Chocolate!!

Chocolate cupcakes are a consistent favorite! People of course love chocolate and this cupcake does not disappoint. It is very chocolately, very moist and has a great crumb. It pairs nicely with some other flavors too. I use it to make a chocolate mint cupcake which is often frosted with a ganache and then chopped Andes mints. I also use it to make a chocolate hazelnut cupcake complete with a chocolate hazelnut (Nutella) cream cheese frosting.

A favorite of one of my customers is the chocolate espresso. Then I add espresso to the chocolate buttercream. Chocolate and coffee??? Yes, please!

It’s also lovely to take the plain chocolate cupcake and pair it with a raspberry cream cheese, strawberry cream cheese or even blackberry cream cheese frosting! Or add a chocolate mousse or a light whipped cream filling!

Mmmmmm, chocolate!

Sugar Cookies!

I didn’t use to like making sugar cookies. All the chilling, rolling, cutting, frosting……. So time-consuming !!! That is, until I finally tried royal icing. I was always intimidated by it! I don’t know why. Not only is it easy to whip up, but it is a very forgiving (surprisingly) frosting!

My favorite technique is to flood the cookie first. You pipe on a perimeter around the cookie and then in a zig-zag pattern fill in the rest. You can go on top of that with another color and drag those colors through like I did on the butterfly cookies. So many options!

This is a great canvas for you artists out there!