Wedding shower madness!

In preparation for a dear friend's wedding shower I began my research. This included taking great pleasure perusing my recipe books for inspiration and inspiration I found! Truth be told my perusing stopped at my new Martha Stewart cupcake recipe book and I got the much anticipated chance to try more recipes! My gigantic cupcake pan got it's use again and took centre stage with a beautiful coconut cupcake with a 7 minute icing and gently decorated with ribboned coconut. Quite a delight even after the calamity of trying to cut it. This was not the only show stopper but surrounding this monster of a cupcake were little delightful oreo cheesecakes. Diabetics beware as my table was in danger of inducing a sugar coma... Though the cupcakes were the main attraction they were not to be out done by the goat cheese crisps and mini croissant sandwiches beside the fantastic sandwich torte! Thank goodness for the many recliners in my living room where we took refuge from the food.... All in all a good time was had by all!

Cupcakes continued...

Thank you Foodybelle for the Martha Stewart cupcake recipe book! To go with it another friend gave me a giant cupcake pan. The two together are a dangerous combination, where to start? The first attempt came at the request of my husband; devil's food cake with creamy peanut butter icing. Can you top this? Only with truffle crunch sprinkles! This was the perfect accompaniment to an evening with friends while watching True Blood. More to come....

Martha Cupcake Mania

What would you do if you bought a beautiful cookbook for your friend's (FoodyMom) housewarming present? (Shhhhh...don't tell her.) Wouldn't you want to try it out; give it a test run to make sure that it was worthy of your favorite baking/cooking buddy? I am glad we all agree on this point, because that is what I did...

With all of these retro coloured cupcake shops popping up and reality TV cupcake shows airing, it is hard to avoid the newest baking trend. My children are suckers for the pastel colours and candy toppings, however at almost $4 per cupcake, I am likely to go bankrupt if I gave into their every cupcake whim (and mine too).

To take matters into my own hands, I tried a Martha Stewart Cupcake recipe last night out of her Cupcakes cookbook. She makes it look oh so easy to piece together those intricate icing decorations that top her desserts. Of course, I know how to pipe out buttercream roses and perform delicate pastry work with meringue and dark chocolate to make cute little gnome-like mushrooms just by looking at the picture... (insert drip, drip, and more drips of sarcasm here).

In the end I chose an Applesauce-Spiced cupcake recipe with a basic swirled icing topping that even the most novice at-home-baker could perform and still be proud of the finished product. And I must admit, that if I could reach it, I would give myself a few large pats on my back for my efforts. I just hope the family agrees. (You do realize, there is no chocolate in this recipe!) For my next cupcake effort, I might actually try to be a little more adventurous with my decorations, but I think sprinkling cinnamon on top of icing was just the right amount of effort for this girl for her first try.

I think I need a cupcake...