Apple Streusel Muffins - Part II

As some of you may remember I had made apple streusel muffins just a little while ago.  They had turned out overall very well, but I thought I needed to make some improvements.

The biggest thing that I felt needed adjusting was the filling.  I felt there needed to be much more and it needed to be more solid.  Here is what it looked liked the first time.....

Not bad, but could be better.

Now here it the improvement......

Better?  I like to think so.

What I did was use a brownie bite mold from Wilton.  The main purpose of the mold is to make 24 bite size brownies.  I instead froze the apple cinnamon filling in it.  I feel that the mold worked great.  My only fear was getting the filling out of the mold, but because it was silicone I was able to easily pop them out.  The one thing I must remember is to put the mold make in the freezer while a batch of muffins is baking.  Even though I kept the mold in the refrigerator the filling started to soften up a little too much. 

The extra filling I feel added to the taste of the muffin.  Also, with doing it this way I think the kinds of filling are endless.  The basic muffin mix can stay the same, just chance the filling and the topping.  (I think I may of just added another item I can sell.)

I did experiment with Strawberry Muffins, too.  But, that is whole another post.  

Until next time...... Happy Baking!

Happy Birthday! Ok it is a little late!

Today's post comes to you from Orlando, FL.  Yes, that is right Disney.

My daughter's birthday was about a month ago.  I was able to use a new toy that I had received for Christmas.  It is is a cake pan that is adjustable.  I am able to make every letter of the alphabet both upper and lower case as well as any number. I won't lie I had large dreams of making six cakes and spelling out my daughter's entire name, but of course life and reason finally set in before it was too late. I ended up making just one cake and two dozen cupcakes.  Both were strawberry margarita cake because they were PINK.  Pink was the theme for this cake,.  I was specifically asked for pink cake with pink icing and pink sprinkles.  This was the result of that request:

I think it works.  What do you think?

The cake was not as a specific of a request.  The only thing that was asked for was that is was a pink cake.  So, like the cupcakes I used strawberry margarita cake.  I used buttercream icing which I colored pink and purple.  The cake itself I did in the shape of a four.

Both were a big hit at the party.  Many thought the 4 idea was great.  I think it was too.  I can't wait to try that pan again.

Until next time....... Happy Baking!







Microphone Cupcakes and Other Things

I feel like I am always apologizing for not posting a blog.  So, again I am sorry.  I just have been really busy working a job in retail and of course the holidays.  I hoping now that things are calming down at work, I should be able to get back into blogging and baking.  I did do a little bit of baking over the holidays and I will tell you all about them.

First, I made my PB and J snack bar for my Christmas holiday party.  They were well received by everyone.  I did have few that were disappointed that I didn't make my angel food cupcakes again, but they got over it.

This year I didn't have as many "gift" baskets to make this year with different things in them.  So, this year I only made about 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies and gave them to a few people.  But, because of them I will be making a birthday cake for a little boy next month.  I don't know what yet, we haven't worked out the details yet.  I also sent a dozen cookies to a dear friend in the Netherlands, unfortunately because of a bad winter storm here in the States and few storms that had parts of Europe shut down, after almost  two weeks she still doesn't have her cookies.  I just hope they are still edible by the time she gets them.

Lastly, I got to make some microphone cupcakes for a little 5 year girl who was having a Justin Bieber theme party.  She asked specifically for my strawberry margarita cake because it was "SOOOOOO good and it was Pink!"

There are not to hard to make.  It is just any cupcake you want to use, some icing and sprinkles.  As I already said the cake was strawberry margarita, the icing was butter cream tinted black, chocolate sprinkles and then sugar ice cream cones.  The hard part was trying to figure a way to get them to the party without incident.  It took some time, but with few of my ideas and my husband's ideas, we were able to come up with something and it worked out perfectly.

I'll let you know as things come up.

Until next time........ Happy Baking!

My Latest Creation

This past weekend was a friend of mine son's birthday.  She asked me to make the cupcakes for his party.  I, of course said yes.  The request was for a white cake and Iron Man theme.  This was my first time making a white cake from scratch.  I think I did pretty well.  I was also asked to make a icing that was not as sweet, so I went with a cream cheese icing.  I was able to find both Iron Man paper cups and cupcake picks.  I decided to have two different color icings.  One was red and the other was golden yellow.  Here is the final result.......

Everyone was happy with how they looked and tasted. (Hopefully, I'll be able to do her daughter's birthday cake next month.... hint hint)

This weekend I have several things going on.  I have Mom's Night, Breakfast with Santa and a work holiday feast.  I have decided to make a strawberry margarita cake and apple enchiladas for the Mom's night.  I am making a quiche for the breakfast.  And lastly the work holiday is still up in the air.  I have a few ideas, just not sure which to do yet.  I'll let you know when I do.

Until next time..... Happy Baking!

Happy Holidays!

I realized I missed Thanksgiving, but I have been working everyday since then.  Things are starting to get a little hectic for me, so I am going to apologize now if I seem to disappear until after Christmas.  But, I do have a few things happening between now and then. I'll get to them in a moment.

First things first...... I made and delivered my first order for Thanksgiving.  From my understanding everything was good.  I never a got am official yes, but I am assuming if something was wrong I would have been told.  I made 2 pies and 6 creme brulee.  I am hoping this order may lead to others.  We shall see. (keeping fingers cross)

Pumpkin Pie

Maple Pecan Pie

I have 2 Christmas parties coming up in the next few weeks.  One of them has a Mexican theme, so I will be making a Strawberry Margarita Cake and somethings else.  I haven't decided yet what.  I have come across a few things that seem very promising.  I need to bounce the ideas off a few people and get their input.

The second one is "Breakfast with Santa" for the kids.  I need to make a breakfast item.  Believe it or not I am completely stumped at the moment.  I know I will think of something, but right now I am lost.  I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Lastly I will be making for myself and family a lemon meringue pie for Christmas.  I know it isn't scream holiday, but I like it and have fun making it. (also with the left over yolks, it gives me an excuse to make creme brulee again.....shhhhh, don't tell though)

Well, until next time..... Happy Baking!