RED VELVET CUPCAKES

Can't you feel the love in these handsome red velvets? Moist, fluffy, super red, and bursting with vanilla buttercream icing. Simply delicious.

I topped each cuppie with a little candy heart and doled them out to my neighbors. Needless to say, everyone was quite appreciative! I can safely say that I spoiled everyone's dinner on the 5th floor. Sorry folks.

As always, enjoy :)

CHOCOLATE OREO CUPCAKES

It has been slightly over 2 months since I've posted last. If that's not an indication of how busy I am then I'm not quite sure what is. I'm back to my old stomping grounds after spending the winter living in Tennessee and have been so incredibly busy igniting my new bakery business.

My bakery is called Balaboosta's Bakery and the website is currently under construction at www.balaboostasbakery.com. Please check back soon for updates! In the meantime, a very dear friend of mine turned 30 this weekend and I showed up with an abundance of mini and regular sized chocolate Oreo cupcakes. The mini's were beyond adorable and literally tasted like bite sized bursts of vanilla cream with a not-to-overwhelming chocolaty flavor.

I would have preferred to border the cupcakes in all chocolate sprinkles but unfortunately I was out so I went with the colored which added some nice flair. Enjoy.

KIDDIE CUPCAKES

I made these adorable cupcakes for a dinner party I was invited to on Sunday. The host's have two young children; a 2 year old girl and a 5 year old boy and I knew I wanted to theme my dessert cupcakes around these cuties.

Both sets of cupcakes consisted of cream-filled double chocolate fudge cake topped with either:

• pink buttercream, a dusting of pink sanding sugar, and a Valentine colored M&M for garnish (obviously these were appropriately decorated for the little girl)
• chocolate fudge icing with a dollop of vanilla buttercream and assorted colored fondant cut out circles for garnish (aimed at appealing a young boy!)

These were SUCH an incredible hit! There was a perfect ratio of cake to cream filling to buttercream for each cupcake! Enjoy.

BLACK 'N WHITE CUTIES

I've begun the "packing up" stage here in Memphis, TN and part of cleaning out my pantries involves baking everything off that I have bought in the last several months here. I have no room in my car to ship everything back up to NY and besides, my two 80lb dogs deserve all the room they can get. After all, it is a close to 20 hour drive back up North. Therefore, I made it my duty to use up all the ingredients, chocolate, canned items, etc that existed in my kitchen, bake it off, and donate it to charity. One of the many varieties of goodies I donated were these cute black-n-white cuppies.

All of them were mini chocolate cupcakes stuffed with vanilla cream and topped with a variety of fluffy white cream cheese frosting, chocolate frosting, coconut, and a jumbo chocolate chip. In addition, as you can see, the cuppies donned black and white polka dot liners. Cute!

While many of these cupcakes were donated, I had to pull a couple strictly for tasting purposes only ;)...and the verdict?? Outrageous.

SALTED CARAMEL CUPCAKES

My blogging has clearly slowed in recent months but I plan on picking it up very soon. As most of you know, I've been temporarily living in Memphis, TN since October to complete the last phase of my baking and pastry arts degree (a 210 hour internship at a local Memphis bakery). Well folks, my internship is up and I'm headed back to NY this weekend with tons of new baking tips, business knowledge, and amazing top secret recipes. I'm psyched!

Anyway, on to these cupcakes! I made them a couple weeks ago but because it has been so crazy here, I didn't have much time to post. I've wanted to make Martha's salted caramel cupcakes for quite some time now and I should have never waited this long! These are absolutely delicious; beginning with a one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe stuffed with ooey gooey homemade caramel, topped with a rich dark chocolate frosting, and some sea salt for good measure. Once the caramel cooled inside the stuffed cupcake, it thickened and made for a perfectly, chewy, candy stuffed chocolate cupcake. Unconditionally delish!