Banana Cupcakes w/ Fluffy Peanut butter frosting and a new cake stand!

Cupcakes for Agency Model Managment's 1 year anniversary Party

This event....phew. I don't even know where to begin. Why do I always take on wayyyy to much? This was challenging , stressful, fun, and very much a learning experience. My modeling agency tells me of their 1 yr anniversary party, naturally, my first thought is....party=cupcakes, that and, cake at a modeling party?! (haha) So I offer to cater. After I am approved to cater, I learn I need to make at least 100 cupcakes, of 3 different flavors. Most people would think, ok, I'm a busy / on a budget gal....lets go with simple. Not me of course. After days of intense recipe searching, and in decisiveness , I settle upon a vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean icing (i'll get to why this was not simple later), a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and grand marnier buttercream, and a lemon chiffon cake with raspberry creme fraiche filling and a white chocolate cream cheese buttercream. Oh and all with fancy hand made decorations. Cupcake Wars anyone?

The event is Thursday evening so Wednesday is batter day. All 3 seem fine to me. The vanilla is perfect, the chocolate besides being a bit fussy coming off the wrapper is good, and the 2 nd and 3rd batch of lemon chiffon were lovely. Candied orange peels....hard work but SO good. Later that night, I decided to go ahead and do my grand marier buttercream......BAD! Thrown in trash. Next day...up early....3 separate trips to store...I get going. 2nd orange frosting is an italian buttercream. It's to hot in my apartment for this tricky frosting so it never thickens and stays soupy. Thrown out. I then go with a classic buttercream with orange zest. It's fine but not 100% happy. Im bordering on tears at this point. White choc cream cheese buttercream= a waste of extremely expensive callebut white chocolate. Use anyway.....TEARS. The homemade creme fraiche never thickens .  More Tears. Roomate steps in to help.... late to work, fight with fellow employee .....cupcakes melt in the taxi, decorations slide off...... Disaster . In the end....we fix the decorations at the event, everyone loves them (if only they knew what went in to these!)  andI leave with a new stance on where I'm at with my baking abilities, a whole new outlook on catering events. And a huge amount of respect for those who compete on cupcake wars!

Seeing my little works of art on display at a pretty impressive event was a proud moment for me. I felt like a mom taking 1,000 pictures of her kids. Seriously I took pictures of each cupcake, from all different angles, being held by almost everyone I saw eating them . Hearing people say they liked them, and seeing   people eating your cupcakes definitely reminded me how badly I want this, and prompted me to take it to the next level, I start cake decorating classes next week and am looking at culinary school as a reality, not a dream.

*Vanilla cupcake was not as easy as most b/c I made homemade vanilla sugar
(http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/vanilla-sugar-recipe/index.html)

And infused milk with vanilla bean
(http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/double_vanilla_cupcakes/  , scroll down to the batter instructions)

Homemade Vanilla sugar

My candied orange peels

super messy kitchen

party goer eating a with love,cupcake. cute hat lady!

Miss Lindsay @ the party...the vanilla were her fav :)

Vanilla Bean cupcake w/ vanilla bean buttercream

Def enjoying a cupcake after all that work!

Cupcakes for my cousins wedding day!

 Chocolate cupcakes made out of 100% cacao powder , topped with a 70 % cacao chocolate ganache with a peanut butter buttercream frosting.  Made for the bridesmaids, groomsmen, bride & groom and all the other people who were part of the wedding party, setup, and picture taking , being at the  church super super early, we needed substance and cupcakes are a perfectly acceptable way to obtain nutrition ! ;)  What a fun day and an absolutely  beautiful wedding!!! 

Miss Ashley Parks - Maid of Honor

Groomsman Jonathon, usher Jase & Best Man Zac 

The Bride & Groom <3

Peanut Butter Buttercream..... Heaven?

For many years I was a "no frosting" kinda girl. The one that scraped the icing off of birthday cakes, and disliked cupcakes b/c it's so much frosting.....but not anymore! That was before I knew about frostings that didn't come in a betty crocker can, or that Wal-mart bakeries use basically ALL powdered sugar and shortening... ick. Now that I've expanded my baking tastes buds, frostings are my favorite part of cupcakes. This PB buttercream may be my favorite of them all. It's light, fluffy, creamy, and somehow makes PB not taste just like a huge glob of PB, but instead, taste like a bite of...well, heaven. If you've got PB, powdered sugar, butter (lots of butter) , vanilla, and some heavy cream....you've got PB buttercream! So you try it, and tell me if you don't think it tastes like heaven! :)

                                                         YUM!!!!!!!!

3 sticks of butter, baby! 

Chocolate Cupcake with Callebaut White chocolate buttercream

It looks a little plain, but I like simple cupcakes like this. However, it was for a lady with a lady bug themed baby shower..so it got covered in shiny red and black sprinkles.  Didn't get to take a picture of the finished cupcake, but it was pretty! :)

Vanilla Bean Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream....new piping!

The Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream! 

Below, is the vanilla bean infused milk for the batter.

                                         The kitchen smelled glorious

                          This is the final cupcake! Made for a baby shower