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Countdown to the 4th!

Here’s a quick look at last year’s 4th of July cupcakes I made for a BBQ at my sister’s BF’s place! (which has a great vantage point for viewing NYC fireworks!)

The cakes were vanilla, and topped with vanilla buttercream. Last year’s 4th was a scorcher, and frosting these guys was a real challenge, if you look close you can see these guys were already a bit melty! But, they were quite a hit at the BBQ. They actually never got officially served. I was keeping them cool in a corner in the kitchen, and people kept grabbing them as they passed through!

Frosting & heat don’t get along at all, which is why you let cupcakes fully cool before frosting. This is one of my excuses for the lack of activity here at The Cupcake Files. It’s really been too hot to bake cupcakes as of late, however I have had a VERY successful cheesecake and blueberry pie emerge from my kitchen. Hopefully one day we’ll have central air and I can continue my cupcake baking in all kinds of weather.

Heat aside though, if you’ve been following my other blog, Titus Road, you’ll know I’ve been quite busy with home improvements, and haven’t had much time for cupcake making.

Excuses aside, I do have grand plans for some cupcakes for this holiday weekend.. If I can bring myself to make my plan less grand, there’s a chance they may actually happen, but we are in the middle of installing a sliding door in our dining room, and building rather sizable deck, not sure if I’ll be able to squeeze baking into this holiday weekend!

Posted in Holidays

Countdown to Easter – Pt. 1

Apr 18

Posted by Corinne

With Easter rapidly approaching, and me not yet quite sure what kind of cupcake I’ll be making for the holiday, I thought I’d revisit a few I have made in the past.

Vanilla with Green-tinted Buttercream

I made the cupcakes pictured above for Easter 2009. These were vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. I tinted the frosting a light green and topped it with green-tinted shredded coconut. The “basket” handles were rainbow-colored twizzlers, and they were filled with bunny & chick peeps, and I believe speckled egg M&Ms. (They’re definitely not the Cadbury Mini Eggs… but I do love those!!)

I’m not quite sure where I went with all those cupcakes! Usually our Easter is pretty small- just me and my sister at our parents’ house! Maybe I brought some into work the next day? Could have been what prompted my Secret Santa to get me a cupcake carrier for Xmas that year!!

Posted in Holidays

Fly Me to the Moon…

Mar 13

Posted by Corinne

...let me eat cupcakes among those stars!

Last night we attended a space-themed crafting party hosted by my sister’s boyfriend Alex, & my craft was space-themed cupcakes! It was a highly entertaining evening, and there were some truly amazing creations that emerged by night’s end!! (see below)

Before heading out for Brooklyn, I did my baking. I went with a basic vanilla cupcake, with vanilla frosting since the decorations (done on site) were the focus of my craft.

Still in search of a fantastic vanilla cupcake recipe, I wanted to try a new one I found that had some good reviews: Billy’s Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes. He is the owner of Billy’s Bakery in NYC, and was featured in a segment on the Martha Stewart Show. I also used his Vanilla Buttercream recipe for the frosting. The cupcakes did come out great and got rave reviews, but a quick note… The recipe supposedly makes 30 cupcakes, I halved the recipe and ended up with 11! The frosting was good too, but just your basic buttercream.

Here’s some of the creations that emerged from last night’s festivities (pictures courtesy of Danielle!)