Super{cupcake}bowl

THE ADVENTURE
Find an excellent vanilla/vanilla cupcake recipe and decorate them according to team colors.

PAR-TAY!
Last minute I decided to throw a superbowl party at my house.  Some people already had plans but a good amount said they could come so it was on!  I knew this would be a good audience to taste test and give honest opinions.  *Sidenote-  I was inspired from a fraternity party I attended at FSU to watch the superbowl one year in which they made their couches like stadium seating where one was raised up behind the other.  I bought bed risers and put them under the couch legs of the back couch and it somewhat worked, they weren't quite high enough and eventually gave out and the couch fell off, luckily that was at the end of the game.*

PLAY BY PLAY
I woke up early Sunday morning to make the cupcakes to insure their freshness for my party guests.  I had to be at work at 12:30 so I knew I was on a time crunch.  Everything went smoothly making the batter and I pulled them out of the oven at the right time.  Time for frosting!  I made a large amount and halved it so I could custom decorate for Green Bay and Pittsburgh.  For the Packers I decided to do green and yellow frosting.  I painted the inside of my piping bag with green and yellow food coloring so that when the icing came out it had swirls of the colors {i got that cool idea from youtube and it worked out quite well}.  For the Steelers I turned all of the remaining icing yellow and swirled it on the cupcakes, then took chocolate sprinkles and rolled them along the sides.  Here's how the two teams cupcakes turned out...

FINAL SCORE
On the decorating side I would give myself a 10 out of 10.  I thought it was an inventive way to decorate and the team colors theme was very clear.  Unfortunately on taste I would have to give them a 5 out of 10, gaining points for icing only.  My mother's description after tasting them "it tastes like wedding cake, and I don't like that" ... Goose's response "these are so heavy I think I should be doing curls with them" ... everyone in agreement that the cake was waaay to dense.  The best comparesment of the night came from Zan "they taste very similar to the cookies from Publix with the icing on top" and I agree with that completely.

ON THE HUNT
The cupcakes came up short {like the Steelers} and I am still searching for the best vanilla/vanilla cupcake recipe!  Any recommendations?.. send them my way!

My new cupcake stand!  It's a little too small for my jumbo cupcakes though :(

competition going down the drain.

DRAMA
So my world came crashing down on New Years morning when my aunt saw an article in the local Alpharetta newspaper for a cupcakery opening here!  I was pissed, someone stole my idea to take over Alpharetta with cupcakes.  This cupcakery started putting ads in the paper and I decided I needed to check them out.  After looking at their website I wasn't blown away.  They have the usual set up with everyday flavors and then special flavors that they rotate throughout the week.  The website was fairly basic but they do have a cute cupcake graphic.  Their hours are not spectacular either, I really believe that if you truly want to have a successful dessert business you should be open past dinner (aka when people want a sweet treat).  To really get the best picture I needed to do some taste testing and therefore recruited Zan to go with me and step into the competitors dwelling. 

The shop is still very new and has a clean design, but isn't very inviting.. they need some art on the walls and a couch and tables.  The cupcakes were decorated well, some actually mimicking ones I have made in the past.  Zan tried to ask the girl at the register some questions and either she didn't want to divulge any secrets or had zero social skills because she was awkward as crap, and looked like an elf lol.  We took them back to my house, where my mom decided to join us in the taste testing, and dug in.  Bad idea... they need to go back and revise their recipes because BLAH.  The cake was dry, the icing was waaay to sweet, it felt like wasted calories (which is the worst!)  Zan and my mom both agreed that I have definitely made better cupcakes, and anyone who has tried my pb&j's would probably agree. 

In the end, I was not impressed.  Zan looked online at some of their reviews and left one himself.  I am not going to name this particular cupcakery because I don't want to give them any advertising, but lets just say if you are in Alpharetta and want to purchase some cupcakes don't look for any local store fronts, just call or e-mail me!

THE LATEST ADVENTURE
Chocolate cupcakes with caramel buttercream and sea salt.

PICTURES

Cupcake batter dispenser, squeeze the handle and it pees batter, much easier to dispense in the muffin cups

Jumbo's and mini's, this recipe made so much batter I had to throw some away

My beautiful new stand mixer, and some caramel buttercream

A look inside at the frosting

Finished product!

RESULTS
I was very happy with how these came out, looks and taste wise.  If you are a fan of the sweet/salty combo then these are for you!  The bad news.. the next morning when I went to admire my cupcakes they had transformed into something that was not pretty.  The caramel buttercream did not hold its shape, in fact it basically slid off the cupcake.  I'm not sure what the exact reason was but the cupcakes being set in a container at a slant and the caramel topping being heavy were probably contributing factors.

UH OH
I didn't want to give any of these cupcakes away because they didn't look so great so I ended up putting them down the drain, but a major uh oh happened and a cupcake explosion happened under the sink.  Aka, my garbage disposal detached and spewed bits of chocolate cupcake everywhere.  It was sick, but funny so I took a picture...

Oops!

 p.s. we've fixed it and I've cleaned up since then

happy new(tella) year.

THE ADVENTURE
Banana cupcakes with Nutella frosting.  I had decided to do some sort of nutella cupcake as my next project but wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to incorporate it.. should I fill it with nutella, put it on as frosting, add it to the batter??  I did some googling and found a few recipes that paired nutella with banana and decided on this one from another blog.  What made it even more perfect was that I had exactly 3 over ripe bananas like the recipe called for.

HOW IT WENT
I was very excited to make these cupcakes because it was the first time I would get to use my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer!  The process went fairly smoothly, I just needed a little time to figure out how to use it properly.  Only twice did I cause the ingredients to poof out of the bowl, due to making the mixer go too fast too soon.  I have only made jumbo cupcakes and decided that as well as my jumbo ones I wanted to do some bite size cupcakes too!  I baked the jumbo ones first and when those were finished put in the mini ones and guesstimated the time for cooking.  I've gotten much better at knowing when things are ready and not over-baking anymore, so yay me!

Over head view

Jumbo up close

Mini up close

Side by side, I think this picture is just too cute, like mommy cupcake and baby cupcake ;)

YUMMYNESS FACTOR
Now I may be a little biased because I LOVE banana bread but I thought these cupcakes turned out tasting real dang good!  The cupcakes were moist and the frosting was an excellent accompanyment.  I loved the minis, they were so cute and the perfect size to clinch your sweet craving without over-doing it.  I will be making lots of these in the future!  I got pretty good reviews, if you aren't a huge banana fan these may not be for you.  Also, they make for a pretty delicious breakfast.

I'm thinking about starting an online ordering form to really try and get this going.  If you have an event coming up for just are really in the mood for cupcakes I'm your girl!  E-mail me at kellymcdonald09@gmail.com for comments, suggestions, or orders :)

AND I hope everyone has a happy new(tella) year!!!