It has been FAR too long since I made my first post.  I've been so busy baking I haven't taken the time to post!  Can you ever forgive me?  I'll try to make up for it by adding multiple experiences this week.

That's what they really are: experiences.  I may choose a recipe for the cake, one for the frosting, and add some toppers, but each cupcake truly is an experience.  I will start with my most recent one and work backwards, filling in with new projects, deal?

My husband has a huge family.  Most of them (us) live in the same county in Kentucky, and as a result, we get together every time the post office is closed.  It is wonderful.  My family is smaller and we live all over the country, but the times we are together are some of the sweetest memories I have.  I say that to introduce the tradition of the tea.  Every time a young woman in the family gets married or one of us married into the family, we have a tea bridal tea.  Most recently the oldest granddaughter had a tea and it was absolutely beautiful.  The opportunity to get together with the women in the family is just such a blessing.  The wisdom that is found in every generation of these women is invaluable.  For this tea, my amazing mother-in-law and I were signed up to bring chocolate covered strawberries.  Josh, creative director/ultimate taste-tester/husband (impressive title, right?), suggested a chocolate covered strawberry inspired cupcake.  We threw around some ideas as to what part would be berry and what would be chocolate.  We settled on a strawberry cake with a chocolate mousse frosting so that the cake's subtle flavor wouldn't be overpowered by the frosting.  We even decided to create chocolate "wrappers" for each cupcake to be placed in after they were baked.  Perfect image of choc/berry.  Unfortunately we were in the middle of pay weeks and that image would require purchasing almost every ingredient.  The mousse also took more work than I was interested in putting forth this past weekend.  I flipped the idea and only needed to purchase the basics (yay!).

New cupcake: chocolate "wrapper," Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake (this recipe is also on the Hershey's cocoa package), and Strawberry buttercream frosting.  I used the raspberry buttercream recipe from my white chocolate raspberry cupcake (that recipe is coming, I promise!) and substituted strawberry jam for raspberry.

Currently I don't have a cord to connect my camera to my laptop, so you'll just have to imagine the amazingness until I can get that up and running.  :)  However, I do have some new toys that I got to use on this one: silicone muffin liners (for chocolate "wrappers"), a cupcake scooper (so I can reserve my much smaller cookie scooper for cookies), a cupcake plunger (to pull out the core of the cupcake and stuff it), and an icing set (yay!).  I already had decorating tips, but they're too small to ice a cupcake.  Hooray for new toys!

Step 1: Make the cupcakes.  Instead of using papers (so much easier), be sure to spray the pans with non-stick something so that they are easily removed.
Step 2: Make the strawberry buttercream.  I can't find the exact recipe that I used originally to link to the blog, so I'll give you the recipe.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup seedless jam (I used strawberry this time, but it is DELICIOUS as raspberry)
6 cups powdered sugar
--Cream the butter and jam together until they are incorporated.  **Aside: this time I was working from memory on the frosting and thought it was equal parts butter and jam.  No wonder it was so crazy thick!
--Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time until it reaches the consistency you want.  If you need to, you can add a splash, and I mean a splash of milk.  Like a teaspoon at a time if it gets too thick.  Just remember that you can always add more but you can't remove what was added!! (I've learned that the hard way recently)

Step 3: Make the chocolate "wrappers."  This is the fun/challenging part.  Get ready to have a blast (and bring in any kitchen helpers you have).  I used ghirardelli melting chocolate that, incidentally, was left over from the chocolate covered strawberries that inspired the cupcakes.  Melt it over a double boiler.  The package gives directions on using the microwave, but this process lends itself to the double boiler because you'll need the chocolate to stay warm throughout.  Chill the silicone cups and coat the inside of the cups with the melted chocolate.  Place them in the freezer as you go so that you can peel back the silicone.
*While you're doing this the cupcakes will probably finish baking.  Pull them out of the oven and let them cool in the pan.

Step 4: Fill the center of the cupcakes.  After the cupcakes have cooled in the pan, pull them out and prepare to have more fun.  :)  Use the plunger to pull the middle out of the cupcake.  There are specific step-by-step directions for this on the package.  If you don't have the plunger, there are multiple ways to insert yummy goodness into the middle of a cupcake.  I used a simple snack sized zipper bag to put jam in the cupcake.  I cut the tiniest bit off the corner and piped jam in the middle, replacing a portion of the core on top.

Step 5: Place the filled and re-topped cupcakes into the chocolate wrappers.  It is infinitely easier to do this without frosting on top.  Be super duper gentle with the chocolate!  You might want to keep the double boiler going so that if one breaks beyond a small chip you can re-melt it and make more.

Step 6: Top with frosting!!

Yum.  These cupcakes were absolutely to DIE for!!  Fabulous.  Perfectly moist inside and a wonderful balance of chocolate and fruit.

Input from friends:
-put a strawberry inside rather than jam
-flip and make the cake strawberry with chocoloate frosting of some sort.
-they need some sort of topping.  I LOVE topping my cupcakes with fresh, delicate, and decadent toppers.  Key lime gets a beautiful slice of the fruit, white chocolate raspberry gets a sugared raspberry.  This one needs... something.  Ideas?

The Beginning...

At the request of some family and friends and, unashamedly inspired by the movie Julie and Julia, I have decided to jump into the blog scene.  I have no stories of baking to begin the blog, but rest assured they will come soon!

My love of baking started back in Watkinsville, Georgia in the first year of my marriage to my best taste-tester ever, my husband.  I was in the summer break in classes before my senior year at The University of Georgia and I was using my time productively in baking cookies.  Because my recipe makes 5 dozen (yikes!!), I took the extras to the store where my husband worked, where they were promptly devoured.  Before I knew it, I had developed quite a name for my cookies.  Yep, you read that right.  The reputation had nothing to do with me or my cooking, but the cookies themselves.  I have to say that I don't have much of a special recipe for my cookies, but something about the joy others received from my cookies created a drive in me to develop other recipes.

This drive cooled down for a time during my senior year in college, which I thought was the hardest I'd ever see until I got to graduate school.  Throughout it all it was the baking that gave me some sanity.  At the end of my undergraduate career my husband and I moved to Richmond, Kentucky to both be with his family and pursue my master's degree at the University of Kentucky.  Come Christmas time in grad school, I was bitten by the bug to bake goodies for the neighbors at the apartment complex and my husband's new coworkers at a different store.  The result was astounding!  I heard rumors of snickerdoodles going missing, molasses cookies miraculously growing legs, and white chocolate/berry cookies mysteriously being left out of baggies.  They were fighting over my cookies!!  What more could a good southern gal find pride in than that?

One problem: my husband loves cupcakes.  I mean really LOVES cupcakes.  Well, really, cake of any kind.  Cupcakes have a special allure because they are perfectly portioned.  So I began my adventures in the world of cupcakery in Winter/Spring of this year with an amazing Cherry Red Velvet that seemed to stop the world.  Since I have tried key lime, white chocolate raspberry, and Reese's.  I've had my first batch of cupcakes commissioned ... for a commissioner!  Those will be italian creme cake, which I have never even attempted (I hate coconut), so look for that adventure soon.

If you have ideas/requests, let me know and I'll give it a shot!  I'm by no means an expert, but I absolutely love baking and find such joy in it.

I am Miss Georgia and I hope you enjoy my cupcakes, cookies, and other baking escapades.