Foothill Banquet Cupcakes

They are just simple one bowl chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes. They were topped with an espresso whipped cream. It was really fun to make. This has got to be the biggest project so far. I mean everyone loves cupcakes in my divison so this only shows how good of a baker I am. If that seems a little conceited, it might just be. I had basically 2 day notice to make 60 cupcakes. I mean its not that bad, but add in the fact that I had made tiramisu cupcakes the day before.
So I decided that night after the big dinner with everyone, I had started on these cupcakes. Alex and Macky were at my place again and well, didn't help, but we did watch a marathon on Jon & Kate plus Eight.

Since this was for a banquet for a friend, I decided to decorate it relating to the banquet itself and Ali, the president of the club that was celebrating. YAY for more pictures now!

Congrats to Foothill CKI!
so who does Ali love?
Sorry for the blurriness, I guess I just cant stay still.

<3 Nina

Graduation Dinner

Tiramisu Cupcakes again. Somehow everytime I make it, something turns out differently. Oh well, it's all okay. I got them all finished which is what counted. Things just went wrong that way. I think the major thing was that my chocolate just would not set up and the frosting would not either. It was just too soupy. Oh well!

Picture time!

I could get some of the chocolate to say Grats! for the graduates
There were 9 of the chocolate things on each cupcake for the year 2009.
I thought I wasnt going to be able to bring all of them, so I stuffed them all together.
All of the beautiful tiramisu cupcakes together.

<3 Nina

Jello Shot Cupcakes

While browsing blogs, I came across this one recipe and told myself that I would make it for something. An occasion came up. My friend's surprise going away party. It was perfect.

So during this time, I was done with finals but it was still the busiest week that I've had in a while. Graduations take forever, but I really enjoyed going to them and seeing my friends walk across that stage and receive their degrees. I digress. So finding the time to go out and get unflavored gelatin was none actually. I had no idea where to go looking for it either. Oh well. I decided to just go with regular jello toppings instead of the broken jello. Maybe some other day. If I had a bit more time, I would have created shapes and yeah, been impressive, but no time =(.

Picture of some of them

The off colors in the jello are because I had cut all the jello up and put it in a pan all together.

With the extra jello, I put whipped cream on top and wrote have fun!

But it had kinda broke on me when I brought it to the party. Well I had a friend bring it and to none of their fault, the jello fell and the foil got stuck on the whipped cream and you couldnt read that it said have fun anymore =(.

Everyone thought it was good though, that's all that counted.

<3 Nina

Chocolate Cupcakes with Passionfruit/Chocolate Ice Cream

Wow, so pretty!
On the same day as buying chocolate ice cream for the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup, I had bought some really yummy passionfruit ice cream. It wasnt that cheap, but oh my, it was really good. I thought - lets create something with that! Well, first off, I was looking up what went with passionfruit, and I didnt find anything really, but instead, I decided to look up what goes well with passionfruit. Chocolate!

So finding the chocolate cupcake recipe was also hard. It needed to be dense and rich to offset the light and fruity passionfruit. This recipe was amazing. Although I had made WAY too many cupcakes, and it was from a box mix, it was still really good.

This time, I learned, make the cupcake first, wait for them ALL to cool down and then put the ice cream on it. The ice cream had not melted on me as much. I had them in the freezer over night, and I had put the whipped cream on it. Chocolate whipped cream. It was really easy to make and it was really light and fluffy. I did not want to put the espresso one on the passionfruit ones because that might be competing flavors so I went with more chocolate. There's nothing wrong with going with more chocolate =).

Pictures by Dmitriy again, thank you for taking pictures of them when you were supposed to be studying for your final! <3

<3 Nina

Chocolate Pepperment Ice Cream Cupcakes

So it's a peppermint cupcake with chocolate ice cream and some espresso whipped cream.
YUM!

I know, personally I think that the flavor combo was weird at first, but my boyfriend told me that it would be the perfect flavor combination.

Well, it all started at the beginning of the month, when I found the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup. I live for competition. It makes my life complete. Well, one Sunday, I went out with some friends (Alex and Macky) and I decided to get some ice cream for this competition. I bought the EXTREME! Moose tracks. It was pretty yummy and I decided to make a cupcake to go with it. A chocolate cupcake would have been TOO much while I didnt want to be too plain and go with a vanilla cupcake. Instead, I decided to ask around. I finally decided on the Sprinkle's Peppermint Cupcake. I had used the recipe as printed, but I added some extra peppermint and vanilla extract. I also subbed the regular milk with soy milk. It was light and really good.

Being OCD like I am. I tested it out with no cupcake liner = didnt work so well.
Then tested it with the cupcake liners. two at a time. That's how I baked the rest of them. I mean it was time consuming, but it was fun baking and watching Food Network at the same time.

I have finally finished the cupcakes and the ice cream part and end result of those parts had two different results. Part of them were really ice creamy like right out of the freezer, the rest of them were a soupy mess =(. But freezing them overnight in a friend's freezer since I have no room made all the difference. I decided to top these off with an espresso whipped cream from here. But I kind of ran out, and then I made some chocolate whipped cream (not pictured). Regardless, they were still pretty good.
These are my pictures...
YUM!
Thanks for Dmitriy for the pictures again even though it was during finals! <3
These came out really beautifully!


This is my entry into the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup!

<3 Nina

Sugar Cookies with a Chocolate Chip Middle

So it's like a really cute bite sized cookie that I had made for my friend for the Circle K study-a-thon. It was the same sugar cookie recipe that I've used before, but this time, I made the cookies smaller and put one chocolate chip on top. They were so cute and yummy!

Before going into the oven!Straight out of the oven!

<3 Nina

Tropical Lemon Cupcakes

Oh this cupcake and cake were delicious. I was out with Alex and Macky that day. Eating at cheeseboard was awesomely amazing too. They have yummy pizza and all of its vegetarian.

Then we baked Virginia Carpenter's Tropical Lemon Cake. Virginia is one of the Berkeley Kiwanians that I had competed against. Her cake had won so I decided to make it for myself. She was so right. This cake was amazing. Nothing like it that I've tasted. Sweet and Sour.

Recipe for the cake/cupcakes:
Ingredients:
1 (18.25 oz) package of lemon cake mix
1 (3 oz) package of lemon flavored gelatin mix
5 eggs
1 cup of veg oil
3/4 cup of fresh orange juice

Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 in pan or line a cupcake pan with liners.
In a large bowl stir together the cake mix and lemon jello.
Combine the eggs, oil, and orange juice in a blender and blend for 5 minutes (or since I didnt have a blender, in a bowl with a hand mixer.)
Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet mixture.
Beat for another 5 minutes. Pour into pan/cupcake liners.
Bake the cake for 40-45 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. I had baked my cupcakes for like 15-20 minutes.

Glaze:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice
2 cups of powdered sugar
Directions:
Combine the fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar.
Beat until smooth.

Put it all together!
When the cake/cupcakes come out of the oven, make sure to make holes with either a fork or tooth picks. Then pour the glaze of the cake/cupcakes.

Very moist and yummy cake!

All of them! So many!

Thanks for Alex and Macky for helping me!
<3 Nina

Simple Vanilla Cupcake with Leftover Frosting

Exactly what the title says. A simple vanilla cake that I made before here.
Frosting was my leftover Strawberry Lemonade Frosting.

It was just yummy and everyone gobbled them up!

<3 Nina

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This isnt the first time that I've made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, but these were really good. Soft, chewy, and I don't even really like Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

Recipe from here:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
10 tablespoons of granulated sugar
10 tablespoons of packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cup raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy.
In another bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
Gradually beat into butter mixture.
Stir in oats and raisins.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Place in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Drop balls onto a ungreased cookie sheet. Each ball should be about 1 tablespoon of batter.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack.
Cool completely.

<3 Nina

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

NOM NOM NOM!
Normally, I bake the sweet, frosting topped cupcakes, but today, I felt like making something a bit different, and well I had a couple of very overly riped bananas so muffins it was.

Using this recipe with some differences, I made some yummy, yummy muffins.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I used three bananas)
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, milk, and vanilla.
Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Fold in bananas and chocolate chips.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Picture time again!

In the pan
My huge muffin
with guava juice

YAY, awesome success. I'll make sure to bake more soon. =)

<3 Nina

Pineapple Upside Down...Cake

What was supposed to be cupcakes, turned into a cake.

First, my roommate has let someone borrow all of our cupcake pans so we didnt have any, and I couldnt really make pineapple upside down cupcakes without at least one. So I decided to do it the regular way and make a cake.

I followed this recipe, but made a few changes.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 20-ounce can pineapple circles
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
18-19 ounce yellow cake mix (prepare batter as directed on box OR use these ingredients)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
a little bit of water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease two circular pans (I used an 8 and a 9 in pans)
Drain canned pineapple, reserving liquid in a glass measuring cup.
Place the butter and brown sugar evenly on two each pan.
Decorate the pans with the circles. (I cut them into fourths and decorated appropriately)
Place cake mix and eggs in large bowl.
To reserved pineapple juice, add enough water to make a total of 1-1/3 cups of liquid.
Pour liquid in bowl.
Mix until well blended.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Allow to rest in pan for 2 minutes and then invert onto serving platter.

I decided to get a little funky and use some of the batter and make it green using green food coloring. It was just a little fun side of things for a party I went to.

Picture time!

This is what happens when a college student gets lazy.
Pretty decorating
All baked.
yay with the green!
FAIL CAKE!

Cupcakes would have been much more fun, but a lot more work than needed for this kickback my friend was throwing. After one of my cakes would not completely invert onto the other one, I just used the extra pineapple and decorated the other completed one. I also ate the horrible fail cake. When I got there, half the cake was gone and I'm glad that everyone there loved it. =)
<3 Nina