Mimosa Cupcakes

These Mimosa cupcakes remind me of our honeymoon so much.  I tried my first mimosa on our honeymoon to Antigua when almost every morning we would be offered a flute at breakfast.  We would wake up and step out into the cool island breeze and dine on an airy patio next to the beach and sip our mimosas...relaxation and luxury.  So, I will forever associate mimosas with a calm, breezy, wonderful tropical island vacation.

These cupcakes have that fresh orange tang and pack a bit of punch with their bold orange flavor.  For the frosting, I used champagne flavoring.  But, the more I thought about it the more I realized I can't really explain what champagne actually tastes like, it is more of a texture to me.  Same with the frosting.  The blend of frosting and cupcake is perfect, but I have trouble explaining exactly what it tastes like.  You'll just have to try it!

Neapolitan Cupcakes!

These are coconut cupcakes topped with chocolate, coconut, and strawberry cream cheese frosting.  This is by far my best attempt at strawberry cream cheese frosting.  I don't normally use imitation flavorings, but I tried imitation strawberry this time.  The flavor was great, but the only problem was that the extract did not color the frosting pink, and I ran out of red food coloring!  Luckily, I had a few strawberries in the fridge and so I smashed one and mixed it into the frosting - it worked!  It also added an extra punch to the flavoring of the frosting. 

I also don't normally use cocoa powder.  All my chocolate cupcakes are made with melted Baker's or Ghirardeli (my favorite!) chocolate.  But, I didn't feel like doing the extra dishes it would take to melt chocolate (making 3 different flavors of frosting already produces way too many dishes - dishes are the only thing I don't like about baking) and I had a trustworthy recipe using cocoa powder.  It turns out, I liked the cocoa powder in the frosting!  And, it made it easier to pipe than adding melted chocolate.  Another surprising success!

An Easter Cupcake and My First Attempt at Cake Pops

These are my Chai Cupcakes topped with Cinnamon Buttercream, chocolate birds nests, and carrot cake blue bird eggs.  I melted chocolate and piped it into free-form birds nests.  At the time, I was also making my first attempt at cake pops for our family Easter dinner.  So, I used the extra cake pop batter to roll out the mini bird's eggs and dipped them in white chocolate. 

My first attempt at the now-popular cake pops was a success!  An interesting and time-consuming task, but a successful one with rave reviews!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I love the way these cupcakes look - simple elegance.  But, I am still trying to work on the mint flavoring, it is not quite perfect, yet!  But, as it stands it is a chocolate chip cupcake with mint buttercream with chocolate chips hidden between the layers of frosting.  Generally speaking, I am not good at making buttercream (I like cream cheese frosting better anyway), but my last two have been impressive.  I think I'm improving.

Chocolate Chip Nutella Cupcakes - Need I Say More?

These are delicious - they may be one of my favorites.  They are simple, but let's face it, Nutella is just always delicious.  The cupcakes are a lite and fluffy chocolate cake with chocolate chips topped with a thin layer of Nutella and Nutella cream cheese frosting.

St. Patrick's Day take 2. Chocolate Mint Cheesecake Cupcakes

I have been wanting to try to make a cheesecake cupcake and figured a no-bake cheesecake recipe would be perfect to start with.  These cupcakes have an oreo crust bottom and a mint cheesecake center topped with mint chocolate ganache.  I am not big on non-edible decorations, but I made these with the kids at my afterschool program and they loved the easy decorations and, most importantly, the cupcakes!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Green Tea Cupcakes!

Matcha powder is the key to green tea cupcakes.  I searched far and wide for matcha and was met with blank stares all around.  On attempt #5 I went to a local Asian Market and the clerk knew exactly what I was talking about - finally!  Mission accomplished!  These green tea cupcakes are filled with a green tea buttercream to give the cupcakes a greater concentration of the green tea flavor.  Whenever I drink green tea, I always choose one with an added flavoring, my favorite being Lipton's mango green tea; therefore, the cupcakes are topped with mango whipped cream!