Blue Bubblegum Cupcakes

This is exciting. My daughters and I walked up to this little corner store today to get some fresh air. When we got there, my 4-year-old asked for some juice....and what was next to the juice? JONES SODA! I thought to myself, "Hmmmm. IronCupcake's challenge this month IS soda. Why not!?" So, I picked up two unusual flavors of soda and headed home.



Now, I was in search of a new recipe to use with my awesome soda finds. I came across this blogger through IronCupcake: Earth, and thought this recipe was perfect:

1/2 C sugar
1/4 C butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C soda pop

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in the soda. Pour or spoon batter into cups.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

How perfect is that? Minimal ingredients. Three steps. Perfection!


Un-iced. I baked them in the Prep Bowls from Pampered Chef - they make for GIANT cuppies! *smile*

Then, I filled them with yummy goodness:


Piled on the vanilla buttercream next:


Lastly, drizzled this dreamy blue bubblegum glaze over the top:


Here, you can see the filling inside:

*Yeah, I know, the cross-section picture is not great. I should have frozen the cupcake before even attempting this cut, but oh well. That just forced me to eat it right then*

Would you like to have a little nibble? Here ya go:


The icing recipe I used was from Gonna Go Walk the Dogs, thanks!

Vanilla Butter Cream
3/4 C margarine/butter
1 C powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Beat all ingredients until fluffy - ice or pipe onto cuppies.

For the filling, I just winged it. This is basically what I did:

handful of white chocolate chips and a splash of buttermilk into a small saucepan, melt over medium heat. Let cool completely and beat in powdered sugar to desired consistency. Fill a ziplock bag and clip the corner. Pipe into (or onto) cuppies.

The glaze recipe I got from Put a Cupcake In It, thanks!

GLAZE
4 1/2 Tsp unsalted butter
1/4 C milk
2 C powdered sugar
food coloring
*I also added a splash of the Blue Bubblegum Soda*

Put sugar in medium-size bowl, melt butter over medium heat. Remoce from heat and whisk in milk. Add to sugar and whisk together. Add food coloring (and pop) at this point. The longer you let it sit, the more hardened it becomes, so you wanna dip (or drizzle) your cuppies right away.

Check out IronCupcake for more cool cupcake stuff.
Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES, a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery,
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS ; TASTE OF HOME books, a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

Enjoy!
-Erica

Happy Birthday, Animal Crackers!

Did you know today is Barnum's Animals Crackers' birthday? I'm sure you have eaten these goodies before....but are they crackers or are they cookies? What do you think?

According to wikipedia, the way they are made makes them crackers....but the fact that it is a sweet dough makes them more like cookies.

Did you know that originally, the little box with the wheels was designed for Christmas? Yeah! The string was to hang the little box on the Christmas tree or even a house plant. I know....well, the little wheels used to be perforated at the underneath of the box so that you could pop them out and the box would stand on the wheels. How cute!?

If you would like to learn even more about Barnum's Animals Crackers, you can go here.

Have a great day....and eat some animal crackers....or are they cookies?

Enjoy!
-Erica

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Courtesy of Jenny Bakes, I have made Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. Honestly, I have never heard of such a combination before, especially for pancakes....but it sounded interesting enough for me to try it.

Now, my hubby is pretty weird when it comes to trying things that you wouldn't normally think to put together, so I have to approach him carefully with things like this. *giggle giggle* Which means, I omit the fact that there is an uncommon ingredient in the recipe. *smile*

So, I started mixing it up in the kitchen, keeping hubby at bay while I threw in the ricotta cheese.



The batter came together beautifully and it was light and fluffy. I couldn't wait to try them! They didn't really take much longer than my normal pancake recipe, so hubby didn't really suspect anything. *giggle giggle* (I know, I'm so cruel)

Now, I had some left over blueberries from that awesome scone recipe I tried the other day....so I decided to put some of them on top of the pancakes after they were finished.

Beautiful, don't you think?


Ok, so my hubby took ONE bite of them and.....

"Ooooh. Mmmmmm. Honey, what did you do? These pancakes are THE best pancakes I've ever had in my life. Fabulous."

So, naturally I start laughing....evil-like, too. Now he is curious.

We stare each other down a little, but he can't keep his fork out of those pancakes, he is still shoveling them in....even though he now knows there must be something weird in them. *giggle giggle*

Alright, well I laid it on him.

"Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. I got the recipe from this blog that I like."

"Well, keep that recipe. Can you make them again tomorrow?"

He was right, too, THE best pancakes I have ever had in my life. We didn't even add butter or very much syrup, which is very unusual for us.

Thanks Jenny for an awesome recipe! We'll be having them again....soon.

Enjoy!
-Erica

Red Velvet Cake.....almost

Continuing on my Spotlight Sunday of Brownies for Dinner, I wanted to try Patricia's Red Velvet Cake recipe. I've never made a red velvet cake before, so I was excited!

Rounded up my ingredients:


I'm off and mixing:


The recipe is SUPER easy to follow and comes together quickly. YEAH!

I decided not to do cupcakes, though, so I poured that lovely batter into my trusty-dusty (ok, so it isn't really 'dusty' - but you know what I mean) bundt pan.

A beautiful cake is in my near future, yes?

Well, no actually, it wasn't!

Did you notice in the picture above when I was rounding up my ingredients what kind of flour I grabbed? Here, look again:


Yup, that is right....I grabbed the WRONG FLOUR out of my pantry! I've never had that happen before...even with FOUR different kinds of flour in there! *blushing* Ok - so needless to say, I was disappointed.

Here is my not-so-successful turn-out:


The consistency was horrible, very greasy and it collapsed while baking...then even more so during cooling. I've never had anything stick to my silicone bundt pan before, but this did!

So, I'll be trying this recipe again.....making sure to double check (and probably triple check) which flour I'm using BEFORE beginning! *smile*

Let this be a lesson to everyone....we ALWAYS double check the flour BEFORE mixing a recipe! *tee hee*

Thanks Brownies for Dinner! I'll get it right and I'm sure it'll be fabulous!

For the complete recipe, please visit Patricia's site....it is awesome anyway.

Enjoy!
-Erica

Happy Easter!

I always loved the Holidays...all of them. But I especially love them now that I have kids. Their excitement is just awe-inspiring.

We dyed Easter eggs yesterday....3 dozen of them. Now, there are only 4 of us in the house and there is NO way that we'll eat all those eggs, but it is fun! Syndel (my 4-year-old) picked out two different egg dying kits this year (one tye-dye and one regular), so we knew that we'd need lots of eggs.

This is the first year that she really participated...and how! Ceryse isn't quite old enough to do it, but she really enjoyed watching!

Here are some shots of our eggs:


Aren't those tye-dye eggs really cool?


Syndel wrote on the eggs herself, she was so proud of herself!!!




You can see more of her fantastic writing.


I absolutely adore this shot - look at her enthusiasm - she is beaming as Dad pulls the egg out of the dye! LOVE IT!

Later they were just cuddling on the couch and I took a "spy" shot. :)


I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Enjoy!
-Erica

Sunday Spotlight: Brownies for Dinner

Happy Sunday!

I've decided that I'm going to "spotlight" one of my favorite blogs each Sunday...along with a few of their recipes that catch my eye. :)

For my first spotlight:

Brownies for Dinner

What could be better? The moment I seen the title, I knew that blog was for me! *smile* I found Patricia's blog through the Daring Bakers' blogroll. Her blog is really nice, so if you have a few minutes, go check her out.

Alright, so moving on....the first post that really caught my eye:


Blueberry Scones

They just looked so good. I knew I was going to have to try them! So, I went on searching her blog for a few other things that I wanted to try....and boy did she deliver! I'll be posting later with a couple more recipes I tried from Brownies for Dinner....so be on the lookout!



The recipe is easy to follow and has no obscure ingredients. So, it made me happy!



I cheated as well, though, and didn't separate the scones prior to baking. What I did was put them in a "round" and cut them. Then I baked them for 10 minutes, pulled them out, cut them again and then separated them. Put them back in the oven and finished baking. They turned out fabulous (I think so anyway).

My daughters had them for breakfast and totally agreed!

Thanks Patricia!

PS) You can view the recipe and try them for yourself by clicking here.

Enjoy!
-Erica

Orange Dreamsicle Cupcakes

Creamy vanilla.......sweet and tangy orange......mixed together, what could be better?

Do you remember these delicious ice cream treats? They were my favorite when I was a kid. Now, I have recreated them....in cupcake fashion!



These little drops of bliss were created for the IronCupcake: Earth challenge for April, also. I actually have a little something else up my sleeve, too. So be on the lookout for another yummy cupcake post.

Okay, so I used the same recipe from Hello, Cupcake for these babies, too. You can find the recipe here. I substituted orange extract for the vanilla in this case.

Once I had the batter mixed together, I took some out and dyed it orange (with red and yellow food coloring) so that they would look pretty. And did they ever?



From the top:


For the icing, I kept it simple (again). I like yummy but simple. *smile*


I added some food coloring to the icing as well.


Can you just taste them now? Here, take a little nibble:


I topped them with a little scoop of the Orange & Vanilla Ice Cream from UDF and then drizzled the icing over top it all. Messy, but totally delicious!


Check out IronCupcake for more cool cupcake stuff.
Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES, a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery,
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS ; TASTE OF HOME books, a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

Enjoy!
-Erica