The Sadie Cupcake – Vegan Chocolate Cupcake with Salted Caramel Frosting

Mels goes vegan baker! Thanks to Sadie for her comment, flavor inspiration, and push into baking, vegan style :)  These cupcakes were really fun to make, and I especially enjoyed the frosting/caramel combo with the sea salt!  Have fun with these and try out different decorating techniques.

Read Full Post »

Old Fashioned’s: Vegan Bitters and Bourbon Cupcakes

 

Old-Fashioneds

 

A little while ago, my friend from the first red velvet attempt texted me, saying she thought that Old Fashioneds would be delicious cupcakes, and that we should make them.  As it turns out, she’s been watching Mad Men, and not checking out the To Do List.

Read Full Post »

Dark and Stormy: Vegan Rum & Ginger Cupcakes

cupcakes, complete and covered in rum syrup.

I have an enormous bottle of rum.  I guess it’s really not that enormous, but rum isn’t something I drink with any great frequency.  Thus, the only use this rum has seen has been in cupcakes.  Upon deciding (I really have been hitting the 19th century literature hard the last few weeks) I was well enough to bake again, I decided on rum cupcakes.  With ginger.  Some preliminary research on the subject brought me to the idea of a Dark and Stormy, which fits very well into my theory that cocktails make fine inspiration for baked goods.

(Note to the purists:  I did not buy Goslings.  I have a budget for my cupcake and drinking forays, I already have rum, and it’s a pain to get to the liquor store.)

Anyways.

Read Full Post »

Coconut Coffee Rum Cupcakes

The cupcakes are so pretty.

I may or may not have a sinus infection.  However, I appear to be getting better (that is, don’t constantly feel like I’m going to fall over and/or vomit).  Hooray!  I have joined the legions complaining about minor (mine is) illness on the internet.  Anyways: cupcakes.

After a fascinating glimpse in the grinding and ill-oiled bureaucratic machinery of a college, a friend of mine has officially graduated.  She likes rum.  She likes coconut.  She likes coffee.  All of these things?  All of them?  They go together REALLY well.

Read Full Post »

Garam Masala Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Why, yes, that is a microwave older than me in the background.

There was a sale on bulk spices earlier this week (the same kind of sale that lead me to buy cocoa nibs that lead to these red velvet cupcakes) and I stocked up.  The only really *new* thing I bought during the sale was garam masala.  Garam masala is actually just the name of a sort of style of spice mix–it can be any combination of a number of different spices.  The kind I bought, however, has a combination of cloves, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and pepper, and maybe a few other things I’m not 100% sure on.

Though I know some people have declared that savory flavors in cupcakes is weird, I like it, and I like it as much as I like sour flavors in cupcakes.  I feel like the savory/sweet and sour/sweet combinations work well because of the contrast, playing counterpoint to each other.

Um.  I don’t suspect anyone really cares to hear me ramble about flavor combinations much longer, so into the recipe we go!

Read Full Post »

1 year Blogaversary! Vanilla Bourbon Cupcakes with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting and a Bourbon Vanilla Glaze

The chopped up walnuts don't work too well with my frosting tips, so it got glopped on.

Two things of relative import: I do believe we have reached our one year blogaversay!  Yay!  It has been a very very delicious year, and it is very VERY exciting to go from being excited that we hit 20 hits in a day to averaging about 100 hits every day.  So, thanks!  It is pretty fabulous.

Thing two: Oh sweet sweet merciful weather gods, it is hot here.  Hot and sticky sticky humid.  Thus, no baking, and I’m slowing down posting to stretch out my current queue.

Anyhow, while Mels was visiting a few weeks ago, I made Vanilla Bourbon Cupcakes with the Toasted Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting…and it was every bit as delicious as it sounds.

Read Full Post »

Gluten Free Cupcakes: Lemon Almond

Lemon Almond Gluten Free Cupcakes

A friend of mine who recently had a birthday has  a twin sister who is gluten-intolerant, so when the invite for the potluck party was made, it was pretty clear that I was going to make gluten-free cupcakes.

Since it is finally summer in this city, it seemed like a citrus-combo cupcake was a best-fit for the weather and a backyard barbeque.

Read Full Post »

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Coconut Cream Cupcakes

BAM. Toasted Coconut.

One of the coolest things about wordpress is the data it gathers.  There is a page that keeps count of page views, links clicked, referrers, other stuff, and one of my favorites: Search Terms.  That is, the phrases and words people google that makes Cupcake Villains appear in their search results page–a hilarious number surround the question of how to use alcohol in cupcakes–and one popped up after Mels last post that immediately seemed like a good idea: Gluten-Free Chocolate Coconut Cream Cupcakes.

I think these might be on the cupcake menu for my friend’s wedding; Gluten-Free, Vegan, and actually really really awesome.

Read Full Post »

Coconut Chili Lime Cupcakes

Ignore the sloppily-applied shaved coconut decoration

I suspect that I’m feeling fanciful and antsy because…well, probably because I’m an energetic person who has a hard time focusing when I don’t get out DO incredibly active things every day.  I suspect this is why bicycle commuting works so well for me.

That’s really neither here nor there; what’s actually relevant is that I wanted to do something unexpected.  I had been planning to make Chili Chocolate, and then I realized that would be very similar to Mels’ Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, and somehow that ended with me telling everything within IMing distance that I was going to make Coconut Chili Lime Cupcakes.

Read Full Post »

Monkey Love! Coconut Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

 

This weekend, I made monkey love!  Yes.  I know.  Let’s move on the from obvious sexual jokes (trust me, I’ve already made all of them) and move onto these delicious delicious cupcakes.

I’m usually really really not a fan of banana in baked goods; it always seems so overpoweringly strong in baked goods that I’m super reluctant to ever use it.

But.

These seemed like a good idea.  Coconut!  Banana! Chocolate!

All good things when mushed together.

Read Full Post »