having fun decorating cupcakes until 4am!

a friend, sarah, from school asked me to make her two dozen cupcakes for a pilates event she had this weekend so laurel and i stayed up until 3am friday night having fun decorating these!!  i did one dozen chocolate and one dozen white cupcakes... for the chocolate cupcakes, six had mint buttercream with mint leaves on top, six had my favorite caramel icing with brown sugar on top.  the white cupcakes had six with the same lemon buttcream i used on mom's birthday cake, and six had some old cookies and cream icing i had left over in the freezer which looked icky after i remixed it unfortunately.  all-in-all, they went over very well, and everyone loved them!!  AND, laurel and i had a blast making them!!

flavor brainstorming

so while sitting on my couch tonight i started doing some cupcake research... talk about making me want something sweet right about now!! anywho, i wanted to look around and see what kinds of flavor pairings cupcakeries have out there. i've come up with a few of my own that i would love some feed back on. and please feel free to give me any ideas you would like to see!

chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream (this could also be chocolate peppermint buttercream)
cookie topped cupcake (cupcake, icing, cookie: in any flavor possible)
chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream
chocolate cupcakes with oreo buttercream
red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream
chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream

chocolate cupcakes with mocha buttercream
buttermilk cupcakes with blueberries, & mascapone icing
smores:  grahm cracker bottom, chocolate cupcakes, italian meringue icing
buttermilk cupcakes with bacon, & maple buttercream
bananas foster
buttermilk cupcakes with apple chunks, & caramel icing
eggnog cupcakes with caramel icing
white supreme lemon cake with lemon buttercream

white supreme cupcakes with lavendar buttercream

pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon mascapone icing

white supreme cupcakes with lime zest, & lime italian meringue

i'm going to dc next weekend and am going to visit georgetown cupcake again as well as hello cupcake for the first time... all in the name of research of course ;)  i'll let ya'll know how things turn out, but would love any feedback i can get in the meantime!!

mama dukes turns 60!!

for mom's 60th birthday she asked my sisters and me to plan a "craft circuit" party with her girls!  we had an emboridery station, a scrapbooking station, puzzle station, and cupcake decorating station... it was a blast!  these are the cupcakes that each of the ladies decorated then put the candles on for mom to blow out!

for the second party of the weekend we went to the art of entertaining in obrionville for dinner.  it is one of my new favorite places for intimate parties!!  for dessert i made the cake, which mom had requested be a white cake with simple buttercream, but with lemon.  i made a two tier cake with my white supreme recipe, but added lemon zest and extract.  i did the same for the simple buttercream and it turned out wonderfully!  a great birthday week for mama dukes!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

on sale this week!

after anita minturn came into garnish last week looking for my cupcakes, i thought it was time to bake up a new batch!  so this week there are white cupcakes (with cinnamon and nutmeg being very subtle in the batter), with my favorite caramel icing on sale at garnish catering.  the icing was a bit harder this time around so i decided to go a different route with how i iced the cupcakes.  i topped them with a bourbon vanilla sugar i found at findlay market this past fall... YUMMY!!

pb and chocolate

i made these for superbowl sunday and man did they go quickly!  i used my favorite, chocolate mayonnaise cake recipe, and then used choc/peanut butter chips for the icing... they were AWESOME!  the peanut butter was subtle, which i liked.  i think maybe next time i can try to whip some peanut butter by itself to make it a bit lighter and fill the center of the cupcakes with it to create a reeses cupcake!!