16 Days Before Christmas: Sprinkling Holiday Sparkles All Over The World.

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When I was tiny, my mom told me that one of my gifts was generosity. She begged me to never ever let my gift of tender hearted generosity slip away, no matter where life took me.

I guess I started early..sharing a cake with my brother.  Frosting all over the place, that's nothing new for me!

♥

At the beginning of this year, I thought I wanted to open a bakery. And it is still one of those things on my list that I could do..

but I have discovered that I enjoy sharing my ideas with the world more than anything else.  I love connecting with people more than I enjoy baking all alone in a kitchen dancing to Nikki Minaj by my lonesome on a Friday night.

This past weekend I taught my first Holiday Cupcake decorating class at Fox Valley Technical College in Clintonville ♥

I got a kick out of watching my students sprinkle sparkles all over their cupcakes.  Ta-daaa. The cupcakes I baked and decorated for their inspiration.

The Maraschino Cherry with edible disco dust is always a favorite.  I call it the "Disco Cherry."  Everyone left the class calling it the disco cherry too!!! I think I've started something..♥ Maybe I should jar these and sell them at the grocery store? 

Tip on creating a disco cherry:  Use a small paintbrush, dip it in vodka or some kind of alcohol based extract and then dip in your disco dust. Using your brush, paint the sparkles on the top of your cherry for a hologram-esque sparkle. The alcohol helps the glitter stick!

Aren't these cupcakes lovely?  A creation by one of my talented students!

I bring an autograph book to my class. ♥ The signatures prove that my cupcake sparkles are making a difference somehow in the world of cupcake-ing! I suggest you invest in an autograph book.  It invites the most interesting people into your life!

I also taught the class how to take a mini M&M and turn it into a piece of cupcake jewelry by painting disco dust on it with extract & a paintbrush.

I even threw in how to turn all this cupcake goodness into a cupcake kaleidoscope!

♥ 

We had six hours of fun together last Saturday.

And I am sure there is glitter foreverly stuck in some cracks of the floor of FVTC Clintonville Regional Center kitchen.  Pour some glitter, make it rain.

A gallery of student work inspired by my teaching, and I love it all:

♥

I've always believed in painting the world sweeter with frosting as my medium.  Don't worry mom, I've found the best possible medium to share my generosity too.

 

17 days before Christmas: Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes!!!

 

Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes

by: Amanda Cupcake ♥

 

The most important thing about making a cupcake:

Not thinking so much about making an actual cupcake..

instead.. taking a tradition that is loved...

and turning it into a cupcake.

 

 

 

Like Gingerbread Lattes before Christmas.

Your Best Friend in the Morning.

 

 

 

Topped with mini gingerbread stars & hearts cut out by hand.

A kitchen aroma of sugar and spice and all things cupcake.

 

 A nostalgic neighborhood of gingerbread latte cupcakes.   Mini Fantasy Gingerbreaad Houses constructed carefully with royal icing.  Imagine if your neighborhood sparkled with heart shaped gingerbread rooftops?

 

Oh oh oh. Who wouldn't go? Up on a yummy peanut brittle rooftop.  

 

The little reindeer on top always make everyone giggle. And really, that's one thing that Christmas is all about! The childlike happy spirit dances ♥ and plays with edible glitter of course.

Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes Recipe

adapted from Cupcake Project:

Creates 12 delicious cupcakes.

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 T Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 T Espresso Powder

Creaming Ingredients:

5 T Unsalted Butter at room temp

1/2 Cup Fine Baking Sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

Liquid Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Hot Milk
1/2 Cup Unsulfured Molasses

How to bake them:
1.  Line cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
2.  Make sure oven is preheated to 350.
3.  Sift & Combine dry ingredients in one medium sized bowl.
4.  Combine Liquid ingredients in another medium sized bowl.
4.  Cream the butter and sugar together in large stand mixer until creamy.
5.  Add eggs to mixture gradually.
6.  Alternate the addition of dry & liquid ingredients to creamed blend until fully incorporated.
7.  Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 to the top.
8.  Bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes.


The best frosting ever for this cupcake. Constructed by me, the lovely and not-so-mad cupcake scientist. ♥

Ingredients Needed:

• 4 oz Cream Cheese or 4 oz Marshmallow Creme (for a more whipped topping-think delicious drink!)
• 1 lb butter
• 1/2 Cup Hazelnut Coffee Creamer (you can try other coffee creamers too, the hazelnut is my favorite for frosting)
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• appx 3-4 cups of powdered sugar (depending on how thick you want the frosting to be)

How to make this frosting:

1.  Whip your Cream Cheese (or Marshmallow Creme) and Butter together in your stand mixer.

2.  Add your pound of butter gradually in small squares.

3.  Then add Coffee Creamer & Cinnamon.

4.  Gradually add powdered sugar to your blend.  I like my frosting to be more fluffy & dreamy so I slowly add my powdered sugar until my frosting is fluffy like a cloud!