Blueberry Cobbler & Tiramisu Cupcakes

The other day I wanted to make a few things that I had never ever made before. It's really easy to do the same things over and over again. Chocolate Peanut Butter is my ultimate go to cupcake. I make them for everything. And I love them. But I'm sure my boss would like to see something different from time to time.

As I was on Pinterest I came across these delightful looking blackberry cobbler cupcakes. I was pretty sure tho that it wasn't blackberry season (like I have any idea) so I swapped it out for blueberries.  By the way, pinterest is a total addiction and if I don't get my sh*t together soon Justin is going to send me to counselling.

I started by going to the grocery store. I think fresh fruit is so much better than the frozen cop out stuff. You can seriously taste the difference. I feel like the only time it's acceptable to use frozen fruit is in smoothies. Hmmm..... now I want a smoothie. BRB.    

Yes, that really just happened. Thank goodness I work next door to a place that provides me coffee and smoothies on a regular basis. Bonus: it's like 40 degrees out today. Bam! Heatwave! 

Back to you're regularly scheduled blog:

CUPCAKES

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1‑3/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 cup milk

1‑1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs    

3 cups fresh or frozen (unthawed) blueberries

STREUSEL

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup uncooked old-fashioned or quick oats

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Start by whipping the butter & sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well in between each egg. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl mix all of your dry ingredients then slowly add them into your butter mix. Real cooks say you should alternate the flour mix and milk until all ingredients are incorporated. Not me. Oh no she didn't. I pour my flour in and immediately follow it with the milk. It's like those people that don't like their food to touch. It's all going to the same place anyways. sheesh.
Ok, so mix all ingredients well, scraping the bowl to make sure you don't have any sneaky flour chunks hiding out in the bottom. It's always so annoying to come across those as you are putting the batter into the liners.
Oh yeah! The blueberries!! Dump 'em in when everything else is well mixed. If you put them in too early or mix them too much your batter will turn this weird green gray very unappetizing color. Not that I've ever done that before.........
Once your blueberries are incorporated grab your ice cream scoop and put the batter in the liners. 3/4 of the way full. It seems silly to use an ice cream scoop but if you have one of them that has the push button wiper blade thingy in it they work like a gem!

This is what it should look like at this stage:

Bake for 20ish minutes at 325 for the small ones. The larger ones take a bit longer - once you pull the small ones out check your larger ones every 5 minutes until finished. 

Once out of the oven they should look like this: 

(Side note: Just heard the best pick up line ever!! "I bet I can guess your weight, if I hug you".)

So there they are in all their golden brown glory. Another positive for using fresh fruit - they don't sink to the bottom and get all soggy like frozen fruit. 

On to the streusel : Take all of those ingredients and mix them well. I'm pretty darn sure I did that part wrong. My mix was really moist. Haha to you if you are one of those people that hates the word moist. So I added another half cup of flour & then baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes. I would say if you are going to do this add 1/4 cup flour & 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mine turned out alright but it wasn't as sweet as I wanted it to be. Once the streusel was ready I let it cool. Duh. :)

Frosting - 

I had some left over cinnamon butter cream from some other cupcakes I made and I thought it would work out perfect on these cupcakes. I piped it on, cupped the streusel in my hand and very strategically, and mushed it onto the side on the frosting. 

They turned out a little something like this: 

Not bad right?

I also made some Tiramisu Cupcakes. 

I made a tiramisu once and it turned out like a hot sloppy mess. I was so disappointed. We used to do what we called "Sweet Sunday" with Tiffiney and Mike. It was very exclusive and basically one of us would make a desert and we would meet at Tim's for some coffee & baileys. Well I had it in my head that tiramisu always looked so fancy and they would be so impressed with me. That was not the case. I figured if it called for 2 tablespoons of kahlua and I put 1/2 cup it would only get better. Nope, it only got really soggy. Ick.    

Anyways, I'm happy to report my Tiramisu Cupcakes turned out much much better. 

Cake

1 box Vanilla Bean Cake Mix

2 egg whites

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup strong coffee (I used instant coffee) 

Filling / Frosting:

8 oz mascarpone

1 tablespoon strong coffee

2 1/2 cup powdered sugar

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Milk to thin

For this recipe I just dumped all of my ingredients into the kitchenade and mixed them well. Scooped and baked, (325 for 20 minutes) then let cool. The cupcakes came out so light and fluffy. It was awesome. Sometime I surprise myself  when things I haven't made before turn out really good. 

For the frosting I whipped the mascarpone (which is really hard to find in stores. Glen's carries it tho) until it was soft and smooth. Then I added the cream cheese and mixed some more. After that I put in the powdered sugar until it was a thick frosting. I added the coffee, and vanilla. That helped lighten it up but it was still pretty thick. I added a little splash of milk at a time until it was the consistency I wanted. 

From there I piped the frosting on. Oh, also on the large cupcakes I cut a cone out of the center & filled it with the frosting. 

I thought I would try a new technique on these because they were so light and delicate. This is how it turned out: 

See it looks like a rose, sort of. The trick to this is instead of starting from the outside and working in you start from the inside and work your way out. Then a little sprinkle of cocoa powder and it was good to go. 

These might be my new favorites. Although Justin and I started a diet and I brought one home to eat and it ended up sitting on my table until I threw it away. I was so sad. But I have lost 5 lbs. so that's good I guess? I'm kind of in that stage where I'm like do I want to look good in a wedding dress or do I want to be able to eat all the cupcake? Ugh. Decisions, decisions. Also, Justin hasn't proposed or anything but I'm sure he'll get around to it eventually so I'm planning ahead. Sometimes I talk to him like he already has and I go on planning my imaginary wedding. LOL awkward. 

TagLine*WhatEverColorWillMyBridesmaidsWear?

Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Christmas...

OH OH OH! That's Ho Ho Ho backwards because I am OH so sleepy today. How was your Christmas?? Was it awesome? Or epic? Or boring? Did you get all of the great swag you asked for?

Mine was wonderful. I was so tired on Monday by the time we got back from Petoskey that I fell right asleep. And yes I'm one of those grown ups that will toss and turn all night on Christmas Eve because I'm to excited to sleep.

My family has this really great tradition where we wake up, open our stockings, have breakfast and then we get to open presents. This year I tried to bypass the breakfast part because I wasn't hungry but my mother said we would have to wait for gifts until I was. You bet your buttons I got to cooking! After breakfast we went to the barn to feed Miss Muffin and then we finally got home to open gifts.

This is what we look like when we go to the barn on Christmas (we stay in our jammies all day!). Justin got new Muck boots that he was so excited to try out in the snow. 

I got all sorts of really great stuff on Christmas. One of the jokes being that Justin got me a Creme Brulee torch and my mother got us 2 first aid kits. :) She's smart like that. I also got 5 or 6 really awesome new aprons!! I love aprons. I collect them actually, but I wear them all the time. That's going to have to be a new post in itself. I want to show them off! 

Back to the cupcakes: ----

I made Dark Chocolate Peanut butter cupcakes for a friend to take to work. She works at UPS on the early morning shift loading packages to make sure we all get our Christmas goodies on time (thank you thank you thank you!!!!). They were ecstatic to have a sweet treat so early in the morning. 

Here's the cheater version. :) It was sort of a last minute thing and I was being a bum. You don't always have to make things from scratch to make them taste homemade. :)

I started with this. A box of cake mix. GASP! Blah blah blah, yes sometimes I'm a lazy cheater but there are ways to make them taste more homemade. 

So read the normal directions - add 1 more egg, use milk instead of water and melted butter instead of oil. Voila! Better boxed cake mix. 

See, 4 eggs :)

Also, if you don't have one of these super awesome spatula blades for your KitchenAid you must get one. And if you don't have a KitchenAid you need one of those too. I use mine for everything.

I even took a break for some creative photo time.

 I also caught Justin playing his new drum shirt. All those little drums and symbols make noise and there is a speaker box sewn into the shirt. Pretty cool until you hear the racket it makes! 

 Back to the cupcakes - mix it real good. Scoop 3/4 full until your lined cupcake pans and bake. I use a 2 oz. ice cream type scoop that I got at Gordon foods. it's really handy. 

More random pictures. This is my Christmas apron :)

On to the frosting. Get out your peanut butter. I use so much of it in my house that I buy it like this. And I love it! The other day I wanted to put peanut butter on my pizza but didn't because Justin thought I was being weird. 

Mix your room temp butter & peanut butter together and then slowly add your powdered sugar. I have no measurements for these because I wing it. always. Sorry. 

After your cupcakes cool and your frosting is mixed you get to pipe them. I use a Wilton 1M tip. One of the giant ones. I like the shape they give. 

After all is said and done your cuppy cakes should come out looking something like this!

 I didn't have chocolate syrup for drizzle so I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave & put them in a Ziploc bag to drizzle.  Then I topped them with mini baby cute adorable reeses cups. 

This is how I like to eat my cupcakes. I rip the bottom off, squish it on top and eat it like a sammich. Nom!

TagLine*ThisBlogTook3DaysToMakeSoEnjoyIt!

Advice from the Over Planner

Back in the day I didn't plan anything. I went with the flow and was super mellow about whatever happened. Literally nothing bothered me. Until, I ended up with some super crummy roommates that were never sure if they'd be able to pay their bills, make it to work on time or cook a meal on their own. I grew up pretty quickly when I became a pseudo parent to this grown up children. Always making sure I have enough extra money in my bank account to cover rent so our landlord wouldn't get mad, waking them up and even doing their laundry so they'd make it to work. What a joke! Needless to say, after all that ridiculousness my carefree attitude went out the window and I cracked down on being organized.
I'm organized to the point now that I own not one, not two, but THREE planners, plus at least 2 calendars. I even made a 'Christmas Binder' this year that included my mailing list, my recipes, my gift receipts and more. I thought I was a little over obsessed when I started putting it together but it really came in handy. My gifts were wrapped the first week of December and I've been laying low since then.

So what does any of this have to do with cupcakes?

Recently I had a gal ask for some advice because she had agreed to make cupcakes for a friends wedding and had never made an order that large. This is what I told her:

1. Over plan. (duh)
2. Make a list of everything you are going to need at least a week in advance. That way you can keep checking it, catching things you missed, and add things you remember at the last minute.
3. Check your recipes and your kitchen before you head to the store. Seems like a no brainer but I do it all the time and when I get home I'll have thought I had plenty of sugar and then find none. If there is nothing more I hate more than going to the store it's going to the store twice.
4. Bake a day in advance. Who wants to have to get up at 5 in the morning to make cupcakes? Not me. You can always place a layer of plastic wrap over the cupcakes and that will keep the moisture in.
5. Wait to decorate until you get there. I would be a nervous wreck if I have to transport 200 frosted cupcakes over 2 hours. No way Jose!
6. That also means you'll have to make extra. Frosting that is. You can never have too much frosting. And better to have too much than too little.
7. Take a helper, but be very clear about what you need/want them to do. My mother is the best sous chef I've ever had (sorry, Justin) but I still have to explain what I want. I have a particular way of doing things so as I'm piping things she can be adding the decorations; not until I've explained how I want them to look tho.
8. Give yourself extra time. If you have time left over you can go get your hair done, if you are pressed for time you might moss the wedding. Your choice.
9. Do not wear your nice clothes to set up. Or do. Maybe I'm the only one that always ends up covered in sugar and frosting?
10. Be nice to the kitchen staff. Sure you're the cupcake gal and everything looks awesome but you may need their help doing dishes, mixing more frosting or cutting your piping bags. No one wants to help a jerk.

So there you have it. Now I hope to see you all out there catering your friends weddings soon! :)

Tagline*Don'tBeACupcakeJerk

Let's get married! I mean....

Yup, my life revolves around weddings. I work at Lasting Memories Bridal Boutique, I bake cupcakes like a boss, and Justin and I own a Photo Booth and Photography business.

I eat, sleep, dream, breathe weddings.

So of course when my bestest friend in the whole wide world asked me to bake for his wedding I said "YES!".

At first it was just 80 cupcakes, then it was 80 cupcakes and a cake, then it was 80 cupcakes and a cake that looked like a tree stump. Suuuuuuuuuuureeeee, yeaaahhh, I can handle that. A tree stump? Oh dear lord.

I had never ever ever worked with fondant before but I have watched a lot of cake boss. Where do I buy a giant roller thing? Oh wait, Justin says I can't have one of those because we don't have enough room. FINE! I'll do it myself, (and by do it myself I mean, please help me! please help me!)

Here here it goes, 80 cupcakes in Red Velvet, Vanilla, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Triple Chocolate.
(plus a tree stump cake.....)

The cake table, in all it's gooey glory. 

Look's like a tree stump to me. When I was in the process of making it Tiffiney thought I had put a salamander on the side of it. Then she cried because she thought I was offended. Pregnant people are crazy!

Birds eye view. I loved the little mushrooms. 

The bride and groom scoping it out. 

Up close and personal, and yummy. 

Tag line, BAM!

What's in a name?

Muffin's Cupcakes?

So you make muffins too? Nope. No way, no how. Not that it's a big deal, but cupcakes are prettier. :)

My horse DTA Dream Catcher got the nickname Fluffy Muffin many years ago which got shortened and turned into Fluffin, Muffin or Fluffy. Some days, depending on her mood we would call her Dreamy Nightmare. Luckily we didn't have to go with that one very often.

So essentially when I was trying to figure out what I would call my 'cupcake stand' I came up with Muffin's Cupcakes.

And thus, this was born......

And here's a picture of Miss Muffin herself, just because I love her oh so much!

Hmmm...... this is the awkward part... how do I end a blog post? Help me come up with a tag line or something. All ideas welcome.