SUPER HERO/VILLAIN NEW YEARS PARTY!

SPIDEY CUPCAKES!

Honestly, all I did here was make funfetti cupcakes from the Pillsbury box and add food coloring. But hey, it's still pretty festive. I've been so neglectful of my cupcake blog lately, I didn't even do a Christmas themed cupcake! But here's some photos from the Super Hero New Years party at my house, totally inspired by The Big Bang Theory :)

Captain America Room!

Robin and Bruce Wayne?

Most ORIGINAL: The Deciduous Duo!

                                                          

The Prizes for Best Costumes (Best Duo, Villain, Super Hero)

Any solid New Years Resolutions?? Mine is to figure out my future.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Cupcake, Cream Cheese Icing

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sometimes we all just need a little break. With big final projects coming up, midterms, and the dreaded cold- I figured I'd bake a simple little treat in honor of Halloween. 


What you need:


15 oz can of Pumpkin 
Cake Mix (preferably Spice cake or Gingerbread mix, but anything will work)
Chocolate Chips!
Cream Cheese Icing


So, none of this is really "from scratch", but hey- when you want instant gratification- it's still just as delicious and super easy.


Preheat your oven to 350 and then just mix the pumpkin and cake mix together. Don't forget to add the chocolate chips into the batter! Then place into the cupcake liners. These can make good cookies too, so you don't even need cupcake liners if you'd rather go that route. 

Add your cream cheese icing on top and crap a cup of milk and you have a mouthwatering delight! 

The best part: No frightening mess to clean up! Oh and Rocky Horror is only 5 bucks at Wal-mart if you don't own it!

S'more Cupcakes: Austin's Birthday

Happy October!

Austin's 22nd Birthday

Getting in the mood for fall? These S'more cupcakes are literally *perfect* for any Halloween party/gathering you might be having these next few weekends. It happens to be NKU's fall break AND my best friend's birthday! (Two incredibly obvious reasons to make cupcakes). I usually don't explain ingredients and steps, but since this isn't an "episode" and simply a blog post- I shall!

Here's what you need:

1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick of butter, softened

1 1/4 cups of sugar

2 eggs

1 cup of milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

A box of graham crackers

Jet Puffed marshmallow creme

a bag of mini marshmallows

mini Hersey's chocolate bars

Get Started:

Preheat over to 350 degrees

1. Add all of your ingredients together into a bowl: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, butter, salt, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla. Beat thoroughly

2. Pour them into your cupcake liners, and add a mini marshmallow into the middle of each, crush some graham crackers on top.

3. Put them into the oven for 20 minutes. 

4. Take them out, let them cool for about 20 minutes. Then add the Jet Puff creme on top of the cupcake, crush more graham crackers on top and break part of the mini hershey bar off and place on top for decoration. (you can add mini marshmallows on top as well)

5. EAT!

Don't forget to buy some pumpkin candles to enjoy with your cupcake!

Happy Birthday Austin!

Episode 3 Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Chelsey's 21st Birthday: Surprise!

A few weeks ago on September 16th, Elysha, Kaley and myself planned a surprise birthday party for one of my oldest (but actually one of my youngest) friends- Chelsey. She was finally turning 21 and, of course, Chelsey is extremely modest and obviously didn't want this day to be made into a big deal. We wanted to surprise her with these mini champagne cupcakes (so no one would get drunk off of one!), some bubbly pink champagne, and Root Beer Pong (because she LOVES root beer, and real beer is gross).

      

  

The cupcake batter is champagne flavored, as well as the icing! The little decorative beads are from William Sonoma but you can get similar things at Kroger. It was a classy night (even though we had to do some lying to convince her there was no party). But this blog and episode are dedicated to my beautiful friend Chelsey! Watch out for our Halloween Cupcake episode soon!

Mom

A Very Merry Birthday

Mini Cupcake Maker & Card available at Target

I decided baking the cupcakes just wasn't enough. I found this little cupcake card (and mini cupcake maker) at Target and decided it was perfect. I know cupcakes have become my thing recently since I suppose it's about as in fashion as those feather hair extensions (which I also have... :/). But my mom has a sweet tooth like me, and has accompanied me on many a cupcake journey.  I think having this mini cupcake maker at home will be good for us to do some baking together, more of a spending time together deal. 

  

"Webisode" : A word from Austin

INSTANT. IS. EASY.

So, Austin decided to bake some banana bread tonight, however, we have no bread pan for this instantly wonderful bread. I suggest we make banana bread muffins. We added in real bananas and chocolate chips... delicious. We now have enough banana bread for an entire week...  I topped this one with peanut butter, a fresh banana slice, marshmellows and chocolate sprinkles. YUMMMM. Austin doesn't really like really decadent flavors so this banana/peanut butter combo is great for him. He used the pillsbury instant box of banana bread, with 2 eggs, a cup of milk and some vegetable oil- bake for 15-19 minutes. 

Episode 2 Blue Velvet Cupcake

YES> PICTURES!  

I didn't post too many pictures in the last blog because frankly, they are all over the website! This little concoction was a task, let me tell you...  The directions are misleading, because the recipe calls for the creation of a curd filling- which you have to apparently leave covered overnight in a fridge... (Which still didn't quite work for me). Also, no matter what you see on cupcake wars-  putting your cupcakes in the fridge right away makes them a little bit harder than you may want them... Luckily, you love me and won't hate on me for not knowing how to whisk something, right? Yeah, I know. You could probably host this show and make a much better cupcake than I... but are you doing that? No. I think taking the approach of a self effacing attitude during the show really helps me to admit my flaws and come to terms with my backwards way of thinking. I often wonder why I'm doing this show- but it really is a learning experience for me (and hopefully you?). I mean, it's targeted toward college students- how many of you know what zesting a lemon is? Probably more than I think... Okay, what about making curd? Exactly. It's hard baking from scratch- but much more rewarding.

The Blue Velvet cupcake- just to clarify- consists mainly of the blackberry curd filling and lemon-blackberry cream cheese icing. The cupcake itself has almost no flavor, taken from a recipe from Cupcake Wars. I'm not sure why they'd make it this way... But I would have preferred some blackberries baked in or something! Oh well... My mom ended up loving them (they were for her birthday). We went to Joe's Crab Shack after I fed her these plump purple treats and split some salmon with a perfect view of the Ohio River and Cincinnati. I do love this city, but I hope it loves me enough to hire me when I graduate... I might bribe it with Skyline Chili cupcakes. But anyway... 


If you have suggestions for a cupcake flavor next week, e-mail me at stephanie.mathena@gmail.com 


And check out the second episode featuring July for Kings only on NorseMedia (which streams lives for those of you out of this world) 

 




http://norsemedia.nku.edu/  <<Watch.  It will be airing sometime within the next week.

Happy Back To School Amigos! (friends) 

-Steph

Blue Velvet Recipe