Friday, July 29, 2011

Nutella Cupcake Recipe

Recently I have made the transition from a point and shoot camera to a dslr camera. I purchased the Canon Eos Rebel T3, a great entry level model for us slr newbies! Even on auto mode it takes great pictures that are worth the investment. I must admit, I now shoot everything....and I do mean everthing!

I recently experimented with Nutella flavored cupcakes....who doesn't love Nutella?! It tastes like a Ferrero Rocher but that should be of no surprise as the Ferrero company produces both Nutella and their famous Ferrero Rocher candies! The cupcakes turned out yuuummy! I made a basic chocolate cupcake and filled the inside middle part with Nutella buttercream frosting. You can also fill it with just Nutella alone but I must warn you this will make the cupcake that much more heavy....you are gonna need ALOT of milk! Try buying the cow, it will be cheaper! I prefer my cupcakes a bit lighter so I filled it with the frosting as I mentioned before. You can do this one of two ways, you can take out a portion of the cupcake with your fingers (don't worry the frosting on top should cover up the mess!) or you can use a Bismarck Tip and pipe in the Nutella frosting until the cupcake plumps up a bit. Once you are done that, swirl on the frosting on top and garnish with an almond milk chocolate Lindt square.

Nutella Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce jar of Nutella
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6-8 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Directions:
1. In bowl, blend butter and Nutella until combined. Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar, and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and 4 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk. Blend on low speed until moist. Add an additional 3-5 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until you reach the desired consistency. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.

Yields enough frosting for 24 cupcakes

Monday, July 4, 2011

Sweet Shoppe Party

So for awhile I have been fascinated with Amy Atlas' work. If you do not know who she is, she is the Queen of the dessert table! You can see her work almost on any blog that speaks about candy buffets, dessert tables etc. And if you have not heard of her I suggest you do a quick google search and get ready to feast your eyes on the best eye candy you will ever see! Anyhow inspired by her lovely work I wanted to take a stab at creating my own candy buffet table for a Sweet Shoppe Party I hosted for my daughter. My color theme was hot pink, orange, yellow, and hints of blue. I loved how it turned out! The candy buffet table had a lot of vintage inspired items on it from vintage candy buttons, rock candy on a stick and strings, to wax liquid candy filled bottles. Even some of the jars I used had a semi vintage apothecary jar feel to it. I have posted more pictures for your viewing pleasure here. Should you want to host your own party and have questions on where to purchase some of these items then feel free to leave me a comment and I'll do my best to respond!