Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Banana Toffee Picnic Cupcakes appeared first on Leah Claire.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes with Lemon Curd and Mascarpone Frosting appeared first on Leah Claire.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Snickerdoodle Cupcakes appeared first on Leah Claire.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Broken Glass & Vampire Bite Cupcakes appeared first on Leah Claire.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Cake Mix Doctor®’s Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Marshmallow Frosting appeared first on Leah Claire.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Curd & Blueberry Buttercream appeared first on Leah Claire.

So, how’s it taste?

You know I’m not a fan of white cake. I pretty much hate it. There I said it. But these cupcakes are delicious! What? How can this be? Yep, they are mighty tasty. Hey, add champagne and I change my tune. The champagne really makes the batter light and fluffy. You can’t really taste the champagne though, unless you try really hard. If you didn’t know champagne was in the cake and frosting, you’d never notice it. They’re just simple, sweet cupcakes. But aren’t they so darn cute? I loved the coordinating liners and sprinkles on top. These would be great for a wedding as well.

I used Korbel brut champagne, which I highly recommend using a dry champagne and not a sweet one as these cupcakes are super sweet. The frosting will make your teeth hurt from the sweetness. They seemed to mellow out a bit on the sweet factor after the frosting set, which I preferred. The mini size was perfect since you can pop them in your mouth. I think a full-size cupcake this sweet would be overkill. I would have liked to have tasted more of the champagne, but as far as cupcakes go, these are pretty great. You could also add a few drops of food coloring to the batter and frosting and make these coordinate with just about any special occasion.

Mini Champagne Cupcakes

adapted from Betty Crocker
makes about 60 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix
1 1/4 cups champagne (I used Korbel brut)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites

Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. champagne

Garnish
silver & gold sugar sprinkles

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cups in each cup of a mini muffin tin.

2. In large bowl, mix dry cake mix and champagne. Add oil and egg whites. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

3. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely.

4. In a large bowl beat powdered sugar, butter, and salt with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat in 6 tablespoons champagne. If frosting is too thick, beat in more champagne a few drops at a time. Frost cupcakes. Garnish with gold and silver sugar sprinkles.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Mini Champagne Cupcakes appeared first on Leah Claire.

So, how’s it taste?

I can’t say it enough how awesome they were and I’m so thankful they turned out that great. I followed a different recipe first and they turned out horrible. Just horrible. Panic followed and then I thought “I can do this. I’m going to go rogue and make my own.” Ok, so I cheated a little. The base is a spice cake mix. I’m not above using a cake mix because they always turn out awesome. Instead of water, I used apple cider. The batter smelled just like Fall and the apple cider flavor really came through even after the baking process. You could use a yellow cake mix instead, but I really liked the apple cider mixed with spice.

Salted caramel buttercream was the perfect topping. I had made this buttercream before to top my Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes and fell in love with it. It’s so, so good. I decided to up the salt just a bit by an extra 1/4 teaspoon. You can slightly taste the salt at just 1 teaspoon, but I wanted it to come out a bit more without getting too salty. If you’re not sure, start with 1 teaspoon and taste your buttercream. Add 1/8 teaspoon and taste again if you want more salt. I wouldn’t add more than a total of 1 1/4 teaspoon. The caramel drizzle will help keep it sweet and makes the cupcakes more decadent with it flowing over.

I took these to work and received some really awesome compliments. These cupcakes are a winner! Happy Birthday, Shannon!

Apple Cider Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

cupcakes by So, How's It Taste?
buttercream by My Baking Addiction
makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
1 (18.25 oz.) box Spice Cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
3 large eggs,
1 1/3 cups apple cider
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Buttercream
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 to 1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup caramel topping, plus more for drizzling
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. For the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

2. Blend cake mix, eggs, cider, and oil in a large bowl at low speed until moistened. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add batter to cupcake pans.

3. Bake 18-21 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes and cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

4. For the buttercream, cream the butter in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon salt, and caramel syrup and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more salt. 1 teaspoon of salt will give it a slight background taste of salt. Increasing to 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt will add a more distinct (but not salty) taste. I do not recommend adding more than 1 1/4 teaspoon total.

5. Frost the cooled cupcakes and drizzle with additional caramel topping.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Apple Cider Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream appeared first on Leah Claire.

So, how’s it taste?

I really wish I could send all of you one of these cupcakes. They blew my mind! I had a feeling they’d be pretty darn good because for my birthday last year, Shannon over at Family Bites, made me the same cupcake but with raspberry. It also blew my mind. I went with blackberry because it’s my favorite of the berries, and I thought it would help color the buttercream closer to purple than raspberry. I still added violet food coloring to get the right shade of lavender. The chocolate cake is my go to recipe from Hershey’s. It’s amazing and the only chocolate cake recipe I use (unless it’s Duncan Hines). Rich and super chocolatey, yet light as air.

The fruited buttercream is simply to die for. The preserves are sweet but have a hint of tang from the berries so it cuts into the richness of the buttercream. I go crazy for it. It makes me think of all the different flavors I could create with fruited buttercream. I’m not a huge icing fan and regular buttercream I’d rather scrape off than eat, but this fruit business takes it to another level. You’d be surprised how chocolate and blackberries come together for a fantastic pairing.

Blackberry Chocolate Cupcakes

cupcake by Hershey's
buttercream by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody via Family Bites
makes 30 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hersheyâ€s cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Filling
Seedless blackberry preserves

Buttercream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup seedless blackberry preserves
6 cups powdered sugar
Food coloring, optional

Directions:

1. For the cupcakes, heat oven to 350°F. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper baking liners.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.

3. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

4. Use a piping bag with a small rounded tip to pipe a bit of the blackberry preserves into each cooled cupcake. If you'd like a lot of filling, use a cupcake corer or small spoon to scoop out a bit of cake and then fill with the preserves.

5. For the buttercream, beat the butter and preserves in a mixer until blended and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add food coloring, if using, and mix until well blended. Pipe onto filled cupcakes.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Blackberry Chocolate Cupcakes appeared first on Leah Claire.

I wanted a few items sweet and a few items savory. I also wanted to have everything in grab and go sizes, so no one was holding up the line trying to scoop cheeseball onto a cracker.

On the menu:

Sweet
Blackberry Chocolate Cupcakes
Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Dipped Pretzels
Dipped Strawberries

Savory
Ham & Swiss Sliders
Contessa Chicken Salad in Mini Fillo Shells
Spinach Dip with Veggies in Baguettes

The Blackberry Chocolate Cupcakes were my favorite. A little different cupcake combination, but I figured if raspberries and chocolate went well together, then blackberries and chocolate just had to, too! It’s a basic chocolate cupcake filled with blackberry preserves and topped with a blackberry buttercream. The blackberries helped color the buttercream a bit, but I also used violet food coloring to get that light shade of purple.

I’ve been wanting to make these Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies for a while and now I finally had a reason. I used the same violet food coloring to tint my icing and I thought they turned out a lovely shade of lavender. I made them sparkle just a bit with coarse white sugar sprinkled on top. The cookies turned out to be quite huge, but they were delicious. I have a weakness for soft, buttery cookies and these didn’t disappoint.

I’ve seen these Dipped Pretzels everywhere. Salty and sweet together, it’s the perfect snack. I dipped the pretzel rods in white almond bark and once they were set, I melted lavender candy melts and drizzled it over the top.

I’m a huge fan of Dipped Strawberries. Sweet and juicy strawberries underneath and a coating of candy on top. Take a bite and the candy crackles and gives in to the succulent strawberry. It’s mostly fruit, so it’s got to be healthy right? I dipped these in the same almond bark and lavender candy as the pretzels.

I forgot to take a picture of the Ham & Swiss Sliders. My friend Meghan made these from an earlier post on my blog. Let me tell you they were a hit. Meghan doesn’t even like onions or Swiss cheese and she loves these little sandwiches. How’s that for how good they are?!

I consider myself to be a chicken salad connoisseur. My absolute favorite is from O’Carr’s in Birmingham, Alabama. I’ve come close to finding a recipe that is pretty similar with the Barefoot Contessa’s Chicken Salad. It has both pecans and walnuts and halves of purple grapes. See how I tied in the purple? I made them easy to handle and bite-sized by stuffing it into mini fillo shells.

Here’s another recipe I’ve been dying to make. Serving Spinach Dip with Veggies in a Baguette is so cute. It’s the best of both worlds. Why decide between dipping veggies or bread? Have both!

Allison’s mom made this incredible Raspberry Sherbet Punch. It’s simple to make with raspberry lemonade, ginger ale, scoops of raspberry sherbet, and frozen raspberries. It’s perfect party punch and I wouldn’t mind drinking this poolside with a splash of vodka! (It’s fizzy in this picture because it’s freshly stirred.)

I wanted to make sure everyone knew what they were eating, so I made these cute food label cards. They’re actually business cards from Avery. I found a purple striped template from their website and altered it to use as a label. The cards are two of the business cards, still attached, so they would stand up on the table.

I kept my crafty hat on and made these tissue pom poms. I followed this tutorial from Martha Stewart, using purple tissue and lavender tissue. I think these would also be pretty using both colors in one pom pom. I chose the pointy cut ends instead of rounded.

Hosting a bridal shower isn’t all about the food. It’s about the games! I found the Staches & Tiaras game on Craftaholics Anonymous. I made the tiaras out of sparkly purple scrapbook paper and the moustaches out of black textured scrapbook paper. I used a template to outline the shapes and glued craft sticks to the back.

Guests had to guess who answered the questions I read out loud. Hold up the stache if you think it’s Chris, hold up the tiara if you think it’s Allison.

This game is hysterical!

As you can see we had a lot of fun with this one!

Another game was Advice to the Letter. Meghan made these cute cards that spelled A-L-L-I-S-O-N. Each guest had to write advice to the bride using each letter in the bride’s name.

The cards are great keepsakes for the bride.

Let’s not forget about the gifts! Here’s the bride posing with her new robe that reads “Bride” on the back.

This was the last gift Allison opened. It’s a knife and server set, a picture frame, and engraved flutes from her mom and dad. This got a lot of oohs and aahs and maybe a few teary eyes. Congratulations to Allison and Chris!

Upcoming posts will feature the recipes for Blackberry Chocolate Cupcakes, Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies, Contessa Chicken Salad, and Spinach Dip with Veggies in Baguettes. This blog post is featured in Foodbuzz’s March 24×24. 24 unique meals all happening in a 24-hour period, hosted by 24 Foodbuzz featured publishers. A big thank you to Foodbuzz for selecting this Lavender & Purple Bridal Shower as one of the featured posts!

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

The post Lavender & Purple Bridal Shower appeared first on Leah Claire.