting home as the sun is coming up, getting up a few hours later to slave away in a hot kitchen is just the last thought on your mind.

That being said, I did throw together some cupcakes for a friend's informal gathering by his pool Sunday. I had some leftover Oreo frosting in my freezer and had a craving for chocolate cupcakes. I have no clue what happened with the cupcakes, but when I took them out of the oven, all of the cupcake liners pulled away from the cupcakes. They weren't even the silicone-coated ones I was initially having the problem with. As my guy friends will attest to though, they still tasted pretty good. I used the remaining Oreo frosting for half of them and threw together some vanilla frosting for the rest. I thought it was a pretty solid effort for being so hungover.

Because this weekend is 4th of July though, there will be some baking going on so be sure to check back here next week to see what made it to all the bbqs!

With a Cherry on Top

There's some crucial information you need to know about me before hearing about the cupcakes I baked yesterday:

First of all, I love "fake" food. Love probably does not even begin to describe how much I enjoy it. The one food I could eat for every meal, every single day, for the rest of my life is Kraft macaroni & cheese. Kraft probably would have sponsored me as a young child if they knew how much mac & cheese I would go on to consume. Despite this, when I bake, I use only "real" ingredients and the highest quality of them I can find.

Second, in line with my first point, maraschino cherries are my favorite fruit. In fact, there was a time in my life where they were the only "fruit" I would eat. Probably one of the things that made me most sad about growing up was losing the ability to order Shirley Temples at restaurants without looking ridiculous. Not that that's stopped me from doing so; I usually just blush the color of the drink when ordering them.

Chopped maraschino cherries for batter

Third, illustrations of cupcakes with cherries are a personal pet peeve of mine. When I was commissioning my logo, one of my few criteria was that the image of the cupcake did not have a cherry on it. Realistically, how often do you see cupcakes with a cherry on them?

After racking my brain and the internet for a new cupcake flavor to bring to work, I settled on cherry vanilla. Almost all the recipes I found had real cherries in them, and I did contemplate using them, but I knew I'd be happier with maraschino cherries (although I did fear my coworkers would shun these cupcakes). I had also brought back some vanilla bean paste from a vineyard I went to in New Zealand, and was excited to try that out in the frosting. Unable to find a recipe I thought would work, I just put together one of my own.

After work, I picked up two different types of maraschino cherries - with stems and without. The cutting of the cherries left my fingertips stained deep red from the food dye. This reminded me of how my childhood best friend was not allowed to eat certain red dyes because her mother forbade her. Maraschino cherries were on that family's list of forbidden foods. After chopping all the cherries, I tossed them in to the batter and added a few drops of red dye for good measure, just to be safe. I didn't want any repeat grey cupcakes (see this post if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Cupcake briefcase I take to work

I know I said the other day that cookie dough is my favorite, but it has been replaced (or at least tied) with these cupcakes. I ate an embarrassing amount of them. Really, embarrassing. I'm usually pretty uninterested in the cupcakes I bake because once I'm done with all the effort, I'm too "over" them to eat them. These cupcakes also survived the monsoon we are having in NYC (and I didn't have an umbrella this morning) and made it into work, relatively dry. They definitely were appreciated though...they unanimously got my coworkers' seal of approval.

Kick Off to Summer Baking

Being as I only got home from Australia last week and hadn't seen my parents or friends in a while, I hopped on the bus to Toms River at the end of a very long, jet-lagged week at work last Friday. Aside from the 2 dozen I had made Thursday night, I hadn't baked since before Australia and knew I needed to get my baking (and the blog) back on track. Although the weather has been uncooperative, it is essentially summer, and this means two things: heavy shore traffic and fresh summer fruits.

Vanilla bean cupcakes with peach frosting

Wanting to use the latter in cupcake form, I stole the mango that was ripening on our windowsill and made a mango lime curd from it. Having never made curd before, I had no clue what it was supposed to look or taste like. I just kept cooking it hoping I wouldn't burn it or take it off while the eggs were still raw. I'm pretty sure I got it right and being as there were no reported cases of salmonella poisoning, I think it was okay. I baked 3 dozen vanilla bean cupcakes to use as a base. My mom & I then headed off to Stop & Shop to find some peaches and other baking ingredients I had run out of (no surprises there).

Vanilla bean cupcakes filled with mango curd

I pureed the peaches and cooked them stove top to attempt to reduce the water so that my peach frosting would not be watery. No such luck there. It's a pretty tricky balance between adding too many peaches and having too thin icing and adding not enough and not being able to taste them. Half the cupcakes I frosted with the peach frosting and the other half I filled with the curd and topped with vanilla bean buttercream. I had some left over fondant flowers that I decorated the mango cupcakes with.

Inside of the cupcake with curd

I'm not sure how crazy I was about these. I think I just don't like mango, despite trying to force myself to like it by incorporating it into every type of dessert I can think of (sorbet, mousse cake, cupcakes). The next time I make the peach frosting, I think I'll pair it with a peach cake in order to maximize the peach flavor. My mom also suggested using peaches baby food instead of pureeing my own peaches, but this idea sort of grossed me out. I know baby food is just pureed grown-up food, but it still seems weird. I might have to try it and let everyone know how it goes though.

Cupcakes for the Morgan's fam - Mrs. R is making me a cupcake stand!