carrot cupcakes.

This is the first cupcake I have made that I probably will not taste.

snickerdoodle cupcakes.

One word: OMGWTFBBQYUM.

These were SO amazing! And I don't even like snickerdoodles! I think what made them so great was the frosting. And... I didn't use Martha's frosting. (I'm sorry!) Her recipe called for me to use her seven-minute frosting, which is not only nearly impossible to make, but it hardens? Instead, I made a simple (and AMAZING) frosting consiting of butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk. Simple, tasty, awesome.

I don't really know what else to say. These, I think, are my favorite cupcakes to date. And they'e not chocolate!. The mint-filled brownie ones were good but, oh man, these... they took the (cup)cake. (HAH!)

devil's food cupcakes.

Devil's Food cupcakes?! Yes PLEASE. I made these for my Dad's birthday. (I also must add that I am posting all these at once because I fell off the blog-about-my-cupcakes wagon, not beacuse I made all of these in one day.)

I actually made these twice. The first time, I added cream cheese instead of sour cream. Sounds... tolerable, right? No. Despite my mix-up, I stuck them in the oven anyway. They came out okay, but kind of crumbly and dry. So, I remade them correctly and they were nice. Not nearly as chocolate-y as I would have wanted for something that's called Devil's Food. Nevertheless, it was a good combo with the chocolate Ganche frosting, which was a little rough since I had to babysit it every five minutes to make sure it didn't harden too much. It did taste delicious though! Thumbs up all around.

buttery-something cupcakes.

I call these buttery-something cupcakes because I'm not really sure what they are. In a crunch (read: I didn't have my cupcake cookbook with me), I looked through Martha's website and found this recipe.

The cupcakes themselves were extra buttery and, although they were dense, they were so tasty. I ate a few without the frosting, even! Speaking of frosting, let me share my nightmare: vanilla buttercream frosting. Sure, it sounds delicious, but don't be fooled. It is the most labor-intensive thing I have ever made. What I should have made is this basic buttercream. The buttercream that I made was very, very airy. It was decent, but did not pair well with the dense cupcakes. I also was trying my hand at piping, so I attempted to pipe the buttercream, but it just came out weird. (Although that was probably due to my poor piping skills...)

So, cupcakes? Delicious. Frosting? Not worth the effort.

mint-filled brownie cupcakes.

Today I made mint-filled brownie cupcakes, from the aforementioned Martha Stewart book. They have a peppermint patty inside, which is pretty nice. They look like brownies and I was kind of worried because they were a little hard on the outside, but they taste great! I also was fortunate to avoid any sort of peppermint patty leakage, so they look nice, too!

Hopefully those who did not enjoy my applesauce-spice cupcakes will like these. (The complaint I got on my applesauce-spice cupcakes was that they "preferred chocolate." Well, guess what, I didn't make the cupcakes for you to tell me that you liked chocolate ones better! Sheesh.) Additionally, these are cupcakes without frosting! Since they have chocolate, I doubt they will be branded as muffins.

Anyway, I will deliver these to the usual suspects (my mother's house and work) and see how they rate.