the "crazy"

I did something this New Year's Eve that I never do!  Kevin was at a wedding with the cupcake trailer and Opal was with my parents for a few days.  The house was eerily quiet, so I curled up on the sofa & turned on the TV (not Dora, not Yo Gabba Gabba, not Angelina Ballerina, but "regular" TV!).  I was striving for a mindless, relaxing activity after a long work weekend.  However I ended up propped up with a notebook and pencil in hand as I watched the Cooking Channel.  Instead of it being mindless, it was inspiring and educational (whoever said TV was bad?).   After watching a segment on a pie company in NY, "the Crazy" was born in my head.  It's inspired from a non baked, rich, crunchy pie filling.

the "Crazy"...chocolate cake, filled with a graham cracker / candy bar "truffle" (basically a dark chocolate and butterscotch ball of goodness), topped with chocolate sauce & a dollop of vanilla bean frosting.

After seeing a cupcake named, the "crazy" on our weekly menu, one of our sweet customers suggested we come up with a flavor called "Absurd"...any ideas on what that should be???

benefits of cherries + red

We're starting the new year out with some new cupcake flavors and I think this is my new favorite!

Cherry Cheesecake...vanilla bean cake, stuffed with cheesecake, topped with sweet cream cheese frosting and a fresh cherry, meyer lemon, vanilla bean sauce.

My amazing baking assistant gave me a special gift for Christmas, it's a book titled 100 best foods for pregnancy.  I love it...it outlines the health benefits of 100 different foods and I now find myself striving to shove all 100 of them into my diet each day!  You may just find some more power ingredients in our cupcakes each week.  So just so you know...cherries are considered a super fruit, loaded with antioxidants that aid in the reduction of heart disease & cancer, help regulare sleep cycles, prevent memory loss and reduce pain & joint soreness after workouts.  I totally get that you need to eat more cherries that what are perched on top of the cherry cheesecake cupcakes, but every little bit helps, right?

The color of cherries has some cool benefits as well, including increasing enthusiasm and energy.  And it signifies power & love.  Here are some fun red finds that may just perk up your day:

freepeople.com

Etsy.com

Wall Decal

Anthropologie.com

Etsy.com

visions of sugar plums

flavor board #35

yarn, visions of sugar plums, plums, sugar plum cocktail, hot pad, & vanilla sugar plum chardonnay cupcakes

I love how the vanilla sugar plum chardonnay cupcakes look so unassuming & simple...until you bite into them, and then see beautiful red plum butter filling.

We also have 2 other new flavors this week ~

Neapolitan II...chocolate cake, filled with fresh strawberry curd, topped with strawberry & vanilla swirled frostings

Hot Apple Pie Tuaca...apple spice cake, filled with marshmallow mousse, topped with tuaca glaze, cinnamon frosting & whipped cream

Christmas green

flavor board #34

pillow ornament, green kitchen, green stand, green & silver tablescape, chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough cupcake

I was going to create a silver & milkglass white flavor board centered around the below image, because I love how the milkglass plate looks on the vintage silver platter, but I LOVE color and couldn't resist the granny smith apple green images (and it looks great mixed with silver & milkglass white!).

Chocolate Frangelico Hazelnut Cupcake...chocolate cake, filled with frangelico pudding, topped with chocolate frosting, toasted hazelnuts & frangelico glaze

cranberries

flavor board #33

Today I am inspired by cranberries!  Cranberries are one of my favorite ingredients to use in holiday and Christmas cupcakes.  The above pictured cupcakes are a tart cranberry chardonnay flavor and this week we'll be introducing a pumpkin cranberry cupcake. 

cranberry wreath, tart cranberry chardonnay cupcakes, cranberry garland, cranberries

Thanksgiving cupcake flavor

As the seasons change and different holidays approach, we make sure to incorporate flavors into our weekly menus that are indicative of those times.  I often find myself thinking back to what special dishes my mom and I would prepare for various times of the year, and turn those into cupcake flavors.  But another great source of inspiration for seasonal flavors is Food Gawker, because obviously I'm not the only person who thinks to eat seasonally!  If you're unfamiliar Food Gawker and you love food, you may just become as obsessed as I am.  I came across this photo for Kabocha casseroles (originally from Tokyo Terrace) and couldn't get the image out of my head (doesn't it look so delicious?  I'm so thrilled to have discovered this amazing food blog) ~

Kabocha resembles sweet potato, but isn't quite as sweet, so I opted to stick with sweet potatoes and turn the above inspiration into a cupcake flavor ~

Sweet Potato Marshmallow...sweet potato spice cake with marshmallows baked on top, filled with marshmallow mousse, topped with toasted meringue frosting

a beautiful baby's first birthday

I adore Meg Fish.  She asked me to make her darling Ella's first birthday cake and her only request was that it was the same color as Ella's baby shower cake.  I was ecstatic to make the little cake.  When I arrived at the party with the cake and cupcakes in hand, I was absolutely blown away with the beautiful, soft, lovely, and sweet party styling done by Lindsay Favour Branquinho of Bluebird Cotillion.  Lindsay seamlessly combined Meg's ethereal style (and fondness for white) with the fluffy pink details that any 1 year old girl would stare in wonder at.

 The adorable cupcake toppers were custom crafted by Icing Designs and the dainty crown cake topper was made by hand by Meg Fish.  Check out her online store Crowned Embellishments for more designs.  Meg also took all of the above amazing photos.

rustic white

flavor board #32

Coconut Cream Cupcakes, bride with rustic bouquet, tins on dresser, cheesecloth table, white pumpkin, kitchen, rustic bread