More Pancake, Bacon, and Eggs with Whipped cream and Maple Syrup cupcakes...

We made it again, and it was, undoubtedly, the most delicious savory pancakes I've ever had! These Pancake, Bacon, and Egg Cupcakes have been slightly modified this time around, and now best topped with a drizzling of real maple syrup, a squirt of whipped cream, and thick cut bacon bits. Guaranteed everyone will love it!

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Oreo Sandwich Frosting-less cupcakes, and Quad-layered Pumpkin Pie!

Oreos are so yummmm... make it fun with an Oreo sandwich cupcake. Or, get festive with a quad-layered pumkin pie cupcake (topped with a mini star shaped pie crust).

Oreo Sandwich Cupcakes:

Oreo Sandwich cupcakes -- minus the frosting for a (somewhat) lower fat cupcake (no, not really)! Just gently break apart the top and bottom of an oreo cookie, place the bottom one in the cupcake liner with cream side up.

Then fill with chocolate or white cake cupcake batter (or whatever flavor you like), and top with the other piece of oreo cookie (creme side down). Bake as you normally would (350 degrees, for about 15-18 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean).

Alternatively, you could also hold off on baking the top Oreo, and actually frost your cupcakes once they're cooled. Then place the other Oreo half, creme-side down, onto the frosting. Cute!

Pumpin Pie Stars:

See my Pumpkin Pie Poppers recipe for the basic quad-layered cupcake, and do the following:

- Roll out pie crust dough. Or, using the uncooked/remaining portions of the pie crust dough for the bottom of the cupcake...

- Take a small star cookie/stencil cutter, and cut out 2-3 dozen stars from the uncooked pie crust dough.

- Place stars on an sheet of aluminum foil, and bake in oven -- 350 degrees, 6-8 minutes (until slightly golden brown). Remove and let cool.

- Once cooled, place stars on top of cupcakes to decorate.

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New Glitter imported for my cupcakes!

It's so shiny... this glitter I had imported from the U.K. because it's not sold in America. The glitter sold here pales in comparison because this stuff, this disco glitter, is truly shimmery like an art project! I got so excited when it finally came in (that and the gold stars), I had to make a batch immediately!

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Rolando Cupcakes!

I've been wanting to make Rolando cupcakes for a while now, I mean, how perfect a shape for cupcakes! So Mary Jane at ngmoco got really excited about the idea, and commissioned me for a batch of 40 Rolando cupcakes, delivered yesterday!

And in the end, MJ and B-money made a Rolando cupcake video starring Pirate and Spikey Rolando... YAAR! Check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=532032730080

These are my first video game cupcakes. They took a bit of time, but they were certainly a lot of fun to make and a little love was sprinkled in each one!

Photos below...!

Color the fondant, mix it in good, then cut out different Rolando shapes - blue spikey one and leafy one :)

Glue all their little eyeballs, smileys, eyebrows, and accessories with some buttercream.

Rolando family...

Two boxes of big and small Rolandos.

In the future, I now have a better idea of how much timing goes into mixing colors, cutting shapes, glueing it all together, cleaning up and detailing!

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ngmoco ELIMINATE Community Day Cupcakes

ngmoco had a Community Preview event for their upcoming shooter game on the iPhone -- ELIMINATE -- and as the event planner, I made choco mini cupcakes for our wonderful out-of-town guests.

Three days of excitementfrom Sept. 15-17, that entailed an exclusive look at ELIMINATE, a stretched Hum V limo ride to the San Rafael Bullseye shooting range, dinner at Espetus Churrascaria (Brazillian steakhouse), karaoke, drinking, and cupcakes for our awesome visitors!

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Cupcakes for Kaiser

Happy Birthday Kaiser and Jen! The talented photographer and journalist, turned 30 last week, and his lovely fiancee, Jen, celebrated hers as well (2 days and 4 years apart).

Of course we had to celebrate his birthday with some cupcakes :) ! Maybe I can convince him to take over my food photography...Choco choco buttercream, Devil's Mint Chip with choco buttercream, and Orange Choco Zing!

Turns out he loves peanut butter, so next time... for sure. How can you refuse someone who single-handedly does this... to your cupcakes...?

Great job handling bizness!

Playground S.F.

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Cupcakes for XSEED

I made cupcakes for an XSEED event on Thursday night. Here's AJ Glasser (Amanda) from Kotaku, and her plate of food... she skipped the savories and went straight for 4 mini cupcakes (1 of each flavor) upon arrival! Who needs dinner anyways?

The event was so much fun! Here are some of the cupcakes prior to leaving the house...

Organic O's Cookies n Cream -- Fast becoming Kjell's favorite.

Sweet Jasmine Meets Mango

The kitchen was covered with cupcakes everywhere! Devil's Mint Chip, Ice Baby Vanilla, Organic O's Cookies n Cream, Sweet Jasmine Meets Mango... I also made a few extras... Orange You Guavaliscious? (because you are), and Orange Chocolate Zing! Wheehee... so much fun!

140 cupcakes were made for the XSEED event.

Devil's Mint Chip with fresh mint frosting

Zoom-in on Amanda Glasser's plate of food :)

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Orange You Guavalicious? and more deliveries!

What a busy week! Whew! More cupcake deliveries on Wednesday...

New flavors include:

• Orange you Guavaluscious? -- Orange and guava cake, light guava buttercream frosting
• Peanut Butternana -- old fashioned peanut butter and banana cake, peanut butter buttercream frosting, mini chocolate peanut butter cup topper!

Peanut Butter-nana (left) and Orange You Guavaluscious? (right)

A quick thought on the flavor of jasmine and guava, and how your senses perceive it...

I love guava. It's like my love for jasmine, the same type of sweet fragrance that hits your nose; not so much your tongue. I love the scent of sweetness, and when you've get a moist texture and sweet flavor on your tongue to pair with, it becomes a divine simplicity.

As you know (and as Alton Brown from "Good Eats" says), your taste buds can only really taste 5 flavors -- sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. So how do you "taste" more complex flavors? It's actually the fragrance of these foods that comes through your nose... without your sense of smell, you wouldn't really "taste" the food and seasonings. Think of when you've got a stuffy nose and food tastes bland and yuck!

Sweet Jasmine Meets Mango

So, I've realized this early on when my bf was tasting my first batch of jasmine mango cupcakes, and now it's confirmed after some feedback from taster friends. When it comes to cupcakes, and depending on the situation or person, not everyone can "taste" the jasmine or guava. If you're putting the whole thing in your mouth, following it immediately with a drink or another cupcake, or if you're engaged in a conversation or other activity where focus isn't placed on the act of eating, then there's a good chance you will miss the jasmine flavor. (I repeat) Miss the jasmine flavor, completely. Since it's more aromatic than it is a flavor that can be tasted, if you have a slightly stuffy nose, you might be in the same boat.

Haha, so aromatic cupcakes has actually become a quite interesting experiment and study on taste and senses. All the more reason why I think the name "Sweet Jasmine Meets Mango" plays on the aroma and tastes of the cupcake itself.

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Cupcake Delivery!

I did my first official cupcake sample drop yesterday! I went to three locations along the Peninsula visiting the wonderful folks at JVST, Koei, and IGN. I'll be doing more throughout this week!

I delivered three flavors: Choco Cream Cheese; Devil's Mint Chip with Fresh Mint Frosting; and Orange you Chocolate, Chocolate? Included in the box was a little list of flavors, and my business card.

I also put together a dozen individual tiny boxes with cupcakes for folks to take home to their loved ones to share! :)

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New Mini Cupcake Boxes!

I got my new mini cupcake boxes earlier this week! Yay!

Cupcakes pictured: Sweet Jasmine Meets Mango, Organic O's Cookies n Cream,

Decadent Almond Coconut Crunch, Almond Crunch.

Too bad they don't fit perfectly. The holes are too big, so the cupcake falls through. Grrr. I guess tissue paper will have to do to fill the gaps for now.

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A Dragon in my Cupcake?

My next cupcake ingredient... hot pink dragonfruit! ...maybe.

This fluorescent hot pink magenta color would put any 80's hypercolor to shame. I am so not even kidding about this color -- the colors in these photos were not Photoshop-ed, just straight up as the fruit bore it.

I event put myself in the pic to prove it's actually this color... It's like a flourescent pink kiwi fruit (has the same little black seeds). But it tastes a little veggie like.

Wikipedia has a nice photo of what the whole dragonfruit looks like. It's actually a really pretty fruit.

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Diet Soda Cupcakes

I can't believe you can make cupcakes/cake using diet soda in place of eggs, water and oil for box mixes! It's a lower fat, lower cholesterol, and lower carb substitute for any standard box cake mix... And it works (I tried it a few weeks ago)... the cupcake actually gets pretty moist.

The only thing is, I'm not a fan of fake sugar -- nutrasweet, etc. -- so if you are sensitive to that taste, you can slightly taste it. But I think it might be only because I know it's there.

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Pancake and Bacon Cupcakes

Pancake cupcakes. Seriously what?!

Oh but get this -- Moist chopped apple pancake, layered with fluffy scrambled egg, and topped with crispy butcher-cut bacon and maple syrup... oh now THIS is to die for...

Chop half an apple into small pieces to combine into batter. You can cut thin apple slices with the other half and place on top to bake.

Mix apples into batter, and pour into cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Though it's not shown here, in a seperate bowl, mix 3 eggs and 3 tbsp milk until well combined. Then gently pour a little of the egg and milk mixture into each of the cups, on top of the pancake batter.

Bake in the oven 325 degrees for about 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Meanwhile, microwave yourself some crispy, butcher-style thick cut bacon. Place 6 bacon strips on top of a paper towel, on a microwave-safe plate. Cover the bacon with another paper towel to prevent splatter. Microwave for 4 minutes. Check to make sure bacon isn't sticking to paper towels. If they are, peel them off, and replace with fresh paper towels. Microwave again for about 1-2 minutes. Remove from microwave, and set bacon aside on top of dry paper towels.

Once the cupcakes are done, take them out of the oven, and place in the oven warmer, or warm area in the kitchen (stove top).

Break up the bacon strips into little bits. Place a bunch of bits on top of your cupcakes, and serve with maple syrup when eating.

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