Week 27: Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Good day cupcake friends! We have reached the end of my personal cupcake journey. For my final cupcake, I made Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. And you totes heard me right, NO FILING! Woop Woop! In general, these cupcakes were Simple Simon compared to my first two endeavors. The only thing I had to worry about was obtaining Almond Meal, aka Almond Flour, aka expensive ground up nuts. Luckily, Hy-Vee's fancy-pants Health Market section had just what I was looking for!

Precious Baby Cupcake

These little precious babies were, by far, the simplest cupcakes I had made! Thanks for finally providing me with complete baking instructions Ming! The cupcakes were super straight forward, which makes this post a little boring…

V. Legal Cupcakes

The most exciting part of my Vanilla Almond Cupcakes was their random shapes and sizes! They were like magic bean cupcakes, each with an individual personality, just like the members of Cupcake Club! I have had an awesome time creating cupcakes! I hope you have had just as sweet of a time reading about my cupcake adventures! Thanks so much for reading! <3 Sarah

Week 18: Sour Cream Apricot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting and Toasted Almonds

Sarah's cute cupcakes pose with the equally adorable Strawberry Shortcake.

I am not ashamed to admit that for my first cupcake adventure I was über nervous. I have often been a sous chef in the kitchen, but never the head pastry chef! I started my cupcake party with a little bit too much of a lofty goal – to purchase as many local products as possible, specifically from the Topeka Farmer's Market. Let's say that I failed miserably, but did end up with some very nice soap. Ming's recipe called for Apricot Preserves, which cannot legally be sold at Farmer's Markets in Kansas. Dillon's, however, carried some very nice preserves from France. So I put on my beret and got to baking.

Due to my intense fear of screwing up the cupcakes, I made a test batch. Other than my kitchen being ridiculously messy and my personal inability to leave a single dirty dish on the counter for more than 5 minutes, the cupcakes were very successful! I delivered them to the neighbors I could find to make sure I wouldn't poison anyone to work. The great people of College Hill loved my cupcakes! (Thanks neighbors! I heart you!)

I got started on my next batch (a double batch –I'm an over achiever.). I think they turned out just as delicious. Ming provided a very understandable recipe for this go-around. I was very satisfied with my first cupcake adventure!