Chocolate Strawberry Filled Cupcakes

I have seriously been waiting for strawberries to come back into season for months. Mostly because i wanted to replicate last year's experience of getting to smell cooking strawberries. Best.smell.ever. And because i am still trying to get a handle on the whole "filling" cupcakes thing.

So i set out to make some (kinda barely) Mardi Gras themed cupcakes for the usual drunken debauchery at the Evan's house.

Used the same chocolate cake recipe as last time, except i used better cocoa powder this time. Yummy Ghirardelli! I could taste the difference. You can find the recipe here.

And I used pretty gold liners. Because there is no such thing as Mardi Gras liners.

The frosting was the same as this frosting (except with the measurements halved!!!) And in case you havent noticed, i really prefer cream cheese frosting. I hate buttercream.

I used the same technique for the strawberry sauce. I cooked one carton, separated the 1/4 cup for the frosting and used the rest for the strawberry filling. I got the recipe from Wilton. But they used frozen strawberries so i had to make up my own recipe using the fresh ones i has just cooked.

So i mixed together:

1/4 cup of strawberry sauce

1 cup of water

2 table spoons of corn starch

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons of lemon

And heated them for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. It looks gross. It does. I won't lie. Once it was cooled, i added the rest of the strawberry sauce that was left over from the carton and stirred it in. YES IT LOOKS GROSS. I already said it did. But it tasted good!

I threw in the resulting 2 cups or so into a ziplock and used a piping tip to fill the cupcakes. This time around though, i made 5-6 holes in each one to get as much in as possible. It took too long, and only worked okay. I need a cupcake corer. Bad. It's on my to buy list! (Or on your list of things to buy me...)

I dyed the frosting purple, which means everyone thought they were raspberry. They weren't!

I think the most exciting part about this batch was that i finally got to use the stickers that Katie bought me for Christmas. Instead of a cupcake carrier i might have gone out and bought an actual box. =x haha. (I kinda want to buy some pink boxes to have on hand, actually...) I don't think anyone noticed it on the box once it was opened, but i did. I knew it was there!

I will admit though, i have gotten reallllllllllly lazy with the decorating in the last year. Mainly because i've been too busy concentrating on baking from scratch that the aesthetics have become secondary. Maybe once i have a handle on the standard flavors, i'll get back into it. But for now i will be lame and go back to my standard cop out of using chocolate on top of everything.

xo,

Anna

How To Tell If Your Cupcakes Are Done

Easiest sure fire way is to stick a tooth pick in it.


Obviously, if you keep your toothpicks in uber cute tooth pick holders than this task is made so much more pleasant. Like my little piggy that i found in NYC. I brought him home with me, and now he lives with my baking stuff. I kind of want to eat him. (Don't tell him though.)

I start stalking all my cupcakes around minute 15 and when they look good i stick a toothpick in the center of the cupcake. If the tooth pick comes out clean than i take them out. If the toothpick has batter in it, than i leave them be.

This is what a "clean" toothpick looks like. A few cupcake crumbs, but no wet batter to dirty the wood.

Also, in lighter colored cupcakes check for just the edges turning golden brown and pulling way from the side of the liners. They should be done then too.

xoxo,
Anna

A Very Cupcake December

December is not only Christmas, but also my Birthday month. Which means that i got lots and lots of cupcake goodies this month. I won't post every single one, but these are some of my favorites.


I cannot wait until i have my own kitchen. Real talk. It will be so ridiculously girly and pink and cupcakey. Pretty sure no male will ever want to step inside.

Yes, i have a hot pink suit case so the fact that the cupcake tag matches it only adds to the awesome.

Dainty little silver cupcake. Maybe i need to start collecting some matching earrings too?


Now this one is pretty freaking awesome. In case you can't tell what they are -- they are labels. Little circular sticker labels that can seal baking boxes closed. :)

One day maybe they will be for real. (Oh they also came with hot pink zebra cupcake liners. Extra cool!)

Also, i obviously have the best, most awesome friends who spoil me more than i deserve.

Happy New Year!

xoxo,
Anna

During Christmas My Feelings Taste Like Cookies

Well to be exact - my friends are the ones who are really tasting the cookies/feelings since i bake to give away.

I made five kinds of cookies last week.

1. Chocolate Chocolate Chip


2. Chocolate Chip Walnut


3. Sugar Cookies


4. Peanut Butter


5. Chocolate Chip Mint ( recipe #2 minus the walnuts, add 6 drops of green food coloring and mint chips)
I think my favorite were the chocolate chip walunts and the chocolate chocolate chip. Unluckily/luckily - depending on how you look at it - i didn't keep too many for myself. Maybe next year i will. Most of them got packed up in tupper wear or zip locks bags and distributed about the Bay, Philly and Wisconsin.



If you're wondering, I ended up making over 140 cookies. o.O Yeah i know. That's a lot of cookies!


I spent almost an entire day baking. Around hour three of preparing the dough, i came to the realization that the next boy in my life will have to find a girl wearing cheetah pajamas and a cupcake apron dirtied with sugar and chocolate extremely sexy. Cuz that's how I roll way too often. Feel free to pimp me out if you know of any boy (with abs) who has expressed this fetish. Thanks.

xoxo,
Anna