Before the real post, I have to say.... I'm a "salt" girl...I'll usually pick a bag of chips over a piece of cake. Soooooo.... I have NOT jumped on to the cupcake bandwagon. I know, I know....
it's all the rage and people say they are amaze-balls.
But seriously, I can't pay $6 for a cupcake.
Having said that.... with 6 kids x multiple teachers each kid- I thought a fancy cupcake might be the way to say THANK YOU without spending a small college fund.
To Pinterest I turned.
I found 4-5 ideas that I wanted to put together to make the teacher gifts.
First up:
LEMON / BLACKBERRY cupcakes.
It was just a lemon box cake (cupcakes) with blackberry frosting topped with a single blackberry.
BEAUTIFUL!!
PROS AND CONS:
PROS:
The frosting was to die for!
You make a basic buttercream recipe.
(2 sticks of butter, 2 lbs of powder sugar and 2 tsp of vanilla)
Then chill it for about an hour in the fridge and fold in a 1/2 cup of blackberry preserves.
CONS:
I am not experienced enough with piping icing through a ....well, see....I don't even know what they are called. (*Decorator bag) so the blackberry seeds jammed up the tip. BUMMER!
Also, the other con was....I didn't think the cake was "lemony" enough. I have a great homemade lemon pound cake recipe that I love.... but I just didn't have time to make the cake from scratch.
(*next time).
NEXT:
Sit down for this.... cause this one ended up being the HIT PARADE.
CHOCOLATE COOKIE DOUGH CUPCAKES WITH CARMEL FROSTING
Again, you just use a box mix of either chocolate or yellow cake mix.
and mix up a package mix of Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix but omit the egg.
(so...the mix and a stick of butter)
It is crumbly - but you can roll it into small balls.
just shove the ball of cookie dough in the center of the raw batter and bake 15 minutes.
Yes, it's still gooey in the middle and that's why (*I suppose) you leave out the egg.
The frosting is the same recipe as the buttercream above, but for this one, you add 1/2 cup carmel ice cream topping.
PROS AND CONS:
I wasn't a fan of the icing. It didn't taste like carmel to me. But... we garnished the cupcakes with mini chocolate chips and I don't think anyone will care. Because when you bite into that gooey center of cookie dough...your tongue slaps your brain and says, "WOW!"
Packaging idea came from Pinterest as well.
Clear Solo drink cups
plastic sandwich bags (not the zip close ones but the fold over kind) and some ribbon
BAM!!
HAPPY SUMMER!!
FINALLY these snow days are GONE!!! WHOOP!!!
