Cherry-Chocolate Cupcakes & the Cupcakery

We had a "cupcakery" as a fundraiser today - the same annual fundraiser I baked for the bake sale I posted about last year. The cupcakes (mostly homemade) were awesome! We have so many talented bakers, I just had to share some photos I took:

Zombie cupcakes! Aren't these adorable? They're red velvet with cream cheese frosting in the middle, and buttercream frosting on top.

Chocolate "mice" (made of chocolate covered cherries, almond slices and a big chocolate chip) on top of German chocolate cupcakes. These were a big hit, everyone loved the mice!

I made the cherry ones in the middle! Recipe below. They were a hit and sold out pretty fast! One compliment I received was that they look like Martha Stewart cupcakes :) It made my day!

Mexican Chocolate -- Coconut butter pecan -- Lemon with cream cheese frosting

Here's a bigger look at the first table (isn't it lovely?)

Here's the second table. More cupcakes were added after I took the photos too.

I can't get this photo to flip, but this is the assortment I purchased (yes one of my own since my dad didn't get to try mine :)). I am so excited to try them! Just not all in one sitting hopefully ;)

 Here's the recipe for the cherry chocolate cupcakes I made! They were one of the easiest cupcakes I've made since they use a box of cake mix! You should definitely try them...

 Cherry-Chocolate Cupcakes 

with Dark Chocolate Frosting

 

Cupcake Ingredients:

 1 (18 oz) box devil's food chocolate cake mix

3 large eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp almond extract

1 (6 oz) bottle maraschino cherries, drained and chopped

1 cup white chocolate chips

Frosting Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

8 (1 oz) squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1 tsp almond extract

1 (16 oz) box powdered sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

Extra liquid from maraschino cherry bottle (optional)

1 bottle maraschino cherries with stems to top cupcakes (optional)

Cupcake Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place paper baking cups in 24 muffin cups. Combine cake mix, eggs, oil and almond extract and 1 1/4 cup water in bowl and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat mixture for 2 minutes. 

Stir in cherries and white chocolate chips and mix well but gently.

Pour into muffin cups and bake for 19 - 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cook on wire rack 5 - 10 minutes and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Directions:

Beat butter in bowl on medium speed until smooth. Stir in melted chocolate, almond extract, and a pinch of salt.

In a separate bowl (or I used a large measuring glass since I was using it anyway), combine powdered sugar and cocoa. Gradually add sugar and cocoa mixture and beat until light and fluffy. Add cherry juice 1 tbsp at a time until you like the consistency and until you like the amount of cherry flavor.  Frosting for 24 cupcakes.

So there you go! Not too bad, eh? And they are so cute and photogenic.

 They taste really good as well.

 

I love this carrying/storing case! I borrowed it from a co-worker since mine is already in Minnesota and it was great! It has a lid that covers it by the way.

They're just so cute so I had to take one outside for a poolside photo shoot

It was in the mid-eighties today which was lovely

But tomorrow is supposed to only reach the mid-fifties! Ahh! It hasn't been that "cold" here since the spring, so I had to enjoy the sunshine today while I have it.

 See? Just too cute. 

I do have to say that one of my sweet co-workers made these cupcakes for my adoption day/Nick and I's anniversary since I had been talking about how excited I was for that day. So she nonchalantly had me pick my fav cupcakes out of a cupcake book and surprised me and brought these! They were SO good so I knew I had to make them for this cupcake sale :) The sale today ended up making over $530 by the way! All proceeds go to the United Way of Tarrant County. 

Coming up soon is my post about our chili cook-off yesterday for the same fundraiser and I'll share my recipe! I loved it :)

Bake Sale Success

We had a bake sale at work the week before last and I volunteered to bake something. I've NEVER baked for a bake sale or sold anything I've cooked/baked before so I was honestly nervous. What if someone demands their money back after eating my baked good?! So I overcame my fear, sucked it up, and baked. I made double decker pumpkin bars and glazed honey bars. And it was a success! Everything at our ENTIRE bake sale was sold which was amazing because all proceeds went to the United Way. We raised a lot of money and had so much fun in the process!

Double Decker Pumpkin Bars

So this was my first time ever making pumpkin bars. I made them the night before and was a bit disappointed that they weren't the thick, dense bar I was looking for, they were more like a flat cake. I even halved the baking powder and soda following a suggestion I read on All Recipes (love that site!). So I grabbed the icing the next day (yes store bought, I was nervous about letting actual cream cheese frosting sit out all day at the sale! I'm probably just weird, I know), added it and the combination was irresistible. I'm a believer of moderation, so an amazing dessert here or there is allowed in my book :)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
2 cups white sugar (I used 1 C brown and 1 C white since I didn't have enough white)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 tsp baking soda

Mix all ingredients until well blended. Bake in two greased 9 x 13 pans (I used 1- 10 x 15 and 1- 9 x 9) at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting (I put the frosting in a ziplock bag, cut a small piece off the corner, then spreaded it from there because it was making a mess of the bars to just spread with a knife). Then re-layer with another bar the same size, and re-frost. SO good! I improvised a way to take a slightly dry bar, add two layers of frosting and transform it into fall pumpkin amazingness.






Glazed Honey Bars (recipe from the Texas State Fair!)

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
1/2 Cup honey
1 Cup sugar
1 egg
2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1 Cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp mayonnaise (weird, I know, but this glaze is SO good)
1 tsp vanilla

Combine oil, honey (tip: honey comes out of the measuring cup much better when added right after oil!), sugar and egg in a mixing bowl and stir well. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Press into a greased and floured (this helps the bars come off the pan perfectly!) 10 x 15 pan - aka jelly roll pan . Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 mins. To prepare glaze, mix powdered sugar, water, mayonnaise and vanilla and immediately spread onto hot bars. Cool before cutting, and enjoy!

The hot honey bars after adding the glaze... so good...