Cinnamon Rolls

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

Most of my baking consists of making cupcakes. I love cupcakes... they are the perfect anytime treat, however occasionaly I take a short break from my cupcaking for other wonderful things.

Rolling out the dough on my "floury surface"

I'm moving into a new apartment tommorow. I hate everything about moving. I hate the packing, I hate the organization and I am definately not one for heavy lifting... In an effort to avoid as much heavy lifting as possible I decide to bribe others to do it for me. 

Adding Buttery-base to dough

I came across the perfect recipe for cinnamon rolls on veganyumyum . It has everything you could possibly want in a recipe: pictures, step by step instructions and even a video. Although the process was long and time consuming.... the end result was delicious.

Cinnamon Sugar Muxture, before rolling

 I suggest making the rolls the day before and refrigerating them over night.  They only take 30 minutes to bake in the morning... I can see myself making these for christmas morning for sure. 

Just out of the Oven.... they smell so good

Hopefully these tasty delights get me out of some seriously heavy duty lifting tommorow. Wish me luck.

Autumn Tree Cupcakes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes topped with
Cinamamin Buttercream Icing & Chocolate Trees

As the days get shorter, the nights get colder and the leaves start to change I find myself leaning towards different flavors in my baking.  Whether it be pumpkin or apple, pecans or chestnuts, cinnamon or nutmeg…  It’s out with the fruity light flavors of summer and in with the warm rich flavors of fall. 

I recently saw a recipe for chocolate trees on cupcakestakethecake and decided that my friend Katrina and I must try it. We paired it with a pumpkin chocolate chip cupcake and a cinnamon butter cream icing. Despite our best efforts we couldn’t seem to get our trees to remain firm outside of the refrigerator for much longer than a minute or two.  

Never the less, they ended up tasting pretty good and were an excellent back to school themed tasty treat.  Many thanks to Katrina for her help with these ones. Happy autumn everyone

Hot Pink, Ruffles & Polka Dots

In my final year of university I lived with the three most amazing girls ever; Michelle, Kristina & Justene. All three of these lovely ladies went on to attend teacher’s college and found amazingly awesome jobs as teachers.

Justene was really brave and moved to Labrador; to pursue her dreams of teaching in her very own classroom. I decided to send her a little good luck care package to help her along her journey. 

It took me a very long time to decide what to send her. Cupcakes was my initial thought, but something told me they wouldn’t hold up to the long journey. I finally decided to send her a homemade apron, some homemade vegan cookie mix and some wool socks.

In order to make her apron, I used a vintage ‘Simply’ apron pattern that I had picked up from my local Fabricland. It was a fairly simple pattern to follow and only took an afternoon or so to complete.  Overall, I was happy with the way it turned out.

I wish Justene all the best with her new classroom and Labrador adventures

Burgers & Fries

Vanilla Cupcakes, Brownie Burgers topped
 with Buttercream Icing served with Sugar cookie french fries

My friend Marissa recently celebrated her 24^th birthday at her new condo in Toronto.  I hadn’t seen Marissa in ages and wanted to make something special for her big night out. As long as I have known Marissa she has always had a soft spot for all types of fast food; pizza, burgers, French fries… you name it, she loves it.  So; low and behold Burgers cupcakes and fry cookies.

Instructions:

Burgers:

1.   Bake brownies in a 13x19 inch pan and let cool
2. Cut 12 circles out using a 2 inch circle cookie cutters 

Burger Buns:

1. Bake 24 Vanilla cupcakes using paper liners, let cool
2. Cut the tops off the cupcakes (you will need two tops for each burger bun)
3.  Brush half of the tops with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds

French Fries:

1.  Make a batch of your favorite vegan sugar cookie dough (or store bought box)
2. Cut in long rectangular fry shapes
3. Sprinkle with sugar and bake 

The Finishing Touches (Condiments):

1. Place a brownie circle on top of a bun bottom
2. Top with green, yellow and red icing
3. Add the top sesame covered cupcake bun
4. Place on a plate or container with the French fries

Beach Cupcakes

Lemon Cupckaes, Raspberry Filling
topped with lemon buttercream frosting

Today is my boyfriend’s mother’s birthday.  Now anyone who has met Chris’ mom; Marlene will know these two facts:

• Fact 1: She is obsessed with Florida and her brand new Cape Coral Condo
• Fact 2: she is obsessed with shoes, especially flip-flops.

Half water- Half beach Cupcake

In honor of her birthday and the above two facts, I made these beach cupcakes. They were so much fun to make and decorate. Special thanks to Katrina for helping me put these together.

Ocean Cupcake with teddy graham swimming
and shark gummie

Instructions:

Step 1: Bake and frost cupcakes, we used a lemon buttercream but any light or white frosting would work fine

Step 2: Divvy out cupcakes in sections for each area of the beach. Katrina and I decided to make 5 fully sand, 4 half sand and 3 completely water.

Step 3: Cover a plate with graham cracker crumbs and gently dip the top of the cupcake until its appropriately covered. Repeat as necessary until each cupcake is covered with sand (or half covered)

Step 4: Add some blue food coloring to the remaining icing. Cover the remaining cupcakes with blue frosting using a meringue method to add peaks and waves.

Step 5: Add beach umbrellas, teddy grahams, candies and fondant flip-flops to create a beach scene.

Fondant flip-flops

I used this “How to” link from Sweet Creations for my flip-flops

http://www.sweetcreationsbystephanie.com/2010/06/fondant-flip-flop-tutorial.html

Chai Latte Cupcakes

Chai cupcakes, Vanilla Buttercream,
topped with spices and a cinamamin stick

My friend Katrina and I made these cupcakes for her mother’s birthday a few weeks ago.  Full of a variety of spices and steeped black tea, these cupcakes taste just like a chai latte from your local coffeehouse. These would be perfect for a coffee date with your girlfriends. 

Cats & Kittens

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with
Peanut Butter Buttercream Filling and Chocolate Butter Cream Icing

A friend of mine is soon-to-be married. In celebration of her very last days as a single woman we hosted a “cats & kittens” bachelorette.  The ultimate girls-night-in: animal print, pedicures, saunas, fancy cocktails and romantic comedies.

This friend is absolutely obsessed with cats; skinny cats, fat cats, orange cats and black cats….  If it wasn’t for her awesome husband-to-be, she would probably have many more than her current three.

In honor for my dear friend Lorena; kitty-cat cupcakes. 

Kitty-Cat Decorating Instructions:

1. Make ears out of fondant by molding into triangles, attach to cupcakes using icing
2. Pipe two round balls of pb buttercream in the middle for the cheeks
3. Add black licorish wiskers,  followed by a jellybelly nose
4. Finish with gumdrop eyeballs

Black Forest Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake, Cherry filling, Vanilla Buttercream Icing

The other day a coworker of mine did something nice for me. I wanted to do something as a thank you in return. But what? After much deliberation and careful consideration I have decided that cupcakes are the perfect thank you present.

I mean honestly, who doesn’t love a cupcake or two as a quick little thank you?

I have definitely attempted black forest cupcakes in the past unsuccessfully.  They were dry and muffin like with a gooey jello-like filling, gross.   After making a few alterations to the recipe, these little guys turned out awesome.

Cherry filling:

Ingredients:

•        1.5 to 2 cups of fresh cherries pitted and diced
•        2 tbsp sugar
•        ¼ of water
•       1 to 2 tbs tapioca flour (mixed with some of the water before adding)

Instructions:

1.  Heat cherries sugar and most of the water on medium heat until saucy and soft
2. Add tapioca stirring continuously until thicken, let cool and side aside to fill cupcakes. 

Summer Cupcakes

Creamsicle & Strawberry Shortcake cupcakes

I wanted to make some cupcakes that reminded me of summer days, hanging out and relaxing with my childhood friends.

vanilla orange cupcake, orange pudding filling, 

orange buttercream topped with a candied orange slice

My best friend's grandma used to always have a box of creamsicles in her freezer that she would hand out on the hottest days of summer.  In memory of the days of playing sharky in her pool and eating popsicles on her back step.  The creamsicle cupcake.

Vanilla cupcake, strawberry purree filling
Strawberry butercream icing & sliced strawberries on top

Summer isn’t complete without strawberries. As a child my parents used to take us to the berry patch to pick bushels and bushels of berries to make jam out of. Often I would sit there and eat more than I put in the baskets.  Behold; the strawberry shortcake cupcake

Cookies N ' Cream

Chocolate cupcake, Vanilla Buttercream with Oreo crumbs, 

topped with an Oreo cookie

Last week in an attempt to bribe my team into working some extra overtime, 

I created a little event now known as the ‘Cupcake Incentive’.  The cupcake

 incentive was simple, work overtime and receive a cupcake…

These Cookies n’ cream cupcakes are the first of four flavors baked for the 

event and probably the most popular. Stay turned for the remaining 

cupcake incentive flavors: Banana split, strawberry shortcake and creamsicle.

The event was a huge success and all 48 cupcakes found themselves, devoured.

 So I leave you with one question….What would you do for a cupcake?

Vintage Inspired Aprons

Designed and sewn by Sassy Apron
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sassyapron

I just think these are the most amazing fabulous handcrafted aprons I have 
ever seen in my entire life. Polka dots, cupcakes, 50's style! Sigh... 
These are a cupcake makers dream.