A new adventure!

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog. What has been keeping me busy besides being a mom? I am excited to announce that I have teamed up with my friend Kim to start our own online cupcake business! Vanilla Gourmet Cupcakes is the name.

The site is still under construction but we hope to have it completed soon.

You can also find us on Facebook!

Come on over and like us!

We have received an overwhelming response to our new venture and we are very grateful to everyone who has referred us! We are enjoying every minute of it!

Superbowl

It was all about the black and yellow. Too bad they lost. Well not really, but that's besides the point.

We were invited to a friend's superbowl party and they are HUGE Steelers fans. So, I had to make Steelers cupcakes. I used a Guinness cupcake recipe for this and made a brown sugar buttercream. 
These are my circles made out of fondant which I put on top of the iced cupcakes.

I then combined chocolate sprinkles and yellow sanding sugar and added it to the cupcakes.

Then I added the finishing touches.

Holy Chipotle!

Who would have thought to pair chocolate and chipotle together? What an amazing combination. This cupcake has just the right amount of heat which doesn't hit you until a few chews in. I went to my local Chilly Chiles in Navan to pick up some chipotle powder and Mexican chocolate and this is what I came back with:

Now the chocolate was more for making a chocolate drink, but it was all they had in terms of Mexican chocolate. So I used that. It was a bit grainy when I was melting it but overall it worked out quite well. Although, I will use a different type of Mexican chocolate the next time around.

For the chocolate chipotle cupcake, I used the recipe off of Bakerella's website for her Fire & Ice cupcakes. You can get the recipe here. I omitted the 2 tablespoons of chipotle peppers so if you like spicy, add it in.

For the icing, I melted the Mexican chocolate and some butter together. I let that cool.
I then whipped up some butter and icing sugar to make a buttercream type icing. I added the cooled chocolate and a tsp of cinnamon. Sooooo yummy and a great accompaniment to the cupcake.

Here are pictures of the final product.

Notice the cactus?

Birthday Cupcakes!

I was asked to make some cupcakes for a friend's son's birthday. As you can tell from the photos, he was turning 25! I remember 25 like it was 10 years ago....

I decided to make some peanut butter and jam cupcakes as well as red velvet. It was my first attempt at the PB&J and thankfully they tasted great!

Here are some photos....

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Strawberry Jam Filling

Up close and personal.

Peanut Butter & Jam Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

The "25" is made out of fondant tinted orange.

Red Velvet with White Chocolate Circles and Cream Cheese Frosting

On Display!

A Tower of Deliciousness!