not-so-german chocolate cupcakes

it was my neighbor paul's birthday last week- and his request, german chocolate cupcakes!!

these.were.fabulous.

paul is a huge fan of chocolate and so i didn't want to just make plain jane german chocolate cupcakes for him... a little history german chocolate cupcakes are NOT german!! haha they're just named after a type of chocolate that the brand bakers used to make a long time ago... it was "german's" chocolate cake, and then the "'s" was eventually dropped, leaving german. it's just a lighter chocolate than regular cocoa. SOOOOO... since paul loves chocolate, i thought a "lighter" chocolate wasnt going to do, so i made them with chocolate ganache filling. YUM-O.

i made the coconut pecan icing on top from scratch as well... its an old recipe that i think is from the better homes and gardens cookbook??! (its the red and white checker one that my mom had from forever ago...) it was basically like making custard, except adding coconut and pecans to it. i spent a total of about 2 minutes trying to smash the pecans up before i realized that putting it in my food processor would probably make my life a little easier.

but they turned out delicious- and i'll definitely be making these again in the future.

strawberry "shortcakes"

so i decided last weekend to do strawberry cupcakes...
i found the recipe here but accidentally got the strawberry puree switched... oops! you're supposed to divide the puree into 2 parts, and use the biggest for the cupcakes, and the smaller for the icing. so it turned out SUPER strawberry icing with not-so-strawberry cupcakes. ema had the brilliant idea to call them strawberry shortcake cupcakes.... and no one would know the wiser! (except for the fact that i'm writing about it now...)

i guess live and learn, right?? (which is the whole reason for this blog!)

here they are!:

and here is a little happy easter greeting from tsavo!!

hope everyone enjoyed their easter sundays! did anyone have any fabulous desserts?! oh, and i want to see pictures of cupcakes that people told me that they made! :)

any ideas for this weekend?!

hApPy EaSTeR! :)

happy easter!!

i LOVE easter (for those that haven't heard me say it twenty million times yet...) and can't believe i have yet to post for ideas for this weekend... *sigh*.

but, yaya totally gave me a good idea to make snickerdoodle cupcakes, and someone also mentioned to make fresh strawberry cupcakes (since my love of fresh fruit is so outrageously high right now...). so, it all comes down to what's fresh (and on sale) at the store :)

if i don't make either/or today... i definitely will make the other soon. i'm thinking strawberry might be a little more springy- but... i don't even know if strawberries are technically a spring fruit. but i just might go with it :)

i'll post pictures of the finished project in a bit- they're totally going to be easter-ed out! :)

and happy HAPPY easter again!

ifyoulikeitthenyoushouldaputaPEEPonit...

so yay for making TWO new things!
introducing crancarrot cupcakes with creamycreamcheese frosting AND handmade marshmallows on top:

i realized yesterday that i've never made carrot cake before! and gee-whiz its a lot of work... do you know how many carrots it takes to make 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots? let me tell you... about 8! i was like, man, i'm getting a workout in here!
but i think they turned out pretty fabulously, and i don't even like carrot cake! (which i also realized yesterday) since i'm not a big fan of nuts, i omitted those... and then i added cranberries to make it a little more springy. so it turned out to be more of a fruit-spice-type-cake rather than truuuuuue carrot cake, but potato, potat-to.
i found the recipe here but changed a few things... like no nuts, added cranberries, and then greatly reduced the oil and added applesauce instead. it was a pretty moist cake, but really dense, which apparently is what i've heard carrot cake is supposed to be like. and, since i don't ever eat carrot cake, i didn't know!
here are some pics of the process::

for the marshmallows, i found a recipe for making homemade marshmallows here and then cut them out with a flower cookie cutter and added sprinkles to make them look like peeps. it was so totally easy to do, and i think i'm going to make them much more often. here are pics of the oh-so-fun marshmallow process:

so here is the finished product!!! :)

i realized a few things during this little cupcake experiment...

a.) i do not own a regular cake pan (9x13)

b.) it takes way too long to "shred" carrots, but its so much better to buy fresh and do it yourself

c.) my "peeps" really aren't that bad

d.) i really should be more careful with my spatulas... i'm now down to one, half-melted lil guy

e.) everything looks prettier in a box with a bow

f.) why should i invest in a kitchenaid when my makeshift one (see pic above) works so well??