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Cupcake Crazy With Bettie’s Cakes

Posted on September 15, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that I really like making, baking, decorating, and even buying cupcakes. The unfortunate part for my waistline is that there are a bunch of amazing cupcakeries in the area. One of them was even featured on Cupcake Wars on Food Network the other day.

On the night that we should have been dining at Disney World, TechyDad and I went out to dinner while the kids stayed with Nana and Papa. After our amazing meal, we both wanted something special for dessert. So we went to try some sweet treats from Bettie’s Cakes at the local mall. Yes, there is actually a cupcake stand in the food court. Insert drool here:

In the end, TechyDad and I were eyeballing the monster cookies. Of course, we HAD to try a cupcake. We agreed to get a Rasberry Zinger to split between us. Check out the amazing packaging that gets the cupcakes home safe and sound:

Are you hungry yet? No? Well, I think we need to remedy that with some more cupcake photos when the Rasberry Zinger and cookies made it home.

Although the cupcake was moist, delicious, and the frosting really great – my heart skipped a beat for the cookie. It was ooey, gooey, and amazing. My only complaint (which others will scoff at), is that it had a bit too much chocolate in it for my taste. I know the horrors – right?

On Sunday, we took the boys to Hoffman’s Playland for what will likely be the last time this season. In front of Hoffman’s is a new location for Bettie’s Cakes. Yes, there are three locations, plus two cupcakery vehicles including their double decker pink bus. After going on some rides, we went in to check out Bettie’s ice cream or baked goods for a treat.

The three boys opted to have a small ice cream (which was rather large). Each ice cream comes with a topping of your choice.

JSL picked Death By Chocolate with gummy worms.

NHL picked Bettie’s Three-Ring Circus – which was cotton candy flavored. He added marshmallows on top.

TechyDad had Cookie Bookie and topped it with Reece’s Pieces.

I was not too enthused with the ice cream choices. The cupcakes looked interesting, but well there was something else that really caught my eye. Here she is:

The boys loved their ice cream, and I took half of my cookie home even after sharing with everyone. Check the boys out. I think you can tell they were very happy:

It was not something we do often, but well worth it for some delicious family fun and together time. Thank you Bettie for this experience that we will always remember.

Do you have cupcake places by you? Do any of them deliver or have special flavors like Blueberry Pancake, Chocolate Covered Pretzel, Chocolate Covered Cherry, or Boston Cream (all coming later this week)? Would love to hear about them since I really do adore cupcakes. The weekly flavors at Bettie’s are always listen online – which is a great perk.

Disclosure: I wrote this post as a customer of Bettie’s Cakes. We went there and bought our items both times. I wanted to share our experience and toot the horn of a great local business. I reserve the right to drool upon reading this and wishing for another visit soon.

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baking decisions food glorious food fun jsl Local Business nhl photos TechyDad yummy

Sweet Temptations Surprise

Posted on August 20, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

Sometimes surprises are the best thing. Wednesday, we went and picked up Daddy for lunch to celebrate NHL’s birthday together. After lunch, we were going to go shopping for a few things, but then I had an idea. I thought we would head over to one of your favorite ice cream spots. Both of you love Scoops because they have amazing ice cream and you can watch the cows while you eat. When we pulled up, they were closed. I guess I did not realize that they are not open during the day mid-week.

Not to worry. I quickly recalled that a cake shop was right down the road. We had seen their truck over the weekend at a Farmers Market. We did not buy anything from their colorful truck because cousin SG would not be able to eat anything. Your disappointment over the ice cream quickly went away when we pulled up to Sweet Temptations and went inside.

Since it was a special occasion, I told the two of you to pick whatever you wanted from the case. Dangerous thing to do, but I had an idea what you may select. Here is a look at the items that we brought home.

NHL, you immediately homed in on a dragon creation. It was two chocolate chip cookies combined with a large amount of icing inside it’s mouth and on top. When I picked it up out of the box, I was floored with how heavy it was. There was no doubt that you loved it since you kept “mmmmmm-ing” as you ate it.

JSL, you had one item in mind. You wanted something chocolate. It was the chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing, of course. One minute I saw the cupcake in your hands, the next it vanished. Since you were the only one that tried it, you must have really liked it since I have never seen you gobble up a cupcake like that.

Since Daddy was not with us, I did not have any idea what kind of cupcake to get him. After making cupcakes all weekend, I was in the mood to try something different. I opted to get the cookie sandwich to share with him. YUM! The chocolate chip cookies were gooey, fresh, and amazing. The frosting inside was the perfect amount and not too sweet. Half was the perfect amount for me to splurge on.

Little surprises like this during the summer have been so much fun. I hope that we get back to Sweet Temptations again soon to show Daddy all of the fancy cupcake creations that they have.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

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baking birthday Dear Kid Saturday decisions food glorious food jsl Local Business nhl photos summer TechyDad yummy

Lion Cupcake Construction

Posted on August 18, 2011 12:13 am by TheAngelForever

When NHL asked me to make his birthday party an animal, specifically lion, theme I did not cringe – well not right away. First, we went to the craft store, party supply place, and I went to Google to see what was out there. Thanks to a quick search on YouTube, I found a fun video and was all ready.

Let me take you on an adventure as I got ready for my practice run of the lion cupcakes. First, I had some of my items set to start. No comments about mixing Pillsbury and Betty Crocker items please.

Cake mix – Or, if you want, use a from scratch recipe
Frosting – I had two cans so I could have plenty of the two colors I needed to make
Black icing – Note: This did not work well. Thanks to this, I bought Wilton black sparkle
Food coloring – To make 2 shades of orange for the lion face
Popcorn – We now wonder if popcorn from our Whirly Pop with some salt may have been better to add a salty/sweet contrast

Not seen in the photo:

Pretzel sticks – lion whiskers
Mini chocolate chips – lion eyes
Cheerios – lion ears
Eggs – We did not use eggs because my niece is very allergic to them. I used the item below.

When making the practice batch of cupcakes, JSL wanted to help me out. He had a lot of fun making the “eggs” and mixing everything else together.

Then, the cupcakes were ready to head into the oven.

Thanks to the egg replacer, they bake faster and are still a bit “squishy” when they come out of the oven. While I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I set up an assembly line of sorts. For some reason, I took the photo before the cheerios were here. Then, my hands were full of icing and I never went back. You get the idea.

First, you use the darker orange to cover the entire cupcake and then put a smaller light orange circle within that.

Then, JSL helped me to put the popcorn mane around the entire cupcake.

Up next were the Cheerio ears and pretzel whiskers.

Then, we gently placed the mini-chips for the eyes and drew on the nose and smile.

Here are my practice lions. You can see the blobs that happened with the original black icing that I bought.

The boys were not upset with the blob faces on the lions. They thought they were quite fun and delicious.

When I made them on Sunday, I tried a few different things to make them a little easier. Although I liked the ease of the Wilton gel, it was runny and the faces did not stay the way I made them. Perhaps if there was room in the refrigerator that would have helped. Still, they came out cute. Here’s a view from the party:

If you are curious about the video I used, or the other animals here it is. The Howdini video: Jungle Animal Cupcakes: Monkey, Lion, Tiger, and Zebra Cupcakes.

So there you have it. Have you ever made cupcakes that were a little different? I would love to hear about it since I am on a cupcake kick!

Categories:
baking birthday food glorious food fun jsl me moments nhl photos yummy

Lion Cupcakes and Birthday Food

Posted on August 15, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Sunday morning, I left to go to Nana and Papa’s house before the boys to get some things done for NHL’s family party. I stopped at the grocery store to get some produce, drinks, and dip. After this, I went to their house to start the Asian Salad.

Then, it was time to get the line ready for the lion cupcake construction. This time I had everything set and was ready to go. The only real complication here was space to put the completed lions on. After two were made, I noticed that the fresh frosting was making the Wilton black sparkle gel run a bit. Thanks to this, I put all of the lions together minus their noses and smiles. While I worked on that, my mother helped me to get the cucumbers ready to put with the rest of the veggies and some Dill Dip.

Just before lunch was served, I drew on the rest of the lion faces. A special thanks to Christina and Tom for cheering me on while I worked on all 21 lions and a chocolate chip one just for the number candle. Toward the end, the smell of the sugary frosting was getting to me.

We had tilapia, Phineas and Ferb macaroni and cheese, pizza, Asian Salad, and the fresh veggies. Lots of food for everyone to enjoy.

Once the kids finished eating, they played for a while. They were getting a bit rowdy, so I pulled out my bag of tricks. The teacher in me had a bunch of different arts and crafts to do with the kids. More on this coming soon. While they were crafting with me, everyone else was switching over the lunch food to prepare for cupcakes and fruit. When the crafts were done, I set up the cupcakes.

I do believe that the birthday boy enjoyed his lions.

More to come on the birthday fun as we celebrate NHL’s actual special day later this week. A huge thank you to all of our family that came to make the day even better.

Categories:
baking birthday family food glorious food friends fun nhl photos weekend yummy

Birthday Cupcakes

Posted on August 12, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It’s true. Several years ago, I decided to start making cakes for the boys instead of buying expensive ones from a bakery. Some of this decision was to make matters easier, at least I try to tell myself that. Another factor was the need for an egg free cake since my niece is severely allergic to eggs. The egg free requirement has pushed me to making cupcakes since cakes with the “fake eggs” are too moist and fall apart. Check out what happened to NHL’s special lemon cake that he wanted last August (oy):

Thanks to the cake failing miserably at the last minute, an emergency run to the store was needed. The funny thing was that people devoured the cake mess. So I am now insisting on cupcakes that stay put in their paper boundaries until we can use real eggs. Truth be told, cupcakes are fun to make. Of course, after decorating 10 – it gets a bit tedious when you have other items to prepare for a party. The last request in May was from JSL. He wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party. The cupcakes that resulted were here:

I have learned that I LOVE my Wilton icing decorator. With one little step, my cupcakes get a boost and look more professional. When we asked NHL what theme he wanted for his birthday this year, I was a bit anxious. Would we be able to find items and how would I be able to carry it into the cupcakes.

I lucked out big time. NHL wanted something with animals, specifically lions. Thanks to his love for the safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom – the idea was born. Earlier this week we had all of our supplies and decided to do a test batch of the lion cupcakes that I wanted to make for this weekend.

More to come about the lion cupcakes soon. I took a bunch of photos during the experiment and more will be coming after the weekend with the new tools I bought to make it even better. A big thank you to Amanda from The Cupcake Blog for having her amazing resource guide for all things cupcakes. Love the inspiration that keeps the fun going. Oh and my little lion up there, it was featured the other day since I shared it with Amanda on Twitter.

One more thing before I get to the Aloha Friday question:

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!!

So, my question to you this week:

If you could design a dream cupcake, what flavors would you incorporate and what would you decorate it with?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.