Week 14: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Caramel Glaze

I found this recipe in the "Baking from the Heart" cookbook.
The gingerbread is dense and moist, just the right combination of ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. And, the caramel sauce was pretty easy...just standing at the stove stirring for about 10 minutes.

One bite and you'll be hooked...just like my dog, Layla!

Recipe Downloads:
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Caution: Adult at Play!

Just for phun I designed a 52 Cupcakes logo and opened a "store" on CafePress. Items include a baseball hat, an apron, tee shirt, mug...too much phun!

Week 10 Cinnamon Toast Cupcake Recipe is Posted!

Cinnamon Toast Cupcake Recipe Downloads: PDF | WORD | TEXT

Week 13: Blueberry Rose Cupcakes

This is a great summertime cupcake! The fresh blueberries and rose water give it an awesome flavor and the whipped cream is delicious! I was nervous about making the whipped cream, but it turned out to be pretty simple.

Ymmmm...And, I've already decided what I'm going to do next week: Gingerbread cupcakes with Caramel Glaze!





Recipe Downloads:
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Week 12: Camp Cupcakes

This week I am on vacation at our family camp in Skaneateles, New York. It's about 90 degrees here, but I knew I had to do my cupcakes! What fun. I wanted them make them "camp-like"...the name of our camp is "The Pines" because it's surrounded by pine trees! So I found little tiny pine cones to decorate the cupcakes with. The cupcakes are vanilla with vanilla icing (with just a hint of almond).

Here is the recipe (which is from cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. She calls them Spring Bouquet Cupcakes

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Cute Cupcake Card

I found this cute cupcake note card today at Anthropologie. When I got home I looked the company up online. It's called Snow and Graham. They don't sell online, but I found the cards on the Melange web site!

The saying on the front of the card says "hey there cupcake."

The Eleventh Week: Ginger Cupcakes with Ginger Cream Cheese Icing

The most challenging thing about this recipe was chopping up the crystallized ginger. That took me a half an hour! But, it was well worth the effort in the end...When you first taste them, it's a really creamy flavor and then the ginger hits you. And, the ginger taste lingers for a while. Truly amazing!

Recipe Downloads: PDF | WORD | TEXT

Lemonade Stand Recipe is posted!

Lemonade Stand Recipe (Week 8 Cupcake) PDF | WORD | TEXT

Where are the @$#$*# recipes?

A few people have emailed me about posting the recipes for the cupcakes I've baked so far in my 52-week quest.

But the idea for this blog...for me...is not really about the cupcake recipes.

From the beginning it has been about a personal challenge I set for myself of making 52 kinds of cupcakes--one cupcake a week for 52 weeks. Each week...so far for 10 weeks...I make my cupcakes on Sunday and share them with my family and take the rest of the cupcakes into my office at the University of Maryland, where they are eagerly consumed by my colleagues.

I was inspired to the challenge after participating in a UCDA Design Summit in Victoria, BC, in April, where photographer Erik Stenbakken spoke about creative people needing a "personal project" other than their work.

I am not a baker (or a cook)...in fact, I'm famous in my family for not cooking! Everyone who knows me thinks this is pretty strange...me making cupcakes. In fact my boss, looked at me the first time I brought in cupcakes and said..."who are you and what have you done with Linda!"

These are the books that have inspired the cupcakes I've made:
How to be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson
cupcakes!, Elinor Klivans
125 Best Cupcake Recipes, Julie Hasson
cupcakes, Joanna Farrow
Cupcakes! From the CakeDoctor, Anne Byrn
Little Cafe Cakes, Julie Le Clerc
cupcakes Year Round, Sara Neumeier

I will go back and post the book that each recipe came from and the page number in the book. If you'd like a hard copy of any (or all) of the recipies, please email me your address and I'll send them to you. I'll even pay the postage!

The Tenth Week: Cinnamon Toast Cupcakes

These really do remind you of cinnamon toast....or maybe even a Cinnabon. Cinnamon cupcakes, cinnamon icing topped with cinnamon sugar!
This recipe came from Cupcakes: From the Cake Mix Doctor, page 112.