My new obsession: Cupcakes!

A few months ago I was looking through some wedding gifts and I found Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Cookbook... thus began my obsession with cupcakes. I couldn't put the book down. I'd go to bed with book in arms, haha.

Just before Jon and I were married I took a cake decorating class and LOVED it! After we were married I found it difficult to find the time and energy to begin the hobby of cake decorating. Now that we've been married for a year I have learned to manage my time better I have found that I have a well-rounded husband who, I also discovered, LOVES to bake. It was a match baked in heaven. Cupcakes are so much fun to create and decorate. With such little cakes there is so much you can do!

The greatest satisfaction for me comes when I watch people eat my cupcakes... but then again, that's probably true for anything I cook or bake. We have absolutely fallen in love with The Food Network and with Cupcake Wars, Chopped, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Cake Boss etc. Jon encourages me to be creative with my cooking and baking and it's a great way to relieve stress and to learn to step out of my comfort zone. It's all very therapeutic.

Most of the cupcakes in Martha's book are also conveniently on her website. I wanted to share with you 4 recipes I have tried thus far... I'm sure there will be many more to come. Unfortunately, I didn't have all my pictures uploaded, so I borrowed some instead and oddly enough my cupcakes looked pretty close to these! To find the recipes, simply click on each cupcake title. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

We made these for the 4th of July. For decoration we made stars from molds and candy melts and used blue sprinkles. These are so rich and so yummy. I tried to pipe the cream cheese frosting, but it was too soft. When piped I also found it's too much frosting and too sweet. The cream cheese frosting is much better if you spread it onto the cupcake. I love the richness of red velvet cake.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

These babies are little Oreo cheesecakes, also know as Cookies and Cream cupcakes. My other obsession is Oreos. Anything with Oreos. These are easy, not too sweet, and really fun. I especially love that when you turn them over you can perfectly see the Oreo. Can you really ever go wrong with Oreos?

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

If I had to choose a favorite from the cupcakes I have EVER tried to bake or eat, these would be it. Salted Caramel Cupcakes...mmmm. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Dark chocolate cake drenched in salted caramel and topped with rich chocolate ganache. If you have never tried salted caramel you need to! Martha Stewart actually borrowed this recipe from a bakery in NYC called Baked. They have a cake called "Sweet & Salty!" that Martha transformed into Cupcakes, genius! It is quite the process to make these, but they are so so worth it!

Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes

Billy from Billy's Bakery in NYC came to the Martha Stewart Show and made these delicious cupcakes. On the website link there is a video with Billy and Martha making the cupcakes. We just made these cupcakes last night and they were incredible! Wow, I've never had a vanilla cupcake like it. Instead of 1 Tablespoon, I added 2 Tablespoons of baking powder. The recipe calls for 1 but in the video with Martha, Billy emphasizes adding 2. These cupcakes are meant to be more flat, so don't worry if they come out flat. These sweet vanilla cupcakes are so buttery and just melt in your mouth.

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I did. I didn't realize how easy making cupcakes and frosting from scratch can be. For me, it was definitely intimidating at first, but now it has become my favorite hobby. Happy baking!