Red Velvet Cupcakes

What says Valentine's Day better than Red Velvet Cupcakes?
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting piped to look like a rose!

These cupcakes have a few steps to them, but if you really want to WOW your valentine, these cupcakes can't be beat.

I'll be honest, though. My husband doesn't get super excited about red velvet. I made these more for me than for him. With that said, he still thought these cupcakes were delicious!


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Ganache Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

Ganache Filling:
Note: I prepared my ganache the day before making the cupcakes, so it had time to firm up in the fridge overnight.

1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1 C semisweet chocolate chips

1. Place chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy whipping cream over low heat. Cook until bubbles just start to form around the edges of the pan. DO NOT bring to a boil. *You can do this in the microwave if you prefer, but it's impossible to see through the "window" of my microwave, so I always end up overheating the cream when I try.
3. As soon as the cream is ready, pour over the chocolate. Quickly cover the bowl with foil.
4. Let sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, mix the chocolate and cream mixture, using a whisk, until fully combined. The result will be a shiny, smooth chocolately ganache.
5. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cupcakes:
1 box Betty Crocker Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 1/2 C Water
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1/4 C Sour Cream
1 3.4oz package vanilla pudding

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix until well blended. Do not over beat.
3. Fill lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full each with batter.
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean, with just one or two crumbs.
5. Transfer cupcakes to wire rack to cool.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz Cream Cheese, softened.
1/2 C Butter, softened
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 1/2 - 4 C Powdered Sugar
1-3 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine cream cheese and butter. Whip for about 2 minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.
2. Add vanilla extract, and beat until combined.
3. 1 Cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Beat until combined after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl before adding more.
4. When powdered sugar is all mixed in, add the cream, 1 tbsp. at a time, until desired consistency is reached. If you will be piping, leave the frosting on the thicker side.

ASSEMBLY:
1. Cut a small hole in each cupcake.
2. Scoop a small amount of ganache into the hole.
3. Cover ganache with the removed cupcake piece.
4. To frost the cupcakes like a rose, fit a piping bag with a large star or flower tip. I used Wilton 1M tip.
5. Fill the piping bag with prepared frosting.
6. Starting from the center of the cupcake, slowly pipe a swirl of frosting on the cupcake.

DECORATIONS
1. For the decorations, I found some Red Velvet Candy Melts on sale after Christmas. If you can't find any, regular Red Candy Melts will work just as well.
2. Melt the candy melts according to package directions. Place the melted candy in a small zip bag or pastry bag. Cut a small hole in the end of the bag.
3. I found pictures of hearts online that I like, and printed them on regular printer paper. I laid a piece of parchment paper over the printer paper, then traced over the designs with the candy. I made WAY more toppers than I needed, knowing that some wouldn't look as good, and some might break if they are too fragile. For more fragile designs, it helps to go over it a few times to make the candy thicker.
4. Place a candy decoration on top of each cupcake.

Let me know if you make these. I'd love to see how yours turn out!

Strawberry Heart Cake

I've come to terms with the fact that there just isn't anything manly about Valentine's Day. Sure, they might sell giant gummy fish and Duck Dynasty Valentine cards now, but when you want to make your sweetie something yourself, it's pretty near impossible to have it represent both Valentine's Day and anything that isn't extremely girly.

So this year, I've decided to just embrace it.

I made this yummy Strawberry Cake with Marshmallow Crème Frosting. Is it manly? No. Did my man love it? Yes!

Strawberry Heart Cake with Marshmallow Crème Frosting

Cupcakes:
1 box Betty Crocker Strawberry Cake Mix
1 1/2 C Water
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1/3 C Marshmallow Fluff

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix until well blended. Do not over beat.
3. Fill 4" round cake pans about 2/3 full.
4. With remaining batter, fill lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full.
4. Bake 4" cakes for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean, with just one or two crumbs. Bake cupcakes for 12-15 minutes.
5. Transfer cakes to wire rack to cool.

While cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting.

Marshmallow Crème Frosting:
1 C Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 C Butter, softened
3 1/2 - 4 C Powdered Sugar
1-3 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine marshmallow fluff and butter. Whip for about 2 minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.
2. 1 Cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Beat until combined after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl before adding more.
3. When powdered sugar is all mixed in, add the cream, 1 tbsp. at a time, until desired consistency is reached. If you will be piping, leave the frosting on the thicker side.

ASSEMBLY/DECORATING:
1. Level cakes with a bread knife or cake leveler.
2. Assemble the cake by placing one cake layer on a cake stand, then a layer of frosting, then cake, etc. Until all cake layers have been stacked.
3. Frost the top and sides of the cake.
4. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter as a guide, add sprinkles in the shape of a heart to the top of the cake.

Halloween Cupcakes

Chocolate Graveyard Cupcakes!

These are super yummy. I used the Hershey's Chocolate Cupcake recipe (on the back of their cocoa powder box). The recipe is at the bottom, if you want it. Just a word of warning, when it says the batter is runny, they mean it! It is really, really runny. But don't worry, it's supposed to be, and they turn out delicious!

After making the chocolate cupcakes, I made a simple ganache (1.5 parts chocolate to 1 part heavy whipping cream) and used an injector to pipe it into the middle. Then I took a tub of cool whip, died it green and added just a little bit of peppermint extract. I frosted the cupcakes with that, and put some crushed up mint cookies on top.

Finally, I added a little gravestone for each cupcake. For those, I took some grasshopper cookies and cut them into the shape of tombstones (the extra parts I cut off worked out great for sprinkling on top), and wrote RIP on them. I happened to have orange frosting on hand, so that's what they got.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

2 C sugar

1 3/4 C flour

3/4 C cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 C milk

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 C boiling water

Directions:

1. Heat over to 3500F. Line 2 1/2 in. muffin cups with paper bake cups.

2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on med. speed 2 min. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans.

3. Bake 22-25 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 min.; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Texturized Vase Tutorial

I wish I could take credit for this awesome idea, but I can't. I found it here. And thought it looked so cool, I had to try it!

I'm sure you all know what very big, important day is right around the corner. My birthday! Okay, that too, but I was really going for Valentine's day. So rather than make a sensible vase that can be used year round, I made a cute V-Day one! It was a bit time consuming, but pretty easy.

Materials:
Vase (dollar store)
Hot glue (on hand)
Tissue Paper (on hand)
Mod Podge (on hand)
Acrylic Paint (borrowed from sister)
Clear Spray Paint (on hand)

This project cost me a grand total of $1. Awesome! Want to know how to make it? ... I'll just assume that's a yes :-)

First, pick a design. I knew I wanted to make it Valentines-y, but I didn't just want hearts. That's so predictable, and I pride myself on thinking outside of the box. Or... vase. After extensive google image searches, I settled on a picture of two swans kissing, making that little heart between them.

Next, print out the image (I printed it in several sizes so I could figure out how big I wanted those swans to be!), then tape it to the INSIDE of the vase.

Then, on the OUTSIDE of the vase, trace the image with hot glue. It doesn't have to be perfect (and actually looks better if it has some flaws, in my opinion!), but if you make a major oops, you can always cut off some of the hot glue using an exacto knife. It comes off the glass pretty easy.

Ignore the gross yellow-ish color of the glue on the right - it was a bit old. Still works just fine though!

One thing that was a little tricky with this step was figuring out where exactly to outline. I closed one of my eyes during this process to make it a bit easier.

While your hot glue is drying, you can prep for the next step. Take some tissue paper (you'll only need about half a sheet, depending on the size of your vase) and wad it up into a ball. Lots of wrinkles will give you lots of texture! Lay it out flat, then tear it into small squares roughly 3" by 3".

Perfection is NOT necessary here. This whole project is all about bringing out the flaws, so leave your inner perfectionist in a different room when making this vase!

After your glue is all dry and your tissue paper is in wrinkly squares, it's time to bust out the Mod Podge. Brush the Mod Podge directly onto the vase, then lay a piece of tissue paper on top, and pat it on with your fingertip. You might get some Mod Podge on your finger, just use another finger or keep a moist washcloth nearby and wipe it off.


When you're Mod Podging the tissue paper around the design, be sure to get into all the little creases and crevices. That will give it more texture! If you accidentally tear the tissue paper, no worries, just put more tissue paper on top. I did that plenty of times, and it still turned out cute!

Give the tissue paper PLENTY of time to dry. I did the next step the next day to make sure it was completely dry. If it's still at all moist, when you go to paint it will tear the tissue paper and cause all sorts of problems!

Once it's dry, bust out that paint! For my vase, I did a very light pink for the base, then a dark red-maroon for the outer accent color. I forgot to take a picture of the vase when it was pink, but just imagine the image above in pink. Or the image below without the red. You're all smart, I'm sure you'll get it :-)

After the base color dries, get your other color ready. This is the part I was most worried about, but it turned out okay. Get some paint on your brush, but get as much of the paint out of the brush as you can. You want it just barely moist. Then gently brush a bit of the accent color on. If you accidentally get a huge spot of the accent color, just brush over it with the base color, let it dry, and try again. It's very forgiving, just don't give up if you mess up.
Once that is dry, cover the whole vase with clear spray paint to seal it, and voila! You're done! I also tied a little ribbon around mine, but that's totally optional.


I hope you guys like the vase, let me know if you try it out! I think I want to make one for St. Patrick's Day. How cute would it be to have a light green background with a dark green shamrock? Really this could be adapted for any holiday, or you could do a shape like a fleur-de-lis and leave it up year-round!

Leave me a comment if you plan to try this or if you have any questions!

I'm linking this project up here:

Nativity Wreath

For my mom's birthday a while ago, I made this adorable nativity wreath:

I love how it turned out! Look at their adorable little faces! 

I'm not very artistic when it comes to painting, so I was so happy with how adorable it turned out! 

Halloween Brownies

For Halloween, I made some fun little pumpkin brownies I thought I'd share with you all. They're just box brownies that I cut out with a cookie cutter, but I thought they turned out pretty cute.

Those little chocolate balls at the bottom are Brigadeiros. They are really easy to make, but super yummy. I don't have time to share much else, but I thought I'd post a fun Halloween treat :)

Holiday Wreaths

This past summer, my hubby and I celebrated our first anniversary. We have a little inside joke (based on the Disney movie Cars - no, we don't have any kids yet, we just like Disney movies, okay?), anytime we get snuggly together on the couch, we say we're "getting cozy at the cone." So, for our anniversary, I made him a little wooden sign:

I got a little wooden "welcome" sign at the dollar store, then just painted over it! This would have been a lot easier if I wasn't too poor to afford stencils. I had to print off "The Cone," then cut it out using an exacto knife, then try and use that as a stencil. Not so easy. And it didn't really work out that well, which is why it's outlined in a darker blue. The edges were kind of wonky, so I touched them up by outlining. Turned out fairly decent, considering the lack of stencils! 

I've also been really into wreaths lately. I made one for Christmas last year, and liked how it turned out so much that I made another for 4th of July. 

For this one I got one of those twine wreath bases, a bunch of dollar store flowers, and basically just stuck them in until it looked pretty. I added a bow at the bottom for a nice touch. If you don't like your wreaths this simple, you could add little stars or something. I'm happy with just the flowers though! 

I'm quite proud of the bow. 

By the way, I used a very advanced method for attaching the flowers to the base: hot glue! 

Same concept here, but with a Christmas tree wreath. Also used hot glue. 

You could make a wreath for just about any holiday, with whatever color flowers and ribbon match the decor for that season. I think I'll try my hands at an Autumn wreath in a few months.