Sunday, November 22, 2009

We passed and peppermints!!!

The good vibes, prayers, well wishes - they worked people!!! My kitchen passed inspection with flying colors! redvelvetcupcakes is officially licensed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. It feels awesome to have finally reached this point. It has been such a long and winding road to get to this point, but I know this is just the beginning of my journey. Now I can truly begin to live my dream - thanks for coming along for the ride.

As promised, I've been working on some yummy Christmas flavors. I've decided to focus on Gingerbread and Vanilla Peppermint. Oh wait, you say its too early to talk about Christmas when we haven't even reached Thanksgiving yet? Well, Target told me it was Christmas time three weeks ago when I was attempting to purchase some last minute Halloween items for my daughter's class party. It was October 30th and there was nothing Halloween related in store - garland was hanging from the ceilings along with those giant snowflakes, and Winter Wonderland was playing over the loudspeakers. The retailers skip over Thanksgiving it seems! But I digress, and again reiterate that its not to early to get in the Christmas mood!


Today, we're going to focus on Vanilla Peppermint. I must admit, I do not like peppermint. Yes, I realize that I've done a couple of posts abouts foods that I don't particularly like in their true form (sweet potatoes and pumpkin), or in any other form for that matter - but I do love them in a cupcake! Well, I am going to continue that tradition today. Now don't you worry I'm not going to make it a trend - we're not going to to a tomato cupcake or something crazy like that (some of you might like that - but tomatoes are one of those foods I won't eat whole, sliced or diced, but I love its "offspring" - ketchup, salsa, spaghetti sauce - you get the picture). My inspiration for this one came from the iconic candy cane. When you see it in the stores, you know its the Christmas season! Alas, I was always so annoyed whenever I went to the doctor's office or a friend's home around the holiday's and they happily gave me a red and white candy cane as a Christmas token. I always ended up giving it to my mom or brother....leaving me with nothing. Had they passed one of these babies out I think I may have had better peppermint memories as a child!

Seriously, I've made you wait long enough.......


The Vanilla Peppermint cupcake paired with vanilla peppermint frosting, topped with crushed candy canes. I know I say this about all of my cupcakes, but this one is really quite good. The vanilla is the perfect addition to both the cupcake and the frosting and cuts the "mintiness" of the peppermint just enough. We don't want a cupcake that tastes like peppermint mouthwash do we? Well, I don't anyway. This cupcake isn't too sweet, and has the classic peppermint flavor without being overpowering.


This is a perfect holiday cupcake.....why not try something a little different. If you like peppermint, this is the cupcake for you.

Until next time, spreading happiness one cupcake at a time!

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Unassuming Sweet Potato

First things first - Wednesday is my big day with the Michigan Department of Agriculture! My kitchen gets inspected. Please send me good luck vibes people. I need things to go well so that I can be licensed and get this cupcake show on the road! STAY TUNED! So, on to the good stuff.

So, I have never been impressed with the sweet potato. I mean really, look at it, nothing really special about it.


When I was a kid we would have baked sweet potatoes with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg maybe twice a year - mom or granny would make them for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. I would always take the obligatory piece and eat in between my collard greens and macaroni and cheese. Not that I didn't like it, but it really was not an essential part of my holiday plate. And my dessert never included the sweet potato pie - something about the texture....just reminded me of baby food in a pie shell.

Later, there was this big sweet potato kick, remember? All of a sudden at your favorite restaurant you could get a baked sweet potato with cinnamon as a healthy alternative to a loaded baked russett potato (like there is any comparison whatsoever). There was mashed sweet potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and sweet potato fries (which I actually enjoy with lots of salt).

I know that my ambivalence towards the sweet potato puts me in the minority. Most people I know actually love the orange root vegetable, and can't imagine Thanksgiving or Christmas without it, in some form. So, in order to please all of my beloved customers I decided to attempt to transform the sweet potato into something that everyone enjoys...a cupcake! From average looking sweet potato into this

Sexy! Talk about a makeover, right!? Sweet potato cupcakes paired with brown sugar cream cheese frosting sprinkled with roasted pecans. So incredibly moist, flavorful, and yummy.....I have a new found respect for that ol' sweet potater!

Oh yeah, sweet potato cupcake babies

How cute is the little sugar turkey! Perfect for your holiday table.

An up close and personal view of these little guys. Even my super picky daughter who ONLY likes chocolate cupcakes ate one of these cupcakes and proclaimed it "good!" - a huge compliment coming from her, trust me.

Alas, this will be the last of my Thanksgiving cupcake postings - seriously, you have more than enough options to choose from by now - the pumpkin cupcakes, pecan pie cupcakes, and sweet potato cupcakes. If you can't choose, then order a dozen of each. What the heck, its the holidays! Its not too late to place your order for Thanksgiving (next Thursday people!)

Special Christmas cupcakes will be coming soon....think Gingerbread and Vanilla Peppermint.

Until next time, spreading happiness one cupcake at a time...........

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Secret Cupcakes

I've missed my little blog. Its been over a week since I've written and I feel terrible. I must do better, I will do better. Do you forgive me? Thank you. No excuses, but it has been a hugely busy week for redvelvetcupcakes! I finally got the call that I have been waiting for from the Michigan Department of Agriculture. My kitchen gets inspected next week, and then if all goes well......drumroll please, I GET MY LICENSE! I've been working on getting licensed in some shape or form for almost a year now, and my time is finally here. In addition, my lease will be signed this week too......I'm so close to being in business (officially) I can almost taste it- and yep, you guessed right, it tastes like CUPCAKES!

Soooooooo, I made cupcakes and delivered them to a secret location this week. I know, why even tell you about the delivery if I can't tell you who they were for! Well, because I needed a reason to show you this...
our signature red velvet cupcakes paired with whipped cream cheese frosting and red velvet crumbles. And this too
Vanilla bean cupcakes paired with vanilla bean icing....you do see the flecks of real vanilla bean in the cupcake AND the frosting don't you? Oh yeah, sweet chocolate cupcakes paired with chocolate fudge ganache and a vanilla bean dollop are peeking out in the background.

I was told by the people at the secret location that the cupcakes were AWESOME! I'm hoping that I will get more business from these people. One day soon I will reveal the secret of the cupcake delivery, for now just relax and enjoy the pics of these yummy cupcakes. Its gonna be a busy weekend for us - we're doing strawberry cupcakes paired with strawberry buttercream, red velvet, sweet chocolate, vanilla bean, and pumpkin. Stay tuned for pictures.

Until next time, spreading happiness one cupcake at a time.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Mocha.....

So, its been a busy enough week for us here at redvelvetcupcakes. Getting really close to signing the lease for the kitchen, received an insurance quote, and made some contacts with people who are very interested in our cupcakes for their upcoming events. Good news for us! Enough with the updates, moving on to why you came, cupcakes.

Ok, so I'm a tea drinker - always have been. I probably drink about three cups of tea with sugar and milk a day. When I go to Starbucks - I get tea lattes (I was super excited when they came out with those, yummy!) In college, I tried to drink coffee at the cafes on campus - the best I could do was a cafe au lait, basically milk with a little coffee in it. The way I see it there are three types of people - those who love coffee, those who hate coffee, or those who don't drink coffee, but like coffee flavor! Coffee ice cream, coffee candy, coffee yogurt.........coffee cupcakes + chocolate = MOCHA CUPCAKES! Yes, I have something for that person who falls into the first and third categories (sorry coffee haters, the green tea cupcake posting will be for you, and I'm still working on a chai tea cupcake....stay tuned).


Yummy. Please ignore the lighting....I need a better camera and some photography lessons apparently, regardless the yum comes through, right? The perfectly rich chocolate fudge ganache. Oh, you want to see if its really as delicious as I say, moist, tender, and chocolatey coffee goodness. Fine, but don't drool on your keyboard.

Satisfied? Now you want one right now, don't you. Seriously, these cupcakes are perfect. The coffee and chocolate flavors blend together flawlessly. The ganache on top, just melts in your mouth. Available now from redvelvetcupcakes.

Until next time, spreading happiness one cupcake at a time.