Red Velvet Mummies & Pumpkins

Halloween is this Friday!

I had cupcakes to bake for a few occasions this week, so I decided to go with a Halloween theme for decorations. The cupcakes themselves are Red Velvet (from Paula Deen's recipe). I needed to test out the recipe for a project next week (stay tuned to find out what the project is!).

I used the same frosting tip for the basketweave on the Mummies. I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with the Mummies- I feel like maybe they need some sort of mouth, but I couldn't figure out how to do that without making them too cute.

The Pumpkins I frosted and then dipped in orange sugar sprinkles. Once the sprinkles were on, I piped on orange lines to serve as the Pumpkins ridges. On the top I piped a brown stem and green leaves. The stems...are wonky at best. But, live and learn.

I think overall the cupcakes came out pretty well. Cute and Halloween-riffic, while still tasting yummy.

Gold Medal Winner!

A few weeks ago I participated in a cook-off at a friend's BBQ. There were several categories, but it should be no surprise to anyone that I chose the dessert category.

When I think BBQ, summer, and outdoors- I think fruity drinks, of the alcoholic variety. I'd had my eye on the Margarita Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for quite some time now, and thought this was the perfect occasion.

If you've ever cooked with a Vegan recipe or tried Vegan desserts before they can have a grainy texture that might turn off non-Vegans. I was a little worried about this, but the recipe (and the book for that matter) has great reviews all over the internet. So, I went for it.

Both the cupcakes and the frosting have lime and tequila in them. My frosting wasn't strictly vegan as I used butter (but you can definitely make it vegan frosting).

The cupcakes were a huge hit at the BBQ and as you can see- I won the dessert category. I don't have photographs of the cupcakes because they were a melty divided mess (having had to be cut into pieces to allow everyone to taste them). Just picture a light green frosting with a "rim" of green sugar sprinkles and a candy lime wedge (also not vegan) as a garnish. Mmmmm.

There were only five dessert entries, but given that the rest of them were chocolate, I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing first. My medal is hanging up in my kitchen as inspiration during all future baking sessions.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

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I made these Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes for the beer bottling party. Even though I adore pink lemonade, I know that other people prefer their sweets to be of the chocolate variety.

I think the recipe for this might have come from Curious Cupcakes but I can't remember which member posted it. I was drawn to the recipe because I love Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, and since the recipe calls for Chocolate Milk, I was intrigued.

I made these the day before the party, and I can't tell if that is why the cake was a little dry. The mint came out nicely, but I think next time I might use a different chocolate cake recipe.

The frosting is a mint merengue and once again I could not get the merengue to fluff up as much as it should have. I honestly think it is because I couldn't get the burner up to a high enough temperature. I might stop using merengue until I have a different stove. I tinted the merengue green with food coloring, because I always think mint when I see green food. I topped the merengue with sugar sprinkles and mini chocolate chips.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

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My husband had a beer bottling party a few weeks back (he brews and bottles his own beer). Everyone brought a different kind of beer to share. I figured it would be a good idea to have something more substantial than chips and dip for food. So, cupcakes it was!

I chose the Pink Lemonade cupcake because Pink Lemonade is one of my all time favorite drinks, especially in the summer. It's crisp and fresh, with just the right amount of sour taste.

I got the recipe online at the Foodie Bride blog. I ultimately cut the lemonade concentrate down (per the recipe) as I would rather have them less tart than overly tart. I think that was a wise choice and they came out perfectly. They were moist and had a great fresh taste- perfect for summer. I added a little bit of red food coloring to the dough to ensure that the cake would come out pink.

The Lemon buttercream was better than I could have imagned. I was worried that the lemon flavor would be strange in a buttercream, but I shouldn't have. It was great, and the perfect compliment to the cake. I added yellow food coloring because I thought the yellow frosting went well with the pink cake. I topped them off with pink sugar sprinkles.

If you like lemonade- these are the perfect cupcakes for you. I imagine they can also be made with limeade concentrate, which sounds delish.

Have a Drink

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I also made Martini shaped cookies for the Jewelry party. I like a little variety (at least in shapes, if not in flavors) in my cookies, and I know some people don't like candy on their cookies.

These were a little more challenging, because I couldn't really get the sugar sprinkles to spread the way I wanted them to. I wanted a more concentrated grouping towards the bottom of the "glass" with a lighter sprinkle at the top- simulating a fizzy martini. Sprinkles are like my nemisis. I love them (they're delicious and look fantastic), but I always have a hard time getting them to cooperate.

I was going to use the dragees here too, but again opted not to. I do think that next time I will put some food coloring in the royal icing (here used to pipe the outline of the martini glass) to have the color match the sprinkles.

Enough martinis to last me for days...