peach gingerbread cupcakes

We're starting out fall with a cupcake flavor that's packed full of fall flavors (ginger, clove & cinnamon), but still holding on to memories of summer with the infusion of peach.  Peach Gingerbread...gingerbread cake, filled with peaches and cream, topped with sweet cream cheese frosting and cinnamon clove sugar.

And because I've been behind on blogging about some of our newer flavors (or revisions to existing flavors), here's a visual re-cap from the last two weeks (I have to document flavors this way so I can keep them fresh in my mind!):

1.  Mojito  2.  Caramel Pecan Toffee  3.  Raspberry Mascarpone Chardonnay  4.  Turkish Coffee

fall cupcake flavors

Flavor board #31
 

butternut squash, red pear, spices, butterscotch, caramel, apples, pomegranate, pumpkin

It's the first full week of fall and I'm so excited for fall cupcake flavors!  Plan on seeing all of the above goodies (plus many more) in the cupcakes this season.

salt

flavor board #30

Even if they don't think they will, people love sweet & salty!  It's kinda rare now if we don't have a cupcake flavor on our weekly menu that doesn't include salt.  This week it's Vanilla Honey Sea Salt (vanilla cake, filled with honey mousse, topped with honey lemon frosting, salted honey glaze and pinches of salt).  We also made some salted caramel pinot cupcakes for a wedding today.  The bride asked me if I thought salt would be good on the caramel pinot flavor, I answered "yes", with no hesitation!

salt scrub, salt & spoon, vanilla honey sea salt, vintage salt shakers, morton salt, salt in wood bowl

banana sunflower seed bread recipe

I've been teaching Opal how to bake at home and she's been a pretty awesome student!  Last night we made banana sunflower seed bread.

and we had some excess batter so we made some muffins too

Here's the recipe (please keep in mind that the measurements are approximated since it was a 4 year old measuring!)

Pre-heat oven to 350

Dry Ingredients

1/2 cup oat flour

1/2 all purpose flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 almond flour

1 tbl baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 + 1/8 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Wet Indredients

1 large egg beater

1 tsp vanilla

1 c whole milk

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup applesauce

2 mashed or pureed ripe bananas

Sift and combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and make a shallow.

Whisk together wet indredients in a seperate bowl.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.

Pour about 2/3 of the batter into a bread pan (9x5") & scoop remaining batter into lined muffin tin (we were able to yield 6 muffins).

Sprinkle the top of bread & muffins with raw sunflower seeds

Bake bread for approx 25 minutes & muffins for approx 15 minutes

Enjoy!

tea party cupcakes

Since the beginning of September, we've been bombarded with tea party cupcake orders.  Maybe it's that fall is quickly approaching, maybe it's because our mini cupcakes make the perfect tea party treat, or it's probably a combination of both.

Since tea parties have been on my mind, I was inspired to make some dainty little frosting filled tea cakes.

I also wanted to share some beautiful tea options ~

Rare Tea Co

Artful Tea, The Loose Leaf

Mighty Leaf

Revolution

Lincourt Winery Wedding, Solvang

September is our "Lincourt" month!  We have a couple weddings at this sweet location (one last night and one next weekend) so I thought it was appropriate to share some pics from another gorgeous wedding at Lincourt from earlier this summer.  I think what draws me to this venue is the diversity...there's a gazebo, a rustic barn and a sweet yellow tasting cottage.  Tonya Joy was the photographer for this beautiful wedding

Mexican cocoa, cadillac & pineapple banana cupcakes

For a Spanish themed wedding last weekend we made Mexican Cocoa & Margarita flavored cupcakes.  I realized those 2 flavors haven't been on our weekly menu in quite some time, despite their popularity...so come in this week for some Spanish flavor.

Salted Cadillac...chardonnay cake, filled with lemon / lime curd, topped with Grand Marnier frosting, sugared citrus zest & salt

Mexcian Cocoa...chocolate cake, filled with Mexican chocolate pudding, topped with chocolate frosting & cinnamon sugar

I'm still in love with tiny cakes, so any time we have a stitch of down time in the kitchen, I can't help myself, and I make at least one.  You never know when you might see one at the shop.

I've been craving fall flavors, but the intense heat this week reminds me that summer is still here and I need to take advantage of the summer produce!  Vanilla Pineapple Banana...banana cake, with a vanilla pineapple filling, topped with vanilla frosting & banana chip "crumbs".

vanilla almond chai & cookies and cream

Kara recently told me about a new product at Lazy Acres in Santa Barbara...yogurt covered chai almonds.  She told me how yummy and addicting they are and I instantly starting thinking about how to make a yogurt covered chai almond cupcake flavor. 

Vanilla Yogurt Almond Chai...vanilla cake, filled with fluffy (barely sweet) almond mascarpone mousse, topped with chai frosting and some of those chopped up yummy yogurt covered chai almonds.

We also have a new cookies & cream flavor in the shop this week.  We often strive to combine different unique flavors & textures in our flavors, but not with this one...it's just straight up cookies & cream!

Cookies & Cream...chocolate cake, filled with oreo marshmallow mousse, topped with oreo frosting, a chocolate chip & chocolate sauce