Cupcake Curiosities

If you noticed, there was recently a poll on the blog about your favorite cupcake flavors.

According to TLC Cooking, these are the 10 most popular cupcake flavors:

1. Chocolate & Vanilla-- It's classic, simple, and has something for everyone.
2. Red Velvet-- 'Nuff said
3. Carrot Cake-- Vegetables in cupcake form? Oh yeah.
4. Peanut Butter-- Why didn't I think of this combo??
5. Lemon-- If life gives you lemons, make lemon cupcakes
6. Chocolate-- a personal favorite
7. Coffee-- One of the few times I love coffee
8. Banana-- I love banana bread but never tried a banana cupcake
9. Pumpkin-- one of my favorites
10. Vanilla-- Booooring ;)

And according to my blog readers, these are the favorites:

1. Chocolate/vanilla combo-- Surprise! But what do you like better: chocolate icing with vanilla cake, or vanilla icing with chocolate cake?
2. Chocolate with chocolate frosting
3. Vanilla with vanilla frosting-- apparently y'all aren't very adventurous with your favorite cupcakes. Chocolate...vanilla...chocolate...vanilla... But the people have spoken!
4. Strawberry and Red Velvet tied for fourth
5. German Chocolate, Lemon, and Banana are fifth
6. Carrot Cake, Coffee, Coconut, and Peanut Butter all got one vote each for 6th place

Mostly I was just curious about what other people think of cupcakes. In my family it's pretty biased: the majority wants a chocolate cupcake, but there are strong contenders for lemon and vanilla.

However, depending on how things go, I might put this information to use when (if) I participate as a vendor in my town's annual arts & crafts fair. I want to sell cupcakes, cookies, and cake balls, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to, due to time constraints and the like. I'll be sure to keep y'all posted though!

Pirates and Haunted Houses

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd share some of my older creations. First up, we have the truck road race cake I made for James' fourth birthday. He's 11 now, so that was seven years ago. (Wow! That was really long ago)

What do you think? Has my decorating skills improved since then?? ;)

Next up is a haunted house. I think I made this one four or five years ago. I was still learning about piping and coloring icing... so the coloring is a bit off.

But those are some awesome ghosts, right?!

And finally, the pirate cake. Man, oh man, I remember this cake. I definitely made it three or four years ago, and my blood sugar was screwing up, so I wasn't in my best creative mood. And the icing had little chocolate chips in it, which was way too frustrating.

Ta-da! Not too shabby, all things considered.

That's all the cake I've got to show off for right now. :-) I applied for some jobs this week, since I have a car now, so send some good wishes and prayers my way! I definitely want to start decorating cakes on a more regular basis.

Superbowl Cookies (2007)

So these are the first ever Superbowl cookies that I ever made, way back in 2007.

In '08 I made little footballs

In '09 I made footballs and helmets

As you can tell, I've come a long way since the Bears played the Colts.  I now use Royal Icing instead of buttercream (and the proper consistency of RI) to decorate the cookies, and I found appropriate cookie cutters.

If the horse looks a little funny to you, it's because I had to find a picture off the computer and trace that-- I didn't have a horse cookie cutter! (I do now, though, thankfully!)

This year, unfortunately, I won't be able to make Superbowl cookies, since I'll be away at school, instead of attending the annual church party like I have the past 3 years.

But I hope you enjoyed this little flashback into the past, and enjoy watching the game tomorrow night! (Or, not. I don't even think I'll be watching it, but who knows?)

I'm Gonna Need A Blowtorch

Today, two of my friends told me that they're working on a new project, involving their future career and/or favorite hobby.

And I thought, I need a project of my own.

So... if anyone could loan me an oven, a few pieces of wood, a jigsaw, an industrial-size mixer, and probably a blowtorch, I'll get to work on it.

Or maybe I've just been watching too many episodes of Ace of Cakes?

But in all seriousness, I did come up with a cool new cake design which may or may not defy the laws of gravity. It might have to be a summer project though, because it is seriously epic. More details later :D

The World is Right Again

Everything hurts:

My back is sore from leaning over.

My legs and feet ache from standing up all day.

My arms tire from kneading.

My clothes and face and new apron are covered in sugar.

But I couldn't be happier.

I got to bake. And I believe, without a doubt, that baking is the surest way to cure stress. For me at least. There's just something so relaxing about going through the motions of rolling out dough, and thinking on your feet when you can't find an ingredient, solving problems like too-hot ovens, and finding the best creative way to decorate. I can just let go of all of my problems (and let me tell you, last week was problematic for me) and focus on that task in front of me.

So thankfully my very good friend Joy took me home to bake with her and Megan and her awesome parents bought cookie mix and let me have run of the kitchen :)

It may not have been the weekend I was hoping for, but I have a fresh outlook on life. Especially since there is a tupperware of a couple dozen sugar cookies (decorated with marshmallow fondant... I actually did a pretty stellar job this time! I don't think anybody ever tells you what a sticky, gross mess it makes at first and how long it takes to knead, but by God, I did it right!) and a popcorn cake in my dorm.
Life is good.