Raspberry Peach Bellini Cupcakes

This is my entry for the very last Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge. The theme this month was "Fizzy." I have a bottle of my beloved Andre Spumante sitting around from the last time it was on sale at the grocery store, so I decided to make a champagne cupcake.

I've always been a fan of the peach bellini, so I decided to try to capture that flavor in a cupcake. I read online that traditional bellini's also incorporated raspberries for their color, and I had some fun raspberry sugar from a visit to Ann Arbor, so I decided to add that as a garnish and put a glaze of raspberry jam over the cupcakes before I frosted them. '

The cupcakes themselves are a variant of this recipe except that I reduced the champagne a bit and then added some peach juice in its place. I added a little bit of red and yellow food coloring to make the batter a peachy color. I also baked them a little bit less than they recommended - about 27 minutes.

I used Smucker's Rapsberry Spreadable Fruit for the glaze. I microwaved the jelly a bit and then dipped each cupcake into it. I let if dry before going on to frost them.

The frosting is a basic buttercream with champagne, peach preserves, and a bit of the raspberry spreadable fruit.

Now, on to the the challenge! The official rules are here and voting starts the 20th.

The winner of June’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela's Images; a selection of handmade crafts
• Bake It Pretty; a $5 online gift card
• Beanilla; a $7 online gift card
• cupcakewrappers.com; 2 packs of cupcake wrappers
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a $5 online gift card
• Tundra Books; 3 children's books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

Blueberry Green Tea Cupcakes for April's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenege

This month's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge, presented by The Sweetest Kitchen, had an Earth Day theme. I knew right away that I wanted to make a blue and green cupcake, but I didn't want to just color it blue and green. Since the only blue food I could think of was blueberries, I started there. Remembering the technique I used in my last Mystery Box entry (Lavender Milk Tea cupcakes), I decided to infuse the batter with one of my favorite teas, Trader Joes' blueberry green tea.

• 1 C whole milk
• 4-6 tea bags
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp lemon baking emulsion
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
  

I don't want to talk about the frosting...suffice it to say it would have been easier and more cooperative if it was nothing but shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla. That'll teach me to try new weird things.

The winner of April’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela's Images; a selection of handmade crafts


• Bake It Pretty; a $5 online gift card


• Beanilla; a $7 online gift card


• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice


• My Little Cupcake; a cupcake pop mold


• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners


• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a $5 online gift card


• Tundra Books; 3 Earth-knowledgeable children's books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

Hummingbird Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

I don't want to talk about how I somehow misplaced my camera, yet again.

The first time I ever had hummingbird cake was at my office holiday party the year between college and law school. This was no typical office holiday party, however. The business school I worked for had just built a new building and the holiday party was a really fancy affair. There was a huge buffet with tons of cheese, entire fish, and lots of other fantastic food items that I wish I could remember. There was also a coffee bar with fancy liquors to mix in and a wonderful dessert buffet. The dessert buffet had a number of fancy cakes on it, and I went with the hummingbird because I'd never heard of it and it looked good. Oh, it was.

Fast forward to this weekend, when I was trying to come up with something to bake for the Phi Alpha Delta bake sale, whose proceeds were going to benefit Iowa Legal Aid. The theme of the bake sale was "Spring" because next week is spring break, so I wanted to come up with something fruity. I ended up going with a Martha Stewart recipe for hummingbird cupcakes and attemptws to make the pineapple flower garnish. I found the tutorial here really helpful. It took me hours and hours to get the pineapple to dry, so if I ever make these again, I'll be sure to get the pineapple slices even thinner. Mandolin maybe? I don't have one, but it might be a good investment at this point.

Also, I am am a baking grown-up now, because I finally sucked it up and bought some frosting tips and bags. I bought an Ateco set, consisting of 6 large tips, as I think they'll be best for cupcakes and that's primarily what I make.

These cupcakes were delicious and incredibly moist. I highly recommend them, with or without the pineapple garnish. The garnish was impressive for bake sale purposes and really drew people in, but I'm not sure it was worth destroying an entire pineapple over - especially when the end product is basically inedible.

Vegan Banana Cupcakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting

I made these along with the vegan cookies 'n cream cupcakes and the lemon meringue cupcakes. The frosting was amazing. My roommates and I ended up eating the leftover frosting on the remaining Oreos. Yum! I also really liked the cupcake recipe, but I might have just used it as a muffin and not bothered to frost it.

Recipe from here which comes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I've been really impressed with all the recipes in this book - I might have to go out an buy it!

Vegan Cookies 'N Cream Cupcakes

These cupcakes are the ones that finally convinced me I needed to start piping with tips and bags. The crushed Oreos just kept clogging up my tip, even though I was using the largest one Pampered Chef has available.

I used this cupcake recipe and associated frosting recipe, which I think come from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

These went really fast at our bake sale. Something about Oreos seems to really suck people in.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

These look prettier than they taste. I lazily omitted lemon curd from a white cupcake flavored with lemon zest and lemon juice. It was a mistake.

I made these for another impromptu bake sale for the journal. More photos of those cupcakes are coming.

The recipe for these is really unexciting - I just flavored my basic vanilla cupcake recipe with zest of a lemon and 1/4 C of lemon juice. The meringue is 3 egg whites and 7 tablespoons of sugar - just under 1/4 C. I finished baking the cupcakes, flipped the broiler on, slathered on the meringue, and shoved the cupcakes back in the oven until the meringue browned.

I am really sleepy. I had too much caffeine last night and ended up being awake until 4AM. Don't worry, I did really important things like Bluebooking.

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes using the recipe at Whisk Kid which came from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

I'm not actually a vegan, but one of my law school friends is and I decided to finally make a cupcake for a bake sale that he can eat. These cupcakes are really good, and the "cream cheese" frosting has the same tang as dairy cream cheese frosting. I used Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese in it.

I had a little problem with thickening the soy milk. I think I let it sit a bit to long, so I actually had small curds form. The cake tasted good, but the texture was a bit irregular. I'd let the soy milk and vinegar react for less time if I made these again.

Lavender Orange Cupcakes

This cupcake is in a cup because I wanted to take a picture of it in the snow drift on my balcony. Unfortunately, so much snow blew up against the door that I couldn't open it - and it's a sliding door. Also, where the heck is my camera? I'm not a good photographer, but taking pictures with my Blackberry is NOT helping matters.

This week, a friend and I held and all-cupcake bake sale for our journal's upcoming symposium entitled War On...:The Fallout of Declaring War on Social Issues. It was meant to be two days in duration, but it seems that the weather had other plans for us. Last night, I was worried that we would still have school, so I needed to bake a few more cupcakes. I tried to go to the grocery store right after class, but almost slid off the road going approximately 12mph - I am experienced enough on snow to know that this is not a safe circumstance.

Anyway, at this point, I'd already baked approximately 6 dozen cupcakes, and I just wanted to make two more types. I didn't have any milk, lemons, or canola oil (I couldn't even bake a boxed cake!) and I was running low enough on sugar that I wasn't sure I'd have enough for multiple batches of cupcakes. And so this recipe was born. And it's delicious. If you want to use regular milk, I'd add back in a heading quarter cup of sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Ingredients

• 1/2 C White Sugar
• 1/2 C Unsalted Butter at room temperature
  
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 tsp Orange Oil (or zest of an orange)
  
• 1 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
• 1 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 3/4 C Vanilla Almond Milk
• 2 TBSP Lavender Syrup

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 and line a 12 cup muffin tin.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer VERY thoroughly - at least 5 minutes.
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing until fully combined after each one. Then add in orange oil.
4. Pour the lavender syrup in with the milk and the baking powder in with the flour. Alternate adding wet and dry ingredients until everything is fully combined.
5. Add 1/4 C of batter to each muffin liner and bake for 20-24 minutes.

For the frosting, I made a basic frosting with 1 stick of butter, almond milk, lavender syrup, and enough powdered sugar to make it a thick enough consistency to put through my piper.

Guess what's on its way to my house!!!

Photo Courtesy of Digella Emporium.

A Cupcake Courier! I have big plans!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Apple Ginger Glaze, Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, and Candied Walnut Garnish

I love just about any baked good with pumpkin in it. The inspiration for these cupcakes was pumpkin + my favorite fall flavors. I took these to a party, and they were extremely well received!


For the cupcakes:

• 1 Box of Yellow Cake Mix
  
• 3 Eggs
• 1 14oz Can of Pumpkin
  
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350.
   
2. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix together until well blended. This is a thick dough.
3. Put 1/4 C of batter into each prepared muffin cup. You will have enough batter for about 16 cupcakes. I made 12 and then baked the rest of the batter up in a mini muffin tin measuring out 1 TBSP of batter in each.
   
4. Bake for 18-22 minutes. (The mini muffins take less time, but I forgot to record how long.)
   

For the Glaze

• 1/2 C Powdered Sugar
• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 TBSP apple juice (or more, depending on desired consistency - I made a very thin glaze that you can you barely see for the pictured cupcakes, but I'd go for a much thicker one next time.)

1. Mix together all ingredients.
2. Poke a few holes in the tops of the cupcakes, and pour a bit of glaze over each cupcake.
   

For the Frosting

• 8oz Brick of Softened Cream Cheese
• 4oz of Softened Unsalted Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 TBSP cinnamon (more or less to taste)
• 2 TBSP apple juice (more or less for desired texture)
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1. Beat together with an electric mixer the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
   
2. Add in the remaining ingredients. Beat until well combined - about 2 minutes.
3. Frosted the cupcakes. I had a fair bit of frosting left at the end, but I frosted the cupcakes rather conservatively.
   

For the Candied Walnuts

• 2 oz walnuts
• 1/4 C Butter
• 2 TBSP Brown Sugar
• Splash of Water
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Or whatever spice you're into)

1. Melt the butter in the microwave.
   
2. Add everything but the nuts, stir, cook for another minute, and stir.
3. Dump in nuts. Cook for 40 second intervals, tossing in between. Do this 4-6 times, and sniff the nuts aggressively towards the end to make sure they aren't burning.
4. Pour the nuts out onto a lined baking sheet or a Silpat. Allow to cool and then garnish the cupcakes.
   

These cupcakes are for the Sweetest Kitchen's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge. This month's theme is "orange", which can either be the color or the flaor. I'll remind you when voting starts, so you can mosey on over and vote for your favorite cupcakes!

The winner of October’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela's Images; a selection of handmade crafts
• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; 2-fold Madagascar vanilla extract & 3 Tongan vanilla beans
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Lisa Orgler; an 8.5"x11" original art print of your choice
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children's books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

Lavender Milk Tea Cupcakes for Sweetest Kitchen's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge!

Inspiration

I am in law school. I study for a significant portion of my waking hours. One of the locations I like to study at is the public library. It looks like this:

This library is great. It has lots of big tables, tons of plugs, and best of all, a wonderful little coffee shop in the lobby. When I face a particularly grueling day of studying, I go to this library and promise myself the reward of their amazing lavender milky tea. I'd never had milky tea before this coffee shop, but it's quite popular in Hong Kong. (Thanks for the knowledge, Wikipedia). Anyway, what I like most about this tea isn't the it's milk + tea (that's fairly standard, I'd say), it's the lavender. Lavender is absolutely delicious in this drink and completely makes it the wonderful thing that it is.

The Great Search

Culinary Lavender

The coffee shop makes their lavender milk tea with a lavender syrup. After searching the internet, I found a few different options of incorporating lavender into baking.

1. Lavender Oil
2. Lavender Sugar
3. Lavender Syrup

Unfortunately for me, these all required me to find the product, find some lavender, or pay stupidly expensive shipping costs and risk the lavender product not arriving in time to enter the competition.

Lavender is tricky. It is a flower, but it's not a flower people always eat. That means that if you're using lavender in cooking, you have to be exceedingly careful that it is food grade lavender, preferably organic, and not covered in pesticides or inedible oils meant for massages, etc.

There is a wonderful cooking store in Des Moines (Shout Out: Kitchen Collage) and I recently bought lemon and orange oil there by a brand that makes lavender oil. However, they did not carry the particular line from the brand that has lavender oil in it, so my local search continued.

There is a farm here in Iowa called Mariposa Farms that sells fresh herbs in tons of grocery stores. According to their website, one of the herbs they sell is lavender. I decided to check the local grocery store chain Hy Vee. No luck.

My next thought was that I would go to the fancy gourmet market - Gateway Market - and see if they had fresh lavender or any type of lavender product. I met a lovely store clerk there would was an absolute peach. They didn't have any lavender, but he offered to call his ex-wife (seriously, WHAT A NICE MAN!!) because she owned a bakery and might have some info. This was the low point of the day, as she told him that she got her lavender supply from Chicago and she wouldn't be willing to sell any to me since she herself is a baker. Boo.

At this point, I went to my mother's house and pouted. Considered a different theme all together. BUT NO, THIS WAS A FLAVOR COMBINATION OF WONDER. Then my mother suggested we hit up one of the health food stores right by her house. They have tons of herbs available by the scoop and also a wide selection of teas. At this point, I was just hoping for a lavender tea I could sift the lavender out of or something. But, BUT, they had a huge bin of fresh lavender and it was very reasonably priced. So, thank you Campbell's Nutrition for helping me out on this quest! I couldn't have done it without you!

Issue #1: How to get the lavender in the cake

From the list above, I quickly eliminated making lavender oil. It looked complicated and I don't know much about oils. I considered lavender sugar and it might have been preferable, but I didn't have two weeks to let it steep. I decided to go with making lavender syrup. I tried to use my skills from 7th Grade science to cook the syrup back down to just sugar crystals, but I got too nervous about burning the whole thing and pretty much just ended up with a thick and concentrated lavender syrup. It also had buds floating in it because my summer rental lacks a fine enough strainer to get them all out. Still, it smelled amazing and I decided it would work fine as substitution for a bit of liquid and sugar in the recipe.

Issue #2: How to get the tea in the cake

I didn't want a subtle tea flavor - I wanted these to actually taste like tea. I found a recipe that suggested 6 tea bags was the magic number in making the flavor actually be tea-y, so I used 3 of my family sized tea bags.
The difficult part of this was that many of the lavender cupcake recipes out there substitute the lavender syrup for any other liquid in the cupcake. But...I don't think you can steep tea bags in syrup. So, I had to come up with a way to make this work. I briefly considered using ice tea mix, but I have a deep aversion to instant tea and couldn't bring myself to do it. I ended up using a tried and true white cupcake recipe as the base and steeped the tea bags in the listed amount of milk after boiling it. I know from experience that this cupcake can be a bit dry, so instead of adding extra milk as I normally would, I added the lavender syrup instead. VICTORY.

Recipe

Concentrated Lavender Syrup

• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/4 C Culinary Lavender Blossoms
  

1. Put all the ingredients in a pot. Boil. After boiling, turn off heat, cover, and let sit.
   
2. After 5 minutes sitting, strain the mixture into a sauce pan, removing as many blossoms as possible.
   
3. Bring the mixture to a boil. Allow to boil for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. This will boil off some of the water and make a more concentrated syrup.
4. Place in refrigerator and allow to cool. Make sure you use this the day you make it, as the sugar tried to escape the solution since it was beyond saturation the next day. Oh, science.
   

Cupcakes

• 3/4 C Milk
• 6 Black Tea Bags
• 3-6 Tbsp Lavender Syrup
  
• Heaping 3/4 C Sugar
• 1/2 C Unsalted Butter (softened)
  
• 2 Eggs
• 1/8 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• Scant 1/8 Tsp Lemon Oil (Optional, I'm just obsessed with it right now)
  
• 1 1/2 C Flour
• 1 3/4 Tsp Baking Powder

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners - you will probably have about 4 extra cupcakes on top of this, however.
   
2. Bring the milk to a boil, either in your narrowest sauce pan or in the microwave. Add the tea bags and allow to steep, off the heat, covered. You want to get the most tea out of these bags as possible, and the most difficult part for me was having deep enough milk.
   
3. After about 5 minutes, squeeze out the tea bags and transfer the milk/tea mixture back into a measuring cup.I lost about 1/4C of milk when it boiled, it will probably vary for you. To make up the difference, add lavender syrup. If you've added 6 TBSP and it's not yet back up to 3/4 C, add in milk until you get there. It will dilute the tea mixture, but that's better then overpowering lavender. Put in the freezer to cool down quickly - do not use right away!!
   
4. Cream together butter and sugar. Do it longer than normal , at least 5 minutes. This batter needs air.
5. Add in eggs, one at a time, and beat them in for about a minute each.
   
6. Add in vanilla & lemon oil. Beat thoroughly.
7. Add in flour and baking powder. Beat thoroughly.
8. Add in milk/tea/lavender mixture. This is a lot of liquid for the batter to take up, so give it time. Beat until very well incorporated.
   
9. Fill the cupcake liners. I would opt for just under 1/4 C of batter for each. I went above this and got weird, spread out, cookie tops that I ended up pulling off. (The muffin top was not all that.) This is probably a symptom of my janky summer oven, but just to be safe, go on the small side.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are firm and stick inserted comes out cleanly.
11. Allow to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before removing them. I am the worst about removing things early, but these are a pretty fragile cake, so really let them sit.

Frosting - Adapted from Our Best Bites

• 4 1/2 TBSP Flour
• 3/4 C Milk (I usually use skim, but I used whole milk because I really wanted a very milky flavor)
• 3/4 C Unsalted Butter (real butter, and softened)
  
• 3/4 C Flour
• 1 TBSP of Lavender Syrup

1. If this is your first time with a frosting like this, I highly recommend you hop over to Our Best Bites for their wonderful mixture tutorial.
2. Add flour and milk to a pan. I like to use my 10" frying pan. Heat over medium heat, and whisk constantly to get flour to dissolve into milk.
3. Keep whisking. As soon as you see the whisk drag and the bottom of the pan peep through, remove from heat.
4. Strain through your finest sifter to get out clumps, and refrigerate. Make sure it's really not warm, or it will ruin everything in the following steps.
5. Cream together butter and sugar.
   
6. Add the lavender syrup to the flour/milk mixture. Pour that mixture on the butter and sugar. Beat forever. No really, it takes at least 5 minutes.
7. This frosting looks weird for a bit, but do not despair. Keep mixing!
8. Eventually, it will be gorgeous, poofy, and milky deliciousness.
   

Assembly

1. Frost cupcakes generously. Add sanding sugar or lavender blossoms as garnish. (I used this light blue sanding sugar.)

Oh right, this is a contest!

Now, about this contest! It's all explained here - it's The Sweetest Kitchen's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge. Every month, there's a different ingredient that must be used in the cupcake. This month's ingredient was tea!

Voting starts on or about July 20th, so please go check it out! I'll remind you when the time comes!

This competition is really awesome because there are such wonderful prizes!
The winner of July’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; $5 electronic gift card -- I used their liners for this cupcake!
  


• Beanilla; Tahitian vanilla fleur de sel & 3 organic Indonesian vanilla beans


• Rishi Tea; the new Tsuki tea pot and 2 tins of tea


• Soapylove Glycerin Soap Design; a Soapy Pop


• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25

Thanks to all our prize sponsors!

Red Velvet Cupcakes without Food Coloring

Okay, I admit it, they aren't red. They are light brown and look like a milk chocolate cupcake. But they (theoretically) taste the same as red velvet cupcakes, I didn't have to go to the store, I got to use up my expiring buttermilk, and I got to test out a recipe for my secret project.

Also, I must admit, they are not very good. The recipe I used had me add 1 tablespoon of baking soda. I believe that was too much, as they taste really, really alkaline. Not a fan. Cream cheese frosting made them better, but I'm going to use a different recipe for the secret project.

Boyfriend's boss liked them though. And she was in desperate need of a cupcake because she found out she'd lost a big case just prior to encountering them.

Engagement Party S'More Cupcakes

I am officially at the phase in my life where everyone I know it getting engaged. I have had at least 3 law school classmates get engaged over the summer break - I will surely find out about more when I go back to school in the fall!

I made these cupcakes for the engagement party of a dear high school friend's older sister. In all fairness, she didn't ask me to bring anything, I just had a baking urge and the engagement party seemed like an excellent opportunity to pawn off some of my baked goods!

I am a big fan of S'mores. But S'mores aren't a food I get much opportunity to eat these days, as I am what might be described as...indoorsy. No bonfires in my recent past or foreseeable future, that's for sure.

However, I think I came up with a delicious S'more Cupcake recipe after using an amalgamation of many other recipes.

INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes - Adapted from Our Best Bites and Bakerella
2 C Flour
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C granulated sugar
1 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1 C luke warm water
1/2 C buttermilk
1/4 C Graham Cracker Crumbs

Filling
Toasted Marshmallow Creme
(Regular will work just fine, but the toasted is a fun touch!)

Frosting
Our Best Bites' Chocolate Frosting
Follow their directions, as this was the first time I made it and it worked out perfectly!

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl.
2. Cream the butter and the sugars together with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy and well incorporated. Add in eggs, one at a time and mix until fully incorporated. Add in vanilla and continue to mix until smooth.
3. Mix together buttermilk and water. Add 1/2 of the buttermilk/water mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and alternate with the flour mixture. This is going to look a little weird - don't worry. It will work itself out.
4. Divide the batter in half - there should be about 6 cups total. If you mess it up, you just won't end up with equally chocolately and graham crackery cupcakes. Not the end of the world.
5. To one of batters, add the cocoa. To the other batter, add the graham cracker crumbs. Mix both until well incorporated.
6. Add your cupcake liners to your muffin tin. I used foil to evoke camping, but part of what's really cool about these cupcakes is the two color thing - that's not visible if you use foil!
7. For each cupcake, add two tablespoons of the graham cracker batter and top with two tablespoons of the cocoa batter.
8. Bake cupcakes for 15-20 minutes. I wish I could be more definite, but my summer oven is a weird one and I pretty much have to watch everything and don't think it provides much indication of what others' ovens might do.
9. After cupcakes have cooled, fill the cupcakes with the marshmallow fluff. Don't go overboard, as it's really sweet.
10. Frost cupcakes with the chocolate frosting. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the frosting and top it all off with a marshmallow!

Law School Admissions Cupcakes (The better version of LSAC)

One of my friends from college lives in the town I go to law school in. He works for a local law firm here and had been planning to go to law school. Yesterday, he got into my law school and will be starting in the fall. As celebration, I naturally decided to bake cupcakes!

I immediately went to my default chocolate cupcake recipe from Our Best Bites (made with Ghiradelli cocoa powder) and baked them up. But what about frosting? It was cold, a bit icy, and my powdered sugar was in my car. (Don't ask...pretty much everything is in my car). So...I decided to fashion some frosting that was reminiscent of a chocolate pecan pie I made during the summer of 2007 AKA the summer I learned to bake.

Frosting/Glaze - frosts about 18 cupcakes, maybe a few more

1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Corn Syrup
1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Pecans

1. Melt the chocolate chips, corn syrup, and butter together in the microwave, stirring often to avoid burning.
2. Stir in pecans.
3. Spoon over cupcakes.

I was sort of dubious about potential taste, but actually, it's really awesome. It has a really marshmallow-y quality about it.

I was so glad to share these cupcakes with my friend who will soon know the wonders of intentional torts himself.

Coconut Cupcakes

I made these beauties a month or two ago for one of the bake sales that one of the organizations I'm a part of had. International Law Society, maybe? I can't recall...

Anyway, the recipe is from Simply Recipes but made by Vanilla Garlic. Got it? Vanilla Garlic has a rather extensive cupcakes phase a while ago and has some really interesting and off-beat recipes. Check it out if you enjoy the cupcake medium as I do!

These cupcakes turned out very pretty and I loved the cake. I think I have a stronger sweet tooth than the recipe-writer, so if I made them again, I think I'd go with a different and sweeter cream cheese frosting. All in all, delicious.

Mint Cupcakes

I made these delectable cupcakes for the Phi Alpha Delta bake sale to benefit a family the fraternity is sponsoring for the holidays. I made extra to take to my last day of Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research. Lots of cupcakes...

The cupcake base is an aaammaaazzzinngg devils food recipe from Our Best Bites. It's easily my favorite food blog right now.

The frosting is also from them. Be warned...it's probably the most temperamental thing I've ever made. I've gotten three batches out of six tries, and my learning curve is not really improving. Be sure you've got extra supplies as you'll probably mess up the first time around. I swear, it is worth the pain and suffering. I added mint extract and green gel color to get a nice green minty look and taste.

I piped the frosting on the cupcakes with my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator. I swear, I'm not being paid by Pampered Chef and actually, the only two PC things I own are this and my fluted stone pan. But seriously, I love this decorator. I've used it 5 times and I've had it for less than 2 weeks.

I topped the cupcakes off with Andes mints chopped in half. Adorable and delicious!