Hey Baby! Cupcakes holiday cupcake orders

Last year as many of you may know, I started a small cupcake catering business called 

Hey Baby! Cupcakes.

This holiday season I'm offering a 

chocolate cupcake with peppermint candy cane swirled buttercream

for the same price as a dozen of my classic flavors,

$20!

Chocolate with Vanilla Bean Buttercream $20 a dozen

Vanilla with Vanilla Bean Buttercream $20 a dozen

Red Velvet with Vanilla Bean Buttercream $20 a dozen

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Buttercream $25 a dozen

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream $25 a dozen

Chocolate Mocha with Espresso Buttercream $25 a dozen

$30 a dozen for customized specialty flavors

I'm accepting orders now for December if you live in the Bloomington/Normal area.

Simply email me at heybabycupcakes@gmail.com 

to place your cupcake order :)

Notre petit homme! The best baking adventure ever!

April 30th 2011 our little man decided it was time to bust outta the joint :)

A whole month early!

And he is the best most amazing thing I have ever "baked" up!

Mommy and daddy love you sooooo much bubba bear baby meatloaf!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

Yum! Juicy lucys!

So if you're obsessed like me with the Cooking Channel or Food Network or the Travel channel, especially Man v. Food, you'll know exactly what these yummy gooey cheese filled burgers are. 

Juicy lucys!

Back in March during my second trimester, I was craving a nice juicy cheeseburger or maybe Little Man was the one craving it :) Either way I was wanting a burger, but I still couldn't stand the smell of raw meat, so my BSM told me to stand aside because he was going to make some juicy lucys like on MvF. Yea!!

And let me tell you, it was AMAZING!

They were packed full of sharp cheddar cheese and we piled on lettuce and onion. 
Yum yum :)

This really was super easy to make. Just take whatever kind of hamburger you'd normally make and add your favorite cheese to the middle. Seal it up and throw it in a pan on the stove or the grill. Then put it on  a bun and dress it up with lettuce or onion or pickles or avacado or more cheese or bacon or a fried egg with a slightly runny yolk OR

ALL OF THE ABOVE! LOL

Our Burger Recipe

12 ounces ground chuck

1 egg

1 packet Lipton soup mix

salt & pepper

4-5 Tbsp. worchestershire sauce

1. Heat your pan over medium heat.

2. In a bowl combine your beef, egg, soup mix, worchestershire sauce, and 

a few dashes of salt & pepper.
3. Form 6-8 patties depending on how big you like your burgers. Make a little indent in the middle of half the patties. Fill with cheese and top with the other patty. Seal and place in your pan or on the grill.

4. Cook for about 6-8 minutes on each side. 

5. Serve on toasted buns with your favorite condiments and toppings.

6. Dig in and enjoy :)

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

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PB Cookie & Red Velvet Love Cups

Our Valentine's Day this past February was a bit low key. No sushi or saki this year :( 

Being 6 months pregnant kinda puts the kabosh on raw fish and alcohol. Our little man was totally worth it though :) Plus my BSM made us juicy lucys instead! YUM! (post to follow soon)

AND we had cookie cups AND red velvet cupcakes!

AND those delicious red chewy gummy hearts! Sugar overload! 

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups with PB M&Ms

makes 2 dozen mini cookie cups

1 cup peanut butter (whatever your favorite kind is)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 bag peanut butter m&ms

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Line your mini cupcake pan with mini liners or if you don't want to use liners just spray it with some non-stick spray.

2. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer or a good ol' spoon, mix all ingredients together. Since these are mini cookie cups, feel free to cut the m&ms in half before adding them to the cookie dough.

3. Once everything is combined, start pinching off small pieces of dough and press into your liners.

4. Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. Cookies should look light golden brown.

5. Let cool on a rack and enjoy :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

*makes 3 dozen cupcakes

Adapted from Annie's Eats

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
*1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. distilled vinegar
*1 oz jar of red gel food coloring

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line your cupcake pans with liners or if you'd rather not use liners spray with non-stick spray. Set aside.
2. Combine your flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer or with a large bowl and hand mixer, beat your eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring. Beat on medium speed until they're well blended.
4. On low speed, slowly add the dry ingredient mixture until the batter is smooth.
5. Fill each liner halfway. (I only fill them halfway because I like my cupcake tops to be even with the top of the liners.)
6. Bake for about 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Then place on a wire rack to cool.
7. Once cupcakes have cooled frost with cream cheese frosting or buttercream. Or whatever frosting your little heart desires. I love cream cheese so that's what I use. Recipe can be found in this post.


*Notes: If you don't have buttermilk you can use regular milk with a tablespoon of vinegar added. Stir and let sit for about 10 minutes.
You can use any kind of gel food coloring you like to make pink or green or blue velvet. I've found that the gel coloring works the best. 


Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting found HERE.

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

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Ho Ho Ho! Nutmeg Logs!

We had finally made it out of the first trimester. Yea!
The nausea had disappeared. Yea!
Shared our baby news with family and friends. Yea!
Office Christmas cookie exchange. Yea!

I actually made three, maybe four, different cookies. 
But for some reason these were the only ones I took a picture of :(
We'll just blame it on all the crazy pregnancy hormones back then :)
This December though I'll be a cookie bakin', photo takin' machine! lol

Nutmeg Logs
Adapted from my mom's recipe :)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean
5 teaspoons rum
6 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment or silpats. 
2. In a large bowl, sift together your flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
3. In another large bowl or stand mixer, cream together your butter and sugar. Add your eggs one at a time. Then add your vanilla and rum. 
4. Gradually add your dry mixture.
5. Pull off small chunks of dough to form into little 2-3 inch long logs.
(you could also roll out your dough and cut into little logs)
6. Place logs about an inch apart on your lined baking sheets.
7. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until logs start to turn a light golden brown around the edges.
8. Let cool completely on cookie racks.


Rum Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 - 2 cups of powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp rum

1. Cream your butter, vanilla, and rum together.
2. Slowly add your powdered sugar. Gotta avoid that sugar cloud :)
3. Frosting should be smooth, but not runny. If it's looking a little thin add a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar until it thickens up.
4. Take a spoon (or your finger hehehe) to make sure it has that slight rum flavor.
5. Once your cookies have cooled, frost and sprinkle with nutmeg. 
These cookies should have that eggnog holiday flavor to them. Yum!


Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

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Giving Thanks for the END of the First Trimester with some Chocolate Crinkles!

*sigh with relief*

As my first trimester ended that is what I felt. Relief. Followed quickly by "mmm where's a cheeseburger?" 

LOL :)

Quite frankly I'm not sure what I would have done if there had been all day puking instead of all day nausea. Probably would've walked around with one of those grain feed bags attached to me just in case there wasn't a garbage can near. 

You know, like the kind that horses use.

And so now that you have that glorious image in your head, here are the delicious chocolate crinkles I made to celebrate the end of nausea. Yea!!

Chocolate Crinkles

(adapted from Babble)

makes about 2 dozen

1 1/3 cups of flour (I used white whole wheat pastry flour)

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup softened butter (I've used plain non-fat yogurt)

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

powdered sugar for rolling

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Line your cookie sheets with non-stick foil or silpats, if you have them. And put some powdered sugar in a small shallow dish, set aside.

2. Mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Add your softened butter (or yogurt) and mix until combined.

4. Add your eggs and vanilla. After this point I use my hands to mix it the rest of the way.

5. Roll your dough into balls about the size of a ping pong ball. Roll each one in the powdered sugar and place on the baking sheets.

6. Bake for about 10-12 mins. You want the cookie to be set around the edges, but still soft and fudgy in the middle. Yum :)

7. Cool on cookie racks and enjoy! Or if you're like me you'll grab a glass of cold milk and eat them fresh out of the oven :)

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

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Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Peanut Butter Buttercream

I LOVE cake! I LOVE cookies! 
Hmmm, I'm thinkin' whoopie pies! With peanut butter buttercream of course. Duh :p

During my first trimester I was incredibly nauseous all day every day. Ugh :(
And to make matters worse (you may want to sit down for this) I didn't crave or want ANY sweets! The whole 8 months (our lil man came 4 weeks early, cuz that's how he rolls) if someone offered me anything sweet like cookies or candy, I would almost always pass on the offer. Sacrilege, I know. And on the rare occasion that I felt good enough to do anything, that anything always was baking. Oh and I probably consumed about half a dozen of the large jars of Jif while I was with child :) Because peanut butter was the one thing I could eat every day.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
makes 2 dozen sandwiches
(adapted from Martha Stewart)

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 Tbsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup brown sugar & 1 cup regular sugar)
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk (I used skim milk mixed with 2 Tbsp vinegar)
2 tsp. vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 400. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper, non-stick foil, or if you have them, Silpats. 
2. In a medium bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl or your stand mixer, cream your butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add your eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat until everything is combined.
4. Add your dry ingredients slowly, but try not to over beat. 
5. With a cookie dough scoop or two big spoons, place batter on your lined baking sheets. Remember they will spread a little as they bake so place about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on a rack before filling.

Peanut Butter Buttercream aka Heaven
recipe by Me :)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (any brand you prefer)
3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbsp. milk


1. With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together your butter and peanut butter until lump free.
2. Add your vanilla and milk.
3. Slowly add your sifted powdered sugar and beat until smooth and deliciously creamy. Yummy :)
4. Now fill your whoopie pies!
5. Lick the bowl :)

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

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Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

The next couple of posts are going to be recipes from my previous post of pictures from the last year. Yea! First up are the vanilla bean cupcakes I made last August. These were test cupcakes for my sister's wedding celebration for when her and my brother-in-law get back from Afghanistan in December. And since she wasn't here to taste them I got to frost them with cream cheese frosting! My favorite! Because let's be honest, everything is better with cream cheese frosting. My sister, Rose, is one of those weirdos who does not like cream cheese frosting. She is also one of those weirdos that used to sit under our kitchen table as a toddler and eat butter. Ewwww!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

(Adapted from The Comfort of Cooking)

1 1/3 cups of flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup of butter (I used non-fat plain yogurt)

1 cup of sugar (I used 1/2 cup)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla (I used 1 tsp + 2 vanilla bean pods)

1 cup buttermilk (I used skim milk w/ 1 Tbsp. vinegar)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line your cupcake pans with liners or grease and flour them.

2. Sift together your dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

3. With a mixer or by hand, combine the yogurt and sugar. Add in your egg, the vanilla, and the vanilla beans until nice and smooth :)

4. Alternate adding your dry ingredients and milk to your wet mixture.

5. Fill your cupcake liners 1/2 to 3/4 full, depending on how big of a top you like your cupcakes to have. I prefer mine to come exactly even with the top of the liner, so I only fill mine 1/2 full.

6. Bake for about 12-15 mins. Check with a toothpick at 12 mins. They should have a slight golden color to them. Yum :)

7. Let them cool for about an hour or so before frosting.

*Recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes, but if you fill your liners only half ways you can get about 18.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe by Me :)

12 ounces of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened (or you can be bad and use regular. I won't tell :)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

4-5 cups of powdered sugar

2-3 vanilla beans (I love vanilla so I used 3)

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

*2 Tbsp. milk or half/half if the frosting seems a little dry

1. With a paddle attachment or regular hand mixer, whip your cream cheese and butter together. Add you vanilla extract and the seeds from your vanilla beans.

2. Mix in your powdered sugar about a cup at a time to avoid the powdered sugar cloud :)

3. Once all your powdered sugar has been added, if the frosting seems a little too stiff to pipe go ahead and add the milk or half/half. I've made my frosting with and without it and both ways are delicious!

4. Now frost away!

Since my BSM (Big Sexy Man) doesn't have a huge sweet tooth like me, he ate maybe 2 and I ate like 2 a day! 

What can I say, I LOVE cupcakes!

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

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This absent blogger's past year, as told by pictures!

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

February 2011

February 2011

February 2011

March 2011

March 2011

April 2011

April 30, 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure :)

No food :( Big news :)

So what is the deal?

I'm blogging, I'm not blogging, I'm blogging, I'm not blogging.

Well, I think we are finally in the safe zone to where we can finally start to let more people know that.....

we are having one of these!

No not a bee! A baby! Isn't my niece such a cutie pie?

I feel like she is thinking, "I will sting you if you do not release me NOW!"

Anyways, I'll be 4 months next week and am still having all day nausea. Which has been such a pain because I love to bake and cook and for the last couple of months I've done neither, except to boil water for pasta. So I apologize to the wonderful readers of my blog. With Christmas fast approaching I'm trying to psych myself up for holiday baking. Yea! So please don't lose faith in me yet.

And while you wait, definitely check out This Just In. Gnightgirl and I met backstage at a Jason Aldean concert back in October while waiting to get a photo with the man himself. (My BSM won us free tickets and backstage passes!) How cool to run into another blogger just standing in line for a photo! She was even awesome enough to send a shout out to my blog. I'm just sorry it's taken me so long to get on here and link to her blog, or actually blogs plural because she has several. So go check her out!

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

Daring Bakers and some sugar cookie pops from The Swamp! Go Gators!

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Thank you Mandy for our first challenge of the fall! It's always so much fun when a recipe is chosen that basically gives you a blank canvas to get super creative with decorating your challenge. The only two things that were a must for this challenge was the sugar cookie recipe and our cookies had to be September themed. Or to be more exact, what we think of when we think of September. In our house September means one thing, Gator season starts! No I don't mean hunting gators. Although my BSM (Big Sexy Man) and I do enjoy some good gator meat every now and then. Not on game days though because we wouldn't wanna jinx em or anything. Duh! So anyways I obviously mean college football starts. Every Saturday from now to December is dedicated to football. BSM wears one of his many Gator t-shirts or hoodies. I too gear up with a t-shirt or my fav Gator hoodie and of course I ALWAYS wear,

drumroll please,

Gator underwear!

Not actual made of gators underwear, but cute lil boyshorts in blue and orange with the signature Gator symbol on them. Go ahead and laugh, but every time I wear em they win. So there! Well now that you know what kinda panties I wear every Saturday I guess we'll move straight on to the recipe. As you can see I chose to make mine into sugar cookie pops. Yum!

Preparation Time

30 minutes: Making dough & rolling
1 hour min: Refrigeration
8-15 minutes: Baking per tray depending on size of cookies

Basic Sugar Cookies

Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies


200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean


Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming creamy in texture.
• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during baking, losing their shape.
• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid flour flying everywhere.
• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.
• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
• Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated cookies can last up to a month.

Royal Icing

315g – 375g / 11oz – 13oz / 2½ - 3 cups Icing / Confectioner’s / Powdered Sugar, unsifted
2 Large Egg Whites
10ml / 2 tsp Lemon Juice
5ml / 1 tsp Almond Extract, optional


Directions
• Beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined.
• Tip: It’s important that the bowls/spoons/spatulas and beaters you use are thoroughly cleaned and grease free.
• Sift the icing sugar to remove lumps and add it to the egg whites.
• Tip: I’ve listed 2 amounts of icing sugar, the lesser amount is good for a flooding consistency, and the larger amount is for outlining, but you can add even more for a much thicker consistency good for writing. If you add too much icing sugar or would like to make a thinner consistency, add very small amounts of water, a few drops at a time, until you reach the consistency you need.
• Beat on low until combined and smooth.
• Use immediately or keep in an airtight container.
• Tip: Royal Icing starts to harden as soon as it’s in contact with air so make sure to cover containers with plastic wrap while not in use.

Decorating Your Cookies: Royal Icing

The most important thing when it comes to decorating with Royal Icing is the consistency.
There are two ways of flooding your cookies. Some like to do the outline with a thicker icing and then flood with a thinner icing. Some like to use the same icing to do both which saves time and you don’t have to have two different piping bags for each colour you’re using.


The Same Consistency Method
Consistency:
• Mix your royal icing according to the recipe/instructions
• Drag a knife through the surface of the Royal Icing and count to 10
• If the surface becomes smooth between 5 & 10 seconds, the icing is at the correct consistency.
• Tip: If your icing is too thick, thin it by adding a few drops of water. Mix, do the 10 second test, then if it’s still too thick, add a few more drops of water, repeat, etc.
• Tip: To thicken your icing, add small amounts of icing sugar until thick enough for the 10 second test.


Two Different Consistencies Method
Consistency:
• Mix your royal icing according to the recipe/instructions.
• Separate into 2 different bowls, one lot of icing for outlining, the other for flooding.
• For the outlining icing, drag a knife through the surface of the Royal Icing.
• If the surface becomes smooth at around 10 seconds, the icing is at the correct consistency.
• Tip: If your icing is too thick, thin it by adding a few drops of water. Mix, count to 10 seconds, then if it’s still too thick, add a few more drops of water, repeat, etc.
• Tip: To thicken your icing, add small amounts of icing sugar until thick enough for the 10 second test.
• For the flooding/filling icing, drag a knife through the surface of the Royal Icing.
• If the surface becomes smooth at around 3-4 seconds, the icing is at the correct consistency.
• Tip: If your icing is too thick, thin it by adding a few drops of water. Mix, count to 3-4 seconds, then if it’s still too thick, add a few more drops of water, repeat, etc.
• Tip: To thicken your icing, add small amounts of icing sugar until thick enough for the 3-4 second test.

This Saturday the Crimson Tide better be prepared because The Swamp is comin to Bama!

Go Gators!!!

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

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