Oh, my! Meringue!

Today was a good day.  It's Sunday, for starters, which means that I had a big, fat nothing on the schedule. The sun was shining, which meant that the kids could play outside instead of running like donkeys around the house.  We had a great dinner where nothing got spilled, and this morning I got to bake.  That was DEFINITELY the best part.  Especially since it means that after our great dinner, I had one of these waiting for me:

That, my friends, is no joke.  Will you take a look at that?  I had that for dessert.

Maple Cupcakes, eh?

Have you been watching the Olympics?  The closing ceremonies are tomorrow, and then we'll be done with winter sports for a while.  It's been fun having the Games so close to home, although I will never understand why on earth we can't watch events without such a heinous tape delay.  Especially when they're happening just a half-day's drive from here.  Honestly, NBC, what gives?  Figure skating at midnight??  How am I supposed to get up and bake in the morning when I'm staying up late to watch the Soap Opera on Ice?

Bad TV scheduling aside, this has been a fun Olympics.  I don't remember pulling for Canada before, but I've been finding myself just as happy when a Canadian wins a medal as I am when an American does.  O, Canada has been going through my head for two weeks now, and I'm getting less annoyed at people with French accents......they might be Canadian, after all!  So in honor of the Vancouver Olympics, I give you these fabulous Semi-Canadian Maple Leaf Cupcakes!

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

The weather here in Portland has been absolutely glorious this week.  I know other parts of the country are still in the thick of it, winter-wise, but it sure feels like spring around here.  The crocus are up, I've got a few tulips and daffodils blooming, and my favorite flowering plum tree is now covered in delicate pink blossoms.  With the blue skies and balmy temperatures, you'd think I'd be itching to bake something light and springy, right?  Carrot cake, maybe, or Hummingbird cake?  Wrong.  Despite the spring-like conditions, it IS still February, folks, and today it was all about deep, dark chocolate and warm, wintry spices.  Allow me to introduce you to my new friends, the Chocolate Spice Cupcakes.

Streusel and a few words about toppings

Part of the fun of making cupcakes is the ability to get creative with fillings, frostings, and especially the toppings.  Once you start looking around, you'll see potential toppings everywhere.   I've topped cupcakes with everything from peanut butter cups to fortune cookies to bacon.  If it has some relevance to the flavor of cupcake or if it's going to contribute to the all-over flavor, then go for it!  Be creative!  But also be careful.....there are some things that shouldn't make their way onto cupcakes.  Here, I'll give you some examples.

Strudel.  Strudel shouldn't be a cupcake topper.  We love sweets around here, and usually I'm a "more is more" kind of girl, but not in this case.  Strudel is another dessert all by itself, so cupcakes + strudel = overkill.  

Schnitzel.  The only meat that should touch your cupcakes is bacon, and that's because bacon is awesome and can be eaten on anything.   Schnitzel, on the other hand, is breaded veal.  Baby cow is not bacon, so no matter how tempted you might be to slap a chunk of schnitzel on your pretty li'l cupcakes, don't do it.

Schnoodles.  People, we just don't put puppies on cupcakes.  Yes, puppies are cute.  Yes, cupcakes are also cute, so I know it seems like a natural fit, but I'm here to tell you that it just ain't right.   Leave the puppies alone.

So what does that leave us with?  

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year, that is!  Welcome to the Year of the Tiger......let's have some cake, shall we?

There we go!  That handsome guy is one of 36 fondant Chinese zodiac animals that I rolled, cut, and colored for my oldest daughter's birthday this weekend.  She turned nine on the Saturday, and we had a Chinese-themed party for the neighborhood girls.  They had a blast dipping fortune cookies in chocolate (and SMOTHERING them in sprinkles), painting their Chinese names, and eating with chopsticks......but no matter what else happens at a birthday party, the star of the show is always the cake, right?  Right.  So let's get to it!

A Pink and Red (Velvet) Extravaganza!

I love it when I have a great plan for something and it falls totally flat.  I mean, the falling flat part isn't so great, but Plan B often seems to work out better than Plan A would have.  That's what happened this week with these Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Two of my girls are in a belly dancing class, and for their little Valentine's Day party a few days ago,  I decided to make the totally faboo brownies from my Baked cookbook.  They were going to be great;  I had big plans that involved heart-shaped cookie cutters, marshmallows, and pink sanding sugar.......but THAT was Plan A, and we've already established that it didn't go so well.  Let's just say that when baking, accidentally using chocolate candymelts instead of ACTUAL chocolate is not recommended.

Anyway, Plan B was implemented at the last minute, and what started out as normal red velvet cupcakes turned into a gigantic Red-and-Pink-a-thon.   They were super Valentine-y, and the girls loved them.....but when have you ever seen a room full of 9 year old girls NOT love anything that was pretty, sweet, and pink??  Exactly......I have a built-in fan base.  Know your audience, people.

Not to be trusted

These cupcakes are devious.  They're sweet and cute.  They draw you in with their nostalgic charm, and then BAM!  They turn on you.  You'll think you are strong, and you'll think you can resist, but forget it.  You'll be powerless against them.

These are the lovely, adorable Valentine's cupcakes from Martha's cupcake book.  They're made from her One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and topped with a Shiny Chocolate Ganache Glaze.   Aren't they the best?

 The good news is that these were SUPER easy to recreate at home.  The bad news is that they are DELICIOUS.  And evil.  And not to be trusted.  Did I already mention that?  Here, I'll give you a glimpse of how things went down at my house this morning.....