Total Apple Yumminess!

Again........I am certain that if I searched this idea it would NOT be original. At the same time - when the thought occured to me it was totally new in my head. Of course if you watch ANY cake or cupcake show on TV it is completely obvious that if you can stick it in a cupcake at this point and time Someone Has Done It!

For me to CASE (copy and steal everything) is not a shameful thing - doing it builds up my own confidence in doing something - what I mean is ...... if I see that you have done something so completely wonderful I would like to see if I can do that wonderful thing too. Once I build my skill at doing something I can master without having to recreate the wheel....then I can move on to original works of my own art with confidence. I know there are folks out there that do not agree with that - they feel that if it is a copy of something else then you aren't really showing that you have the ability to truly create. To that I say...."eh".....the world is how many years old? Someone has likely been there - so don't stress yourself out (my husband might cringe and giggle that I said that - he so doesn't believe that I don't stress - and he is right, but I am stressing about perfection, not about creativity credit - TOTALLY different).

Now on the day of these cupcakes we were both stressing about something not cake related. I came downstairs and found water all over the floor. Thinking someone had been messing with the water button on the fridge I went to get a towel. Then as I did that I began to think that Dave was the only one up after me the night before and unless he got giddy on treats before bed it didn't make sense that he would play with the water button. So as I laid the towel down I opened the freezer door and found a frozen waterfall that was dripping. Our ice maker had decided to go bezerk (how do you spell beserk? bezerk? - oh well phonically you can read that right?). Woke Dave up - began to dismantle the freezer contents and look for the problem. Ice maker.

There were tons of things thawed out........some thrown away - others saveable. And then there were the 5 bags of peeled & cup up pie making apples I had put in before winter came (like we are the Ingalls right?). What to do with them? Pie? No. Crisp? Yum. Cupcakes? Hmmmmm.....

What made the cupcake idea the winner? My new cupcake huller. Just fresh from the store bought for my by my dad for my birthday!! Yes!! I needed something to fill the cupcakes I was longing to use my huller on.

Cupcakes baked - Huller out - simple as apple pie - place into the cupcake - twist - pull out.

Then I dump them into a bowl - originally the idea was for time saving - so I didn't have to twist around and put them in the trash to save my ass (literally)........but then I began to realize that kids like to pop these little pieces in their mouths. So we don't have them often - but they are fun when we did. Probably how donut holes started.

But this pictures shows what the BEST part of making these cupcakes was. The Ginormous vat of apples baking..........yummmmmmmyyyyyyy........all appley and cinnamon and brown sugar with just a smidge of butter to keep them from sticking (you don't really need an entire stick ya know - just a few chunks).

This was the reason that it made it most fun - the house was filled with this yummy smell. Way Way Way better then any candle you can get at the store.............

Once it was cooled off I popped the batch in shifts into the food processor and got rid of the slices and made it a nice, midly chunky, apple sauce like texture. Then took an icing bag out and began to fill the cupcakes................topped them off with some Cinnamon Buttercream.........

and just because some days I have the ability to Over Achieve.....whipped up some homemade from scratch (yes, I realize homemade means "from scratch" - but it was hard and I deserve the double) Caramel.........and drizzled it on top.

Ummmmm Yummmmmm!!! I called them Apple Pie Cupcakes. We were headed to a gathering and called ahead to see if I could bring these and if the hostess thought people would like some Apple Pie Cupakes. My friend, Pennie, said that it was against the law in the US not to like Apple Pie. You get kicked out of the country - which made me think - Red, White & Blue cupcake papers........and so it was........but that night only Pennie got the connection to the papers being all about Apple Pie and Patriotism.......oh well - not everyone can be as brilliant as us.

These cupcakes turned out to be the BOMB. I farmed out a few of the extras to neighbors because the apple filling made more then I could take to friends that night - and I ended up getting folks asking me to make them for other events - SCORE!! Winnner!!

So.......just in case you didn't read the whole post (cheater)........these cupcakes were White cake with Apple Pie filling and Cinnamon Buttercream touched by Caramel sauce. Delish!!

Happy Memorial Day!! Did you know Texas Had a Birthday!!

What I tend to do is make a cake and then TRY to find time to post it on my blog. However, there are the 3 children and the husband - 2 cakes and 2 hamsters living here and the fact that in the spring and early summer I am at war with the ANT army. Keeps a girl busy and blog passages start to pile up. Pile Up you ask? What do you mean by Pile Up? Well - I generally do get as far as being able to upload them onto the computer - but where the process slows down is that I don't get the time to write the story that goes with it. And so they sit in Blog World Limbo waiting for a story and to be released to the world in my head that they go to. If you are reading this........congrats..........you are now part of the world in my head.

Disturbing right?

Anyway..........this particular cake came about when a friend that I met at a craft show and through Catherine (obviously) asked if I could do some Birthday cakes for her. 2. 1 for her hubby to take to work and 1 for her to take to work. I said sure - when? She said - well, ah ...tomorrow. OH. Well Birthdays are a big deal to our family so I wasn't going to not do her birthday celebration - so I agreed if it was a simplish cake.....which to me means buttercream decorations. She said sure - and I asked whose birthday it was......she said Texas's Birthday.

Really. I did not realize that my friend was a transplant from Texas. Everyone here in our area of the world is a transplant so I just don't ask so much "where from"........I am almost MORE amazed when the person has family who live nearby so I am more often asking - "Wait, you grew up here?"

Anyway - this friend explained to me just how SERIOUS Texas Independance day is - that it is the Birthday of Texas and that really Texas should be its own country - well she didn't offer that last part up.........I just hear things and asked her if she thought it should be its own country and she agreed - she said every true Texan believes it is anyway. I hear that too. They are making their own academic books to be used in the classroom which will be much different from the rest of the country. But we won't go into that.
Anyway - the funny thing about this cake that was supposed to be so EASY...........well did you read above where I spelled Independance? Do you see how I spelled it here on this cake?

Pop Quiz - Which is right? Independance or Independence?

Remember I had 2 cakes - a His cake for work and a Her cake for work. I did them both with the state flag as requested and then did the message on the sides. The other side said Happy 175th Birthday (they are old!)
I had finished the first cake and then moved onto the second cake. While looking at the second cake I realized that of all words I spelt Birthday wrong!! Birthday - Geez O I spell Birthday a million times a week it seems and I messed it up. Can't even blame distraction by a child on this.........all alone - maybe it was the radio - ever sing to the radio while writing and then find out that you have typed the words to the song out? No? That's just me? Huh.

So anyhoo - I corrected Birthday on the cake and thought to myself - "well worse things could happen. that was an easy fix and it was only 1 letter and I hadn't finished the word completely" - but just to make certain I double checked the first cake..........and guess what I found.......

Yep - a spelling error on a COMPLETED word - and the letter was close to the center - and that meant scrapping a few letters off and correcting the white and PRAYING that the blue didn't leave any so that it would not bleed on the white as I corrected it. It all worked out. But for the love of cupcakes these were the Quick & Easy cakes!
So......did you search the word yet? Which is correct? Is this picture BEFORE or AFTER I made the correction?

Independence or Independance?

Oh and since we are being Patriotic - kinda - I mean they aren't their own country yet so we are talking about a US state..........Happy Memorial Day!! Hug a Vet today!

I can't even remember what flavor cake these were - I mean I could look in my log - but that would mean actually getting up and walking over and I know this woman well enough to know her favorite and his favorite..........so I will guess..........These cakes were half and half - half Chocolate Chocolate Chip and half White cake with a Vanilla Buttercream icing. Yum!!