Trophy Cupcakes...where it all started!

This was the first gourmet cupcake spot I ever visited...well, the location in Seattle anyway! I've been in Washington on vacay and I had to go to Trophy where my cupcake obsession began! They have a chic new spot in the Bravern in Bellevue. (By the new Nieman Marcus...which was fab, but I felt very out of place!) I love their colors (they are the colors I decorated my bedroom with!) and I LOVE their cupcakes! The frosting is so stinkin' delish (in a good smelling way)! Seriously, I don't like ANYTHING chocolate, and I was devouring their chocolate frosting. My favorite is of course their lemon-it made me forget ANY cupcake I'd ever had. It is the best cake- the moistest, yummiest cake ever. To the question cake or frosting, I would usually choose frosting, but this was a toss-up. Of course, I still need to try Cupcake Royale while I'm here...

My favorite cupcake

I've said a lot of cupcakes are my favorite, but this one still is. My husband brought it home from Mini's the other day! What a guy. I'm so glad they opened a store near his office! What really makes me buy a cupcake is fillings. This lemon mirengue pie cupcake is perfect. Mmmm. I want one now!

I have lots of fun cupcakes that I am ready to bake-I just need to find the time! I've been so busy with my photography biz. I still plan on learning to cook...so far, not much progress. I'm excited to go to Seattle this week and learn from my mom ! (You'd think I'd have learned growing up, but no, I was too busy socializing!)

Scrumptious Starburst Cake

I must admit, this is my favorite recipe so far...it was so delicious! I've had this idea in my mind for awhile, so I was thrilled when my husband signed me up to bring dessert to his work party a few months ago.

Since it was awhile ago, the doughdough is having a hard time remembering the recipes. Oops. I did figure it out though. Trust me, this cake is so good. And easy!

Lemon Cake

1 box Pillsbury Golden Butter Recipe Yellow Cake Mix

1 cup water

1/3 cup softened butter

3 eggs

1 small box lemon instant pudding

1/2 cup applesauce

Make the cake with the instructions on the box. (Or make any yellow cake.) Add 1 box of lemon instant pudding and 1/2 cup applesauce. The applesauce makes the cake super moist! Bake the cake in 2 8x8x2 square pans. I bought the pan at Orson Gygi; I only have one, I baked the cakes separately. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached.

Raspberry whipped cream frosting

Fresh raspberries

Junket Danish Dessert Raspberry Pudding/Pie Filling/Glaze (use the recipe on the box for fruit sauce. Any type of raspberry sauce would work great.)

Whipped Cream: 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 T sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix ingredients on low until sugar dissolved. Beat on high until soft peaks form. I use this recipe from America's Test Kitchen cookbook.

All I did was combine the ingredients to make a raspberry whipped cream filling to go in between the two square cakes. Make the fruit filling first, add the fresh raspberries and add extra sugar to taste. Then mix with whipped cream.

Lemon Whipped Cream Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup heavy whipped cream

1 cup softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

Rind from 1 lemon

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Beat the butter until smooth in a separate bowl. Add the whipped cream and vanilla to the butter. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar and lemon rind. You've got yourself some delicious frosting! It tastes like frosting with an aftertaste of whipped cream. Or vice versa. I can't remember which, but it was awesome! Some of my husband's friends kept sticking their fingers in the bowl after I frosted the cake at his work party!

Decorating: Frost the cake with the lemon whipped cream buttercream frosting. Then decorate the top with Starburst! It took awhile, but it was worth it! It was the talk of the party! I had originally planned on covering the whole cake, but I didn't have enough Starburst. I think it turned out super cute just having the top covered!

Note to Self: Blog about recipes right after I make them...it will make things easier on me and my readers!

Beef Cupcakes...It's What's for Dinner!

I truly did not wake up this morning and think, "I'm going to make a meatloaf cupcake today!" It was totally a whim.

I'm not a huge meatloaf fan, but my aunt Joni gave me a recipe a long time ago that I actually liked and remembered when attempting to plan meals this week. I really don't like onions in meatloaf or burgers, though, so I thought I'd change up the recipe. As I was getting out my broiler pan for the meatloaf, I saw the cupcake pan, and that was that, we were having cupcakes for dinner. Then inspiration struck as I remembered the IronCupcake: Earth July challenge was herbs! And so my basil meatloaf "cupcake" was born!

I'm a little unclear as to whether my "cupcake" will pass for IronCupcake, but it has oats and eggs in it, it looks like a cupcake, it has "frosting," and it has herbs, so why not?! I guess it isn't really cake based, it's meat based. That sounds gross...they really were delicious though! I'l admit when I think of a delicious cupcake and then think of a meatcake, it makes my stomach turn a little...

Oh, and a WARNING! You need to refrigerate these cupcakes! haha.

I now look at my pictures and laugh...I guess beefcakes are a little crazy...but hey, I get points for creativity! I should have made my french fry cupcakes for dessert!

The meatloaf cupcake is made with ground beef, oats, eggs, ketchup, and basil, plus a couple other things. The "frosting" is SO good! You glaze it on and bake it. It's made of ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar! The fam loved it.

P.S. If you think I'm crazy now, wait until you see Monday's post!!!

Meatloaf or Beefcakes... Makes 2 loaves or approx. 24 meatcakes

2 lbs. ground chuck

3/4 c uncooked quick cooking oats

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

4-5 basil leaves finely sliced into small pieces

1/2 c ketchup

1/4 c milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Topping/ "Frosting"

1/2 c ketchup

3 T brown sugar

2 teaspoons prepared mustard

Combine ingredients in large bowl. Shape into 2 (7 1/2 x 4 in.) loaves or balls that will fit in a cupcake pan. Place loaves on a lightly greased rack in broiler pan, or in a cupcake pan. Bake loaves at 350 for 40 minutes. Bake meatcakes 25 minutes. Take them out and put in a broiler pan to cook the rest of the 40 minutes.

For either type: Combine topping ingredients and spoon over meatloaf; bake 15 more minutes or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees.

Okay, so this picture is TOTALLY a buzzkill on your appetite! But remember, you can still use the recipe for regular meatloaf, and it's a good one! I guess there is a reason you are supposed to cook meatloaf in a broiler pan! And okay, the picture below doesn't make you say, "give me a meatcake with fat baked around the edges!" But am I at least getting some laughs?

So Cupcake

If you haven't tried So Cupcake yet, you've got to go! 3939 South Highland Drive in Salt Lake City. It is such a cute store with tons of tasty flavors to try! I bought the one below for my aunt's birthday...and forgot to drop it off. It ended up a huge melted mess in my car and I'm just realizing now I never brought anything for her birthday. Oh my. What a terrible waste of an awesome cupcake!

Below are some of the colorful selections! Visit their website at www.socupcake.com!
They also have really cute cupcake things for sale...I loved these cards!
They have a fun board with polaroids and "SO..." written on them. And a great pic of their cute daughter meeting Emeril! She's an example to me of following your dreams!
LOVE their open sign! SO clever. haha.

DJ Par-tay

It's about time I post about my husband's birthday, considering it was 2 months ago! So I threw a surprise party for him since he is the funniest person to scare. I pretty much pulled it off, although he said thinking back on it he had some hints. He used to "DJ" in college...as a matter of fact, the first time I met him he had on headphones and he couldn't hear me say hello to him. Little did he know I'd be after him. haha. So above is the turntable cake I made for him. I used a Costco cake, lots of black frosting (that looks purple-gray...does anyone know how to get frosting really black?), a twizzler rope, a black plate for the record with my husband's picture on it, and a round cake underneath the record. The other pieces are fondant covered in frosting.

Here's some of the decor that I threw together...I decided for sure like 2 days before that I was going to do the party.

Of course a party wouldn't be a party without cupcakes! I created a cupcake tower to go with the turntable cake. I used two black trays and plastic "champagne" glasses. I found the disco balls at a party store...they were keychains, I just took the keychain part off. The other cupcakes are headphones and records.

Couple of doughdough moments...I really wanted to make a disco ball cupcake. I'd seen some examples online and here's what mine turned out like. Lovely. Don't use marshmallow creme as frosting...it drips right off! And obviously the foil covered party mints did not stay close to each other. What was I thinking?!I have the hardest time in the kitchen because I don't do things in an orderly fashion! As I was making my record cupcakes, I ran out of cakesters when I knew I had lots left! I spent so much time looking through the pantry and through the mess in my kitchen over and over again. I finally gave up thinking I'd just make more of another kind. Well, the next time I threw something away, guess what I found?

Above is the headphone cupcake made from tootsie rolls.
I made the records from smashed sides of Oreo cakesters and mini marshmallows. Later I discovered something easier to make record cupcakes with-Oreo makes a new cookie and as usual, I can't remember what they are called. But you can see below I turned it upside down and plopped it on white frosting.