Johnny Cupcakes

No blog devoted to cupcakes would be worth it's icing sugar without paying homage to Johnny Cupcakes. Now this guy doesn't actually make cupcakes, but he has fantastic t-shirts (and more) that always have some cupcake related thing on them. Some of the designs are limited and become quite the collectors item. You can shop for his stuff online, or if you're in the Boston area you can stop by his flagship store.

I totally wish he made aprons!! Maybe someday :D

fluffy/fudgy/crispy

Kyle, my good friend from College gave me the following challenge

"Make me a chocolate cupcake that is nice and fluffy with a bit of a crisp top (not burnt) BUT FUDGY in the middle! That's the shit I'm after"

So now I've been really thinking about how I can make this a reality. I promised him that once it was developed I would send him a sample. I'll probably have to let him name it too I suppose. For the top I'm thinking kind like the top of coffee cake would be really nice, but the fluffy/fudgy combo is making me scrath my head! So far all I could think of was doing a regular chocolate cupcake batter and dropping a teaspoon of brownie batter in the middle before baking, but I think it'll sink to the bottom. I don't want to cut the tops because if I use the coffee cake idea the cake will pretty much be exposed and it'll look kinda frankensteinish!

If anyone has any idea's on way's I can make this work let me know, I'd totally apprecieate it! <3

Blue Q & Fionna Hewitt

Blue Q has a line called "Miso Pretty" and in it is this fantastic cupcake flavoured lip gloss!

Also worth noting is the artist who's responsible for the illustrations on Miso Pretty's packaging. Fiona Hewitt's art is fun and whimsical and of course she has a great print called "cupcakes" for £150!

If that's a little out of your price range you can pre-order the journal from Chronicle Books (I'm totally doing it right now!!)

I also bought a piping bag, tips and a new muffin tin last night so no more glad bag's for me and I'll be able to cut my baking time way down! YAY ME!!

Raspberry Cupcakes

So I made some raspberry cupcakes to use up the rest of the marshmallow icing from the S'mores cupcake recipe. I found a good vanilla cupcake recipe at 52 Cupcakes and just adjusted it. Adjustments are in PINK

Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes Makes about 30 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (I used 1% milk)
1 single serving cup of raspberry yogurt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup of frozen raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour. I don't have a mixer with a paddle attachment (boo hoo!) so I sifted the dry ingredients and than tossed them in my Braun mixer.

2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla and raspberry yogurt. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Add the frozen raspberries.

3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes. I ended up baking them for 25 minutes. I'm also lucky enough to have a convection oven so rotating wasn't necessary.

4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature. I just piped icing onto them with the good ole Glad bag and garnished them with a fresh raspberry.

TAAA DAAAA!!

Pancake Meow

Aren't these the cutest little things you've ever seen?

Leslie over at Pancake Meow makes the cutest little scented food charms out of polymer clay. Unfortunately the cupcakes are currently "out of stock", which basically means she's up to her eyeballs in orders already. Good for her! Keep your eye out for when she's taking orders again on these little treats cause it's her most popular item!

Welcome to "Little Miss Cupcakes" <3

Hi all,

I've recently been on a cupcake frenzy and I've decided this is something that I'm getting pretty passionate about. I've decided to start up this space for all good things in cupcakery. I'll be posting cupcakes I've tried baking/eating, links to other cupcake aficionados and cupcake related merchandise. Basically a shrine to all things cupcake.

So to start things off I'd like to show you what I made this past week.

I've been on the hunt for a great S'mores cupcake recipe for over a month now (the first attempt was a horrible failure!). I found one last week that looked perfect at Sew Darn Cute and decided to give it a try.

Check them out, I think they turned out really pretty! The neighbours thought I bought them.

Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix in wet ingredients. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let the cupcakes cool completely before icing them. (Makes 2 dozen)

Marshmallow Icing

Ingredients
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
16 oz. tub of marshmallow cream

Cream the butter on high until it's light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until fluffy each time. Beat in the vanilla until incorporated. Then dump in the Fluff and mix it up 'til it's all creamy. Transfer to pastry bag (if desired) and pipe onto cupcakes! (You can also cut the corner off a Ziploc bag and use that instead, which is totally what I did!)

Garnish with Graham Cracker crumbs and a Hershey chocolate.

I halved the amount of butter and sugar found in the original recipe for the icing cause it didn't taste marshmallowy enough for me and it was FAR too much icing for only 20 cupcakes. Of course you could always go with Sew Darn Cute's original icing recipe, but a pound of butter just seems a tad too much don't cha think?

Another S'mores cupcake recipe can be found at chockylit's blog. It looks fantastic, but also looks like a lot more work! Maybe for another day. I have to find another recipe to use the rest of this marshmallow icing on...I'm thinking something with raspberries maybe.

I also just discovered 52 Cupcakes today, this lady (The Cupcake Queen) is the bee's knees! She's totally inspired me to have a weekly project, maybe not cupcakes, but something...I'll have to try and figure out what that something is.