Cinnamon Cupcakes

So once again I decided to use a National Food Holiday as cupcake inspiration!!  Turns out that September 11th also happens to be National Hot Cross Buns Day!  Of course the first thing I thought of was learning to play the clarinet and that obnoxious tune getting stuck in my head for days.  I didn't really know what a hot cross bun was so I searched it and found out it's a bread like roll that has raisins or some little candied fruit in it.  I was less than inspired... which got me to thinking about different buns... CINNAMON BUNS!!  I decided to go with a cinnamon cupcake with a cream cheese frosting.  I have to give a shout out to JustJennRecipes.com... her recipe with the applesauce was great.  Moist and delicious!!  I didn't want the cinnamon flavor to be overwhelming... nor did I want it to be non-existent.  They really came out great and made me want to try adding real apples next time!!  Possibly later this fall :)

Cinnamon Cupcakes
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
5 tsp cinnamon
1 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
2 eggs
1 c applesauce

Whisk together all dry ingredients.  Add butter, eggs and applesauce.  Bake at 350 degrees about 20-25 minutes.  They get beautifully rounded tops.  I decided to cheat and buy simple cream cheese icing... but just to get a little crazy I added some more cinnamon into the icing (about 2 tbs) and I ground a little nutmeg into it for a little kick.  Definitely a hit!!  Happy Hot Cross (Cinnamon shhhh) Buns Day!!

LuLu Cakes

One of the perks of taking baked goods to work all the time is that people are asking me to bake for them!  It's nice doing something that I really love and making a mini profit.  Two weeks ago, Lulu had to work an overnight shift and had two birthday cakes to handle... one for her mom and one for her boyfriend and I had the honor of making them!!  By special request I made a cake version of my Black Forest Cupcakes.  I have a pan from Wilton that bakes a heart into the middle of a round cake that you can fill with whatever floats your boat.  In this case I made a chocolate cake and filled the center with a cream cheese cherry mixture.  The cream cheese didn't fully mix in, but I kind of liked that there were mini pockets of cream cheesey goodness waiting as a surprise in the center!!  For the second cake I went with a staple (partially because I was craving some cookies) of Oreos.  It was just a plain chocolate cake and in the middle layer i mixed a vanilla icing with a billion crushed up Oreos.  The filling came out super sweet and complemented the chocolate cake well!!  When it came to decorating I wanted to keep them pretty simple and be able to tell them apart since they looked identical from the outside.  For the Black Forest, i made some little cherries and cherry blossom flowers out of fondant and piled them in the center of the cake and I just placed some full Oreos around the outside of the second.  Take a look at the pictures, I was EXTREMELY happy with the cherry decorations!!  They looked so freaking cute and girly!!  I guess it worked out because that cake went to LuLu's Mom :)