Poor Woman’s Cupcake in a Jar

From the moment I read about these Peppermint Fudge Cupcakes at Our Best Bites, I was completely and totally in love.  I may have even licked my computer screen.  I knew that I had to make them, but for what?  Why?  Who?  A few weeks later I signed up to bring a baked good to a fundraiser bake sale that the women in my community where helping put on (aka The Relief Society).  I decided this would be a worthy event for these amazing cupcakes. 
But here’s the thing.  I loved the whole cupcake in a jar idea, but didn’t want to fork out the cash to buy jars . . Cheap, yes, but lets go with frugal.  So I came up with this idea instead. 

Put the cupcake in a plastic cup!

After the cupcakes where done baking, cooled, and filled with fudgy peppermint ganache, I put an extra baking cup on, plopped into one of these plastic cups:

{Dixie 9 oz. clear plastic cup}

AFTER cupcakes where in the cups I frosted them.  I tried it the other way and it made a mess!  Sprinkle on some crushed up candy canes. 

Dropped into a cellophane treat bag, closed with a twist tie and added some ribbon.  Ta-da I give to you the Poor Woman’s Cupcake in a Jar!

(I feel like I have seen it before, but don’t know where, so I won’t take complete credit for this genius idea, but don’t who to give credit to!)



They where a big hit at the bake sale.  They were also as tasty as I thought they would be and I even cheated and used a cake mix!

I did however use the Our Best Bites, frosting recipe.  It was totally awesome.  For the complete recipe and instructions you can go {HERE}.  Be prepared, it’s gonna blow your mind!

 

I’m linking up to these holly jolly parties this week. 

Plus a few more:

Reindeer Cupcakes

Happy First Day of December!!  Let the countdown to Christmas officially begin!!  To kick off and get you in holiday mood, I have a cupcake to share with you.  Cupcakes don’t get much easier or cuter than these.

 

{You Will Need}
Gumdrops

Chocolate Chips

Christmas M&M’s or Royal Icing Eyeballs, find how-to HERE

Cupcakes

Chocolate Frosting

Cocoa Powder

 

{To Make}

Bake cupcakes, let cool.  Frost with chocolate frosting.  Lightly sprinkle frosted cupcakes with cocoa powder.  Add gumdrop for nose and M&M’s or eyeballs. 

For antlers:  Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds depending on microwave.  If too think add 1/2 TBS of shortening.  Put melted chocolate in freezer ziplock bag.  Snip off small corner of bag (remember you can always make it bigger, but you can’t take back and make it smaller!).  Pipe chocolate onto cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.  Let chocolate completely harden (speed up process by putting it in the fridge or freezer). 

When chocolate antlers have completely set up gently stick antlers in cupcakes. 

Larry the Turkey Cupcakes

This is another one of my favorites from last year.  Honestly probably the fanciest and funnest (I know, not a word) cupcakes I’ve ever made.
I originally found the idea HERE at Duncan Hines.
I somewhat tweaked the decorations, here’s a little break down of what I used:

It is looking like we might be having Thanksgiving at our house this year, I am wondering if I’m going to be crazy enough to make these . . . maybe . . . we’ll see. 

{I Heart} This Adorable Cupcake Costume

Next year my Little Miss IS going to be a cupcake.  I thought that last year for this year, but this year (or is it technically next year?) I really mean it! 

I have seen a lot of great cupcake costumes, but this one is maybe my favorite and it has a great tutorial on how to make it! 

Oh, and there is also the most adorable headband that goes with it!

 

Found at Lemon Creations via Lee, Me, and the Girls

Dollar Store Cupcake Stands

I originally stumbled across this idea here at According to Kelly.  I knew that I just HAD to make some to use at my daughter’s birthday party.  I LOVED them SO MUCH that I left them out for a week after the party!  I LOVED them even more because they were CHEAP and EASY.  Two things that are musts in my craft book. 

 

{Supplies}

candle stick holders
plates
spray paint
super glue

I trucked my butt to the Dollar Tree to pick up supplies.  I got four clear glass candle holders and one painted ceramic squarish candle holder.  Instead of spray painting silver trays, I got already brightly colored plastic plates (seven plates, three green, three pink, and one polka a dot pink).  I also bought the stickiest strongest glue,  Super Glue Fix-All Adhesive.  Don’t worry, just because it dollar store glue, it is totally awesome.

I then headed to Wally World and got some cheap white spray paint. 

 

{Steps}

I proceeded to go spray paint crazy (Confession:  I’ve never spray painted anything before.  And now I’m hooked).  I spray painted my candle stick holders perfectly matching white. 

Wait not so very patiently for the paint to dry . . . .

Supplies painted and ready to be assembled. 

 

Began experimenting with different stacking combinations. 

  
I liked this one with three plates and four candle stick holders (two put together on the base), but was worried about stability. 

 

I also liked this one with one plate and two candle stick holders.

 

This one provided stability and lots of room for food. 

 

The square candle holder with the polka dot plate.

 

 
Ultimately I choose to do two two-level trays using the four glass candle stick holders and one one-level tray using the pink and white plate and the squarish base. 

 

Time to glue pieces together. 

 
Glue, let dry, use heaviest objects you can find in your pantry to help dry.  Repeat if doing several levels of trays.  On the second level, I turned the candle stick holder upside-down, to provide more room for food on the green plate.  

 

 
TA DAAAAA!!!  The finished products!  I love them!  Everyone at the party wanted to know where I bought them and were shocked to find that I made them myself!!  And everything, but the spray paint (which was a buck at Wal-Mart), came from the Dollar Store!  The two taller pink/green stands were $4.00 a piece and the pink polka dot with the square base was $2.00! 

 

 

 

 

Carmel Apple Cupcakes

It’s the first day of September and Fall is coming, here in northern Utah it hasn’t quite arrived but it is coming.  And with the coming of Fall I always am reminded of the smell of cinnamon and apples.   

Today I found the most wonderful cute Carmel Apple Cupcakes.  Imagine with me, apple flavored cupcakes, filled with carmel, topped with cream cheese frosting, all decorated like a cute little apple!  I cannot wait to make these!  I just have one question, does anyone know where to get those paper cupcake cups for cheap?

Carmel Apple Cupcakes by I Heart Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes (I got 16)

INGREDIENTS

For apple cupcake
2-3 apples, granny smith (I substituted 1 cup unsweetened applesauce)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

For caramel
2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

[NOTES: Caramel recipe makes a good amount. You might want to 1/2 it or you can refrigerate any leftovers for ice cream topping or other dessert topping. Just microwave it in intervals until you get the right consistency.]

For cream cheese frosting
8oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise and scraped
1 lb (~4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted

pretzels
green sprinkles
mint leaves
black sesame seeds

[NOTES: I prefer green (granny) apples when I think of caramel but you could easily use red sprinkles for a shiny red apple too!]

INSTRUCTIONS

To make cupcakes—

Preheat oven 350F.

Rinse and core the apples. Place them on an ovenproof pan or baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes until soft. Remove the apples from the oven, let cool slightly, then remove peel and mush the apple with the back of a fork. Measure out 1 cup of apple mush and set aside to cool.

Combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine. Crack the eggs into a separate, medium sized bowl and beat with a form to break up. Add the oil, apple juice, vanilla, and cooled apple mush and mix to combine. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until all ingredients come together.

Scoop into cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake in 350F oven for 20-22 minutes, rotating the pan after 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

 To make caramel—
Put sugar, water and corn syrup in saucepan, stir just to combine ingredients. Turn to medium-high heat, without stirring, for 5-10 minutes until caramel turns an amber color. Wipe down any spatters with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Lower the heat a little and add the cream and butter. (Caramel will bubble!) After the bubbling decreases, stir caramel to break down lumps. Pour into a pyrex measuring cup to cool.

You can see caramel pictures on my food blog.

To make frosting—
Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamed. Add vanilla beans. Gradually add powdered sugar. Scrape down the bowl as needed.

To assemble cupcakes—
Fill cupcakes with caramel using the cone method.

Dollop a fairly good amount of frosting and shape into a spherical shape.

Roll cupcake in green sprinkles to cover the frosting. Break off pretzel and stick into the top to resemble a stem. Insert a mint “leaf” in the frosting near the stem. Notch out a “bite” shape and arrange 3 sesame seeds to resemble apple seeds.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A
He really like the apple cupcake but not a huge fan of the caramel center. He loves that cream cheese frosting but not with the sprinkles. I think its a texture thing for him.

Wifey rating: A/A+
I loved the flavors of the apple cupcake with the caramel and cream cheese frosting. And who knew that pretzels with cream cheese frosting was so good?? HAHA. I realize that the apple may not be anatomically correct but I think the seeds are pretty darn cute anyways.

So cute, thank you I Heart Cupcakes for sharing!

 

If you are looking for more great Autumn Cupcake ideas, head over to Party Cupcake Ideas for a list of 25 Autumn Cupcakes.

Ladybug Cupcakes

My friend asked me to make some ladybug cupcakes and a cake for her daughter’s first birthday.  I looked all over, but didn’t find anything that was simple enough or that I liked enough.  So this is what I came up with.

{What You’ll Need}
dozen cupcakes
1 can of vanilla frosting
1 can of chocolate frosting
black food coloring
red food coloring
ziplock freezer bags
mini Oreo cookies
edible eyeballs
black licorice strings

{How To}
Tint vanilla frosting red.  *What I learned:  Use coloring paste not regular food coloring.  These ladybugs turned out being pinkish red, and the picture makes them look orange.  Blah!

Add a few drops of black food coloring to the chocolate frosting.  Using chocolate frosting makes it so much easier to get your frosting a true black

Fill two ziplock freezer bags with black or red frosting.  Snip of the end of each.  Make sure you don’t take too much off of the black bag, you can always go back and make it bigger if you want, but you can’t go back and make it smaller!

Frost cupcakes with red frosting.

Add a head by making and oval outline with the black frosting then filling it in. 

Make a stripe down the back of the cupcake.  I used a piece of thread and laid it in the red frosting to give me a line to follow. 

Add edible eyes and spots.  Split Mini Oreos in half and push into frosting.

Snip black licorice strings and push into cupcake for antennae.  Sorry these aren’t in the picture, I forgot to buy them and then forgot to take another picture when I got back.