Crafty Gift Idea: Cupcake Ornament

Christmas is long-gone, but here's an idea for next year! (I couldn't post this earlier, because I didn't want the people who were getting this gift to see!)  It's a simple gift for a baker, or a crafter... or just someone who likes a little sparkle on their tree - a cupcake ornament!

There are a few different tutorials for this on the web, but this is how I did it.  It's really simple and quick - the most time consuming part is waiting for the glue to dry!

Materials:
- 1 cupcake liner (mine is from Ikea, because they tend to have really cute ones there)
- 1 styrofoam ball
- 1 small plastic red ornament
- glitter
- white glue
- hot glue gun (optional)

Directions:
1.  Carve an indentation, the size of the small ornament into the top of the styrofoam ball.  Use either white glue or a hot glue gun to add glue to the indentation, and press the red ornament into it, on a slight angle.  (I just used white glue - if you use the hot glue, make sure you work quickly, as it will dry fast)

2. Spread white glue over the bottom half of your styrofoam ball, and slide it into the cupcake liner.  Try not to press too hard on the liner, because you don't want all the natural creases to go away.  Let the glue dry overnight.

3. The next morning after it's all dry, add your first layer of sparkles.  Do this by spreading glue all over the top of the ornament, and sprinkling glitter all over.  Make sure you add some right around the seam of where the red ornament is.  Repeat 3 times, waiting for the glue to dry in between.  On the third time, you can be a little more creative, adding droops or swirls, like cupcake frosting would have.  You can even use a different colour of glitter.  The only thing limiting you is your own imagination!


Then, you're pretty much done!  Find a nice box to present it in... and give to the cupcake lover in your life!

Pierogi Chicken Dinner + Vanilla Cupcakes

Here's a little something I whipped up for dinner on the weekend, while I had a major carb craving going on.

Pierogi Chicken Dinner




Serves: 2


Ingredients:

• 8 frozen pierogi
• 1 chicken breast
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup red onion
• 2 tbsp honey mustard
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup marble cheese

Method:

1. Cook pierogies according to package directions. (I boiled and drained mine, but there were other options on the packaging)
2. Meanwhile, in a nonstick skillet, saute chicken and onion in butter until juices run clear; remove and keep warm.
3. Add the pierogi to the skillet to brown them lightly.
4. Return chicken mixture to the pan.
5. Stir in honey mustard, salt and pepper.
6. Sprinkle with cheese, stir lightly & remove from heat.
7. Let stand for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Source: adapted from this recipe.

By the way, remember when I linked up those One Bowl Cupcakes for 2?  I finally tested the recipe last night.

So incredibly delicious.  I made them straight up, with some cream cheese icing.  Next time, I might try mixing in chocolate chips or something!  So many different options with these cupcakes!

Link Up: One/Two serving cupcake recipes!

Photo via How Sweet It Is

Sorry, long time no blog!  What can I say, I was out enjoying the world and having fun... more to come on that later, perhaps ;)  In the meantime, I wanted to direct you all to this awesome post that came across my RSS feed earlier today.  One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes For Two!

Be sure to scroll through the comments for some tips, tricks and variations on the recipe.

Check them out here at How Sweet It Is.  I will definitely be trying this recipe out soon!!

Debbie Meyer Cupcake Genius is Genius!

Over the weekend, I was able to test out my Debbie Meyer Cupcake Genius, which was one of my housewarming gifts when I first moved into my new place.  Almost a year, and I hadn't tried this nifty little tool, and now that I have, I want to use it again and again!

The cupcake genius is a two-piece set.  The bottom part is a regular muffin tin.  The top part is a silicone insert that snaps on top of the tin, to create hollows in the cupcakes to add your filling.  Sure, you could just make a cutout in the cupcake, or pipe in some filling... but this takes away an extra step - and it's fun!

The first step is to prepare your batter and fill the cupcake tins.  It was our first time testing out the tin, and the recipe - so when the recipe said it made 12 cupcakes, we filled the tins to make exactly 12.

What we didn't really take into account was that the cupcakes grow.  A lot.  And the silicone takes up space that would normally be taken up by some batter.  So next time I make cupcakes, I think I would probably make 14 or 16 cupcakes from a 12-yield recipe.

Other than that, the Cupcake Genius was absolutely genius!  The cupcakes cooked evenly, and the insert was easy to remove and left a nice hollow for the marshmallow filling.

Spoon in some marshmallow filling, slap on some chocolate ganache, and voila! Look at this beauty.
And it tastes even better than it looks!

Strawberry Buttercream Icing

Here is a relatively easy recipe, that is going to blow your mind.  I actually made these a couple of weeks ago, and haven't had time to blog about them... but they were totally devoured when I brought them to work.  The boys loved them!



Strawberry Buttercream Icing:

• 1 lb strawberries (you won't use all of this in the recipe)

• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• pinch of salt
• 1 3/4 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Crisco (my secret ingredient!)

Method:

1. Take your strawberries, wash them and slice 'em up.  Puree them in a food processor, blender, Magic Bullet, whatever you have.  (I used my Magic Bullet and it worked like a charm.

2. In a mixer (I used my trusty KitchenAid), take your butter & salt and cream them together.  Once the butter is smooth, slowly add your icing sugar.

3. Once that's smooth, add 4 tablespoons of the strawberry puree, plus your vanilla extract to the mix.  It'll get a little bit liquidy, so that's when you add in the little bit of Crisco.  That will give it the smooth, icing texture, the bakery-like taste and the nice colour.  (I'm pretty sure a purist would never use Crisco in their buttercream... but seriously, try it.)

You can let your icing chill out in the fridge for a bit while you make your cupcakes.  I added the rest of my strawberry puree to a plain vanilla cupcake... the taste was good, but the muffins fell a little flat, I guess because of the extra liquid, so I'm not going to share that recipe. I'll hunt down another recipe for next time instead!
Add the icing to a piping bag... screw on a tip, and pipe away!

Voila! You're done!

Pupcakes! Cupcakes!

So. Have I mentioned I'm a bit obsessed with baking? Don't judge me because I have a love affair with my KitchenAid. I usually take time on the weekends and turn my kitchen into a disaster as I try new recipes. Last weekend was no exception. One the menu were pupcakes for my four legged kid and his friends (Again, don't judge. I was proud he was graduating another perfect puppy class) and two kinds of cupcakes for my humans at work...although they are more like vultures.

Seriously - how can you *not* make treats for this face?

Pupcake Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
2 cups water
1 egg
1/2 tsp double strength vanilla
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup peanut butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Spray cupcakes or mini cupcake pan with olive oil.

In a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Add all ingredients but peanut butter and dog food and mix with a pastry blender until well combined. Add peanut butter and continue stirring until well blended.

If using mini cupcake pan, spoon 2 Tbsp (or 1/8 cup) batter into each well. If using regular cupcake pan, fill each well to the top. The batter will not rise or smooth out very much, so be sure to smooth it out and make it pretty. Top each cupcake with 1-4 pieces of dog food as “sprinkles,” pushing them down slightly into the dough.
Bake mini pupcakes for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Bake larger pupcakes for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 3-5 minutes in pan before inverting onto cooling rack. Allow pupcakes to cool completely before feeding them to your dog.

The result? Winston loved them and would not stop staring between myself and the oven.

Now onto the human food, the two kinds of cupcakes up were Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting and Banana Cupcake with Peanut Butter Filling and Marshmellow Fluff Frosting.

Chocolate Velvets (Recipe from cupcakeblog.com - and I'd call them red, but the end product wasn't too red)

Makes 36 cupcakes / 350 degree oven

3-3/4 cups cake flour

1/4 cups cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder or 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

3/8 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups buttermilk

3 teaspoons vinegar

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 ounce red food coloring paste

2-1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cups butter

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F .
Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder (or cream of tarter), and salt into medium bowl.

Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring in small bowl to blend.
Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well fluffy, 3 minutes
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition, about 30 seconds.
Beat in dry ingredients in alternately with buttermilk mixture in

Scoop into cupcake tins. NOTE: Ice Cream scoopers work WONDERS for this - I want one in every size!
Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes
Cool in pans 10 minutes
Cool completely on racks

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

12 ounces or 1-1/2 packages of Philly cream cheese

1/2 stick butter

4-5 cups sifted powdered sugar

Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bring cheese and butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours
Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment
Beat butter and cheese at medium speed until creamy
Add 4 cups of the sugar and beat until combined
Add vanilla and beat until combined
Add more sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Filling and Marshmellow Fluff Frosting

Recipe courtesy of bakespace.com

Cupcake Ingredients

Makes 22-24 cupcakes
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 medium bananas, mashed
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix banana and buttermilk until the banana is broken up.
Combine banana/buttermilk, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until well incorporated.
Fold dry mixture into the wet mixture; make sure all the ingredients are mixed. These are not muffins so you want them fully mixed.
Scoop out into cupcake papers.
Bake at 350 degree oven for ~20-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean (start checking after 20 minutes).

Peanut Butter Filling
4 ounces or 1/2 package of Philly cream cheese
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 TBSP vanilla extract
4 TBSP milk
Beat cream cheese and peanut butter until combined.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until combined.
Add the milk and beat until combined.
Both cupcake and filling recipe are from CupcakeBlog.com

Marshmallow Fluff Frosting
2 (7ounce) jars marshmallow fluff
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 ¾ cup powdered sugar
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and marshmallow until fully combined.
Add the vanilla, and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Blend until combined. Add another cup, and then blend. Scrape down bowl. Add remaining ¾ cup of sugar.

To assemble:
You can either use the cone method or the lazy (the way I did it) where you just shove the metal tip into the cake and pipe the filling until the cupcake looks like it might explode.
Follow with frosting. These need to be refrigerated.