Gingerbread C*O*W

I wanted to use up the rest of my cream cheese frosting. I was going back and forth trying to decide between strawberry and gingerbread, and gingerbread won! Probraby because I would have needed to go buy the strawberries . . .

I filled these with lemon pastry cream filling, which, although it tatsed good, I don't think it was the best match for the gingerbread. I should have stuck with lemon curd. Oh well. The cream cheese frosting was a hit (again), and they were topped off with a piece of candied ginger.

I may take next Monday off - I haven't quite decided yet.

~ Happy Thanksgiving to you all ~

Red Velvet Birthday C*O*W

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Janet . . . Happy Birthday to YOU! By request, the Red Velvet COW makes a return, baked special, just for the birthday girl. A few days late, but I'll know better next year!

This red velvet cupcake is filled with raspberry filling and piled high with cream cheese frosting (what else?) Hope you like them, Janet!

Pumpkin Muffins

Something seasonal - pumpkin muffins!

I actually spent too much time working on my other blog I am setting up Are You making Anything? for the upcoming holidays (I will make an announcement when it is "official"). I needed somewhere to show what I am selling for Christmas. Then, before I knew it it was 4:00PM and I hadn't stared my COW! I had to come up with something fast and easy - so a no frosting muffin was my answer!

Enjoy!

What my friends said . . .

Laura - I loved these! Spicy and not too sweet -- just right. Thank you!
Deanne - Yummy yummy - especially the topping!!
Julie - Dee, I am not a punk in eater, but this is delicious! Thank you for sharing!!

Help Me Sponsor a Fire Truck!

I am so excited I found this! People have kindly been donating a few bucks every Monday for their COWs. I have been donating the money colletred to several of the cat rescue groups I support, and was thrilled when I came across this!

BARK 10-4 is a program that will save pets lives. A mask for every Fire Truck was created to allow the public to sponsor a pet oxygen mask for their local Fire Department. More then 30,000 Fire Departments and EMT offices are located nationwide and most of those have more then one Fire Truck per station. The Mask can only work if they have it to use.

Together we can save pets lives! So far we have sponsored TWO trucks! If you'd like to help, please click the PayPal Donate button on the right side bar. Donations will go to my PayPal account and I will sponsor as many trucks as we can.

Please click here to read more: http://www.bark10-4.com/

Would your pet survive a fire?

The Pet Oxygen Mask can only work if it is on EVERY Fire Truck!

• Losing a pet in a house fire can be a devastating
  experience


• More than 500,000 pets are affected by fires each year.


• Does your local Fire Department have pet oxygen
  masks on every Fire Truck?


• Over 40,000 pets each year die of smoke asphyxiation


• More than 30,000 Fire Departments and EMT offices
  nationwide most with more then one Fire Truck

Mini Cheesecake C*O*Ws

Hello everyone! I haven't posted any new COWs for about 3 weeks. One weekend was my birthday, the following weekend was my last day to visit with Colin and Linda before they left for Chicago, and last weekend, I actually did make an apple cake, but didn't take any photos.

So this weekend I am trying out my new mini cheesecake pan. I followed the recipe included - very easy but not really too impressive. It used a chopped nut crust instead of the usual graham cracker crust. Interesting, I guess. They did come out of the pan really easily, though. I'll try a different recipe next time.

But -I am using my new Canon G11 camera I got for my birthday. I'm not a "photographer", but I can tell a big difference in the photos, for the better. Loving it so far!

'Till next Monday,

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough C*O*W

From the oven this week is a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcake. Hiding inside a golden vanilla cupcake is a nice blob of chocolate chip cookie dough. After frosting with home made chocolate frosting, I sprinkled with sugar and topped it off with a little mini chocolate chip cookie cut out in the shape of a heart . YUM!

"Red Eye" Red Velvet C*O*W

Tastes good and looks pretty, too! This week's C*O*W is a tender red velvet cake, that is filled with raspberry filling, topped off by a fluffy mound of traditional cream cheese frosting, a fresh raspberry and a mint leaf.

I have been wanting to try these tulip liners I ordered fron King Arthur Flour, and they worked perfectly! I have a tendancy to overfill my cupcake liners and with these, it didn't matter. Just made a taller cupcake. Nothing wrong with that! Let's see what my friends think.

What my friends said . . .

I love how you have the paper on the cupcakes. Is this parchment paper that you molded into the pan? I bet that was challenging - Carol

Delicious! I loved the raspberry filling and the presentation was amazing. Thank you! ~ Laura

Cupcake Cones C*O*W

I always wanted to make these when my son was little - and that would have been a better idea!

I baked the Funfetti cake inside and frosted them with vanilla buttercream and matching colored stars. Although these are cute, I think they are more appropriate for a kids birthday party than for adults used to getting "fancy stuff". I think I would have gotten a better response. I didn't get any positive feedback with this one.

:-{

I take that back - I did get a nice suprise this morning! Shaun shared his cupcake with his girlfriend Heather, and she took it to work at UCSD. Granted - hers was packaged differently. I used my overflow batter and bake 4 giant cupcakes. I split them, and layered them in a cup with strawberry filling and buttercream, then topped them off with another some more strawberry filling and piped a giant buttercream swirl on top. They liked it! Yippee!!! Welcome girls! Glad to have some new fans!! I'll try to get a picture of the "cuppie" to post - I think there is one left.

See you next Monday!

My new Cupcake Bank!

Cute, huh?! Now I have something official to put the C*O*W contributions in! I'll put it on my desk Monday . . .

Seriously Sinful Caramel Nut Brownies . . .OMG!

OMG these are good! And that is no lie! Ooey, gooey, messy squares of deliciousness. Super rich, and pairs wonderfully with a tall glass of cold milk! These brownies start out with a box of german chocolate cake mix, and hide a layer of chocolate chips and melted caramel. I know - these aren't COWs, but I don't think anyone will mind. We'll see!

What my friends thought . . .

Fred - "I just finished eating my Cow. Holy crap, that was good!"
Yadi (the Birthday Girl!) said it was her favorite of them all.
Laila has decided Mondays are her favorite day of the week.
Actually, everyone who had one loved them! A COW in any form is good, I guess!

Chocolate Covered Banana C*O*W

Feel like monkeying around? Then sink your teeth into this! Today's COW is a chocolate covered banana cupcake. Moist banana cake holds a a little surprise - sweet banana filling. Piled high with chocolate frosting and sprinkled with chopped nuts and crowned with a crisp banana chip . . . you'll think you're at the county fair!

It's Baaack! Hot Cha Cha Cappuccino Chip C*O*W

The winner of the favorite cupcake poll is making its return! "Hot Cha Cha Cappuccino Chip" is back.

Cappuccino chip cake frosted with mocha buttercream, sprinkled with mini chocolate chips, and drizzled with chocolate. Hope it was worth the wait!

Chai Latte C*O*W

Today's C*O*W is Chai Latte with White Chocolate Cinnamon Buttercream frosting. I thought they'd be so cute in their little red Asian-inspired wrappers with golden dragons. I sprinkled gold metallic sprinkles on top to match, but I'm dissapointed in the sprinkes. They look gold and sparkly in the bag! It's always something . . . .

The cupcakes were dipped in homemade caramel before frosting them I am keeping my fingers crossed that the icing doesn't slide off the caramel overnight on on the drive to work. It seemed to set up, but you never know. You can almost see the caramel in the photo if you look closely (and know what you're looking for).

Strawberry Field C*O*W

After not baking COWs for 2 weeks, I sort of struggled with what to do this week. I wanted to use my strawberry filling, so that pretty much made the decision simple.

So, I present to you this week's COW. Strawberry cake with strawberry filling piled high with vanilla buttercream icing. Sort of simple, but there you go!

I am liking these Debbie Meyer pans less and less with each use. Even with lowering my baking temp to 325 degrees, they still seem to burn the bottoms! I am convinced it is the dark surface of the pans. If I could only get the indentation gizmo to fit other pans, I'd be a happy baker.

"Hello, Yellow!" C*O*W

"Hello, Yellow!" Something simple this week . . . going old school with the all time favorite . . . luscious yellow cake generously frosted with homemade chocolate frosting. I did manage to hide some chocolate filling inside, though! This cake was always a popular choice for the good, old fashioned birthday cake. So they say, but I don't know by who. It certainly wouldn't be my favorite. My favorite birthday cake wasn't a cake at all, actually, it was (and still is) rhubarb pie!

I have so many different styles of cupcake papers, but I find myself always using the ones I like best, the brown wrappers. But, this time I decided to pick a "fancy" style. I find when you bake directly into these designed wrappers, though, that the cake shows through and sort of ruins the design of the papers. I decided to bake these cupcakes in my basic white glassine paper liners, and set those inside of the fancy ones. Works much better!

I also tried a new pan called the "Debbie Myer Cupcake Genius". It's a typical cupcake pan, but has a frame that fits over the top and bakes a cavity into each cupcake that you can fill with any kind of filling you'd like, from candy (think a mini peanut butter cup, rolo, etc.), chocolate chips, or your usual raspberry, lemon, or chocloate type fillings. Interesting idea. I usually use a pastry bag and bismark tip to fill them, but I was never sure I was getting enough in each cupcake. This way you know what you're doing!

What my friends thought . . .

Deanne said: "There's nothing like a classic. Thank you!"

German Chocolate C*O*W

I had several people suggest that I make a German Chocolate cupcake - so I did. And I'm glad I did - I LOVE the frosting! All from scratch - toasted pecans, toasted coconut and flaked coconut. The cake has German's sweet chocolate grated and added to the batter. I slpit them and put a layer of coconut pecan frosting and topped that with a layer of chocolate frosting, added the top half of the cake, and topped that with more coconut pecan frosting, a burst of chocolate frosting and a chocolate fudge fondant heart. These remind me of the Girls Scout cookies called Samoas. Dee-licious!

I decided to pack these individually in cups to prevent the layers from sliding off each other. I even made little flavor labels for the cups. Here they are, all line up and ready to go . . .

What my friends thought . . .

Fred said: "This one is now officially #2 after the Pineapple Upside-down COW"

Rhonda: "This is my 2nd favorite, after the Bananna-Rama" (I agree!)

Nousha and Laila: "This is definitely our favorite of all times!!"

Nancy thought it was one of the best desserts she'd had.

I think more people have loved this one than any of the others! The addition of the chocolate frosting was what put it over the top, I think. Definitely rich and decadant!

Home Grown Tomatoes!

Talk about your edible delectables!! Home grown tomatoes are definitely TOPS on my list! These luscious beauties were a heavenly gift from my friend Liz (I need to work on keeping her on my good side - I hear she has BASIL too!) I swear I will eat these until they are gone, non-stop, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I sliced these up and topped with goat cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. YUM! As you can see, I didn't like them much! ;-}

I think what makes these tomatoes extra special is the supervision they received from Angel Scooter. I have a feeling theirs is one garden that will have some extra love from above, for ever after.

Mint Brownie Cup C*O*W

So, for my second attempt at my weekly COW (see the In-edible Delectable post below) I made Mint Brownie Cups. These are moist fudge brownies, with a peppermint patty layer inside. I topped it with a swirl of fudge icing and a sliver of mint patty. Luckily, I only had to make a dozen COWs this week, so having to come up with a back-up COW wasn't too difficult.

In-Edible Delectable!

So much for my lovely C*O*W! I had such high hopes for my Salted Caramel Cupcakes! But, it was not to be - and this photo shows the best of the bunch! Even the caramel that was meant to swirled through the icing flopped. The sugar melted ok, but when I added the cream, theo whole thing turned into a giant hard ball of glop. What a waste of ingredients! :-{

Good thing I have a backup plan. On to the Mint Brownie cups . . .

Black Forest Brownie Pizza C*O*W

Ok, so not technically a COW, but close enough. This is a Black Forest Brownie Pizza - a deliciously moist brownie topped with a sweetened cream cheese layer and topped with cherries! Then the whole pie was drizzled with dark chocolate. I also made a Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Pizza, but sent that off with Linda and Colin. I remembered after they left that I hadn't take a photo . . . but they said it was yummy, and rich! It was the same chocolate brownie, but this one was topped with peanut butter filling, then a layer of chopped Reese's Peanut Butter cups, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips, and finally drizzled with melted peanut butter chips and dark chocolate.

What my friends thought . . .

Deanne - It may be a flat cow, but it's a great one!

Willy - Never had anything like this before. It was so beautiful to look at and the taste was out of this world. If you were going into business I certainly would order one for special occasion. Thanks for sharing your awesome creativity talents with your friends.

I made molten chocolate lava cakes for desert after our BBQ on the 4th with homemade fresh raspberry sauce and sweetened vanilla creme, too . . .

And the winner is . . . .

Hot Cha Cha Cappuchino Chip cupcakes!

Thank you to everyone who voted in the poll. Look for the winning cupcake to make an encore performance soon!

Banana-Rama C*O*W

Happy 4th of July! Celebrating the short work week with a Banana-Rama cupcake sporting festive stars and stripes wrappers. Start with a banana cupcake, plump it full of banana cream, and top it off with a billowing cloud of pure white vanilla buttercream sprinkled with red, white and blue decorettes. I couldn't decide if I wanted to fill this cupcake with banana cream or with strawberry filling, but the banana cream won out.

What my friends thought . . .

Fred said: t-------rific! This one is now officially #2 in my alltime favorites list...

Rhonda: This is my new favorite!

Janet thought they were too sweet.

You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate! C*O*W

Yum! Sink your teeth into this one!
A super moist triple chocolate fudge cupcake, bursting with peanut butter filling, topped with a generous helping of home-made chocolate frosting, then drizzled with peanut butter (yep, made that from scratch, too) , and crowned with a mini peanut butter cup.

*WARNING*

If you don’t like peanut butter – stay far, far away from this one!

What my friends thought . . .

Well - this one is proving to be very popular! I think the tons of frosting and peanut butter filling went over well with this one.