Champagne cupcakes

Dear Betty Crocker,

Thank you for combining a delicious cupcake and champagne and sharing it with the rest of us. I shall be happy to gain 86 lbs eating these.

What you need:

For batter:

1 box white cake mix or if you are Susie Homemaker, your own homemade white cake mix. I just can't tell  you how or what to substitute you're on your own Susie. 

1 1/4 cup Champagne or sparkling wine

1/3 cup Vegetable oil

3 egg whites. 

For strawberry Butter Cream frosting:

1 cup (two sticks) Butter

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp Strawberry jam

1 tsp vanilla

Optional:

Strawberries

Preheat oven to 400º

Combine dry cake mix with champagne then add in the oil and egg whites. Beat for two minutes. Then fill muffin cups 2/3 of the way full. Put in oven for 10 minutes at 400º, then lower the temp to 350º and finish baking for an additional 10 minutes. 

While the cupcakes are cooling, beat the butter until fluffy then add in the powdered sugar. Once it starts to come together add in the vanilla and strawberry jam. 

If you want to get all fancy you can slice strawberries and place them on top of the cupcake instead of sprinkles.

*Cake batter adapted from Betty Crocker

Quick and Easy Holiday Decorating tip

You are probably busy, running around all day, working, trying to get everything on your "To Do" list accomplished. With Christmas quickly approaching there just doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything. Christmas quickly coming up also mean you or someone you know is probably doing a lot of holiday baking.

I don't know about you but I bake when I am stressed. I'm guessing for others, baking is stressful. So if your boyfriend/girlfriend/in-laws/other miscellaneous family or friends are visiting and you want to impress them with wicked baking skills all you need is a tub of frosting and some sprinkles. Oh sweet sprinkles. How you can make anything look festive. 

What you need: 

Sprinkles, any shape, color size depending on the holiday or your mood

A tub of frosting an flavor

homemade cupcakes or cookies OR store bought or cookies  

See this sad,pathetic cupcake? He is all naked and vulnerable and DANG IT! He doesn't like it one bit! 

So mister cupcake, this is what we will do. COVER YOU IN SPRINKLES!

I feel the holiday spirit blooming already. 

There are so many varieties of sprinkles. I had no idea. When I was little my parents only bought the colored sugar. I never knew about the delightful world of sprinkles. There are all sorts of colors of jimmies like the one pictured above. Really, you could find any shade you desired if you looked hard enough.

There are sprinkles shaped like snowflakes. I feel like I'm in a blizzard of sprinkles.

Here is the standard colored sugar. There are so many colors available. Red and green (and white if you so choose) make this ordinary cupcake extraordinary and christmas like.

You can smear a cookie, store bought, homemade or semi-homemade with some frosting and throw on some nonpareils! What exactly are "pareils" and why can't these little guys be them? Just doesn't seem fair. 

There are these large confetti sprinkles just hoping to help some poor old Scrooge feel the Joy of the Holidays with their giant size and colorful appearance. 

And finally here are some festive red jimmies, some white stars and green tree sprinkles. 

It's so festive it makes me want to slap a clown carrying christmas presents. I don't really know what the means but thats not the point. The point is, they turned the plain cupcake into a christmas extravaganza in a mere 2 seconds. 

No need to stress over doomed christmas baking! Just buy some sprinkles, and slather on a good layer of store bought or homemade icing and cover that sucker with sprinkles and everyone will think you are a baking genius. 

Bake it Pretty has a fantastic selection of sprinkles and other baking goods. I'll probably end up in the poor house because of them but at least they will be able to stay in business.

Kay

It's not food! But... its cute!

SO,

I knitted it as a birthday gift, which was much loved! 

its a cupcake with a cherry on top.

So... I don't have a recipe, or I should say pattern (as i'm suppose to call it).  I did this with cream colored yarn and  a combo of speckled pink and fluff pink yarn.  EVERYTHING WAS KNITTED USING STOCKINETTE STITCH.

I dont have a pattern to give out because I didn't make it with a pattern but you can find patterns out there on other sites, such as....

Pompomemporium.com- Knitted Cupcake pattern
Bittersweetblog- knitted and crochet patterns
Littlecottonrabbits- free decoration pattern
knitforyourlife- free pattern

BE CREATIVE... you don't have to follow every instruction.  If you dont like the way it looks, make the next one the way you want it.  

Cookies & Creme Cupcakes

To say I like cupcakes would be a huge understatement. I love-love-love cupcakes! They are sweet, miniature cakes made with the individual in mind, that leave you feeling just a little more special. Granted, they are not at all figure friendly but they're so darn cute.

I think one of the reasons I love cupcakes so much is because they are so versatile. You can take any flavor and make it into a cupcake. After having some Oreo ice cream (during the way too hot Indiana autumn), I was inspired to make some cupcakes with Oreos. 

The recipe is fairly simple with a white cake recipe adding in some Oreos. The hardest part of this recipe is deciding how you are going to chop the Oreos for your batter. You could chop them up finely and leave yourself with a chocolate speckled white cake. I, however, went the chunky route. It was much more fun to take a bite of the cupcake and find a small chunk of cookie. 

I thought about giving the frosting a layer of Oreo dust as a garnish, but the texture was a bit too similar to sand. I decided to go with the chopped Oreos instead of pulverized Oreos.

My favorite part of the recipe is the half an oreo on the bottom of the cupcake. Trust me on this one, separate the Oreos in half and include only one side on the bottom of the cupcake liner. 

Cookies & Creme Cupcakes

Yields: approx. 2 dozen

Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups chopped Oreos

2 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 2/3 c. sugar

3 egg whites

1/2 c. butter - room temp

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. milk

12 oreo halves

Preheat your oven for 400˚F. Put your cupcake liners into the pan and place one Oreo half into each liner. Combine the flour and baking powder together in a bowl and place to the side. Then, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg whites one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then, mix in the vanilla. 

Add in half of the dry ingredients and beat the batter well. Mix in the milk and add in the rest of the dry ingredients. Then, add the chopped Oreos to the batter being careful not to mix too long. Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full. After putting the cupcakes into the oven, turn the temperature down to 350˚F and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the pan to cool the rest of the way.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 block (8 oz.) cream cheese

6 tbsp. butter - room temp

4 c. powdered sugar

1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. heavy cream

Blend together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until it creates a smooth mixture. Slowly, add in the powdered sugar until just incorporated. Add the heavy cream and beat until it's blended into the mixture. Then, beat the mixture on high for about 5 minutes until it becomes light and fluffy. Once the cupcakes are cool, top them with frosting and garnish with any leftover Oreos. 

Adapted from Annie's Eats.

I prefer my from scratch recipe, but if you're in a bind for time here's my alternate recipe for you.


Easy Peasy Recipe
1 white cake mix + ingredients listed on box
2 1/2 cups of chopped Oreos
1 can of premade frosting
Oreos to garnish


Follow the directions of the cake mix box to mix up the cake batter. Add in the chopped oreos. Scoop into cupcake liners, 2/3 full, and bake as directed on the box. Allow your cupcakes to cool and finish them off with frosting and your Oreo garnish!


Enjoy!