Neopolitan Cupcakes

I remember being so excited as a little girl when my parents would buy Neopolitan ice cream!  It was the perfect combination of three great flavors in one bowl of goodness.  It's been years since I've enjoyed this nostalgic treat, but I had some left over cake batters (chocolate, vanilla and strawberry) and suddenly found myself in a daydream about sitting down with a bowl of yummy goodness as a little girl.

What do you do with extra strawberry, chocolate and vanilla cake batter?  Neopolitan cupcakes of course!

I wasn't quite sure if what I saw in my head was going to work in the cupcake liner, but I was sure willing to give it a try.  I held one end of my pan at about a 45degree angle and dropped a spoon full of chocolate batter into the bottom corner, next a spoon full of vanilla in the middle, and finally a spoon full of strawberry at the top.  When I sat my pan back down on the counter, I was excited to see that the colors didn't mix into a brown pool of mud!  Instead, the colors stayed separate in three little sections inside my cupcake liner.  Might as well pop them in the oven and see what happens!

Here's what the batter looked like going into the oven

And here's what they looked like after cooking!

So excited that my little experiment worked, I wanted to be just as creative with my frosting.  I whipped up a batch of my favorite buttercream, then separated it into three bowls.  I left the first bowl as is-the original white buttercream that we love so much.  To the second bowl, I added some light pink coloring--thinking back, it might have been even more yummy if I'd have added strawberry flavoring to get a true strawberry frosting.  To the third bowl, I whipped in some dark chocolate cocoa powder to make a delicious chocolate buttercream.  Now the fun (not so fun) part...filling my pastry bag as full as possible while trying to keep the three colors of frosting separate.  I held my breath hoping for the best...and it worked!





 

All in all, I'm calling this little experiment a success!

Enjoy!

Doll Cakes

Doll Cakes 

 It's birthday party day! Three of my adorable nieces are celebrating their birthdays today, and I wanted to do something fun with their birthday cakes. After scouring the internet for fun ideas, I kept coming back to Barbie cake. I wanted to incorporate the idea in a mini version so that each birthday girl could have her very own cake.

A trip to my favorite baking supply store proved successful when I found this pack of four doll heads on picks. These would be the perfect size dolls for a single size cake. A few more supplies, and I was ready to go! Wilton also sells a pan specifically designed for these cakes, but I had another idea. My handy-dandy Pyrex measuring cup! This cup is the perfect size, and is already in my cupboard.

The baking begins. Because I only have one Pyrex measuring cup, I did have to bake my cakes one at a time. I filled the greased cup about 3/4 full of my favorite batter (each girl gets her own favorite flavor) and baked for 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven until a fully cooked.  Pop the cake out of the cup and cool completely on a wire rack. Once cooled, I trimmed just a bit to taper what would be the top of the skirt, then added a thin crumb coat of buttercream frosting.

Once the crumb coat was set, it was time for the fun of decorating. I used a few different tips and techniques I'd picked up from the internet, and basically free-styled my decorating until each doll had a cute dress for the party.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful nieces, Anneli, Emma and Ashlynn :)

Check out my Neopolitan Cupcakes entry to see what I did with the extra batters!

Cake Pops!

I wanted to spend a little time in my kitchen today, but wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to create.  I thought of the 15 or so left over brownie cupcakes in my freezer from a couple of weeks back and the little container of extra raspberry buttercream frosting in my refrigerator that I'd kept "just in case" when I made my raspberry lemonade cupcakes earlier this week.  Two thoughts immediately came to my mind. 

First, I asked myself "what exactly are 'left-over' cupcakes?"  I mean, if a cupcake is this good, how could there possibly be leftovers, right?  Let me clarify.  These cupcakes are only left over becuase I'd made an extra large batch and my handy-dandy cupcake holder only carries 24 at a time.  So I'd popped the extras in the freezer for another day...hence "left-over".    Now all I can think is that I might need to find myself a larger cupcake carrier!

My second thought was Cake Pops!  I've seen them all over Pinterest, and they're the perfect bite size treat for a lazy Sunday.  Doing a quick scan of my baking cupboards, I found left over candy sticks, a bag of candy melts I'd bought but never used, and some colored sprinkles.  I'm all set without having to make a trip to the store or even turn on my oven...Perfect!

Once I'd let the cupcakes thaw, I unwrapped them and crumbled them into a bowl.  Next, I added a scoop of the raspberry buttercream and the fun began!  Using my hands (I couldn't find a tool that worked better), I squished and squeezed the crumbs and frosting until I had the perfect consistency.  (add frosting a little bit at a time until your mixture holds together without being sticky).  I rolled my mixture into balls about 1-1/2inches in diameter.

Next, I placed four of the candy melt disks in a coffee mug and microwaved for 30-40 seconds until I was able to stir it smooth.  I coated the end of the stick into the melted candy, then pushed carefully into the cake ball (about 3/4 of the way through).  I repeated this until each cake ball had a stick standing in it. I placed the tray of cake balls in my freezer to firm up a bit.  (about 10 minutes).

Now that the sticks are firmly set, it's time to decorate my cake pops.  More candy melts into my coffee mug and back in the microwave (nuke 15-20 seconds at a time stirring in between until all candys are melted smooth).  Dip the cake pop into the candy then add sprinkles right away (before the candy sets).  Stand up to set firmly.  This little bouquet of treats is ready to go!

Note for next time:  Because my cake was dark in color, I had to double dip my pops so that the dark didn't show through the light candy. Because of this, the pops didn't finish as smooth as I'd have liked.  Next time, I'd probably either use a lighter cake, or a darker candy coating.