Time for Salted Caramel

I decided that it finally was time to step on the salted caramel bandwagon. It seems like everywhere you look people are making salted caramel everything - so I thought it was my turn, with a salted caramel frosting on a mocha brownie. For those that like Starbucks drinks - it's a dream come true.

I used a chocolate cupcake recipe and replaced some of the cocoa powder with a Starbucks Via Instant Iced Mocha Coffee packet. The cupcakes tasted like mocha, but there was no overwhelming coffee flavor for those of us who aren't fans (myself included).

The caramel frosting was really fun to make - I made a caramel sauce first and then beat powdered sugar into that. I ground some Pink Himalayan Sea Salt on top once everything was frosted. It dried hard (harder than a normal American buttercream) on the cupcakes though, so it's not necessarily something that I would want to frost an entire cake with (although maybe I would).

These were absolutely delicious and I would definitely make them again, especially the frosting. I actually still have some caramel sauce in my fridge (I had to make 2 batches of frosting and didn't need all of the second batch) - I should eat that soon.

I finally got the proper tip for piping!

Tray 1 of salty caramel-y goodness

Just look how gorgeous they are

So gorgeous :)

Ganache

Orange cupcakes with whipped chocolate ganache frosting. (I over-whipped the ganache so they're not as pretty as I would have wished). I used a vanilla cupcake recipe that I'm not overly in love with - the batter comes out very thick (because of the addition of Greek yogurt) so filling my muffin tin takes forever (not to mention I struggle to do it with the least amount of mess anyways). I added juice and zest from one orange to the cupcake mix and a splash of orange oil. Gave the cupcakes a great orange flavor.

I topped them with whipped chocolate ganache, but I over-whipped it, so I was unable to pipe it onto the cupcakes and ended up just having to frost them with a knife. Regardless, they still tasted delicious, like those chocolate oranges that the stores put out at Christmastime.

Not nearly as pretty as I wished - but delicious nonetheless

Spicy St. Patrick's Day

With family visiting in early March I had a chance to get to my favorite spice and tea shop in the city. When I was there I picked up some habanero sugar - because I can't resist something new that I've never tried before. Seriously - we have more spices than we know what to do with. I could use a whole cabinet for all our spices (and sugars...and teas).

For St. Patrick's Day, work got a treat with a kick. I made chocolate cupcakes and replaced 2 Tbsp of plain sugar with 2 Tbsp of habanero sugar. They were great. There was the chocolate flavor and then a little kick at the end. I paired them with a Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Personally, I hated the frosting - way too much butter and not enough sugar, but everyone else seemed to like it. I'll take my American buttercream any day.

(I was also super proud about how good looking the frosting came out on these)

Close up - look at that beautiful frosting detail!

My mouth is watering looking at the picture

Springtime/Easter Cupcakes

These were by far the creme de la creme of cupcakes. I was so impressed with myself over them. Nothing fancy about the cake or the frosting flavors - vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, but the devil was in the details.

I piped the frosting on to look like grass, then made haystack bird's nests and put those on top. I added three chocolate eggs to each bird's nest and voila - epic cupcakes.

Look at all that Springtime goodness

These have already been requested for Easter :)

Close up!

Chocolate and Strawberries, Oh My!

Yes I know it's months later now, but I really started this whole endeavor of bring cupcakes to work on Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day cupcakes were Chocolate Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream frosting. When my boyfriend (aka The Boy) tried them, he told me that they tasted professional, and that the strawberry frosting was really good and really unexpected. From then on I started dreaming of different combinations of cakes and frosting and my journey began.

Note: The way I judge if cupcakes/baked goods are good is how quickly they disappear from the common area at work. So far my fastest time has been 24 cupcakes in 1.5 hours.

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream
Homemade bacon chocolates in the background
Personalized cupcakes in background

Lets Give it a Shot

To start with - I have a both a BS and MS in biology. Since graduation I've worked at an animal facility, in a 3 person startup doing cell culture and bacteria work, and in a research lab at one of the most prestigious schools in the country. Unfortunately, I don't really care about any of this and I would much rather be spending my days doing crafts or baking. Luckily for the people that work in my building, I love baking. At this point, I try to bring in cupcakes every week - usually on Thursdays.

I'm looking to branch out from just cupcakes (although I've make some awesome combinations) and work on my baking techniques in general. Additionally, I'm working on improving my cake and cupcake decorating skills - so much so that for my birthday my one big request was a 177 piece cake decorating set (I could not have been more excited when I opened it).

Join me on my quest to bake my way to happiness, while using the people in my office building as willing guinea pigs.

I can't promise that it will be pretty, but it will be delicious.