Coconut caramel cupcakes :)

These were a lot of fun to make! I love girls scout's cookies, especially caramel delights! So I decided to make some cupcakes that highlight the most important parts of the cookie.
For me these cookies are all about the coconut, caramel and crunch. I LOVE chocolate, but it's not the main thing that I think about when it comes to these cookies. So, while chocolate was a part of these cookies, they weren't the may part. I have also discovered the Keebler makes an awesome cookie that is very similar, if not identical to the girl scout version, they are called Coconut Dreams. I used them for this recipe as I can get a box of 18 for $2.38 at Target! (and that's without coupons)

cupcakes :
1 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup salted butter (room temp)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup toasted coconut (plus extra for sprinkling over the cupcakes)
18 caramel delight cookies (or Kebblers Coconut Dream)


1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 cupcake cups, place one cookie in each cup.
2. Cream sugar and butter, add vanilla and egg.
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk
4. mix in toasted coconut
5. I use a cookie scoop to get even cupcakes
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes

Icing: I have no idea where the original recipe came from, I adapted it from a hand written recipe that was in my recipe notebook

1 1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tlbs salted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 oz powder sugar

In a sauce pan mix brown sugar and cream, bring to a rapid boil. Boil for one minute, mix in baking soda, boil 1 minute. Take away from heat, put in butter, DO NOT MIX.
Let it cool in fridge for 2 hours. Put in mixing bowl, beat until creamy, the color will get pretty light. Mix in the sugar. If icing is too runny you can add a little more sugar, if too stiff you can add more cream or water.

Topping:

toasted coconut

1/2 cookie (not really necessary)

chocolate drizzle- I used ghirardelli milk chocolate

Cate's cupcakes

Cate requested pink flowers with pink centers and Carolina blue icing. I love when little kids know exactly what they want and being about to produce it :)
Half vanilla, half chocolate all with blue vanilla butter cream and gumpaste flowers.

Polka dots babyshower

Half chocolate, half vanilla, with almond/vanilla buttercream. The toppers were made to match the dolkadot invitations. Simple but cute :)

Turtle cupcakes

These were another one of the just for fun cupcakes. These are soooo yummy! I am not a big icing fan, and even with just a little icing these are awesome! Super yummy chocolate cupcakes, with a hint of coffee, with a turtle inside, toped with super chocolate icing (almost a pound of chocolate in enough icing for 12 cupcakes!), caramel and pecans!

Percy Jackson cupcakes

When Mac requested Percy Jackson cupcakes, I had no idea who or what Percy Jackson was. I learned that Percy Jackson is a series of books. Mac requested Pegasus, Poseidon's trident and empire state building cupcakes. I really enjoy detailed work, which is why I LOVE doing things with flowers, so I was excited about these. I am really happy with how they turned out!
Half the cupcakes were vanilla, other half chocolate, all with butte cream and topped with fondant toppers.

Banana cupcakes

These were the second cupcakes I tried this week. I am a big fan of chocolate and bananas. I also know a lot of people who like peanut butter and banana sandwiches. So, I decided to top half of the cupcakes with peanut butter and half with chocolate icing. I also like a little crunch, so I sprinkled them with chopped pecans :) These were also tasty and I will be making them again. I am thinking it may be a good choice for Jack's first cupcake on his birthday!

peanut butter, chocolate cupcakes

I am really enjoying trying out new recipes every week. It had been a while since I was inspired to try new things out. I tried out two new recipes this week. This was the first one. The cupcakes ended up being a little dry, so I made them again, which a different chocolate cupcake, yesterday. I am not a big peanut butter fan, but these were yummy! There's just something magical about chocolate and peanut butter. Each cupcake also got a little reese's cup in the center. On my second trial with these, I pushed the reese's in more so you didn't get to it right away :) I will definitely be making these again!

Cookie cupcakes with mini candy bars

This was another, just for fun, recipe. This one comes from the same blog, Amanda & Kevin, the valentine's day, brownie/cookie bar came from. I topped them with buttercream and peanut M&ms. I am not a huge icing fan, so I left half of them without the icing. Justin said he preferred them without the icing, so I may find a different way to finish them off on the next time. The recipe is really simple, and I was amazed on how easily it came off the mini cupcake pan, as there are no liners. They are pretty yummy, next time I will add nuts to the batter and use the caramel kisses. The different filling/topping combinations for this one are endless!!

Sweet Tea, lemon cupcakes

Becky, from Cakes by Becky, and I are taking turns trying out recipes from this list of the 28 best cupcakes. This is the first one I have tried out. It's supposed to be vegan, but I used regular milk as I already had it instead of buying soymilk. The cupcake was super moist and yummy, but it didn't have much of a tea taste to it. I am not a big lemon flavor girl, but I really enjoyed this icing. I will be trying these again, but it more tea and see how it turns out. The current plan is to try a new recipe a week, so we'll see how it goes :)

Gael's baby celebration cupcakes

Gael was born 8 weeks premature, back in December. We weren't able to have a shower before he was born, so, yesterday we were finally about to celebrate him. Buttermilk cupcakes, filled and iced with dolce de leite icing, fondant details.

Petal cake

I saw this technique and had to try it out! So, this cake was done just for fun. I had some chocolate fondant left over so I decided to make a brown fantasy flower to go with it.

Buttermilk cake (my current favorite), dolce de elite filling and buttercream icing.

I LOVE how it turned out and have tons of ideas on how to use this in the future :)