Cupcake Lady!


I'm known as the Cupcake Lady in a certain circle.  This is the third year my friends Corey and Marcy have hosted a Crawfish Boil/Joint Birthday Bash, and as usual, my cupcakes have been requested.  This time I made PB&J and Coconut cupcakes.

My trend lately has been making desserts and pastries that I didn't like very much or eat as a child.  First, the variation on the Pop-Tarts, and now PB&J.  See, I didn't like jelly, and occasionally eat it as an adult on toast (mostly after a night of drinking when we hit the 24 hour breakfast spot), but I decided to make a cupcake version.  Instead of using jelly, I cooked some grape juice with agar agar to make a fluid gel.  I baked a vanilla cupcake, cut a cone out of the top, filled the hole with the gel, then topped them with a peanut butter buttercream.  Not peanut butter and confectioner's sugar, but the real deal!  I also tried out a coconut cupcake recipe I've been sitting on for a while now, using condensed coconut milk instead of extract.  This I also topped with a meringue buttercream with the condensed coconut milk and unsweetened dessicated coconut.  I had to work the dinner shift, so S. delivered the goodies.  Turns out, according to him, they were gone in 30 minutes!  I was surprised-I'm always nervous about new recipes and such.  But they were a hit.  When I got to the party hours later, people were telling me how much they enjoyed them.  Before I left I got a request from the host: S'mores and my Caramel Corn cupcakes for the Fourth of July barbecue.

So, now I have something to work towards.  Well, another project on top of a birthday cake, two wedding cakes, and a dinner that S., a friend of his and I will be working on in August.  I'm excited and almost exhausted.

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