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.