It has been a crazy, but wonderful couple of days! Friday was filled with baking, baking and more baking! Over 3 dozen cupcakes were created in my kitchen. As I whipped up the last batch of frosting, my mixer broke! Thankfully, all the mixing of the day was complete! I made Flip Flop cupcakes for my friend Elizabeth’s bridal shower.

Elizabeth and Mitch are getting married in Hawaii, so the shower had a tropical theme! I loved making these Flip Flop cupcakes, and I absolutely loved that she wanted purple icing! The shower was full of fun and girl talk. We all signed the bottom of Elizabeth’s wedding shoes for her “something blue.”

I also made some Spring cupcakes for Jenny’s home decor party. I definitely want to make more of these. I just love the tiny flowers!

Saturday morning was spent at the 3rd Annual Easter Egg hunt with Gracehill. We scattered 9000 Easter eggs and had tons of fun watching the kids fill their baskets.

Easter Sunday started with a visit from the Easter Bunny…which meant my breakfast was jelly beans and Skittles.  After a beautiful church service with friends, a delicious ham lunch was enjoyed. The only thing missing was spending time with my mom and my sister’s family. They did send me a picture of my nephew Preston all dressed up for Easter!! So precious! He melts my heart!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

My latest cupcake request was from Sally for her daughter’s birthday! She said any mermaid would do, but I couldn’t resist the Little Mermaid. The pictures don’t do the purple justice, but I love the purple and blue color combination. The cupcakes were triple chocolate fudge flavored and were frosted with buttercream icing. I will let the rest of the pictures of this sweet girl and adorable smile tell the rest of the story….

And that smile is why I love to decorate cakes

I am so excited because I have some fun Easter cupcakes to take to work today! I found the recipe for these chick cupcakes on the Betty Crocker website. Aren’t they cute? They are incredibly easy to make and are guaranteed to bring smiles to the faces of kids and adults alike Decorating these cupcakes would be a fun and easy activity for kids! These chick cupcakes would also be a fun surprise in Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny!

Easter Chicks Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box favorite flavor cake mix

eggs, oil, and water called for on the cake mix box

2 1/2 cups shredded coconut

yellow food coloring

1 container vanilla buttercream frosting

48 mini chocolate chips

24 small gumdrops

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
3. Make cake mix as directed on box.
4. Divide batter among muffin cups.
5. Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.
6. Cool completely.
7. Place coconut in resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add about 8 drops yellow liquid food color,  seal bag, and shake to mix.
8. Frost cupcakes with white frosting.
9. Top with yellow coconut.
10. For eyes, add mini chocolate chips.
11. Cut orange gumdrops to resemble beaks and place on cupcakes.

When Fall rolls around I always crave pumpkin, but I also crave spices….nutmeg, cinnamon, anise, allspice, cardamom, ginger. When I saw the chai spiced cider while walking through Whole Foods, my mind started churning with possibilities for a spicy and sweet creation. The idea for a spiced apple cider cupcake came to me, and then magically, the perfect icing for my treats appeared on the shelf before my eyes….cinnamon buttercream icing from Janie’s Cakes. I wish I could have these cupcakes in the oven for the remainder of the year, because the scent that fills the air when they are baking is amazing. It is hard to stop at just one of these spiced cakes, they are extremely moist and full of sweet and spicy flavors. I have a feeling I will be making these a traditional Fall treat!

I used up all the icing, but luckily I have lots of the cider left. I might just have to use it in my oatmeal in the morning! After watching all the Quaker Challenge videos and voting for one of our favorite blogging friends, I have been wanting to try some more creative oatmeal creations.

Chai Apple Cider Spice Cakes

Ingredients:

1 box spice cake mix

1 1/3 cups Chai Apple Cider

3 eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

1 jar Janie’s Cakes Cinnamon Buttercream Icing

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, cider, and canola oil until well blended.
3. Fill cupcakes liners 2/3 full with batter.
4. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
5. Cool completely and top with icing. Enjoy!

I have seen versions of candy corn cupcakes in magazines and on several recipe sites. In my first attempt to make some candy corn cupcakes, I used a cake mix and poured the colored batters into a dark nonstick cupcake pan. Unfortunately, they baked faster than I expected, and they were a nice golden brown on the outside rather than yellow and orange. I didn’t feel like running back out to the store, but I was determined to make some candy corn cupcakes. I found a basic cupcake recipe on cooks.com, and started mixing up the ingredients. Then came the next roadblock…no vanilla extract. I did some research for vanilla extract substitutes, and decided to substitute an equal amount of maple syrup. Guess what? It worked, and gave the cupcakes a nice flavor. I also used cupcake liners the second time around, and no browning occurred…the candy corn colors were nice and bright. The time required in the kitchen to make these colorful cupcakes is not long, unless you are learning lessons along the way like I did!

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 box of white or yellow cake mix prepared according to directions on the box or your favorite basic cupcake recipe prepared
• red food coloring
• yellow food coloring
• your favorite white icing recipe or store bought icing

Directions:

1. Prepare cake mix.
2. Divide cake mix evenly between two bowls.
3. Add drops of yellow food coloring to one bowl of batter, and mix until desired shade of yellow is reached.
4. Add red and yellow food coloring to the other bowl of batter, and mix until desired shade of orange is reached.
5. Fill cupcake liners 1/4 full with yellow batter.
6. Top yellow batter with orange batter, filling an additional 1/4 full.
7. Bake cupcakes according to directions from the box or recipe.
8. Cool, and then top with icing and desired candy or other Halloween decorations.