Slushie Cake Flavor Adds

So far, my most popular post has been my cupcake that started it all just over a year ago: the slushie cake!

I was asked to make some for my goddaughter's GLEE-themed 16th birthday party. Specifically, 4 dozen of them. I asked which flavors to make & was told, "all of them." Well, I started figuring out where to go from there.

OK, so I decided on 6 flavors. My original 4 (cherry, grape, lemon-lime, orange), but thought I'd add berry blue (instead of the very sour blue raspberry-lemonade) and strawberry. And I want to say that the rainbow in the oven was gorgeous!

Once they were out (so glad I can bake them all at once), I decorated them this morning. It's tedious, but it's pretty nice to try to relax frosting, spraying & sugaring each cupcake. Yes, the process is done one-at-a-time, and I did it will all 48 of them.

After I got all the batter separated out into different bowls to add flavor to, I ended up with some extra of each flavored batter, so I got to try out my new toy:
mini cupcake pan. I will have to say that having all of the colors together in the same place looked like Skittles...you could imagine tasting the rainbow!


I also decided to call my little cuties "flavor bites". So much fun!

Well, after the party, I left 11 behind, and more were being consumed as I left. I think they went over very well!

Fried Sopapilla Cupcakes

When Cinco de Mayo came around, I was a little late in creating some fun cupcakes for it, but the inspiration gave me time to experiment & try for next year.

One of the things I thought of is a favorite Mexican dessert: SOPAPILLAS! So I wondered if you could fry a cupcake. That's right! I said FRY A CUPCAKE!

Well I was making some lemon-lime slushie cakes & some cornbread cupcakes for some friends, and I had some extra cornbread batter. I decided to bake the leftover seperately in a muffin pan without liners for experimenting in hot oil later.

I baked 'em up, heated my oil on the stove & fried the 6 cupcakes I made. As soon as I pulled them out of the oil, I dipped & rolled them in a cinnamon & sugar mixture. I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top & then drizzled some honey on them just before consumption.

I thought about using a simple white cupcake to fry to do this, but the cornbread ones came out REALLY well!!

My boys LOVED them & couldn't wait to try more...I guess I should be making some more pretty quickly. Time to fry up some more cornbread cupcakes!

Hope Cakes

For Dr. Seuss' Birthday, when I made Seussy Cakes, I also made Pink Ink to drink...just like the Yink! LOL! Pink Ink consisted of me making a gallon of a strawberry pink lemonade concoction...it was pretty good, if I do say so myself! When my 14-year-old drank it, she told me, "*gasp* This tastes like hope feels." She got the amazing line from a book she was reading at the time, Paper Towns by John Green. But it got me thinking...a pink drink = hope. What a beautiful tie-in to breast cancer awareness!

Like many of us, we have had some sort of connection to breast cancer. I know of a couple of friends who have been through it, plus some family...and even some scares that makes you VERY aware! I am so glad they are OK now...PRAISE GOD...but it is never really over, and we must learn that it can truly happen to ANY of us...even you, gentlemen...

So...if that drink "tastes like hope feels"...then why can't I place that hope in cake form? DUH!

So I made strawberry pink lemonade-flavored cakes (based on my slushie cakes) with a strawberry filling, topped with a light strawberry-infused icing & a bright cherry ribbon on top.

I first made these for Mother's Day to take with us to my grandmother's house where we were going to have ALL mom's together! And I thought it was important since my mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor, my mom, where a couple of her sisters have had issues, and an extra scare within the family that we are still keeping an eye out on.

Well, we went to church first & then had to head straight to my grandmother's from there. Well, I wasn't thinking about it being over 80 degrees out that morning...and all of the icing melted into the cupcakes. I was devastated! Never even thought that through since we were running behind that morning. I thought I had some pix of my failures, but I guess I didn't. I wanted to show how sad they were & where my learning curve is for my cupcakes. I'm more sad that I can't share my tasty failures than I am sharing about them. But they still tasted pretty good.

So...I did redo my Hope Cakes & baked them in some adorable cupcake baking liners I found that are PERFECT! Pink swirl liners with bright pink cupcakes & a hot pink "ribbon" on top! I think it makes a statement. I also have displayed them in a new toy: a 4-tier dessert tray. I am much happier now.

And, on another note...our Pink Ink also goes by Hope Juice.

So...these are totally done in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness & for the survivors & fighters. Please be sure to check yourself...it could save your life!

Seussy Cakes

I love doing themed things: costumes, parties, Christmas trees, baskets, and cupcakes, of course! One of my favorite times of year to play with food is March 2nd. This is the birthday of Dr. Theodore Gisele, also known as Dr. Seuss. So it's a lot of fun to bring some of his food from books to life, as well as be inspired by them!

This time I made Dr. Seuss-inspired cupcakes - Seussy Cakes!

These cakes are still using the slushie cake base, as do most of my first-run flavors, in lemon-lime. So they have a wonderful green color & a fabulously bright flavor! I then placed a thin layer of white icing on top & used red-cherry flavored icing to make stripes, like the hat of The Cat in the Hat! It ended up having a cherry limeade-type flavor to the overall cupcake!

I have more ideas to try with Dr. Seuss & cupcakes, but those shall come later!

Hope you enjoyed!

Cherry Sweetheart Cupcakes

I hope you all enjoyed my last post about the Slushie Cakes! Because they are the basis for a couple I did before Valentine's Day!

I took my cherry-flavored slushie cakes & topped them with pink, cherry-flavored icing & mini red cherry chips on top. SO adorable...and yummy!

I then made a batch of black cherry-flavored cupcakes with cherry pie filling oozing from the center. I topped it with a layer of cherry-flavored icing & adorable red sugar sprinkles.

Both batches looked like Valentine's Day had exploded in the kitchen!

Gourmet Slushie Cakes a la GLEE

Here's where it started, people!

I bring you the very first "specialty" cupcake that I ever tried - the Slushie Cake! (aka - Gourmet Slushie Cake a la GLEE).

In my first post, I said that GLEE was my inspiration for this cupcake so I could eventually serve it at a GLEE party...and DID!

I, first, played with coloring the sugar. This is to help give that icy look & crunch to the slushie cakes. As I used the different colors, I was trying to imagine what flavors they might be for.

I then wanted to actually flavor the cupcakes themselves to taste like a slushie in cake form. And I did it for SUPER cheap! I have done orange, cherry, grape & lemon-lime. I can also do strawberry, berry blue, blue raspberry-lemonade, lemonade, limeade (even w/ cherry). Any ideas on what I use?

I would then place a VERY thin layer of white frosting on each cupcake, use Wilton's spray food coloring to give the color & then sprinkle the matching colored sugar on top. I have since figured out how to flavor my icing to match the taste of the cake. For those who have had them can tell you that one of these cupcakes really do taste like a slushie in cake form! Add a licorice whip for a straw & you have the cutest little slushie cupcakes!





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A Mean Cupcake

Hi Everyone!

I thought I might start a blog about my cupcakes that I have recently taken to making.

What got this started? GLEE! Yes, my new cupcake passion was totally inspired by GLEE.

I was trying to find a great background for my GLEE Twitter account last summer & I thought the iconic slushee would be perfect! I looked all over the web for a great GLEE slushee/slushee-facial pic to use. I came across a pic of cupcakes someone made to look like the "Big Quench" slushees from GLEE! They were so adorable! And it was a cupcake...another GLEE reference. So that's the pic I used. But everytime I looked at it, I wanted a cupcake AND a slushee.

Well, when Season 2 was quickly approaching, I wanted to have a GLEE kick-off party...with all of the perfect GLEE food references & inspirations! So I wanted to make the slushee cakes...but not just LOOK like like the slushees, but TASTE like them too!

It took a couple of test runs, and I now make slushee cakes in several flavors! They are totally adorable & totally taste like a slushee in cake form!!

Then my mom's birthday was coming, and I knew her favorite chocolates are orange cremes. So, I took my orange slushee cake batter & also did a chocolate cake batter, then marbled them together! A new cake creation was born...so then I did one for my stepdaughter (upon her request) for a cherry cordial cake...with my cherry slushee cake batter & chocolate marbled together!

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Now onto the name "A Mean Cupcake":

My teenage daughter has a boyfriend who is apparently afraid of, not only dad, but me, too! Just how we would like it. YEA! I'm scary!

Well, when my stepdaughter found out that my daughter's boyfriend was afraid of BOTH of us, she said, "Why is he afraid of you? You make cupcakes." Oh really? Making cupcakes automatically makes you a total sweetheart? Interesting. I mean, I am usually a nice & caring person, but sometimes life doesn't call for it. At least for me.

So I can still be mean & make cupcakes! As a matter of fact...I can make "a mean cupcake".

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I plan on using this blog to share my cupcake creations. I have done some...and have plans & ideas for more!

My formula for coming up with them? It's my formula for any my creative ventures: Double I/Double R. Inspiration, Imagination, Research, Resources.

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