Booze & Cakes

So here I am thinking of ways to up the flavors of my cake pop ideas and cupcakes when i remembered a book i added to my wish list on amazon a few months back The Boozy Baker, and so i decided to use my Christmas cash to get that and Booze Cakes .

The whole idea came from me craving a pink champagne cupcake from Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar in Napa, but driving the 15 - 20 minutes for a $3 cupcake is kinda out of the way. (plus all the gas to there and back, and by myself doesn't make the trip fun), so i decided to look up some books again and remembered about The Boozy Baker and how i saw they had some stuff for Jager.

Now why would Jagermeister get anyone to bake at all is what you are most likely thinking... Well because Jager is my favorite drink! I love jager just as much as i love cupcakes and yummy delish treats! In fact I love it so much i just happen to be with someone who's last name is pronounced Jager (just spelled differently). So of course I always have jager on hand somewhere nearby and since my anniversary is coming up i decided that's what i have to make for my Kyle.

Kyle and I met on New Years Eve. I came to a party knowing only a handful of people and brought my fav drink Jager. Well this nice sweet guy came over and told me I had to meet his brother and that I'm his brothers type and so on and so on... well this 6'4" tall guy walks in and lets just say shots of Jager and Beer Pong have brought us together, and well i had to take care of him a little the rest of the night ( Kyle swears I'm a freak of nature and so is my cousin Mike cause we can drink). Well a year later i kinda want to have fun and make him a Jagermeister & Honey Bundt Cake for our anniversary and as well as something with chocolate just in case its too much for him and myself.

But I'm kinda motivated for more... i just don't know what to bake... So I'm asking for help:

All I ask is you post ONE comment of your favorite Alcohol by December 31st and then we will go for another post that night to see what I can make with the winning alcohol and have you all vote for what dessert you want me to bake with it. (and maybe just maybe ill name it after one of my lucky readers!)

Now what do I do?

After baking these past two weeks non stop almost everyday I pretty much don't know what to do with myself. The Boyfriend got Xbox Live and pretty much is a zombie 8 hours out of the day and so i don't exist. I don't even think he knows I'm sitting here writing in my blog. What to do what to do. I'm banning him from the game system on the New Years day though. So with him being busy, I wish i had orders to be placed for family and friends but honestly I really don't. I'm actually just reading up on current trends that I mentioned trying out a few weeks ago which are now a hit. Pop Rocks on cupcakes and candy seems to be in, & with that said I want in on what also an idea of mine the middle of the month. So as I sit here and plot on ways to use such a fun candy, I decided to share some of the Christmas I got that are baking / cupcake themed!

Candy Cane Cupcake Kit from my coworker Jen K. So excited to use this soon. I don't know if I'll be using it as cake pops or cupcakes but i love the little spatula it comes with (sorry its on top and not in the photo).

Target was selling these for the holidays if you are looking for them they were in 3 flavors.

Cupcake Candles: the middle one was from my coworker Jen K. and I'm unaware where she got it from and the ones on the left and right my aunt got those at Kohls. They all have different flavored smells. There was also a green one which my cousins girlfriend received.

This is an adorable Photo Ornament my coworker Connie got me & I am unaware where it came from but its so cute! I squealed!

Wilton 56 Piece Tip Set from Kyle which he knew to get me when he saw me decorating sugar cookies. I love it!

Juicy Couture Cupcake Necklace from Chris. I love it and its funny he got this before i even posted about the cupcake jewels out there in my blog.

Wilton Professional Cake Decorating Kit! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa. (Also it included another item i love. A giant container of Nutella. Yum!)

Holiday Cookie Pan from my aunts Christmas eve auction game!

Johnny Cupcakes Dangle earrings! I love them and squealed when i got these too!

Recipe Keeper from Renee & Dale. No more little notes and scratch paper of recipes and random print outs. Now i can store them all here and write them in the book.

Giant Cupcake Pan. I have been eye balling this thing for like 2 years and my aunt got it for me... now who am i going to bake a huge cupcake for soon???

This was in my stocking. Its a reusable bag. It looks like a cupcake and unzips into a bag with cupcakes on it. Thanks Renee & Dale

My other aunt made me a homemade cupcake fleece blankey. I LOVE IT, and you see it came in handy the night of Christmas and i mean it was freezing and someone decided to make fun of it...

The funny thing is though i woke up to find that person using it! Aww babe you are so cute!

See what happens when you make fun of my blankey and i catch you using it... Everyone gets to see you using it too!

xoxo Eli Nicole

p.s: best part is im sitting in the same room as him with the computer screen facing him and he is as usual sucked into Halo Reach that he didnt even see me post the photo. I love you Kyle.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I hope everyone has a great fun & safe holiday!

xoxo

Eli Nicole

On The 12th Day Of Christmas Cupcaketress Sent to Me...

How about some amazing cake pop displays! That's right! The love of my life's mother is a genius! As I spent like 4 days baking cakes rolling cake balls and decorating cake pops for hours all i knew was that i was putting them on these cone shaped Styrofoam holders but Renee came up with an idea to decorate it as a Christmas tree! so here we are ... having a good time!

Caught in the action! Renee & I

Half way decorated

Decorating our trees

Renee blurry cause she was moving!

On a mission to finish this for the party tonight

finished products

i love taking photos with a filter!

3 trees later i still had like 40 extra cake pops! didn't think i would have so many! Great center pieces for the holidays. Already delivered my Aunt Susan's & get to take one to my Aunt Darla's tomorrow and one for Renee's house tomorrow for their Christmas get together. The total cost i must have spent to make one of those is probably $6. Cant wait to plan something bigger for next years!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas Cupcaketress sent to me...

If you are reading this then you are surviving these last couple days left of insane shoppers at the local markets, malls and wherever else you are buying from. Its such a crazy mess out there. Hopefully many of you are done shopping and just have to worry about putting all your projects together, and finishing touches on your baked goods. For me it was decorating my moms cookies i mentioned earlier these past couple of weeks. So instead of making icing though i used left over frosting from cake pops and food gel colors to make the white vanilla more festive.

so i thawed out my frozen cookies on a cookie sheet, but of course i forgot that i had so many...

I started off with green for the trees. I textured them with a knife and was pulling down the frosting to make it more like a tree. and added colored non perils. I used a star tip and yellow frosting for the star.

the rest can out pretty much ok for last minute. If i had more time i would of been more concerned with their looks, but i was too tired to really worry. The red didn't even come out red. i used all the red and still got a hot pink color on my cookies, so i decided to make a purple too for some fun girly festive cookies.

It was pretty nice to actually wait a week to finish them because i didn't feel as rushed, but apparently i may not be done. i found more cookie dough... so i think i will use my Message in a Cookie Cutters!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas Cupcaketress sent to me...

With only 2 days left to shop before the big day a lot of people are a little stressed out and worried about gifts to wrap, uncle so and so who is flying out on Christmas eve in the morning but you need to get a gift asap because you forgot until the last second.

My favorite stressful moment is those of fellow bakers and relatives who like chocolate and baked goods. You know those who have everything spread out around the kitchen counters, stove, dining room tables waiting for the icing on those sugar cookies to dry and to put in gift boxes later. Or they have the See's assorted candy wrapped under the tree waiting for them to find on Christmas day... Well almost every year its always the same. One of my family members or pretty much all of them have their baked good taken over by ants. Those pesky little suckers always seem to find the family members who forget about air tight containers and zip lock bags and even the wrapped chocolate gifts under the tree. Always a great way to wake up, come home from work to. Nothing like starting all over after days and hours of making everything perfect...

WELL here are some nifty time saving containers for everyone to protect yourself from those  pesky little creatures & to protect your delicious gifts without the stress of having to run out and get more ingredients in the insanity of the stores these last couple of shopping days.

Thanks to Sweetopias blog i learned about Snapware. Their Snap N' Stack cupcake holder is two layers and is perfect for cupcakes, cookies and many other things for $27.99 it sure is a life save from ants and great for traveling.

Wilton has their Ultimate 3-In-1 Cake Caddy.  for $19.99 It comes with a reversible tray to hold cupcakes or muffins (12 regular sized or 24 minis) or you can take the tray out and it can hold a cake or cookies.

William-Sonoma carries the Cupcake Courier which can hold up to 3 dozen cupcakes and has removable trays which is perfect for cake pops. Of course its a little more than the other two. It cost $39.95, but of course offers more space than the other two, but its all up to what you are using it for.

Tupperware offers a winter stacking canister set for $25.00 but to get the larger canister you have to pay another $15.50. So for $40.50 you get the whole set. Its cute and festive and you can never go wrong with their products.

And if all else fails Ziplock baggies and constant cleaning will help if you ever find yourself fighting those pesky little creatures i am scared to death of. Or if you have a bigger problem like a 6'4" boyfriend who loves cake pops that you are saving for the holidays and wont stay out of them, threaten to return all the presents you bought for him! Well hope everyone has a safe and stressfree next couple days. Look forward to decorating cookies tomorrow.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas Cupcaketress sent to me...

a photo blog of my last minute Carmel brulee cake pops!

Mixing up a Carmel Devils Cake

I LOVE Renee's blender!

Perfect!

After the cake is baked and cooled you crumble the cake!

Add 2/3 of a container of frosting to the crumbled cake

mix until all combined

roll into balls  chill for two hours or freeze for 15 minutes

Carmel devils food cake balls

cake balls with pop sticks in them held together with melted candy

Carmel Brulee cake pops! festive for the holidays!

The whole process takes about 2 hours depending on how creative you want to get. i made about 30 cake pops because i make them a little larger than they should be, normally you can make 40.

With that said i hope you enjoyed the photo blog since i will be out of reach technically tomorrow due to a work holiday party! Have a good day!









On the Eighth Day of Christmas Cupcaketress sent to me...

How about some Cupcake Wars news. One of the Napa Valleys amazing and fabulous cupcake & dessert bar is going to be featured on Cupcake Wars January 11th 2011. So, which delicious place made the cut to be featured in this amazing competitive cupcake show? Well it is none other than the one and only Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar.  With that said I know nothing other than that! no clue on the theme and where they placed...and neither do they! :) BUT obviously if they made it on the show you know that are delicious treats that deserved to be given a chance... with 17 + flavors you will find one, or two, or three, or all 17 to love!

Other than that i learned a new fun trick for last minute decorating sugar cookies. so apparently when you are mixing the dough and don't want to get a headache over frosting the cookies, add food coloring to the dough. Want green trees, put green food coloring in the dough! then use an icing pen to decorate strands of lights in less than a minute.

its so simple and easy and kid friendly! you learn a lot from kids! must show photos later, but i have to bake 2 more batches of cake pops since i don't have enough anymore... 200 wasn't enough... i need to make 60 more! such popular snacks... not enough of me to make so many so fast!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas Cupcaketress sent to YOU...

Thanks to my lovely Steph who helped me pick up the slack for my lack of keeping up with my days, she gave me the idea of Holiday Inspired Desserts! So with that said here are some holiday inspired flavors from local bay area bakeries!

Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar offers two yummy season flavors.

Peppermint Twist: a red velvet cake with a peppermint cream cheese frosting, with white chocolate curls to garnish.

Mr. Man: a gingerbread cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and a cute ginger bread boy on top!

They have three locations (Napa, Santa Rosa & Cotati) and open 7 days a week! known for their yummy delicious cupcakes, and now they offer some new treats. Cruffles (cupcake truffles) offered in the flavors of their cupcakes & new ones that are coming out soon. They offer a taste tester program on their facebook site... so make sure you follow them here: Sift Facebook Page

(im not a fan of gingerbread, but when i tried their Mr. Man i was forever changed! Mr. Man is to die for!)

Kara's Cupcakes offers two flavors also.

Peppermint Twist: chocolate cupcake with a white choc ganache & candy cane sprinkles

Pumpkin Spice: pumpkin spice cake with a silky smooth cream cheese frosting

They have six locations ( two location in San Francisco, Napa, Palo Alto, San Jose, & a NEW location in Walnut Creek), & They also have the karavan which can be booked for special events. Kara's is also open seven days a week.

Cupkates offers a yummy flavor.

Peppermint Chocolate: A moist chocolate cake topped with white chocolate peppermint buttercream and housemade peppermint bark.

Cupkates is the bay areas first ever Cupcake Truck! They have different locations depending on the day of the week and they pretty much sell out everyday! If you order a certain amount they will deliver and that's pretty sweet!

I honestly cant wait to go out and pick up my hoodie from them and try their yummy products and take some photos of this amazing way to sell cupcakes! What a genius!

So hopefully if you caught on the trend you can tell peppermint is the flavor of the month, but Sift wins with having the gingerbread option that i haven't really seen anywhere else, and also for winning my heart over with gingerbread! what a great idea.  But I can not wait to try Cupkates! ...I'm counting down the days till i can make it to a Berkley location!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas Cupcaketress sent to me...

First off i apologize for slacking so much on the post. I've been so busy baking for the holidays that i haven't had much time to post on here, and when i did last night it was sweet and simple...and then i deleted it. HA!

OK so for the sixth day I'm sharing this:

Cupcake Provocateur

A site with some amazing retro vintage inspired aprons! Every baker needs a cute original apron to keep her clothes all cute and clean! And boy are these aprons to die for! I of course am posting the cupcake related ones only...but they have a ton of choices and i fell in love with so many of them! so here are the beautiful aprons!

These two are kinda classic and cute and fun...

But these are adorable fun! i love them...and if a full apron isn't your style...

try out one of these half aprons! so cute...i found one i LOVE for the holidays....



 Oh yes! ELVIS!!! for Christmas! so amazing!

The woman behind this is such a creative fun girl! i suggest everyone needs to get something from her site because she is most def about being a creative baker is all about! shes doing it all! And i love that!