Baking for the Queen

Why do I love birthday cupcakes? Could it be the fact that I am such a giver and love watching people indulge my cupcakes? Or, could it be that they feel so generous at that moment and let me have a cupcake, as well? Yup, I believe that's it.

Finally! A day where I have both a special occasion AND a day off! Lucky me! Tomorrow is the birthday of my favorite sister. She deserves way more than cupcakes, but giving cupcakes has been very gratifying for me! On Tuesday, we celebrate my co-worker, Sarah, but since I don't work on Tuesdays, Monday will have to do! Also, Jon comes home from his vacation tomorrow, so a cupcake or two won't hurt his welcome.

Well, for starters, my sister has been confined to a dairy-free diet for her daughter's allergy. Talk about a challenge! But one I wanted to go for, for sure. I Google-d my heart out until I found a cake recipe that seemed to be decent. One stop at the grocery later, I was a baking diva! The batter was super moist, which is just right in this 5,280 altitude. My only issue was the flavor was lacking, but we'll see how the cupcakes turn out:

With my handsome assistant in Iowa, I was all alone! I'm sure my parents LOVE it when I do experiments in their kitchen!

Here is the batter, placed, of course, in the Royal Queen paper cups!

Then, the frosting: A banana dairy-free frosting! (Thanks to Google, yet again!) 

Banana, butter (dairy free), squeeze of lemon, and lots of powdered sugar! 

YUM YUM YUM!!

I think I'll try this frosting a few more times, it is fabulous!

The cake recipe was called at 350* and 30-35 minutes, but with cupcakes, I figured turning it down would be smart. I checked it at 25 minutes and they were PERFECT. I repeat: PERFECT!! Let us just remember the good days in January with the exploding cupcakes! I am amazing!

My other challenge: Sarah. She is somewhat picky, so birthday cupcakes have to be fit for her! I focused on Cookies and Cream Cupcakes (Yes, OREOS!!) with a Marshmallow Frosting! One thing the author left out of this recipe is to make sure the cup of milk is at room temperature. Have you ever seen milk fly? Me neither, until today. The butter was at room temp, but the milk was straight from the fridge and cooled the butter down, so when I went to mix, everything (including me!) got covered in milk. Birthday wish list: A large apron. I thought about writing the change in my book for future endeavors, but I think the splatters will do for a reminder.  Holy cupcake! The batter was very worth it. I may or may have put a little more Oreo's in the mix, because those little cookies are my weakness!

Alrighty, so the cupcakes have cooled and are ready to get glamorous! The banana frosting was VERY liquidy, but just a dribble on each cake did the trick. I then became a genius. I wanted my new colored sugars to decorate these pups, and found the best way:

Sugar in an olive oil dipper, cupcake dipped in sugar! Aren't they beautiful?!

The Marshmallow Frosting gave me a little more run for my money! BUT--it is delicious! (And gooey)

Getting the 'mallows ready! (Double boiler to soften them)

Happy Birthday, Girls! Here's to many, many more!

Well, if you made it through all of this: You're a trooper! Just think of it as a two-for-one deal!

Thanks for reading this. I love to hear your thoughts in comments. 

Credit to mi madre: To make frosting more thick: beat it more!

Lesson learned today: When using measuring cups, rinse immediately. You never know how soon you'll need the 1/4 cup, again!

Recipes used today:

Dairy Free Chocolate Cake

Dairy Free Banana Frosting
Cookies and Cream Cupcake  (Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella) 
Marshmallow Frosting  (Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella) 

Kate: The Party Planner (Cupcakes included!)

In my professional cupcakeing career (almost a month now.), I have come to terms with the fact that no cupcakes are ever supposed to be perfect. With that said: I have made the most perfect cupcakes! Well, kind of! Jon's birthday party was "24" themed, with the season premiere of our own Jack Bauer! Jon requested something simple and delicious, and I knew that just would not do. So I picked a Chocolate cupcake and a White cupcake recipe to be marbleized! Then we bought black food coloring to mix in with Vanilla frosting! My Saturday night was spent mixing and stirring and thinking about what I would write on my blog (apparently already famous!) Here are the cupcakes out of the oven:

Now is where I should add that I couldn't stick with the theme of 24 with 24 cupcakes, and with all of my left over batter, came up with 48 cupcakes!! I'm not joking! I had used a dark chocolate powder here, so the chocolates were a little too rich for my taste...I suppose I will have to try, try again.

And now...the devil of the evening:

I used that whole thing! I think it added an odd flavor to the icing, but I don't think anyone else noticed.

So the idea behind this black icing was to match the 24 style, and we found this AWESOME food coloring spray that we were going to stencil "24" onto the cupcakes. BUT apparently, the spray doesn't show up on black. That was a bummer, 20 minutes before the big party! My fast moving brain did some food coloring in sugar to make orange to stencil "24" on that way--semi-success!

(I sincerely apologize for the quality--does anyone know where my camera memory card is?!)

All in all, these puppies were a success, looked great and everyone seemed to really enjoy them. Cavities prevented my pleasure, but I still was happy!

The party was wonderful with great people, and a fantastic first 2 hours of 24! Let the season begin!

Recipes used today:
Chocolate cupcakes (Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella)
White cupcakes (Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella)
Vanilla frosting (Crazy about Cupcakes by Krystina Castella)