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.

Pineapple Upside-Down C*O*W

This was fun - at least the first batch! Cute pan, isn't it? And mine came out exactly like the ones on the advertisement photo. The pan makes 6 little cakes at a time. I needed 24. So - the fun wore off after the second round of washing the pan, regreasing, and repeating 4 times. After the obligatory 24 were baked, there was still batter left, so I really ended up doing 30. But after I was all done, they looked so cute, all those little pineapples on my counter! I now await comments . . .

What my friends said . . .

I can't believe how many people said pineapple upside-down cake is their favorite cake! Who knew?? The cute little pineapple shapes were a big hit too - made the price of the pan worthwhile afterall!

Cookies 'n Cream C*O*W

It's finally here! Tuesday, June 2, on my doorstep courtesy of Amazon.com's preorder opportunity, was my brand new, just released copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. YAY! So many cupcakes - so little baking time. We need more weekends. :-}
I had aleady decided that for this week I wanted to do a cookies 'n cream cupcake so I went with those, but I decided to try a new frosting. I have read about this in alot of different places, so I decided to make vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Yum! it tastes like ice cream. Really smooth. I added crushed Oreos to it, to match my flavor of cupcake. I can't wait to try other flavors, and more of the recipies from the book. And, what you can't se from the picture - they are wearing cute zebra print cupcake papers!

I did make something for me, this weekend (since I rarely keep any cupcakes home). Rhubarb! I just made a simple rhubarb sauce, since I didn't want to mess with a pie crust, or making cookie bars. This way I get straight rhubarb, anyway.
Did I mention I bought the ice cream freezer attachment for my KitchenAid mixer? I also bought a used copy of the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Desserts cookbook online, and made a batch of New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream for Scott. Tasted just like theirs! My next recipe will be a sorbet for me, I think. If I remember, I'll snap a photo next time he's eating.
Well, till next week . . . . .

What my friends thought . . .

. . . have you secretly taken out an insurance policy on our lives? these are really decadent!

. . . Fabulous, as always. I especially liked the cookie surprise at the end!

Rhonda hated the frosting. But, Julie and Carol both loved the frosting!

Seems overall consensus is the Hot Cha Cha Cappuchino Chip cupcakes are still the favorite.

Cappuchino Chip C*O*W

This week I snagged a cupcake from a friend (you'll know who you are!), but as it should be, they pale in comparison to hers - at least in the decoration department. I do love the cupcake wrappers, though. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough to tase one, myself. That is probably a bad idea, actually - I really should try them, shouldn't I?? Oh well.

I'm calling these Hot Cha Cha Cappuchino Chip with Mocha Buttercream, from the Cupcake Doctor book. I decorated them with little chocolate fondant flowers. The fondant tastes just like Tootsie Rolls - yummy!

What my friends thought . . .

. . . Up until today, the lemon was my favorite. I'm partial to coffee flavored things and this was fantastic!

. . . Delicious. You are a super baker and a super person!