Love: cupcakes and weddings

chocolate raspberry, vanilla, and pumpkin cupcakes

Alright, so I'm a little behind (like about a month) and I can't believe I completely forgot to post about a wedding I was honored to be a part of! It was my friends Samantha and Shane's wedding, and it was absolutely beautiful! It was a fall themed wedding, so a fall-flavored cupcake was a must! We finally decided on vanilla cupcakes, chocolate raspberry cupcakes, and pumpkin cupcakes with maple buttercream. Also, I made an 8inch red velvet cake as their cutting cake. Soooo after 5 batches of vanilla cupcakes, 5 batches of chocolate cupcakes, 1 batch of raspberry filling, 4 batches of pumpkin cupcakes, 15-ish (I lost count...) batches of swiss meringue buttercream, one red velvet cake, a few many hours, plus all the bridesmaid duties I successfully made and frosted over 350 cupcakes! Luckily, I had a pretty great assistant for some of the filling and frosting! Thanks Tracy :) I secretly think she just didn't want to help decorate the reception...haha...oh well, I'll take it!

The beautiful bride and me!

my wonderful assistant (and the maid of honor) Tracy and me

I'm sharing the pumpkin cupcake recipe, which would be a great treat during these crisp fall days, or as a nice change in pace for a Thanksgiving dessert. It is moist like a pumpkin cupcake should be, with a little extra spice, and finished perfectly with the smooth, creamy, and sweet maple buttercream. It was a bit of a challenge to make these cupcakes, as I realized a month before the wedding that there was a national pumpkin shortage. Hmmm...luckily I have a pretty awesome grandma, who scoured her town to find me some....and bought me about twice as many cans as asked for...so needless to say, I'm stocked for awhile! But no worries, I've heard that the shelves are once again stocked with pumpkin!

vanilla cupcakes decorated with sunflowers

red velvet cutting cake

cake table

Pumpkin Cupcakes (adapted from this recipe by David Leite)
Make 2 dozen


4 oz (1 stick) butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I use fresh ground)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup pumpkin


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line pans with cupcake liners.
Beat the butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until fluffy. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt and black pepper. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the mixer. Add the vanilla to the buttermilk and alternately add the flour mixture and milk mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Add the pumpkin and mix until just incorporated. Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 full, they will not rise very much. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.


Maple Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 sticks plus 2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (quality is key!)


See this post for instructions, adding the maple syrup instead of the vanilla.


Once cupcakes are cooled, frost with the buttercream and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.


Enjoy, and take a bite!

Snickerdoodle....Cupcakes!

Nothing is better than a warm, spicy snickerdoodle cookies....except maybe that in Cupcake form! I had to make treats for a winner of a fun contest at work and make treats for a sorority alumnae function. I found this recipe from Martha Stewart's website and tweaked it a little. I think adding the almond extract made the flavor a little more nutty. And, it was just the right amount of cinnamon to add a little something, and everybody seemed to love them!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

makes 24(ish) cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp cinnamon

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare your muffin tins by using liners or spraying with cooking spray.

Sift first five ingredients together in a medium bowl. In your mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add 4 eggs, one at a time scraping down the bowl often. Add the extracts and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and milk alternately, beating well after each addition.

Fill liners 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.

After cooled, frost with desired frosting. I used SMBC with a hint of cinnamon added in.

Enjoy, and take a bite!

These cupcakes are the only pictures I got of this recipe--decorated for my sorority's alumnae function with our symbols--a kite and a pansy!

Strawberry Season!

I made this Pink Lady cake with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream a few weeks ago for a potluck at work, probably a little ahead of prime strawberry season...but I just couldn't wait!! Now (at least in Minnesota and Iowa) strawberries are at their peak! This recipe was adapted from Sky High, and I changed it mainly because it called for 8 egg whites, but I didn't have enough eggs and didn't want to run to the store. I thought it might turn out a little too dense, but it didn't! It was not light and airy like it maybe was intended to be...but it had a nice crumb, was moist and had a delicious strawberry flavor! The color was also really nice (with the help of some red food coloring!) I will definitely try and find another occasion to make this cake for!

the cake

4 1/2 cups cake flour

3 cups sugar

5 1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups pureed fresh strawberries (frozen can also be used if desired)

4 whole eggs

2/3 cup milk

red food coloring (to enhance the color)

Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Grease three 9-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper and grease the paper. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix with electric mixer. Beat on medium until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla together and add in three increments to dry ingredients, blending well after each addition. Divide among prepared pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes and remove from pans onto wire racks to cool completely.

the frosting

Use the recipe for swiss meringue buttercream found in this post, and add 1/3 cup pureed strawberries at the end.

Once cake layers are completely cool, level off the tops with a serrated knife. Place one layer, cut side down on a cake circle or plate. Add enough frosting to make a decent sized layer and spread. Continue with the next two layers. On the top layer, add the rest of the frosting and spread it on the top and down the sides of the cake. If desired, you can make swirls or designs in the frosting with your metal spatula. Also fresh cut strawberries can be used for decoration.

Enjoy, and take a bite!

Wedding Bliss!

the cake stands on each table

Brooke and I with some cupcakes :)

So it's been a while since my last post, but I have a good reason! I was preparing for, making, and decorating cupcakes for a wedding I did the weekend before last (April 9)....then I guess I was just in recovery mode last week ;) The cupcake baking went really smoothly....the filling not so much...but the decorating went better than I expected! Everything ended up turning out fine! Even the two hour drive only caused a few cupcake fatalities :) I was so blessed to be making these cupcakes for my sister's (and my) friend Brooke. She was a beautiful bride and it brings me joy that I could help make her special day complete!

the "cake table"

The cupcakes I made were:

White chocolate raspberry with swiss meringue buttercream (top)

Chocolate mocha with mocha filling and frosting (bottom right)

Red Velvet with buttercream and chocolate ganache (bottom left)

my apartment cupcake operation :)

I'm going to share my swiss meringue buttercream recipe on my blog. I was definitely scared to make this because I had tried it once before and failed, but after reading in depth about it I realized what I thought was failure was actually supposed to happen :) So, take my word for it...it's not as hard as it looks.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

will frost 24 cupcakes or a double layer round cake

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla (or other flavoring)

Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in a metal bowl (I use my metal bowl that goes with my Kitchen-Aid mixer) and place over a double boiler.

Continue whisking and heat until the sugar is dissolved and not grainy....I feel it between my fingers. Place bowl on the mixer (or transfer to your mixing bowl) and use the whisk attachment to beat the egg whites and sugar until white and approximately double in volume.

The mixture should stay in place when you remove the whisk from the bowl (but not to stiff peaks). Switch to the paddle attachment. Cut the sticks of butter into pieces, and add it about a stick at a time and keep beating! It is ESSENTIAL that the butter is at room temperature. If it isn't, it will not incorporate correctly! When you're adding the butter is the time that it might look a little soupy and gross.

DON'T THROW IT OUT, JUST KEEP BEATING!! It might also look a little "bubbly" but it will eventually come together and be smooth, buttery, velvety, etc...all those good things!

Mine took only 3-4 minutes to come together, but on some websites I was researching it on, I read it could take up to 10 minutes! Just be patient, and you'll be rewarded :)

Enjoy, and take a bite!