Cupcakes with Anastasia

Her friends & family call her Ana for short. But her full name is Anastasia.
I made her cupcakes for her 13th birthday.
The twirly swirly tie-dye ones that you can see if you click here.
She is a creative dreamer, with lots of hopes and plans for her future.
One of them.. is being a baker / cake designer.

I felt so honored when she asked me if I could help create the ultimate birthday cupcakes for her mom.

I showed her how to add her own special "flavor" to a cake mix.
She was in awe of my magical pink Kitchen Aid Mixer!
I shared some secrets of how puffy cupcakes are made!

We went crazy sprinkling sparkles!



Ana created this cupcake especially for her mom.

The ball on the bottom of the cupcake is a chocolate Whopper, covered in teal disco dust!

Ana thought of the sparkly Whopper.
Soon many more of our cupcakes would be topped with sparkly malted milk balls!

  

Most of the time, I let Ana do all of the playing...and decorating.
This baby cake was one of my contributions to the evening.♥





Ana's Chocolate Heart with Crushed Jolly Ranchers creates a *Be-Dazzled* Look!



Out of This World Milky Way Cupcake topped with a Sparkly Teal Whopper!
We coated the Whoppers with Chocolate candy..and dipped them in edible Disco Dust!
So much prettier than your average Malted Milk Ball.

One of Ana's favorite creations. ♥

Yum..

Ana's top six favorite creations
ready to deliver to her mom.
Fabulous & Gorgeous & Decadent.

A few of my favorite things about the evening:

♥Her mom & I were friends when we were her age. I felt 13 again..and it was fun.

♥Her creative mind taught me some new ideas!

♥She told me that I must be one of those grown-ups who seem like a teenager on the inside!

♥It made me see that I really would love to teach more young ladies..and men cupcake skillz!



Out of This World Cupcakes!

"Out of This World" Milky Way Cupcakes

Inspired by a recipe I found at a tempting blog site (this place makes me hungry every time I visit): Inside Bru Crew Life .

My friend was feeling down.
There was snow on the ground.
The temperatures outside were freezing!
I wanted to bake her something special, and I knew she loved chocolate.
But she needed something extra special.

Perhaps... a chocolate cupcake, topped with buttercream frosting mixed with melted Milky Way bars. Ohmy...Not to mention a chocolate ganache surprise inside of the cupcake.
Swirly whirly creamy buttery sweet frosting sparkles and beams under the light.
A Milky Way Candy Bar is the supermodel in this gorgeous cupcake creation.
I tweaked the recipe a bit to make it my own, added some sparkles..and woah.
It was one of the most amazing things I have eaten in my life!

If you want the original recipe..click on the link:  Inside Bru Crew Life .


Here are some tweaks that make this an Amanda Cupcake original.

For the Cupcakes:
*I added a teaspoon of Almond Extract to the chocolate cake batter.
*I melted about 15 caramel squares and added them to the chocolate cake batter.
*I melted a 4 oz chocolate baking square and added to the chocolate cake batter.

My entire kitchen smelled warm like chocolate caramel. Yum.

For the Frosting:
*I added butter flavoring extract. I do that with all of my frosting, it brings down the sweetness and enhances all of the rich flavoring in the buttercream frosting.
*I added my own decorative touch with different sized decorating tips!
*And of course...edible disco sparkles!!!!!!!!!!!

Gold sparkles coordinate very beautifully with caramel.

The Milky Way Supermodels:
I used whole milky way bars, and tore the candy bars apart at different angles.
This gave them an artistic gourmet cupcake look when I placed the Milky Way bars on top of the frosting swirls! 

The Chocolate Filling:
Unites all of the flavors and pleasurably surprises the tastebuds.
The cupcake wouldn't be the same without it!

The result:  Out of This World Cupcakes ♥

For my troubled friends who need a little pick-me-up:

Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.