Get your PINK on - it's Spring time!

What's not to love about Spring? The sun is out, the weather is warm(ish), and pink is back in fashion on baked goods! When dessert extraordinaire, Christyn of Bead Up! posted her most recent pink creations on Facebook, I knew it was time to bust out the Spring features on Cupcakin It Up!

Christyn is great at making the best out of the materials at hand - something that Cupcakin It Up most certainly values in every creation! Christyn enrolled in a cake decorating class at Michael's Arts & Crafts to learn these mad skillz. Across the country, I've only heard good things about these cake and fondant classes.

"I made the bow at my first cake decorating class, all the instructions are here... I had some pink fondant left from making the daisies, so I decided to polka-dot the thing up. The bottom of my fondant was all wickety-wack, so I covered it up with a thick pink stripe," Christyn said. Now that's resourceful!

"As for the pink cake... I made it super chocolate-y with a box of Jello Devil's Food Cake Instant Pudding Mix (any kind of pudding mix adds TONS of moisture - now you know my secret)! I torted the cake with some blackberry jam I had in my fridge, and I decided to make the icing match!"

Well done, Christyn! I would say this is a pink-tastic Spring success!!

Nothing Says 'I Love You' like a Cupcake!

Happy Valentine's Eve! Time to shower your counter tops in candy hearts and sprinkles! You may be sitting in your kitchen pondering the meaning of pink icing, chocolate covered strawberries, and all things savory... what to bake? What to bake?...

Well, I have some ideas to make your Valentine's Day sweeter - whether it's for a loved one, a co-worker, a community-in-need, or just your own hungry tummy!

Check out my favorite online picks:


A little icing goes a long way!


It's a candy heart garden! Quick and easy.


I LOVE this idea! But I'm thinking
pink and purple hearts... in chocolate cake!



How about an ooey gooey center!

Happy baking for a holiday that just invites sharing love through sugary goodness!

As girlie as cupcakes get...

Courtesy of the Betty Crocker cupcake mini-magazine, meet the Pink Champagne cupcake. The thing I like about Betty, is that she keeps it simple. Her desserts almost always involve sprucing up a mix, not starting from scratch. The downer about Betty is that, although her stuff looks cute and is very creative, the taste isn't anything to blog about (yet here I am)! She certainly has some very cute designs.

The champagne cupcakes will not be a repeat experience. The cake part simply calls for adding a cup and a quarter of champagne and some food dye. The frosting is the same with less champagne and more sprinkle pizazz:

Cake:
1 box of Betty Crocker white cake mix
(I suggest using Duncan Heines - it has a richer flavor!)
1 1/4 cups of champagne
1/3 cup of veggie oil
3 egg whites
4-5 drops of food coloring

As for the food coloring, I highly recommend the Wilton 8 Icing color set - the colors are really rich and potent. One little dip of the fork prongs into the color gel and you have your self some HOT pink cupcakes. Just see to the right for proof! The coloring set also comes with a gorgeous shade of blue and green. So much fun!!

But back to the champagne cupcakes - so I separated the icing into the Betty recipe (calling for regular champagne) and my fun experiment (with strawberry champagne!). The strawberry champagne, though creative, in combination with the powdered sugar, practically brought cavities on contact with its sweetness! The normal champagne was an interesting flavor - maybe I'm just a sucker for a old fashioned vanilla frosting!

Pink is the new Vanilla!

Ever since I attended that Cupcakes, Cocktails, and Cosmetics Yelp Event where they had bubble-gum pink colored icing on the mini cupcakes, I've been thinking... ok, dreaming!... about pink icing. Why would you ever have white icing when your icing could be pink?! Thus, I have take a cue from Elle Woods (Legally Blond - the captain of the pink!), and have created the saying for us cupcaketeers: Pink is the new Vanilla! Yes, I think there might need to be a bumper sticker.

Here to prove my point, I give you a tribute to all that is cutely PINK! Be inspired. Don't be vanilla!


Courtesy of Cakerella


Courtesy of Katie's Kitchen


Courtesy of KnitXcor


Courtesy of Gingerbread Fun


Courtesy of For Cake Sake


Courtesy of Madi Moo Designs

Perfectly Pink!! There's no such thing as too much pink! Got any awesome pink creations? Email me at cupcakinitup@gmail.com

Pretty in Pink!

What better way to celebrate the love of animals or pink or even china! Use the Oreo cupcake recipe from a few weeks ago - just search oreo! Panda pride!!