{ Pot 'O Gold Cupcakes }

Somehow, it's March.

This year has flown by. I think it's because my boy is about to graduate and I really would prefer time to stand still.

Time is stubborn though, and it won't listen to me at all. We march forward anyway (see what I did there?).

Now, here we are. 2 days til St. Paddy's day, less than a month until Bean turns 18, and just over 2 months until graduation.

I need distractions, man.

So, I made these fun cupcakes. A wee rainbow sitting atop clouds of fluffy buttercream.

I love that at his age something like these cupcakes still thrill him. Much like my Hogwart's Sorting Cupcakes, these have a surprise. When he & The Girl bit into them... well... they were, indeed, suprised ;)


Pot 'o gold cupcake need something right... like, gold? I've got ya covered!

Fun, festive, and tasty!

Pot o' Gold cupcakes.

Happy St. Paddy's!

Tina



Pot 'o Gold Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Needed:

Chocolate cupcakes- baked and cooled
Vanilla Buttercream icing
Gold Sprinkles (Yellow sanding sugar would also work)
Airheads Extremes Rainbow Berry Sour Candy




Core a hole in your cupcakes. Fill with gold sprinkles. Swirl on buttercream. Top with a mini rainbow of candy.

{ Sweet, Simple Christmas Tree Cupcakes }

As the Christmas holiday closes in, we all begin to panic, if even just a little.

There's just SO much to do. Every year I tell myself I'm NOT GOING TO DO ALL OF THAT, and yet, every year I still do it.

Case in point, Gingerbread Houses. Now, I do it the 'easy' way (see here), but I said I wasn't doing them this year. Yet, what did I find myself doing at 9 pm the night  prior to the party? Making Gingerbread Houses. Christmas comes but once a year. What's an hour of my time and a few dollars in candy? It's a tradition, after all!

I often think about how calm Christmas would be if I didn't host & attend parties. If I didn't bake, and bake, and bake, and candy make. If I didn't do gift boxes of treats, etc. It would be so calm. So peaceful. So... BORING, and SO not me.

So, I go. I do.

It's Christmastime, after all, and I love a good tradition!

One of my favorite traditions at Christmas is watching the Harry Potter movies with the best Christmas scenes. No, I don't watch the whole series at Christmas, I pick and choose. Goblet of Fire for the Yule Ball, Order of the Phoenix for Christmas at Grimmauld Place, Half Blood Prince for Christmas at The Burrow (until those dang D.E. ruined it!). The best of the best, is, of course Sorcerer's Stone. It makes me feel oh, so merry! I love all of the trees in the Great Hall. After watching the other day, I decided to make these cupcakes.

They are the sweetest little Christmas tree cupcakes evah. Totally cute and way easy. Don't tell though. What people don't know won't hurt them.

You just bake up any cupcake flavor of your choosing, frost with a little white, sprinkle on a little sanding sugar, pipe on a little green swirly tree, decorate, and... done!

You can make the trees any shade of green you choose (or, hey, get funky with some colored trees!), but I made mine a more 'natural' shade of green. To achieve this color I used (Wilton Gel food coloring) Leaf Green, Kelly Green, and wee bit of black.

Me gusta.

Hagrid would approve.

So, be it calm or be it hectic, I hope your Christmas is classically YOU.

Tina





Christmas Tree Cupcakes

needed:

Cupcakes, baked and cooled
Buttercream
Green food coloring
piping bag
Wilton 1M tip
White sanding sugar
Decorations


Make sure your buttercream is sort of stiff. You may want to add a little more powdered sugar to your normal recipe.

Scoop out some white and set aside.

Tint the rest to the shade of green you prefer.

Frost cupcakes with the white buttercream. Sprinkle the edges with white sanding sugar.

Using your green icing, in the center of the cupcake, pipe your tree. Make 3 swirls, then lift up. Look! A tree! <3

Decorate as desired. Sprinkle with more white sanding sugar or powdered sugar, add silver dragees
or colored nonpareils,or other sprinkles, etc! Leave top plain, or add a star, snowflake, sixlet, etc.

{ Old Fashioned Peanut Bar Cupcakes }

When I was a kid my mom and I would make what she called Peanut Bars. They were a spongey white cake that we cut and rolled in a glaze. After the glaze came the finely chopped peanuts. We would spend, what seemed like, hours making these. Bake, cool, cut, glaze, roll, dry, glaze, roll, dry. Then, we would wrap them in plastic wrap two at a time. We'd put them into containers and we'd take them to the local hospital's Christmas Bazaar. There, they would FLY off the table. They were super popular. Within an hour they would all be gone, and we would still have people asking. Mom always kept some at home though. They were my very favorite. Laborious, yes, but so worth it.

I've totally shortcut this process with these cupcakes. While not QUITE the same, these are a white cake, not a sponge, the taste is still there. My hub,who never had the peanut bars, very much adores these cupcakes.  They are so easy, so woohoo for that!

Make these for someone in your life who loves peanuts- you won't be sorry!

Upon my googling, I also found these Peanut Bars called Blarney Stones. I have yet to figure out WHY they are called such a thing, but who cares.. delicious!

Tina



Old Fashioned Peanut Bar Cupcakes
By Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

For the cupcakes:

You will use white cake. Use a favorite recipe or from a box.

For the glaze*:

2 cups powdered sugar- sifted
4-5 Tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a small mixing bowl, whisk milk and vanilla into powdered sugar until glossy.

For the topping:

2 cups finely chopped peanuts*


One at a time, dip cooled cupcakes into glaze and then roll in nuts. Allow glaze to dry. Once dry, repeat the glaze/nut process. Allow to dry again.


*Depending on how much you glaze or roll in peanuts, you may need slightly more or less

{ Cotton Candy Cream Cupcakes }

My count on cupcakes for the month of April, so far, is 26 dozen.

I'm tired of cupcakes. Cupcakes are dumb.

Wait, no, what am I saying? Forgive me cupcakes. Please, please forgive me.

I'm just a little tired of you right now. Don't worry, it won't last long!

I've made cupcakes for a fundraiser (twice), I've made cupcakes for a party, I've made cupcakes for a friend, and lastly, I've made cupcakes for a baby shower. That's where these come in.

If you didn't guess already, my friend Julie is having a boy!

 With all the other baking I'd been doing, I decided to keep these simple and start with a box mix. From there, I added grocery store cotton candy (you can usually find it in the candy or chip aisle), some sprinkles, a little vanilla to the batter, filled with a lovely cream filling, and then topped with a cotton candy buttercream.

While a very sweet cupcake, these are Bean's new favorite. He really LOVES them.

You can top your cupcakes with a bit of Cotton Candy, but do not add it until just before serving or it will dry up and get all yicky (professional term). I decided to top mine with shiny, pearly Sixlet and some blue sugar crystals.

If I were making these for a different occasion, I would have done a plain buttercream tinted pink as well, and swirled on a bit of pink, then a bit of blue for a truer cotton candy look.

These are still pretty cupcakes though. You can see little bits of the cotton candy peeking out of the top of the cupcake, and when you bite in, you will definitely see it and your sprinkles.

Much fun!

While I am, in fact, quite tired of cupcakes, I have more ideas for them up my sleeve... as always!

Tina


Cotton Candy Cream Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

For the cupcakes:
1 box White Cake Mix plus ingredients listed on back of box
1/2 cup cotton candy (more for garnish, if desired)
1 Tablespoon blue jimmie sprinkles (or blue and pink)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350 F.


Prepare cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

Mix up cake as directed on back of box. Add in vanilla. Pack 1/2 cup cotton candy in a measuring cup. Once measured, break it up and mix into the batter. Lastly, add the jimmies and beat lightly to avoid streaking.

Scoop batter into liners and bake according to box.

While the cupcakes are baking, start the cream filling.

Cream filling:

1 Cup Whole (Vitamin D) Milk

5 Tablespoons Flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Cup Butter (not margarine) barely room temp

1 Cup Granulated Sugar (NOT powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into the milk until smooth. Heat, stirring constantly, until very thick (thicker than pudding). Remove and allow to cool fully. You can sit the pan in an ice bath if you don’t want to wait.

In your mixer, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. 

Once cool, in the flour/milk and beat until fully combined. Add in the vanilla. Beat until fluffy.

Finished it will look like a thick whipped cream.

When the cupcakes are cooled, pipe the cream filling into the cupcakes. (See here for instructions if you do not know how.)

Top with Cotton Candy Buttercream

Cotton Candy Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb. (about 4 cups) confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup packed cotton candy

blue food coloring

With mixer, beat butter for 3 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar and salt until well combined. Add cotton candy to heavy cream a little at a time. It will melt into the cream. Add heavy cream/cotton candy liquid to butter/sugar mixture. Beat on high for 4 minutes.  If too thick, add more cream 1/2 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.

Pipe onto filled cupcakes. Top with sprinkles, sixlets, cotton candy, etc.

Buttercream adapted from Bakingdom
Cream filling recipe from Tasty Kitchen

 Linked up on Tip Junkie

{ Maple & Brown Sugar Cupcakes }

Friday night was an awesome time for our youth group. I posted a few months ago about our youth pastor leaving to move to California. Once there, he thought he would not be able to come home for an entire year. I'd been telling the kids this since he moved. Though his amazing wife was able to come home for Christmas, he couldn't due to his new job. A few weeks ago however, he got the OK for a few days off work. He was coming home for a weekend! The kids knew nothing of this. At our event on Friday night, in he walked. It was so much fun to see their reactions. At first they were just stunned (except one of our girls who immediately ran across the room and, well, basically tackled him), then they quickly crowded around him.

I loved seeing them with him again. It's only been six months, but for a teenager, that is a long time (if we are being totally up front here, it seemed like a really long time to me too!). They played Ultimate Frisbee with him, then the gathered around and listened to him talk about his life and new job in California.

Sunday morning he led worship and then preached to our teens. There may have been a slight bit of bragging on his part, "I moved to California... and had NO snow".  Polar Vortex here and he had 84 degrees and sunny.  WHAT. EVER. Rude.

It's really amazing to see how much one person can change people's lives.

They all love him so much. And, eh, I think he's ok too.

Ha.

Anyway, many cupcakes were consumed Friday night. I'd make about 78. Then, I made him another dozen and a half yesterday, because California is far and 6 months is long.

Since he told me my cupcakes were better than Casey's Cupcakes out there in LA, well... I kinda had to right? ( I made his favorite cream filled cupcakes .) Fact is, he and his wife have me wrapped pretty tight. You'd understand if you met them. ;)

These cupcakes are actually some they've not had. (However, you know if they ask when they come back in September, I will totally make them, right?).

I LOVE maple. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. So, yeah. Maple and brown sugar cupcakes seem like they need to be in this world, right?

And so it was.

Maple cupcakes with a brown sugar buttercream.

Because I said so.

Tina





Maple & Brown Sugar Cupcakes

Cupcakes
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons maple flavoring
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 16 pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F

Line cupcake pans with paper liners, set aside

In a large measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, milk, and maple flavoring; set aside.
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the butter one piece at a time, mixing until the dough comes together and looks sandy.

Add about 1 cup of the egg mixture and mix on low speed until incorporated, then increase to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly add the remaining egg mixture, with the mixer on low speed, until incorporated. Scrape the bowl, if necessary, then increase speed to medium-high and beat for about 20 seconds. The batter will just barely look a little curdled.
Divide that batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting. Frost with Brown Sugar Buttercream, then sprinkle with a bit of brown sugar.

Brown Sugar Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb. (about 4 cups) confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

With mixer, beat butter for 3 minutes. Beat in brown sugar. Slowly add powdered sugar and salt until well combined. Add 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Beat on high for 4 minutes. Add in vanilla. If too thick, add more cream 1/2 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.


Cake & Buttercream adapted from Bakingdom

{Sweet & Salty Cupcakes}

I'm mid-birthday party planning for Bean's 17th. It's not going to be a major blowout with 25 kids like his Super 16th, but, it's going to be FUN.

I hate to keep you all in suspense, but, I'm gonna! It's going to be nerdly, awesome fun. No, not a Potter party, those are reserved for Harry himself, and for me! Let's just say, it's British, it's pretty nerdy, or at least fandom-y. It's not Doctor Who, I've done that as well (party, cake, cookies). Suffice it to say, we are pretty excited about this. The party isn't until April 12, so forgive me for talking about it a month in advance, kay? Thx.

I know it's far off, so in the meantime, I made you some cupcakes.

They are sweet, they are salty, they are delish.

Chocolate cupcakes, topped with a caramel buttercream, drizzled with caramel, sprinkled with sea salt, and topped with a pretzel. Am I forgiven for teasing you about the birthday party now? I thought so.

Enjoy... I'm going back to my party planning now. Lots to do, lots to prep, lots to investigate...

Tina


Sweet & Salty Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Needed:
 Chocolate Cupcakes (I like this recipe, or you can use a box mix)

1 recipe Caramel Buttercream

Caramel Ice Cream Topping

Sea Salt

1 Pretzel for each cupcake

Pipe Caramel Buttercream onto cooled chocolate cupcakes. Drizzle with caramel topping, sprinkle with sea salt, and top with a pretzel.


*note, do not top with pretzels until close to serving time. They can get soggy in the buttercream.

{Frozen Cupcakes}

Today is the birthday of my friend. She's my incredible, amazing, awesome, geek twin.

Happy Birthday, Darla!!!

I wish I could be there to take you out to lunch and hang out, but a few thousand miles put a little kink in that plan. So... virtual cupcakes it is! Darla is having a Frozen themed birthday this year because she love, love, loves the movie. I knew right away what I was going to do. I was going to make Elsa cupcakes for her!

I knew the cupcakes needed to be a vanilla cake with a vanilla buttercream and they needed to be topped in "ice". First thing I thought of was disco dust. Disco dust, if you've never used it, is AMAZING. You won't be able to believe that it is edible. It's SO sparkly and looks just like a super fine craft glitter. Glitter on cake? I'm in!

Sadly, it does not photograph well. I really wish you could see how it sparkles. Go buy some today, ok?

This needed more than just a little sparkle. I considered white chocolate or fondant snowflakes, but... that wasn't right. Finally, I thought of some cupcakes I'd seen at Halloween. They were gory with broken glass and red sauce, but the idea would work here!

If you've seen the movie (or even the commercials), you've probably seen the ice Elsa creates. That's where this idea came from.

Shards of ice atop pillows of sparkly white buttercream.

I found these shiny "Elsa-ish" cupcake wrappers on Bake It Pretty.

Sugar Glass is just a hard candy, but... since you want this as clear as possible to look like ice, you have to go VERY SLOW. This sugar glass took me an hour. It still has a very light amber tint to it, but it's as good as I could do. If you cook too fast, the sugar will begin to caramelize and you will end up with a very amber glass. We don't want that for our ice! It's definitely not hard to make, it's just tedious and requires a lot of patience.

But............ isn't the effect worth it??

I think so!

However, if you want to make this easier, and I can't blame you if you do, try using purchased rock candy. The look will be different, but the effect will be similar!

A very happy birthday to you, my friend! May it be festive, fanciful, and Frozen.

Love ya!

Tina



Frozen Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Vanilla (white) cupcakes (any recipe/box mix will do)
Vanilla Buttercream
Disco Dust edible glitter
sugar glass

Sugar Glass
adapted from All Recipes

1 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix ingredients in a medium saucepan; SLOWLY bring to a boil. Use a candy thermometer and boil sugar syrup until temperature reaches 300 degrees (hard ball), stirring often. Keep temperature on low to medium. Do not go over medium. It will thicken as the water evaporates. It will take a long time to reach 300 (up to an hour). When sugar reaches 300 degrees, quickly pour onto a rimmed metal baking pan. Cool until completely hardened. Break as desired.

{Butterbeer Cupcakes}

Yes, it's another Harry Potter inspired post.

This surprises anyone?

Well, not only is it nearly Halloween, but, it's also the birthday of yet another favorite character. Really, she's the glue that holds so many of them together.

She's awesome.

She is Molly Weasley.

photo property of Warner Bros. Studios

She's an amazing mother and a talented, powerful witch. I love her.  Her kids are definitely her first priority and she sure makes them tow the line. No slackers in the Weasley family. She's so strong. She lived through the death of her 2 brothers in the first wizarding war,  she raised 7 children (6 of them boys), became a member of the Order of the Phoenix, watched one son abandon the family,  nursed  her husband and 2 of her sons through grave injuries, and watched another son die.  Oh, and, she totally took down Bellatrix Lastrange single-handedly mere hours after her son died.

Bellatrix Lestrange: "What will happen to your children when I've killed you? When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"

Molly: "You — will — never — touch — our — children — again!"

And let's be honest here, she's got one of the best lines in the entire series.

         Molly: "Not my daughter, you b!t@h!"

The Weasley family may have been poor, but they were never lacking in morals or love, thanks to Molly and Arthur. Molly also considered Harry her own. In Order of the Phoenix when Sirius proclaims that Harry is not her son, she replies back hotly that "He's as good as!".

So, basically... she's.. yeah. awesome.

Today is her birthday. She's normally making the food for people. I know how that feels, so, these, Molly, are for you.

I know Butterbeer Cupcakes have been done and done again, but these? So easy. They start with a box mix. I know, right? Just splash in a few extras, whip up some easy buttercream, and you are done.

Oh, yeah, they also taste AWESOME. Butterbeery. Good. Molly would like them, I know.

That is, if Ron left her any... You know how he is.


Happy Birthday, Molly!

Tina



See all my Harry Potter posts (recipes, crafts, and two massive parties!) here.

If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.


Easy Butterbeer Cupcakes
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Yellow Cake Mix (and eggs/oil it calls for)
Vanilla Cream Soda
1/2 teaspoon Butter Flavoring
1/4 cup Butterscotch ice cream topping

Prepare cupcake pan with liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prepare cake as directed on back of box, except use the vanilla cream soda in place of the water that the recipe calls for. After mixing the cake mix, cream soda, eggs, and oil, add in the butter flavoring, and the ice cream topping. Mix again until distributed.

Scoop batter into cupcake liners and bake for approx. 19 minutes. 

Allow to fully cool before adding Butterbeer Buttercream

Butterbeer (Butterscotch) Buttercream
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

3/4 cup butter (softened)
1/4 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butterscotch ice cream topping
pinch of salt
Milk*

Beat the butter and shortening until fluffy. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes. Add in the salt and ice cream topping. Mix until distributed.

*you shouldn't need any milk with the liquid ice cream topping, but if you find the buttercream too thick, add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.

Drizzle extra butterscotch topping on top of cupcakes & add sprinkles if desired.

{Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream}

Ever had a dumb day?

You know, the 'why did I even bother getting out of bed?' type day.

Yeah, they happen. More often than we'd like. The other day I got a call that I'd been worried would happen for a couple years now. I've often mentioned that I am a youth leader at our church. We have been blessed with the coolest, hippest, all around awesomest youth pastor for the last 4 years. I've been working one-on-one with him for the last 3 of those. I knew he'd felt a call to go to California to plant a church. I knew it was going to happen for him one day. I'd just always hoped it would be later instead of sooner.

Well, it's sooner. It's now.

It was a dumb day.

While I'm very happy for him to be fulfilling his calling, I'm also breaking inside a little. I'm 11 years older than him, so he kinda feels like my little brother. I've definitely enjoyed getting to know him over the last 3 years. He's a great friend who I will miss tremendously. Then there's his wife. I love her too! She's incredible and amazing, and, well, we pretty much think alike. Although I've gone to church with her the entire time we were growing up, I'd never gotten to know her (because she was lots of years younger than me), until now. Man, I wish I'd known her all along!

Sure there's text, and facebook, and email, but... It's just not the same, is it?

Sunday was a huge cryfest in our teen room at church. He made the announcement which none of the kids were prepared for. He cried, I cried, all of the teens cried. Ugh. Did I mention he's the awesomest? Obviously, we all love him.

I came across a quote by Steven Chabosky from The Perks of Being a Wallflower that pretty much sums it up:

“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody.”

How true is that?

Julie (his wife) loves all things pumpkin, so I made these cupcakes with her in mind Sunday night.

Basically, I needed baking therapy (I baked 48 cupcakes that day- here's the other recipe), and I'm pretty sure we all needed cupcake therapy, so these were born.

I'm sure by now you have all seen the 2 ingredient pumpkin cake, right? It's literally a box of yellow cake & a can of pumpkin. That's what these are... kinda.

I started with a spice cake mix. When I added in the pumpkin, I could see it was still way too thick. So I added in a 1/4 cup water and a 1/4 cup oil. So many people have had success with just the cake mix and the pumpkin, but I did not. However... this worked great! While still a very thick batter, they tasted delish. They are kind of a mix between a cupcake and a very moist muffin.

I topped them with a Brown Sugar Buttercream, because why not?

I love the crunch the brown sugar gives the buttercream. It's a fun surprise in what looks like a perfectly creamy buttercream. It's pretty yumtastic too!

Cupcake. Therapy. It's a good thing.

To Robby, Julie, and the awesome Sir William (what I call their most adorable 4 year old), we will miss you. So much. We all wish you the best. We know you'll change lives in California, just like you changed lives here in Ohio. Thank you for all the time you've invested in us here.

Much love and best wishes.

And I know you'll be back to visit.

Because cupcakes.

Oh, and you have family here, but whatever. Cupcakes.

Tina



Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream
yield: 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 box Spice Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines brand)
15 ounce can of Pumpkin
1/4 cup oil*
1/4 cup water*

*if needed

Heat oven to 350 F

Mix together cake mix and pumpkin with a mixer. Add oil and water if necessary. Scoop into cupcake liners (batter will be thick). Bake 22-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Brown Sugar Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb. (about 4 cups) confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

With mixer, beat butter for 3 minutes. Beat in brown sugar. Slowly add powdered sugar and salt until well combined. Add 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Beat on high for 4 minutes. If too thick, add more cream 1/2 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.


Buttercream adapted from Bakingdom

{Cake for Breakfast: Waffle Crisp Cupcakes}

Bean has a favorite cereal. Like, a favorite, favorite, favorite. No other cereal compares. No other cereal walks the same ethereal, lighted path. Post Waffle Crisp stands high above all others.

Waffle Crisp is King of the World (of cereals).

When I told him I had the idea of a Waffle Crisp cupcake, I was deemed "THE BEST MOM EVER!". I made him define this. Cause really, if I'm just the best mom HE has ever had, this really isn't a compliment. Best mom in the history of all moms. Yes, fine, I will make you the cupcakes.

This is a super simple recipe (but don't tell Bean that, eh? He doesn't need to know. My title cannot be revoked). You just start with a basic yellow cake recipe (or box mix, if you please). Then skim coat with a bit of maple buttercream. Sprinkle on crushed Waffle Crisp. Swirl on more maple buttercream & top with a single cereal. Drizzle with a bit of maple syrup.

Dozna.

The way I figure it, this cupcake totally counts as breakfast. I mean, it's maple AND it's covered in cereal. Totally breakfast. All arguments are invalid.

You know who else likes cake for breakfast (besides everyone on planet earth)?

Darla.  She made some crazy beautifully delicious Chocolate Chai Tea Cupcakes. So, there you have it, cereal cupcakes and tea cupcakes. Breakfast is served.

Maybe chase it with a little milk though, just cause ;)

Tina

P.S. If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

Waffle Crisp Cupcakes
by Tina of Sugar Bean Bakers

12 yellow cupcakes, baked and cooled (recipe below or use a box mix)
1 recipe maple buttercream (recipe below)
Post Waffle Crisp Cereal, crushed
Post Waffle Crisp Cereal, 12 pieces whole
Maple Syrup

Frost yellow cupcakes with a thin coating of maple buttercream.

Sprinkle with crushed Waffle Crisp Cereal & then add a swirl of Maple Buttercream. Top with a whole Waffle Crisp cereal. Drizzle with maple syrup.

Note: only frost & top as many as you plan to use right away, otherwise the cereal will become soggy.




Yellow Cupcakes
recipe by  Darla of Bakingdom
Recipe with metric conversion 
makes 12 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in mixing bowl. Add the butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl, until there are no streaks of flour (do not over mix).

In a muffin pan prepared with cupcake papers, add 2 tablespoons of batter to each liner.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Move to wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.


Maple Buttercream
adapted from Perfect Vanilla Buttercream by Bakingdom
 

1 stick butter, softened (but still chilled)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream*
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
dash of salt

Add butter to mixing bowl. Beat until fluffy (about 3 minutes). Slowly add in powdered sugar. Beat in heavy cream and  maple flavoring. Add dash of salt. Beat for 4 minutes until light and fluffy.


*if too thick, add more cream 1/2 teaspoon at a time

{ Weasley is Our King Cakes}

(See all my Potter recipes & parties here)

*

Guess who's birthday it isssssssssss??

One of my very favorite (fictional) people's birthday!

Ron. Weasley.

I love Ron. He's the long suffering youngest son in a family of seven, six of them sons. He's hilarious, he's sweet, he can be a jerk. He can be a brat.

I love that about him. I love that J.K. Rowling wrote such flawed characters. It made them so much more three dimensional than most book, or heck, tv/movie characters. 

In other words, it feels like Ron is my for real friend.

I love to make items for my 'friends'.

I've made things for Hermione, Snape, Fred & George, and I made something for Ron last year.

Then of course, there's Harry. I didn't really MAKE him anything. Instead, I threw him an EPIC birthday party.

Oh, and I like to make Harry Potter things for my flesh and blood friends too. Like this Hogwarts Letter Cookie I made for my friend Darla.

I'm not sure why Ron is one of my favorite characters. Like I said, he's just so real. Maybe that is the whole reason. Of course, he's an adorable ginger too. That doesn't hurt.

When Deathly Hallows came out (the book), a town about an hour away threw this amazing festival. Actually, they did it for Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince too. We didn't know about it when OotP came out, but we were there for the HBP party as well. It was amazing. They shut down an entire city block, there were skits, scavenger/Death Eater hunts, owls, lizards, wizard food, and the wizard rock band The Whomping Willows. Not to mention thousands of Potter geeks. It's truly one of those memories that we will treasure forever. Amazing.

The Bean, being a little ginger himself, decided he wanted to go as Ron. Easy enough, right?

No.

It's never that easy. He wanted to be Quidditch Ron. Well, out there in costume land, there is ONLY Quidditch Harry. Enter my super talented mother-in-law. At the time, Quidditch Ron had never been in a movie, so we didn't know what number to make him. I decided to go with 6, since he was the 6th Weasley. When the movie came out, he was actually number 2, but ironically, Ginny was 6. So, I at least I picked a Weasley, eh?

So, here's my little cutie, then 10 years old. I totally made him wear it for Trick or Treat too, it wasn't cheap or easy to make!

 Strangers stopped him at the festival and asked to take photos. It was so much fun and he felt like a rock star.

So, if you haven't figured it out yet. I love Ron Weasley.

Since it's his birthday, I decided to make him a cake. Well, cupcakes. I totally wanted to do a play on a King Cake for Weasley is Our King.

(If you want to know the  history behind Weasely is Our King, read here. )

And so, I did.

This is not a pastry, like the regular King Cake, this just has some of the flavors of a King Cake. It just pays homage to it, it's not meant to duplicate it.

These start out with a yellow cake mix. I only made 12 with the little Duncan Hines "cupcake mix" boxes. If you want to do a full 24, just double the recipe.

This has a brown sugar/butter bit that you will swirl in.

What you'll end up with is this

Here's how you do that.

Fill your cups. Now, here I did 2 swirls, one in the middle and one at the top.

I recommend only doing the top.

The middle swirl sank and made the cake pull apart at the bottom.

(if you want dual swirls, I recommend using this cake as your base. As you can see, the batter is much thicker. Use just the cake recipe, and follow my swirl/icing directions.)

At any rate, spoon a bit on.

Then swirl with a toothpick. 

I topped these cupcakes with a Cinnamon Buttercream, King Cake style sprinkles (in Gryffindor colors, of course)  and tiny fondant crowns.

To make the crowns, you need a bit of yellow fondant.

Roll it out to about 1/8" thick. Then cut it so the edges are squared off.

 

I used this Pampered Chef ruffle cutter to make the points on the crown.

I added a little edible glitter to this, but Disco Dust or Luster Dust would have been much better.

Sadly, I had neither.

Then I added silver dragees & rolled them around to make the crown. I sealed the edges together with a bit of water, then allowed them to sit out a dry a bit so they were firmer.

I sat them on the side of the cupcakes to look a little jaunty.

Cute, right?

So, there ya go. Cute little Weasley is Our King Cupcakes.

Happy Birthday, Won Won!

I hope you have a wonderful 33rd birthday!

This graphic was not made by me. I'm not sure who the author is, but I found it on the Facebook Fan Page:
We Owe JKR Our Childhood.

Ever your fan,

Tina

O.S.,

(That's Owl Script. You know, like Post Script for Owl Post.)

Guess who else is making Ron a special treat today??? You'll never guess!

Darla!

Wait, you guessed? How'd ya know?

Check out what she's made for him here!


If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

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Weasley is Our King Cupcakes

Recipe by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Preheat oven to 350.

Cake

Yellow Cupcake Mix 

(makes 12- double the following ingredients if you are making 24)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

dash nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Prepare cake mix according to package.

Beat in the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon zest.

 Scoop batter into a prepared pan, lined with cupcake papers.

Filling

2 Tablespoons melted butter

3 Tablespoons dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla into the butter. Whisk until fully combined.

 Place a teaspoon of the mix onto the  top of the cupcake batter. Swirl with a toothpick.

Icing

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

milk or heavy cream

Beat the butter for a few minutes, until fluffy. Add the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix until well combined. If too thick, add milk/cream 1 Tablespoon at a time until you come to a good consistency.

Swirl on to the top of cupcakes.

Sprinkle with red, yellow, and white sugar.

Top with fondant crowns.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe