Cupcakes!

Cherry 7-up and Raspberry Lemon-Aide

So a little over a year ago my husband got me for Christmas/Surviving Deployment Gift was a Kitchen-Aide Standing Mixer. He was really nervous about spending that amount of money on something he did not even know I would use. So I made a promise that I would use it as much as possible and and to try to make more things from scratch. And I am so happy to say since I have been here I have made every kind of bake good from scratch. I am proud of myself.

Anyways, I love all those baking shows: "The Cake Boss" "Ace of Cakes", "Cupcake Wars" and etc. They always make me want to try and get better in decorating and baking. So, at first I begin with trying to make cakes. I want to make the fancy font cakes, a couple of layers high and decorate. Well, that was unsuccessful due to I always end up with at least half of a cake on the floor because it is so moist it falls about in my hands. I also got tired of wasting all that money cause me and J don't eat much cake (actually I don't like it). Cake was also one of those things that you can't share easily, I did not feel right knocking on people's door with half a cake saying here you go! So me and J would eat 2 piece and throw the rest away.

So, then I seen lots of friends on Facebook and Pinterest doing lots of beautiful sugar cookies. So I thought that would be easy enough. And it was kinda! I have the recipe down for the sugar cookies and the icing that hardens so you can stack them. Also, cookies you can pass out and J can take them to work. So, that was going to be my new thing. Well, I found out I am not that good at it. My hand shakes really bad when I am trying to outline the cookies and hold and squeeze the bag that my lines start going all over the place. I don't have a steady hand to do the outline and if you don't outline them, it is hard to get them to look right. So, I could never get writing on them or drawing faces are anything right.

So, then I got me a book about cupcakes. Not just your normal favorite cupcakes but it is filled with all different kinds of cupcakes and different ways to decorate them. Now, I have fallen in love with doing cupcakes I can say that. I love trying different favors and extracts and getting different favors. Also you don't have to pipe that much, I mean I pipe the frosting on there but since you just do a circle it not has hard has the cookies. I was trying to make a different kind of cupcake every month but I have not been that successful but what I have is a start. So here are the ones I have done so far: Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Rootbeer Float Cupcake and a cone with Rootbeer Buttercream frosting, Yellow cupcakes with Buttercream frosting that I tied-dyed, Cherry 7-Up Cupcake with Cherry 7-Up Buttercream frosting, and a Lemonaide Cupcake with a fresh Raspberry-Lemonaide Buttercream frosting. So, now what favors should I try next....?

Rootbeer Float in a Cone!