To Fill Or Not To Fill..?

So, after being sick on and off and if I wasn’t sick, 1ne or both of my kids were… I was able to make a new cupcake.  Then, repeat the illness and more than a month later I get to blog about them.  *lol*

These are chocolate cupcakes filled with cherry pie filling and cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Now, they sounded delicious… and they ended up looking delicious (aside from my mad photography skills).  They were…edible.  I believe there is great potential here and will try again with several adjustments though.

The recipe simple enough.  Too simple really.

Chocolate cake mix of your creation or purchase.

1 can of cherry pie filling

Cream cheese frosting

Make the cake batter as directed.  Reserve 24 cherries from filling for the top, add the remaining filling to the center of each cupcake and bake as directed.  The only change I made was adding cinnamon to the frosting, which was an amazing idea.  Thankyouverymuch!  Totally delicious.

The issues were; the filling sank to the bottom, causing the bottom of the cupcake to stick to the liner.  This could be avoided by removing the cupcake very slowly (once I saw what was happening) but seriously, who wants to take their time getting to the goods?  I will try less filling next time or maybe even a thin chocolate cookie crumb base for support would work.  Also, the filling tasted great, but the chocolate needed to be sweeter to counteract the tartness.

In summation; needs works, but a great potential for tastiness.

Fun & FuNkY Pink Kitty Cake

“Baking is like life, you don’t always have to follow the recipe just like you don’t always have to follow the crowd!”

This “fun” cake took me an entire day to create with help from my cousin who is the 1ne who commissioned it… as well as my 2wo Daughters.  Now, “Mommy, can I eat the frosting?”, “Mommy, can I put the frosting on the cake?”, “Mommy, can I eat the frosting, please?”, “Mommy, can I help with the ball of yarn?”, “Mommy, can I PLEASE have some frosting?!”, “Mommy, can I help roll the fondant?”, “Oh! FLOUR!” and “Mommy! PLEASE!  I HAVE to try the Pink frosting!” may not sound like much help, but they’re 4our and 5ive, that is as good as it gets after allowing them to put ingredients into the mixer. *lol* And, this is why it took me all day.

This was for a 1st Birthday.  Simple cake, no filling, all hand-made.  I applied the Pink frosting and all the Black pearls by hand.  The kitties were molded from fondant by my cousin and the eyes, noses, toes and collars are icing I added afterward.  The kitty prints are fondant and icing.

Now the ball of yarn on the top, I am especially proud of.  I used a 2wo sided round cake pan and adhered them together with frosting.  All the “yarn” is hand-piped on and took me the most time, but so worth it in the end.  That was used as the birthday girl’s personal cake. 🙂

Not bad at all for my 1st big cake!

: :: :::Things I would do differently::: :: :

1. Find a sitter for my girls.  *lol*

Cupcake Conundrums

“STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS”

Some people feel they are relieved of stress by eating desserts.  Not me, I don’t even really care for cake.  *lol*  I rarely eat the cupcakes or cakes I make, I just enjoy creating them.  And the frosting (which I don’t care for either *lol*) on top for me?  The enjoyment everyone else gets out of my tasty offerings.

I also enjoy trying my hand at fine-dining meals at home, but that is for another blog, some other time.  This will be dedicated to all things sweet!  Be it cupcakes, pies, cookies, pastries, drinks or ice cream… You name it, I’m going to share it.  From the awesome to the utter failures.  It’s not a true adventure without peaks and valleys, right?  And hey, maybe I’ll post a failure and you have some trick, technique or ingredient that might turn that around.  I’m open for suggestions!

Ideally, this would be a career path for me.  I have created special treats for friends and family, but it hardly pays the bills.  So, I keep my day job and will do this as often as I can, when I can.  I have 2wo young Daughters that take a special interest in “helping”, but mainly devouring the baked goods around here.  I will try to incorporate some easily-assisted-by-eager-children recipes as well, if these are things you would like to try for yourselves.

All photos will be taken by me, of the actual outcome of said recipes.  Good, bad or *ewww*.

Also, if you’re just starting out or are interested in any tricks or shortcuts I might have to offer, just ask!