Friday Find: CakeryPapery in the wild!

So I had a fairly life-changing moment the other day when I was seriously stalking casually perusing the Pinterest wedding category board.

(And no, I do not approve of your judgement on the fact that I was on the wedding board and am no where close to married. A girl’s got to day dream about something!)

Back to my life-changing moment.

I saw my glitter mason jars! Pinned by a random pinner that I don’t even know! My photo and my mason jars – randomly on pinterest!

#mademyday

Follow that up with the fact that one of Home Depot’s official pinners (yes, the Home Depot) commented on my glitter jar post and then pinned it to the official Home Depot DIY Wedding Pinterest board!

#ahhhhhh

And then cp-bf reminded me that back in March, OXO (yes, the makers of all things good in kitchen utensil-dom) had created a facebook collage of my lemon chiffon cake recipe! Freaking 1,326 likes and 105 shares!

#nowicandie

Let’s just say it was a pretty cool moment. It’s been just over a year since I started this blog as an outlet for my creative life, my mess of a dating life, and just a way to share the daily hilarity that is cakerypapery – and never did I think I would still be at it a year later. So thanks to all of you who follow this blog, pin my posts, read my random musings, and make me enjoy this whole cakerypapery alter-ego thing.

TGI-freaking-F.

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DIY 90’s Cupcake Toppers

You know you’re dedicated when you cut out individual N’sync and Notorious B.I.G. action figures to use as cupcake toppers for a 90’s party…

But seriously, these are awesome.

Like any cupcake flag, after you slice them out very carefully, don’t want to lose a Backstreet Boy, tape them onto toothpicks, and you are good to go.

In case you’re wondering, the cupcakes are Irish Creme, and were epic & delicious.

Boozy cupcakes + 90’s cupcake flags? #Winning.

DIY Tiffany Blue Cake Stand

So I love cake. Like, literally love cake.

And Tiffany’s. And cake plates. And any sort of project that involves hot glue.

Saving the world, one hot glue gun burn at a time? I like to think so.

When my bff was in town this weekend, we whipped up this DIY tiffany blue cake stand.

The base is a candle holder, and the top is a dinner plate. I was a “maxinista” (#shamerattle) and procured both of these items for less than $10.

Add a little hot glue, and you have a cake stand.

Seriously, I could give the chick who made the ‘redneck wine glasses’ a run for her money with these.

#Love.

Now, all I need is some cake.

DIY Window Leaf Cupcake Flags

So a while back (and by ‘while’ I mean in September, #shamerattles), a friend came to visit and we got into some serious Cricut action.

The result?

These super-sweet window leaf cupcake flags. Perfect for fall. Displayed on carrot cake and my-favorite-ever-cream cheese frosting.

Just cut out all the shapes, assemble with glue, and then attach the finished flags to toothpicks.

I like to use glue sticks for this type of work, hence the magazine laid out for scrap paper / workplace protector. I’ve tried rubber cement and liquid glue, but I remain a big fan of my first-grade glue stick method.

And seriously, get a Cricut. It’s awesome.

Because when you give a girl a Cricut, she’ll probably do a lot of crafts…like a lot a lot.

DIY Festive Star Cupcake Flags and Place Cards

So I’m back…after an intense three weeks, I finally have some time to get back to CP. But that’s a story for another day.

One of my (many) obsessions lately is cupcake flags. They really just give cupcakes a little something extra…as in extra fabulous.

And cupcake flags are an easy DIY. You need toothpicks, glue or tape, and whatever you want to use as the flag part.

These metallic stars were picked up at Michael’s.

You glue the toothpick to one star, add more glue, and top with a second star.

Normally, I make my flags one-sided, but I was crafting with my BFF, who can be a bit of a craft dictator perfectionist. Which is okay, because then I do the extra steps that I normally skip out of laziness to be efficient.

After we were finished the cupcake flags, it was time for place cards. And we needed place cards to avoid sitting next to anyone weird at family birthday celebration dinner. Which is also another story for another day.

Not having folded tent cards handy, we used flat cards instead. Just glue on a star, and you’re done. We ended up writing the names on with a silver Sharpie, but had we pre-recognized the need for weird family member avoidance, they would have gotten printed pre-stars.

More posts on my variety of cupcake flags to follow…

Christmas Comes Early: Irish Cream Mini Cupcakes

I may have a soft spot in my heart for Bailey’s…and a hollow leg to store it in…

So let’s be honest with each other. And admit it.

We’ve both had moments where, it’s say…a Tuesday morning…and its time to leave for work…and a thought pops into your mind…Man, I wish it was socially acceptable to put a splash of Bailey’s in my a.m. coffee.

If at this point you’re saying “That’s never happened to me,” think back to the holidays and STOP LYING.

Irish cream is delicious. Just admit it already. It’s Christmas in a glass.

So to get around the apparent “frowned upon” factor of drinking on the job (insert ‘frowned upon’ Hangover movie reference here), I make irish cream cupcakes.

In bite size form.

It’s like Christmas. In a cupcake. Bite size.

Amaze sauce.

You’ll need a mini cupcake pan for these. Luckily, I have one because I have every kitchen item available and yes I know my having so much kitchen stuff really cuts down on what I can put on my wedding registry. But since I’m not registering for anything anytime soon…back to cupcakes.

You could make a full-size cupcake, but these are just…cuter.

Without frosting they’re naked. But I still dig it.

Improvements? These could only get better if served with a batch of homemade Bailey’s.

Funny you should mention that…

So I wish you happy baking & bailey’s-ing, and happy freaking holidays. (Even though it’s November.)

I love Christmas, it’s my favorite holiday,and I can’t wait to post about it. So I hope you enjoy some early Christmas cheer with an irish cream cupcake.

And please, cakerypapery reminds you, always cupcake responsibly.

Irish Cream Cupcake Recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup irish cream liqueur

For the frosting:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons (or more…) irish cream liqueur
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until well blended. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the irish cream. Mix until smooth, but don’t overmix! Line cupcake pan with paper liners, and fill each one 2/3 full. Bake in the oven (one pan at a time) for 15 minutes, or until just slightly golden brown.

For the frosting, mix all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Add more confectioners’ sugar or irish cream if needed to give frosting the desired consistency.

Banana Maple Chocolate-Chip Pancake Muffins

For all those times you want a pancake in travel-friendly form. Or for when you can’t decide between a muffin or a pancake.

Just make a pancake muffin.

Like this.

You don’t even need a mixer.

Just combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and give them a good whisk to fluff them a bit.

And mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. With the mashed bananas.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet.

And mix in some chocolate chips, just to ensure maximum deliciousness.

Divide, bake, and conquer.

The secret is in the maple syrup. I always add in a bit extra than the recipe calls for. Just make sure you are using pure maple syrup—not the imitation kind that comes in a squeeze bottle with a smiling lady on it. Even better if you have a friend who makes their own. Liquid gold people. Pure and amazing.

Banana Maple Chocolate-Chip Pancake Muffin Recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) melted unsalted butter
• 2-3 ripe mashed bananas
• 1 cup miniature chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk briefly to combine ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, maple syrup, and melted butter together until well combined. (If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute regular milk mixed with white vinegar in a 1 cup milk to 1 tablespoon white vinegar ratio.) Mix the mashed bananas into the buttermilk-egg mixture. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Mix in the chocolate chips. Using a large cookie scoop, divide among 24 muffin cups and bake at 350F for 20 minutes, or until done.

So Cheesecake and Cupcake Walk Into a Bar…

Where they met chocolate and banana.

And THIS is what happened.

Part cheesecake, part chocolate cupcake, part banana. Banana…you know, for vitamins.

I saw this recipe on Bakerella last week and pretty much had to test it out. Because, well, it combined lots of my favorite things. In cupcake form.

The recipe is about as straightforward as it can be–you make a batch of chocolate batter, then the cream cheese chip topping. One batch makes about 18 cupcakes. I decided to double it, which meant I needed 16 ounces of chocolate chips.

Guess what size bag chocolate chips come in? 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12 and 24 ounces. AWESOME. You know what this reminds me of? Hot dogs and hot dog buns.

Let’s just cut to the cakes.

Chocolate banana cake on the bottom.

And then cream cheese cake mixture on top.

28 short minutes later…banana-chocolate-chip-cheesecake-cupcakes.

These turned out very…chocolately.

A few quick notes on this recipe, in no particular order. I’d recommend pureeing the bananas in a food processor or blender, quick and easy. The recipe calls for all-purpose flour…but use cake flour. And follow the rule of baking cupcakes one pan at a time. Lastly, these look stellar when they come fresh out of the oven, but after cooling…the top sort of loses its “luster.” Next time, I think I would make these with mini-chocolate chips and then put a light frosting on.

Either way, we say yes to cupcakes! Enjoy the recipe!

Chocolate Cake

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large bananas, pureed
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream Cheese Topping

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 small banana, pureed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. To make the chocolate cake, stir together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Next, in a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese and other topping ingredients (except the chips) until creamy. Stir the chocolate chips into the cream cheese mixture. Scoop the chocolate batter into paper-lined baking cups, and top with the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes and you’re done!

Share Some Love: Karma Cupcakes

I work with some AMAZING people. They’re smart, talented, and a little…quirky.

Did I mention that they’re also award-winning?

Last Thursday night was the Rochester Advertising Federation’s 2012 Addy Awards. The Addys are an annual celebration of all the mind-blowing creative work that happens in the ROC. Because let’s be reasonable…ad people love to do two things. 1.) Talk about their own ads and 2.) Talk about other people’s ads.

But on to the cupcakes.

Delicious, mutli-colored, velvety, cream cheese frosted cupcakes.

These use a red velvet cupcake recipe, which I doctored up with some neon (yes, 1980’s neon) food color. And for the record, as a flavor, “red velvet” is just regular cake with a few teaspoons of cocoa powder and red food coloring.

But with neon you can make lots of colors. Like blue. And pink.

And orange. And green. Just like Karma Water.

In case you didn’t guess already, my coworkers won two Addy Awards for work done with Karma Water. You can see it online here.

I do need to take one small moment to point out casually mention that I did not use my cookie scoop to make these. Yes, they’re perfectly round and evenly portioned because I’m just that good.

It also helps to only bake one pan of cupcakes at a time. It does take longer, but air flows through the oven more evenly if you only put in one pan at once. So things bake more evenly. Yet another reason why I need a double-oven and two kitchens. Just saying.

These cupcakes made me a true believer in cake flour. If you want light, fluffy cupcakes, you need to use cake flour. Why? Cake flour has less gluten–and gluten is great for things like breads and brownies, but bad for cupcakes. So use cake flour. It’s awesome sauce.

See? Light and fluffy. With mmmmmmm delicious frosting.

Neon velvet goes well with cream cheese frosting–and I’d advise using lots. LOTS. OF. FROSTING.

I’d advise against asking your mom if eight ounces was half a pound…when you have a MS in Math…SHAME RATTLE.

YUM. Perfect for Karma. Or Easter? Or March Madness? Or Gay Pride Week? You decide.

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 generous teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring (or neon!)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

For the frosting:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-3 cups confectionaire’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the wet cake ingredients in an electric mixer and mix until thoroughly combined. Sift together the dry ingredients (or not) and slowly mix until the wet ingredients. If you’re doing different colors, separate the batter into batches and add food coloring to each. Bake one pan at a time for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 24 cupcakes.

To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together in an electric mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add in the vanilla, and slowly add in the confectionaries’ sugar until the frosting has reached desired consistency.

Peanut Butter, Now in Cupcake Form

Mmmmmm…peanut butter. One of my favorite food groups. And yes, I do consider it a food group. There’s like 80 flavors!

I made these peanut butter reese’s topped bites of deliciousness for a work luncheon. Nothing says “thanks for a job well done” like cupcakes. delicious, delicious, cupcakes.

To switch it up a bit, I wanted to make a cupcake that wouldn’t require frosting.

(Confession: I was being lazy and just didn’t feel like making frosting. So I got creative with the topping.)

The recipe for these is from the Betty Crocker Big Book of Cupcakes. If you are into cupcakes, BUY THIS BOOK. It has tons of creative ideas for decorating cupcakes, tasty recipes, and new flavor combinations. My favorite part about the book is that it has lots of “cupcake hacks” for lazy efficient people like myself. For example–it will tell you how to make the cake batter from scratch, or how to doctor up box mixes to get the same effect.

One batch of the recipe made 24 cupcakes, scooped out with my Oxo large cookie scoop. I made the topping by crushing Reese’s Pieces…into more pieces. LOLLLLLLL! Seriously, I crack myself up sometimes.

Also, it’s REALLY FUN to smash things. REALLY REALLY FUN.

These definitely do not need frosting. But…they did need something extra. Something more.

So, I made some cupcake flags on the Cricut. And then I got all 90’s and added stickers for more pizzaz. You know that saying about taking off one accessory before leaving the house? I soooo don’t follow that rule.

Before you all think I’m one of those crazy single people that has a secret horse obsession…our work lunch is celebrating some great work for one of my favorite clients, W. F. Young.

And I’m really looking forward to the Kentucky Derby this year.

Peanut Butter Cupcake Recipe:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 1/3 cup cake flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sale
• Reese’s Pieces

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter for 30 sec. Add the sugar in small increments and mix well. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and peanut butter. Beat with mixer until well blended. Combine dry ingredients, and add to peanut butter mixture slowly. Add in the milk at the same time, alternating with the flour mix. Beat with mixer until combined. Top with Reese’s Pieces and it’s baking time. 25 quick minutes in the oven at 350F and you’re good to go.