Cupcakes for kids and grown ups too!

This week I decided to make two different types of cupcakes: one for adults and one for kids (or in this case, my sister).

Adult Cupcake:

For these adult cupcakes, I got to try out two different techniques for the first time: booze-infused cupcakes and two-tone frosting. I wanted to make some kind of fruity cupcakes, and when I remembered that we had some fruity alcohol I decided that I had the perfect idea: pomegranate cosmopolitan cupcakes! Well, I couldn't find a recipe that I was happy with, so I created my own. I knew that I wanted to use pomegranate, lime, and orange flavors, so I decided to do pomegranate cupcakes (infused with smirnoff pomegranate martini and POM juice) topped with limeade and an orange triple sec buttercream frosting.

They didn't come out nearly as boozy as they sound, but they did turn out to be deliciously tart and sweet! For the triple sec frosting, I decided to do a pink-orange swirl to represent the two flavors. Here are some pictures!

Kid Cupcakes:

While these are kid cupcakes, they were actually requested by my sister. These are not my creation, but I was very excited to try out the recipe (not to mention my kitchen torch)! These are smores cupcakes: graham flavored cupcakes filled and topped with chocolate ganache and topped with a marshmallow meringue, lightly browned (in some cases, not so lightly). Well, they turned out pretty well, but Martha Stewart led me to believe that the marshmallow topping would pipe out into graceful swirls. About two minutes after piping, I turned around to find the marshmallow melting all over the cupcake! I don't know if it was the humidity, or if it was the recipe, but something tells me that that marshmallow was never going to stay up... so we got a little creative and made a number of marshmallow variations. I have to say, using the kitchen torch was my favorite part of the whole recipe!

Here's a picture of the torch in action:
...the beautiful marshmallow peak:
Strawberry marshmallow variation:
A variety of smores cupcakes:
Enjoy!

Older Desserts

Because I just started this, I will attach some of my older recipes!

1. Here are my meringue cupcakes filled with creme fraiche and berry compote (courtesy of Martha Stewart cupcakes). These took 3 HOURS to bake! They were very yummy though and worth the wait.

2. Here are mini dark chocolate salted-caramel cupcakes (courtesy of Martha Stewart cupcakes). They are dark chocolate filled with a delicious salty caramel filling and topped with a dark chocolate frosting.

3. These are a variation of Martha Stewart's

Lemon Meringue

cupcakes. My family

prefers key lime to

lemon meringue, so I

substituted lime curd

for lemon. They are

lime flavored cupcakes topped with lime curd, browned meringue

frosting, and lime zest. They were really light and delicious!

4. These are mini raspberry cheesecakes topped with fresh raspberries (courtesy of Martha Stewart). They were pretty tasty, and I'm sure would have been even tastier had I used the right amount of cream cheese!

5. These are a combination of recipes. For my sister's wedding shower, she wanted blueberry cupcakes with buttercream frosting. I used Martha Stewart's blueberry cupcake recipe, and then added a basic buttercream on top tinted to be the colors of her wedding. They are in cute flower cupcake liners and topped with edible pearls.