Happy February Birthdays

Wow, its been a while huh? Sorry blogger-land for not keeping up with cupcake adventures...February has been a busy month!

Anyhow, I wanted to share some pictures from my MomDadGrampsSisters Birthday party:

My mom's favorite cupcake so far are dark chocolate raspberry. She makes a version and they are just divine. The cake is very dark and chocolate-y but not too bitter, and the raspberry frosting is tart and a bit sweet. While at Spun Sugar I found this awesome dark cocoa and I knew I had to get it to make my mom her favorite cupcakes for her birthday. Of course I wanted to surprise her so I didn't tell her or ask her how to make her specialty cupcakes, so I just winged it.

The cake batter was SO dark, definitely was black in color. It worried me a little to be honest. =) After they baked they were still dark, but luckily lightened up in color, and looked more appetizing. The Raspberry buttercream was giving me a run for my money. I had a hard time trying to achieve the right piping consistency while trying not to lose the raspberry's tartness. It took a while, but I think I did ok =) Whaddya think?

See how the cake is realllly dark? Verdict: Ok in my book. I like my moms better though :P The cake was a little too sweet for a dark chocolate cake...it was more of a dark colored chocolate cake. When I got home I looked at the label, and that is exactly what it is: dark colored chocolate powder. Well, its actually "toasted" to achieve that dark color, so boo! Its not a "real" dark chocolate cake! But nonetheless, people seemed to enjoy it:

My Mama and nephew Luca-Suca enjoying their cupcakes:

I also made two other cupcakes to try and satisfy all the birthday celebrants, which were the Burnt Almond cupcakes and Strawberry Shortcake cupcakes, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Only thing is since it isn't berry season the strawberries in the strawberry shortcake cupcake were SO sour! Just wait until they are in season, oh they are gonna be scrumptious!

Strawberry Shortcake:

Close up of all three:

Yum. =)

On another note, my most recent cupcake adventure wasn't all that successful.

So I bought this awesome mini doughnut pan from Sur La Tab and was really excited because I wanted to make a policeman cupcake (coffee cake topped with a mini doughnut...like my name for it? heheh) for my favorite girls from the Optometry office I used to work at. We always used to have one of us make a starbucks run before our saturday shifts and even on some regular days so I knew this cupcake would've been perfect for them. Sadly it didnt turn out. It as a bit of a fiasco...

First, I stuck my butter in warm oven to speed up the cooling to room temp process. Fail, because I forgot about it and it dripped down to the bottom. When I went to put the cupcakes in, the oven was so smokey! I dont know what I was thinking lol. Then, I decided to try and clean the oven (on self clean) to try and clean up in there, fail#2 because I guess that takes like two hours. Once the cupcakes were finally done, I wasn't happy with their texture. Argh!

Then, on to the toppers. The doughnuts were so cute!...Too bad I forgot to add the butter I melted in the microwave, so they were a bit dry. But they were just too cute to not eat...with their sprinkles and glazed frosting. Lesson learned: do not try and multi-task baking cupcakes you never have before while trying to entertain friends. =) I will perfect these! And when I do, my VG girls will be the testers okay?

Hehe, ok that's all for now...Thanks for reading!

xo,

Treen

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

As I walked through the shops at Bay St. in Emeryville, and at Fourth St in Berkeley, I coudn't help but notice all of the v-day decor plastered on windows, walls, and hanging from ceilings! ...And, I couldn't help but get excited too...And you know what that means! =)

What's better than getting a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day?

A box of CUPCAKES!!!

We're selling boxes of Valentines day cupcakes, in mini and regular size, decked out in valentines sprinkles conversation hearts and fondant. Order a box or two for your sweetie pie!

Here's a preview!

Flavors (2 of each):

Red Velvet

Vanilla

Strawberry Shortcake

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Hummingbird

Salted Caramel

And, I'm (trying to) set up an Etsy shop to sell these puppies! BUT I have no idea what I'm doing on there. Lol. So bear with me while I work out the kinks. But here is the link: (I hope and think) TrinketteCupcakes on Etsy. So far all I've got on there are the Valentine's boxes but tomorrow I hope to have plenty more on there!

Lastly, here is a picture of the cupcakes from a wedding consult this weekend:

Yum. Too bad the salted caramel decided to melt some of my chocolate ganache off :p boo you! hehe.

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Treen

Happy Birthday Brother Bear

Hello blogger-land!

I've been so bad at posting...this one is almost a month late! hehe.

So a few weeks ago, my brother bear turned 21! Finally legal! So of course I had to make him alcohol cupcakes...and an experimental burnt almond cupcake.

Left to right: Chocolate Kahlua, Burnt Almond and Mudslide

I'd never baked with alcohol before and I must say, its not as easy as it sounds! Thank goodness for google search! I dont remember the sites or recipes I used :( but I'm really thinking about grabbing the Boozecake book because my alcohol cupcake day was intense...and I'm interested to see what else can be done with booze and cake!

One thing I do remember is that when you overbake these babies they are not good. I over-baked the mudslide cupcake the first time around and my oh my was it dry! It reminded me of when Lucy Lui made muffins and they were hard as rocks in Charlie's Angels!

Anyhow, my other cupcake, the Burnt almond was a hit. Ahh its making my tummy grumble just looking at it! See?

For the cake I made my vanilla cake and added some almonds and almond extract. I topped them with whipped cream frosting and the delicious burnt almonds. I had (actually have, since I haven't gotten my cake from Dick's yet! :[ ) The cake was light and almond-y and the whipped cream was nice and light, but the almonds were definitely the star. Thanks to blogger Girlgonegrits for sharing the secret to the Dick's bakery almonds! Everyone loved them, and I will be making them this week for my dad's birthday! hehe.

Thanks for reading everyone!

xo,

Trinkette

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Hello blogger-land!

It's been a while since I've made cupcakes and I'm so happy I made some tonight. I'm happy that I'm feeling inspired to bake again, and I can't wait to test out my ideas! I was also very happy that I got to test out my new paddle mixer with the built in spatula that I got for Christmas!

Anyhow, what could be better than a cupcake? A cookie IN a cupcake! I've baked cookies in cupcakes before, but today I felt like stuffing some cookie dough in there. There's just something about eating cookie dough/brownie batter that reminds me of childhood and something I'll never get tired of doing when I make cookies or brownies!

Cookie (dough) in a cupcake:

I originally halved one for Jon and I, but he ended up eating the whole thing so I guess its a winner! :) I ate a half as well and I must say it definitely hit the sweet spot! Thanks for reading! :D

xo,

trina

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.