And the Results are In...

Readers' favorite cupcake is... CARROT!!! With 36% of the vote, the carrot cupcake barely stole the lead from vanilla and red velvet which both had 27%. Chocolate came in a surprising last place with just one vote. So to that lone chocolate cake lover - stay strong. Red velvet is almost chocolate so maybe it stole some of those votes. So it seems the next cupcake I need to perfect is a delicious carrot cake. This will make Ben happy as its his favorite. Now I just need some piping accessories so I can frost cute carrots on top of the cupcakes.
There are two batches of cupcakes to make before this, however. On Friday, I am making shark cupcakes for the beginning of hockey season. Next Wednesday, I'm hoping to make chocolate heath bar ones for the guys in Ben's youth group who loved and still remember the chocolate-heath cookies I made when they came up to Toccoa for Homecoming last year. If anyone in the Melbourne, FL area wants to be the test subject for the carrot cupcakes, let me know.  Ben, his family and I have been eating a lot of cupcakes lately...

Apple Festival

Coming back from Toccoa this week, we stopped at Jaemor farms to pick up a peck of apples. We also got a jar of blackberry honey and an apple fritter (both very delicious). In honor of the Cornelia apple festival back in Georgia today, I made apple cupcakes yesterday. I decided to try making a spice cake base and add chopped apples. I mixed the yellow cupcake recipe with the recipe for one of my favorite coffee cakes. They turned out beautifully - the perfect recipe for the beginning of fall. To top the delicious flavor off, I made a honey cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It was a delightful and successful day of baking.


Although this is a cupcake blog, I have to say a word about the dinner since it went so perfectly with the cupcakes. Ben and I made a pork tenderloin we saw Alton Brown make on Good Eats - delicious. I also finally managed to make great potatoes with help from a few spices and Ben's idea to cook them in a bit of chicken broth. Both the dinner and the apple-spice cupcakes were a great start to October and fall (even if the Florida weather still feels like summer).

Poll Time!

I am very impressed with the attention my little cupcake poll has already received so thanks to all those who have voted and if you haven't - vote now. My intent with the polls is to give a special prize or gift to one lucky voter each week (possibly bi-weekly). By voting, you help me out by letting me know which cupcakes I should perfect or create. It is only fair that I reward my readers for their help. However, so far, CuteCakes Cupcakery is not an official cupcake business and has made no revenue. So for now I am testing out the polls and hope to be able to offer prizes in the future. But just because there aren't prizes yet doesn't mean you shouldn't vote. You want me to perfect your favorite flavor, right? Thanks for your help and for reading.

A Penguin Parade

I love birthdays because they are the perfect excuse to spend all day making cupcakes. This morning, I got out of bed ready and excited for the events of the day - making the long-awaited penguin cupcakes. So Ben and I set out to the store to purchase a long list of ingredients that included mini donuts, starbursts and marshmallows among other things. When we got home, I first started on the cupcakes. Now making a cupcake as light and fluffy as the boxed mix variety is tricky but I had a new yellow cake recipe from Cooks magazine. I followed the recipe to the T... (the expression to a T evidently comes from to a to a tittle in which tittle is a small mark in writing). Once the cupcakes were baked, I let them cool but then decided I better try one to make sure they were good before frosting them. Oh my Goodness! Those were some of the most amazing cupcakes ever. They were light and fluffy and the extra sugar had caramelized slightly on top for a delightful texture and sweet flavor.

two penguins and an iceberg

Next, the difficult task of creating the penguin shape. so we cut the donuts and assembled penguins. While I assembled, Ben made the ganache (and he did an amazing job). Lots of black food coloring yielded the perfect shade for cupcake penguins. After cooling the penguin skeletons in the freezer, we dipped them in the ganache and a penguin began to take shape. once all the elements were on, I got so excited. This was the first cupcake that had come out absolutely perfectly from batter to icing. They were a huge hit and yielded what Johnny dubbed "the most delicious birthday ever."

in the shoebox, ready for transport

Stepping Out of the Box

So I made German Chocolate Cupcakes today. I love German chocolate even though I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake. I made them from the box mix (cheating, I know but they were buy one get one free the last time I bought a box). But I have decided this is the last batch of box-mix cupcakes I will make. I will figure out how to make better than the box cupcakes and I will never go back! I suppose if I'm really in a hurry... Anyway, my plan is to try making my own cupcakes from scratch now. I think I made up for using boxed cupcakes with the effort I put into the frosting. I stirred that thing forever and Ben stirred it for almost forever. Despite all our best efforts at stirring the frosting to death, it ended up goopy. So it is now in the fridge and I plan to frost the cupcakes soon. I think I learned that German chocolate cake frosting is going to be messy no matter what you do and that is the reason why it is so delicious. The messiest parts of life always end up being the best, right?

The Beginning

So I have had a lot of time on my hands lately. This time is used finding a job and catching up on reading, but I also have plenty of time to devote myself to creating the most delicious cupcake. There is no room for store-bought cake mix here. I need to discover how to make a perfect cupcake from scratch. I have decided to document my journeys so the world (or maybe just a few family members and friends) can read about my struggles to make my dream a reality. If you are lucky, you may even get to taste these "struggles." So enjoy!