Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

A friend of mine has a husband in the National Guard, and he was away on a training mission this last week.  He was coming home on his birthday, so his wife wanted to surprise him and his unit with some cupcakes.  She told me he likes chocolate and cherries, so I made chocolate cupcakes injected with cherry pie filling, frosted with cream cheese frosting, and topped with a maraschino cherry.  They came out cute and really delicious!  The wonderful men and women who volunteer to serve our country really deserve this special treat.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, soft

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese with paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and beat on low until incorporated, and then on medium until smooth.  Add the cream and vanilla.  Beat on low until incorporated, then increase speed to high and beat 1 minute.  Must be refrigerated.

Rose Love

It is really fun to pipe roses on a rose nail!  Our nephews came over the other night to hang out and play some computer games with my husband, so I made a cake for them to take home for their mom.  It was a 4 layer six-inch white cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and lots of roses on top.

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

My cake decorating instructor likes to sew, and she sewed really cute aprons for all of us in the class!  That was so nice, so I made some cupcakes to bring in and share with her and my classmates.  I went with chocolate cupcakes and caramel Swiss meringue buttercream, and a drizzle of caramel over it all, with a pinch of sea salt on top.  Then, I made some dark chocolate swirly butterflies and perched them on top!  They came out so beautiful and tasted even better.  The instructor went home with two of them and shared them with her husband.  She called me the next day to tell me how much he loved them!

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
pinch salt
4 sticks (16 ounces) unsalted butter, soft, cut into 16 pieces

1/2 cup dulce de leche

Place egg whites, vanilla, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer and gently whisk over simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is 150 degrees, about 3-5 minutes. Place bowl on mixer and whip on high speed 7 minutes. Scrape down bowl. On medium speed, add butter 1 piece at a time, counting 10 seconds between additions. Mixture may look curdled. Increase speed to high and whip until it smooths out. Add dulce de leche and beat until fully incorporated.

Cake Decorating Classes

All of my decorating skills are self-taught, from reading books, reading and watching videos online, and just experimenting on my own.  So, I decided to take some actual professional cake decorating classes.  They make you start at the beginning, so I am in a basics class... which means I have not learned anything new, but it's fun to get away for the evening and be with other cake-happy adults!  The first cake we were suppsed to decorate in class was learning to transfer a pattern on to a cake.  The manual came with a picture of a cupcake, but I thought it wasn't very cute, so I chose a butterfly picture which I found online.  Once again, my photography and lighting are terrible, so my colors look strange, but anyway, the cake turned out great.  I sent it home with my mom as a thank-you for babysitting my kids while I took the class.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I love chocolate and peanut butter, and I thought of the cutest idea for a cupcake, so I had to make them and give them to my husband's co-workers.  Delicious chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, topped off with a mini peanut butter cup, which I frosted with more peanut butter frosting.  My kids thought the "cupcakes on cupcakes" were so cute, and so did I!

Peanut Butter Buttercream

4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
pinch salt
4 sticks (16 ounces) unsalted butter, soft, cut into 16 pieces

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Place egg whites, vanilla, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer and gently whisk over simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is 150 degrees, about 3-5 minutes. Place bowl on mixer and whip on high speed 7 minutes. Scrape down bowl. On medium speed, add butter 1 piece at a time, counting 10 seconds between additions. Mixture may look curdled. Increase speed to high and whip until it smooths out. Beat in peanut butter until fully incorporated.

Birthday Cake

It was my friend, Amy's birthday, and her husband ordered a cake... chocolate and raspberry.  So I made her a six-layer 8-inch chocolate cake with raspberry curd filling and raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream.  Then I added ghirardelli dark chocolate raspberry squares to garnish it.  Super fun and so delicious!

Brush Embroidery

Brush embroidery is a beautiful decorating technique used mostly on wedding cakes. I wanted to try it out, and I happened to have a neighbor who was feeling miserable on bedrest with her 3rd pregnancy, so I made her a cake and tried out the technique.  My photography skills are seriously lacking, and I took the picture with my ipad, so the colors look much darker than they actually were.  I was very pleased with the result.  The flavor was simple but delicious white cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.