Independence Day! (Website Down)

Happy 4th of July everyone!

My website is acting a little funky about showing pictures so I'm going to post my pics on here for now. I know I need to update my blog, I'm such a slacker! Anyways, in the spirit of our Independence Day (and let's be honest, I could use the practice) I made some Blueberry Lemon Zest cupcakes! They are a seasonal favorite, filled with fresh whole blueberries, lemon juice, and lemon lest to make them extremely flavorful. I used gel coloring inside the decorating bag to make the icing look like it does.

I'm also posting pictures of the cupcakes from my giveaway a month or so ago. I think they look too cute to not get any attention! The flower and heart decorations are made with modeling chocolate.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July!

Much Love,
~A

Special Occasion: Bananas Foster Cupcakes!

I haven't made cupcakes in a few months. I've been baking all kinds of other things, especially cheesecakes, because I want to open a bakery in a few years. When I do, I'm going to have a lot more than cupcakes there. Cupcakes are one of my favorite things to create, though! I like pretty much anything miniature, and I love sweets, so cupcakes are perfect for me!

However, living in the Deep South for most of my life has opened me up to a lot of Southern influences, especially Cajun influences. I live right outside of Mobile, AL, which means I'm about 4 hours away from New Orleans, LA. It's one of my favorite places to go in the U.S!

On one of the last trips I made to NOLA, I had an opportunity to eat at Chef Emeril Legasse's Delmonico restaraunt. It's that kind of restaraunt you see in movies or read about, where there's no price on the menu and the waiters attend your every need (they also have a little table shovel for crumbs!) For a party of three, we paid about $100 dollars each. The most memorable thing that we ate there was dessert:

BANANAS. FOSTER.

Oh my goodness, I've never forgotten the Bananas Foster that I ate at Delmonico's! That being said, I've created Bananas Foster cupcakes on behalf of my friend Tara's birthday!

These are by far, one of the fanciest and best-tasting batch of cupcakes I've ever made. If you ate about six of them, you would probably begin to feel a buzz from all of the rum! It's a spiced coconut cupcake with rum in the batter, spiced cream cheese icing with rum, and the bananas foster spooned on top. The whole package has hints of spicy cinnamon and nutmeg, and a smooth taste of coconut and rum. The Bananas Foster topping finishes it off!

Caution: These cupcakes are messy, delicious, and highly addictive! Click on the Recipes tab to view the recipe!

Comment with feedback and questions :)

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

I finally found a recipe that I didn't feel too inclined to improve! It's sweet, creamy, fruity, and absolutely delicious!

I strive to make cheesecake's that compare to The Cheesecake Factory or better. I've been baking cheesecakes now since February (when I made Randy a Lemon Cheesecake for Valentine's) working to perfect my technique.

I think I finally did it!! Just make sure you have enough butter melted in with the graham cracker crumbs for the crust.

Fresh or frozen blueberries can be used, but fresh is best in my opinion.

The best part of this recipe (besides eating it) is swirling the blueberry sauce in the cheesecake before baking! I felt like I was creating a work of art, and I've been inspired to try it with paint.

To swirl, drop spoonfulls of blueberry filling onto cheesecake. Take a butter knife and, pointing straight down, swirl the blueberry filling around in the cheesecake, until you're satisfied with the design.

The recipe for this delicious cheesecake can be found here, or on the recipes tab!

Creativity, my friend.

I made some Strawberry Buttercream cupcakes for a momma and her little girl's birthday party! I had such a hard time with the candy lettering, after hours of practice and two wasted bags of candy coating, I finally went to the store and got a fondant letter mold. It worked perfectly!



Strawberry Jam

The cupcakes were delicious (of course I had to test one out, how else would I know?) and while making them I decided to save some of the extra batter for a new flavor experiment. I'm really glad I did!!! My new cupcake flavor is.... *drum role please!* Blueberry Lemon! It's the same delicious vanilla cake from the Strawberry Buttercream cupcakes, but in the batter I mixed in whole fresh blueberries, lemon zest, and fresh lemon extract. The icing is blueberry lemon cream cheese. I took one bite and got hooked; as did my boyfriend!

I ALSO made a lemon buttermilk bundt cake for my beloved. He tells me lemon bundt cakes are his favorite, and I felt like he needed a happy surprise so I made a buttermilk bundt cake, you can find the original recipe here. I added lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract. The lemon extract barelely did anything for me. Next time, I'll get about 4-6 lemons and juice them to put in that bundt cake. It wasn't tart enough. However, the icing I made was tart and sweet! It was a simple powdered sugar glaze, with lemon juice and zest in it for the flavor. All in all, pretty good.

Velvet Love Cupcakes

Love is a celebration, and today I got the opportunity to help celebrate a couple's first anniversary! The couple requested Red Velvet cupcakes to celebrate, and in conversation asked if it came with any filling. I told them I could make the red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese filling and vanilla buttercream icing; they liked that idea! So today, I whipped up a lovely batch of Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese filling and Vanilla Buttercream icing, which I'm calling Velvet Love cupcakes in honor of them. I used a star tip for the icing, and added red lips sprinkles on top.



Velvet Love

Velvet Love



Velvet Love