Orange & Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes - Recipe

For the topping:
20 oz. crushed pineapple
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease two 12 cup muffin pans with butter, and dust with flour, tap out the excess into the sink. In a small bowl, mix pineapple and cinnamon. In the bottom of each cup. drizzle 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1 tablespoon pineapple mixture  and 1 tablespoon brown sugar.  

For the cupcakes:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners/icing sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

4 eggs

2 tsp. orange extract

2. Place all cupcake ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low-medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Spoon about 1/8-1/4 cup of the batter on top of the pineapple mixture in each muffin cup.(Do not overfill, you don't want the tops to bake up and over, you want to bake a small flat top cupcake, as the top will become the bottom). Bake for 25 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Turn the pan upside-down and carefully tip each cupcake onto a dessert plate. Serve warm with a dollop of whipped cream or english cream. Top with a cherry, if desired. 

Makes approximately 24 cupcakes

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcake - Recipe

For the topping:
20 oz. crushed pineapple
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease two 12 cup muffin pans with butter, and dust with flour, tap out the excess into the sink. In the bottom of each cup, drizzle 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1 tablespoon pineapple and 1 tablespoon brown sugar.  

For the cupcakes:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners/icing sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2. Place all cupcake ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low-medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Spoon about 1/8-1/4 cup of the batter on top of the pineapple mixture in each muffin cup. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Turn the pan upside-down and carefully tip each cupcake onto a dessert plate. Serve warm with a dollop of whipped cream or english cream. Top with a cherry, if desired. 

Makes approximately 24 cupcakes

Chocolate Raspberry Mint Cupcakes - Recipe

1 box El Peto gluten free chocolate cake mix, divided in half
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. mint extract
1/2 cup raspberry chocolate, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat cake mix (1/2 of box) eggs, butter, water and mint extract with an electric mixer on low-medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a large spoon or spatula until evenly dispersed. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes.

For the frosting:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners/icing sugar
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
raspberries and mint leaves, if desired
2. In a small-med bowl, beat butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer on low-medium speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in the raspberry jam on low speed until well combined. Frost each cupcake with a beveled spatula or piping bag. Top each cupcake with a mint leaf and a raspberry, if desired.

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

"Terry's" Chocolate Orange Cupcakes - Recipe

1 box El Peto gluten free chocolate cake mix, divided in half
(save the other half for tomorrow's recipe)
2 eggs
1/3 butter, softened
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. orange extract
1/2 Terry's Chocolate Orange slices/segments, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat cake mix (1/2 of box) eggs, butter, water and orange extract with an electric mixer on low-medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a large spoon or spatula until evenly dispersed. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes.

For the frosting:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners/icing sugar
1 tsp. orange extract
orange food colouring (you can also mix red and yellow if orange is not available)
12 slices/segments of Terry's Chocolate Orange, if desired

2. In a small-med bowl, beat butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer on low-medium speed until smooth and creamy. Stir in the orange extract and 2 drops of red food coloring and 2 drops of yellow food coloring with a whisk until well combined. Frost each cupcake with a beveled spatula or piping bag. Top each cupcake with a slice/segment of a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes - Recipe

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
4 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup confectioners/icing sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa and baking powder with a whisk. In a large bowl, beat the icing sugar and butter with an electric mixer on low-med speed until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time beating well between each egg addition. Add the flour mixture slowly, while beating on low speed until well combined. Stir in the peppermint extract and chocolate chips with a whisk until evenly dispersed. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool on a wire rack for an additional 25 minutes.

For the frosting:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners/icing sugar
1 tsp. peppermint extract
green food colouring (if desired)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

2. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer on low-medium speed until smooth and creamy. Stir in the peppermint extract and a few drops of green food colouring, until the peppermint is evenly dispersed and the icing is a minty green. Frost each cupcake with a beveled spatula or piping bag. Sprinkle each cupcake with a few chocolate chips.

Makes approximately 18 cupcakes

Cinnamon & Orange Chai Cupcakes - Recipe

For the cupcakes:
1 box El Peto gluten free white cake mix
1 1/2 cups water
*(substitute for vanilla almond or soy milk for an added creaminess)
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
3 tbsp. instant chai tea latte mix
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. grated orange zest

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low-medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into each well of a muffin tin lined with baking cups (orange baking cups would be very pretty on these cupcakes). Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes.

For the frosting:
2 cups cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners/icing sugar
2 tbsp. orange juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract
additional orange zest, if desired

2. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar until soft and light. Add the orange juice and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Frost each cupcake with a beveled spatula or piping bag. Grate some additional orange zest on top of each cupcake, if desired for topping.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Kitchen Creations - March

Hello my darlings,

Today I would like to introduce a new monthly posting segment to show all of you some of the fun and interesting things I get up to in my kitchen each month...

So lets get started with some of the delicious delights that popped out of my oven in March!

First this month came my cousins birthday. He is a video game aficionado. I mean truly. I have never met someone who knows more about games, and is interested in how they're made, and how long it takes to beat them, where the cheats are and what's new and interesting in the gaming world. So I thought what better to make him than something video game related. Honestly, I can't keep up with all the new games today. When I was a kid, video games had 1-3 words to their name; Super Mario, Zelda, Super Sonic. (Did I just give away my age? haha) Now, it seems like the names of the games are a full sentence long! And the characters are so detailed and intricate, and I would have no clue what game is IT and what game is NOT... so I thought I'd play it safe, and take it back to the most classic old school game...Super Mario.

I ended up with the idea of a screen shot. What a screen would look like as you're playing through the game. If you've never played the game, video games (back in the day) were 2D and went left to right, so basically our little Mario there would run across and collect the stars for points, he could go down the tube to reach another level, and tried to avoid the man-eating flowers of death. I'll admit, for it's day, it was pretty awesome!

After that I had the task of making a little girl smile on her 6th birthday. Her birthday party was a princess theme, held at this awesome place called Fairy Tale Land. All the girls get to dress up in princess dresses and shoes, get their make-up and nails done, play games, do a fashion show, and drink princess punch. So, with all the other magic of the party, I definitely could not let the birthday girl down with a boring cake!

She couldn't decide which princess was her all time favorite, so Mom thought we should go with Sleeping Beauty. So pretty in her pink and burgundy dress, I love the doll's face too, very pretty. The birthday girl was so excited and she LOVED her cake, YAY! Aside from the cake, the party needed a little extra treat for the party guests to take home...and of course my mind went straight to pops. This time I went with brownie pops, instead of cake pops, and of course sticking with the princess theme, I ended up with these...

These adorable princess pops are brownies dipped in pink and purple chocolate and then again dipped in shimmering sugar to make their dresses. Then I topped them off with these amazing pix by wilton, that feature 4 different princesses with pink or purple dresses and crowns. These are perfect for any little princess, and of course, they taste soooo incredible.

Then St. Patty's day was on it's way (I promised a pic, so here it comes). I made some irish cream cake pops, some were white with little shamrock sprinkles on them, and some were kelly green with a white chocolate drizzle on them.

To complete the themed look, I put them in these perfect shamrock treat bags, and displayed them in a kelly green container with some cute little sparkling shamrocks on the front. With this order (I should forewarn that this particular customer LOVES cake pops) we also had triple chocolate cake pops, rainbow cake pops and chocolate almond cake pops.

This cake pop addict, loves pops so much, she wanted to give some as a gift to her doctor; LUCKY DOCTOR!!! I mixed up the rainbow colour dipped pops in this rainbow stripe container, so bright and springy!

Along with the irish cream, rainbow and triple chocolate, she also had a dozen chocolate almond. They're also rainbow covered and dipped in almonds. Very pretty and so yummy all at the same time!

Lastly, this month I was asked to make a special cake for a special someone....can you guess who this cake might have been made for?

If you guessed a dog, then you're right. Yes, this cake was made for a dog's birthday party. Yes, it is a chocolate cake. No, the dog will not be eating the cake. I think it's so cool that someone would have a birthday party for their dog. I've never had a party for my dogs, but they definitely get birthday and Christmas presents, and we all love to watch them figure out how to get their new ball or chew toy or bone out of the wrapping paper. Sam is a very lucky dog, with a very loving mother! Happy Barkday to you!!!

I always make a few things just for fun each month, or to try out something new, like the yellow cake balls or M&M flower pops. I just wanted to show you some of my favorite creations for March. I always love being a part of your life's celebrations, be it a birthday, a baptism, a wedding or just a wednesday, haha. Thank you my dear friends, followers and customers for letting me add something delicious AND beautiful to all the occasions of your life!

Until next time,
Happy baking, caking and tasting!
Love and sprinkles, xoxo