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!

Plenty of dodo moments while making my first cupcakes from scratch

Does this seem a little confusing to you? My first attempt at making cupcakes presented a problem. By the way, totally copied Bakerella's idea here...did you see how she wrote "help" in flour in a recent post? What a creative way to gain reader interest on your blog! I thought I'd try something like it to display my math problem. The conundrum was this: My recipe called for 4 ounces of dark chocolate, chopped. Thinking I would save time, I bought a bag of dark chocolate chips (Hershey's Special Dark-it came highly recommended by America's Test Kitchen). As I began to make the recipe (posted below) and measured 4 ounces of chips, I realized the recipe was calling for 4 ounces in weight and I was measuring 4 ounces in volume in my measuring cup. To spare you all of the details, here's how I solved it...basically I had to figure out how many ounces in volume equaled 1/2 a cup. As you can see, on the side I wrote, "brain hurts...call it 1/3 cup."

Okay, disaster averted. Let's continue with the recipe. I like that I didn't have to use my hand mixer, although my arm didn't like it.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Newton Cupcakes - adapted from America's Test Kitchen

16 T (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped OR 1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips :)
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature (I wasn't prepared, so I followed Test Kitchen's tip to cover the eggs in hot water-not boiling-and let stand for about 10 minutes. Seemed to work great!)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
24 raspberry newtons

After preheating the oven to 350 and preparing your cupcake pan, microwave the butter, chocolate, and cocoa together. I put it in increments of 20 seconds and whisked after each time. To get smooth it takes 1-3 minutes. Let it cool off to the side.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in sugar until combined.

Whisk in the warm-to-the-touch chocolate mixture. Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the batter, then whisk it in.

Whisk in the sour cream. Sift the remaining flour mixture over the batter and whisk until completely mixed. Batta will be thick. Put a raspberry newton in the bottom of each cupcake cup. Fill your cupcake cups about 2/3 full. Love this tip: "Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the cupcake comes out with a few crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking." (America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)

Makes 24 of these delicious cupcakes (seen below)...or you can half the recipe. These would be great as minis because they are rich!

*A variation I tried that I thought was yummy...put about 15 raspberry newtons in your blender or food processor. Whisk this in after you whisk in the remaining flour mixture. They turned out pretty good...tasted like raspberry-chocolate newtons! You've gotta like 'em a lot though.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Frosting - adapted from America's Test Kitchen

8 ounces melted semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch salt

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 T cocoa powder

1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen, thawed

Add the vanilla extract and salt to the melted chocolate. Stir to dissolve salt. Beat the butter with a mixer on med-hi speed until smooth, about a minute. Reduce speed to med-low and slowly add confectioner's sugar. Beat in the cocoa powder, then beat in the raspberries. Beat until smooth, 2-5 minutes. Beat in the chocolate mixture (I had to heat it up again for about 15 seconds). Increase speed to med-high and beat until fluffy, 4-6 minutes. My fave part was this frosting-delish!

Note to Self: Clean the kitchen as you go along. (I know this is ridiculous, but who wants to be bothered with cleaning when you are creating???)

Red Creme Soda Cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake: Earth April Challenge

I have been so excited to create these cupcakes since I first heard the Iron Cupcake: Earth cupcake challenge was soda pop! (They challenge bakers each month with a new ingredient. Check out their site at http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/)

To decorate the cupcake, I put Barq's Red Creme Soda in the bottom of a glass, and cherries for added decor. I dropped the cupcake in the mug, letting the creme soda soak the very bottom of the cupcake. Next, I piped the frosting to look like ice cream using a 1A decorating tip. Finally, I wolfed it down with a fork! I LOVE anything cherry. I also added a straw so I could sip some of the red creme soda from the bottom. It's my favorite soda pop, after all, which is where I got the inspiration for my cupcakes. In our house, we love to make red creme soda floats, hence the decorating idea.

As for the contest, I thought I had until the end of the month to make and submit my cupcake...turns out it was due today at noon CENTRAL time! Yikes, I'm in mountain time, which means 11 AM! This morning I went as fast as I could (I even had to use a cake mix in the recipe-probably a huge blunder for iron cupcake!) and finished my creation on time-BARELY! I love how light and moist they turned out. Next time, I'd definitely make my own white cake, which was the original plan. Next time I need to pay more attention to the deadlines...but that's typical of me-I'm such a procrastinator!

Red Creme Soda Cupcakes

1 white cake mix (or a white cake from scratch and skip the water, oil and whole eggs)
1 c water
1/3 c oil
3 whole eggs
1/4 c Barq's Red Creme Soda
1 T Stasero cherry syrup

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare cupcake (muffin) pans by spraying cooking spray (I use Baker's Joy) or lining with baking liners. Stir cake mix, water, oil, and eggs until moistened. Add red creme soda and cherry syrup. Beat with a mixer on low speed for 2 minutes. Fill each part of the cupcake pan/liners 2/3 full. Bake about 16 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few crumbs attached to it. This time is for 12 cupcakes.

Red Creme Soda Frosting - Adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Quick and Rich Vanilla Frosting

2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 T Stasero cherry syrup
1 T Barq's Red Creme Soda
15 maraschino cherries (you could just do 2/3 cup)

Stir the cream, vanilla, and salt together in a small bowl. Beat the butter on med-high speed until smooth. Reduce speed to med-low. Add the confectioners' sugar slowly and beat until smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

Beat in the cream mixture. Add cherry syrup, red creme soda, and cherries. Beat on high to puree the cherries. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.

I'm competing to win the following prizes!

Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ .

Where the Wild Things Are Cupcake Tower

Here's a pic of the (shortened) cupcake tower I made for Max's first birthday party. My inspiration came from blue cupcake's cupcake tower that was inspired by the book. Check out her cupcake towers, they are amazing!

http://bluecupcakebyjulie.blogspot.com/2009/03/cupcake-towers.html

Making the Cake:
The "king of the wild things" cake I created was a little difficult, but it was fun to make. I used a 6x4 inch cake pan to bake a chocolate cake mix (didn't have time on Max's day to bake from scratch!). I lost track of baking time as usual (I promise to have more clear recipes in the future!), but I used the toothpick test to make sure it was done. When the toothpick came out clean, I took it out of the oven. I know this cake can be improved upon, but I used graham crackers to make the top of the crown. I took a square piece and cut it gently with a knife diagonally. Then I flipped it to make the crown pieces.




The graham crackers I used were really flaky and broke easily, but I managed to get enough pieces to make the cake work. I frosted the cake first (forgetting to dye the frosting gold-oops!) and put a lot of frosting on top and around the top. I frosted around the entire graham cracker piece with a small butter knife and stuck it on the cake. I continued until the crown was complete. I added frosting where needed and tried to smooth it out. Finally, I added dusting crystals, but it didn't cover the whole thing like I wanted. The frosting wasn't smooth enough and it was hard to add to the side of the cake. I would frost and dust the cake first next time. It would be hard to dust the frosting on the crackers before you stuck them on because you have to touch it and it will get messy. Ideas, anyone? I also really wanted to add "they made him king of the wild things" to the cake somehow, but didn't quite get to it.

Monster Cupcakes: These monster cupcakes were inspired by the ones on blue cupcake's cupcake tower. Since I haven't used fondant (yet!) I decided to create my own version using cashews, lemonheads (with the eyes drawn on with edible markers), and slivered almonds. Aren't the paper cups cute? I got them at a fabulous cooking store, Orson Gygi.

To decorate with frosting, I used tip #12 round and piped it up. (Is that the right term? I'm still learning, here!) After the party, I got around to creating the monster that has hair in the book (see below). I used tip #233 multi-opening. Isn't he funny? Obviously, I need to practice using that tip some more. And now for the recipe...

Old Fashioned Applesauce Spice Cupcakes - adapted from a Duncan Hines (r) Cakebox Recipe

1 package spice cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe)

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups applesauce

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare cupcake pan by adding paper liners (or greasing). Combine cake mix, eggs, applesauce, and oil in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into cupcake liners, 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting - adapted from my mom's vanilla buttercream frosting recipe http://www.potsandpins.com/blog/2008/03/sugar-cookies-f.html

1/2 cup butter, softened (do not substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
powdered sugar (approximately 4 to 5 cups)

Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add vanilla, milk, salt, and cinnamon. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and blend, adding more powdered sugar to get the consistency you want. (To pipe the frosting, you'll want at least 4 cups total. You want it thick.)

After you taste it, you may want to add more cinnamon and blend again.

Max cupcakes: To decorate this cupcake, I used tip #22 star, and the cupcake toppers my mom made.
To make this cupcake, I used a lemon cake mix, but I did make the frosting from scratch. If you love lemon, you will LOVE this frosting!

Lemon Buttercream Frosting - adapted from my mom's vanilla buttercream frosting recipe http://www.potsandpins.com/blog/2008/03/sugar-cookies-f.html

1/2 cup butter, softened (do not substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest from 1 lemon
powdered sugar (approximately 4 to 5 cups)

Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add vanilla, milk, salt, and lemon zest. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and blend, adding more powdered sugar to get the consistency you want. (To pipe the frosting, you'll want at least 4 cups total. Just keep adding a cup at a time until it is thick enough.)