Old Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes!

I found this recipe from Cuine at Home Magazine... Rich chocolaty and its really amazing! Makes 24 cupcakes or one 8", 2-layer Cake
Chocolate Cake Whisk Together: 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 t. baking soda 1 t. table salt Combine; Add: 2 cups hot water 3/4 cup vegetable oil 2 T. white vinegar 1 T. instant coffee granules 1 T. vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Combine water, oil, vinegar, instant coffee, and vanilla in a large measuring cup. Add to the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined. Divide batter among pans, then bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Cool cakes for 15 minutes on a rack, then invert them onto the rack. Glossy Chocolate Frosting Makes: 4 Cups Melt: 1 stick (8 T.) unsalted butter Stir in: 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder Pinch salt Combine; Gradually Add: 1 1/4 cups heavy cream 1/4 cup sour cream 1 t. instant coffee granules Off Heat, Add: 2 t. vanilla extract Melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in sugar, cocoa, and salt. Combine cream, sour cream, and instant coffee in a large measuring cup, mixing until smooth. Gradually add cream mixture to chocolate until blended. Cook until sugar dissolves, and mixture is smooth and hot to the touch. Do not boil. Off heat, add vanilla. Cool icing at room temperature until spreadable, about 3 hours. Frost cake.

Margarita Cupcakes!

In honor of the great Margarita, try this recipe MARGARITA CUPCAKES!
For Cupcakes...
1 box of White Cake Mix
Zest of 2 limes
8oz Frozen Margarita Mix or Limeade (defrosted)
2oz Tequila (your favorite)
Ingredients listed on the back of the Cake Mix (eggs and oil, omit water)
For Frosting
2 tubs of Fluffy White frosting
remaining 2oz of frozen Margarita Mix or Limeade
10 drops of green food coloring
1 cup Powdered Sugar
Garnish
about 5 limes thinly sliced or 10 Key limes thinly sliced
Sanding or Coarse Sugar (looks like salt)

For Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix all ingredients into a bowl and whisk till all ingredients are well blended.
Portion into lined cupcake pans.
Bake approximately 15 minutes or until tops just start to turn golden or a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting.

For Frosting
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until light green and fluffy. If you want an extra kick add tequila and adjust amount of powdered sugar until you get a nice and fluffy frosting.
Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and garnish with limes and sugar...ENJOY!
Makes approximately 24 cupcakes!

Campfire Cupcakes!

Here are my Campfire cupcakes! I used crumbled brownies on top of chocolate frosting, then added my "Campfire". I made the campfires out of 3 tootsie rolls and cut up fruit roll up in red, yellow and orange! I cut the roll ups in triangle shapes then rolled them in cone shapes and smushed the bottoms together. Then I unrolled the tootsie rolls and smushed 3 of them around the "Fire". They were tasty and fun to make! Pretty easy too! The other cupcakes I added a smiley face to a big marshmallow. The kids Loved them!

Giant Halloween Haunted Cupcake House!

So, the first Harvest Festival at my boys' preschool I made this cake. I made it out of a giant Cupcake pan and 1 8" round. I made both out of chocolate and attached them using chocolate frosting and lollipop skewers. Then using a flat tip, I piped chocolate frosting to make the roof. The doors, widows, chimney and graves are made out of graham crackers and the ghosts are marshmallows on lollipop sticks!
Fun to make and a huge hit for the kids!

Soccer Cupcakes!

This past fall our oldest son played his 1st year of soccer! Here are the cupcakes I made for the last party of the year! Go TIGERS!

I also made a Soccer player for each team member out of gingerbread man cakelet pans! The kids had a blast eating themselves!

Snowman Cupcakes!

These are a fun Holiday treat for kids of all ages!
All you need is cupcakes, White frosting, lollipop skewers, large marshmallows, pretzel sticks, melting chocolate and some writer/gel frosting.
To make the hats: Follow the instructions on your melting chocolate then make a 2" circle of chocolate on a sheet of wax paper (make as many circles as you have cupcakes), then roll a marshmallow in the melted chocolate. After the marshmallow has been covered place it in the center of one of the chocolate circles. Cool in refrigerator until chocolate is hard (about 15 min). Remove from fridge and using a sharp pointed object (skewer, meat thermometer etc) poke a hole in the bottom center of the hat. Decorate the hats after the Snowman have been fully assembled.
Next assemble your snowmen! Take 1 lollipop skewer and 2 marshmallows, skewer the marshmallows then add a hat leaving enough room at the bottom of the lollipop skewer to stick into the frosted cupcake.
Then the real fun begins! Use the pretzel sticks for the arms and poke them into the top edge of the bottom marshmallow. to make the "Coal" buttons I squirted some black icing on a plate and used a lollipop stick to dip it in and dot the buttons, eyes and mouth. I used an orange gel icing to make the carrot nose, and red and green to decorate the hat! You could also use fruit rolls to make a scarf for an extra touch! Have fun and get creative!

Halloween Monster Cupcakes!

For Halloween treats for the boys' school I created these MONSTER Cupcakes! I used store bought frosting and added a little black and blue food coloring to get the gray frosting. Then I decorated them with gel frosting writers, eyeball and bone sprinkles all purchased at Target! For the Ghost Cupcakes I used Ghost Peeps and put them on lollipop skewers! Super EASY and Super Cute!