3-2-1 Cupcakes

I mentioned 3-2-1 cupcakes yesterday...here is the recipe.  When you get a craving for something sweet, put down the Sour Patch Kids and make a delicious cupcake instead.

3-2-1 Cake

1 box Duncan Hines Angel Food Cake mix
1 box Duncan Hines Cake mix (any flavor)

Mix the contents of these two boxes together in a gallon ziplock bag. I only use Duncan Hines cake mixes but that is just my personal preference.  When you get ready for a cupcake...here's what to do:

3 Tbsp mix
2 Tbsp water
1 minute in the microwave (start with 45 seconds and adjust time to your microwave)

Mix these together in a coffee mug. You can bake the cake in the mug or bake it in a cupcake liner or TeaCupCake!

TeaCupCakes

My brother gave me a set of 12 TeaCupCakes last Christmas.  I have written about these is a previous post, but now I use them in a different way.  I take them to work and use them to make 3-2-1 cupcakes.  When busy ER nurses need chocolate....they need it fast.  With these cupcake teacups I can have a chocolate cupcake in less than 2 minutes.  Add some Fluffy White icing (Betty Crocker is my favorite) and you have a party in a cup!

 

TeaCupCakes
Fred & Friends

 

 

 

Cupcake with a Cupcake Topper

A cupcake with a cupcake topper. It doesn't get any better...or easier!  These are made by Wilton and you can get them at Michael's. 

Carpe Cupcakes!

Carpe Cupcakes! has been on an extended leave of absence but it is time to rejoin the cupcake universe.  Several things have happened this week to jolt me back into writing about cupcakes.  I booked my first wedding of the year.  I reconnected with friends from Iron Cupcake San Francisco.  I did some spring cleaning and found some long-lost cupcake baking supplies. I received email from three blog visitors. I am making a new Cup-Cache (a cupcake geocache) to be hidden in the Sacramento area.  It's time!

So to get this cupcake party re-started....please check out the Iron Cupcake San Francisco link and sign up now for the next challenge.



Iron Cupcake San Francisco

Ghost of Christmas Past

My family was just here for a week to celebrate Christmas. Like most families, we possess varying degrees of dysfunction. If you have seen the movie Christmas Vacation, you know how the week went. At least our Christmas Eve supper didn’t turn out like the movie. We did a lot of cooking and made whoopie pies instead of cupcakes. I think the whoopie pie is just an inside-out cupcake. The cake batter is the same but the frosting is on the inside instead of on top. Since we were having a Mississippi Christmas at Lake Tahoe, I made red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese filling. Those of you who followed the original blog know what is coming….I am extremely picky when it comes to cream cheese icing. I promise not to get on my soap box on the first day of the new blog…so more on cream cheese icing in the days, weeks and years to come.

We talked about Christmases past and the best Christmas presents we ever got. My best present was an Easy Bake oven I got when I was eight. It was yellow and I still remember the smell of the plastic as the two 100 watt light bulbs heated up. The oven came with a couple of cute little cake mixes but replacements were expensive. My grandmother would take a chocolate cake mix and divide it into four parts. She taught me to calculate how much water and oil and somehow she could even split an egg in half. She made icing out of powdered sugar and kept it in the refrigerator so I could use it whenever I wanted – in one of those avocado green tupperware containers so fabulous in the 60s. I guess those little Easy Bake cakes were actually my first whoopie pies (cupcake training wheels).

Cupcake Necklaces

We have a shop in Incline Village called The Potlatch and it has an eclectic mix of clothing, dishes, jewelry, candles, picture frames, rugs, and all kinds of other goodness.  I went in there yesterday and found these Sweet Life necklaces ($8.99). The necklaces come attached to paper cupcakes with a recipe inside! 

 BTW....Sweet Life also makes bracelets. 

Recipe of the Week: Garden Party Cupcakes

These garden cupcakes are perfect for a summer party...and the recipe is an easy one from Duncan Hines (my favorite cake mix).  Follow the link under the photo for the recipe!

Duncan Hines Garden Party Cupcakes

Yoga Cupcakes

My niece Payton is here visiting this week and we took a yoga class today....stretching and getting into poses and positions that the human body was not meant to be in.  A good time was had by all.  Maybe rubbing a cupcake on my sore legs will help.

from the Flickr  photostream of doreenseng 

Cupcake Scarf (free pattern)

I know it's the middle of summer, but if you get started now, you will have a cute cupcake scarf by the time the first snowflakes fall.  The pattern for this scarf is available free from Craftbits.com.

Craftbits.com

Martha Stewart Cupcake Punch

You can use this cupcake punch for many things, but I bought it to make cupcake confetti to scatter on a table at a birthday party.  I got mine at Michael's but it is also available at craft stores, Borders and Amazon.  If you are into scrapbooking, there is also a cupcake corner punch.

Martha Stewart cupcake punch

$12.99