Putting cupcakes in your daily life!

Mr. G and I went to the mall last weekend for some window shopping.  Two things absolutely caught my eyes and my nose were - a box of cupcake floss I saw at Urban Outfitters and a frosted cupcake candle at Bath & Body Works.  I  wonder if I bought the cupcake floss, will it encourage me to frost more than I should be?!  I think my dentist and my wallet will love me more=)

I was so tempted to buy this frosted cupcake candle; however, my hubby didn't approve=(  The candle really smell like a real vanilla cupcake with vanilla butter cream frosting; I almost wanted to eat it. 

Frosting and Cupcake (Part I)

Last time we talked about our Top 10 cupcakes in America.  This time I am going to share some tips with you of how we choose the right frosting to go with your favorite cupcakes. 

• Vanilla cupcake is a very classic flavor.  And this flavor can almost pair up with any flavors of frosting.  If you like very light frosting, I suggest you to pair with our classic white chocolate frosting or home-made whipped cream.  If you like fresh fruit, our classic strawberry buttercream will be a great choice.  If you like chocolate (who doesn't?!), pair it with our classic chocolate buttercream or hazelnut buttercream. 

• Pumpin cupcake is a seasonal cupcake for Fall and Winter.  It's great pair with classic cream cheese frosting.

• Banana cupcake pair with banana frosting is always a great choice.  Banana flavor also goes well with fresh fruit icing, such as strawberry, raspberry or any other berry-flavored icing. Also, any type of chocolate frosting will be a great match with this cupcake also, but if you're in the mood for something really different and light, try adding a dollop of whipped cream. It's simple and delicious!

• Coffee is featured prominently in desserts because it goes well with just about anything that tastes sweet. Therefore, there are a myriad of possible frosting options for coffee cupcakes. Chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, almond, raspberry -- really, any flavor that might go with a cup of joe is a possible contender for the cake or icing part of your cupcake.

• Chocolate is another popular and classic flavor at our Cupcakery!  If you are choco-holic, top with a heavy dark chocolate frosting.  If you like chocolate, but would like something lighter on top, go with our classic white chocolate.  If you like fresh fruit, rasberry or strawberry frostings will be another great choice. 

• Lemon cupcakes typically pair up with sweet but slightly tangy yellow frosting. Last time I made a lemon flavored frosting with a candied orange on top and it was a great hit!  If the combination of lemon cake and lemon frosting is too tart for your taste, ask for an unfrosted cupcake with just a light dusting of powdered sugar for a subtle dose of extra sweetness.

Easy Panna Cotta Recipe

Panna Cotta means cooked cream in Italian.  It is a classic Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. It is generally from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte.  The dessert could serve with fresh fruits or hazelnuts.  If you want to have some bitter sweet flavor, try green tea powder (aka matcha) panna cotta.

Here is my recipe (adopted from all recipe.com):

Ingredients:

1/3 cup reduced fat milk

1 (0.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin (look for it from the jello section at the grocery store)

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (look for it from the baking section at the grocery store)

6 cleaned ramekin dishes

Direction:

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder and mix well. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.
3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.
4. Serve with fresh berries (optional).

Nutella and Banana Won-Ton Recipe

Nutella banana won-ton with vanilla bean ice cream

In the past 2 years, I invited my family and friends get together at our house for a themed dinner on the weekend.  Each time, we picked different themes for the dinner.  So far we have done Germany, Asian, BBQ, Mexican, Italian (twice) and Southern food.  Unfortunately, we have not had the themed dinner for a while due to every one's busy schedule on the weekend. 

I made this very easy but extremely yummy Nutella and banana won-ton as our dessert for the Asian themed dinner.  As many of you might know, Asian or Chinese don't usually like sweet stuffs.  I remember Anthony Bourdain once said something on his show, No Reservation - At a Chinese restaurant, they usually give you an orange at the end of the meal as a dessert.  Yup, that's US!  Asian or Chinese don't usually eat sweet after meal.  If we do, we will probably had some bean soup (green, red or assorted beans) or rice ball soup to end our meal.  Even other Asian countries, they don't usually serve desserts after the meal too.  So when I was thinking of something to make for our Asian themed dinner, I was thinking of something Asian inspired but still appealing to my guests (sadly to say not everyone likes bean soup or other strange tasting or looking desserts most Asian like). 

So I was thinking who doesn't like deep fried won-ton (or food, deep fried food taste so good), and Nutella (surprisingly, my guests had never tried this tasty hazelnut spread before) and banana topped with powder sugar and vanilla ice cream.  Just by thinking about it, it made my mouth watering.

You will need:

1 pack of square won-ton wrappers (available at Asian supermarkets or some regular supermarkets)
1 small jar of Nutella (available at regular supermarkets)
2-3 banana (don't pick those old or "too green" one)
Vegetable oil (for deep frying dessert, I like to use vegetable oil because they taste milder than peanut oil.  But if I deep fried regular food, I would love to use peanut oil for more favor.)
Powder sugar (optional)
Vanilla ice cream (optional, I got mine from Trader Joe's)

lay the won-ton wrapper on the mat and

 put about one teaspoon Nutella spread on the top of the wrapper

(don't put too much though!)

Put a banana slice on the top of the spread

Seal them with water

Heat the oil, and put the won-ton in the wok

Jamprint Cookies Recipe from OddFellows Cafe + Bar (Seattle, Wa)

Imagine from Cakespy.com

Ever since our first visit in Seattle, I have been falling in love with this city, the food, the culture and the people there.  I have been chasing after few Seattle food and dessert blogs since we had gotten back from our trip last year.  Few months ago, I made these Jamprints Cookies based on the recipe I found from the OddFellows Cafe + Bar's facebook page.  I altered the recipe a little bits by adding some fresh lemon zest.

The cookies came out so moist and yummy.  Here is their secret:

Jamprints Cookies

Imagine from PRZman.com

Ingredients

• 0.75 lbs butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3.5 cups flour
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• flaked coconut, for edges
• jam (of your choosing), about 1 teaspoon per cookie

Instruction:
Preheat oven to 350

1.     Cream butter + sugar in mixer w/ paddle attachment, add vanilla + salt

2.     Sift in the flour, mix until dough comes together

*Optional:  Adding lemon zest in the batter

3.     Wrap in plastic, chill for 1 hr
4.     Roll it into 1 ounce balls, dip balls in egg wash + roll in flaked coconut

5.     Put ball on a baking sheet + indent the top, fill with jam.

6.    Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until coconut is toasted and jam thickens.

Very easy to make and very tasty! 

Thanks Oddfellows to share their recipe.

Interacting with our clients!

Our clients are awesome!  Most of them gave us a lot of freedom to create what were in our mind to fit their theme.  They usually gave us few items or colors they like or want to be on the cupcakes.  Then, they trusted us and let us create what we visualized in our mind.

I love interacting with my clients! And the greatest thing about interacting with my clients are I always ended up doing something I would have never thought of making.  Like the cupcakes I made this weekend for a baby shower.  My client gave me these few key words - Green, 70's, mushrooms, vanilla and strawberry flavors.  I made some cute 3D mushrooms to go with the mushroom theme.  And since this is a 70s theme, I tied dye my frosting and also made some fondant rainbows and flowers to go with the theme.  I also bought some cotton candy to put under the rainbow to make it extra groovy.

They came out great!  What do you think?

"The Top 10 Most Popular Cupcakes"

When I first came up with our classic flavor for my cupcakery, I was just casually thinking of some flavors I or my family like.  After I got my classic flavor set, I was curious to find out if those are the flavors most Americans like as well?! So I went on the internet and did a little bits of research, and saw a list of "10 Most Popular Cupcake Flavors - and Why?" on TLC website, and...BINGO!  I got most of them right!!!


(Note:  If you don't see your favorite flavors on our Classic Flavors List, please don't stress or worry.  Contact us and tell us what's your favorites are; we will make the flavors just for you.)

Vanilla cupcake by C for Cupcake Cupcakery

10. Vanilla - Chances are you've had a vanilla cupcake at one time or another. As you probably already know, vanilla is one of the most common flavors found in candies, pastries and various sweet treats. In fact, like chocolate, the taste of vanilla typifies sweet desserts and confections for many of us, so it's not surprising that these cupcakes are so popular and easy to find.

Seasonal Pumpkin Cupcake by C for Cupcake Cupcakery

9. Pumpkin - Pumpkin-flavored foods are extremely popular during the fall and winter months. The pleasant taste of these large orange fruits appears in everything from pie to beer, so it should come as no surprise that pumpkin cupcakes are all the rage leading up to Halloween and throughout the holidays. Although they're typically available for just a few months out of the year, pumpkin cupcakes are extremely popular. It's not unusual to find them at parties, grocery stores, bakeries or even on restaurant dessert menus.

Roasted Banana Cupcake by C for Cupcake Cupcakery

8. Banana - There's something comforting and nostalgic about a steaming loaf of banana bread. Banana cupcakes taste a lot like banana bread -- only you probably won't be eating one for breakfast. These surprisingly popular desserts are more common than you might think, and like their pumpkin-flavored cousins, they go well with a variety of toppings and icings.


7. Coffee - Coffee-flavored cupcakes may sound bizarre to some people, but they make perfect sense when you think about it. After all, there's coffee cake (though typically sans icing), ice cream, candy -- even tiramisu contains a distinctive coffee taste. Coffee made the jump from a pick-me-up drink in the morning to a popular dessert staple a long time ago, so don't be surprised if you see coffee cupcakes sharing shelf space with their chocolate and vanilla counterparts at your local supermarket or bakery.

Devil Chocolate Cupcake (Vegetarian Cake) by C for Cupcake Cupcakery

6. Chocolate - Let's face it, just about everyone loves chocolate. And no wonder -- many of the compounds contained in chocolate cause receptors in the brain to chemically induce feelings of pleasure (Read more about this in Can chocolate give me a happy high?). Chocolate is eaten by people all over the world, and for many of us, dessert and sweet treats are synonymous with the flavor.

Lemon Zest Cupcake by C for Cupcake Cupcakery 

5. Lemon - Biting into a lemon cupcake isn't anything like sinking your teeth into an actual lemon. Although there will be a definite bit of tartness with the cupcake -- the amount of which is determined by the recipe -- the overriding sensation should be sweet. In fact, that's what makes this variety so popular. People who like a little sour with their sweet have found an answer to their dessert dilemma after years of passing upchocolate and red velvet cupcakes. Lemon cupcakes have really gained popularity in recent years, and you'd be hard-pressed to walk into a specialty cupcake store and not find one.


4. Peanut Butter - When you think of peanut butter, cupcakes probably aren't the first thing that comes to your mind. However, peanut butter cupcakes have become quite popular in recent years, and, like many of the other cakes featured in this article, they aren't too sweet, which makes them extremely versatile and likeable.


3. Carrot Cake - Carrots have been a principal ingredient in European sweet cakes since the Middle Ages. The reason for this is simple: Carrots have more sugar than just about any other vegetable [source: Davidson]. Even if you have an aversion to carrots, you'll probably still like carrot cake cupcakes. 

Red Velvet Cupcake by C for Cupcake Cupcakery

2. Red Velvet - Like carrot cake cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes are big treats in miniature form. Instead of ordering an entire red velvet cake, why not choose a portion-controlled red velvet cupcake, which you can eat in about five or six big bites? This variety is moderately decadent and easier on both the wallet and the waistline than a full-sized cake, a fact that has helped red velvet cupcakes become virtually synonymous with the modern cupcake movement. It's a trendy, grown-up flavor in a kid-sized form that appeals to sweet-lovers of all ages. In fact, red velvet cupcakes often outsell all other flavors, including such traditional favorites as chocolate and vanilla, in some specialty cupcake stores [source: cupcake].

Marble Cupcake by C for Cupcake Cupcakery

1. Chocolate and Vanilla - Forget the fads -- chocolate and vanilla cupcakes are timeless. These scrumptious desserts combine the two most essential sweet tastes into an unbeatable concoction that's always in style. You can find chocolate and vanilla cupcakes everywhere from the trendiest cupcake shops to elementary school cafeterias.

We are going to find out what icings or frostings should pair with our Top 10 Cupcakes!  

Stay tuned for more "sweet" information!