Watermelon Cupcakes - Attempt Two (This Time With Jelly)

The last time that I made watermelon cupcakes, I lamented the fact that the watermelon flavor wasn't strong enough.  Even though I had used my homemade watermelon syrup and watermelon butter in the cupcakes (both of which had vibrant, fresh fruity flavors), the cupcakes themselves were severely lacking.  I asked one of the best sources of information I know (my readers) for help.  How could I make true watermelon-flavored cupcakes?  Some of you said it couldn't be done and I would have to resort to artificial flavors (you should have known that I would never believe you), while others filled the post's comments with ideas.

How to Crack an Egg + A Giveaway of The Book That Taught Me

I should know how to crack an egg.  Let's look at approximately how many eggs I have cracked just making cupcakes for this blog:

Approximate years of blogging	3
* Number of weeks per year	52
= Approximate number of weeks of blogging	156
Approximate cupcake recipes baked per week	1
* Average number of eggs per cupcake recipe	2
= Approximate number of eggs used per week	2
Approximate number of cupcakes used for weekly blogging (approximate number of eggs used per week * number of weeks blogging)	312
Number of weddings for which I have baked cupcakes	3
* Average number of eggs used per wedding	50
= Approximate number of eggs used for all weddings	150
Approximate number of eggs used for cupcakes on this blog (approximate number of eggs used for weekly blogging + approximate number of eggs used for weddings)	462

I know that all of that math was a bit geeky. But, it only seems appropriate since my free review copy of Cooking for Geeks is where I learned how to crack an egg.

It turns out that I cracked all 462 of those eggs incorrectly - my skills with eggs weren't all they were cracked up to be.  Way too often, I found myself playing the game of "Try to remove the eggshell bit from the cracked egg" (the baking version of the kid's game Operation). 

So what's the trick to the perfect crack?

Pink Frosting Without Food Coloring

Pink frosting makes me think of a giant (Jack and the Bean Stalk sized) princess popping bubble gum, smashing it in her face, collecting it in a bowl, and storing it for later.  My pink frosting, however, is not bubble gum-flavored and it does does not have a giant's cooties on it.  Better yet, I didn't use any artificial food coloring to make pink frosting.  I didn't use any berries, either!

So, how did I do it?

Candied Flowers - Hibiscus

Rather than throw away the hibiscus flowers that I had brewed into hibiscus tea, I saved them and let them do double duty as candy - hooray for less food waste*.  Candied hibiscus flowers are sweet and super crunchy and I could totally see an alternate universe where popcorn was weird and candied hibiscus flowers were the normal snack to munch on while watching a movie.

Hibiscus Tea - Brewed at Home From Dried Hibiscus Flowers

Hibiscus tea has such a complex flavor that first time tasters will be surprised to discover that it is only dried hibiscus and sugar steeped in water.  Bearing no resemblance at all to lowly Lipton, Hibiscus tea more closely resembles a wine cooler.  The taste is familiar, but distinctly different: part citrus, part grape, possibly pomegranate, and a big dose of your garden when a soft breeze blows by.

How to Make Hibiscus Tea

I got the idea and instructions for making hibiscus tea from my Taste and Create partner this month, Liz at A Whisk and a Prayer.  I had been talking about edible hibiscus the day before I got assigned to be her partner, so as soon as I saw this tea, I knew that it was what I wanted to make (and, of course, a cupcake that features hibiscus).  Here's how to brew hibiscus tea:

Peach Tea Cupcakes on Paula Deen

Remember when I learned the best way to bake with tea?  I made jasmine raspberry cupcakes that I adored, and I warned you that more tea cupcakes were coming soon.  When the folks at Paula Deen requested a peach cupcake for the month of August, sweet peach tea immediately came to mind.  Can't you picture Paula Deen sitting on her porch with one of my peach tea cupcakes?  Some day, I'll get the chance to personally make one for her; but for now, I'll just continue to widely grin about the fact that my cupcakes are on her website.

Head over to PaulaDeen.com and check out the recipe for these Southern summer treats!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Tiramisu cupcakes, because they are served cold, are a refreshing way to beat the end of summer heat.  Making tiramisu cupcakes is not an original idea; many cupcake bloggers have made cupcake versions of tiramisu.  The common way of making tiramisu cupcakes is to start with a basic yellow or white cupcake recipe, flavor it with some rum and coffee, and top it with mascarpone, whipped cream, and cocoa powder.  While I would never turn down tiramisu cupcakes made that way, they miss out on what is to me the key feature of tiramisu - the topping to cake ratio.

Tiramisu has very little cake (ladyfingers) and LOTS of mascarpone and whipped cream topping.  Tiramisu's ladyfingers are like circus ringmasters: they keep everything together, but no one goes home talking about them.  The rum, coffee, mascarpone, whipped cream, and chocolate are the clowns, elephants, contortionists, unicycle rider, and man flying out of a cannon.  You simply won't forget them.  Because my tiramisu cupcakes start with just a small amount of "cupcake" (ladyfingers baked into cupcake wrappers), there is a TON of room for the "big top".

Witness:

Ready to make tiramisu cupcakes?

Ladyfingers - A From Scratch Recipe Perfect For Tiramisu

Ladyfingers, like Oreo cookies and graham crackers, can easily be made from scratch at home (see my homemade Oreo cookies and homemade graham crackers for details on those cookies).  From scratch ladyfingers will certainly be fresher than store-bought ones, and you probably already have the ingredients on hand (eggs, sugar, flour, and baking powder).

When you make homemade ladyfingers, you also get a chance to get creative!  Why not try making man-toes or little babyfingers?  For a Bachelorette party, you could try making and then eating some other body parts. ;)  Or, if like me, you're thinking cupcakes, you can make your ladyfingers in cupcake tins so that they are all ready to be used in tiramisu cupcakes.

Notice how they aren't filled to the top so there is room for all of the
tiramisu goodness!

It's important to know that ladyfingers come in two varieties - the crunchy kind and the soft, sponge cake-like kind.  The ladyfinger recipe that I am sharing here is for the soft kind.  This is the kind that works best in tiramisu because it can better absorb all of the coffee/rum syrup.

I wouldn't recommend eating these ladyfingers on their own.  Their flavor comes from whatever you soak them in.  If you don't want to make tiramisu with them (I'm not sure why you wouldn't), you could also dunk the ladyfingers in chocolate milk or whipped cream or chocolate fondue.  Feel free to share other ideas in the comments.

Back to School Cupcakes - (A)pple, (B)anana, (C)arrot

Back to school cupcakes are one reason to get excited about the school year beginning.  The other reason is new school supplies; was it just me who got more excited about buying crisp new colorful notebooks and folders than back to school clothing?  My back to school cupcakes celebrate the ABC's - apples, bananas, and carrots.  In doing so, they are almost healthy (if you ignore the butter content and leave off the frosting).

I always talk flavor first because no matter how cute my back to school cupcakes look (and aren't they adorable?), it's the taste that matters.  The super moist back to school cupcakes taste like a combination of banana bread and carrot cake with bits of apple mixed in to remind you that Fall is coming.  I didn't want the back to school cupcakes to taste like spice cakes (I wanted the fruit to shine), so I left out the cinnamon and nutmeg that are often found in banana and carrot cakes.  Instead, I introduced a little cinnamon spice by topping the back to school cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Now that we've covered the flavor of the back to school cupcakes, let's get back to the shallow focus on looks. Then, we'll move on to the recipe that will have your kids begging to work on their ABC's.

How to Make Cupcake Wrappers

Cute cupcake wrappers can take any cupcake (even store-bought ones) to the next level. While it helps to have a digital cutter (like the Silhouette), you certainly don't need one to make cupcake wrappers.  I'm writing this post in two parts: "How to Make Cupcake Wrappers Without a Digital Cutter" and "How to Make Cupcake Wrappers with a Silhouette Digital Cutter".

Win a Silhouette Digital Cutting Tool Worth $300!!

This contest is now closed. The winner is: Sarah Elizabeth Borgnis!  Remember, if you didn't win, you can still take advantage of the great deal Silhouette is offering to Cupcake Project readers.  See the details at the bottom of this post.

In grade school, I was a straight E student (our school used "E" for Excellent instead of the standard "A"). My only S (for "Satisfactory") was in spelling (hooray for the invention of spellcheck!). However, if they gave out a grade in cutting, I would have gotten my only F.  As a lefty, I could never get the school's scissors to cut - even the ones with colored rubber on the handles designating them for southpaws.

Recently, I've come across a few tutorials on how to make your own cupcake wrappers like the ones that I purchased from Sugar Cat Studio for Wedding 3.0.  They involved buying craft paper, printing a wrapper template on it, and then cutting it out.  I didn't even bother trying.  I assumed that my wrapper would end up looking like a newspaper shredded by a cat's claws.  I decided to leave cupcake wrapper making to the E+ cutters.

Things changed when I got an email from Shelly at How Does She asking if I would be interested in reviewing a Silhouette digital cutter.  Yes, please!  A digital cutter, for the uninformed (like I was), works like a printer - only instead of printing, it makes perfect cuts!  I cut the wrapper above using the Silhouette, and look what else I made:

Even though I am a complete non-crafter, I'm already thinking of other ways that I could use my machine: fancy cards, t-shirt designs (with vinyl transfer paper), scrapbooking, gift bags, and so much more.

You want one, don't you?  Thought so! :)

Luckily, Silhouette gave me an extra one to give away!  Here are the details: