No baking required! A Caramel Apple Liquid Cupcake is the perfect indulgence when you're craving something sweet & satisfying this Halloween. 

I found a great recipe from the Cupcake Vodka website - and altered it a tad:

Martini:

(1.5) oz Cupcake Vodka - Original

(2 or 3) slices of fresh Ginger

(1.5) oz Sparkling Cider

(1.5) oz Ginger Ale

Garnish:

(1) slice of Crisp Green Apple

(5) squares of Caramel with (1) tsp. of water

Sprinkle of Decorative Gold Sugar

Muddle fresh sliced ginger with Cupcake Vodka in a martini shaker. Add ice and gently shake to chill. 

Pour in martini glass, pour in sparkling cider, top with ginger ale and add garnish.

Melt caramel & water in the microwave for (15) seconds at a time, stirring until melted. Do not overheat!

Spread caramel onto apple slice and sprinkle with gold sugar. Make one small slice into the garnish and secure onto the side of martini glass.

Happy Halloween my little cupcakes!

One of my last stops in LA before I headed out to CO was at Sweet E’s Bake Shop. I’ve ran into Erica (owner of Sweet E’s/winner of Cupcake Wars) a few times around the cupcake event circuit in LA and have always noticed that her presentation is absolutely fabulous!

I was excited to see what tricks & treats she would have in store for Halloween and I can tell you she did not dissapoint!

I thought Erica did an amazing job with her cupcakery for the Holiday, the best I’ve seen for Halloween so far.

If you have a chance and are in LA, check it out  - I really  wanted to buy EVERYTHING inside, but I settled for a half dozen mini Fall cupcakes, and a Blue Velvet cake pop. 

If only I could fit into those cupcake costumes...

Yesterday I drove my sister Sara out to the Denver airport, she's been helping me with my move and it was time for her to head back home. Before I made the (3) hour trek back to Steamboat Springs, I decided to check out my first Colorado cupcakery.

I scoped it out beforehand and sent them a tweet to let them know I was coming, to my surprise I got a retweet which made me even more excited to see what this social savvy cupcakery would look like.

The very first thing I noticed was that the name of the place was named so for a reason, Big Fat Cupcake(s) galore!

I could have always gone with a box of Day Olds, but I prefer mine Day Of. I love that they had the option though, these special cakes should never go to waste!

I also loved the extensive reading collection, anyone read, "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake"?

If you’ve been following along my cupcake adventures, or evenly most recently on twitter, you may know that I always stop by my favorite cupcakery; Crushcakes whenever I am in Santa Barbara.

I love this little cupcakery & café because they always have such a fun, abundant selection of cupcakes. They have a pretty solid set of signature cupcakes you can count on, but if you like a little variety like me, it’s nice that they are always changing up the flavors, and best of all – they have an espresso bar!

Yesterday I was excited to stop through Carpinteria on my way back to LA and finally scope out their second location, it was ADORABLE!

Carpinteria is such a hidden gem, and Crushcakes & Café fits in perfectly with this rustic little beach town. Every detail of this place was so charming, especially this friendly mantra at the front entrance.

I picked up (2) cupcakes & (1) cup of intelligentsia blend coffee. 

In this delectable cookbook and memoir, sisters and stars of the hit TLC series DC Cupcakes inspire readers with their recipe for success: equal parts determination, smarts, and the belief that if you do what you love, you can’t fail.

When sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne took a leap of faith and quit their secure jobs in fashion and finance to open a small cupcakery together, they knew they were risking it all. But from when they were little, their Greek grandmother Babee instilled in them a love of baking and the fire to follow their dreams. From the moment they opened the doors to Georgetown Cupcake, crowds have been clamoring for their sweet, wholesome treats; they sell as many as 10,000 cupcakes a day. And for two seasons, fans have been following their escapades—including making a giant bra, a slot machine, and a wedding gown out of cupcakes—on the hit TLC series DC Cupcakes.

Georgetown Cupcake’s meteoric rise is the realization of a dream rooted in the special bond that Sophie and Katherine formed with each other from childhood. The Cupcake Diaries is a tribute to that bond, the memories they share, and the important lessons they learned, both about baking and about life. The book follows the sisters’ personal journey that started in their grandmother’s kitchen years ago. They reveal secrets of their business success and include over thirty delicious recipes, including their bestselling Red Velvet cupcake and their grandmother’s delicious Greek Easter bread. The Cupcake Diaries celebrates what it takes—luck, courage, family support, and determination—to go from dreaming to doing.

October is the first month of the Holiday baking season, and I am so happy that it is finally here! 

I've already made two kinds of "Cupcake Pops" this month and they really are quite delicious! Since my first post on the Pumpkin Pie Cupcake Pops, my friends and tweeps have been asking how do I do it?

Well, it's not a cakepop maker folks, as many people have inquired about. Check out this video and you will see step by step, just how I do it!

Seems easy right? Well, yes it was, but also very time consuming so please be prepared. These spooky sprinkled treats were the perfect surprise for all of my friends I ran into this month while saying my goodbye's in LA and prepping for my drive to Colorado.

Please enjoy! I tried to pair the video with some creepy Halloween themed music, but feel free to mute and repeat if you get stuck making your cake pops, or put this on blast to really get you in the Halloween Holiday mood!

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Gingerbread

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp salt

Plus:

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
• ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large eggs, room temperature
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup warm water (to fold in)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square glass baking dish with unsalted butter and lightly dust with flour.

In a medium sized bowl mix together all dry ingredients with a whisk.

In a separate bowl whisk together butter & brown sugar. Beat in one egg at a time until well combined.

Slowly stir in flour mixture until well combined. Fold in warm water until mixture is smooth.

Spread mixture into baking dish evenly and bake until interested wooden toothpick comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Allow gingerbread to cool completely on wire rack.

Frosting

• 4 oz. or half a package of light cream cheese
• 1 tbsp pumpkin puree (more to taste if preferred)
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Whisk together all ingredients, minus the powdered sugar. Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time.

Let frosting firm & chill in fridge.

Cake Pops – makes about 20 -30 depending on size

Break up gingerbread into crumbles by hand or with a whisk. Combine frosting and gingerbread crumbles and stir together evenly.

Hand form mixture to about the size of a gold ball and set on tray.

Melt a bit of chocolate to coat tip of pop stick and stick into the balls about half way.

Let set in fridge until chocolate is dry and cake pops are firm.

Coat each cake pop carefully in melted chocolate and immediately cover in sprinkles.

Set in mini cupcake liner and allow time to chill in fridge.

Decorate!

Use themed cupcake liners and ribbon for treats to go. They are the perfect treat for friends, family, co-workers, Halloween parties, or just for you!

Enjoy!

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After a lovely hike with my good friend Kristin and my pup Roxy in Pacific Palisades, we found ourselves drawn to this little cupcake sign on the road that read, "Vegan Cupcakes!" 

I've been very curious to taste vegan and gluten-free cupcakes from gourmet cupcakeries, so Scarlett's Cupcakes would be my first try! 

I loved the warm and festive Fall decor in the shop. The sign by the register invited customers back in on Halloween and those wearing costumes recieve a free mini-cupcake!

Starting from the top left and moving clockwise, we tried:

• Carrot Vegan Cupcake w Cream Cheese Frosting - really good! A little bit more dense and chunky like a carrot cake, rather than a cupcake, but you could not tell it was vegan at all! 
• German Chocolate Cupcake w the classic Coconut Frosting - the cake was a bit dry, so we needed to fully cover it with the frosting in order to enjoy the flavors. 
• Dark Chocolate Cupcake w Peanut Butter Frosting - another dry one! Maybe it was the chocolate cakes that were not holding up too well, but this one the frosting could not save - way too sweet and thick! 
• Pumpkin Cupcake w Cream Chesese Frosting - my favorite! I actually had my hesitations that this cupcake looked like more a muffin, but the Cupcake Lady assured me, this cupcake was moist and delicious. So it was! I loved it, although Kristen said she wished there was more pumpkin flavor, it worked out and I ended up with the rest of the cupcake for myself!

Overall, we were really happy that we decided to check out this adorable cupcakery. We had a fabulous day hiking with the pup and filling up on the flavors of fall. Of course now i'm itching to bake something for myself inspired by this beautiul fall season!

What's got you in the kitchen baking?

My first attempt at Cupcake Pops, or more commonly known as Cake Pops and I nailed it. I hate to toot my own horn, but that's why I am sharing this recipe with you, these were hands down amazing.

Bonus! I actually made these gluten-free minus the graham crackers, oops.. but if you need a great GF recipe, you can substitute with store bought gluten-free shortbread or cookies, the rest of the recipe is completely GF.

I like to call them cupcake pops because I really did make them from cupcakes! Actually, I had no idea what cake pops were until my friend explained them to me and I thought, ok these I HAVE to try for myself and make them really special!

I made a gluten-free vanilla bean cupcake and a pumpkin pie frosting for the inside. This pumpkin pie "frosting" is more of a sweet baked filling, but you can use it as a frosting which actually pipes beautifully.

In this case, all you do is mix the crumbles of cupcakes with the frosting and hand roll them into balls. You dip your pop stick into a bit of melted chocolate and then stick it mid way into the balls. Once you have a full tray, stick them in the fridge for about 30 minutes, just to firm them up before you coat in chocolate. 

Here's the part where I messed up my whole idea for a gluten-free cupcake pop.. I made the entire inside completely GF and then used these store bought graham crackers to sprinkle and coat the outside.

Oh well, my co-worker who inspired my GF baking project appreciated the effort anyway. As I mentioned, you can just substitute the sprinkles with store bought gluten-free shortbread or other type of cookie. 

The one thing I noticed about the few cake pops I have tried is that the outside coating is oddly thick and super sweet. So, I tried my best to coat these with a thin milk chocolate layer.

Then all you do is sprinkle on the crumbled graham crackers.

I stuck them in the fridge overnight and in the morning they were perfect! They tasted like a yummy pumpkin pie bite on a stick. The chocolate coating was the perfect thickness and the cookie crumble coating was a great complimenting texture to the soft inside. 

You can use mini cupcake liners like I did, or arrange the sticks in a styrofoam block and let them stand upright. Wrap a ribbon around these and viola! The sweetest treat for any Fall occasion!

Makes about 40 - 45 cupcake pops

Frosting & Cupcake Prep: 2 hrs.

Cupcake Pops: about 1 hour

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Pumpkin Pie Frosting: 

2 large eggs, whisked

16 oz. – 1 can pureed pumpkin

2 tbsn. molasses

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½  tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. pumpkin pie spice (found at Trader Joe’s. Or use ½ ground ginger + ¼ tsp. ground cloves)

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tbsn. Gluten-Free Baking Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

14 oz. – 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 425º F. In a medium sized bowl, mix together all ingredients until well combined. Pour into a glass baking dish, round pie dish preferable. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 350º F and continue baking for 45 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cover with aluminum foil and place in fridge, letting cool completely before using.

Gluten-Free Vanilla Bean Cupcakes: 

1 3/4 cups Gluten-Free Baking Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

¾ cup + 1 tbsn. Honey

½ tbsn. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup vanilla almond milk or skim milk, divided

2 large eggs

1 large egg white

1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350º F. Line cupcake pan with liners, set aside. Stir together the gluten-free baking flour, honey, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a medium sized bowl and use electric mixer to blend together. Add unsalted butter and ¼ cup of milk. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 4 minutes. In another bowl, blend the eggs, egg white, remaining ¼ cup milk and vanilla bean paste. Add this mixture to the flour mixture in 2 additions, mixing for 2 minutes on medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until an inserted wooden toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

Cupcake Pops:

40 -45 lollipop sticks

1 bag of chocolate candy coating morsels (Hershey's or Ghirardelli)

5 graham cracker cookies or other gluten-free cookie option

Unwrap cupcakes from liners and place into a large bowl. Break up the cupcakes into small to fine sized crumbles by rubbing the cupcakes together.

Scoop chilled Pumpkin Pie Frosting into bowl of cupcake crumbles and mix together thoroughly with clean hands or rubber spatula.

Roll small to medium sized balls in the palm of your hands and set on aluminum covered cookie tray. Melt a handful of chocolate to coat tips of lollipop sticks. Insert sticks into ball about midway.

Set tray into fridge and let chill for about 30 minutes. Once chilled and firm remove tray from fridge. Melt the remaining chocolate and use rubber spatula to help coat the balls in a thin layer of chocolate.

Once a cupcake pop is coated in chocolate, dip into bowl of crushed graham crackers and coat completely in sprinkles. Set in a mini cupcake liner or secure stick upright in a styrofoam block to harden. Cover and refrigerate overnight to completely chill pops.

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