Red White and Blueberry Cupcakes

Red White and Blueberry Cupcakes 

Baking cupcakes is something I enjoy doing.  I have no formal training, unless you count that Home Ec class I took in high-school, or was it Jr. High?   I can't walk into the kitchen and whip up cupcakes without a recipe.  As much as my man thinks I should be on Cupcake Wars , I couldn't do it.  I can and I do tweak cupcake recipes and when I find a cupcake that sounds delicious at a bakery I can't get to, I can combine recipes to recreate it. But I can't bake from scratch with no recipe. 

This is just what I did with The White Rabbit Bakery July seasonal flavor, Red, White and Blueberry. Their cupcake is a vanilla cake with blueberries baked into the batter. Topped with vanilla buttercream and strawberry compote. 

I tweaked their seasonal flavor a little.  I made vanilla cake mix and loaded it with blueberries.  I like A LOT of berries in my cake batter, I always add more than what the recipes call for.  I like people to get berries in every bite and it makes the cupcakes healthy right ;) 

While the cupcakes cooled I made the strawberry compote.  White Rabbit Bakery 's description sounds like the strawberry compote is mixed into the buttercream frosting. I used the compote as a filling.  So each bite of the cupcake you got blueberries and strawberries.  I then topped the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  

Besides enjoying baking and eating the cupcakes, I love the reaction I get from my friends when I tell them about the cupcakes I baked.  They always ask me to bring them into work.  The day I had made these red, white and blueberry cupcakes my friend came by the house for a visit.  I described the cupcakes and asked her if she wanted one and she immediately said, YES please! 

Every time I bring cupcakes to work that I baked my co-workers tell me I need to sell them.  I even had a friend ask me out of the blue one day, "Do you think you would enjoy baking every day?" When I asked her why she wouldn't elaborate but I could tell from the look on her face there was more to her question than she was letting on. 

I don't think I'd enjoy baking every thing, but I would enjoy baking cupcakes.  Maybe when I'm done with my day job I'll open Fizzy Party's Cupcakes.  I'd be a home baker. I wouldn't want a brick and mortar shop. I'd offer weekly or maybe monthly flavors.  Probably weekly because there's so many flavors I want to bake.  I'd only offer cupcakes, no cakes. 

Yep, I've kind of put some thought into it.  The idea is in the back of my brain, just in case I ever decide to pursue it. 

If these cupcakes sounded good to you, check out last month's seasonal flavor from White Rabbit Bakery that I recreated.  Raspberry Lemonade. 

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes 

A few months ago we visited the White Rabbit Bakery in Aurora, Oregon.  I had tried their seasonal flavor which at that time was the Apple Irish Cream.   It was so good and I'm not an apple fan, that I had to look up what the seasonal flavors were for the other months.  For June the seasonal flavor was The Marion County- vanilla cake, with marionberries baked in the batter, filled with lemon curd and frosted with vanilla buttercream.  It sounded delicious and I wanted to go try it.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get down to the bakery to try it. Sooo, I decided to try and make my own. 

I cheated a little and picked up a vanilla cake mix instead of making it from scratch.  I didn't have any marionberries so I substituted raspberries.  I mixed up the box cake mix, sifting it so it would be smooth when I mixed in the water, eggs and oil.  Once the cake mix was all mixed up I added the raspberries. I was very generous with the raspberries. 

Once the cupcakes cooled after baking I made the vanilla buttercream.  I used a few tips I found from a professional baker and it made a big difference in how the buttercream came out. I used the whisk attachment in my mixer, sifted all the confectioners sugar and added the confectioners sugar in a spoonful at a time instead of dumping it in. 

Before frosting the cupcakes I scooped out the middle, filled the cupcakes with lemon curd and than frosted them.  I used the Wilton 2D tip to frost the cupcakes, grated some lemon rind over the cupcakes and topped with a fresh raspberry. 

These cupcakes turned out pretty darn good.  I thought I had put a little too much lemon curd in the middle, I tend to be generous when I fill my cupcakes, but my husband said they were really good.  He didn't think I put too much lemon curd in.  In fact, he had two! Woo hoo! I love when I have a cupcake success. 

If you make these cupcakes leave a comment and let me know. 

My picks to help you re-create these cupcakes and get your bake on.
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Delectable Baked Goods Bakery Shop

Delectable Baked Goods Bake Shop

I'm SO excited!!!  My friend Delectable Baked Goods just opened her bake shop in Beaverton, Oregon.  Excuse the fuzzyish pictures. I don't know what happened with my camera. 

As soon as I got off work yesterday I HAD to stop by and support my friend at her bake shop.  I was excited to hear that they'll be open later hours for those of us who like to pick up a cupcake, cake or cookies after work. 

Not only can you pick up baked goods you can pick up other party supplies like cards, baking cups, sprinkles and mugs. 

There were so many pretty sprinkles. If I didn't already have a ton I would have bought some. 

It was great to see so many cupcakes available at 6:00 pm when I stopped by. And the best thing, they were fresh and moist.  I've stopped by bakeries later in the day before and the cupcakes are dry because they've been sitting there all day.  Since Delectable Baked Goods is open later their cupcakes will be always be fresh later in the day. Love that. 

I picked up chocolate raspberry cupcakes.  One for me and two to share.  They were so pretty and spring looking with their pink frosting. 

And yes, they were tasty.  Moist cake and the raspberry frosting tasted like spring. Delectable Baked Goods uses the freshest ingredients so you'll never get that fake flavor taste. 

If you're in the Portland metro area stop into Delectable Baked Goods and tell them Fizzy Party sent you.  

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes 

Whenever one of my family members retires we have a party.  This last weekend we had a party for my aunt and I was asked to make cupcakes.  I scrolled through my cupcake board on Pinterest to find a yummy recipe and decided on Your Cup of Cakes Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes.  I'm not a food blogger so while the pictures aren't drool worthy they are authentic and in the moment. 

I pulled up the recipe, took the laptop in the kitchen and started baking.  

The recipe calls for raspberry pie filling which I was sure our grocery store had. But when I went shopping the morning of the party the store didn't have any raspberry pie filling. They had apple, blueberry, peach, and strawberry. I wasn't going to have time to go to another store so I improvised and used this triple berry fruit filling instead.  This was going to be mixed into the cake mix so I figured it would work.  And it did. It made the cupcakes so moist. 

See, food blogger I am not. I was trying to be all artsy with my cupcake ingredient shot but it just doesn't look as good as the food bloggers make it look.  Plus, I was taking pics on the fly as I was baking. The food bloggers I'm sure set up their shots before they begin baking. 

mmmm, the smell of chocolate with a hint of berry filled my kitchen as the cupcakes cooled. You know I had to taste test one before bringing them to the party and they were so moist. 

This recipe is a keeper.  The cake is moist, the frosting is delicious and smooth and the fresh raspberry on top adds that burst of flavor. My cousin went back for seconds.  After all, you get 3 servings of fruit in these cupcakes ;)  Triple berry in the cake, raspberries in the frosting and a fresh raspberry on top.  

If you try this recipe I'd love to know what you think in the comments below. 

Happy Mother's Day cupcakes

This post was suppose to be up much earlier today. But you know how it goes, work, come home and go for a run, eat some dinner, than this little cutie needed some lap time. This is Jasper. He's a Bombay, which are also known as lap fungus.  

On to the cupcakes!  For Mother's Day we grilled some chicken and I made homemade BBQ sauce. mmm mm tasty.  For dessert I made Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes from a recipe I found on Your Cup of Cake .
I followed the recipe exactly except I saved some of the raspberry puree and added it to the frosting. Made it extra raspberry-y.  Everyone thought they were delicious. Some even went back for seconds :)

They're even good naked!  

As raspberry season approaches, I highly recommend these Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes. 
If you make them, let me know how they turned out and if you thought they were delicious too.