Cupcakes for July

I have to confess. I have been quite negligent in taking pictures of cupcakes that have been ordered. I guess I keep on forgetting because I have been so caught in the moment of baking and finishing them that I have forgotten to document it.

This order was for an anniversary. The couple has been together for 3 years already and the girl wanted to surprise her boyfriend.

Combination of 3 flavors, Rhum with Browned Buttercream, Espresso with espress cream cheese frosting and chocolate with of course, chocolate cream cheese frosting. The chocolate have a filling inside of them to retain moisture. :)

I'm Back

I've been pretty busy this month. I haven't gotten the chance to take pictures of the cupcakes I have made or upload them. I did a lot of cupcakes, I made one with a bear face on top, some happy anniversary cupcakes, some birthday cupcakes and many more. Christmas is going to be really busy and I am kind of scared of how I am going to work at my full time job and bake at the same time. :) We shall see my time management skills.

I have been teaching our helpers how to make the cupcakes, I figured maybe when they have mastered the recipes, they can bake at home while I'm at work and I will just do the frosting. So far, everything has been going great but I am pretty worried that I will have too much on my plate and I might drop dead from exhaustion. But all is well so far... Although I am extremely sleepy right now. I slept at 11 pm last night and then woke up at 2:30 am and went back to sleep at 3:30 am and woke up at 5 to put the finishing touch on some cupcakes my friend ordered. He's planning to give it to his guests, hopefully, I'll have more orders after that. I am focusing more on the taste right now rather than the presentation. I don't have fondant moulding skills but I figured that I rather have my cupcakes looking decent but taste awesome rather than them looking awesome and the taste is so-so. :)

So anyway, my friends and I are starting a little bit of a business on the side. I need all the money I can get. We are going to sell some clothes online. Hope that works out well... I will try to upload some pictures when I have the time. I am still at work right now and I don't have my camera with me. I have been pretty happy with making cardboard toppers instead of using fondant or royal icing. Less stress on me. Hehe. :)

More Cupcakes!

More cupcake orders for me. I had to make cupcakes for two birthday parties. One was a party for a girl who loves Disney Princesses so I made her toppers using a hard board and some toothpick. :) then I addded some sugar flowers. I also made two colors of icing and just placed the blue icing on the bottom and the pink one on top and it looks sooo pretty. :) maybe I can use three colors next time. that would look interesting.

I also made some cupcakes with a fairies theme. I got pictures online and edited them so that they will have yellow, blue and pink background. I used marshmallow fondant for the small flowers and leaves. It's suppose to resemble a garden. Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting as usual. :)


Work has been quite crazy for the past few weeks. I haven't been able to bake that much recently. Hope that changes soon. :)

Nutella: I love you.

Let me tell you about my first encounter with Nutella. It is a memory forever imprinted in my brain and I always remember it every time I eat Nutella.

I was around 8 years old at that time. I was in San Diego, California shopping at Costco with my aunt and parents. Naturally, I had to explore and since my dad told me I could get whatever I wanted, I went around Costco happily. (my love affair with food started when I was really really young) With my younger brother in tow, we went around Costco looking for new junk to absorb into our bodies. While we were going around, a very nice lady called out to us asking us if we wanted a sample. She each gave us a cracker with a chocolate thingy on top. I took a bite and I was forever hooked. I wanted more but she wouldn't give us after 3 crackers. I had to ask our nanny to get for us but she only got 2. There started my obsession with Nutella.

Here are yummy Nutella cupcakes. The cupcakes have a hint of Nutella, that wonderful chocolatey nutty and buttery taste. Topped with luscious creamy Nutella vanilla buttercream frosting and a little bit of chocolate chips to add some crunch. I also added gold Dragées for added contrast and I think it makes a very pretty and delicious cupcake. :)

Enjoy.

Hello Kitty on Fondant

It was my first time to make marshmallow fondant and I have to say that I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I used a flower cutter and the center of my Hello Kitty cookie cutter to make the face. I then used gold and pink luster dust (use vodka to make the dust stick to the fondant) and this is how it looks after. Aren't they adorable? It was actually quite tough to make the marshmallow fondant. It was a sticky mess and I almost lost hope because I thought that it would never into a dough-y consistency... But I persevered and I got the consistency to my liking.


To make marshmallow fondant, I melted around 16 large marshmallows (most recipes use mini ones but I couldn't find any) added 1 and a half tablespoons of water and microwaved it. Once the marshmallow were puffed up and sticky, I started stirring it adding 1.5 cups of powdered sugar gradually. You can add more if the fondant is still sticky. OH OH. I forgot, you always have to grease everything. I used crisco to grease the bowl and my hands. Knead the marshmallow mixture until you get the consistency you like to work with. :)


So, here are the pink Hello Kitty cupcakes. They are moist chocolate cupcakes with chocolate filling and a chocolate cream cheese frosting. :) I had a hard time making the icing black as I didn't have any black food coloring around the house. I just mixed a lot of blue food coloring in, with a bit of red and a bit of yellow. The icing is still a bit grayish but that's the best I can do and I think it still looks quite wonderful.


Also, always remember that fondant should not be refrigerated as it can affect the texture and it would be weird to mold. Once you have decorated it on top of the cupcake, it is possible to put it in the fridge and actually, living in a tropical country, we have no choice but to put it in the fridge as the frosting would melt and it would look even more horrible. Best thing to do, decorate your cupcakes at the last possible minute to avoid it looking weird.

Speaking of which. My Superman cupcakes have started to bleed. I shouldn't have placed them on top of the frosting just yet... people are going to eat it anyway so I don't feel as bad. The red icing sort of bled into the yellow. It kinda looks a bit weird but I could say that it's an effect or something. It doesn't look super bad but I am still sad because it bled. Hehe. Lesson learned. At least it is something I shall remember next time I have another project.

Superman Cupcakes: A Challenge

When my boyfriend's sister asked me to make her Superman cupcakes, I had to rack my brain on how to execute it. See, I have never made my own topper ever before. I used fondant before, but that was store bought and it tasted horrible. So, I did my research and decided to use harden royal icing as the topper.

Usually, royal icing is piped unto parchment paper, and I didn't have any at home and I had no time to buy since I had to let them dry overnight. So, I used the next possible solution, I used acetate. Yep, the normal overhead projector acetate I had in my drawer from college. Don't worry. I washed it well before I used. I made the royal icing using egg whites. I researched thoroughly on the safety of using raw egg whites and I have decided to use meringue powder next time. I think these are okay since I ate one and I am still feeling well.

So, I printed a small image of Superman's logo, made red and yellow royal icing and as you can see, they look pretty okay. :) I let them dry overnight.

What amazed me the most was how easy it was to peel the logos off! Acetate was a great substitute for parchment. Of course you can't bake with acetate, that would be stupid, but I guess for icing purposes, it is perfect!

I was extremely excited by how they turned out. Of course, I think I need more practice in the piping department as my hands were a tad bit shaky during piping. I have to say, piping is hard work especially if you have to do a lot of the same designs. :) I am looking forward to the tons of designs I can make with this new found knowledge. Think of all the possibilities.. Anyway, I piped blue icing on top of moist chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache inside. Topped them with the logos and it's done! I present to you, my first SUPERMAN cupcakes! :) Enjoy.

Oh Sweet Caramel

I am huge fan of caramel. Nothing is better than this rich, buttery, sticky, sweet and salty goo on top of my vanilla ice cream. I would always order the caramel sundae from McDonald's while most people usually get the chocolate fudge. Anyway, since I love it so much, why not add it to my roster of cupcakes?

This caramel cupcake is delish. I did the whole caramelizing the sugar in a saucepan waiting for it to turn into a deep amber color. I use that to flavor the cupcake, reducing the sugar of a normal vanilla cupcake recipe and replacing it with the pure caramel syrup I made.

For the frosting, I just used brown buttercream, perfect pairing to the caramel flavor. What I did was I browned the butter and then I waited for it to cool a bit, placed it in the fridge for several hours, the caramel I just left in room temperature. After a few hours, once the browned butter is hard again, I creamed it in the mixer, topped it with caramel syrup and then a bit of powdered sugar and you have heaven. :)

Speaking of which, I am not allowed to eat anything, sweet, spicing, salty or basically anything with flavor for a few days. It might aggravate my throat and I wouldn't want that. Good news though, my cough is not as bad and my cold is practically gone. Horay for full recovery. :)

Coffee and Me

I love coffee. I love the smell, the feeling when you drink it and the warmth beneath my fingers as I clutch my cup. Too bad I can't enjoy all kinds of coffee to the fullest since I get jittery when I drink the smallest dose of caffeine. Thank God for decaf. :) But of course, I still love my coffee, so I had to find a way to satisfy that craving without the full effect of caffeine.

Enter espresso cupcakes. What I had in mind for this cupcake was something very similar to Tiramisu, I dessert which I just adore. A spongey coffee cake, soaked with a little bit of Kahlua or Rhum added to sweetened espresso, topped with a tangy cream cheese and shaved chocolate, chocolate chips or dusted with cocoa powder and I am in heaven. Yum. Nothing beats that to perk you up when you're feeling sluggish. Like how I am feeling today.

I am still feeling a little bit floozy from all the medicine I have ingested in a span of 24 hours. I am still trying to beat out this cold and cough and my abs are all worked out from coughing. My muscles are kind of sore. This proves the amount of exercise I have been having. The smallest movement to my muscles have made them sore. Haha. It is a wonder that my muscles have not atrophied from disuse. :)

Vanilla in Manila

Vanilla.

The 2nd most expensive spice in the world. (Second to saffron, of course) Vanilla Beans are magical when added to baked goods. They just exude pure flavor that just makes everything taste.. right. During my first few months of baking, I was tortured over the fact that I could hardly find any vanilla beans in the city. Also, pure vanilla extract was also something very pricey and was only available in specialty food stores like Gourdo's or Santi's.

After a few months of searching, I found said Vanilla Beans Pods through multiply. Vanilla Philippines (you can search them by logging on to multiply) they sold vanilla beans by the bulk, and at a very low price. Each pod costs around 50 pesos if I remember correctly, which is a far cry from the 180-250 pesos per pod that were available in the market. There, started my journey in creating my own vanilla extract which I now use regularly. It was torture for me to wait for the extract to ripen, but now I have enough extract to last me for months at a very low cost. You can try googling on how to make your own vanilla extract. It is actually very simple, and oh so worth it.

Featured in this post are my vanilla cupcakes. I used vanilla beans for this (though you cant see the specks of seeds). These are the mother of all the cupcakes I make since they are the base for everything. I also had a hard time piping the icing on that. I am an amateur piper. I wanted to make roses on top, but I still have to practice. :)

Green Tea Cupcake

The most important thing I learned in making cupcakes is this: you got to have the best vanilla cupcake recipe, and you can transform that into anything you want it to be. I forgot which TV show I heard this from.. and I have to say that it is quite true.

Take this Green Tea cupcake. I just added a few teaspoons of Matcha powder and voila! I had yummy cupcakes with a hint of green tea flavor. The secret is using a really good powder. I bought mine from Konbini in Greenhills (is that the name?) It is a special Japanese food store and you can get all sorts of Japanese ingredients there. I even saw the Green Tea Kitkat.

Which reminds me, I think I need a new camera. The cupcake shots that are really nice were taken by either my boyfriend or boyfriend's dad who has a very nice SLR camera. Then we just did a bit of minor editing in Photoshop (which is the best darn software in the world!) But on cupcake orders, I just use my obsolete ixus camera with 4.0 megapixels. :)