Monday, September 30, 2013

Cupcake Bonanza

It's been a bit busy lately between work and the baby, but we haven't neglected to eat cupcakes! Here's what has been consumed over the last several weeks...

Hubby came home from work one day with a few cupcakes from Smallcakes that were graciously given to him by a coworker who knows that we are big time cupcake eaters. We both split each cupcake.


 Starting with Lemon Drop, which is lemon cake filled with tangy lemon topped with lemon buttercream and a dollop of tangy lemon. They weren't lying when they emphasized "tangy." This cupcake had huge lemon flavor. I'm not really a lemon fan, so I can't rave about this one too much.

The second cupcake was Choco-holic, which is chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream topped with vairhona chocolate sprinkles. Yes, this was A LOT of chocolate. Pretty good cupcake if you are a chocoholic!

Next adventure was with Gigi's Cupcakes.

I started with Chocolate Cola Cake, which is rich chocolate cola cake made with Coca-Cola, chocolate cola buttercream frosting and a dollop of vanilla buttercream. It really didn't taste like cola, but it was very good. Definitely a lot of chocolate, but not too strong, which I like.

Second, was Strawberry Shortcake, which is white cake baked with fresh strawberries, topped with a strawberry buttercream frosting and red sugar crystals. I had this one a long time ago before the blog. While it's nice to have real strawberries baked in, this cupcake is REALLY strawberry flavored. Not bad, but maybe a little overkill for me. I couldn't finish it.

And finally, we had the limited time S'mores, which is milk chocolate cake with chocolate chips baked in, topped with vanilla fluff, toasted marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs and a milk chocolate square. By the time we got home, this cupcake got a little sloppy with the marshmallow cream sliding off a bit. The cake part was slightly dry, but overall, not too bad. It was your pretty typical S'mores cupcake.

And now for last weekend...hubby and I had Gigi's again. Hubby's selections were on the top row left to right; German Chocolate; Apple Pie; and Pumpkin White Chocolate. My selections were on the bottom row left to right; Pumpkin White Chocolate; Bananas Foster; and Double Stuff.

My first cupcake was Bananas Foster, which is rich banana cake with spiced rum, spiced rum cream cheese frosting and topped with brown sugar sauce. One word...YUM. This was wonderful! The cake was moist and there was a sweet, cinnamon-y flavor mixed in. Even my hubby who hates banana flavor liked this one.

Next, I had Double Stuff, which is dark chocolate cake filled with marshmallow cream, Oreo buttercream frosting also filled with marshmallow cream and topped with a mini Oreo. This was a pretty standard Oreo cupcake. The cake was a tad dry, but the frosting was tasty.

And last, I had Pumpkin White Chocolate, which is pumpkin cake with white chocolate chips, cream cheese frosting, dusted with pumpkin pie spice. This was a delightfully delicious fall cupcake! I enjoyed it.

Keep on cupcaking!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

September Cupcake Specials

Here are this month's specials...

August 30-September 15:
  • Maple Bacon: Thick, smoky bacon is cooked to a crisp and woven into Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cake. Topped with rich, buttery maple cream cheese frosting, crispy bacon crumbles and fleur de sel.
September 13-29:
  • Almond Dark Chocolate: Moist almond cake studded with sliced California almonds and topped with bittersweet chocolate frosting.
  • German Chocolate: The topping on this Southern classic is a rich, golden caramel laced with fresh coconut and crunchy pecans; piled high atop a light chocolate cake.
September 9-22:
  • S'more: Rich milk chocolate cake with chocolate chips, topped with sticky vanilla fluff, toasted marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs and a milk chocolate square.
  • The Old Fashioned: Traditional yellow butter cake, topped with chocolate fudge icing.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Another Box Mix Experiment

I recently bought this Betty Crocker Hot Chocolate cupcake mix that looked interesting. It had a chocolate cake mix with marshmallows and a frosting mix.

It called for the typical box mix ingredients like eggs, oil and water. The marshmallows looked a bit sparse, so I added some small ones of my own as well.

And then there was the frosting mix. As you've read in some of my older posts, I seem to always have a problem with making frosting. This time was no different. The packet of frosting was powdery like powdered sugar and all it called for was 1/4 cup of boiling water. Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG! I followed the instructions, but it turned into a watery mess! So, once again, another failed attempt at making frosting.

So, here was the final result; unfortunately, using jar frosting. It turned out OK for the most part, but I probably won't buy this again.

A Small Anniversary Treat

We recently celebrated our first anniversary with some cupcakes the hubby brought home from Smallcakes.

My selections on the top row were cookies-n-cream and fruity pebbles. Hubby's choices on the bottom row were birthday and decadent fudge.

I started with fruity pebbles, which is orange and fruity pebbles cake with orange buttercream frosting and topped with fruity pebbles. This cupcake tasted like the orange creamsicle. Not something I would normally choose, but I liked it.

Then, I had the cookies-n-cream, which is chocolate cake with oreo vanilla buttercream topped with oreo cookies. Pretty typical oreo cupcake; overall, it was moist and tasty.