Bridal Shower Mini-Cupcakes
My brother in law is getting married to a wonderful woman in a few weeks and we had the privilege of throwing her a bridal shower a couple weeks ago. I was asked to make a dessert for the shower so of course I settled on cupcakes. I didn’t want to make full sized cupcakes though since they are so heavy for an afternoon shower. I settled on mini-cupcakes as the perfect compromise. Not only are they delicious, they are absolutely adorable!
This particular recipe will make approximately 2 ½ dozen mini-cupcakes. I would suggest using a 24 cavity mini-muffin pan to make these since it will go much faster than a 12 cavity pan. For decorating these I used purple icing and edible glitter on each. I also found the most adorable diamond ring party picks on Amazon. These really made the final results pop and completed the bridal shower theme. You can of course switch the color theme easily by using a different colored gel food coloring. [amd-yrecipe-recipe:238]Source: Cake adapted from Kiss my Bundt - Chrysta Wilson
These cupcakes were actually ordered by one of Alex’s coworkers for an event for 2nd graders. She asked me to make a white cupcake with a fun frosting color and exciting sprinkles. I decided on a plain white almond cake with a colored almond frosting since it is one of the most basic flavors in my opinion.When I cook with almond extract I always add in a little bit of vanilla. This just adds a little bit of sweet into the mixture to temper the bitter almond flavor. I do not suggest leaving this part out since plain almond desserts tend to be pretty bitter. This being said, the main flavor of this cupcake is almond. It shines through over any vanilla you add.I really loved the teal and yellow combination that I came up with. However, you can use any sort of gel food coloring you may like. When you use gel food coloring it doesn’t thin your icing like if you used a liquid food coloring. I prefer to use the Wilton brand gel food colorings since they are super easy to work with.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:212]Source: Cake adapted from: Sweet! – Editors of Food Network Magazine
When I made plain chocolate cupcakes I really wasn’t sure what type of frosting I wanted to make. I eventually decided to spice the cupcakes up a bit by blending cardamom and lemon in a light buttercream. The resulting flavor combination is sweet, tart and just the perfect amount of spicy.If I had decided exactly what type of cupcakes I was going to make to begin with I would have included some cardamom in the actual cupcakes. I probably would have done a plain lemon buttercream then so as not to muddle the flavor blend too much.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:209]Source: Cake adapted from Kiss my Bundt- Chrysta Wilson
I’ve been wanting to try baking with more espresso powder and coffee since people seem to love it so much. But since I’m not really much of a coffee drinker I never know if it tastes right before I go to serve it. These though are the perfect blend of espresso, chocolate and hazelnut buttercream that really melts in your mouth.This cupcake recipe is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. It is light, fluffy and oh so delicious! When combined with some espresso powder it adds just the perfect amount of coffee flavoring to the cupcakes.The hazelnut buttercream on top is the best part about these cupcakes in my opinion. I hadn’t ever really had something with hazelnut in it that I was a fan of before this frosting. But this is one of my favorite frostings I’ve made to date. I highly suggest that you make these cupcakes just for this frosting.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:208]Source: Cake adapted from Kiss my Bundt- Chrysta Wilson
This flavor combination is divine from what I hear. I absolutely cannot stand strawberry flavor so I did not try these, but everyone who did said they were incredible. They may not be the first flavors you’d think of together but let me just tell you this definitely works.The cupcakes are light, fluffy and while they don’t actually contain any real strawberries, they use strawberry extract to achieve a full flavor. When combined with the maple cream cheese frosting it really just puts it over the top.I’ve used sliced fresh strawberries as garnish for these cupcakes. Halved strawberries, sliced strawberries or dried strawberries would all work as garnish for these though. I just really suggest using a real strawberry as garnish since there isn’t actually any in the cupcake.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:207]Source: Cake adapted from Kiss my Bundt – Chrysta Wilson
It’s not often that I forget to post something I make, but that’s what happened with this recipe. I made these for Alex’s work for his St Patrick’s day party. I actually won a prize from his office for these cupcakes, everyone absolutely raved over them. The judges did mention to Alex they thought I was “cheating” by serving them alcohol in the frosting.I started with a cupcake version of the 
I don’t know about you, but I’m so excited for summer to finally be here! I decided that in order to celebrate the official beginning of summer I needed to have a fresh, citrusy cupcake to post. These are an excellent way to celebrate summer and the beginning of warmth.I had found these 
I wanted to do something a little different for Easter this year. So I decided to make little chocolate cupcake nests. This is a really neat little baking project that is sure to impress your guests without a whole lot of time and energy investment.I doubled the measurements below intending to have two dozen cupcakes for Alex to take to work. However, I only had one bag of Cadbury eggs, so that resulted in a little over a half a dozen cupcakes ending up with green sanding sugar (or grass as I liked to think of it). I think this combination really complimented each other. It had a really light, spring feel to it when I was putting them in the storage container. If you’re only planning to make one dozen cupcakes you should have plenty of mini-eggs with just one bag.This is the absolute best chocolate frosting you will ever taste…no I’m convinced of that. I’ve found that whenever I try to make a chocolate frosting it ends up being grainy or not really tasting chocolaty enough. This is not the case with this frosting recipe though. The combination of flavors really makes the chocolate pop and it is absolutely not grainy at all.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:186]Source: Cake adapted from: Kiss my Bundt – Chrysta Wilson
Yesterday I posted some School Spirit cupcakes I had made. I thought I would give you my thoughts on working with the Wilton Sugar Sheets. I wanted to be able to create fully edible cupcake decorations and I thought these sugar sheets would be the perfect way to this.However, I found these sheets incredibly difficult to work with. Alex had to get me his X-Acto knife to cut them. After doing additional research, it seems you need to have a specific Wilton cutter in order to slice them nicely.
I also found that they had gone slightly soft a few hours after I had put them on the cupcakes. I didn’t really feel like they should have done that so quickly after I had put them on. Overall I probably won’t use these again in the future unless I have a lot of time to spare to create the toppers and I can put them on right before they are served.Overall I probably won't use these again since I can probably make better decorations from hand. I also prefer to use fruit, candied and fresh or other natural cupcake toppers instead. I would probably try to make something out of fondant before I used these sheets again.
I found out this Christmas season that Alex likes eggnog, like a lot. This surprised me because we’ve been married now for 2.5 years and together for almost 5. In all that time I never knew he loved eggnog. I didn’t even know he liked it. These cupcakes were a spur of the moment decision to make. I figured that I would combine a flavor Alex loves with cupcakes and see how it turned out.With such a divisive flavor I received mixed reviews on these cupcakes, but the general consensus was that if you like eggnog, you’ll like these. I hate eggnog flavor so I didn’t try them. However, Alex did give them high marks, especially the frosting.
I also had mixed reviews on the inclusion of the candied fruit. Some people absolutely loved it, other could have done without it. It is entirely up to you if you want to include it. The candied fruit adds another dimension to the cake so its not quite so bland. I found these in the baking section of my local grocery. They were under the fruitcake baking section. You should be able to find them at any normal sized market in the baking aisle.
Not only have I included eggnog in the cupcakes I have also created a frosting full of eggnoggy goodness. I actually did these two different ways, one was with the buttercream frosting as shown in the recipe below. The other was with an eggnog glaze that I accidentally added too much imitation rum extract to (see above photo). I got better reviews with the buttercream which is why I decided to post that version of the recipe. If you’re interested in just a simple topping you can combine small amounts of eggnog, powdered sugar and imitation rum extract to make a glaze you generously drizzle over top the cupcakes.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:158]Source: Cake adapted from 
Wow! The last week and a half have been crazy for me! I had several wonderful Christmas themed posts that I never got around to posting because I was out of town and then I got sick. But I’m back home and life is WAY less crazy and I think I may be on the mend. So here’s to regularly posting again!!!I made these cupcakes for Alex’s Holiday potluck at work a few weeks ago. I really wanted a cupcake that embraced the flavors of the season and since I’d already done peppermint I decided gingerbread was the perfect idea. I paired these cupcakes with a very plain vanilla cream cheese frosting. I didn’t want the frosting to overwhelm the cupcakes in any way.These all received overwhelmingly positive reviews! Alex said he even had trouble getting one of these, and when he did it was the last one. These would be a fantastic idea for a Christmas, Holiday or New Year’s Eve party.
[amd-yrecipe-recipe:147]Source: Adapted from 
I decided it was high time to make some Christmas flavored cupcakes. I settled on making two different types of peppermint cupcakes both with white chocolate icing. Today’s cupcakes are peppermint cupcakes with crushed peppermint candies with white chocolate peppermint buttercream.I took these to a board meeting and everyone loved them! They are chock full of lovely peppermint flavor and the buttercream on top is super light and fluffy. These cupcakes would be the absolute perfect complement to any Christmas celebration.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:146]Source: Cake adapted from Kiss my Bundt – Chrysta Wilson
