Decorated Cookies - Cupcake & Ice Cream

 It's been awhile since I did some fun baking and I have a couple of friends that are deserving of a treat, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and put together a few of my favorite cookie designs in order to create some pretty and delicious gifts for them. And baked treats are always a nice gift !

 I made 2 nice designs with 4 bright and fun color themes. I had some nice supplies to work with and with the ideas I wanted to execute, it all worked out pretty well. My pink didn't come out as good because there was a little blue left in the mixer when I mixed and created the pink, but the pink was still pink, so it still looked good.

 Now for my Cookies;

I decorated the Ice Cream Cookies late at night and was really tired so I am not as happy with my work. But after having a good night sleep and being well rested, I did a better job decorating the Cupcake Cookies this morning and really enjoyed how the colors and design turned out. Happy me :)

this girl runs on Cupcakes and Jesus

 "This girl runs on Cupcakes and Jesus" was an artistic and creative gift from Ella and her mom, Nicole. It inspired me to make a batch of cupcakes for the Fall Fest at our church .I had so much fun making these cupcakes, and my camera loved them too ! Lots of great pictures to look at . I actually went ahead and bagged them individually and then tied them with pretty fall ribbons to give them an extra festive look.

Vanilla Cupcakes for Bake Sale

I baked 2 dozens of cupcakes for our church Flea market bake sale. The recipe is one of my usual vanilla cake recipe. Cupcakes are frosted with buttercream and lightly sprinkled with granulated sugar on a few cupcakes and the rest with multi color sprinkles.

Here are some pictures.

simple cupcakes

I wanted to bake a quick batch of simple cupcakes for our church's coffee fellowship.I wasn't really sure what to make, so I went through my pantry and refrigerator and was able to get enough ingredients together to make these delicious little cakes. I call these cupcakes "Joanne's leftover surprise". They ended up being very sweet, light and lovely.  So, here they are !

Jumbo Buckeyes Cupcakes

This is a placeholder for these jumbo cupcakes I just finished making.

We will be watching the Ohio State playing North Western Chicago at 3:30pm this afternoon and we are routing for the Buckeyes and "Go Buckeyes!!". These treats will hopefully sink our sweet teeth and warm our hearts as we cheer for our favorite team.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup milk ( I would reduce to 1 cup next time)
3 eggs
1 box of german chocolate cake mix

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus 2 Tbs
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1 tiny smear of black color gel

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Birthday Cakes

I have been very busy this weekend. I baked these cakes all in one day so the results are not to my full satisfaction. The white vanilla cake in Pink is for Ms Ella's 8th Birthday, hope she likes it. The peach color cake is for a very good friend at church, I am going to surprise her with this cake (though her birthday was last weekend).

I also baked a batch of mini carrot cupcakes to bring to this morning Coffee Fellowship hour at church for after this morning Sunday Service.

Even I had very limited time and not enough juice(energy) my tank, I appreciate what I was able to accomplish. I hope my guess & tasters will enjoy it.

Here are the pictures.

Trucks Boy Birthday Cake & Mini Cupcakes

Ok, I just need to post these pictures on this Trucks Boy Birthday cake that I just finished making. Cake will be picked shortly, hopefully birthday boy and his parents will love them.

I will add and update this post with more details, here are the pictures.

July 4th Carrot Coconut Cupcakes

I made a batch of carrot cupcakes in celebration of July 4th. I will the recipe and/or the recipe later. I am just too tired right now.


I want to at least post these cupcakes on my blog.

Celebration Cupcakes

My dear friend at church asked me if I would make a dozen (or up to 18) cupcakes for her grand's son graduation afternoon party. Yes, yes, I love to do that !! I am so glad that I get to try on decorating the cupcakes that shows/represents a little celebration spirit. Though the color scheme supposedly should be burgundy and gold .... good luck to me with trying to create the color using food color (best results would have been to buy the fondant already premade with that color) especially I don't have any real solid color gel... (maybe next time :) ). Well, at least I tried and here is the results of the burgundy on the stars. And the buttercream is no where close to being the color "gold" .... well, I guess I am color blind, it is a hint of gold, more like a pale yellowish gold, that will do. At the least the cupcakes still look and have some sort of celebration spirit (in my opinion anyways, right? ... sure hope a few guests at the party will delight on the taste if not the decorations, after all these cupcakes do have real ingredients.

Here are the pictures:

Will link (to my previous recipe) on the cupcake recipe. (to be updated).

Mini Rose Cupcakes

Placeholder on frosted roses on mini apple cupcakes. I am attempting to do a rose frosting on my none egg buttercream frosting. So I quickly baked a batch of mini cupcakes and sprinkled finely chopped apples on top of each cupcake before cupcakes go into the oven.

I am using a tip #104 to frost the roses, I am pretty satisfied for my first try working on these roses. Buttercream recipe is from this link ...

Here are the pictures.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Brach's mini hearts

In the spirit and celebration of Valentine's Day, I thought I baked a quick batch of cupcakes out of the cake mix .... cheat cheat. I also have to confess, as tasty and as sumptous Red Velvet cakes sound and look, I just can't stand of making my own red velvet cakes from scratch as usually the recipe calls for lots of RED food color. Thus, I always resulted to using the cake mix so I can pretend all is good as the mix always miraculously produces and renders those beautiful velvety red cakes... and they taste yummy too.

Without further ado, lets get started. I am using Betty Crocker Red Velvet cake mix to bake these cupcakes with a little tweak on the directions.

Here they are:

Ingredients:
1 box of red velvet cake mix
3 eggs separated
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup oil

Directions:

In mixing bowl, start mixing egg white in slow speed and gradually bring up the speed to medium high. As the egg white begins to thicken, slowly add in sugar until all the sugar are mixed in, Continue to beat egg white until it forms a stiff peak, stop the beating and set aside.

While egg white is still beating, in a separate bowl, mix oil and sugar until combined. Mix in egg yolk and mix well. Mix in flour. Alternately, add and mix in cake mix and water until well incorporated. Fold in egg white to cake mixture but do not over mix.

Prepare and line 24 standard cupcake pans, drop by the spoonful cake batter into cake pans.
Bake cupcakes for 18-20 mins until toothpick comes out clean. Do not over baked cupcakes.

Frost with buttercream. Topped each cupcake with a mini heart. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes for Super Bowl party.

Today is the 50th Super Bowl day, the Broncos are playing the Panthers. Broncos is the underdog and thus, we are rooting for the Broncos and Peyton Mannings. As I have to bring a dessert to the Super Bowl party and thus I decided to make cupcakes. I am making chocolate cupcakes with eggless merginue frosting. Unfortunately my frosting is not a success but I am still using the frosting as I don't want to make another batch of frosting. I am using mini vanilla wafer (ok these are stored bought vanilla wafer - save time making separate cookies) and decorate the vanilla wafer to look like footballs as an added touch since this is Super Bowl Football ... what FUN :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Hershey unsweetened cocoa powder 
1/2 cup water
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter (1 stick) room temperature
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream

Direction:
Mix together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder in a bowl.
In mixer, beat egg white for a min or 2 and gradually add in 1/2 cup of sugar, mix till mixture forms a stiff peak, set aside.
Cut butter into 1 cup of sugar in a bowl.
Mix into butter mixture egg yokes, mix in vanilla.
Fold in butter mixture sour cream.
Alternate flour mixture and water into butter mixture..
Fold in egg white.

Line 24 regular size muffin pan. Scoop batter evenly divided to the muffin pan.
Preheat oven at 350 degree.
Bake cake for 18-20 mins.
Cool and frost cupcakes.
Store cupcakes in fridge until ready to serve.

Here are pics of the finished cupcakes.

Vanilla Sour Cream Cupcakes

The blizzard snow storm this past week had brought us and the neighbors out to our front yard to shovel and dig out our walkways and cars. We get to meet and talk with our neighbors and help one another. This time around both our neighbors (to left and right of our house) were very kind to help us in so many different ways to clear the snow which I really appreciated and touched. Such is called being neighborly and nice.

I know there is no expectation from their part but I wanted to bake something and share  that with my neighbors. I wanted to use the sour cream I have in my fridge and decided to bake these cupcakes so here are the cupcakes I made.

Oh, I made 2 batches, so I can bring one batch to the 8:30am Sunday Service coffee fellowship :)

Ingredients:
3 eggs separated
2 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
4 tbs margarine
4 tbs oil
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Measure flour and baking powder together, set aside.
Preheat oven to 350
Line cupcake pan with paper cups, this recipe makes 24 regular size cupcakes.
In mixing bowl, start beating egg white for 5 minutes.
Slowing add in 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until mixture becomes thick and stiff. Set aside.

In another big mixing bowl, mix together egg yoke and 1 cup of sugar.
Add in oil and margarine and stir and mix well. Mix in vanilla extract.
Mix in sour cream, mix well.
Alternating flour and milk to the mixture.
Gradually, fold in egg white to mixture until all egg white incorporate together with batter.
Do not over mix.
Scoop batter to cupcake pan.
Bake for 22-25 mins. Do not over bake, if toothpick test/come out clean from cake, cake is done.
Cool the cake completely and frost with icing. I used icing tip #104 with a variety of designs on all these cupcakes, I love #104, all sorts of possibilities, so much fun to play with different designs!

Store in cool place, cupcakes stay fresh for several days!
Cupcakes is soft, moist and tasty :)

Here is the picture of the frosted cupcakes.