Merry Christmas!

Hey Everyone! Merry Christmas! (a few days late :/ )

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the long weekend. I know I sure did! It was super busy and a lot of running around the bay, but it was good times as usual with family and friends. Anyhow I wanted to share my holiday treat I passed out this year...to some co-workers, and my little cousins.

Here they are:

Reindeer cake, er well cookie pops! I'd been wanting to try cake pops because ms.bakerella makes them look so easy and beautiful! Well, I must say it wasn't as easy as she makes it look. My crafty buddy Beth makes these awesome oreo truffles and I remember asking her recently why she doesnt try cake pops and she said it was because they are so time consuming...and man it is way way time consuming!

First I had to make the cookie batters for each (candy cane joe-joes [TJ's brand of oreos] and chocolate chip cookie dough, roll them into even balls and freeze them for a bit:

Then, I had to dip the stick into em, and roll them in chocolate, and THEN add the little pieces (eyes, nose, antlers). It's no easy task especially because the chocolate starts to harden while your working! Oh man. But they turned out just adorable didnt they?!

I dont know if you noticed, but I havent been posting and its been because I was on a little bit of a hiatus with cupcakes. I wasn't feeling inspired...but after making these puppies...I was so eager to bake cupcakes! :D I have ideas and plan to make some for new years. I made some for my sister's bf for Christmas and I'll insert the pic when I can grab it from him. =)

Anyhow, I forgot to mention after all of that work for the cake pops, I had to put them in little plastic baggies and tie them off...ay yay yay!

But here is the finished product; along with what the pops looked like:

Very Festive right!? =) Everyone seemed to enjoy them...who knows maybe I'll feel inspired to make cake pops one day!

xo,

Treen

Hotcake Bakes LA

Last week, I had dinner with a dear friend of mine, who is really the person who awakened my love for cupcakes. I mean yes, I've always loved cupcakes...I can remember back in elementary schools when we used to have bake sales...I always begged my mom to make some for me to bring and I'd always ask for a few bucks to buy some too. I especially loved the ones with sprinkles. :) Ahhh memories. But Suzanne, would come in to work and tell me about these yummy cupcakes she made or was planning on making. And she'd even bring them in some days. And one day I just thought, I want to bake cupcakes too!

And poof. We'd tell each other new recipes we'd try and bring in samples for each other and just talk about cupcakes...it was so fun! Today was really great because we got to catch up on each others lives and she was sweet enough to bring me presents...from Hotcake Bakes!

We sat and chatted for many hours and I was planning to save my treats for later on so i could take pics and savor each one. That didn't happen lol. On the drive back to the airport I thought they were sitting safe in their clamshell...little did I know that they were moving around like jumping beans in there! And then, when passing thru security, they turned my bag sideways which again caused cupcake turbulance. Here is what they looked like:

L to R: forgot the first one :(, Lemon, pumpkin, cookies and cream, gingerbread, and mint chocolate

I was hoping to blog aobut this place sooner but didnt get a chance to so I dont have details about each cupcake...but I remember which ones I enjoyed the most. The gingerbread cupcake was so moist and spice-y and the frosting was a bit tart...yum. It made me want to try out a recipe for gingerbread cupcakes! The other one I really enjoyed was the cookies and cream. The frosting is what got me and it was because they use cream cheese frosting instead of regular buttercream...the mix of cream cheese with the cookies is so delicious! It reminds me of oreo truffles. :)

Before Suzanne told me about this place, I'd never heard of them...and then she told me they were on cupcake wars and won! I wish I had seen that episode and I may hulu it so I can see them in action. And I want to go back next time I am in the area to try their cupcake war winning cupcake! :)

Thanks Suzanne! :D

I love cupcakes

Can you tell? :D

Just a few of the cupcakes lying around my house. hehe.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

It had been a while since I had German Chocolate cake...I think the last time was in middle school! So, hen a friend asked me to try and make them...I got a bit nervous. First because I'd never made them, and second I didnt even remember what they tasted like! All I remembered was that they had coconut in the frosting. So what did I do? I googled.

And found Magnolia Bakery's recipe for German Chocolate Cake. (Thanks to Shutterbean! Click name for recipe).

The recipe was quite simple and my oh my I don't know why I'd strayed away from this amazing cake for so long! The cake is light and sweet, but the winner is the frosting. I snuck a few spoonfuls as I was waiting for it to cool. The frosting was a little runnier than I am used to so I had a bit of a hard time frosting and trying to make it look pretty. In the picture below, you'll see what I mean. But its soo good it doesnt event matter what it looks like! :)

See, its a little lumpy looking? I added a little star to each to take away some of the lumpiness and it kind of worked:

And I took a pic of my little mini coconut cake. It was so pretty just had to share it with you all: =)

Lastly, here is a picture of cousin Adrian enjoying some cupcakes:

Thanks for reading =)

xo,

Treen

Kiddies love Trinkette ;)

Check out these two cutie patooties enjoying my Butternut Squash and Persimmon Cupcakes:

Alexa and a butternut squash cupcake:

Noahcakes about to devour a persimmon cupcake (the chocolate tree is already in his tummy):

And here is a pic of both of them:

Butternut Squash Cupcakes

Even though I am allergic to the cold, I love this season for two reasons: boots of course!, and squash season. I love the cinnamon-y smell in the air and and I love the pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes and smoothies, squash soup..ahh yes hello fall.

Anyhow, so since I love butternut, I asked myself why I'd never tried to make butternut squash cupcakes. I have had these on my mind now for about 3 weeks and finally got around to making them earlier tonight. The reason it took so long was because I could not find canned butternut puree anywhere! I have seen it the past two years at Trader Joe's and was so bummed to find out that they stopped carrying it this season. I searched a few more stores around and no luck. So finally I decided to just buy some butternut squash and puree it myself. I'll admit, I was just being lazy. :/

here is a pic of the butternut squash I picked up from the farmers market:

mmm. butternut squash is so delish...can't wait to make soup out of the other one!

ingredients:

I cut the butternut squash in half and put a few slices of butter and a few dashes of brown sugar on it. I put it on broil for a bit, but after I left it cool and sampled it I found it was definitely not cooked yet. So I scooped it out threw on a little more butter and brown sugar let it cook for a bit longer. I added a little water to the mix and pureed it until smooth. I sampled it and then I couldn't stop.

And tah dah here it is!

The cupcakes turned out nice and moist and had a nice brown color to them...I love how you can see the spices in the cake! I of course tested one sans frosting and it was good. It was not quite a muffin but you could definitely eat these guys plain without frosting. Next time I make this (prob for halloween and thanksgiving!) I am going to cut down on the sugar I used. It was slightly too sweet for my liking and probably due to the fact that I generously sprinkled some on the squash. I wanted to frost these little guys with marshmallow frosting but was too tired to whip some up so I frosted with cream cheese frosting and we will see what the panel thinks tomorrow! ;)

thanks for reading :)

xo,

treen

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Last week my grandma called me to pick up some fruits and vefgies from their abundant garden. I had my pick at beautiful purple eggplants, the last of the tomoatoes, and thefirst of teh persimmons. Ahh, I love it! While back there my grandparents picked a big bg of apples for me. Adorable, teeny gala apples. But a whole bag? What to do with all those apples!? Then came the idea...caramel apple cupcakes.

I wanted to make them for my "birthday/welcome to our new house" shindig which approached way faster than I thought so I borrowed a recipe from the always creative blogger: Chocklity. Cheryl has been an inspiration to me in thinking of and creating things into cupcakes. She is great so be sure to check her out if you haven't already!

So here it is...

Caramel Apple Cupcakes by Chocklity:

Pretty eh? ;)

So, as you can see from the picture above, the apples from my grandparents garden are very teeny. My cupcakes turned out a little dry, and I believe it was because there wasn't much juice left in those apples. They turned out to be more of a caramel apple muffin, but still yummy. :) Next time I use them I plan to incorporate larger apples and use apple sauce in place of half the sugar.

The caramel I used was not from scratch. :/ I just didnt have time okay! I was trying to prep the house and make sure the place was spotless to impress my family! hehe. So I had Jon pick up some caramel squares while out at the store. If I had more time, and when I make these again I plan to make caramel and channel my inner Martha. I used the recipe on the back of the bag. It was just melting the caramels and adding some heavy cream to it.

I did have extra caramel so I decided to dip a few of the left over apples in there! :) And why yes, that is a handle from a plastic fork I am using as a handle!

Oh btw, I was on a manhunt looking for canned butternut squash and after a week and a half of looking, I gave up. I picked up 3 butternut squashes from the farmers market this morn and plan to experiment tomorrow! :) Yay! And I'll have plenty of butternut to make yummy soup...my fave. hooray!

Thanks for reading everyone. :) Happy fall/boot wearing season!

xo,

treen

Boston Cream Pie and Petit Fours Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my (awesome) supervisor's farewell party. I'm gonna miss her!

I decided to make Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes and Petit Four Cupcakes. She loves chocolate, and I was just really craving the petit four cupcakes. They are one of my favorites.

For those of you who dont know, a petit four is a tiny cake layered with vanilla cake, raspberry filling and marzipan, and covered in liquid fondant icing. They are often found at dessert shops or at places that serve high tea. The ones I always see look like presents:

I decided to decorate the cupcakes with a flower theme, and I put them all together in a pot for a cupcake bouquet. The boston creams were decorated with oreo sunflowers (it was my first time so they look kinda wilted lol), and the petit fours with sugar flowers.

Boston Cream:

Petit Four Cupcake:

Everyone at worked loved em, and the oreos on the boston creams were a big hit. I sure am gonna miss you Bridget :( But I know we'll keep in touch! :)

Oh, I also had extra cream from the Boston Creams so I made pie for my Grandma's birthday...a delicious Banana Cream Macadamia Pie! The only problem I had was the cream was too runny to be in a pie. But I know what to do for next time; this pie will definitely be created again! :)

Ok, thats all for now!

:) Trinkette

Fleur De Sel Caramel Cupcakes

Have any of you ever had that Haagan-Dazs ice cream called Fleur de Sel?

Well let me just tell you, it is amazing.. It's chocolate ice cream, with ribbons of salted caramel woven in, with mini fleur de sel chocolate. It is divine...well it was...I cant find it anymore :( Anyhow, I've been thinking about that combo for a while, especially since I saw the salted caramel hot chocolate at Starbucks (which I am totally craving now!), and after I saw Fleur de Sel chocolates in one of my local shops.

Since I was really craving these cupcakes, I thought about just buying store caramel, but I remembered seeing a Martha Stewart recipe for salted caramel. It was my first time making caramel, and it took a while, and I was worried because I didnt have a candy thermometer. I put my regular one in, thinking it would suffice, but it didnt go past 200 degrees! Luckily my dad had a thermometer :). The caramel turned out really good. I ate a few teaspoons of it. It was warm gooey and salty. Yum.

Oh, and thanks to Eddie who helped me find the actual fleur de sel. He sent me to this neat shop in Berkeley, called the Pasta Shop. While there I also picked up some orange blossom water for some petit four cupcakes, and some point reyes blue cheese (*drool*).

Anyhow, here it is: Chocolate cake injected with salty caramely goodness topped with vanilla buttercream, more caramely goodness and dusted with fleur de sel.

Also made these:

Tripe chocolate aka the CW. (chocolate wasted)...because these cupcakes have all the chocolate you could ask for and yes, they will get you chocolate wasted.

And lastly, here is a pic of the set up for the birthday pair, Jess and Eddie :)

My cupcakes with delicious smore's cups made by my pal ms.mer!

happy drooling. :)

xo,

trina

Blue Velvet and Smores

Smores:

Baby Blue Velvet:

The cupcake (below) on the right is also a smore's cupcake but done a little different than I usually make.

Cousin Virg asked why my smore's cupcake isnt' chocolate based and you know, i dont know why it isnt. But its filled with ganache and that is delicious if you ask me. So this is for you Virg. It's chocolate cake with ghram bottom, injected with marshmallow and ganache. And topped with a torched marshmallow frosting. It was delish.

These cupcakes were baked for Virg's sister in law for her bday: Happy Birthday Rachel! (aww man, pic dissapeared! Will post at home comp).



My niece slept over the night I was making these. She is always such a big help when I'm baking! Well, we had a garage sale planned the next day, so we baked a few extra bitty bites for her to sell.


I told her she can sell em for 50 cents, or a dollar is she wanted to try. And guess what!? She sold a whole bunch of them for $1 each! lol. Then she started selling em for 50 cents. She made about $10! lol.


Here is a pic of her with the smore's bitty bites:


Isn't she just the cutest thing?! :) She is a cupcake monster.

And readers, I'm in need of some inspiration for my next cupcakes. I'm drawing a blank on ideas. Help!

Thanks for reading! :)

xo,

Treen

Happy Birthday Cousin RJ!

Yay! It's my take on Thomas the Train. He's not quite done in the pic above though. I made this for my cousins son's first birthday. So sad that I wont be there to help them celebrate this weekend, but I will be there in spirit! So I wanted to take a pic of what I had pictured in my mind so my cousin would know how to put it together. Thomas's face is sitting on a tupperware in this picture lol because we cant assemble him yet. So dont mind the gaps in the pic. But I am happy with the turnout, it is how I pictured it in my mind! lol.

So to help my cousin figure out how to assemble the cupcakes, I wrote all over the baseboard. I measured out and labeled which color goes where. And I think the pics I took will help give her a visual of what it should look like.

I hope he enjoys it!

:)

-Treen.

Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Cookies and Choco Tarragon Cuppies!

Baking is my stress reliever. I've been super busy with work, and all the house stuff and all those other little things...I couldnt wait to get in the kitch and bake.

I didnt really know what to make. So I thought about this Bakery I went to in San Clemente a few weeks ago. There cupcakes were ehhh but there cookies were SO good. Their signature cookie is the Oatmeal toffee cherry chocolate cookie. And yes, it definitely lives up to its rep. Sweet, tart, crunch, chewy all in one=perfect. So I decided to try and recreate it.

When I was mixing, I realized that I didnt have enough quick oats (:{ ). I didnt want to stop baking just to go to the store for that, so I decided to throw in some of my steel cuts. Luckily, I was just a half cup short, but still, even with that amount I felt a bit sketchy adding it in. I was getting worried that they were going to not bake through and I'd have to throw em out....boo!

When I took them out, I tried them, and they were pretty good! Every few bites I'd get an extra crunch from the steel cuts, but the cookie was good. And next time, I'll add real toffee in the batter instead of toffee sprinkles.

only pic i took:

And then...Of course I had to bake cupcakes too! I love love love chocklity's blog and I tried her recipe for tarragon choco cupcakes. First time I've ever used tarragon in anything. Only thing I knew that had tarragon in it is this mint tea my boss likes hehe. So I wasnt really sure what I was supposed to be looking for. But I did half the recipe and add the same amount of tarragon, and it was still pretty light. But still. It was yummy, and everyone at work seemed to enjoy them!

til next time!

xo,

treen.

Spun Sugar

Spun sugar is my go to baking supply store (and its near the gourmet ghetto!score!) and I finally took one of their courses. :)

It was a cupcake decorating class! All of the decorating was really fun...but I probably wont buy things like the french tree on the gnome cake. :p

Check em out!

Not bad eh? :P

Cupcakes For A Cause Bakesale

Hi!

So my big bake sale was last Sunday and I wanted to give ya'll the deets of how it went! :)

I had originally had the bake sale scheduled for early June...but rescheduled for later because I didnt feel like I had enough people interested in it. We picked a day, and Chuck and the rest of the RCIA group helped me plan away. We had info in the Church's bulletin, flyers posted, and we mentioned it at masses. Even then I was still a little worried that people wouldnt bring stuff and that people wouldnt buy stuff. Thus, I set a goal of $200 for my bake sale with Share Our Strength.

When I met with the RCIA group that really helped me plan and execute, they assured me that we would definitely surpass my low goal of $200, but still I was a little uncertain. Another reason that I felt a little uncertain was because I had only received about 3 emails about people wanting to bake. To make sure I had somewhat of a variety, I asked all of my family members to bake treats. :)

I decided to make red velvets (bc everyone likes those!) and pancake breakfast (maple and bacon) since the bake sale was in the am. I decided to try Chocklity's Maple Corn and Bacon cupcakes. (Ps, Cheryl is amazing...her cupcakes are just beautiful!). .Anyhow, since I dont eat meat, my mom helped me cook the bacon. And I also made 3 for me using vegetarian bacon. I cant even remember when I last had bacon and dont even remember what it tastes like. So when I ate my cupcake...I was not a fan. I didnt really know what I was looking for, but I was very unsure of the flavor combo. I was really worried but Jon ate one and he said it was really yummy and tasted like breakfast! Success. hehe.

Here is a pic of my red velvet cupcake: My mom and I found these awesome togo boxes to individually pack. :)

My house was full of sweet aromas because we were all busy baking away! My brother even made his famous lemon bars he used to make as a child :) hehe.

The day of, my parents were up bright and early and ready to go and help me set up. Big hugs to Jon and my parents for helping me set up and making sure everything ran nice and smooth that day. And big thanks to Chuck for helping me coordinate and thank you All Saints for allowing us to hold it there. :)

Here is a pic of my mom and I (sorry its so teeny, its from Jons phone)

When we arrived at the church, there were already people dropping goodies off! I couldn't believe it! One wonderful woman made 10 cakes and about 60 cream puffs, and she was working even before I got to the church:

Bet you're all drooling eh? ;)

Our tables filled up pretty quick....

.....And the became empty very quick. After the first mass (7:30 am), the tables were half empty! We sold so much food in a span of 15 minutes. And it stayed that way throughout the day. People brought more treats, and people bought treats. I was worried that we would run out of food! And my dad was keeping track of the finances, and had let me know early on that we had surpassed the goal.

I was so happy and feel so blessed to be part of such a wonderful community. Everyone was so supportive, loving and friendly. Our tables were never empty :)

And I just want to thank everyone that took the time to bake and donate goodies and for all of those who came out to support me. It means so much to me. Here are a few more pics:

I bet you are all wondering how we did right? Well I already mentioned we went above and way beyond my goal of $200....soooo drumroll please......

We raised $1,026.65!!!

Amazing!!!

Just to give you an idea of how that money will be used:

Share Our Strength is a leading organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America. Here are some ways the funds you raise can help:

• $25 Can help feed one child three healthy meals every day for a month.
• $50 Can help connect one child with healthy meals throughout the summer.
• $100 Can help provide 25 children facing hunger with backpacks full of healthy food to feed them and their families over the weekend.
• $200 Can help buy grocery bags of healthy foods for 50 families in need.
• $500 Can help reach twelve low-income families with a life-changing, six-week nutritious cooking and food budgeting course.

At the end of the day (around 2pm), we had one small tin of goodies left. the leftover treats were taken to an agency that serves breakfast to those in need. :)

I cant express my gratitude for all who helped out in one way or another. We all did an amazing job. And this is for sure happening every year. :)

xoxo,

treen