Dirt cupcakes

Fact: I make colorful messes.

This is what my table looks like after I am done with a very busy night.

I think my messes look pretty. I'd love to paint a canvas like this.

♥

Beautiful disasters are what inspired my version of DIRT cake cupcakes.

I've never been one to play by the rules, call me a rebel..but honestly I believe that a mess or a mistake can turn into a masterpiece, if you let your imagination run wild.

My beautiful disaster starts with a chocolate cupcake.  I  swirl around the outside of the cupcake with chocolate frosting (using a 1M open star decorating tip) and leave a little empty hole in the center of the frosting swirl. I pour a chocolate ganache "mud" pool in the hole, and sprinkle the "dirt" on top: crushed Oreo cookies.  The bright side? Little "airhead candy" rainbows and glittery rainbow gummy worms on top.

I've also baked my dirt cupcakes inside of mini gardening pots by filling them 1/2 full and baking on a sheet pan in the oven. These can be as messy as you'd like.  Pour chocolate ganache on top and sprinkle with crushed Oreos.  These are totally fun to eat with a fork!

Recipe for your very own Bake-At-Home Beautiful Disaster (have fun!!):

Chocolate Cupcake "CANVAS":
(makes appx 24 cupcake canvases)
Ingredients:
3 ¾ Cups flour
2 ½ Cups fine baking sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 ½ teaspoons salt
¾ cup cocoa
1 ¼ cup oil
2 ½ cups hot water
2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla
2 ½ tablespoons vinegar

Method:
♥Preheat oven to 325.
♥Line cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers.♥Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa together in bowl & set aside.
♥In stand mixer, cream oil, sugar, and vanilla together.
♥Measure hot water in liquid measuring cup, set aside.
♥Add vinegar to oil, sugar, vanilla blend in stand mixer.
♥Gradually alternate the addition of dry & liquid ingredients to the mixture in stand mixer.
♥Scrape bowl down and make sure all ingredients are evenly distributed.
♥Fill cupcake wrappers 3/4 full and bake at 325 for appx 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Chocolate Ganache "MUD":

Ingredients:

1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Method:
♥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 see a shiny glaze.

Chocolate Buttercream Fancy Swirl:
Ingredients:

1 Cup butter (room temperature)

¾ Cup Cocoa

¼ teaspoon Salt

1/3 Cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 Cups powdered sugar

Method:

♥Cream butter, heavy cream, and vanilla in a stand mixer.
♥Gradually add cocoa and a dab of salt, scrape bowl down.
♥Add powdered sugar little by little until frosting forms peaks, strong enough to pipe frosting swirls on your cupcake canvas.

Oreo "DIRT" crumbles:
Ingredients:
1 box of Oreo Cookies
Large plastic ziploc bag

Method:
♥Empty Oreo cookies into ziploc bag
♥Close ziploc bag
♥Using a large rolling pin, roll over the top of cookies until they are crumbled.  I like crumbling them until they are chunky and not finely ground. It adds texture.  If you want the oreos to be finely ground like dirt or sand, you can use a food processor for this technique.

Bonus cupcake idea:

Using the same ingredients, decorate with random candies and snacks that are in your cupboard to turn a mess into a beautiful cupcake creation!  Frost the top of your cupcake with chocolate buttercream, dip it in chocolate ganache, and sprinkle with leftover candies & snacks from your cupboard. I've made these on Halloween and called them Trick or Treat cupcakes, but they are yummy any time of the year ♥♥♥

30th Birthday Cupcake Kaleidoscope ♥ Think Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Since I have been selling on Etsy, the demand for the shipping of my cupcake kaleidoscopes has increased!
And I am excited about that. There is something very pretty about cupcakes in a jar.

Sort of like a firely in the midnight breeze, captured in a jar by someone sweet.
That kind of pretty.

As of June 15th it is Nicole's birthday.
She loves: Blue, Chocolate, and Coconut.
Right away I thought of a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme.
And it could very well be breakfast if she chooses!

Sparklers!
It is too bad that I couldn't send them in the mail with the kaleidoscope.   It is illegal.  But I did enclose a wax candle and a blue cocktail umbrella!

Edible "30."

You can even see it from the outside of the jar! ♥

I always add a sweet ribbon and a wooden spoon.

Gorgeous surprises should never be underestimated. Especially on birthdays.  This is edible disco dust mixed with chocolate ganache.

What is better than a heart with your name on it?

Inspiration:

S'more Sparklette Cupcake Recipe Unveiled

Since my S'mores cupcakes were shared with the world last week, I have received many requests.
One was for the recipe. Another was a fun fun Amanda Cupcake Kaleidoscope order (15 S'more cupcakes in jars!) that I shipped out to my new cupcake friend Renee in Texas.

I promised last week that I would share the recipe love so you can try to create this magic in your oven. ♥
So here is my promise coming true! Please let me know how the baking goes and feel free to share your S'more sparklettes experience with me!

Blend Graham Crackers in a food processor or blender

ahead of time to make the graham cracker mixture.

This part is kind of fun!

When you add the butter and the brown sugar this is what the graham cracker crumb blend will look like.

You can use this for topping and also to bake inside of your cupcake liner!

 Probably the most delicious chocolate cake batter I have ever made.

The spoonful of graham cracker marshmallow cake batter I couldn't resist!



Line your cupcake pans with 12-15 cupcake liners.

I add edible disco dust to start out with, and later, graham cracker mixture for a yummy magical surprise at the bottom of the cupcake!

Stack the two cake batters on top of each
other and put a mini marshmallow in the center.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 Cover the marshmallow with cake batter and graham cracker crumb blend.

You have a S'more.

Ready for the oven.

This S'more cupcake is very warm & bubbly. Aww.

Naked S'more.  You could eat it like this...

Or add all of this goodness!

 You can tell your ganache is wonderful if you can wave at it and see your reflection.  Like I am here!

 You can even stuff all of this goodness into a jar.

And eat it.

I call them cupcake kaleidoscopes because there are neverending surprises of goodness as you turn the jar!

S'more Sparklette Cupcake Kaleidoscopes tied with a ribbon, and ready to eat with a spoon!

I even turned these into fun cake pop ice cream cones with a marshmallow on top! 

The Recipe, Unveiled:


S'more Sparklette Cupcakes
adapted from Bakerella's recipe here and re-mixed into an Amanda Cupcake Original!

Dry Ingredients:
There will be 2 mixtures in one cupcake liner!
A Buttery Yellowy Graham Cracker Cake & A Chocolate Fudge Cake. Yummy.


Buttery Yellowy Graham Cracker Cake Batter:

Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
3/4 cup extra fine baking sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Liquid Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Graham Cracker Crumb/Butter Blend:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted



Chocolate Fudge Cake:
Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
3/4 cup extra fine baking sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened high fat cocoa (come on, we are cheating anyway! and high fat cocoa is less bitter than the typical cocoa you can buy in the grocery store)

Liquid Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Directions for each cake recipe:

1.  Sift flour in a bowl and set aside.
2.  In a separate bowl, mix other dry ingredients together (baking powder, baking soda, either the graham cracker crumbs or cocoa depending on the cake recipe you are making-see above). Then add the ingredients to the sifted flour, and whisk together for 30 seconds.
3.  In your kitchen aid mixer, blend sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. (about 2 minutes).
4.  Add egg until just blended.
5.  Start by adding 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture, then add 1/3 of the remaining vanilla/buttermilk mixture.  End with dry ingredient mixture.  Make sure this process only takes about 1 minute maximum so that you don't overbeat (cupcakes won't be as fluffy if you overbeat)!
6.  Scrape the entire bowl and mix with your spatula to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.

Cave into temptation and try the batter to make sure it tastes just as wonderful as you envisioned!

Magical Sinful Delicious Graham Cracker Crumb/Brown Sugar/Butter Blend:
1.  Blend the Graham Cracker Crumbs & Brown Sugar Together.
2.  Pour melted butter onto the Crumbs. Stir until combined.

Add some graham cracker crumbs to the bottom of your cupcake liner for a magical surprise. you can even add some edible sparkles to the bottom of the liner like I did in my pictures above ♥

Pour a little bit of graham cracker cake batter into the bottom of your baking cup. Then sprinkle the magical sinful delicious graham cracker/brown sugar/butter mixture very lightly over the first layer of cake batter.

Place a mini marshmallow on top and then cover the marshmallow with the chocolate cake batter until it is about 3/4 full. It was very hard restraining myself from just eating everything out of the liners before it was baked at this point!

Sprinkle with more graham cracker/butter/brown sugar sinful-ness.

Warning: These cupcakes will ooze out marshmallow goodness while baking! Don't be afraid of the bubbly hot delicousness.
Right after the cupcakes are done baking, poke a hole in the center of your cupcake & insert a marshmallow half (or a whole marshmallow if you want it to be really ooey gooey!) The warmth of the cupcake will melt the marshmallow. Soon the marshmallow will falter & become cupcake goo.

Let cool. Then have fun dipping in chocolate ganache or adding swirls of marshmallow fluff frosting, adding sparklettes & Hershey barlettes! You can also stuff into jars or turn into cake pops ♥


Amanda Cupcake Topping Recipes:

Recipe for Marshmallow Fluff Frosting (Marshmallow fluff as the base--customized just for this marshmallowy s'mores recipe)

7 oz Marsmallow Fluff
4 Sticks of Unsalted Butter-softened and cut into little 1" pieces.
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Box (16 oz) Powdered Sugar

1.  Spoon the Marshmallow Fluff into your large mixing bowl and beat on low until somewhat fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
2.Gradually add the little butter squares.
3. Add the teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4. Add the 1/2 tsp salt (this helps take away the sweetness so that the frosting is more dreamy instead of tooth achingly sweet).
5.  Gradually add the powdered sugar. You can add more or less depending on how thick you want your frosting to be.



Shiny Chocolate Disco Ganache
9 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream

1.  Heat the heavy cream in a small pan on the stove. Heat up to the boiling point..
2.  Remove immediately and pour over chocolate.
3.  Continue stirring until completely melted, shiny and smooth.
Let this sit for about 1/2 hr before dipping and dripping!
You can also poke a hole in your cupcakes and fill with this delicious-ness to make it even more ooey and gooey!

S'more Cupcakes Pretty Please?

One thing I love about summer.
The smell of busy grills barbequing in sweet little neighborhoods.
Families gathered together in the back yard grilling and goofing off together.

At the end of the night after a big BBQ, the sparkles of a bonfire escaping into the midnight breeze.

Friends sitting around the fire with marshmallows on sticks, ready to be sandwiched in between 2 hunks of chocolate bars & graham crackers.  Some like the marshmallow burnt, almost black and crispy with a gooey center. I am one of the people who like my marshmallows slightly brown and puffy.

I bonded my nostalgia of a S'more with a cupcake the other night, and sold them to the world the next morning.  I tried a little spoonful of the batter while conducting my cupcake chemistry, and it tasted exactly like a graham cracker and a marshmallow. I was in heaven, and just wanted to eat all the batter out of the bowl.

 But I didn't, so fate took over and I baked a S'more into a cupcake.


 

The S'more Cupcakes I created aren't neat and tidy.  They are an indulgent, gooey, melty yummy mess.  Exactly how S'mores should be!

This is how the S'more cupcake looked before I covered it with more goodness.  And also after I took a bite out of it..  White cake, Chocolate Cake, Marshmallows, Buttery Graham Crackers in one cupcake liner.

I added chocolate ganache, and edible sparkles. Like the sparkles that escape from your bonfire.

Puffy Marshmallow trying to escape its fate of becoming yummy cupcake goo.

If we lived in a world where our daily horizons looked like this, I think we would all be much happier.



"Faux"stess Cupcakes

I made these pretty shiny little glorious cupcakes in honor of a classic favorite: "Hostess" Cupcakes.

But since they aren't what you buy in a little box in the grocery aisle..
let's call them "Fauxtess" (pronounced Foe-stess, as in hmm umm.. my Amanda Cupcake version of hostess cupcakes?)

I am always such a fan of shiny beautiful chocolate ganache glaze.
And the pretty loopy frosting curls. ♥ it.

I added my classic Amanda Cupcake edible sparkles to some of them ♥
You can't buy these in the grocery store!

Sparkly dreamy filling.

Shared the flavor with my hair stylist and his friends at the Jacques Dessange salon.
A few of them said this was the best cupcake they have ever eaten. Yay!

♥