Christie's Cupcakes

Flowery First

2010-08-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of making cupcakes for a lovely little lady named Lily on her very first birthday. Her mom was doing a pink and brown theme for the party so I worked that color scheme into the decorations.

This is the same technique I used to make monkey cupcakes for Lily's older brother Luke last summer. It is really so simple but really makes for some cute cupcakes!

I'm already brainstorming ideas for our little lady's first birthday cupcakes...though I hope time slows down between now and then because the last 4 months have gone WAY too fast!

It's A...

2009-11-16T07:54:00.001-08:00

Read on to find out!

I made cupcakes to take to work this morning to reveal our little one's gender. But I didn't want the outside decorations to give it away right off the bat...so I decorated the cupcakes with pink and blue teddy bear sprinkles.

But one bite into the cupcake, and you can clearly see what we are expecting!

It's a girl!!! We are so thrilled and can't wait to meet our little daughter!

A Cupcake in the Oven!

2009-10-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

I got to make some more fun baby cupcakes this weekend but this time it was just a little bit sweeter. Because this time I was baking the baby-themed cupcakes to help us celebrate and share the news that we're expecting our first baby!!

I made these perfectly pastel treats to take to Bible Study tonight to share the news with some friends! I don't usually need much in the way of an excuse to make cupcakes but think this just might be my best reason yet! :)

Our little cupcake is due to arrive on April 6, 2010 and we are beyond thrilled! You'll likely be seeing all kinds of baby-themed cupcakes here over the next several months! Thankfully the first trimester and food aversions are over now...and I've been told by my OB to gain weight before next month's appointment so cupcakes are the perfect answer! :)

Black & Gold Cupcakes

2009-09-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, the Demon Deacon's opening game was a HUGE disappointment...luckily, we had black & gold cupcakes to make it seem a little better!

I'm pretty much under strict orders to make cookie dough cupcakes for every occasion. Maybe someday I'll be able to try something different again!

Lots of Baby Boy Blue

2009-06-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was so happy to help out with cupcakes for another baby shower this past weekend! Since the shower was for a bouncing baby-boy-to-be, I had tons of fun finding baby blue decorations and even getting my fondant that perfect shade of baby blue!

These are white chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, jumbo confetti sprinkles, and handmade "S" monograms.

I think they look really cute even with no decoration and just the polka dot ribbon tied around the liner too!

Monkey Cupcakes!!

2009-06-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Brace yourself for some serious cuteness:

I made these little monkey cupcakes for a little man named Luke and his 1st birthday party this past weekend. So cute! The white cupcakes are white chocolate with a buttercream frosting, and the chocolate cupcakes are topped with chocolate frosting and entirely edible chocolate monkey faces.

I used this technique (used successfully by the one and only Bakerella and my talented friend, Kara) which Bakerella attributes to The Whimsical Bakehouse which I have got to get a copy of immediately!

It seems there would be almost limitless uses for this simple decorating technique. I love that the little monkey faces are entirely edible too!

Happy 1st Birthday, Luke!

Bite-sized Cupcakes

2009-06-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to find the time to bake as often as I'd like to lately! But trust me, I've got some really cute cupcakes in the works so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I did finally get around to making these little treats by the fabulous Bakerella! They came together surprisingly fast given how long these guys took me to put together! I was able to whip these up in almost no time to take over to our friends' house...quick to make and even quicker to disappear!

These little 2 bite cupcakes are so good and just too cute to resist! Bakerella walks you through step by step instructions on her blog so try it out and impress your friends!

Easter Candy Remix Cupcakes

2009-05-07T05:26:00.001-07:00

This is what has been staring at me for weeks now...

This was what was left of the Easter basket I put together for my husband....well, I have a WAY bigger sweet tooth so in a way it always ends up mostly mine. I finally reached the point where the temptation to pig out on the leftover candy became too hard to resist and I just needed that candy out of my house! So I did what any reasonable person would do...I came up with a cupcake recipe to "hide" the candy in! :)

I used the mini Twix, Snickers bars, and Reeses's eggs from the basket in my Easter Candy Remix Cupcakes. I chopped up all the remaining candy and probably ended up with about 2 cups of chopped candy. It filled a cereal bowl (and yes, I thought about digging in with a spoon!)

I made a very simple yellow cake batter and cut back a bit on the sugar since I was adding so much candy. After stirring in the candy pieces and baking and cooling and frosting, these little cuties were the result!

I'm not sure these really helped curb the temptation, however. Because I obviously had to try one when they were finished and WOW were they good! The bite below shows a snickers piece in all its melty, chocolately, peanutty, caramely glory.

I'm so excited with how these turned out and can't wait to share/pawn them off on company this weekend!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

2009-05-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

The Kentucky Derby this past weekend had me thinking about big hats and mint juleps all last week. I've never made (or even tasted) mint juleps...but all that thinking about refreshing mint made me want it...and that's when I started wondering about making a Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcake.

These cupcakes are a basic devils food cake with chocolate chips and a splash (or two!) of creme de menthe! I also added some creme de menthe to the dark chocolate frosting (I added just a bit of peppermint extract as well to get the minty flavor I wanted without making my frosting too runny). I LOVED these cupcakes! And what is more, is my husband actually preferred these to his long-time favorite cookie dough cupcakes!

So while not exactly a mint julep...at least they were minty and boozy and a great treat for derby watching!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2009-04-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to make cupcakes for my friend's baby shower this past weekend! She chose navy blue, lime green and white for her nursery colors which I just love! So I worked those colors into the decorations along with the monogram of baby's first name.

I think the ribbons add a nice finishing touch...and an easy way to color coordinate with other shower decorations! This was my first attempt at using gumpaste. I had to color it first to get it to be navy and then after several failed attempts with fondant/cookie cutters, I ended up just drawing the "B's" in freehand. The nice thing about gumpaste was I was able to make the "B's" weeks in advance and store them away in an airtight container once they were dry. That left me with much less to do the night before the shower.

The white cupcake was a white chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. And the chocolate cake had a peanut butter cup baked inside and was topped with dark chocolate buttercream.

Congratulations, Heather & Pete!

Voting is now open! Vote for me!

2009-03-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

Voting for this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge is now open at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner! Just click on the link and be sure to vote for both of my entries this month!! Voting is open until Friday at noon (central time)! Thanks so much for your vote!!

Peanut Butter loves Bananas

2009-03-11T10:43:00.001-07:00

For my second entry in this month's Iron Cupcake baking contest, I wanted to try to recreate a cupcake based on one of my favorite childhood foods: the peanut butter and banana sandwich! I would get so excited when I opened my fabulously chic CareBears lunchbox and find a PB&Banana sandwich in there! I think they usually appeared towards the end of the school week when we were running low on lunch supplies, but they were such a treat to me! Seriously, it's like eating dessert for lunch...like you are totally getting away with something. Which is exactly why I decided to turn that sandwich into a dessert!

These cupcakes are made up of a deliciously sweet banana cake and are topped with creamy peanut butter frosting. I then rolled the edges in chopped honey roasted peanuts to give it a little more texture and crunch!

Anything banana always smells so good while it is baking and these cupcakes were no exception! I could barely wait for them to cool so I could top them with the peanut butter frosting and take a bite! While these take a little longer to pull together than the sandwich that inspired them, I think they are definitely worth it!

If you like baking with bananas but are trying to get in bathing suit shape since it is almost time for summer, check out this banana bread recipe on my food blog!

Once again, I'm competing with fabulous bakers around the world for the following great prizes:

A Bunnycake Easter Plushie by DOGBONEART, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21636297.A whimsical piece by CAKEASAURUS, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5729584.as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.a collection of all new printed cupcake liners, 200 in all from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ . And as a special thank you, we would like to once again thank DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270 for her participation in the February challenge. An incorrect link was posted and we want to be sure that she gets the recognition she deserves. Thanks again Diana!

Voting will begin no later than Sunday, March 29 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Friday, April 3 at 12 noon.

Almond Joy All Grown Up

2009-03-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

Well look at me all on the ball and everything for this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge! This month the challenge is to use nuts and/or seeds. The very first thing that popped in my mind when thinking cupcakes and nuts was one of my favorite candy bars: the Almond Joy! I decided to kick it up a notch and make an "All Grown Up Almond Joy Cupcake." Which basically means I added booze!

This is basically a super moist devil's food cupcake spiked with Amaretto to give it a great hint of almond flavor.

Before adding the Amaretto Cream Cheese Frosting I brushed a bit more Amaretto on the top of each warm cupcake just to make sure it had enough of that almond flavor I was hoping to achieve.

After frosting each of these little guys with homemade amaretto cream cheese icing, I topped them with toasted coconut and toasted almonds to finish them off!

I love how the toasted almonds cut the sweetness of the cream cheese icing...and made for such a pretty decoration!

These are definitely going in the keeper file! I think they look so pretty and sophisticated with their toasted coconut and almond decorations!

Once again, I'm competing with fabulous bakers around the world for the following great prizes:

A Bunnycake Easter Plushie by DOGBONEART, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21636297.
A whimsical piece by CAKEASAURUS, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5729584.
as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
a collection of all new printed cupcake liners, 200 in all from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ . And as a special thank you, we would like to once again thank DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270 for her participation in the February challenge. An incorrect link was posted and we want to be sure that she gets the recognition she deserves. Thanks again Diana!

Voting will begin no later than Sunday, March 29 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Friday, April 3 at 12 noon.

Zen Cupcake Barbie Giveaway

2009-03-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Can you believe Barbie is about to be 50!?! She has certainly aged well!

My sister and I had an enviable collection of Barbie's as kids and I can't even imagine the number of hours we spent playing with those dolls! We had the dream house, multiple cars, the rockers stage, and even had the icecream shoppe where you could make your own icecream (it always took forever and had a weird consistency but that didn't keep us from making it over and over and over).

As part of the celebration Zen Cupcake is having another fabulous giveaway! This time there are Stila cosmetics and Juicy Perfume on the line! Check it out and be sure to enter for a chance to win!

Iron Cupcake: Coffee

2009-02-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

VOTE FOR ME!

Yay! I finally got it together in time to actually enter a cupcake in the Iron Cupcake contest!! When I saw this month's ingredient was coffee, I really tried to make sure I left myself some time to enter.
In thinking about different cupcake ideas centered around coffee, I kept coming back to my FAVORITE Starbucks drink. Unfortunately for me, it was taken off the menu...shortly after my brief stint as a barista actually (coincidence? I did drink an unhealthy amount of them during each shift...hmmm). Anyway, my FAVORITE Starbucks beverage of all time was the Mocha Valencia. I just loved the combination of coffee, chocolate and sweet orange syrup. I've blogged before about my love of the chocolate orange flavor combo...it only makes sense that I'd love it even more when it comes caffeinated and spiked with espresso!

So I started wondering if I could make a Mocha Valencia cupcake...you know, something to help curb the cravings since I can't just swing through the drive through anymore. And create a Mocha Valencia cupcake is exactly what I did, friends!

Here's how I did it. I took a plain old box of Devil's Food cake mix and in place of the water, I used orange juice. I followed the other box directions to add oil and eggs and then threw in 4 teaspoons of instant coffee. After baking at 350 for 21 minutes these little guys came out of the oven...

So then I whipped up some dark chocolate frosting and spiked it with 2.5 teaspoons of instant coffee to create a rich topping for these cupcakes.

And then it was just a matter of decorating! I used both orange sprinkles and also M&M's premiums in Mocha (I've raved about these before...love them). And there you have it! A Mocha Valencia cupcake (or 24 cupcakes!)!

I loved how these turned out and it definitely reminded me of the espresso drink that inspired them! An orange infused coffee cupcake is only fitting for a baker from sunny Florida, right?

VOTE FOR ME!

Voting will begin no later than Sunday, March 1 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://mkecupcakequeen.blogspot.com and will be open through Friday, March 6 at 12 noon.

I'm always amazed at the creativity of the Iron Cupcake Bakers around the world each month and the sweet treats they come up with! This month we're all competing to win the following FABULOUS prizes:

Our February ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270
as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.

PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!As an added bonus for February, SWEET

CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in a variety of cupcaking supplies, http://www.acupcakery.com/index.html.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers:

HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com/, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com/; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com/; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com/ .

I Heart Juicy Couture & Cupcakes

2009-02-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Zen Cupcake is one of my FAVORITE cupcake blogs! And that was even before this fabulous Mardi Gras Giveaway! Seriously, how cute is that Juicy cupcake necklace?! WANT IT!

Check out the Zen Cupcake blog for amazing cupcake recipes, decorations and other cupcake paraphenalia I'm sure you can't live without! Not to mention some very generous giveaways!!

Cold Stone Cupcakes

2009-02-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

I'd be surprised if this press release escaped the attention of any of us that love cupcakes! I was a little overzealous in tracking these little guys down and dragged my husband and sister to Cold Stone a couple weekends ago...and much to my disappointment, Orlando is apparently behind the eight ball and hadn't gotten their cupcake act together yet!

(graphic from Cold Stone's website)

So back we went again this weekend and I was so excited to see these cupcakes sitting in the freezer case! They were out of the Cake Batter Delux which I REALLY wanted to try so I settled for a pack of Double Chocolate Devotion instead. Let's face it, I was going to try them all at some point of another anyway.

Wow, these cupcakes are so good! This particular one is made up of Devil's Food Cake, Fudge, Chocolate Icecream, White Frosting, and Oreo and an amazingly delicious Belgian chocolate shell to hold it all together! I'll definitely be going back to try the other flavors!

Even Cupcakes Make Resolutions

2009-01-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

I think if cupcakes were to make resolutions....they would look a little something like this:

This tasty little treat was made from a box of cake mix and a can of diet soda. Yup, that's it. If you haven't tried this method, you really need to! I used Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Fudge mix and a can of Coke Zero to bake these cupcakes. The taste and consistency are fabulous! The "frosting" is fat free reddiwhip drizzled with sugar-free chocolate syrup. A 2 point treat for you Weight Watchers fans!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes

2008-12-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

When I was little my parents didn't give me too many sweets. The pediatrician had told them that if I didn't have them, I wouldn't develop a taste for the sweet stuff. And it all seemed to be working according to plan until I found a box of chocolate covered cherries hidden under my nana's chair when we were visiting our grandparents for Christmas. I wasn't much older than 3 when I made the discovery...which I promptly stole away with and hid out behind the chair. I was caught not too much later after my slurping sounds gave me away...but not before I bit all the tops off every chocolate covered cherry in that box! From then on I've fostered and nourished quite a sweet tooth...but chocolate covered cherries are still a favorite!

I frosted these chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate covered cherry center with dark chocolate frosting (my favorite!) Aren't they cute?

I came up with this idea for a cupcake after this month's Iron Cupcake challenge was to create something that included chocolate with a "twist." I'm not 100% satisfied with the end results so I won't actually end up entering them...I tried freezing the chocolate covered cherries but they still resulted in sticky cupcake liners. I might have to find away to get the chocolate covered cherry taste without taking the easy route of actually using chocolate covered cherries!

Christmas Sweets

2008-12-19T06:37:00.000-08:00

Gift giving can get out of control easily. And this year, moreso than years past, I've really been making an effort to cut back and cut costs. So I've been doing a lot of baking for some yummy homemade gifts...really, I think it is just as nice to get something that shows someone invested time rather than money!

These are some of the cupcakes I made to pass out to my coworkers as Christmas gifts. I got individual cupcake boxes to put each one and everyone seemed to think that was super-cute! I had intended to make Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese Frosting...but that tanked (don't ask)....so instead we ended up with Spice cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Happy 1st Birthday, Deacon!

2008-12-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

Just look at this cute "pup"cake I ordered from Pookie's Bowwow Bakery for Deacon's big day! Maybe I should have gone into the doggie baking business...

Crazy Eyes

2008-10-31T07:28:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!! I made these crazy eye cupcakes for my office Halloween party. They were fun to make and even better to eat.

There have been so many creative Halloween cupcakes ideas online, in magazines, etc this year. The little cupcake has been making quite a comeback!! I'm amazed by the number of blogs devoted completely to this sweet treat! I first saw this particular idea for scary eye cupcakes on Epicurious and liked the simplicity of the decorations. The green and yellow lifesavers made for the best scary eyes in my opinion!

Faux-stess Cupcakes

2008-10-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Growing up, I was definitely one of the kids that packed lunch (well...I really should say I was one of the kids fortunate enough to have a mom that didn't want me eating pizza, chicken patties or french fries on a daily basis). The highlight of every lunch period was getting to the bottom of the brown bag and finding some kind of delicious Hostess treat! I always loved the cupcakes and the HoHos....while I might have finagled a trade for the pretzels or sandwich I had on any given day...I never parted with the snackcake. Never.

So as I continue to try new-to-me ideas for cupcake recipes, creating my own version of that tasty little cupcake seemed like a good idea. Here is my "faux-stess" cupcake...complete with filling! I used a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling to spice it up a bit. It never hurts to add cream cheese and/or chocolate chips!

Speaking of Hostess...have you tried these little guys? Really quite tasty for just 100 calories!

Mocha Cupcakes

2008-10-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

We were finally in town this weekend which gave me the opportunity to try out another idea for a cupcake. I LOVE coffee and even had a short-lived stint as a barista with Starbucks when I first moved to Orlando. I just love everything about coffee...the smell, the taste....but most importantly, coffee, to me, means good company and good conversation. My mom shares my penchant for the beverage so having a cup of coffee will always remind me of being home and sharing a cup or two with her. And I've converted my husband to the darkside too! Just about the time I got him dependent on the stuff, I decided we needed to go caffeine-free! Oops.

So this weekend, I wanted to try to come up with a mocha cupcake. I had in mind to make a dark chocolate and coffee flavored cake with a chocolate frosting. I realize that not everyone is as big a fan of coffee as I am...and I definitely lean towards the extra bold, strongest coffee you can find...so I tried to keep that in mind as I mixed my latest concoction.

I ended up with a very rich tasting chocolate cupcake...much less coffee flavor than I had hoped. My taste testers who don't really like coffee (I don't understand it either) loved these little treats which tells you something. So next time I think I'll up the amount of coffee flavor I use in the batter just slightly and I'll focus on adding coffee to the frosting as well.

I had hoped to pick up chocolate covered espresso beans to top these cupcakes, but couldn't find them at the store this weekend. I did, however, find Mocha flavored M&M Premiums.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a pack of these. They are AMAZING! They lack the candy shell of your typical M&M and are almost like little tiny truffles. The pretty bronze and brown coloring looked festive on the cupcakes too. Pace yourself though...they are as addictive as their plain predecessor but way richer!

Baby Fabulous

2008-09-24T05:59:00.000-07:00

It has been pretty baby fabulous among my friends lately! We've had several new little ones making their debut and several more celebrating their first birthday! So fun! I don't need too much inspiration to bake cupcakes, so it didn't take me long to find some adorable baby cupcake toppers!

Halloween

2008-09-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

Now that the first day of Fall has come and gone, and since all the local stores have their Christmas decorations out, I figured I should go ahead and post some creepy, crawly Halloween cupcakes!

Cookie Dough

2008-09-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I had found my favorite cupcake flavor (chocolate orange), I decided to drop some cookie dough into the mix...and the results were amazing! It's like two treats in one!

These were decorated for a Wake Forest football party this weekend! Go Deacs!!

Peanut Butter Cup

2008-09-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter? OK, maybe a few of you with allergies out there. These rich, chocolate cakes have a peanut butter cup baked right in. I liked it best with the light, creamy peanut butter frosting...but dark chocolate frosting was great with it too!

I thought the monogram idea would be good for a housewarming gift...so I took a batch to my recently relocated sister!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

2008-09-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

These cupcakes were almost as fun to make as they were to eat! They are a delicious apple spice cake, topped with gooey caramel sauce and chopped walnuts. Guaranteed to make a mess but they are completely worth it!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

2008-09-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite flavor combinations is chocolate and orange. I LOVE the Terry's Chocolate Oranges and have a real weakness for those chocolatey orange segments. If you've never tried one, you really need to! A Christmas stocking just isn't complete without one!

The Chocolate Orange was my inspiration for these cupcakes. I loved the subtle orange flavor that resulted and my first attempt at dark chocolate frosting was a success...and a great accompaniment!

Candy Acorns

2008-09-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

We may not have beautiful Fall foliage in Florida...but we do have tons of oak trees and tons of acorns! So while I can't take the puppy for a walk through crunching leaves, I make the most of the crunching acorns! Which probably explains all the oak tree shoots in random flower beds in our neighborhood...

Fall Leaves

2008-09-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

You don't see too many changing leaves in the land of palm trees this time of year...we just have to make our own! These cupcakes are a simple, yellow cake with chocolate frosting and adorable sugar fall leaves!

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2008-09-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

It is still brutally hot here in the sunshine state....but the calendar says September which makes me think of fall and changing leaves and cooler weather!

Welcome to Christie's Cupcakes!

2008-09-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

Confession: I have a serious sweet tooth.

After realizing that I wasn't the only one that suffered from this "affliction," I decided to launch Christie's Cupcakes!

From classic yellow cake to pink lemonade, here you'll find all things cupcakes to help inspire you to celebrate all the sweet moments of life!

I'm hoping this blog will serve as a catalog for the fun recipes and decorating ideas I come across. After living in NYC with easy access to Magnolia Bakery and Soho Cupcake, I just can't live without these petit treats! I love baking for family and friends and will use any excuse possible to hang out in the kitchen trying new things!