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.

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: