cuppycake gumdrop snoogums

The past week has been the week of cupcakes in Ironstef world. Last week there was a baby shower for a girl at work, and I volunteered to bring cupcakes because I had this vision of making sweet little babyface treats. Now, I'm no baker...so I used box cake mix and pre-made strawberry frosting. I did zap the frosting in the microwave for a few seconds (that stuff gets hot FAST!!) to get a smoother glaze-like topping on which to decorate. Here are the results:


All in the box, ready to be delivered!


A happy baby with a candy pacifier. Awww!


I made a few crying ones. They were my favorite, and a hit with shower-goers. I didn't make too many, though. Didn't want to scare the mom-to-be. :)

Today I had a coworker's birthday (we draw names and bring treats for everyone's day), so I took the opportunity to do some more cupcakes. This time, I got a little more experimental. I still stayed away from recipes that required a lot of baking skill. The first couple batches were Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, which I iced with store-bought cream-cheese frosting:


They turned out yummy. I think I added more pumpkin than I was supposed to, but that didn't hurt. They were not too sweet, and the ground clove added a spicy accent to the chocolate chips.


The sweetness of the frosting added another compliment to the spice and the rich dark chocolate.

I also made S'more cupcakes. I couldn't resist! I love s'mores, and cupcakes are pretty great, too. They were a little messy, but fun to make (just like real s'mores!):


I piped the Fluff on from ziploc bag with a hole cut in the corner. Then I stuck the finished cupcakes under the broiler for a minute or so to toast the marshmallow.


Is there anything better than toasted marshmallow?

So those are my recent cupcake adventures. I'm sure there will be more, because they are so fun to make, and who doesn't like a cupcake? They're yummy and portable and totally cute!

On that note, here's a super-sweet sugary catchy little song involving cupcakes. Bye, cuppycakes!