Not your typical lunch.....:)

I have started testing flavors. You know I had to do it, so here it is the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcake !!!!! A moist peanut butter cupcake with a raspberry jelly butter cream, topped with chopped honey roasted peanuts. Much better with a glass of milk than a old samich....don't you think.

Introducing the team that is going to make it all possible!!

Let me start this cupcake tale with a disclaimer. There are many words to describe Jill and I. Some of them being creative, outgoing, honest, funny and, at times, certifiably insane! :) We recently made some big strides in the pursuit of our cupcake dreams! We purchased professional Kitchen Aids!! Very exciting!! I have to give a quick shout out to my wonderful father-in-law for his financial contribution! Without his support of my dreams, I would not have the most fabulous mixing machine in all the land!! But back to the reason for my disclaimer. These machines are large, gray and capable of mixing batter for a small army! Let's be real! Something of this magnitude needs a name! Jill was the first to name her new bundle of steel Helga! I followed suit and named my hard working stand mixer Olga!! I have a feeling we are all going to be very good friends! Once the mixers were out of their boxes and plugged in, the baking began!! Jill made up some ultra fabulous cakes you can read about below. I christened Olga with a batch of, my already world famous, Chocolate Stout Cakes with Chocolate Stout Butter Cream! They were by request of my hubby! Those were followed by an interesting experiment. I had been wanting to bake with fruit. So, I tried a strawberry white velvet batter. Needless to say, they needed twice the amount of strawberries! They were good, don't get me wrong! But they weren't exactly up to my standards! I did top them with pink butter cream with white chocolate chips. That made for a creamy version of butter cream, but this frosting was difficult to pipe onto the cupcakes! I will keep you posted on attempt number two. I have, on the other hand, found a cupcake that I really enjoy making!! Red velvet!! I am beginning to understand why the world is so obsessed with this baked crimson creation! It is such a beautiful color! When they bake up, they have a glossy, rounded top and sometimes I think they just look too fabulous to frost! But what is a red velvet cupcake without cream cheese frosting?! This time I added mini-chocolate chips to the cream cheese frosting!! The little chocolate bits really bring out the subtle chocolate flavor in the cake! It isn't the easiest frosting to pipe out either, but I'm going to make due because it is delicious!! :)

Helga Arrived !!!!!

I got the newest member of the business in the mail yesterday. She arrived late, right before dinner. When the doorbell rang, there she sat, a brand new thirty pound professional Kitchen Aid. We fell in love instantly. How can you not love your own child. I think I will name her Helga.

She went right to work. In anticipation of her arrival, I already had butter, milk and eggs at room temperature. Voila, she delivered, beautiful white velvet almond cupcakes, with a white chocolate almond butter cream !!!!

Even the unsellables are loved ;)

I am waiting on the chocolate batter to rest in the fridge. You know the one I am going to bake....dare I say it....a cake out of. Sometimes you have to give the people what they want, if you get a life long customer that is priceless. While I wait something is calling me from the fridge, cupcakes...dainty little trial cupcakes..the ones you don't want to give people but taste incredible anyway.

I have a lemon curd cupcake with raspberry lemon butter cream and a brownie cupcake, some also frosted with the raspberry. I know Amanda and I try and ignore the calling, the gentle calling...but in the end....cupcakes Win !!!!!!! You should come for coffee.

Holy CupCAKE Batman!!

Tonight I conquered more than just cake, I conquered fear! When you are starting a business, if a potential customer makes a request, it becomes very difficult to turn them down. So Jill and I do not turn anything down! We are two fearless women in fancy aprons and we will bake anything you want! Jill calls me this afternoon and says that it was requested that she bake a cake. A cake I ask?! I don't want to bake cake! I want to bake cupcakes! Cupcakes are safe, cute and by george I like them! No cake!! Well, I have learned that a challenge just makes me more arrogant, so I brainstorm. Cupcake A Sugar Boutique wants to be world renowned for cupcakes. How do I bake a cake and still leave a cupcake impact? It hits me!! Make a cupcake cake! But not that stupid giant cupcake mold! A cake that is a vessel for my fabulous cupcakes! I am not going to take all the credit. Does anyone watch Cake Boss? It is a very entertaining reality type show on TLC about a bunch of Italians running a family bakery in Jersey! Buddy the aforementioned Cake Boss makes a cream puff cake that his father was famous for. What I like about this idea is that it is not about the cake, it is about the cream puffs. Hence, my cake creation is not about the cake, it is about the cupcakes! The evening started out a little rocky! My mother-in-law requested a flavor that was tropical in nature. I decide to approach a pina colada idea. I folded pineapple and coconut into the white velvet batter. Oh, and I didn't have buttermilk so I used whole milk. The batter has a less mousse like texture but I press on! As they baked, the cupcakes looked a little different. They didn't rise as much as usual and they were a bit heavy looking. Hello! All the coconut I added would throw some oil into the mix once heated! Once they cooled, all seemed well. They are heavier, but when making cake too light is the enemy! The flavors of the coconut and pineapple are very subtle. Next time, less butter and some pineapple juice! I am also thinking about adding some pineapple rum to the frosting!! It could be fun!! :) I would have to say, other than the cake being just a pinch lopsided, I am confident that we bake and frost anything we put our minds too!!

When in doubt just add beer!

I have been polling the crowd lately in order to find out what flavors I should try now that I have mastered the basics. I have gotten tiramisu, something with fruit, and (from my husband) beer. So I have some ideas brewing, no pun intended! :) I have formulated a game plan for tiramisu and I'm pretty excited about it! More on that later! I am open to suggestions in regards to fruit... in the cake, filling for the cake, swirl of preserves in the batter, in the frosting, on top of the frosting???!!! Maybe I am thinking to much into it! Anyways! Back to the beer! I have stocked my pantry with the essentials to turn out the basics in a jiff. So I have cupcake essentials and beer, I jump online to find out how I go about putting beer in cake batter. This was very little help! So I take a swig and follow my instincts! I merely replace the milk with a hearty pour of Left Hand Brewing Company Milk Stout! A dessert beer of sorts my husband discovered at a local German restaurant. I started by only baking six cakes! If the whole event went south I wanted it to be a half disaster in my oven, not a whole disaster! Low and behold, a disaster was not the result!! They were beautiful! I did make sure not to fill them as full as I usually do. I had a feeling they would rise pretty well! So the batter I concocted produced about 36 cakes, so I am glad they are delicious! Had they been scary and terrible, it would have been such a waste! I am not sure what I thought they would taste like, but they taste like chocolate. They are very moist, but the cake is light and becomes very velvety in texture when combined with the frosting! I call Jill and get her advice. It is a beer cupcake, but it doesn't taste like beer! What to do? Put beer in the frosting! Yeah! Why not? I continue my theme! Chocolate Stout... So I make up a batch of chocolate butter cream and while I am adding confectioners sugar, I start to pour in about 1/4 cup of stout! This was a good plan!! So the frosting doesn't take on a beer flavor, but the flavor of the beer does add a nice depth to the taste of the frosting!! All this experimenting has made me fearless!! Fruit! I fear you no longer!! Bring it!

Orange you glad I bake cupcakes!! :)

While Jon and I sat eating a ball of chocolate That was shaped like an orange one evening, I thought to myself strawberries and chocolate have been done and done again! Cherries and chocolate equals a Black Forest type creation. I am not saying that orange and chocolate is some new flavor explosion that I totally created as my gift to the world, but how often do you come across this flavor in a bakery? Not as often as the previously mentioned usual suspects! So, I run the idea by Jill and I do a little brain storming! Should the frosting have orange in it or should I concoct an orange cake? How do I work in the chocolate?! Cake or frosting and vice versa! Then, I take a breath and decide to start simple! I already make a fabulous dark chocolate batter and if I am referencing the idea of the chocolate orange ball, chocolate needs to be the base and strongest flavor! Dark chocolate cake it is! Now that I am a fan of butter cream icing, I decide to let that be the base for the orange flavored icing. The big trend in baking is to bypass extracts and over processed ingredients! I mean if you are going pay hard earned money for a cupcake it better be made with the good stuff! I zest a fresh orange and juice it! Let me tell you, nothing is quite as delicious as a fresh Florida orange! I mix it all together in the Kitchen Aid and find that it creates a fabulously light icing with just a hint of orange flavor! The juice gave the icing a nice light orange color and as I piped the icing on to the dark cake the zest made a fantastic subtle appearance! I really am beginning to like this product development process! Oh, and I have found that practice is really making perfect! I have noticed that my cakes are beginning to be more consistent in shape and size post baking! Not to mention that I am getting all of this baking and frosting done during Magnus' nap time! I don't know why I thought this cupcakery idea was going to be so hard! I'm practically a professional!

Trial and Error......and error

All day cupcakes where running through my head. I was trying to think of new flavors and Amanda and I agreed to try a new one. Butter pecan...carmel, yummy right? That was my flavor for the day. I didnt set out for this venture until 8:00 p.m. I tweaked my white vanilla with pecans, butter flavor and extra buttermilk. The batter was light a fluffy and I awaited the arrival out of the oven. Unlike Amandas success, mine didnt rise...and actually shrunk in the oven, even so the flavor was wonderful. Back to the drawing board....:)

On your mark! Get set! Bake!!

Ovens across the country were preheated and in full product development swing today! In Ohio, I'm pretty sure there was butter pecan baking, but I will let Jill fill you in on that! After our normal "Magnus is napping so we can actually hear one another" conversation this morning, we decided that we have vanilla, chocolate and red velvet done! We like the way they taste and they bake up pretty consistently! So it is time to dig deep and expand our flavor horizons! Let's face it...white velvet, dark chocolate and red velvet will not fill a bakery case! I have decided that I love vanilla batter because I love fabulous wrappers and when the batter is dark all the fabulousness of the wrapper is baked away! So there are a hundred million different flavors and things you can add to vanilla to spice it up! I decided to start simple! Chocolate chips!! I figure the appeal of a chocolate chip cookie is that you get the best of both worlds, chocolate and vanilla! I whip up a batch of white velvet batter and at the last minute fold in some dark chocolate chips!! How could this be bad!? Well, after they baked up to a golden color I pulled them from the oven and found that I was right! This could never be bad!! They are fabulous! The bits of dark chocolate are complimented so nicely in the light sweetness of the white velvet!
I am not going to lie! Ever since my first batch of cream cheese icing I have been hooked! It has a delicious creamy flavor and it is fabulous for piping! Jill has been telling me to make butter cream for a while now! Since today we were getting out of the box, out I went... with butter!! :) I decided a simple butter cream would not suffice with my delectable cake creation! We have yet to concoct a chocolate icing, so today would be the day! Butter, cocoa, vanilla and confectioner's sugar! Voila!! Chocolate magic! It has such a light sweetness and is still creamy without adding weight!! It has the consistency of a nice full mousse! I feel like it polishes off what I know will be a new favorite!! I would love to make you the next batch of White velvet chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate butter cream!!

I dream in cupcake !!!

Seriously, all I can think about are cupcakes. I spend hours researching the business on line. Last night I dreamed of cupcakes and a new home. Two things that are heavy on my mind right now. It is amazing and I cant wait until it all comes together. Here is our first step of officially starting the business. I have reserved our name with the state of Ohio, which means no one else can have it....very very exciting !!!!!!!

Red, White Velvet and Blue !!!!!

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone! Today all ovens were at full force. It was a little cooler on my end in Ohio, a perfect 77 degrees. It's not going to stay that way but we will take it. I set off early this morning to make a batch of cupcakes that Ray could take to his new office, they just moved from Toledo into the Perrysburg office. More mouths to taste the deliciousness that are our cupcakes. I was a little aprehensive about my decorating skills, which are Amanda's forte, but I gave it the uncolleged try.....:) Here is the result. The white velvet always taste magnificent...I ate three!! I always frost these with a all butter buttercream. I cant try anything else because the combo is great.

Red Velvet Elvis! :)

Well, by request, I crafted red velvet batter this morning! I was able to mix, bake and cool all while Magnus took his morning nap! It was nice to bake when it was quiet and it all happens much faster when I can focus! Why red velvet? It has occurred to me that the world has an obsession with this flavor! Could it be the bleeding armadillo from Steel Magnolias?! Everyone who bakes it is convinced that theirs is the best red velvet on the planet! It is often the best seller or a sell out flavor! Ok! If we are going to have a cupcakery then we must carry this customer magnet! After much study into the flavor, it occurred to me the attraction must come from the fact that the ingredients are far different from other batters. Red velvet includes butter milk, this isn't terribly different. Then you add distilled vinegar. Now we are in new territory! On top of the sour flavors brought to the party by said butter milk and vinegar, I find it interesting that butter makes no appearance at all! When it comes to baking, creaming the butter and sugar until fluffy is religion! This action alone can make or break any batter! I'm not going to tell you I wasn't nervous about the looseness of the ingredients as I watched them spin around in the kitchen aid! Note to self... this batter is not for the faint of heart, the red food coloring must be added cautiously! My counter top will never forget this day, no matter how hard I try to scrub the experience off of it! So I filled the cups 2/3 full, as is standard and safe (to avoid run-off of course!). I peeked in on them periodically during the 20 minutes I lovely refer to as the moments of truth! Low and behold, they rose fantastically! The proof is in the pictures! Ok they look fabulous! The color is rich and they glisten in the florescent kitchen light!! Now how did they taste!? What I like about red velvet is that it isn't vanilla and it isn't chocolate! It does not have a richness or heaviness! It is perfect! It balances the weight of the cream cheese icing nicely! Success!! I am going to join the crowd and say my red velvet is the best on the planet! ;)


Other developments/achievements for Thursday:
I am usually the master of the piping bag! I'm gonna decorate and Jill is gonna bake! Although these roles work currently, that would mean that neither one of us could take a sick day! Not gonna work! We have been embarking on personal missions to become well-rounded! So I bake, make icing and decorate! So does my mommy dearest! Let me just tell you! She had quite the triumph today with decorating! She went for a fourth of July theme and she nailed it! I will post some pictures asap!
I can officially say Thursday has been a success! What will the weekend bring? Probably more baking and icing! Life is Sweet!!