Out Of This World Milky Way Bar Cupcakes!

Baking is meant to be fun. You shouldn't be afraid of it.

It should be all about combining your favorite things in the world..and then eating them.

Or sharing them if you can get them out your door first without eating them.

Which is why I think it is really fun to melt candy bars, and pour other delicious things into basic buttercream frosting.  In this case, the cupcakes I call "Out Of This World" cupcakes. 

 I make a basic chocolate cupcake and this is what it ends up looking like in the end.

I fill the inside of the chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. And if you eat it while it is warm, this is what it looks like. ♥

 Are you ready for what is in the frosting?  Melted Milky Way Candy Bars.  Caramel.  And Spoonfuls of Chocolate Ganache. I even add some of the chocolate ganache to the edges of the cupcake liners sometimes because it looks pretty.

Instead of keeping the candy bars all neat, sometimes I tear them apart to expose the caramel beauty inside. I also add gold or silver edible glitter to accentuate that whole "space rock" look. But this is an edible space rock!

Out of This World Cupcake Recipe, because I want to share the fun with you:

Recipe Adapted From:  BruCrew Life. Thank you for the inspiration!

Chocolate Cupcakes from Scratch:

2 1/4 Cups Flour

1 1/2 Cups Fine Baking Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder (I like Hersheys)

3/4 Cup Oil
1 1/2 Cups Warm Water
1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 Tablespoons Vinegar (in place of the eggs)

1.  Preheat oven to 325 and line cupcake tin with cupcake liners. (this recipe makes appx 18-24 cupcakes).
2.  Set aside a medium mixing bowl to whisk dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder).
3.  Set aside a second medium mixing bowl of your liquid ingredients-water, vanilla extract, and vinegar.
4. In stand cream the oil & sugar together.

5. Gradually alternate the addition of dry & liquid ingredients to your creamed mixture and scrape down bowl in between mixing to make sure all ingredients are evenly blended.

6. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners a little over 1/2 full and bake for 18-22 minutes at 325 or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe:

1 Cup Chocolate Chips

1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream.

In a saucepan on the stove, bring Heavy Whipping Cream to an almost boil.

As soon as it starts to boil, remove from heat and add 1 Cup Chocolate Chips.

Stir Until the Chocolate Chips are completely melted and you have a shiny glaze. ♥

You can add this Chocolate Ganache to the inside of the cupcakes for a delicious surprise with a cupcake corer.

Magical Idea:  Stick a mini Milky Way Bar inside of your chocolate cupcake right when you take it out of the oven (while it is still hot).  The candy bar will melt right into the cupcake, making it seem like you baked the candy bar inside of the cupcake!

What you have all been waiting for..The Out of This World Frosting Recipe!

For the Buttercream Frosting:

Optional:  8 oz of Marshmallow Fluff as your base.
8 oz of unsweetened butter
1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt
1/2 Cup Mrs Richardsons Caramel (you can buy this sauce in the ice cream aisle at grocery stores).

2 T milk

appx 6-8 Cups of Confectioners Sugar

To add to the Buttercream Frosting:

8 mini Milky Way Bars, cut into small squares/pieces

2 Tablespoons of unsweetened butter

2 Tablespoons of Chocolate Ganache

You will also need: A stove and a saucepan.

Instructions for Frosting:

1. In your Kitchen Aid mixer, beat your Marshmallow Fluff, Butter, Vanilla, Salt, Caramel, and Milk together. 

2. Add powdered sugar until it is the thickness that you like.

3. Take out your saucepan and throw your milky way squares and 2 Tablespoons of butter inside over medium heat.

4.  Stir constantly until it is a goopy caramel-y chocolate naughty yummy hot mess. 

5.  Remove from the heat as soon as it is melted-you don't want it to burn.

6.  Whip in to your buttercream frosting.  Your buttercream will turn brown and caramel-esque.

7.  Your frosting is almost done.  You may or may not need to add some more powdered sugar to thicken your frosting (to make up for the fact that you added gooey amazingness to it)! Just remember: You want your frosting to be thick enough to pipe into beautiful dreamy "out of this world" swirls. I use a 1A Piping Tip to achieve the look you see pictured here.

8.  One last thing I add while I am decorating:  a few random spoonfuls of slightly cooled chocolate ganache. Don't mix completely into the frosting. Just throw spoonfuls of it into your pastry bag along with the Milky Way frosting..and it will come out as a chocolate ganache swirl... like this:

The chocolate ganache in the frosting really makes the cupcakes look Out Of This World. ♥

Cassie Joy "sweet"

I have a really sweet friend. Seriously. Her name is Cassie Joy Sweet.
She is 19 years old and full of dreams & talent.

She is a redheaded photographer extraordinaire with a fun sense of humor.

She took this picture of my buttercream frosting ♥

But Cassie has found her calling.  She and I have something in common.  Sharing sweetness with the world.  We both want to open a bakery someday.  This is her famous pb&j cupcake which I want the recipe for! I just LOVE the heart shaped sandwich on top of the cupcake!

Her Oreo Cupcake. The sweet disco cherry inspired by Amanda Cupcake! I love how she adds glitter and stars to all of her cupcake photography.

A photo she took of my miniature lemon love note cupcake. ♥

Cassie is my "assistant" in the kitchen when I have huge orders.

Her very own version of the S'mores Sparklette! LOVE.

She asks people what their favorite desserts are and then makes a cupcake out of it! Like this lemon meringue pie cupcake.

She and I have had our adventures together.  Being a cupcake maker is like being a scientist.  Everything is an experiment. This "sad cupcake" evolved from me using too much baking soda/powder! Oops.  So we made it fun anyway..by adding the sad face.  You can't take things too seriously! After all, it's a cupcake!

She made me this adorable sign to remind me of that.

You can find more of Cassie Joy Sweet's adventures on her Flickr or on her Blog. ♥ The world needs to know her. And I am pretty sure they will!

Watermelon Cupcakes for Charlotte's 1st Birthday!

My friends Dan & Megan Woolf are the best couple.
They are the kind of husband & wife that when you hang out with them...you can just feel that they are meant for each other.  A great match.  To top it off, a year ago....Megan & Dan's baby Charlotte was born.

This photo of Charlotte was taken by Dan Woolf!

http://daniel-woolf.blogspot.com/

To celebrate, I made *the best* of the best cupcakes and cake for their little Charlotte's 1st birthday.

The theme of the party was watermelon everything!  I made a giant watermelon cupcake cake for Charlotte to play with..and of course I made a "photo frame" topper of her dad's photography work!

....smaller versions of the bigger watermelon cupcake cake for the grown ups!

Watermelon seeds fresh from the Amanda Cupcake garden...my watermelon seeds are made out of chocolate!

Chocolate Dipped Melon Gummies with Disco Dust Sprinkled on Top. Not what you see in your everyday candy shoppe!

This one reminds me of those special HUGE watermelons you see in the garden.  The big momma watermelon.

A quote from a party go-er, "I love that they are all so different from each other."

  

The kids and I were debating over what kind of melon is a blue melon? Well, it looks good and tastes yummy..and is chocolate glitter coated. That's what matters. Not everything has to make sense!

Swirls and swirls of endless happy fun.

"It was bigger than her head and even though she was covered in frosting, I think the cupcake still won! Great job Amanda! And the smaller ones were super yummy also!" ~quote from Eric, a partygoer. 

The green cupcake liner is edible!

I thought "Birthday Girl" would be more fun than spelling out Charlotte's name. After all, we can see who the birthday girl is framed on top of the cake!

Charlotte playfully sits on top of the frosting swirls! 

The final display. ♥

Welcome to another wonderful year of life, Charlotte!

Lemon Love Notes ♥

I was writing my business plan tonight.

I was on the first page where I had to state my mission.  One of the my missions in my journey to start a bakery is to share joy and love with the world through my cupcakes.  Another vision of mine is to bring community together to just forget about everything on the outside world, and perhaps for even a moment there would be "peace" in the realm of cupcakes.

Think of the time when you were young, and looked forward to that grand cake entering the room, your friends centered around you.  The cake glowing with candles.  Sprinkles, sparkles, crumbs, wishes for the future.

Then I knew that I had to share something I had planned for over a year here on my blog..

and when I was the cupcake sponsor for the Fox Valley Technical College's scholarship benefit, I made this "vision" a reality.

To share an edible message inside of cupcakes. A love note, really.  In this case, a "Lemon" Love Note.

I cut up little pieces of fondant into small rectangles, used my edible marker, and wrote inspiring messages for the future on each piece.  This is for you! Daydreamers, starving artists, future business owners.  This is for you!  The ones who build starting from the bottom and climb your way to the top. The believers, the idealists, the optimists. 

Extra credit:  Mini raspberry pies inside of the Lemon Love Note cupcakes.

All that inspiration topped with a cloud of light, fluffy, lemon zested frosting!

When I displayed the cupcakes at the event, I made a sign to tell people to expect a special "note" on the inside of their cupcake.  Adding the note was a bonus perk for the people who ate the cupcakes! Instead of stuffing your face, you had to take your time...enjoy the flavor...and....discover....your lovely edible note.

Thank you to my lovely assistants Cassie & Lonnie who are the joys in my kitchen with me. They helped me write out all these messages while we laughed, danced, and sang to bad music while decorating these cupcakes.

Now that I have started, I can't seem to stop passing love notes.

I made some "girls night out" Lemon Love Notes.

Instead of hiding the message inside, I found the best possible valentine heart messages for a girls night out and displayed them as the love notes on top of the cupcakes!

Go Girl!

It's True.

 

On a deeper "note".....

I even added some inspirational tags to some mail order cookies for someone who really deserved a surprise uplift of joy in the mail.

"We can do no great things....only small things with great love."~Mother Teresa