#55 Interview

Hey guys. Happy Father's Day! Today is a special day because I got to interview one of the greatest people i know and my all time favorite baking partner, my cousin Marina. She is 21 years old and a cupcake baking queen. Today she came over to bake cupcakes with me for my brother's class while I interviewed her. Enjoy :)

1. How long have you been baking?

Seriously, about 4 years, but I have been baking with my mom ever since I was little.

2. What is your favorite part of baking?

I love being able to come up with new flavors and see the delight on people’s faces when they bite into it. It is the ultimate joy to see someone else fall in love with something you created. That’s my favorite part.

3. What is your favorite type of cake to make?

Honestly, a simple vanilla cake. It is always yummy and it is perfect for any occasion. It’s also great because then I am free to decorate as crazy or modest as I please.

4. How often are you asked to make cupcakes?

All the time! For special occasions, holidays, birthdays, you name it. People are always asking me to make them cupcakes for their friends or loved ones and I love it!

5. What is the craziest type of cupcake you’ve made?

A friend asked me to make colorful cupcakes for her sister’s birthday party and decorate them full of candy. I made the cake batter rainbow colored and filled it with Skittles. I also made the frosting rainbow colored. Then I decorated the cakes with Starburst, gummy worms, shockers, and nerds. It was a huge sugar high and it was so much fun.

6. What is your personal favorite cupcake flavor?

My favorite flavor would have to be a chocolate cupcake with a vanilla frosting and bacon bits. I love bacon. Any chance I get to use or eat bacon, I do!

7. Where do you see yourself in the future, as far as baking goes?

More than anything, I would love to have my own shop. Baking is my passion and I know everyday will be more enjoyable than it is work. So absolutely I would see myself having my own shop and being Cupcake Wars champion.

#54 Dirt and Worms Cupcake

Talk about a disgustingly delicious cupcake. I found this dirt and worms cupcake on Betty Crocker. It's a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting for dirt. It's then topped with chopped pecans and gummy worms. This sounds like a great cupcake for a kids birthday party. They'd love picking at the worm topping. Enjoy!

#53 Teddy-at-the-Beach Cupcakes

After using Pillsbury cake mix a few days ago, I decided to check out there website. What I found was the most adorable, fun, and easy cupcake! These Teddy-at-the-Beach cupcakes are a creative way to make a summer cupcake. Blue food coloring is used as the ocean, graham crackers for the sand, chewy fruit snacks for beach floaties, a plastic umbrella, and teddy bear shaped graham snacks. Put it all together and you get teddy-at-the-beach! Extremely cute and fun cupcakes that everyone will love.

#52 Chocolate Cupcakes

Yes, I am back with a Pinterest post. I couldn't help myself :) I saw these rich chocolate cupcakes and had to share them because they were topped with such an odd ingredient: sea salt. The link sent me to Cafe Zupas for the recipe. The chocolate ganache is made with sea salt in it and the ingredient is also used as a decoration. It was so interesting to me that they would pair such a salty ingredient like sea salt with chocolate. I love weird finds like this. I bet it tastes delicious!

#51 Beach Cupcakes

Here's a great summer cupcake decoration I saw from Martha Stewart. The cupcake could really be any flavor you want. Just use a white colored frosting and use blue food coloring for the ocean. A piece of cardboard paper is used for the shark fin and graham cracker crumbs are used for the sand. Add an umbrella and you're all set!

#50! Strawberry Cupcakes

WE MADE IT! Here is the 50th blog post :) On account of it being a special day, I decided to make my favorite flavor of cupcake: strawberry! So lately I've been trying different brands of cake mix. Normally, I purchase Betty Crocker because I can always count on it to turn out delicious. This time around I tried Pillsbury Moist Supreme in Strawberry.

I am a HUGE strawberry fan so I was hoping beyond hope that these cupcakes would be yummy.

I stirred the mix until it was perfectly smooth with little pink chunks of strawberry.

I filled the liners with a 1/4 measuring cup which was the perfect amount for each liner. I then popped these babies in the oven at 350 degrees for 19 minutes.

19 minutes was the perfect amount of time. I took them out of the oven and they were so fluffy and big. They each rose really well.

 Originally, I had purchased Betty Crocker Whipped Butter Cream Frosting. but when I opened it and tasted it, I found that it wouldn't work as well with the cupcakes. Instead, I used Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting.

I wanted to make a fun color on the cupcakes so I used McCormick Neon food coloring.

 (It looked like ice cream)

I mixed together pink and blue to make a lavender. Why lavender? I have no idea. I was in the mood for purple. In hindsight, I guess a red would have been more suiting.

I used a small amount of frosting in case I wasn't please with the color.

It was very pretty though so I kept it. I topped it off with a graham cracker and just like that a lavender strawberry cupcake was born!

The cupcake mix was very good. I was surprised at how much the cakes rose. They were yummy and moist and so soft. My only issue would be that after a while my unfrosted cupcakes seemed sticky at the top. It was weird. Overall, I would definitely recommend these cupcakes and would use that mix again. Delicious! Happy 50th :)

#49 Tie-Dye Cupcakes

These cupcakes look amazingly colorful. I saw these tie-dye cupcakes on Betty Crocker  and thought they looked awesome! Such a fun cupcake idea for summer.