Cupcakes for Two!

In light of Paula Deen's proclimation that today is National Vanilla Cupcake Day, I thought it only proper that we share a Vanilla Cupcake recipe. But not any old cupcake recipe. A recipe for two.

No one want to make a whole batch of cupcakes for one person, that is a lot of cupcakes, so why not just make two. I found this recipe on a fantastic blog: How Sweet It Is.
One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two
serves 2
1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla (yes, a full teaspoon – they are super vanilla-y!)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.
In a bowl, add egg white and sugar and whisk until combined. Add in vanilla and melted butter and stir until mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk. Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost as desired.

I always have extra buttercream, fondant, cream cheese icing, you name it, it routinely sits in my fridge. So if you make these and need some icing, just give me a call.

You guys want some cookies

Snack day Friday is upon us, woot woot, one of my office's favorite time of the week. Each Friday one of my co-workers is responsible for bringing a yummy snack that we share during our morning meeting.

Snacks range from donuts, muffins, banana bread, monkey bread and cookies. Basically anything that can be eaten, we also include fruit, just for the added health benefit. Ha. For awhile we had stipulations, 1) couldn't be something we've had in 4 weeks, 2) must include bacon, 3) homemade is best, 4) try to out do the other snack people, 5) ensure snack passes snack czar's test.

I am snack czar, I really didn't care what people brought, as long as it was edible and was there on time. Ha. I am not sure who made up the crazy, unspoken, rules. My guess is the last snack czar.

Anyways, this week is my time to provide snack, I made pumpkin, cranberry, white chocolate cookies. I found the recipe on pinterest, they looked delicious. The recipe is from My Baking Addiction, a really good read if you have time.

Jari the Oiler's Monkey enjoying Friday Snack

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
yield | 48 cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter; softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries; roughly chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt in medium bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract; mix well. Add flour mixture; combine until all ingredients are incorporated. Fold in white chocolate chips and dried cherries.
4. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Storage: Cookies store well in an airtight container for up to three days.
Notes: Get creative! Add in whatever strikes your fancy, I can imagine a variety of chocolates, nuts, and dried fruits will really make the flavors and textures of this cook truly amazing.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving. Here is Edmonton we had beautiful weather and a nice relaxing weekend. Friday evening, Mr. Toot Sweet's cousin came in for a visit from BC. Cousin Courtney is a minister in Tsawwassen BC, it was great to visit and meet her fiance. We had dinner, ate fresh BC Blueberry Crisp and drank some great BC wine from the Dirty Laundry vintners. The Blueberry Crisp was highjacked from a fellow Momstown mom Sarah's recipe for apple crisp.

2 cups of fruit
1tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon
1/8 cup ground flax seed
11/4 cup oatmeal
1. Peel and slice apples. Toss in lemon juice and sugar, put in a greased casserole dish.
2. Cream margarine. Add brown sugar and cream again. Add flour, flax and cinnamon. Mix well.
3. Mix in oatmeal. If you like a crunchier topping, you can use more oatmeal here too.
4. Spread topping on apples so that it completely covers them.
5. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until bubbly.

We spent Saturday at the St. Albert Farmers Market looking at fresh produce, awesome knits and some really beautiful blankets from Ella Mouse Designs. The Lil' Cupcake was quick to notice the cupcake designed blanket and kept pointing at it. So cute.

On Sunday, Mr. Toot Sweet and I celebrated our three year anniversary at the Melting Pot. Yum, if you haven't checked it out, I suggest you do. It is a great romantic meal with offset private booths and intimate atmosphere. We even scored some chocolate strawberries for being part of the Melting Pot club.

On Monday, we had our family thanksgiving with my parents and friends of the family. We had all the feastings typical of Thanksgiving, turkey, mashed potato, gravy, stuffing, southern sweet potato casserole and broccoli rice casserole. For dessert I made an apple pie to use up all the apples that we scored for free from a neighbour. It turned awesome for my very first pie. But I cheated. I was a week bit intimidated by crust, so I hang my head in shame to admit, I bought the crust. My goal for the end of the year is to learn to make crust. Nice buttery flaky pastry crust.

Also, I noticed Urban Infant on the racks at Sobey's on Sunday. Check out the magazine if you haven't. Toot Sweet Cupcake is featured along side some other fabulous blogs, including the awesome City and Baby.

Look who's smashing a cake

I love smash cakes. I especially love when children actually smash the cake to bits. So much fun, getting dirty, getting full of icing and maybe getting some of the cake in the mouth, hair and ears.

I met V through Momstown, I know you've heard me speak of that before, so when V asked me to do a special cake for her little man L, I jumped at the opportunity.  The B family booked the lovely Jen of Snow Pea Portraits for family fall photos and smash photos Thanksgiving weekend, what a great weekend for photos.

V asked me to make a vanilla spice gluten free cake for little man L, with three owls on top, owl inspiration was taken from a GroVia cloth diaper. One to represent L, and two to represent their puppies, a rotti and a shepherd. V sent me a picture of the pups and they are every bit as cute as L himself.

I was super nervous making this cake because of L's gluten allergy. To ensure no cross contamination, I checked with V a few times to ensure the ingredients I had on the list would be Ok and indeed gluten free. We went with a vanilla spice cake, which made my house smell like fall filled with fresh strawberries and strawberry preserve covered in a vanilla spice tinted buttercream.

Test Kitchen up and running

Our first test, use up many of the frozen brown banana's currently taking up space in the freezer.

Over the years, I have been searching for the best banana loaf/cake/bread recipe. The results have been OK, but never the best banana muffin worthy recipe. Not even good enough to keep. So, with the oven warmed, the mixer out and the banana's thawed, I'm on a mission. I'm going to try out three recipes, stay tuned for the recipes and the results.

I'm also taking suggestions if you have a favorite banana muffin recipe I'm taking suggestions.

I would also like to take this opportunity to direct you to two awesome cupcake makers in Edmonton: Delish located in Little Italy. If you haven't had an opportunity to check her out, go soon. Her cakes are moist, yummy and full of flavour, in one word Delish.

Also, if you haven't heard of Little Miss Cupcake, I suggest you visit them at the upcoming Southwest Edmonton Farmers Market. I tried the cherry cupcake at the recent Bossy Mama Flaunt party and the cake was awesome. It even had cherries in the cake. If you know me, I am a cupcake snob, among many other things snob, but for me, cupcakes have to be unique, flavourful, moist and above all, icing can't be too sweet. Delish and Little Miss Cupcake both deliver these factors. Hmmm, I'm smelling a cupcake taste test in the future...maybe a taste test party???

We made Top 10

We've been vacationing in the Mountains. I turned 30! YIKES! We took the much needed family vacation. While we were on vacation, Modern Mama announced the Top Ten Alberta's best mama bloggers, and Toot Sweet Cupcakes made top ten. Woo- hoo.

The fabulous City and Baby won top spot. If you haven't checked out her website, I suggest you do. Her site is FABULOUS. I visit it weekly to plan my weekends.

Check back soon, Toot Sweets oven is warming with some yummy fall treats.

We've been quiet

Toot Sweet Cupcakes has taken a few weeks off to re-focus and re-evaluate. While, we have enjoyed being a part of so many celebrations, we have re-prioritized to put family first.

We will still be baking up a storm, but for a different purpose. To share our love of cupcakes, baking and cooking, so you can create your own creations in your own kitchen.

We love our friends and have met some awesome people along the journey, we hope that you will continue to follow us as we continue to grow and share our recipes with you.

The decision to close our doors to orders was a very difficult decision, one that took many weeks to decide. However, with the lil' cupcake growing and becoming busier, back to work full-time, and needing to make time for family and friend commitments, the need to re-prioritize Toot Sweet Cupcakes was necessary.

But that is not all for Toot Sweet Cupcakes. We are still around, we will still send cupcakes to our friends, because we love sending gifts and think everyone deserves a pick me up. Closing to orders, just means we will also be making pies, jams, tarts, cakes and other gourmet cupcakes. I hope you stick around because we would love to make your day with a treat on your doorstep, or give you the inspiration to create your own treats.

In the meantime, thank you so much for sticking with us. And watch out for what we have in the oven tonight. Clue: smells like cookies.

Cupcakes, cupcake, and more cupcakes.

The past two weekends friends from Fort McMurray have visited the city for special occasions, one for a birthday and the other for a 5 year wedding anniversary.

I felt it only right that I bring them cupcakes, especially when they offered me a ticket to see Taylor Swift. For both I was asked to be creative, they like chocolate, buttercream and coconut, but not too picky.

So we delivered 12 chocolate cupcakes with a variety of icings: black forest cupcakes (not shown), strawberry margarita cupcakes, traditional chocolate and vanilla buttercream, cream cheese, and coconut, dubbed Snowball II.

All it takes is an email or a call and we can have your cupcakes whipped up for delivery. Also we just introduced a new product: Cupcake Jars. Similar to cupcakes, but they can be shipped.

Ballet sweetheart

A little girl turned 8, and Toot Sweet Cupcakes was lucky enough to create a birthday cake that she actually ate.

We created a chocolate cake with milk chocolate buttercream. We covered the cake with a green vanilla fondant pillow that we dusted with pearl dust to give it a shimmer. We then topped the cake hand moulded pink tutu and ballet slippers.

J's mom text messaged me on Sunday after the party and said that the cake was hit and that J, for the first time in a long time, actually ate her birthday cake. Melt my heart. Happy 8th Birthday J.

Welcome Baby!

I've been very fortunate to meet a lot of great moms through Momstown, one such mama just delivered a beautiful baby girl. To congratulate Mama T, Toot Sweet Cupcakes delivered Chai Tea Latte cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese icing one day after baby Q was born.

This week, Mama T, is having a meet Baby Q party and asked Toot Sweet Cupcakes to create a cake for the occasion. She asked for the Chai cake with the brown sugar cream cheese icing. Mama T, told us that her husband really enjoyed the icing and told her to learn how to make it. We think Mama T has her hands full with four sweet little girls and we we'll take cake of the icing.

Summer patio drinks

I love summer patio drinks. Well, let's be honest, I love tropical beach umbrella vacation drinks. I got a call from a B asking if I could develop a tropical mickey cupcake for her future sister-in-laws bridal shower. YES!

Tropical themed cupcakes came swirling through my head faster than the buttercream could be piped. We created a Strawberry lime Margarita cupcakes - they were delish.

We started out with a lime tequila based cake, yes, we said TEQUILA, once the cake was cooled, we added more tequila. We then topped the cakes with a delectable fresh strawberry and lime zest buttercream. They were YUMMY!

Sandcastles and one year olds

On July 23rd, Toot Sweet Cupcakes celebreated a very special little boys birthday. It was especially sweet because C and the Lil' Cupcake are such good friends. C's mom and I were both on maternity leave at the same time and spent many a days with playdates, strolls through the mall with our matching strollers and diaper bags, and just hanging out.

Mr. C's mom asked me to create a sand castle cake with vanilla cake, bavarian cream filling and covered in fondant. To make it a bit more special, we added some chocolate seashells, which Mr. C immediately grabbed off and ate - before he even blew out his candle.

Happy Birthday Little Dude C, I hope you had a very happy birthday. To see pictures of Mr. C's cake smash check out the lovely Taryn Laine Photography.

E`s birthday

Our little safari lion is sure getting a lot of attention lately. This week we were asked to do little E`s first birthday, and the lion was asked to make an appearence again. He sure is popular.

E`s mom contacted me about the 1st birthday special, she wanted the lion, a blue cake with white icing and 18 vanilla and 18 chocolate cupcakes. Woot woot. For E`s smash cake, cause really that is what they do with their first birthday cake, we made a vanilla cake filled with strawberry preserve and fresh strawberries all iced in a fluffy blue vanilla buttercream. Toot Sweet Cupcakes is also a bit taken with the bunting flags and has started to add them to the cakes. They just look so cute and we think they add to the cake.

As part of the birthday special, a 6 in. smash cake, you recieve one dozen cupcakes, flavour of your choice, you can also add extra dozens for $15. We created 3 dozen vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with blue and white swirls of buttercream. A feast fit for the king of the jungle.

Happy 1st birthday E, I hope you had a great day sharing it with family and friends.

Pink cakes and a busy week

This week has been awesomely busy for orders. I love when I can create so many cakes/ cupcakes in a week. And too boot, two pink cakes. I never thought I would have so much fun making pink cakes, but I did.

Our first order was for a sweet little girl`s first birthday. Her mom contacted me asking for the 1st birthday special. She wanted a pretty, girly cake. As soon as she said that, I knew exactly what cake to create, the ruffle cake, in pink and to complete the girly part, lets top it with a tiara. It turned out so well. I fell in love with the cake. The lil` cupcake may be getting this cake for her 2nd birthday.

I think the cake turned out lovely. The cake itself was a Chocolate cake filled with a yumy strawberry preserve and iced with fuffly ruffles of pink buttercream. I initially started out with strawberry buttercream, but with the humidity the icing wouldn`t stick. Boo-urns. And I dislike using artificial flavours so to the pink tinted buttcream I went.

The second cake, I did this week. Bahhh, I forgot to take a picture. Not very smart, but I am told that the birthday girl will send photos, when she does I will put them up and add them to the blog.

Birthday girl A, contacted me on Monday asking if I was able to do a cake for her. Turns out she had another baker lined up and due to some unforeseen circumstance was no longer able to create A`s 23rd birthday cake. I couldn`t say no, and after the brief consultation, Toot Sweet Cupcakes was making the cake. A Red Velvet two tiered pink and black creation. But we added a twist to the cakes. On the bottom layer, I stipped some of the cake down and added a chocolate cake filling. What is a Chocolate cake filling you ask. A chocolate cake filling was sandwiched between two red velvet cakes and buttercream. I also added a cream cheese filling to the top red velvet tier. Cake was covered in tinted vanilla buttercream to add a polished finished.

Just before pick-up, I returned home from work to see all the fondant bows topping the cake, destroyed. Apparently the heat of the day made the bows crack, fall and break. OMG, I was devastated. I couldn`t send this cake to A, after what she endured, and on her birthday. So I improvised. Earlier that week, I was at the farmers market and came across a vendor selling pretty little flower clips for little girls. I saw the pretty black and pink with a crystal in the middle and figured one day that would be the inspiration for a cake, and wrap the cake in a fondant ribbon with the fondant flower on top. Well, due to time constraint, my newly acquired flower and a black ribbon I had became the topper of the cake. I wrapped the ribbon around the cake like a present and secured the ribbon with the flower. It actually turned out really pretty as well. So there you have it, disaster averted and A had a happy birthday with a pretty cake.

A texted me that evening thanking and left a message on my facebook wall saying that the red velvet recieved rave reviews and that the cake was adored. I was tickled pink. I love hearing reviews of cakes I make, and even best seeing little ones smash the cakes I make them.

As for the third cake, little man E gets a whole post to himself.

Fluffy white ruffles

I've had the same best friend for over 25 years. We met in kindergarten, went through brownies together, same elementary school, high school and everything in between and after. If I was to sum up our friendship I would have to say lasting. No matter the miles, distance or circumstance, we always seem to find our way back to each other. When ever we are together we pick up right where we left off.

We are such good friends that we call each others parents by first names, because we've known them for so long, I feel they've had a helping hand with my parents in raising me. So when Mer called me and asked me to make a suprise cake for her mom's birthday, I couldn't say no. Mer's mom loves lemon and vanilla, so I created a vanilla bean cake filled with tangy lemon curd. I am also a sucker for lemon curd and sit and eat it with a spoon.

I've been dying to create this ruffle cake and top it with pretty-ness since I saw in on a blog. I also love plumeria and decided that I would top the cake with some pretty tropical flowers, seen as Edmonton has had rainy weather lately, tropical flowers may be a nice reminder that it is in fact summer here.

Happy Birthday to Mer and S, as they both celebrated their birthday's the same week. Mer however hit the big 3-0. Where has the time gone. Love ya Mer, here's to our next 25 year's as friends.

Also, if you haven't noticed from my website, Mer has a cupcake named after her, The Mer, a hot chocolate cake. Yum-o, but that story is for a later post.

Boy or Girl....

Blue or pink...which is it going to be?

Four months ago, my friends, Mr. and Mrs. J, announced that they were expecting. How exciting. While the group of my friends were super excited, I was excited for the reveal, because I'd get to make reveal cupcakes. Any excuse to make cupcakes makes me excited.

Waiting 20 weeks to make cupcakes was starting to kill me. Ha. But alas, on June 2, also Mrs. J's birthday, I was able to present her gender reveal cupcakes. Now if you've never heard of a reveal cake/cupcakes, it is either a cake coloured to present the gender of the baby. The cake is frosted so when you cut in, you 'reveal' the gender. Well, I did my take on a gender reveal cake and made it into cupcakes. I started with my sinfully delicious chocolate cake, a moist, fluffy cake exploding with rich chocolate flavour. For the blue filling I tinted vanilla buttercream with blue. And because I was secretly hoping it was a girl, I even predicted in the baby pool, I filled the pink with my strawberry cheesecake icing. Yum. Mama-to-be S, loves creamy cheese icing, so I figured that the pink would be pretty reflective of her faves. To finish the cakes, I made fluffy swirls of tinted yellow and green buttercream. I combined the two colours to make the green and yellow swirl.

So what is Mama-to-be S and Daddy-to-be M having in November...Well the first ultrasound was inconclusive. Baby was playing shy and wouldn't show its bits. Poor Mama-to-be and Daddy-to-be, but after a second ultrasound the verdict was in...three lines...

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Expected in November. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. J and family and friends. Have to go now, I need to go shopping for baby girl J.

Yee-Haw Cowboy cookout birthday

Little boy B's mom contacted Toot Sweet Cupcakes about two weeks ago. They would be in Edmonton, from Calgary, to celebrate B's first birthday. B's mom wanted a 6 inch cow patterned cake and 24 cupcakes for his family Cowboy Cookout party. Yee-Haw.

We constructed a Black Forest cake, Chocolate cake with a cherry filling, covered it is vanilla buttercream and covered it with vanilla fondant. The results looked awesome. We loved the cow pattern.

The cowboy hat was hand moulded from fondant and gumpaste. We also made the little bunting flag with the special one year-old's name.

In addition to the cake for B to smash, we also provided 24 red velvet cupcakes frosted with cream cheese icing and topped those with cow patterned fondant.

Thank you to B's mom for contact us and inviting us to be a part of B's special day. And B, Happy 1st birthday, I hope you made a big mess.

Inspiration

Feeling inspired. Very inspired, by this picture.

Mmmmm, Creme Brulee Cupcakes. Yup, I just said it. Creme Brulee Cupcake.

Who wants one?

Made Especially for You.

After the Lil' Cupcakes birthday we had an influx of orders. I was extremely surprised by one in particular. My toughest critic, my cousin. Extremely picky and brutally honest with me, which I am glad of as it makes me a better baker.

She ordered a dozen Red Velvet cupcakes. What surprised me even more is that fact that there is cupcake store, literally a 5 minute walk from her office and she opted to order from Toot Sweet Cupcakes. I felt very honoured.

I have to admit, this is my fifth red velvet recipe. The first four were not good. Well they were fine, but I was looking for the ultimate, best tasting red velvet cupcake recipe. And after much R&D, I found the ultimate and best tasting red velvet cupcake recipe.

Don't forget, Toot Sweet Cupcakes, makes fresh to order, never frozen and never dry cupcakes. You contact us and we make them especially for you.

Happy First Birthday G!

Over the last year, while on Mat leave, I've met some really great people. I joined a network of moms called Momstown. I've enjoyed the events and getting to meet other moms who were in the same place as I was with the Lil' Cupcake.

Quiet a few of my new "mom" friends little ones are all turning one and I was delighted that L had asked me to provide a cake and cupcakes for G's first birthday.

So happy first birthday G! Also known as Cupcake's boyfriend.

For his birthday we created vanilla cupcakes with green and yellow frosting, for his smash cake we made a vanilla cake with strawberry preserve and fresh strawberries. Yummy. He even thought so when he destroyed his cake. Haha. Loved seeing the photos of him destroying it.

We also created a little lion for the top of his cake because he loves lions. Happy Birthday again G. I can't wait to see what you do next.

G's mom took advantage of Toot Sweet Cupcakes 1st birthday special. Contact us today, so your little one can have fun smashing a birthday cake.

Toot Sweet Cupcakes also creates simple 6 inch cake smash cakes for one year photos. If your interested in having 1 year photos done contact us today and we can create a special cake for the photos.