I'm BAAAACK!

Hey there my whole 7 followers, I can tell you've missed me! Sorry for the long seperation, but it's been a busy month! I know you've all been so very concerned about the fate of my chocolate covered strawberry cupcake. Rest easy my friends, the issue is resolved! I just switched the frosting to a white chocolate buttercream. Done and done. I've also been a busy lil' recipe writer the past few weeks...mostly just this morning. There are several new cupcakes since we spoke last:

Margarita
Mint Chocolate
Strawberry Daiquiri
S'more
Cookies & Cream
Peanut Butter Cup

About half of these cupcakes have not made it to the production phase, but they sure look good on the recipe card!

Here's a couple pics for your viewing pleasure:

Epic Fail

I knew that all of this experimenting would eventually lead to something not going quite as planned. Exhibit A:

Saddest cupcake I've ever seen. So I attempted the chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes. The cake was perfect. The icing was a different story. Way too runny.....tried a few things to make it thicker...which led to this:

I have plans to resolve this, but I'm too tired from a day of Easter egg hunting to analyze at this point. I'll keep ya posted. The next two weeks are going to be full of packing and moving, so there probably won't be an update for awhile.

Sweet dreams!

The ballots are in.

I think this picture sums up 99% of the feedback received today. (Thanks to my lil' desk buddy for allowing me to capture her excitement today.) This cupcake is def. not for the faint of heart, you gotta be ready for some serious chocolate. All in all things went well, I'm excited and ready for the next one!



Were gonna chalk this one up in the "W" column.

So my plan changed only a total of twice when making these little treats. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this total shot in the dark. I've gotten approval from one of the roomies thus far, and I have a whole panel of judges waiting for me at work tomorrow morning. Appearance wise I would def. use black cupcake liners for any dark batter, the white for sure takes away from the rest of the package visually. SO...I opted for sea salt to be the final ingredient. Made a few mental notes along the way regarding this decision. First, I waited entirely too long before adding the sea salt to the top. The icing had set and not as much as I would have liked actually staid on top of the cake. So I basically should have just applied it sooner and/or used a textured icing tip so the top of the cake would have had grooves to catch the salt. The salt was an absolute must...some may think it to be crazy...but it improves it about 10 notches. What's a Turtle without the sweet AND salty?

I didn't take as many pics of the process because A) my phone was dying, and B) my camera was MIA. But I did snap a lil before and after action...

Ok...so the final product. Cake- Devil's food chocolate fudge; Filling-Caramel; Icing-My own variation of a wHipped chocolate ganache (emphasis on the H...why? because we just watched that episode of Family Guy); Topping-Chopped pecans and sea salt.

I've also discovered the secret to a great ganache is sweet dance moves. I was gettin' it. Before I go to bed I need to write down this recipe while it is still fresh in my mind. Once I fall asleep, there is no telling where that precious information will go.

Have I mentioned how much I love this process? I'm pretty sure I've been smiling all night. Now all I'm waiting for is some constructive feedback tomorrow, and it will be on to the next. It's looking like the next cupcake up for domination is going to be the "Chocolate Covered Strawberry." Strawberry cake with a wHipped white chocolate ganache. I think the presentation will be pretty fun with that one, with the use of fresh strawberries. Ok, off to jot down the recipe and a lil shut eye.

Sweet dreams!

I'm convinced the oven timer moves slower when you watch it...

The Turtles are in the oven. (No animals were harmed in the making of these cupcakes.) So now we wait. This was by far the thickest batter I've ever used, so needless to say I'm a lil' nervous. But gosh darn it they already smell like heaven. They aren't even done baking yet and I already have at least three things I would do differently in the preparation (like any good, respectable, recovering perfectionist would). Ok, it's ganache time y'all. First time I'm making it...this entire cupcake is uncharted territory if you wanna get technical. Then on to the assembly. I'm counting on the caramel to be my Hail Mary pass. JUUUST in case the rest of the cake's a flop.

Next on the chopping block...

I'm already pretty confident with my red velvet cupcake recipe with cream cheese icing and shaved white chocolate. So my next test is the Turtle cupcake. I'm hoping to tackle this tomorrow night after work, but I'm still wrestling with the order/combo of the ingredients I'm wanting to use. Potential ingredients are:

...OR...

I'm still on the fence. I'll let you know which works out best.

Sweet dreams! (pun intended)

Can you honestly look at this picture and not smile? Didn't think so. I plan to take a lot of pictures throughout the experimenting process. Why am I just now wanting to do this? It has been many years in the making. Every time I make cupcakes for people they always say, "Did you make these? They look professional." Whether or not they are stretching the truth to boost my ego, I guess I'll never know. Well if I never sell a cupcake we'll know for sure. :)