Summer of Cupcakes

True, I have done a little bit of neglecting this summer from my blog, but fear you not! That doesn't mean that I have stop baking. In fact, each of the following cupcakes were inspired by different events from the past three months!

Cupcake #1: Mangolicious (click for recipe)

This summer, I had my fill of delicious fruits when I went back to Taiwan. Nothing beats their delicious mangoes that were bigger than the size of my head. Needless to say, when I came back to the States, I had a large void to fill! Here's what came out:

Definitely an interesting cupcake! You'll have to ask Tammy what she thought of them. :) I personally prefer the actual fruit.

Cupcake #2: The Margarita Cupcake (click for recipe)

I had the opportunity to teach a graduate course at Aurora University this summer, which meant no more high schoolers (temporarily, of course)! This called for our adult version of the key lime cupcake: the margarita cupcake! It's basically a lime scented cupcake with a tequila infused buttercream frosting. The verdict was that there wasn't enough tequila in the frosting. Figures. ;)

The class proved to be oodles of fun to teach, partially because I could test out my cupcake recipes on them! ;)

Cupcake #3: The Hannah Lemontana Cupcake

This cupcake's story is somewhat bittersweet, as it was created in dedication to my BFF, Hannah, moving away to the Big Apple only a few weeks ago. At her cupcake crawl bachlorette party, she voted the lemon cupcake to be her fave. So, out came this delicious lemon cupcake filled and topped with a lemon buttercream frosting. Thanks David for the creative name! :)

Just so you can see its inerts:

So despite the fact that I haven't been blogging, at least you can keep up with my summer by checking out the stories behind each cupcake. That's pretty much the last three months in a nutshell. :)

A Purple and Yellow Event

Who knew that little Mac was ready to become a Big Mac? (Don't kill me, E! :P)

Ellen's son, Mac, has graduated and is going to move onto grad school at Louisiana State University! The excitement called for a party. The party called for cupcakes. Thus, the party called for Jeanette. (Those last few sentences could almost have been fashioned into logic statements for my Geometry kids! Inductive reasoning, anyone?)

The inspiration: LSU's school colors, purple and yellow. Ellen originally requested mini cupcakes with purple and yellow frosting. Knowing me, I spent several days thinking about how I could make purple and yellow cupcakes in a different way.

The result: Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes (Get it??). Follow the link to see the recipe! I didn't freeze the blueberries, and I made a lemon buttercream frosting (because I didn't have cream cheese).

I made two batches because I had forgotten the request for mini ones, so here are the big ones:

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the mini ones. But, here is a picture of how I added the blueberries in the minis. I had to crush up blueberries and swirl them into the cupcake for the purple effect:

Congratulations, Mac :)

There's something about summer

Summer is wonderful in so many ways. I get to catch up with people that didn't know I existed during the school year, embark on new baking endeavors, enjoy a conglomerate of fresh fruits, celebrate my nth birthday (this year it's 3^3), and finally post on a blog that I have neglected for nearly a year.

Inspiration in the summer is easy: open the refrigerator, and pick your favorite colors! I chose the following color palette:

Here is the newest creation: "Strawblime Cupcakes," a recipe which I adapted from the Food Network. I added lime zest into the actual cupcake, and then added butter into the icing to make it more of a frosting. I also dipped the strawberry into the frosting before inserting it into the cupcake! The follow picture shows chocolate mint garnish, thanks to Hans and Maggie!

Photo courtesy of Fishie Ling <><

Here's to a great start to the summer! :)