It's RAINING cupcakes!!

No, it isn't really raining cupcakes!!

The new book I am reading is called this.  Chapter 1 is RED VELVET CUPCAKES and Chapter 2 is Strawberry Lemondade cupcakes and Chapter 3 is peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.  The author is Lisa Schroder and her book questions and answers are here: http://www.lisaschroederbooks.com/2010/08/its-raining-cupcakes-questions-and.html

This book is a good one and I like it so far.  I am on chapter 3 and thinking about trying some of the recipes I am learning in this book!
XOXO Mya

Buddy taught me about BUTTER!!

I learned a new "trick" with butter!  The last batch of cupcakes I baked were amazing.  I understand what Buddy means when he descibes his cupcakes as fluffy.  Mine were the best texture I have ever had in a cake, was it the cake flour or the new mixer?  Not sure but I do want to make them like this again.  When people tasted my cupcakes they all said, "Yummm the buttercream is lemony" What did I put into the cake to make it lemony? Nothing!  I made the Vanilla cake recipe on page 296 and the buttercream frosting from page 312. There is nothing like lemon in the cake or the frosting. 

I decided to read the beginning of the book again.  This is where Buddy taught me about BUTTER!! He even told me things my GRANDMA BETTY doesn't know about (butter!).  He has a section in the book called Notes on Ingredients.  It talks about a lot of things but I want to talk about butter.  Buddy teaches, "butter is a sponge for other flavors in your refrigerator" p. 23.  My mom stores the butter above the crisper and she buys a lot of it so she had 8 packs of 4 sticks stored up there.  Under it she had a bunch of lemons.  She had 12 lemons in the crisper. 

I think the butter absorbed the lemon flavor.  It was very light and yummy.  Will have to try to do this again when I substitue the veg oil in the cake for coconut oil.  (the coconut oil gives the cake a great taste and it is still fluffy!! This is how I did my Mom's birthday cake!  It might be really good with a coconut oil in the cake and this lemon-butter flavor in the frosting...

Buddy says in his book, "bakers keep a notebook full of hard-won baking wisdom--" (page 8).  I think I am keeping a book, this online blog.  I might have to keep some of my secrets but this butter secret was too big to share!!

Readers (if you're out there...), have you ever flavored your butter?  Tell me about it (you can comment under this post!)

XOXO Mya

Valentine Day Sale!! (Sold 12 cupcakes)

Today I found the PERFECT chocolate molds.  We were shopping at Barnstead Pantry and they had heart molds.  We bought two sets of 18 and both red and pink chocolate.  It was fun to use the double broiler and then melt it down and put into the molds.  I was able to melt the chocolate and put it into the frig but my mom had to help with filling the chocolate molds (they were HOT!).  When we tried to take them out of the molds later I learned not to bang them out on granite countertops.  Unfortunately (yeah right) I had to eat the broken ones!! They were GREAT!  I am proud of my creations!  We used conversational hearts for some of the ones I baked for school.

These are the ones for school valentine's day party.

These are the ones I baked for the "sale" she bought 12 cupcakes and I had to write my first ever invoice.  12 cupcakes at $.50 = $6.00

These were the "leftover" ones I made for the brothers... They didn't make it through the night!

These are school cupcakes!

I love my homemade chocolate decorations.... YUM!

Melting down the chocolate!

Mixing up the cakes (all by myself)!  I am mixing two batches of them to make 48 cupcakes... 24 X 2 = 48

XOXO Mya

Will you be my VALENTINE-?

Getting ready for Valentine's Day.  Made supercute Valentines for my classmates.  They are ILOVE Valentines.  I love the playlist and the apple on the back.  Will share some pictures here.  The box is either sweethearts (pink box) or sweet-tarts (red box). 

XOXO Mya

Mixer #3 is all burned up!

Today we decided to frost the cupcakes that we have frozen so that we could sell them.  Mom stopped after work and bought another mixer.  Last time we baked and frosted cupcakes we burnt up Mom's mixer.  She got it for a wedding present in the 1990's so it was kind of old anyway.  After she burned up our mixer then she went to my Grandma's house and took their mixer.  It was a brand new mixer and it lasted one mix of frosting before it burned up.  Today we burned up another new mixer... Wondering what we are doing wrong with the frosting, or is it the mixers??  My great grandma's mixer is still working so it can't be that.

The top picture has only hot pink sparkles!  The picture below has additional red hearts.

XOXO Mya

Unit Pricing??

I have been HIRED!! I am officially baking cupcakes for money!!  So exciting and fun! To be able to price the cupcakes I have to figure out the unit pricing for the cupcakes.  This blog will help me to calculate what they will cost!

unit pricing n. The pricing of goods on the basis of cost per unit of measure.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Now I am ready for unit pricing!  I figured that it costs me $7.04 to make 24 cupcakes.  The frosting is expensive to make but it is so delicious that the cupcakes would not be the same without it!  I will charge maybe $.50 a cupcake would make the 24 cupcakes $12.00 and I would make around $5.00 for making them.  It is a good place to begin since it is a fun learning "job" for me.    Place your orders I have a price point (for now!)

Today I made a coconut cake for some one's birthday!! It is really really good!

Fun with Fondant



fon·dant  /  noun

1. a thick, creamy sugar paste, the basis of many candies.

2. a candy made of this paste.

Watched the Cake Boss last night and they were working with fondant.  I wanted to work with fondant so badly because Buddy made it look easy and fun!  My Mom stopped after work and bought a box of fondant and a fondant smoother.  I will get to try out the rolling pin I got for Christmas from Santa!  Can't wait.... I had the two cake pans greased and my Dad helped me put the cake into the oven.  The cake was done when my Mom got home from work!  She took it out of the oven and put it into the frig to cool while we made dinner.  I am excited today because I will get to frost the "dirty frosting" on the cake all by myself.  We tried a #10 tip but found that just the coupler was fine to get a nice layer of icing on the cake.

Next I will roll out the fondant and get it ready with my new rolling pin.  We powdered the surface with some 10X sugar.  We didn't have to use much but it kept the fondant from sticking.

What I liked best was cutting out the shapes and learning to make a bow from fondant.  I was looking for a special cookie cutter (a pink butterfly) but I left it at Grandma's house so I will have to use the star. Mom should have kept my play-dough cutters for this!! We could have fun with fondant.

 The finished cake.  On my new Christmas cakestand.  I am happy about the bows and the blue stars!  It is great to taste and fun to bake! 



XOXO,

Mya