Sheridans Cupcakes

Sheridan's is a uniquely bottled liqueur consisting of two separate sections, separated by glass, but fused together. One section is filled with a black liqueur, consisting of coffee and whiskey flavors, the other is filled with a white liqueur of milk white chocolate.

Sounds good? It is! If you haven't tried it you definitely should!
We don't have any alcohol on my house, except wine and Sherindan's...
We like it so much that I decided to make it a cupcake, and let me tell you it was delicious! The coffee liqueur gives this cupcakes a very special taste, not to strong , balanced with the white part of the frosting. A very adult dessert to enjoy like a kid!

To make the cupcakes you will need:

2 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of very strong coffee , cold.
1/4 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of the black part of your Sheridan's ( if you don't have any, you can use any coffee liqueur, like Kahlua)
3/4 cup of butter at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs


Procedure:

Preheat your oven at 350. Prepare your muffin liners.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
On a cup mix together the coffee, milk and the coffee liqueur.
On your mixer beat the butter and the sugar for 5 min. Or until creamy light texture. Add the eggs, one by one. Waiting for one egg to incorporate fully to add the next one. Add the dry mix, then the coffee mix, beat just until all the ingredients are icorporated.
Fill the liners 3/4 and bake for 20 min. Or until the toothpick come out clean.

For the Sherindans frosting I made two, one out of the white part and one out of the black part. If you are using any other coffee liqueur feel free to use all the ingredients of the two frostings together but adding five tablespoons or six of your liqueur, and add more icing sugar to achieve the desired consistency.

For the white part of the frosting you will need:

6 onz. Of cream cheese at room temperature
3 onz. Butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons condensed milk
1 tablespoon of the white part of the Sheridan's.
1 1/2 or 2 cups icing sugar

Cream first the butter and the cream cheese , then add the liqueur and the condensed milk. Mix well. And add the icing sugar little by little.

For the coffee part of the frosting:

7 onz. Cream cheese room temperature
2 onz. Butter room temperature
3 tablespoons of the black part of the liqueur. Or four if you want a more powerful flavour.
1/2 teaspoon of coffee ( NOT the instant one)
1 1/2 or 2 cups icing sugar.
Brown food colorant

The procedure is the same. Cream the butter and the cream cheese until you cant tell them apart. Add the liqueur and the coffee. Mix well. And then little by little and in a low speed add the icing sugar.
Color brown.

I added the colorant to give the same effect as the Sheridans, feel free to omit this if you want.

And here it is! A wow recipe that everyone will love!
I really hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

I will keep baking, even if my two little helpers are on vacations and dancing all around the house! My little one is walking now! I am sooo proud of her! But keeping her safe is a full time job now!

Also, I will be working with royal icing for the first time! So cross your fingers for me and expect a lot of pictures!

Coconut and white chocolate cupcakes

    So easy to make! and so delicious, this is one of my favorite recipes. Everyone loves coconut and white chocolate. The combination of both make this cupcakes crazy good!. And what if I tell you I used a cake mix box to make them? These are perfect to shine at any get together or event.

Today is my birthday!. I have to confess that each year gets harder and harder to fully understand just how old I am... I remember when my mother was my age!
I have the same friends that I had at 6 , I still hang out with my college friends, everything remains the same, except is not, we are not six or 19, we are all mothers and wifes, my eyes are different, my body carries the scars of my pregnancies, is wider, softer. I dont like to party anymore, I rather have a good dinner with good company. I love my family more than I love myself. All my money is for them, I dont care anymore if I have fancy clothes, or the latest handbag, I am all grown up and my strength is not in myself anymore, my strengh, my force, comes from my husband, my mother, my little ones. I feel stronger and wiser, but I am more afraid now, because now I am not alone.

And, to celebrate, a friend of mine came to my house and gave me a present, she came without warning  and I allways like to offer something to my guests, when I saw her on my porch I ran to my kitchen , made a list of ingredients and made her these.

If you want to make them too, you will need: (yields 12 to 15 cupcakes)

• A white cake mix. ( my favorite is Duncan Hines)
• The number of eggs that your box requires.
• The amount of oil that your box requires.
• 1/2 cup whole milk.
• 1/2 cup coconut flavored yogurt.
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut ( unsweetened).

Just mix all the ingedients together, fill your cupcake liners and bake as directed on the box!

They are that easy!

For the White Chocolate Frosting:

• 7 oz white chocolate for baking, chopped. 
• 8 oz ( 250 gr) softened cream cheese.
• 1/4 cup ( 50 ml.) softened butter
• 1/ 2 tsp ( 2 ml.) vanilla 
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Melt the white chocolate on the microwave making 30 second intervals , stirring it every interval. Let the chocolate cool a little. Meanwhile, on your mixer cream butter and cream cheese until uniform in color and texture. Then add the chocolate and vanilla, mix until well blended. Slowly add the powdered sugar, beat well. 

This is my absolute favorite frosting ever! I don´t lie, I love it! I could eat it with a spoon directly from the bowl ( well, in fact I do that) . I found this amazing recipe on the  Pampered Chef . I just use more powdered sugar to make it thick and I use 1 oz. more of white chocolte so the sugar wont drown the flavor. This recipe makes white chocolate cupcakes too! and they are good, but they require inserting white chocolate truffles. Yumy! right? But I found that all that white chocolate on one bite can be to much for some people (well, most people) so I like to keep it a little less sweet. ( just a little! haha)

I used a 2E noozle to pipe them and added just a dash of edible golden glitter to make them special. 

Happy Birthday to me! 

If you want to make this with the glitter , this is how I made them:

Once you have the noozle on your piping bag, open your piping bag as opened as you can , and with the help  of a spoon, put some frosting on just one side in a very thin line, start the closest to the noozle as you can and continue your frosting line to the top of your piping bag, stop when you reach the middle or a little more. then grab with your fingers your edible glitter and let it go on the line (just like a glue and glitter DIY proyect) trying to stick as many glitter as you can to your frosting line. Stand your piping bag on top of a plate because all the non sticked glitter is going to fall!, then fill your piping bag as usual and pipe as desired. 

The best vegan coconut frosting recipe

Creamy, rich in flavour and texture, this frosting is a delight that will enhance any cupcake or cake. If you are vegan you will love this! And if you are not, you will love this too!

My husband is my toughest critic, he allways give me a straight opinion, and he was blown away by this! I also had the fortune to share my creations with a very popular vegan coffee shop owner and she praised my cupakes a lot! She wanted to buy them for her clients!

I've been busy creating splendid vegan cupcakes for this vegan coffee shop. I felt like a mad scientist making all this experiments, taking notes, testing the product and everything a good baker is required to do... I am exausted but joyful
to share all my "findings" with you...

So here it is: The best coconut frosting ever! For the vegan and the non vegan too!
A little warning here: the coconut will make hard the task of piping, I spread it on my cupcakes, but if you wish to do a more fancy piping I would recomend you put the coconut on the food processor until the consistency is very very fine... maybe that could help. When you taste it you will not care at all that you can't pipe coconut roses!

Ingredients you will need: yields 12 cupcakes depending on your piping

One stick of good quality margarine at room temperature
3 tablespoons of coconut milk ( or a little more to thin the consistency)
2 cups icing sugar
7 onz. Unsweetened shreded coconut
1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

Procedure:

Start by beating your margarine until light and creamy.
At a low speed add the coconut and beat well. At this point use the vanilla and the coconut milk to thin your mixture, mix well.
Then, at the lowest speed of your mixer add the icing sugar one spoon at a time so you won't end up with a sugar cloud on your kitchen, until firm. If you think the mixture is very very thick add coconut milk one teaspoon at a time. If you feel the mixture is too soft abd runny, add some more icing sugar one tablespoon at a time.
Spread on cupcakes or cake and enjoy the party in your mouth! Hahaha.

Once my cupcakes were frosted I added some more coconut on the top, just to make them pretty, you can add grated white chocolate ( if you don't care much for the vegan twist) or any other yummy ingredient you can think of!

What do you think? If you are making this please let me know if you liked it as much as I did!
Share your ideas to improve this! ( if you can) remember I want to make the best vegan cupcakes to share with all of you!

In the next posts I will be sharing more of my vegan creations... And non vegan too!

Snow White Cake Pops

Every mom on the face of this earth knows that when it comes to movies and children there is no such thing as "watching it once". Especially when your little one is 3 and the movie is Snow White.
My little helper decided she wanted to see Snow white , and then decided she wanted to see it again, and the day after she asked me to put the video one more time. All week long I watched Snow White
even when my daughter was not in the t.v room she cried when I turned it of...
I caught myself singing Heigh Ho in the shower, and in my car, whistling it in the morning and before I went to bed.

All this Snow White and the seven dwarfs inspired me to make this cake pops... I think they came out great!

My favorite is the witch , and the evil queen, well , Snow White is so cute too! 

Evil Queens crown is made of fondant and the witch cape too, I used a mini marshmallow as Evil Queens neck . Underneath the witches cape, there is a kiss chocolate, a sweet surprise that also 

gives that pointy shape for the cape.

Hey! I know I am not Bakerella, but I am very pleased with these! Besides, I made them with coffee cupcakes I made the other day and they tasted sooo good! ( wait for the coffee cupcake recipe) 

The best part is  my daughters reaction, She just cant believe her mother did that! her eyes light up and cant wait to try them. This time she was beside me while I took the pictures the whole time praising my cake pops!

´

Are your kids your biggest fans? The feeling is the best!

I can´t wait to have a Snow White party , there are so many good ideas for one ! and these cake pops are original and beautiful. 

Vegan Double Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

   Full of taste and perfect vegan chocolate cupcakes with a simple and basic recipe.
 
 I know, a vegan cupcake will never taste like a butter , egg, milk , buttermilk cupcake... If you agree , you havent tried this recipe yet.
A month ago I couldnt make any acceptable chocolate cupcakes , and now I am making vegan chocolate cupcakes... who knew!?

My cousin asked me to make her some cupcakes , ( another bride and groom  cupcake batch!) but she wanted them vegan. I didnt make her any promises. I needed to find the best vegan recipe I could find, and I did! Now I will share it with you.

The original recipe was from Chow, the frosting recipe I did it on my own just from reading other recipes... sorry I don´t have a link for the original recipe, I promise I will find it for you later.

Note: Very very important! Do not try them the first hour... seriously! dont! In fact, make them a day or two before you serve them... they come out super pasty. Glue to your mouth, teeth and throat kind of pasty, I almost cried when I tasted them... they looked so beautiful! I then tasted them the day after, and they were much better, and the third day they were superbe! moist but firm and full of chocolate flavour.
I did some changes from the original recipe, I used coconut milk instead of soy milk and other little changes. But here it is a vegan recipe that will satisfy the need of chocolate of everyone; even the non vegan will love them!

You will need:

For the cupcakes: ( yields 12 cupcakes)

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cocoa powder ( I used Hershey´s)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.

For the chocolate frosting:

• 1 stick good cuality margarine ( room temperature)
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut milk 
• 3/ 4 cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make them:

In a large bowl mix the coconut milk with the vinegar and let it curdle while you take out your other  ingredients and do the rest of the recipe.

Preheat your oven to 350º and prepare your tin with the muffin liners.

Use a bowl to sift together  the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda , baking powder and salt . 

Now add the vanilla, sugar and oil to the coconut bowl and using a handheld mixer mix them together until very well blended. 

Add half  of the dry ingredients, mix for a minute, then add the other half, mix until there are no lumps. 

Fill your liners 3/4 and bake them from 18 to 22 minutes, or until your toothpick on the center comes out clean . Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes, then transfer them to the cooling rack until they cooled completly. 

Now comes the hard part... put them in a container without putting them one on top of the other and wait for a day, or two. ( I stored them on my mini oven)

Make the frosting minutes before you serve them, or it will get to hard to pipe. 

To make the frosting use a stand up mixer and beat the margarine until smooth, then add the icing sugar little by little. By the end you will have a lumpy horrible looking frosting, not to worry, keep on beating, add the milk, mix it a little using a spatula, with your hand, then add the cocoa, mix it a little by hand , add the vanilla and beat again with the mixer on a medium speed until all ingredients are combined. Is it too thick? add some more coconut milk ( a teaspoon will do it) is it to runny? add some more icing sugar... Enjoy!

 A big standing ovation for all you vegans out there!!! Who said you don´t enjoy your food? 

Next time make them these cupcakes and shut them up!

Clown Cupcakes

  My best friend´s little boy is celebrating his first birthday today!. So my friend asked me to make some cupcakes for the special occasion.
Trepsi cupcakes! Who is Trepsi you ask? He is a very well known little clown here in Mexico that little babies love!! My 3 year old still sings Trepsi songs, and his fiend musi.
These were a challenge , being the first one ever, making this Trepsi cupcakes. But they were so much fun to make!. I think that all the planning and creativity you need to create a new cake is my favorite part of the whole decorating cakes thing.
Besides! I am getting a little bit bored with the bride and groom cupcakes that by the way I made more yesterday for another event! They are a total hit! and I am grateful to them because they had given me a lot of work, but they are not longer fun! So planing how to do this cute clown and his bird friend Musi was a breeze of fresh air in my kitchen! hahaha

I am proud to present Trepsi and his friend Musi...

cute right? , they have a baby gym that is totally famous where I live... 

and... these are my cupcakes! 

They are made out of fondant, the nose is a mini m&m. The cupcakes are banana with chocolate chips and turned out delicious!!!

These are the Musi cupcakes... I was planning doing them different, but my friend wanted them like this, I think they were cute too!

                       Made out of caramel frosting, with eyes and beak of fondant... To cute to eat!!!

So... of all this cake, cupcake , cake pop making... which part is your favorite part?

Do you mind doing the same cupcakes over and over ? or you enjoy the challenge?

Cupcake Presentation ... taking it to the next level

What a week Ive had! I felt on an episode writen by Shonda Rhymes! (Grey´s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice), My husband was mugged, thanks to God he is ok. , but the thieves punched him on the face.  Then he crashed his car, then he crashed mine! Now we have no cars, and the moral of the family is down. And the cherry on the top of the cake... Mexico had an earthquake! we normally don´t feel anything because we live on a house, but when we felt the earth shake beneath us we were very scared! All this things in a week or so!. The bright side? we are fine, all this bad things happened and we are perfectly fine ( my husbands cheek cant say the same) but we are ok.

  I needed a distraction, something good , and it came !
 A client called me, she needed 60 mini cupcakes, 30 vanilla brides, 30 chocolate grooms for her brother´s wedding event, she needed them wrapped individually and to take them in something acceptable for the event ( bye bye cardboard boxes), also, she wanted to take them to the event by herself ( so bye bye typical tray or they would fall ) ...

This meant Making 60 cupcakes in two days, no car to use if something bad happened (like I ran out of oil, which I did) with no help, and to make her something pretty ... My answer? Challenge accepted!

I baked the cupcakes the day before.. And disaster! They were huge! But I had no way of doing them again... So I prayed to have a good looking, great tasting product and kept working... I had to think of an idea to make the cupcake presentation, and my husband pointed me to an old basket on top the fridge .. How about that? ... Literally I could hear the bells and the haleluya on my head! I had some black fabric much like silk from my DIY days and felt. I covered the basket first with the felt using a silicone gun, then I covered it with the black fabric... Asked my hubby to bring me white ribbon and a white bow that I also atached using the gun. I barely made them on time but they were beautiful and I was very very pleased with them .

Part of the appeal of the cupcake is that they are beautiful, and in my opinion the presentation is part of that, the cupcake first enter the eye and then please the mouth. To make a good display all you need is imagination ( and a husband like mine, haha) , the possibilities are endless!

How do you think you could have done it?
How do you display your cupcakes? Please share ideas!

Brownie Bites Recipe

Everyone loves brownies! Specialy if they are bite size so they make you keep wanting more... I made this for my husband, this recipe is so easy, even my little helper could do her job!

I know being a father is not easy, to allways have the well being of the family on your shoulders. I am very lucky to have a strong man beside me so we could raise our daughters together . This recipe is to endulge the men in our life who make it easier and so much better!. To my other half and the father of my children! I love you!

I only wanted to make 12 mini brownies, with a card that read; a sweet treat for a sweet man... I found this recipe on Health and it worked just fine. But if I ever do them again I will increase the chocolate amount ( just a bit) and put a little less cocoa. Here is the link to the recipe:

Health mini brownie bites recipe

And here are some pictures...

Happy Father's Day!

I made this cute little hearts out of icing sugar, but feel free to top them with pecans, coconut or what ever your heart desires!. Enjoy!

Make any store bought cake your own...

This time I want to share with you my very first attempt of making a cake with chocolate figures..

Ok. So today I cheated, I didn't had the time to make the cake I was planning for my daughter's first birthday, so I went to the bakery, chose a simple cake and added a few things I had for the cake I was planning... Hurray!!! Beautiful and special cake for my little helper's birthday...

The first birthday is a very special day!,  A unique little person is starting to show on that angel face and chubby cheeks. I wanted with all my heart to make her a very special cake, I thought Sesame Street would be an easy and cute first birthday theme. So I started on sunday, making modeling chocolate... 

Finding the right recipe is so hard!!! this time , I used candy melts and followed a pretty standar recipe... the result was a rock hard chocolate  that I had to microwave to start using, but hey! I could use it! not so bad for me! I made my rice Kispies figures ...

and I tried to make the figure...

I don´t know if you can see that I tried to make like fur with a toothpick... huge mistake! I didn´t like the overall efect but my hubbie liked it so I left it that way.

And that´s it! I had no more time to make more figures, no time to bake, and had no money for fondant... But I allready had the cookie monster figure, so I decided to buy a cake and make it my own ...I was very pleased with the results. 

It is the first time I made modeling chocolate, the first time to make any figure using rice krispies, and my first time making any modeling chocolate figures! 

What do you think? Be kind! Modeling chocolate is Not Easy!

If you ever find yourself in a situation like mine, don´t hesitate and run to buy a cake, and then make it your own! it can be with fondant, candy melts, modeling chocolate... the limit is your imagination! Even if you didn´t bake the cake, it will have a personal touch and everyone will enjoy it.

I leave you with the picture of my angel with her cake! It is allways a great pleasure to see your little ones grow... I am so proud of my two daughters!

Yes, she has a tiara! it was her birthday! So give me a break!

Tips for making the perfect cake pops

  Making cake pops... piece of cake, right?.
You go ahead and by your candy melts, make your cake balls, dip them in your melted chocolate, and then, before you could even show them to your family,  they are on the floor, or leaking, or cracked... you try to figure out what happened... Go on line and read all you can about them, you did everything like you were supposed to.. or not?
I  have made cake pops for a while now and have learned a lot from my mistakes, so hopefully if you read this you can learn from my mistakes too.
Here are some great tips too if you are making characters cake pops, those are my favorites!

1. If you are making characters , make sure to be inspired by a toy or a tree dimensional figure, not a drawing, this way is easier (trust me) to figure out the details of the character in question. My secret are bubble heads!, yes! they have the perfect shape to study the face you want to make.

2. While making your cake balls , make sure to press firmly enough the cake portion before you make the ball, press , press , press , each time with less presure, then make your ball as you are used to. This will help to blend even better the frosting with the cake, and make your cake pops stronger.

3. Keep it simple, in an attempt to make the perfect cake pop, you can come with an idea that requires a lot of candy, or fondant, or what ever... don´t. keep them as simple as you can , and if you do them correctly, they will look awsome without all that candy on them. Try to shape the cake ball instead of adding candy... that take us to number 4...

4. Use cookie cutters or even your fingers to achieve the desired shape.  Be creative, for instance.. to make the swiper shape, I used a nozzle.. and then reshaped them with my hands.

5. If your shape is a little fragile make sure to dab the cake pops with melted chocolate before you insert your lollipop sticks. I made this with the flounders noses, and the swipers muzzles. using a toothpick and very little candy melt I dabbed to prevent future cracking or melting or other calamity. This is good too, if your cake balls have cracks, just dabb some candy melt in the cracks and leave it to dry completely before you insert the stick in them.

6. Leave them on the fridge for a while. If you allways leave them 30 min. , this time leave them 50. Specially if you are making characters cake pops.

7. This is very very important to prevent candy melt cracking and oil leaking!!! ... You left your cake pops for 50 min on the fridge, now take them out and leave them 30 min. at room temperature before making anything to them!. When 30 min. have passed, then you can dabbed them , and then you can insert your lollipop sticks.  When your cake balls are "warming up" they expand, if you dip them to soon in candy melt they will keep expanding and will crack your beautiful candy melt coating.

8. Tap Tap Tap, and then tap some more. While dipping your cake pops, give them some tough love. They are much stronger than you think! ( and if they are not, then they were going to crack anyway)
tap them to prevent air bubbles that may cause oil leaking and cracking. if you spot one bubble who refuse to go by taping, just poke it with a tooth pick, then tap some more to make the imperfection go away. Tap tap tap your way to perfect beautiful cake pops!


This is what I learned , when I do not follow these steps the results are allways bad.  It works for me and now I hope it works for you!  Don´t doubt to show me your new and perfect cake pops! Please share them with me!

I leave you here pictures of my cake pops... ( my blog is new so I don´t have much)

Dora the Explorer birthday party

    After days of hard work, my little helpers thirth birthday party is finally over! And I am very proud to tell you it was a succes!. All the kids had a huge smile on their faces all of the time, everyone enjoyed the cupcakes and food, and my table Dora the Explorer style looked very pretty.

Latlety all the birthday parties look amazing, is like a competition between us moms to win the best party prize. I blame pinterest, with all that mouthwatering images and those DIY projects.
Well,  here are some pictures if you want some inspiration, here is what I did...

Backpack cupcakes are chocolate with cream cheese frosting , and boots cupcakes are banana cupcakes with caramel frosting, I do not have many pictures because they went pretty fast.

swiper cake pops... a total hit! I am very proud of myself for these.

I saw on pinterest the idea of painting mozarella cheese strings like maps, and I put them in the backpack toy.

they were so much fun to make!

We even had a Dora Show!

and how could we forget the cake?

It was hard work and a very stresful week, but when I saw the look in my daughters face and the rest of the children, it was all worth it! I can´t wait to next year!

Banana mini cupcakes and caramel frosting recipe

   Today I will share with you one of my greatest recipes ever... my recipe for banana mini cupcakes and caramel frosting. Every time I make them I get compliments and great reviews. So if you are in a sweet tooth mood or want to make delicious mini cupcakes for a party, look no further , this recipe is for you!.

So easy and tasty you will want to bake every party you have!

I made this today for my daughter´s birthday party and the were very popular...

Yes, I made boots cupcakes too and backpack cupcakes, but that is another blog... Yummy right?

Recipe for Banana Minicupcakes:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour.
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.
• 1/2 teaspoon  baking soda.
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
• pintch of salt.
• 1 and 1/2 riped bananas mashed.
• 1/3 cup white sugar.
• 1/2 egg previously beaten by you with a fork. (just mix the whole egg in a cup and then keep the half, and beat with a fork for a bit)
• 1/2 oz. unsalted butter at room temperature

Procedure:

Preheat your oven 350º . Prepare your liners in your tray. 

In a medium bowl sieve your flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, add salt. 

Cream the butter and bananas together (if your butter was not soft enought beat it first, then add the bananas) , add the sugar, keep beating at medium speed, then add the egg (or half of it).

Stop, and at slow speed , little by little add your flour mix. just keep mixing until all is well blended.

You will have a very thick mix. Not to worry, perfectly normal, you are 10 minutes away from perfect minicupcakes!

Fill your liners 1/3 , 1/2.  Bake for 8 to 13 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. 

In my oven they were ready at 12 minutes. 

Caramel Frosting:

• 1 oz. butter room temperature, almost melting
• 2 oz. cream cheese
• 3 table spoons of caramel, I used smuckers, but you can make your own or use what you know.
• 2 cups sieved icing sugar
• milk ( just use a teaspoon if you think the frosting is too thick for you) I like it very thick.

Beat the butter on a medium speed for 1 minute, then add the cream cheese, beat until they are perfectly blended and can´t tell them apart. Add the caramel, then at a very slow speed add your sugar , one spoonfull at a time until blended. If you think is very thick, add the teaspoon of milk.

And this is it! pipe away the way you like and use anything you like to make them pretty. I drizzled them with more caramel and use a banana chip. 

Enjoy the compliments and remember me when you do. 

Is the cupcake dead?

Yesterday I read an article from the Seaway News claiming the cupcakes are death.
And I quote:
"I can't say I'm astonished. The cupcake craze had 'passing fad a la Hula Hoop' written all over it from the time the first shops opened back in the early years of the millennium. Imagine: a phenomenon that owed its existence to a single episode of the TV soap opera Sex and the City which happened to feature a cupcake shop. Talk about a flimsy foundation. "

It made me think a little of the cupcake status here in Mexico, (as I cant speak for other cities) yes, once upon a time there were cupcake shops as starbucks... In other words, we had a lot of cupcake shops!
But then, one by one began closing their doors, now I only know of two shops that survived... But, is the cupcake dead?
I dont think so.

In my experience and opinion, making cupakes is not economic, in fact, is very expensive, if you add the cost of renting a place, and the cost of helpers for the shop the prices skyrocketed... The average cupcake cost in a store went as hi as 4$ ( without any embelisments)
In mexico, 4 dollars the cupcake is pretty hi , so the people only ate them at special ocations, forcing the shops to low the cuality of their profuct to keep making a profit, that lead to insatisfied costumers
That lead to closed shops.

But closed cupcake shops does not mean the cupcake is dying! I keep seeing them everywhere! At showers, children parties , and other events. It just changed the way people buy cupcakes. In order to make a delicious cupcake made with hi quality products , the cupcake has to be home made.

The cupcake is not death, and all the people on this communities are living proof!
They are delicious , the perfect size, and make the perfect decoration for events.
Versatile and cute as they are I hope they never die!!

I leave you the link to the article here if you want to read it too and share your opinion.

Seaway News

Birthday Cake

Today is a very special day... Today my little helper turns 3!
I am very excited and grateful to life for having such a beautiful inteligent and loving daughter. 3 years of challenges , sleepless nights and constant worries.
3 years of putting up with everyones advice and opinion, even the advice of random people on the supermarket!
Many days of second guessing myself as a mom, not knowing what I am doing, but doing it from a place of love, even the yelling ( thats what I say to myself). Being a mom of two has not being easy, no one prepares you for what is yet to come, but no one prepares you either for the love.
3 years ago my heart grew in many ways, I can now find joy in my childs eyes, smile, laughter. I opened to a hole new sistem of believes, where old fashioned values have their place, where my mom is my superhero and all the other moms out there giving the best they have.
Now when I see a kid making a tantrum at the mall I smile, and pray to not be the next one.
3 wonderfull years!
Ok I will stop for now, and start with the cake bussines...

Next week my little helper is having her party, and of course I am making cupcakes and cake pops for her Dora Themed bash! ( expect photos, many of them)
I needed purple frosting for Doras backpack cupcakes, and not being a fan of colorant I thought blackberry icing would be perfect and delicious.
Of course I had to try it first, so I made this chocolate nutella cake and frosted with my new recipe. I know the design is not the most original but it is beautiful and I like it! And because I am allways doing cupcakes this is the perfect excuse to try it myself . So here it is: my daughters bithday cake!

I didn't had any fondant for the butterflies so I used candy melts . I ran out of frosting before I could finish. Also turns out that the wilton 2C tip dont make roses as the wilton 2D .... But who cares! the taste with the blackberry frosting and the nutella was out of this world!

Soccer Cupcakes

  Ok. so, in my country, Mexico, soccer is a big deal. Every little boy dream of becoming a professional soccer player. Sundays are sacred for those who love this sport.
Thinking of them , and in my husband, who loves soccer too, I made these cupcakes.
Father´s day is comming soon and I want to make many for my father in law.

They are vanilla cupcakes, with vanilla buttercream. The down side is that I had to use many food colorant to make the grass so green, and I am not a fan of food colorant.
With many patience I did the grass. The ball is fondant.  Even my little helpers liked them!

I think they are perfect for a little boys birthday. What do you think?

Congrats to Simply Sweet Cupcakes. Cupcake Wars winners

I dont know if you ever watched Cupcake Wars on t.v . I have. And I love that show!
Not only for the great recipes or ideas I can get from the top cupcake bakers on the US. But I also love the people that participate on it. I think they are brave, creative and have nerves of steel!

I especially loved Gina and Jaqueline Ciaburri from Simply Sweet Cupcakes
For their fantastic and outside the box recipes. This two wonderful bakers proved that cupcakes can be as versatile as our imagination.

I take my hat of for every contestant.
Congratulations Simply Sweet Cupcakes!!
you deserved the big prize!
And if I ever visit Jersey, your shop will be a must!!

Michelle Obama hates Cupcakes

Have you heard? Ms. Obama have recently planned to ban cupcakes ( and other sugar goodies) from being used as reference on U.S schools. Inviting Publishers to change textbooks on the Lets Move! blog .
This means math teachers will have to replace cupcakes for vegetables on their problem teaching.
No more hypothetical sugar for kids! God forbid they run home to stuf their little noses on cupcakes or cakes!

I still dont know if I have to laugh or cry .
I am just glad I dont live in the US and no one is planning to take my daughters right to count pastries.
What is the next move of the Lets Move ! Program?

What is the line between helping kids and being an autocrat? Whats next? A horse working for the white house?

I know this is a baking blog, not a political blog, but I am a baker and a mom and I feel like I have to stand for all the cupcakes out there who have done nothing to us but bring joy to our lifes!

Ariel and Flounder Cake Pops

   
       Hello!  Today I am super excited to show you my cake pops...
I made them for the birthday party of my friend's daughter.
The little birthay girl choose an Ariel themed party to celebrate.
So there I was, looking everywhere on line for inspiration for my cake pops, I found this great tutorial for princess cake pops made by My Cupcake Addiction. I just love her tutorials! She explains everything so you can follow her excactly!  Princess Cake Pop Tutorial.

here is a picture of my Ariel Cake Pops:

Ok. So I had my Little Mermaids, but how about her loyal friend? I looked and looked to find that there are no cute cake pops of Flounder. So I made my own, and they were beautifull!!!

Sorry I have no pictures of the process, but I think it's quite easy, promise to have some photos next time! If you need some tips and tricks to make the perfect character cake pops click here

You will need: a pintch of fondant, just for the eyes.

Some tylose
Yellow candy melts
Blue candy melts
Your cake balls
Your lolly pop sticks
An edible black marker

Process:
A day before making your cake pops do the eyes, mix the white fondant with 1/8 teaspoon of tylose, roll it and use a little piping tip to cut out the shape of the eyes. I used a wilton 10. Wait for them to dry and using the black marker paint the eye balls, making sure to leave a white dot and being careful not to make your cake pop crossed eye! Having this you are ready to start the good stuff..
This cake pops have to be small, so start by making a smaller ball than normal..
Now make the flaunder shape like this "mold" I made from clay to guide me . I photographed it with the tape so you can figure out the size..

To make the dent where the eyes go, I used my finger.
Put them in the fridge. While they are in there , melt some blue candy melt and put it on a small ziploc bag, cut the tip to leave a very small hole, SMALL! Spread a waxed paper sheet and draw the fins , tail and the upper fins. Leave aside.
Take out your cake pops and let them template a little while you melt the yellow candy melt.
Dip and as fast as you can start putting the fins and tail, starting with the tail and upper fin! Which are the hardest to "glue" after the candy melt cool. You can paste everything using a toothpick and yellow candy melt if you have to.
Let them dry completely before you draw the eyebrows , the line for the nose and the smile.
Now melt a small amount of blue candy melts, and with a toothpick draw the tree lines from the upper fin to the body, not to long!
Enjoy!
Here are some pictures of the finished product:

 The best flounder cake pops on the web!
What do you think?