Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes!!!

I made an awesome pumpkin pie cupcake!!  The funny thing is that I don't even like pumpkin pie but DJ wanted me to make some (we got a Pumpkin Spice doughnut from Krispy Kreme and it was spice-y not pumpkin-y) so that's what I did.  They are tender and moist with the perfect balance of spice and pumpkin.  I was thinking of making a vanilla cream cheese frosting.  But DJ asked "What do you put on pumpkin pie?" "Nothing cause I don't eat pumpkin pie." "Duh cool whip!!"  So he wants me to make a really soft whipped cream frosting for these babies.  (On a side note, I frosted these with the leftover caramel frosting and it was awesome!!!)  I will post some pictures asap!

Happy Birthday Honey!!!

Today is my hubby's 33rd birthday.  So of course I had to make him some cupcakes.  When i asked him what kind he decided on Pecan Pie. Well a friend of mine was moving recently and let me go "shopping" in her fridge so I had a huge bag of pecans in the freezer.  So I decided that I would chop them up and candy them and them put 1 cup of the nuts into my brown sugar cupcakes. Well DJ walks in while I am chopping them and asks "What are you doing with those walnuts?" REALLY?!!?? That's pretty sad that I don't know the difference between pecans and walnuts.

I decided that for the frosting I would make a butter cream and mix in some of the caramel filling from the Samoa Girl Scouts Cupcakes to make a lightly caramel flavored frosting.  This is the best frosting I have ever tasted!!!!!  No joke.  It is amazing and I have to keep myself from eating it by the spoonful.

The cupcakes did not taste like pecan pie by any stretch of the imagination, but they are very good.  I frosted them with the caramel frosting and then drizzled some plain caramel and more chopped "pecans" or walnuts on top.  They are very good and will most likely end up on the menu.  Now I just need to think of a "nutty" name.


~~~ Edited: All that and they were PECANS!!!! LOL ~~~

Cupcakes for a Cause!

For my class Exceptional Learners we have to do 10 hours of service learning at a place or school that helps kids with special needs.  I am doing my 10 (well it will be way over 10) hours at a place called Small Miracles.  From their website: "Small Miracles is a nonprofit corporation founded through love to enhance the physical, emotional, social, and cognitive growth of individuals with special needs through equine-assisted activities."  
 
So they help kids develop skills by riding and helping to take care of the horses.  It is an amazing program that is mostly ran with the help of the volunteers.

They are having a fundraiser today at Bristol Motor Speedway (you Nascar fans know where that is...LOL) called the Miracle Mile.  They are having people get sponsors to sponsor them as they run around the race track and help raise money for their program.  I am donating 104 cupcakes.  I made blackberry, strawberry & white chocolate, and vanilla bean with a vanilla bean frosting (all minis for easier eating).  I am also volunteering to photograph the whole event.  Here are the pictures of the cupcakes:

Berry Berry Sweet!

We are perfecting recipes that we want on the menu and tonight we made Strawberry & White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes!!  We decided that we will offer cupcakes in 2 sizes:  Mini and Regular.  Today we decided to make them mini!  They are so yummy.  I could seriously eat 10 as I am taking them out of the pan!

  

Then we decided to continue with the berry theme and made some Mini Blackberry Cupcakes.  These are great for breakfast.  My daughter hardly ever eats breakfast but if we have some of these made, she will eat a couple before heading to school!  We use the same batter as the Strawberry & White Chocolate so it is simple to just change the fruit we add.  I am sure simple will make bakery & cafe life a lot easier!!

We are official...

I bought my first domain name!!!  We are now www.the-crazy-cupcake.com !!!! We decided to stay with Blogger for now, for hosting, because it is meeting all our needs right now.  Who knows what we will need in the future but until then free hosting sounds good to me!!!

Recipe Testing with Chocolate Caramel

If you saw the other day we made Caramel Apple Cupcakes.  The apple cupcakes were super but we didn't really like the caramel on top (neither DJ or I are really big into caramel apples themselves so that might explain it.).  So we made our classic vanilla cupcake batter and decided to melt chocolate and add it to the caramel and then put a dollop in the middle of the cupcakes before we baked them.  They are so GOOD!!! But next time we want to let the caramel cool a little more before putting in.  You can see in the picture how the caramel kind of oozed out of the top.  But they sure taste good!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

I just got my Rachael Ray magazine and what should be inside? A yummy looking recipe for caramel apple cupcakes.  I had to try them.  They were kind of time consuming because I had to peel and shred 3 small apples.  That took a while and I kept shredding my knuckles.  LOL The caramel was really easy to make you melt 1 1/2 cups caramel candies and then add a tablespoon heavy cream.  The cupcakes are the BEST apple cupcake ever (she even said that in the article) but I am not a fan of the caramel on top.  I think I would rather have made my own caramel.  I will have to try that next time!

Recipe Testing

Today we are making chocolate coffee cupcakes with a chocolate coffee frosting.  They are so yummy.  They have the perfect mix of chocolate and coffee.  And they look beautiful!!!

Wow.

I am so excited!  My hubby and I have decided we want to open a cafe and bakery.  We live in Jonesborough, TN and are looking for a location somewhere nearby.  I plan to blog all the steps we take in opening or business.  Thanks for reading and joining us on our exciting journey!!