Springtime Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes today because this ideas is too cute and too creative to let pass. Making the birds nests was a little messy, but I love the end result. The blue Peeps are my nod to Easter and the "bird's egg" jelly beans are perfect.

Birds nest cupcakes with Peeps and eggs

Bird's nest with eggs

So these cupcakes aren't only cute, they are also tasty. The cupcakes are yellow cake, which is a nice simple palette to pile on the flavor.  The frosting is a light, fresh lemon buttercream frosting that is so flavorful it reminds me of sipping lemonade outside on a warm day. The birds nest is created from chocolate chow mein noodles, which are quite yummy all on their own. The overall effect is a layering of separate yet delicious flavors that are perfect for springtime.

Pineapple Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes are very tropical and fresh-tasking. The cupcakes are vanilla cupcakes soaked with pineapple juice. They are topped with pineapple buttercream that I made with crushed pineapples and pineapple juice. Biting into one of these cupcakes will send your tastebuds on a tropical vacation.

Who Built the Ark? I DID!

I am very excited to present to you my latest creation: A Noah's Ark Cake. Ta-dah! I made this cake for a friend's baby shower and was lucky enough to have her mom help me out with the baking because, as you can see, it was a lot of cake.  The cake itself is a coconut cake with a pineapple filling in the middle and coconut buttercream frosting on the outside. Very tropical and delicious.

This cake was very challenging to me. Not only was it a sculpted cake, I also had to cover a sheet cake larger than I've ever done before. I took a couple tries and the help of my husband and a friend, but we finally got it covered.  The ark was, of course, the most fun and the most challenging to make. I wanted to make sure it had a realistic look to it, so I added the wood grain texture and I cut planks instead of covering it in one solid sheet of brown fondant.

The animals were very fun, and I enjoyed picking out and bringing to life the animals I would have enjoyed seeing on the ark. It took me severals hours to create this masterpiece, and I'm sure I was just as proud as Noah was when he finished building his ark. The difference is, though, that in the end, I got to eat my ark.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Yumminess!

Reese's Peanut Butter cups are my all-time favorite candy. After a long, hard day when I crave something sweet to end the day on the right note, my go-to treat is always a peanut butter cup. The combination of sweet chocolate with savory peanut butter is hard to beat. That's why I just had to bake up some chocolate cupcakes this weekend when I came across a super simple and super delicious peanut butter frosting recipe this week.

I had to tweak the recipe a little (the original called for way too much sugar, in my opinion), and in the end, it came out so scrumptious, I ate way too many of these this weekend. This tried and true combination creates a simple and super delicious cupcake. YUM!