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!! :)