A Spring Birthday Cake - a Chocolate and Coffee lover's dream!

Right before we left on our trip I received this amazing box of goodies from Joy the Baker and King Arthur Flour. When we got back, it was my mother-in-law's birthday, and I knew this would be an amazing opportunity to use these new treats, and create something that I hoped she would love!

With these goodies came a recipe from Joy for Deep Dark Mocha Cupcakes. They sounded amazing! I also had a recipe for Annie's (of Annie's Eats) Chocolate Frosting bookmarked in my inbox (I am currently on a hunt for the best chocolate frosting recipe).  Deep dark chocolate cake + coffee buttercream filling + chocolate sour cream frosting?? Oh man, this was going to be good!

Black Forest Cupcakes With a Twist

Hello Internets! I know I've been a bit flighty lately and I do apologize. I am still working on that whole work/pilates/curling/baking/blog/life balance and it is slowly getting better :)


How about some tasty cupcakes to make up for my decrease in posting? I am a firm believer that cupcakes make everything better!

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Fresh Berries

Last weekend we had attended a BBQ over at my best friend's place, and once again I was on dessert duty.  I'm as surprised as you are. Really, I am. I guess they just know me so well!


I was told that one of the guests loved 'gooey chocolatey desserts', and I knew other guests loved desserts with fresh berries and whipped cream in the summer. So I started searching around to try and find something that would satisfy everyone.

I found a couple different recipes that looked delicious, but instead of using something completely new I used my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe and was delighted to discover that it baked up perfectly in the bundt pan.  This was awesome news as I had no time to implement a back-up plan :) I also threw in chocolate chips, more chocolate is always a bonus in dessert. True story.

After the cake cooled I filled the middle with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries. Then everything was topped off with a drizzle of caramel and chocolate.  I found the recipe for the chocolate glaze on allrecipes.com, but you could pick up a bottle of chocolate sauce at the store and it would be perfect.

When we served the cake we plopped on some whipped cream, and it was awesome! I didn't get any pictures of the final product with whipped cream, but you can trust me when I say it went really well together.


Chocolate Bundt Cake with Fresh Berries

• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tbsp coffee
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Fresh berries of your choice
• Caramel Sauce
• Chocolate Sauce/Glaze (store-bought or recipe follows)
• Whipped Cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and generously grease the bundt pan
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt
3. In a second bowl whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee
4. In a large bowl cream together the butter and two sugars until fluffy
5. Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar mixture, mixing well after each egg
6. Add the vanilla to the sugar/egg mixture and mix well
7. Add 1/3 the buttermilk mixture to the sugar/egg, and mix well
8. Add 1/3 the flour to the wet ingredients and mix well
9. Continue until all buttermilk and dry ingredients have been added then fold in the chocolate chips
10. Pour into the bundt pan and smooth the batter
11. Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake
12. Let cool, then invert onto your serving dish
13. Fill with berries, then drizzle on the chocolate and caramel sauces until your heart is content
14. Serve with whipped cream if desired
15. Enjoy!

Chocolate Glaze

• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. In a heat-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips, butter and corn syrup at 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval until smooth
2. When smooth, stir in the vanilla
3. Place the glaze in a ziploc bag, cut off a corner of the bag, and drizzle over the cooled cake
4. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

Yum, chocolate + marshmallows = delicious! I have had chocolate and marshmallows on the brain lately, ever since we had s'mores a few weeks ago.  Also, ever since I saw this cake on sweetapolita.com, I knew marshmallows would be making their way onto a cupcake soon!

This picture totally makes me giggle, and I have no idea why

A few weeks ago we had a birthday party for my mom, aunt, and their cousin. I was in charge of dessert (odd, I know!). In addition to making some lemon cupcakes with vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream (my family loves lemon cupcakes as much as I do), I decided to make these delicious chocolate cupcakes (originally from the awesome Rachel at theavidappetite.com) and top them with some toasted marshmallow icing (from sweetapolita.com).

To be honest, I totally thought that I could pipe the marshmallow icing onto the cupcakes and then maybe brown it a bit with a flame or sprinkle on some bright fun sprinkles.  The first swirl looked a little soft but it looked alright, but after I returned to the cupcake this is what I found!

At first I thought it looked horrible, then I decided that I actually liked the ooey gooey melted marshmallow look and ran with it.  I used a Wilton 1M tip to put a star of marshmallow icing on each cupcake and then let it do it's thing and become cupcake art.  As the marshmallow stars slowly spread, I sprinkled on some bright star sprinkles and topped everything off with a toasted mini marshmallow so that you could get a hint of what you were about to bit into.

The verdict? These were fabulous! I am totally going to do this again. I think that I will try using it as a filling in a chocolate cake (or to fill a cupcake) one day soon.  It was just such a delicious addition to the rich chocolate cupcakes.  I had about a 1/3 of the batch leftover after decorating 2 dozen cupcakes.


Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

• 16 white marshmallows
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 jar marshmallow fluff (about 8 ounces)

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment and turn on the broiler
2. Spread out the marshmallows on the cookie sheet and broil until golden brown (watch out! they can burn fast!)
3. Mix together the butter and icing sugar until well blended
4. Add the vanilla and mix well
5. Add the marshmallows and marshmallow fluff and mix well
6. Use to decorate or fill your favourite cake or cupcakes
7. Enjoy!

Pineapple Cupcakes with Coconut Pineapple Icing

This is the delicious (and shhhhh it is very easy!!) dessert I served after our Cinco de Mayo meal last week.


This recipe is from skinnytaste.com, and it seriously seemed way too good to be true. Not only was this a healthier version your everyday cupcake, it also had very few ingredients, and they were the perfect ending to a fabulous meal of Mexican food!


One thing I will definitely admit, I am not above using a box mix to produce a delicious dessert :) If it works, it works!

All the cupcakes require is a box of cake mix, and a can of crushed pineapple! How perfectly simple, right?  The original recipe called for a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple, but I accidentally used a 14 oz can and it still worked amazing.

The icing takes a total of 4 ingredients, and was so delicious! It was sweet and refreshing at the same time.  Again, I accidentally used a 14 oz can instead of a 20 oz, and it was still a wonderful icing :)


I am definitely making these again!


Pineapple Cupcakes

• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 can (14 oz or 20 oz) crushed pineapple (with the juice)

1. Preheat the oven according to cake mix instructions and fill 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners
2. Combine the cake mix and the whole can of crushed pineapple in a bowl and mix well
3. Fill each prepared muffin cup 2/3 of the way full
4. Bake according the the cake mix directions
5. Let cool completely before frosting

Coconut Pineapple Icing

• 250 g cream cheese (1 package) (I used light)
• 20 (or 14!) oz can crushed pineapple (juice drained)
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. Make sure all of the juice is drained out of the crushed pineapple 
2. Mix together the cream cheese, crushed pineapple, coconut, and sugar until well combined
3. Spread on top of cooled cupcakes
4. Enjoy!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

In addition to the beautiful cake my husband had made me for my birthday, I whipped up some vegan vanilla cupcakes (using the lemon vegan cupcake recipe without the lemon juice or zest) and topped them with an amazing Raspberry Buttercream.


These were easy cupcakes to make, but they were so good! 

To make the raspberry buttercream I mashed about half a cup of raspberries together, and then strained out the excess fluid. The raspberry mash was then whipped into the buttercream, and then piped onto the cupcakes.


I love how versatile the buttercream is, you can add so many delicious fruits for a variety of flavours! 

This raspberry buttercream recipe is enough to decorate 1 dozen cupcakes.


Raspberry Buttercream

• 1/2 cup butter (or shortening)
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp butter flavouring (if using shortening)
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
• heavy cream

1. Cream together the butter (or shortening) and the vanilla (and butter flavouring if using shortening)
2. Add the icing sugar a cup at a time, and mix until smooth
3. Mash together the raspberries, and drain out the excess fluid 
4. Add the raspberry mash to the icing and whip until fluffy
5. If the icing is still too stiff for piping, add heavy cream 1/2 tbsp at a time until the desired consistency is reached
6. Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemon Cake

If there is one thing that everyone here seems to be in agreement with, it is the fact that we are done with winter!  We are all ready for spring and sunshine and green grass and BBQ's in the backyard, but our backyards are still full of snow!


In an attempt to bring some 'spring' into the house, I decided to try out my new 6" cake pans and make a spring-inspired cake!

I used my favourite recipe for strawberry cupcakes as the base of this recipe.  This recipe is so wonderfully moist and flavourful!  Right before I added the strawberries to the batter, I removed 1/3 of the batter and added lemon juice and lemon zest. The smell of lemon reminds me of warm sunny days!

For the strawberry buttercream I used my new favourite buttercream recipe.  I love how the strawberry buttercream looks, it is such a pretty colour and I really like how you can see all of the strawberry bits in it.


Since I didn't need very much lemon buttercream because I was only using it to fill two layers of the cake, I just grabbed some leftover vanilla buttercream from my fridge, and whipped in some fresh lemon zest and lemon juice! I then amped up the colour by adding a bit of yellow gel food colouring.  This was actually the only part of the cake that I added food colouring too; all of the pink in the strawberry buttercream and the strawberry cake layers came from the fresh strawberries!

I baked two pans of strawberry cake, and one pan of lemon cake.  I then cut each cake in half in order to alternate the layers and obtain a tall 5-layer Strawberry Lemon Cake!  


Yes, I did have one layer of strawberry cake left over in the end. I used it to make a cute and tasty dessert for John and I to enjoy after dinner that night! (post to come)

This cake was so delicious! I loved how tall it was, without being a massive cake. The fresh lemon and strawberry flavours were the perfect 'pick-me-up' we needed while we wait for spring.


I hope everyone else is getting much nicer weather than we are! I'm still rocking the scarf and mittens every time I step outside!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Last week I made a total of 3 birthday cakes. That's a lot of cake for one week!


The second cake that I had made (the first was this delicious Black Forest Cake) was a Carrot Cake.  I didn't think my Carrot Cake Cupcakes recipe would be sturdy enough for layers, so instead I turned to allrecipes.com for a new recipe.

I ended up finding this recipe; with over 3000 positive reviews I was pretty confident that it would be an amazing cake!  

I made a couple minor changes to the recipe and it came out perfectly! It was moist and delicious, everything that a carrot cake should be.  This cake took 3 whole cups of shredded carrots, so delicious.

I used cream cheese frosting for both the inside layer and to frost the outside of the cake.

The writing, shell border, and mini carrots on the top of the cake were all made out of cream cheese frosting as well. I ended up doubling the frosting recipe (compared to what was suggested on the site) in order to frost and decorate the whole cake. I have included the amount that I made in the recipe below.

I cannot wait for an opportunity to make this cake again.


Carrot Cake

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3 cups grated carrots (I shredded 8 regular carrots to get 3 cups worth)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease and flour two 8" round baking pans (or spray with baking spray)
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla
3. In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
4. Add the dry ingredients and the shredded carrot to the wet ingredients, and mix until the batter just starts to come together
5. Pour into the two prepared pans, and bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into a cake
6. Let cool on a wire rack before frosting
7. When cool, level cake (if needed) before layering and adding the icing

Cream Cheese Icing

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 500 g (two packages) cream cheese, room temperature
• 8 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• heavy cream, optional
• food colouring for icing, optional

1. Beat together the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy
2. Add the icing sugar about 2 cups at a time, mixing thoroughly
3. Add the vanilla, and beat well
4. If necessary you can add heavy cream a couple teaspoons at a time (if the icing is too thick) until the desired consistency is reached. I usually don't need to add any, but it is an option.
5. Frost your cake (or cupcakes!) as desired
6. Enjoy!

I baked it up in two 8" round cake pans, but you could also make a sheet cake by using a 9" x 13" pan.

This was my second cake in a row to bake up flat! Almost no levelling was required!

Mocha Frosting

I was craving a dessert with a coffee/chocolate combo for a couple weeks. I have no idea why since I don't even drink coffee, but who can explain cravings? 


So then when I came across the Cafe Mocha Cupcakes recipe on mybakingaddiction.com, they looked incredibly delicious!

The frosting was so good on these cupcakes, I am definitely adding it to my list of favourites.  This would be awesome on a variety of cupcake or cake flavours, but I think it was perfect on top of chocolate cupcakes.


This recipe is enough to frost a dozen cupcakes.


Mocha Frosting

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature (3/4 cup)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tbsp (heaping) of instant coffee granules dissolved in 1/2 tbsp hot water
• 2 - 4 tbsp heavy cream

1. In a medium bowl whisk together the icing sugar and cocoa powder
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy.  
3. Add the icing sugar/cocoa powder about a cup at a time to the creamed butter
4. After all of the icing sugar and cocoa powder has been added, pour in the vanilla and coffee/water and mix well on high
5. Add the heavy cream 1/2 tbsp at a time until the desired consistency is reached
6. Decorate your favourite cupcakes
7. Enjoy!

Strawberry Buttercream

This is easily my new favourite icing to use when frosting cupcakes or cakes.  The fresh strawberry flavour is amazing, and it is really easy to make too :)


I used about half a pound (half a container) of strawberries to make this icing. If you are making this when strawberries are out of season (and therefore not as flavourful as they are in the summer), you can add a tablespoon or so of strawberry jam to help amp up the flavour.

This is amazing! It goes so well with almost all flavours of cupcakes.


Strawberry Buttercream

• 1 cup shortening or butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp butter flavour (if you don't have this, you can add a second tsp of vanilla)
• 1/2 cup strawberry puree (from about 1/2 lb of strawberries)
• 4 cups icing sugar
• extra milk or cream

1. Cream together the shortening (or butter) and the extracts
2. Add the icing sugar about 1 cup at a time, mixing well
3. Add the strawberry puree, and beat the icing until it is fluffy
4. If the icing is too thick, you can add some milk or cream a couple of teaspoons at a time until the desired consistency is reached
5. Spread or pipe onto your favourite cupcake or cake
6. Enjoy!

Coconut Lime Cupcakes w/ Lime Buttercream

This past New Year's Eve we had some friends over to celebrate with us.  For dessert I made these Coconut Lime Cupcakes (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World).  These were fun to make, and the batter was dangerously delicious!


These are extremely coconut-y, so they are perfect for those coconut lovers out there.  I enjoy coconut, but it isn't my first choice when it comes to deserts, and I enjoyed these a lot! An additional bonus? These are another fabulous vegan cupcake!

These would be perfect for a Hawaiian Luau or Mexican themed party! This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.


Coconut Lime Cupcakes

• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1 tbsp lime zest
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup coconut (unsweetened)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line the muffin tin with paper liners
2. Place the coconut oil in a small microwave safe bowl and microwave until completely melted, set aside
3. In a second bowl mix together the melted coconut oil, sugar, coconut milk, soy milk, vanilla, coconut extract, and lime zest. 
4. In a third bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and milk until smooth
6. Add the coconut, and mix until well distributed
7. Fill cupcake liners and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into a cupcake
8. Let cool completely before icing
1. Note, these are delicious naked!

Lime Buttercream

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 3 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (or the juice from 1 to 2 limes)
• 1 tsp lime zest

1. Cream together the shortening and margarine until smooth 
2. Add the icing sugar about 1 cup at a time, beating well between each addition
3. After all of the icing sugar is incorporated add the vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest
4. Beat the icing for another few minutes until fluffy

To assemble the Coconut Lime Cupcakes

• 12 coconut lime cupcakes
• lime buttercream icing
• 1 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened)

1. Pour the flaked coconut into a shallow dish
2. When cupcakes are completely cooled, spread the lime buttercream on top of the cupcakes
3. Roll the tops of each cupcake in the coconut, completely covering the icing
4. Enjoy!