I heart cupcakes.

I am officially smitten with cupcakes.  I have a VERY large sweet tooth and I love to bake- so cupcakes seem like the perfect outlet because they have built-in portion control!  Genius!  I’ve been making cupcakes for awhile (even got a paying gig once before!) and have been promoted to the “Chief Executive Baker” at work.  I love to experiment with new recipes/ideas that I find on Pinterest, and usually my coworkers get the benefit of it.  I even have a couple of great mantras in my office (it’s my office “flair”):

To get in the holiday spirit, I recently tried to make “Thanksgiving Dinner” cupcakes with my cousin!  We had a blast making them and they turned out really well!  There is the turkey drumstick, peas & carrots, cherry cobbler and mashed potatoes with gravy (my personal favorite).   I got the idea after catching a Paula Dean episode  (“I just looove butter y’all!”).  I went searching for the recipe, and ended up making a few adjustments.  For example, I didn’t have a bone mold to pipe the chocolate in for the drumstick (nor do I have a double broiler…which I really should get soon), so I improvised a bit.  I also used crushed golden grahams for the drumstick and cobbler, since I figured it would be a good, sweet addition to the cupcake.  And I did use some store bought frosting for half of the cupcakes, and frosted the other half with my low-fat whipped cream frosting:

Low-fat whipped cream frosting:
1 pkg sugar free instant vanilla pudding
1 cup skim milk (pudding mix says to use 2 cups, but you half it)
1 container fat free or low-fat Cool Whip
Whisk pudding and milk for two minutes, then fold in Cool Whip and refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.  You can then pipe away on your cupcakes!  (Be careful though…I’ve discovered that any candy toppers do bleed into the frosting so if you have decorations, add them just before serving.)

Don’t these look so cute?!  I dropped my cousin back at her dorm room with a container full of these…I’m sure her friends were very happy :-) FYI- The recipe I went off of for the Thanksgiving cupcakes can be found here.

Speaking of cupcakes, I needed to get a gift for a baby shower I went to and of course, was able to relate it back to cupcakes!  Check out this super cute cupcake sampler that I made.  Ingredients: 4 onesies, 2 pairs of socks and a whole lotta cuteness.  (Photobomb courtesy of the ever-curious Izzy.)

I picked up the cupcake box from Michael’s (3 per box) and got some adorable onesies/socks from Target.  Then, I just rolled up each onesie with a sock poking out to mimic the frosting.  I finished the gift off with a big ribbon bow.  I think they turned out great!

As if I didn’t have enough cupcakes in my life recently, I recently came across a new brand of wine: Cupcake Vineyards!  I had the Red Velvet, and am excited to try the Angel Food, Moscato and Riesling (I love sweet…obviously.)  YUM!

Ok, I think I am cupcake overload :-)  Until then, I wonder what my next baking adventure will be?  Perhaps in light of recent events, a Hostess cupcake? ;-)  Happy baking!