Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

May 23, 2017May 23, 2017 ~ Angela ~ Leave a comment

I think this may be my best cupcake yet…

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

I found this fabulous Pineapple Upside Down Cake Rum from Malibu a few weeks ago, and then over the weekend I decided I needed to bake something with it.

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I didn’t want to do a traditional style pineapple upside down cupcake. I LOVE the taste, but they are a sticky mess. 🙂 So I figured I’d stick the outsides back in, and top it off with a brown sugar buttercream.

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

Every now and then, I feel like I have a brief moment of foodie genius. This was definitely one of those moments. These are ABSOLUTELY delicious, and would be perfect for one of those upcoming summer gatherings. Luau party anyone??

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

Lately I have been noticing that a lot of the recipes on food blogs come with step by step pictures of the ENTIRE process. I have a few thoughts on this:

I don’t have time for all that. I want to bake, snap a few pics of my cupcakes and then sit on my couch and eat them.
I am pretty sure you know what it looks like to throw some eggs, oil and cake mix in a bowl and then mix it up.
If you’re anything like me, you might just want the damn recipe. So here you go:

Take your favorite yellow cake mix. Follow the directions on the box, except substitute the Pineapple Upside Down Cake Rum for the amount of water called for. If you want to make a booze-free version, you can sub pineapple juice for half of the amount of water called for. Bake the cupcakes according to the directions on your cake mix box.

After the cupcakes have completely cooled, core the centers. You can use a cupcake plunger, or take a sharp knife and cut out a cone shape from the middle of the cupcake (you don’t NEED to put these bits back on after you fill the cupcakes, so feel free to eat them as you go!). After your cupcakes have been cored, spoon a small amount of pineapple topping (you can find this with the ice cream toppings) into the center of each cupcake, and then insert a maraschino cherry into each hole.

After that, whip up a batch of this delicious Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting from Two Sisters Crafting and have some fun decorating your cupcakes! I rolled mine in yellow sanding sugar, and then used some Wilton Christmas tree sprinkles as my “pineapple leaves”.

I will post a picture of the most important step… Take a bite and enjoy!!!

Outside In Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes | Shake Bake and Party

Creepy Fang Cupcakes

October 29, 2015October 28, 2015 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

I can’t believe it’s almost Halloween already! Is this year going way too fast for anyone else, or is it just me? I certainly couldn’t let one of my favorite holidays pass by without making some Halloween cupcakes. These are scarily simple – I just made some chocolate cupcakes using a boxed mix, frosted them with a vanilla buttercream and decorated them with these super fun gummy fangs I found at Target. Yes, I went to Target for toilet paper and ended up leaving with gummy fangs. You know how it is, don’t lie.

As you can see, I also bought gummy tongues. How could I resist?! They look so realistic! Damn you Target!

In addition to the gummy fangs, I used these cool Wilton sprinkles I found. I just love the little spiders!

As you can see, some simple store bought decorations can make a fantastically creepy cupcake with minimal effort! I love simple things that make a big impact!

If you have some creepy cupcakes of your own that you’d like to share, head over and share a pic on my Facebook page! Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!!

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

February 5, 2015February 4, 2015 ~ Angela ~ 3 Comments

‘Tis the season for all things red and pink so I’ve hopped onto the bandwagon and made you some strawberries and cream cupcakes!

Even if you don’t like Valentine’s Day you’ll be sure to fall in love with these cupcakes. Sweet strawberry cupcakes, frosting made with heavy cream AND a strawberries and cream truffle stuffed into the center? Good stuff.

These cupcakes are really easy to make! Bake up a batch of your favorite strawberry cupcakes (I used a boxed mix) and a minute or two after you take them out of the oven unwrap a truffle and just push it down through the top of the cupcake. I used Lindt Lindor Strawberries and Cream truffles but you could use white, milk or dark chocolate truffles too. Any kind of chocolate + strawberries = yum. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost them with this:

Butter Cream Frosting (adapted from Butter Cream Frosting II on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

Cream butter and shortening in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add all other ingredients and beat well.

Simple (yet lovely!) Wedding Cupcakes

May 27, 2014 ~ Angela ~ 7 Comments

On Saturday I had the honor of supplying the cupcakes for a longtime friend’s wedding. She loves chocolate and raspberry, and the groom loves lemon so I made chocolate cupcakes filled with raspberry jam and white cake cupcakes filled with lemon curd. I topped both with a simple dollop of vanilla butter cream and some lavender sanding sugar. What really made the cupcakes were the custom toppers I ordered from Michele over at Scrapsecrets. I sent her a copy of the wedding invitation and asked that she just come up with something that matched. Her design was fantastic, as usual!

The resulting cupcake is a perfect marriage of our talents!!

Here is how the cupcakes were displayed at the wedding –

One sweet little lady came up to me and asked, “Are you the one that made the cupcakes?” I confirmed that I was and she replied, “They were delicious! Both of them!!” I hope they were equally well received by all the other guests!

Congrats again to A & L!

The Seaweed Is Always Greener In Somebody Else’s Lake

June 13, 2013July 7, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

I think The Little Mermaid is probably my favorite Disney movie – mostly because of the music. That movie has an awesome soundtrack.

I was ten when it came out. I had the cassette tape (might there be people reading this who don’t know what cassettes are – am I that old?!) and I spent hours belting out Part Of Your World along with Ariel. I also spent hours perfecting my routine to go along with Debbie Gibson‘s Electric Youth on my swing set, but that is a story for another time. This post is about The Little Mermaid!

Well, it’s actually about the cupcakes I made for an adorable little girl who is having a Little Mermaid themed birthday party! I wish that I were talented enough to make fancy Ariel and Sebastian figurines out of fondant to use as cupcake toppers but I’m not so I bought Little Mermaid cupcake liners and made little sea creatures out of melting chocolates.

Buttons (Or, Why Sometimes Boxed Is Better)

April 10, 2012April 10, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 1 Comment

I have been tasked with making cupcakes for a coworker’s 60th birthday celebration tomorrow. At first I was thinking of making the Snickerdoodle cupcakes I posted about in Cupcakes Taste Better Than Gasoline, but then I decided I wanted to try something new – something light and fruity for spring. I did my usual internet perusal and found a recipe for lemon cupcakes made with light coconut milk. Sounds tasty, right?

Since I always like to be cautious, I baked them last night. This way, if they didn’t turn out as hoped I still had tonight to make a new batch. Good thing. They were…weird. Perhaps it was the light coconut milk? I’ve cooked with it, but never baked with it before. The batter was made from scratch, and that was the only thing in it that wasn’t normal for a cupcake… Whatever it was, I knew that recipe was not a keeper.

So today I regrouped with a good old-fashioned lemon boxed cake mix. Easy peasy, trusted results! I put lemon batter in, I got lemon cupcakes out! I did try a little experiment with the frosting – I decided to make a cherry flavored buttercream. It may very well be the best thing I have ever created. I had a decent amount left after frosting the cupcakes. I didn’t want to wash it down the sink but I knew that if I put it in a container in the fridge that I would end up gorging myself on it at some point later in the evening. I did eat a giant blob of it before disposing of the rest. 😛

So, lemon cake + cherry frosting = Cherry Lemonade Cupcakes! I got a bag of colorful buttons from the local craft store to use as decoration because the birthday girl loves to sew. Hopefully people can control themselves long enough to remove the buttons before diving into one of these babies…