Made these yesterday for superbowl!

Congrats Giants on your win!

Wow, hi, hey. Where the hell have IIII been? I'm completely aware its been about

7 years since I posted a recipe here, but I am back in the swing of things! The month

of June was a nutty one for me. So many birthdays, bbq's, and vacation planning.

Speaking of BBQ's, I made these little numbers for a recent one that we went too last week.

I sometimes feel like I need to bring the best dessert, and all other desserts must be less astonishing 

as mine. Yes this is what goes through my head at night. Its probably a sickness, but I like my dessert

too be the showstoppa. So, I took to the internet and looked for some ideas. I saw a picture of 

little cakes that looked like burgers and was immediately intrigued. I just had to make them.

Bake yourself up a batch of cupcakes. You can make them really thin so that you don't have to cut them in half, or you can make mondo ones and slice them. I prefer mondo. Be sure to make some chocolate ones as well for the "meat". You can just add cocoa powder to the left over white mix.

Once fully baked and cooled, remove wrappers. I suggest putting them in the frig to make sure they are extra cool. You don't want them to break apart when you remove the liner.

Take a chocolate cupcake, and slice it in half. These will be your "burger". Cut up as many as you need.

You can also start to cut up your mondo "buns" at this point.

Prepare your icing, or use the canned stuff. Color 1 part green, 1 part red, and 1 part yellow. I actually didn't have red coloring on hand. I know, shocking. So I just used pink and yelled at all the people who made fun of me.

The green will be your lettuce. The red, your ketchup - and the yellow, your mustard.

You won't need a tip for the red & yellow. Just snip the end. For the "lettuce", you're gonna wanna use a leaf tip to get the right effect.

Dollop some frosting onto 1 slice of a cut cupcake, and stick your chocolate burger right on. Make sure it is secure.

Using your leaf tip, wiggle around in a circle to give it that rigid lettuce look.

Continue with your "ketchup" and "mustard" going around in a circle on top of your lettuce.

Of course you can go in any order you like, this is just what I felt like doing.

Pop on another half of the cupcake, or a small thin one. Wet your finger with some water and sprinkle on a few seeds for a more realistic feel.

Place them on a pan, cutting board, or any flat surface and refrigerate them for a few hour. Over night is best.

How cute are they???? Sure to be the life of your next BBQ! Show off your skillz, and make

all your friends jealous!

Yesterday was my aunts birthday, so of course I had to make cupcakes. Lately, I'm finding any 

little excuse to whip up a batch and let my creative flow. Its sunny out? I guess we need cupcakes. 

Its raining out? I guess we need cupcakes. End of the world? Looks like we need cupcakes.

But - not only was it a special occasion - one of my amazing followers, Lauren, whom I've adopted 

as my Internet Mommy, sent me the cuuutest baking cups. 

Flower petals + cupcakes? Really? How didn't I think of such an amazing concept. Its genius.

I loved them from the moment I opened the box, so I just haaaaad to use them right away.

I whipped up some green buttercream frosting and piped away.

(Piping tutorial: HERE)

I had these gorgeous sugar flowers left over from a previous project and knew I had to use them on top.

Aren't they freakin' adorable??? I can't.

The only annoying part is actually filling the cups. You have to make sure you hit dead center, so nothing drips down the side. As you can see, it happened to me a few times. And as you can see, parts of the paper burnt. But - I have learned my lesson and will try these again.

Ok..  just stare at them with me some more.

Alright, I'm done here.

What do you get when you mix chocolate, cupcakes, and strawberries? In my case - breakfast, lunch, 

and dinner. But in the normal world, you get a delectable dessert that everybody will enjoy.

I woke up today and thought: I should make something mexican in honor of Cinco De Mayo.

Somewhere along the lines of tequila and margaritas (and maybe a few) I somehow decided 

upon cupcakes having absolutely nothing to do with Mexican culture. 

My mind really works in interesting ways.

Take your box mix and pour it into a nice big shiny bowl. I often get asked why I always use box mix instead of whipping up my own batch. We'll I could use the ol' excuse "My kids are hungry, I need to help them with homework. Theres laundry piling up, and I haven't vacuumed in over a month."

I could use that excuse. Except - I have no kids, theres no homework to be done, and I've already trained my guy to do the laundry. The vacuum part is true, though. I can't stand doing it. Wait.. what are we talking about again?

Oh right.. cupcakes. Once you get all your ingredients in, mix it up with a hand mixer. You could of course just use a spoon, but you'll need a llllllllllllllllllot of elbow grease. 

Line your cupcake tin and fill those suckers up a little more then 1/2 way.

I think the only reason I chose to make these cupcakes today, was because I've been dying to use my

pretty little brown liners I bought on Etsy. I have no clue who the seller was - but they are amazing and I cherish them every day of my life.

Now this part is totally optionally, and when I say optionally, I really mean - your cupcakes won't taste as good as mine if you skip this step. But no pressure.

Place a melt ( I used pink to match ) in the center of your cupcake.

Now I'm highly aware these came out looking like sunburnt boobies. Please don't remind me

like everyone else in my existence who saw these at my house.

Ok.. you can laugh at me. I probably deserve it.

Pop em in the oven at 350 for around 20 minutes. Check at the 18 minute mark just to make sure.

Now you should know by now if you follow my recipes that we ALWAYS have left over cake mix. 

Which of course means - another little project. Put the remaining mix into a pan and cook it up. 

Store that cake in plastic wrap for a rainy day.

Is it just me or does the sight of freshly baked cupcakes instantly make you feel happy?

 I'm gonna be using this handy little guy today. Compliments of my dearest boyfriend who saw this at PathMark and thought I'd might enjoy it. How did he know chocolate frosting with an extremely convenient tip was the way into my heart??? Train them to do the laundry and they suddenly know everything.

Again - this part is optional, but we all know what that means. 

You can totally use a fancy insert tip on a piping gun/bag. I figured if I didn't have to dirty

my icing gun, I wouldn't. So I just stuck the tip of this guy right in the center of my cupcake. 

Puncture a whole, and squeeze some chocolate frosting in the center. In the end I realized I really didn't go down deep enough, and you were barely able to tell anything was in the middle.

Don't be me, and get down and dirty in there.

- Ok, now they look like tan boobies - 

Get your strawberries out. Remember a clean strawberry is a happy strawberry.

I'm not gonna lie I was totally nervous to try this thing out. Something about pre-tipped frosting cans

freak me out, and I wasn't ready to let go of my wilton icing gun.

So I started..

And I started.. and started.. and swirled

And.. wow.. they look pretty good.

Not bad for $4.

Cut up your strawberries in half, and then in another half resulting in 4's.

Place a slice on top of your cuppy cake in any position you'd like. You can kinda get creative here

and just go nutso.

A slice here, slice there. They're AA-LOOKIN good!

So this is what my day looked like -

I think I'll end it with a nice bite. 

Try it out. 

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