Happy Birthday to Koko’s Kitchen! I started this blog on January 11th, 2009 and I can’t believe it’s been two years. Woohoo!

These were actually special birthday cupcakes that I made for two friends in December. Cupcakes are simply one of my favourite things to make for others.

Funny story….my friend and I got pulled over for driving with a tail light out as we were heading to our friend’s birthday. I think we may have avoided a full ticket by giving the cop one of these babies. Nothing wrong with a warning

Several months ago my cousin asked me if I would be interested in making the cake for their wedding, along with some cupcakes- of course I jumped at the chance! I had never made a wedding cake before and was looking forward to figuring it out, and hopefully building something beautiful! It was a huge undertaking, and much of the last couple weeks have been spent deciding on flavours, baking, baking, baking, cutting out fondant flowers and of course, decorating. They really gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted- no flavour suggestions (except no fruit!), and one picture of a cake that they liked but didn’t want a replica of. I came up with something that I think is simple, modern, and pretty.

I made 3 white cakes, and layered each one with dark chocolate ganache and the richest vanilla bean Italian buttercream. I also added….Oreo cookies! I thought a cookies n’ creme wedding cake would be so unique and fun for this young couple.I cut out ribbon from fondant and painted it aubergine, just like their wedding colour. Lastly, I added more fondant flowers to the cake to tie in with the cupcakes. Here is the cake smothered in buttercream before I added the fondant.

Here’s a picture from the cake-cutting. They both look amazing!

I also made 100+ cupcakes- some vanilla, some chocolate, but all with a subtle caramel flavour and the fluffiest pillows of vanilla Italian buttercream. For added decoration, I topped them with a light dusting of purple sanding sugar, and a pearled fondant flower.

Check out all these flowers!

This was a great learning process for me, especially because I love to figure things out on my own! I’m proud of my cake and I’m soo happy that Spencer and Gen were pleased with the cake!!

I have to say that being Canadian, I’m pretty into hockey. My Vancouver Canucks have me sitting on the edge of my seat, cheering for the better part of each year. The Canucks just made it through the first round of playoffs (of course!) and are now heading into the 2nd round to face the Chicago Blackhawks….the team that knocked us out of the playoffs last year! Nothing like sweet revenge….! Anyways,  I decided to show some Canucks spirit in the best possible way I could, by making cupcakes….which I like to call “Canuckcakes”! What burly hockey player wouldn’t love getting caught eating a pretty cupcake

These cupcakes are vegan (both vanilla and chocolate) but I chose to make a standby icing recipe from cooking school- Italian buttercream…which is pretty much the opposite of vegan. I was super impressed with the cupcake recipes, which came from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, though I did modify them a bit. I also made vegan sugar cookies to decorate the mini cupcakes with. These are definitely an ‘occasional indulgence’ on the health scale, but playoff fever is sweeping Vancouver and the only cure is more Canuckcakes.

I love all the Canucks, but I hold a special place in my heart for #3…Kevin Bieksa. So of course I made a cupcake sporting his number…and then I daydreamed about what it would be like to hand deliver the cupcake to him….and then I got so excited I smudged his name. Oops!

I have a confession: I think I just drooled.

I have a 2nd confession: I don’t think it was because of the cupcakes.

All “joking” aside, these were fun to make and I’m sure friends and family will enjoy them as we take on Chicago in round two, beginning this weekend! I should mention that the design on the cupcakes is the Canucks vintage logo.

It’s been quite an eventful week this week. My 19th birthday was on Thursday and that called for a rather messy night at the bar and a lazy Friday. Another party on Saturday and I must say, I am pooped! I did find some time to make some cupcakes. One of my birthday gifts was Martha Stewart’s newest book Martha Stewart Cupcakes. Since Canada Day is on Wednesday and I’ll be working, I decided to make some Canadian-inspired cupcakes a bit early! These are Martha’s “Maple Sweetened Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting”. These were good but they were definately not my favourite cupcakes ever. In the blurb before the recipe, Martha calls these cupcakes a healthier option for kids parties and occasions. By my standards, replacing white sugar with a massive amount of maple syrup and molasses does not shout HEALTH to me, but I think it is important to indulge every once in awhile. The icing was composed of maple syrup and cream cheese but I took the liberty of adding maple sugar and powdered sugar to decrease the cream cheese flavour. I used marzipan to cut out the maple leaves. I much prefer the taste of marzipan to fondant. All in all, these were fun to bake and it was great to try out my new book (this month’s Cookbook of the Month)! I can’t wait to try out some of the other intriguing flavours!

This month’s Iron Cupcake theme was coffee. Now, I’m not a huge coffee drinker though I do usually have one cup a few mornings each week. For this competition, I wanted to create an extravagant cupcake that didn’t only feature coffee, but one that took after a yummy, fattening, Starbucks drink! I took a recipe for Mocha Chip Pound Cake Cupcakes and added my own touch my making Dulce De Leche to fill them with. Then, I made a Cinnamon Whipped Cream Frosting and placed a chocolate-covered coffee bean on top. I had never tried dolce de leche, and I rarely eat whipped cream but I must say that these were delicious! They look and taste just like a fancy barista-made drink. If you like the sounds and looks of them, please vote for my CINNAMON DULCE MOCHA POUNDCAKE CUPCAKES in the Iron Cupcake Competition! Voting opens on March 1st at 8pm.

Cinnamon Dulce Mocha Pound Cake Cupcakes

Mocha Chip Pound Cake Cupcakes (Courtesy of A Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs
• 2 tsp instant espresso powder
• 2 tsp Kahlua
• 2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate morsels  (**I omitted these)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place paper liners in all wells of one 12-cup and one 6-cup cupcake tin.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 4 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in vanilla extract. Dissolve the espresso powder in the Kahlua and beat it into the batter. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down after each addition, allowing each egg to be absorbed before continuing. Add the flour mixture in 4 additions, beating just until smooth on low-medium speed after each addition. (Fold in chocolate morsels).

Divide batter evenly among cupcake wells. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs. Cool pans on racks for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to cooling racks to cool completely.

Dulce De Leche (Recipe here)

• 2 can sweetened condensed milk

Place the unopened cans into a pot large enough to hold them.

Cover the cans with water and over medium-high heat, bring to a simmer.

Reduce the heat and gently simmer for 2 hours. Keep an extra pot of boiling water on the side to replenish evaporated water from the pot. The cans of condensed milk should always be covered by simmering water.

When cooked, let the cans cool in the water bath. When cooled, remove the cans.

Open the cans, scoop out the Dulce de Leche and serve.

After making the dulce de leche, I simply cut the middle of my cupcakes out by moving my knife around the top, cutting inwards to create a triangle-like space in my cupcake. I put a small spoonful of dulce de leche in it and then squished the top back on (cutting the tip of the cut-out top off, if needed). If this does not make sense, a fabulous tutorial can be found here.

Whipped Cream Frosting (Courtesy of A Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes)

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tbsp confectioners sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a large, chilled bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar and vanilla extract and beat until soft peaks form.

Continue to whip until stiffer peaks form, but do not overwhip. If it shows clumps and lumps, it is overwhipped. Simply stir in some additional liquid cream to smooth it out. Frosting is ready to use and is best used immediately.

Dollop it onto your mocha cupcake in a way that makes it look like the whipped topping of a latte. Add some cinnamon and a chocolate-mocha bean on top. ENJOY!

The prizes offered include:

• DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270
• as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

As an added bonus for February, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in a variety of cupcaking supplies, http://www.acupcakery.com/index.html.

HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS,http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers,http://www.1800flowers.com .