Hey everyone!

 
 This past weekend my mom's best friend got a new puppy Oliver, so I was inspired to make some homemade doggie treats! (My two pups may have also influenced that decision...) I found a great recipe at MyLittleCupcakePop.com or HERE.
 
And I also had a cake leftover from a project in my baking class, no one was eating it so I turned it into some Cake Pops! While I was tending to the Cake Pops, my adorable neighbor Avalon totally took over the kitchen and finished the Pup Treats, along with a little help from mom.
 
the cookie cutter queen!


 
pup treats hot out of the oven.


 
made little gift bags for the other dogs in my neighborhood


 
Cake Pops!
 

 
Treats for humans and dogs!


 
Happy baking!
<3holli
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My cousin Ashley sent me this picture along with how she made them!

 
 
"I used a chocolate cake mix store bought and I bought a bag of fun size butterfinger. Made the cake as directed on box and added about half the chopped up butterfinger into the cake mix. I used vanilla frosting and used the remaining butterfinger pieces on top! "
 
Mmm I wish you didn't live so far away so I could try one!
 
<3holli
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Best Traditional, Best Original, and Best Overall.
 
Here are some pictures!
(I would like to thank Kate for the majority of these pictures, my camera had a bad day!)
 
The Cake Shop.
- Red Velvet and Orange Cranberry
 

On February 20, 2010 I was lucky enough to attend the LA Cupcake Challenge for the first time! It was at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel and my friend Kate, a fellow cupcake lover, joined me for the event! We sampled 40 mini cupcakes that were featured by 25 different bakeries! As you can tell from the picture above, I had sticky fingers pretty much the entire time. The cupcakes were judged based on three different categoris,

 
Charmed Cupcakes.
- Red Velvet and Blueberry
 

 
Big Man Bakes.
- Red Velvet (my favorite) and Carrot Cake
 

 
My Delight Cupcakery.
-Breakfast Cake and Key Lime
 

 
Hansen Cakes.
-Wedding Cupcakes
 

 
Speakeasy Sweets.
- Irish Car Bomb and Amaretto Sour
 

 
Meringue Bake Shop.
- Pretty Woman and Pigs on Tap


 
Jus Minis.
- Red Velvet and Caramel Banana
 

 
Friandise Pastries.
- Sticky Toffee Pudding and Coconut
 

 
they had the cutest headbands
 
 

Blue Cupcake.
- Sweet and Salty Vanilla and Pumpkin
 

 
PolkaTots.
- Lucky Charm and Little Penguin
 

 
BabyCakes.
-Hot Chocolate and Bananas Foster.
 
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Two Parts Sugar.
-Vanilla Throwback and Chocolate Covered Strawberry
 

 
Fairy Cakes.
- Pumpkin White Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Almond Dream
 


 We had so much fun sampling all these delicious cupcakes! Next time I'm definitely bringing something to carry all of them in. Some got squished in my box...
 

 
time to eat....
 

 

 

 
That is the look of a sugar coma.
 

 
With the Nesquik Bunny!
 

 
And I also got to meet one of my favorite bloggers, Elise from CupcakeActivist.com =]
 

 
Meringue Bake Shop was having a giveaway and Kate won! She got lots of sweet stuff, like a cupcake carrier, cupcake ring, bacon cards, an apron....
 

 
 
I can't wait to go back next year, with a cake box!
<3holli
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So I decided that I am going to start hitting up all kinds of bakeries in southern California and start up a review page! My boyfriend/assistant Dylan was sweet enough to take me to two different local bakeries this past Valentine's weekend! Lucky me =]
 
First we went to The Frosted Cupcakery in Long Beach.
 

 
I got a Red Velvet and he got the monthly flavor, Cherry Chocolate Chip! And I even got a new tshirt that says "Frosted is for Lovers" soo happy about that! =]
 

 

 

 
he likes to snap pictures of me with cupcake in my mouth....
 

 
 
 
 The NEXT day........ SusieCakes in Newport Beach.
 

 
Once again I got the Red Velvet, Dylan picked out the Peanut Butter. And we decided on a third, the Cupcake of the Month, Sugar and Spice, vanilla cake with cinnamon sugar frosting.
 

 

 
Peanut Butter.
 

 
Red Velvet
 

 
As you can probably see, our cupcakes rarely make it home...
 

 
 
My Review:
I liked the Red Velvet cupcake at The Frosted Cupcakery better than the one at SusieCakes.They both tasted good, but overall the cupcake at Frosted tasted a little bit better! Maybe cause it was Valentine's day =] It had a little less frosting than SusieCakes, which is okay with me. I'm more of a cake lover anyways! They were both very moist and very rich. Although the cupcake at SusieCakes was a little redder, I think the one at Frosted was a tad bit bigger. The Sugar and Spice cupcake was a little bit dryer than the Red Velvet, but still very delicious. The cinnamon sugar frosting was amazing! And the vanilla cake even had some cute red confetti in it.
 
Dylan's Review:
“While nothing was quite as delicious as any of the treats Holli makes, ALL of the cupcakes I go to try were incredible. One thing I really liked about both The Frosted Cupcakery and SusieCakes was that they had extremely moist cupcakes and they didn’t overflow the cupcakes with frosting like some of the other bakeries. All in all, I actually preferred the cupcakes at SusieCakes, although when I go back to Frosted to try the ice cream filled cupcakes I may have to change my mind. My favorite overall cupcake was definitely the peanut butter one from SusieCakes, but that may just be because I’m a Peanut-butter-aholic.”
 
 
 
If anyone wants to visit either of these bakeries, here is the info. More reviews coming soon!
 

 

2043 Westcliff Drive #104
Newport Beach, CA 92660 Read More...

 
 
I haven't!! And I also had too many Valentine cupcake liners laying around saying "put me to good use holli!" sooo I pretty much had to make some more cupcakes! First I made some strawberry cupcakes (from the box, don't shoot me, box cakes are legit when you're short on time....and money). But to spice these up I whipped up some heavy cream and filled them! Then I made some chocolate ganche and dipped the tops of the cupcakes. I still have a ton of ganche leftover...what to do...hmmm. Anyways, I also had a box of Valentine Funfetti cupcakes, and I topped them with Strawberry Kool-Aid flavored frosting. Amazing. They came out like this:
 

 
The process...
 

 
The Strawberry-whip-cream-chocolate-ganche cupcakes!
 

 

 
The Funfetti Strawberry Kool-Aid cupcakes!
 

 

 
My friend Mikaela from baking school was over, and she made delicious homemade lemon cupcakes with a lemon curd, and used some of my leftover whip cream for topping. The perfect sweet/sour combination! Here are some pictures of how hers turned out.
 

 

 
If you guys want to try either of these recipes at home, this is what you'll need.
 
Strawberry-Whip-Cream-Chocolate-Ganche Cupcakes
 
   For the cupcakes:
- 1 box strawberry cake mix (mine made 21 cupcakes)
 
   For the filling:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- powdered sugar, optional & to taste (I used about 1/3 cup)
 
   For the ganche:
- 8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (I used semisweet chocolate chips)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
 
Make cupcakes as directed on box, I used cute Valentine liners I found at Target.
Once cooled, put 1 cup heavy cream into a mixer, and whip until thick and peaks form. I added my powdered sugar a little bit at a time just to give it a little sweetness, you don't have to use any if you don't want to. Use a disposable piping bag with a small round tip and fill it with the whip cream. Stick it into the center of each cupcake and squeeze for about 2 seconds. I used a small offset spatula to smooth out the tops, some whipped cream oozed out the top of my cupcakes.
Then heat up the 3/4 cup heavy cream and 2 T butter in a small saucepan. Once simmering, pour over 8 oz chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Let sit for about 2 minutes, then whisk until chocolate is melted.
Dip the cupcakes, and use spinkles while chocolate is still wet, if desired.
 
Funfetti Cupcakes with Kool-Aid Frosting
 
   For the cupcakes:
- 1 box Valentine Funfetti cake mix (mine made 24 cupcakes)
 
   For the frosting:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 4 1/2 cups powered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 .14 oz packet of Strawberry Kool-Aid ( I only used 1/2 teaspoon, its VERY sweet)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
Bake cupcakes as directed on box. While cupcakes are cooling, cream butter in mixer. Alternate and slowly add powdered sugar and milk, Add vanilla and Kool-aid to taste. Be careful, it gets very sweet very fast!
Once the cupcakes are cooled, frost as desired. I used a pastry bag with a star tip to frost mine.
 
Happy Baking!
 

 
<3holli Read More...

A sweet thanks goes out to bakerella.com for this recipe! I found it a few months ago and have been DYING to try it out. I really wanted to do a red velvet cake but the Target by my house was out, so I got the next best thing, Devil's Food Chocolate! I baked it in a 13x9 pan, and while it was in the oven my cute assistant cut out hearts from the styrofoam for me =]
 

 
Once it was semi-cooled (I was a little too excited to start forming these cute little cupcakes) I crumbled it into a bowl, along with a container of cream cheese frosting.
 

 
 Once it was mixed we started forming balls and placed them on a cookie sheet.
 

 
 Put them into the freezer for a good 20-25 minutes, then started forming the cupcakes with a little 1.5" flower cookie cutter.
 

 
Back into the freezer for another 15-20 minutes. Got the melting wafers and styrofoam hearts ready while waiting.
 

 
Time for dipping!
 







 
Lets wrap these cute little things.
 

 
So cute.
 

 
These were so fun to make and I can't wait to give them to my friends & family for Valentine's Day! =]
Find the recipe HERE!
 
<3holli Read More...

Sooo my family isn't real big on football, but we had some friends over & made dinner, so I couldn't NOT make something Superbowl themed for dessert! I did something super simple.
 
First I baked a batch of dark chocolate brownies the day before!
 

 
Then some dark chocolate cupcakes...
 

 
Next I drew a little football shaped stencil, cut it out, and then used it to cut out brownie shaped footballs.
 

 
Then I whipped up some vanilla buttercream and used some to pipe the laces on the footballs.
 

 
Add some green grass buttercream and TADA!
 



 
happy baking!

<3holli Read More...

I found this Juicy cupcake charm at Macys! It was $42. They also had a really cute cupcake necklace but I couldn't have both! I needed a new keychain anyways =)

Update soon with some superbowl cupcakes!



<3holli Read More...