Getting Down To Business!

For Aaron's birthday/Fiesta Night last night, I made cupcakes completely from scratch! They were chocolate raspberry, with raspberry jam in the center. I topped 'em with cream cheese filling et voila! Delectable. I wish I had pictures, but my camera is dead and the cupcakes went like hotcakes. They had to be the ugliest cupcakes of all time, though. I made WAY too much batter and didn't think to make just a few more cupcakes. I filled those suckers 5/6 full. Big mistake. The top of the cupcake pan was like a giant cake with 12 sunken centers. I had to cut them all out of the pan. The cake was very sticky and hard to cut, so there were ragged edges all around. Then when I tried to frost them to cover up the ragged edges, the frosting just got caught and everything turned into a real mess. The only reason they were filled to begin with was because the centers all sank. I will have to research how to prevent that from happening next time. People still thought they were wonderful, thank goodness. Jackie said that if people didn't like them, they "don't have a soul! They're vampires!" (She was reading the second Twilight book when I came to give her a sample.) Aaron said he would do terrible things to get his hands on another.

Tonight I went on a real frenzy. Matthew ordered another sampler, which will just be cookies and cupcakes this time. I had already made my giant Levain copycat chocolate chip cookies. (See Throwdown With Bobby Flay.) I made half with walnuts and half without. Both are delicious. At Fiesta Night I gave out mini samples as incentives for future customers. :) Tonight for his order, I made vanilla cupcakes with raspberry jam filling and lemon cream cheese frosting. I finally got to try the cone method of filling (You cut open the cake, put in the filling, cut off part of the cut off part, and close it up! Complicated to explain but soooo easy to do.) & it went very successfully! Unfortunately I grated my thumb while adding lemon zest to the frosting. Hopefully I will be able to snap a shot of these babies when I deliver them; I only made just enough for his order.

I also made ginger cookies for my friend Josh tonight. It was very lucky - last night I wanted to make them but had no one to make them for, so I got kind of bummed. He texted me tonight while I was on my way back from physical therapy saying he wanted some and I could only be too happy to oblige. Yum yum yum. Order some to bring to your holiday parties?

Aaron's roommate/my namemate Waggs (I'm Wags) said he would buy me sushi if I made him Special K bars, so I did just that. I could do them in my sleep at this point.

For Aaron's birthday also (I like to treat him, if you can't tell.), I made some puppy chow. I ran out of powdered sugar, though, so I'll have to get some tomorrow to give it that finishing touch. Double yum.

I also got super stoked today when my chiropractor asked me to make something chocolaty for his wife! I have no idea what it will be yet. I am thinking my self-filled chocolate cupcakes that I haven't made in AGES. I think of them as my signature, I guess. Someday I'll perfect that chocolate cake batter recipe so I can make them completely from scratch. Until then, devil's food mix will suit the recipe as fine as it always does. Shh, don't tell!

Now I just want to make some pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Interested in bringing dessert to Thanksgiving with your family? These would be perfect, just saying... :)


Aren't you at least a little glad there aren't pictures making you drool? I wish I had some so my phone line would be jammed as soon as this was posted.