I Am The Cupcake Hero!

Yes, I know I already blogged about my win and I swear this is not evidence of an inflated ego. It's just that a friend got creative and took my small victory a little too seriously and has cleverly created my superhero persona:


At my request, he even came up with a catchy theme song in a matter of minutes. The boy's got talent, let me tell ya!

Sing this to the tune of the original Spider Man cartoon theme song:

Cupcake gal, cupcake gal,
She's so cool and is my pal
Bakes a cake, any size,
Bakes cupcakes and sometimes pies
Look Out!
...Here comes the Cupcake gal.

Can she bake?
Listen bud,
She's got German in her blood.
Can she start a baking thread?
Take a look overhead
Hey, there
There goes the Cupcake gal.

In the chill of night
When you're hungry for pie
Like a streak of light
She arrives just in time.

Cupcake gal, cupcake gal
Friendly neighborhood Cupcake gal
Wealth and fame
She's ignored
Yummy cupcakes are her reward.

To her, life is a great big bake off
Cupcakes are her payoff
She is the Cupcake gal!

Mucho thanks to Mr. Chucky for seeing fit to use his genius to plump up my ego and help me celebrate my win. If any of you wish to commission his services you can contact me as his authorized agent.

Join The Movember Manly Cupcake Challenge

The cupcake geniuses over at C&C Cakery have come up with a brilliant challenge to help raise awareness for the more manly types of cancer that often fall under the radar. The Movember Foundation has been dedicated to this cause for several years now. Even if you can't participate now's the time to make a donation and spread the word about this! Don't you just adore the mustached cupcake design they came up with? I love the inspiration and the execution of this fantastic idea so please help out in any way you can. Blog about it, post links to your favorite men's health charity, or join in yourself to compete for some wonderful prizes!

If you're up for the baking challenge, you have from now until November 20th to bake up some amazingly unique cupcakes that have a real manly attitude. This could be reflected in the recipe, the taste, or the decorations. Really, this part is open to your interpretation, so be as creative as you want to be! Visit C&C Cakery for all of the details.

When brainstorming ideas for this yesterday it occurred to me that we women bakers will be influenced by the types of men we've had in our lives, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of different interpretations of what qualifies as "manly" depending on our experiences. I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with.

(Cupcake Hero) Victory Is Mine!

Whoo hoo! Found out last night that my Nutella Baklava Cupcakes won October's honey-themed Cupcake Hero competition. Thanks again to everyone who voted! I love the set-up for the competition as you still have a chance if your cupcake rocks but you don't have a million friends to turn out and vote for you. I also like that it comes down to a taste test as there's only so much you can tell about a cupcake from a description of the components.

I thought this would mean I'd get a chance to host November's Cupcake Hero, which I was looking forward to more than the prizes themselves, but I got an email from I Heart Cuppycakes this morning saying to hold off on posting the competition as she's reevaluating Cupcake Hero due to her busy schedule and complaints from several participants about how it's organized. I know that I and at least one other participant have offered to step in and help out with the prizes and any other aspects she's struggling with. I really hope she doesn't choose to stop the competition as I think it's an extremely popular one with lots of talented bakers. It'd be a shame to see it end, especially when I had a great idea for November's ingredient. Which shall remain a mystery until I get the go ahead to host. Assuming that ever happens.

Hopefully things will be back on track soon and we can look forward to another fun challenge!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It's finally here! Happy Halloween!


Earlier in the month a friend commented that this must be the most wonderful time of the year for me. She was absolutely right as I've felt elated and full of glee the entire Halloween season. While I'm sorry to see it go, I'm going to make the most of the spooky, gory, haunted goodness of today!

Lio's a great little comic strip that I just discovered this week thanks to Haunt Style. Be sure to check out the Lio comic strip site for more twisted Halloween fun from Mark Tatulli.

For my photo a day I went to a nearby park and photographed some slightly sinister-looking steep stairs. I had to wait for the elderly folk who take their morning walks in the park to clear out as I had no intention of telling them what I intended to do with the photo. I then used Photoshop to add in a picture I found in this fun pool of pictures of people falling down stairs. The one I blatantly stole is thanks to Helga Weber, whoever she is. Thanks, Helga!

A Photo A Day [Day 63]

Not the best Photoshop job out there but as it's one of my first I'm pretty pleased.

Glass Shard Cupcakes

A Photo A Day [Day 62]

Although I'm trying to get over my miserable failure at today's local Iron Cupcake: Moorestown competition where I didn't even place, I figured I'd post pictures of my entry here for your enjoyment. I honestly don't get what the judges are looking for in these things because my cupcakes tasted amazing and, at least in my eyes, looked great. It's really disheartening to lose to a cupcake that tastes like the frosting came from a supermarket shelf while I slaved away last night and this morning to make homemade dulce de leche for my filling and frosting. Not to sound too catty and bitter about the whole thing, but the disappointment's definitely there.

The themes were "pumpkin" and "Halloween" so I made another batch of the astoundingly delicious dulce de leche pumpkin cupcakes I made last week (see that post for the recipe). They're moist pumpkin cake filled with homemade dulce de leche topped with dulce de leche buttercream.

For those of you concerned for the welfare of my kitchen after my last disastrous attempt at making dulce de leche, I can say that third time's the charm for me when it comes to making the stuff. Scared off of the oven method, I made a double batch last night on the stovetop using a double boiler, stirring occasionally. It worked like a charm even though it took over three hours of cooking, but at least I was able to leave it unsupervised for the most part. Unfortunately I managed to mess it up by cooking it too long so this morning I woke up to a giant blob of hardened caramel stuck in the bowl. The bowl was only $1 so I'm tempted to just throw it out rather than clean the darn thing. This morning I went back to the oven method of pouring the condensed milk into a pan, covering it with foil, placing it in a water bath, and heated it at 425 F for a little over an hour. No accidents this time because I omitted the baking soda and watched it like a hawk.

For the cupcakes' Halloween decorations I went against my husband's advice to stick with cutesy since the family-oriented crowd might not go for gory. While I love what I came up with maybe I would have had a chance of placing if I'd listened to him. Anyway, I took the idea from A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli. The recipe I used made far too much "glass" so next time I'd halve the recipe below. For the "blood" I boiled down some cranberries in water with lots of sugar and pulsed it into a blender until the cranberries were all broken up. You could go the easy way out and use pureed cherry pie filling or raspberry jam.

Even though I didn't even place, the crowd seemed to love mine. Everyone kept stopping to check them out, take photos, and they were the first ones to run out once we were allowed to sample the goodies. Still, I'm dismayed that I spent all that time making the silly decorations and made some damn fine cupcakes and still didn't come close.

Glass Shards
Recipe from A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli

(You may want to halve this recipe)

Nonstick spray
2 cups water
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1) Line a large cookie sheet with foil or a Silpat and spray with nonstick spray. Spray the pan at least 30 minutes prior to using it.

2) Mix together the water, sugar, corn syrup and cream of tartar in heavy saucepan and bring to a boil with a candy thermometer inserted. Let the mixture boil, stirring continuously, until it reaches 300 F (this step took me nearly 40 minutes, grrr). Pour the mixture very quickly and carefully onto the lined and oiled pan. Spread evenly and let cool.

3) When the mixture has cooled completely, carefully pop it out of the pan and peel off the foil or Silpat. Tap it in the center with a hammer or meat mallet to crack it into shards.


Since I love Halloween so much I did enjoy seeing what everyone else came up with. Although most of the entries were cutesy there were some that caught my eye.






Edited to add:
Someone else got a good picture of the winning rat cupcakes. They're definitely impressive, both in concept and in execution, so I can see how they won. I guess my style of focusing more on the taste of the cupcakes and not wanting to complicate that with fussy decorations doesn't really work in these competitions. Which is a shame because it seems like my tastes runs toward simple and understated, not just in cupcakes but in clothes, design, etc. I doubt I'll ever be on board with taking all that time to decorate something that will be demolished in minutes.

A Photo A Day [Day 61]

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday's photo. For the Halloween season I figure it's acceptable for our neighbors to see a small display of our weirdness. Donna usually stands in the corner of our guest room, creepily staring at our guests as they slumber. But for Halloween she gets moved to a prime position in front of the window where she can cast her undead gaze upon the world. At night I set an eerie red strobe light under her so she looks even more frightening. We've had lots of people compliment us and several mention that they make it a point to drive past our house to see her. And then there are the trick-or-treaters too scared to come to the door because they see her waiting. I love it!

Britain's Scariest Building?

3 days 'til Halloween! Today we'll tie together my love of Halloween with my love for all things British.


No, Britain's scariest building is not wherever Tony Blair happens to be, which I'm sure would be my husband's suggestion. One of my favorite sources for British news, the Guardian, featured a story yesterday about the spooky-looking Royal Masonic School for Boys and touted it as being one of the scariest buildings in Britain. Now that the school is closed developers are turning it into luxury flats, which I'd love to buy if any of you want to give me that spare one million dollars you have lying around. Although the above photo has been heavily edited the place features some beautiful gothic architecture, evocative of specters and haunts and things going bump in the night.

For my photo of the day I bring you one of New Jersey's scariest buildings. Seems more or less normal from here:


Until you look more closely. That's when the creepiness sets in. (Click on the pics for larger versions.)

A Photo A Day [Day 60]

Why is the one in the middle staring right at me with such hatred? Why is she the only one looking in my direction? Why does this even exist? Why why why?!