SPRINKLES Strawberry Cupcake with Strawberry Frosting

Ok...so here's a cupcake recipe from SPRINKLES bakery. Yes, the owner's own recipe that she shared with the world.....Strawberry Cupcake with Strawberry Frosting. The famous (and overrated) cupcake bakery that supposedly so good has finally shared their inside secrets in making "oh...so good" cupcakes! Alrighty, so how did they turn out??? Well, in my opinion, they were blah...nothing so grand about it! The frostings were better than the cupcakes! It was just like an average cupcake if you ask me and it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to get one! I hope other selections of cupcakes SPRINKLES offer is better than this one.

I never really tried a SPRINKLES cupcake before but I heard grand things about it. How it's so good, so dense, blah blah blah. So when I heard that SPRINKLES owner was giving out their recipe, I was super excited to make it to see what they hype was about! To my dissapointment, nothing spectular that I can think of. Maybe I don't have a sweet tooth for this kind of things where I can't tell what's great or not. But my taste buds don't lie....maybe this is why this recipe was shared since it was just an OK cupcake. You figure, would a renowned bakery share it's secret in making great cupcakes like their Red Velvet and Chocolate?? I think not!

So let's see, making these cupcakes was fun tho cuz I got to learn new baking techniques. I know now that by cooking down the fruits (i.e., strawberries, blueberrie, etc), it can add much sweetness to the flavor when you pureed it and use it in your batter. The cupcakes turned out moist and had a good taste to it. Not too sweet or to bland. But it was not as dense that I thought it would be since I heard SPRINKLES makes their cupcakes dense. The frosting was really good...my son loved it so much that when he had a lick of it...he said "mmmm....yummy!!!" and wanted more. The only strange thing is that after frosting the cupcakes and putting them in the fridge in a sealed container overnight, the next day when a friend bite into it (after 30 minutes out of the fridge), she said the cupcakes were a little dry???? My husband ate it last night and it was not dried at all before it went into the fridge. When a co-worker ate it after an 1 or so, it was fine with her too. Maybe the cupcakes needed to thaw before eating one???? Oh well, either way, the frostings was the bomb!!!!!!

Original Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip cookies with toffee bits

I made these CCC because I wanted to see what would the difference be like with this CCC compared to the Whole Wheat CCC. The outcome was a big difference because you can taste the different texture. With this all-purpose flour CCC, it was a more lighter and fluffier cookie. With the Whole Wheat CCC, it was a more dense, full and chewy cookie. I personally like the Whole Wheat CCC. But don't get me wrong tho, I like both of them because the taste was great regardless which flour I used. It's just each of the two had it own personal characteristics that one would only know if they tried both of my cookies.

So overall, it was a great test run on these CCC. I think I would make more of the Whole Wheat CCC in the future with different variations (i.e., pecans, oatmea, etc) since I like them more. Enjoy the these cookies while supplies last........

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Oh boy....these carrot cupcakes was made with a lot of hard work!!! The grating of the carrots and apples took me forever! Finally after about almost an hour of grating, the good part started.....mixing in all the ingredients. I was missing on ingredients though....raisins. I didn't have a chance to go Trader's Joe to pick some up so I figure oh well.....next time. I was very tempted to put in some shredded coconut pieces into the mixture but then I hesitated since I haven't made this before I didn't want to over do it with a bunch of stuff. So I just kept it simple and added some grated apples for texture. The outcome was great. Loved how the cupcakes came out all moist and the perfect sweetness...not to sweet, not too bland. Added the cream cheese frosting and topped it off with some chopped walnuts for decor. Overall, I enjoyed making these cupcakes even tho it took me to almost midnight finishing it. Hopefully, the next time I will make this again, I will get to start it earlier in the day since starting at 9pm didn't help me much! So for all of you that are enjoying my cupcakes right now and reading this......hope you like it and know that it was done with a lot of hard work and love! Bon appetite!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Butttercream Frosting

This chocolate cupcake were made for Father's Day since we had a bbq at our house. I used pudding in this mix thinking that it would make it moist but unfortunately, I overbaked it. The recipe said 20 mins in the oven but guess my oven cooks wayyyyy faster than 20 mins and by 20 mins, it kinda dried it out a little bit. So knowning that (and the fact that KM has been telling me 10 times that I should cook less than the recommended time) I will know better now then to follow the recommended bake time!!! The taste was great though and I finally was able to make the buttercream frosting. It didn't curdle like the first few times that I made it. I also made some mini cupcakes and they turned out looking pretty cute with simple decorations. The texture was ok, dense with a little dryness to it...=(. Will definitely improve on the baking time.

Whole Wheat Cranberries Cookies

These cookies were made because a co-worker of mine was asking if the next time I make the whole wheat CCC, if I could just make some with nothing. She thinks that it might taste really good without the CC. So it got me interested over the weekend and so I ventured out to make another batch of the whole wheat CCC and set aside some without the chocolate chips. But then I was thinking since I'm testing this new variation out why not do other ones too! That's when I came up with these cranberries one since they were in my pantry. Then I started to test out another flavor....chocolate chips with toffee bits (also in my pantry). To my surprise, the cc with toffee bits were really good and the same goes for the cranberries one. Sorry guys but no picture of the cc and toffee bits ones. The cranberries ones were good because it had some tartness from the cranberries that made it fun to bite into. As for the cc with toffee bits, they were absolutely great because you got the extra crunch from the toffee bits whenver you bite into one. Now I got another request to add some pecan to the cc and toffee bits ones. Maybe I will the next time I make it again....which most likely will be very soon. Seem like many people liked the cookies...

Here's the recipe if you are interested in making some:

• follow the Whole Wheat cookies recipe that I posted
• when call for chocolate chips in the mixture, omit the chocolate chips (to make simple whole wheat cookies), replace it with cranberries (to make the cranberries cookies) or add in toffee bits (to make the cc with toffee bits cookies)
  

Oreo Cookies Cupcake II

Does it look store bought?

These were the same oreo cookies cupcake I made before but with frostings. I made another batch this time around with cream cheese frosting for my daughter's teacher since it was the last day of school for her. I went all out this time getting boxes for it too to make it look like it's store bought. Doesn't the box look so nice??? I totally loved them that I'm going to try and find some wholesale place that would carry these boxes at a cheaper rate (got them at Joann's).

So back to the cupcakes, they are just white cake with really smashed up oreo pieces that I wanted to have in there so when you bite the cupcake, there is no big pieces of oreo cookies. Kinda like little chocolate pieces. As for the frosting, I originally wanted to make a buttercream frosting but unfortunately I was not successful at all making that. For some reason, the frosting curdle after mixing it....strange! I would need to work on that again so I just went with my signature cream cheese frosting instead. Topped the frosting off with some crushed up oreo cookies and/or a piece of oreo cookie. Seems to work out perfect with the oreo cookies.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Before baking.....individually hold rolled

Alrighty....since I bought a big bag of whole wheat flour ...I figure I need to put it to use if not i'm just wasting it. So when my brother's GF showed me some picture of her baking class chocolate chip cookies and found out they used whole wheat flour.....I heard a "ding..ding...ding" in my head that I needed to get this recipe!!!! (Thanks LH for the recipe). Ok, so for this recipe, I made one batch but due to lack of time (made it on Sunday night), I only made about one dozen on Sunday night. From the picture it's the ones on the top that didn't have that smooth texture. It turned out great when it was out of the oven, crispy on the outer part and soft inside. The rest of the dough I put it in the fridge. However, the next day the cookies was hard as a rock!!!! Seriously, I could have thrown the cookie at someone and they would get hurt by it!!!!! I think this was a result of my oven! Eventho I moved the rack to the middle of the often, for some reason baking the cookies for 15 mins (recipe said 15-20 mins) didn't work for my oven! I needed to do something to make it soft again and so I use this secret that I had been doing since I started baking........wanna know??? hhmmm.....it's a secret...so I think I would like to keep it that way for now...hahahahahha. Basically, I just used a slice of bread and put it in the same container as the cookies overnight and "Viola!"......instant soft cookies!!!!!!!!

So for the left over dough that was still in my fridge....I didn't get to it til Tuesday night. Took it out of the fridge and to my surprise....the dough was solid and hard!!! I even left it out for a couple of hours thinking it will thaw out but it didn't. At the end of it, I didn't have any more patience so I started using my hands (yes, I washed my hands before touching the dough) and started kneading it and rolling it up into balls!!! Those are the ones from the picture that had the smooth tops. As for the baking part, this time I baked it for only 12 mins (a suggestion by KM, thanks) and boy did it turn out sooooo good!!!! Overall, I have no idea if it was the hand rolling or the lesser baking time that did the job. Guess I would have to make another batch to find out!

For those of you that wants the recipe, here it is. Courtesy of LH. Thanks again LH!!!

Dry Mix:

• 3 cups - Whole-wheat Flour1
• 1/2 tsp - Baking Powder
• 1 tsp - Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 tsp - Kosher Salt

Wet Mix

• 8 oz (2 sticks) - unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup - dark brown sugar
• 1 cup - sugar
• 2 - eggs
• 2 tsp - vanilla extract

8 oz bittersweet chocolate roughly chopped into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces

Procedures

1. Sift the dry ingredients (Dry Mix) into a large bowl, pouring back into the bowl any bits of grain or other ingredients that may remain in the sifter. Set aside.

2. Place butter and the sugars to a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended (2 minutes). Use spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and blend on low speed until the flour is barely combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

3. Add the chocolate all at once to the batter. Mix on low speed until the chocolate is evenly combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then scrape the batter out onto a work surface, and use your hands to fully incorporate all the ingredients.

4. Scoop mounds of dough about 3 Tablespoons in size onto the baking sheet, leaving 3 inches between them, or about to a sheet.

5. Bake the cookies for 15 - 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies, still on the parchment, to the counter to cool. (NOTE: Mine baked for only 12 mins so make sure to test out your oven).

Whole Wheat Blueberry Scuffins (hybrid of a muffin and scone?)

Muffin or Scone?

Cream cheese frosting.........

Ok......on to something totally out of my league....making a healthy treat! Here we have some whole wheat blueberry muffins...or maybe I should say scones because the texture of it came out looking like a scone. The recipe calls for honey, to which I found out might be the cause of the harder texture. On top of that, it was not that sweet either....maybe good for a healthy conscience person....but for most of us, it's kinda bland! So I decided to make it semi-healthy by topping it some cream cheese frosting!!!!! (yes, I ruined it for you health conscience people). I also learned that using applesauce in place of honey (thanks CJ for the tip) can give me that sweet and healthy conscience at all once. So next time, applesauce it is!!!!

In the meantime, I noticed that the more I am starting to bake, the more I am learning. Not from my own trial and error but from friends and co-workers giving me comments and advices! Thank you all for tasting my work of arts and for trusting in me to even eat them...hahahahhaa.......

Oreo Cookies Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made because there were extra cake mixes after I made the ice cream cake cones. I used up all the frosting and so it was just a plain cupcake. I personally liked the way it turned out and it was sooo easy to make it. Kinda looked like muffins instead of cupcakes without the frosting. I will probably make some more soon since I thought they were pretty good and different. Next time for sure with some frostings......

• Thanks Rico for lending me your hand as my cupcake model....=).

We all scream for Ice Cream!!!!!

Finally, the oreo cookies n' cream ice cream cone cakes!!

(Thanks CL for taking the picture)

My co-worker really gulped the whole thing down!!!

Ice Cream Cake Cones.........came up with this idea after seeing Martha Stewart's cupcake book where she used a sugar cone instead of a regular cone. So since I got a request to bring some sweets to Renzo's b-day party (my friend's kid), I thought this would be a great idea for the kids. Basically, I used two cupcakes (a regular size one and a mini one) and stacked them up on top of the cone then frosted. However, since it ended up being heavier on the top, I added some treats (i.e., M&M) inside the cone to balance it out. The end result of this made the cupcake look enormous!!!! Kinda intimidating if you ask me.....so I did another experiment....however I forgot to take a picture of it!!!! The second time around, I baked the cake into the cone....came out pretty good with frosting on top of it. It was definitely less intimidating for sure...but again, i forgot to take a picture of it!!! So hate myself for that...=(!!! It was an Oreo cookie cake with an Oreo cookie frosting. However, with the hot weather we had this past weekend (5/30/10), my frosting melted faster than one can eat them!!!! End result was that I think it's better to bake the cake inside the cone then stacking them on top of the cone. Also, maybe next time I will use sugar cones instead of regular ones........the regular cones didn't turn out that bad after it was baked, but I figure with a sugar cone, it might give it a crunch to it......maybe that's why Martha used sugar cones too!!!