Have you ever?

Have you ever just stopped doing something that you really enjoyed? You look back and wonder to yourself, "Why?" This blog is that something for me...Could Cupcakes be the Cure? So much has happened since April 2012. Much too much to list in this late night / early morning post.  I suppose I will have a lot to type about in the near future. Until next time...

Hello...Hello Sorry I have been gone for so long.

Oh what a life I have had for the past 9 months. Life does not always lend us a helping hand but one thing is true, if you are still alive you have something to look forward to. I have missed making my cupcakes but just found myself in a position that spending money on it was not the best use of a dollar. The thing is, I miss the blog and it is time to return. I am not sure where things will go or what I will say, but I will start by saying hello again...talk to you soon!!!
Much  Love,
DeEtt

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...

Stay Tuned

Hello everyone...just wanted to let you know I am still out here. Cupcakes are on hold but I will return this weekend with those Snickers inspired cupcakes that are now long overdue. Until next time...

Wild About Berries

I have had an interesting week. I could bore all of you with the details or I could get down to what you stopped by to find out about...the cupcakes. Shortly after posting last week's poll I began searching for a recipe for the Wild Berry cupcake. My internet searches were unsuccessful. Everything I was finding was more like a muffin and I am not asking if Muffins Could Be the Cure. Simple enough, I would just remove it as a choice and replace it with something more "easy." At least I thought that would be my plan. When I logged back on I had already gotten 2 votes. What this means for all of you out there is this...once a vote has been cast you cannot edit the poll. Just the motivation I needed to come up with my own version of a Wild Berry Cupcake. A bit overwhelmed at the idea, I decided to put my planning on hold. I held an offline poll, consisting of asking some people when I saw them what their ideas were. What I decided on was making 2 versions of this week's cupcake. One which my husband would describe as more traditional, the other he would describe as "your version." I was not sure if that was good or bad. There was one way to find out...get baking. Now this was a 2 day process. You see I was including 2 fillings this week, one for each version of my cupcakes and every component was from scratch, no boxed mix this week.  My anniversary present this year...letting me buy my supplies instead of getting me a gift...hey at least he remembered. so this is what I came up with:

Version One (the "traditional") A Wild Berry Cupcake (a basic from scratch white cake with wild berry puree added to the batter) with a Triple Berry Curd Filling, Swiss Butter Cream Icing and a Fresh Blueberry for garnish. My girls LOVE these, minus the blueberry on top. I made them as minis, they are eating them in one bite. Now you would think in my house that cupcakes are devoured in an instant. The truth is that my girls usually eat the icing and pretend to eat the cake. These...they are eating it all and asking for more. Talk about a happy mama, after all they are my toughest critics.

Version Two ("my" version): A Vanilla Bean Cupcake (from scratch...thank you whole foods store for carrying Whole vanilla beans) with a Wild Berry Mousse Filling and Fresh Strawberry Swiss Butter Cream. That's right people, I dropped those wonderful strawberries I found on sale (oh the raspberries  blueberries and black berries were on sale too) into the food processor, hit the button a few times and folded them into the heavenly Swiss Butter Cream. Now these are not a fan favorite in my house. Basically if my girls can see the the berries in anything they decide they don't like it right then.  There is no tasting involved, that is just the way it is. Trust me, I did enough taste testing of my own on this one. LOVE it, not as much as the Bailey's icing, but it is up there.
Despite some of the frustrations of this week's baking: how exactly do you fill a mini cupcake, why does my icing still look like soup after 20 minutes of beating it and why won't my meringue stiffen up, I completed the challenge. Better than that, I am proud of my creations. Tomorrow I will be delivering them to a party to celebrate the accomplishments of a Relay for Life event (don't worry, it is separate from last week's event, I am spreading the love...promise). If you want the recipes, either certain portions of them of the entire thing, let me know in the comments and I will pass them on to you. All you have to do is tell me where to send them. I enjoyed coming up with my own cupcake so much that this week you will decide which one of my favorite things will inspire my cupcake. I can't wait to find out what you all choose. I hope all of you have a wonderful week. Until next time...