christmas card

I'm so happy with how our christmas cards turned out, so here's a sneak peak...

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYsmjJw3atHJw&cid=SFLYOCWIDGET

Key Lime Pie (without the pie)

I've been wanting to try a key lime pie cupcake recipe that I saw on another blog and this weekend was the perfect chance! I followed her recipe exactly being the first time around and they turned out good. Not great, but good. The icing and cupcake part turned out good, but they should have had a key lime pie center. The recipe said to let the center set up for 2 hours before filling the cupcakes with it. I did that but mine was still too runny. It wouldn't pipe well into the cupcakes and ended up making a big mess! I don't think very much of it actually made it into the cupcakes! Oh well, the overall turnout wasn't all that bad. The icing was a lime flavored cream cheese icing with graham cracker crumbles on top, yumm! Again, I'd have to say the icing was the best part. Or maybe I think that everytime :)

Triple Chocolate Goodness

Any reason is a good reason to make cupcakes, but birthdays are by far my favorite! Thanks Jaime for having a birthday so we could celebrate with some chocolate. These were a basic chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting (the best part!) and topped with chocolate sprinkles. The frosting was the agreed upon favorite part, so I'll share the recipe. It's super easy and sets up nicely if the butter is soft enough. You may have to add a little extra sugar after mixing it all together. This frosting works very well for piping!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons heavy cream

Cream butter on medium in mixer. Slowly add in powdered sugar and cocoa. When the sugar and cocoa are mixed in with the butter, add salt, vanilla, and heavy cream. Mix for about 3 minutes. This is where you would add either more sugar or heavy cream if needed.

And the final product...

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog and thanks for visiting! I am very excited to begin this new adventure. After the recent addition to our family, our sweet son Porter, I have decided to be a stay at home mom. While staying home, I am taking some time to persue a passion that has been pushed aside for a while...cupcakes. I am looking forward to taking on this new challenge and learning many lessons along the way. I plan to take some time to perfect the recipes I've been using and acquire new ones before beginning any sales. My dream is to eventually run a small bakery from home. I'd love any suggestions for new flavors, decorating tips, or just plain advice. As I try new recipes, I'll be sure to post some pictures (the good, the bad, and the ugly!). Some of my current favorite flavors are red velvet, chocolate!, white chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, vanilla bean, carrot cake and orange creamsicle. Unfortunately, I haven't taken as many pictures thus far as I would have liked, but I'll share some of the ones I have taken. Enjoy the pictures and bring on the suggestions!