Cupcakes, Muffins and Brownies, Oh My!

Well it is official, the Great American Bake Sale Event is less than one week away. It will be the first, and hopefully not last fund raising event that I put together. The supplies have been purchased, the dry ingredients measured out and next week will be full of baking. Some friends will also be working in their kitchens to make candy, pound cakes, mini pies, breads, cookies, brownies, muffins, coconut cream pie and key lime pie. Me, well I will be candying bacon to top some French Toast cupcakes with maple icing. I will also be toasting up some coconut for Lemon Filled Coconut Cupcakes. I have already mixed up some Chai Spice for the Vanilla Chai Cupcakes. I will also be making some Crumble Top Carrot Raisin Muffins and Golden Oatmeal Muffins. I will still have to bake up a few batches of brownies in my spare time...guess I will need to find some of that. "What about the take and bake Cookies-In-A-Jar?" you ask. Those are already done with the help if 2 little elves. This adventure will be alot of work, but I am so excited. There has been a great response for the prize drawing with donations from lots of great places. Now all I need is for people to show up with a serious sweet tooth and the desire to win some cool prizes!!! Look for more on the bake sale over the next few weeks. Stop by and see me and my team "Could Cupcakes Be the Cure?" Saturday August 6th from 11am until 4 pm at Bonni Bakes: 930 12th Street West, Downtown Bradenton in the Village of the Arts.

Special Delivery

Last week I was asked to make some type of cupcake with coconut. You see a certain someone, who will remain nameless but who does not live in my house...I swear... has been on a "coconut kick" for the past few weeks. Intrigued by all the options in front of me I settled on creating a coconut cream cupcake. Not one to conform when baking I borrowed parts of recipes and made some changes to the cake recipe as well. I have to let you know that the original recipe I found called for a whipped cream cheese icing. I had difficulty wrapping my head around a cupcake with smooth and creamy custard being topped with a cream cheese of any sort. The only part of the recipe I stuck with was the coconut cream custard filling, and boy am I glad I did. Toasting the coconut before adding it to the custard mixture was definitely a good choice, it adds so much more flavor to the coconut. I changed the icing to a stabilized whipped cream with coconut flavor and elevated a boxed coconut supreme cake mix. My trick to making my cake moist, especially the boxed cake mix, is adding a package of instant pudding mix. For this recipe I added white chocolate pudding. Now don't

go making a batch of pudding and adding it to your cake mix, just dump the dry pudding mix in with your cake mix and follow the instructions that are on the box for baking. I also substituted the water with coconut milk. I could not see allowing the rest of the coconut milk that did not need to go into the custard go to waste. I used a new technique to fill the cupcakes since I fought with my pastry filling tip during the wild berry cupcakes. It was so simple. I took a paring knife and cut a cone shape out of the center of the cupcake, filled them with custard, leveled out the parts that I had cut out of the cake and placed them back on top, covering the custard. At first I was worried that I could not remember which top went with which cupcake, but in the

 end it does not really matter since you are covering the top with icing. The end result was oh so good. Once they were complete we quickly delivered some of these sweet treats to the one whose heart desired them so. Driving away I quickly received a call that they passed the coconut craver's taste test. Tomorrow the rest will make their way to work to share. What about me you ask...well I will indulge in the extra custard and whipped topping for desert. Over the next few weeks I will be focusing on getting everything together for the "Could Cupcakes Be the Cure?" Team bake sale as part of The Great American Bake Sale. When I return to baking for the blog I will be making the Snickers cupcakes and you will be voting on a cupcake for the following week. If there is anything worth sharing happening then I will share with you. Until next time....

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis: a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism, as from the caterpillar to the pupa and   from the pupa to the adult butterfly. 


The past month has been a bit of a transition period for me. I have ventured out of my role as a counselor with the agency I work for and am now in the Community Relations position. So I don't see clients anymore but I try to bring them to us through positive PR about the agency. When school is in full swing I will get to go into classrooms and talk to kids about the great work we do and how we can help them and their family. I get to organize events and attend community meetings. I am actually VERY excited. This opportunity has brought a new energy to me. Now if I could just get myself back into a decent sleep routine I would be golden. The past month I have also taken a break from my blog and my weekly cupcakes...finding I needed time to focus and rededicate myself. I have thrown some energy into developing and publicizing my upcoming fundraiser...one not related to work, one that involves baking...a match made in heaven. I was also delighted to see that our not so great governor signed into law an act that will allow home bakers to sell their goods to customers without the fear of being prosecuted. With one stroke of a pen by some one I have little like for Whimsical Wishes Cakes can now be resurrected. My website, reactivated but needing editing before being published. I am looking forward to advertising as a cake decorator / baker. I really have much to be grateful for. My metamorphosis is complete, I am the adult butterfly.

Now back to the reason you probably stopped by to read this entry in the first place. I know I promised Snickers cupcakes but I have been given a special request. I found what looks like an awesome recipe for Coconut Cream Cupcakes and this weekend I will tackle them...yummy. Thanks everyone for being patient and taking the time to come back to see me through my blog. I will let you all know how the cupcakes turn out and next week, Snickers cupcakes, I promise. Until next time...