coffee fix cupcakes

i'm a fool for a caramel macchiato... you might remember me expressing my love for this delicious concoction in the past... so what better then to make this delicious treat even more delicious... you put it in cupcake form silly!!

so the hubs asked me to make some cupcakes for his holiday luncheon, and the day prior i had just made some cute kiddie candy cane cupcakes... so i wanted to do something a bit more adult... and what do adults love... coffee... so i figured, why not break out this crowd pleaser and make me and some other lucky people happy!

and man... these are just awesome... decadent and moist dark chocolate cupcakes, smothered in a velvety coffee buttercream, with drizzles of homemade buttery salt caramel... i swoon!

happy holiday baking!

christmas cupcakes for the kiddies

happy holidays everyone!

here are some cupcakes i made for the little guys christmas party... i was up in the air about what design i wanted to do... there are so many possibilities for christmas themed cupcakes and desserts... originally i had this really cute design for snowman cupcakes and was super excited to try it out, but then because the littlest guy is going through some serious teething i wasn't able to get as festive as i wanted... so i had to kept it pretty simple...

now i'm not a huge fan of over dying frosting... it makes me nervous to say the least... for one, i feel like i can taste the dye (yuck)... two, if it food coloring can dye your fingers so easily, what about your insides (gross)... and three, i like the simple classic looking frosting... no neon colors for me...

so when it came to coloring some of the frosting red for the candy cane stripe, i was a little hesitant... so, as you can tell from the pictures, they are more like a subtle red... kind of like those hard candy peppermint mints you grab out of a wicker basket when you're leaving a diner...

i used a deliciously simple vanilla cake which i love for the cake... i love the way this recipe bakes up... the tops of the cupcakes kind of caramelize and get just a little crunchy... and i used a vanilla buttercream creamcheese frosting... simple and delightful...

here's the little guy with st. nick... i think he asked santa for just about everything you could possibly think of... uh oh!
happy baking everyone... and have an even happier holiday season!