A very chocolately house-warming!

Our awesome neighbors (and my biggest cupcake fan) just moved away from us this past weekend. We are very sad about this but so happy for them that they found this amazing 3 story blue & brown house in White Rock. For her house warming I decided to do a chocolate - brown and blue mini cupcake theme! There were 4 different design styles which included blue sugar crystals, toasted coconut, chocolate jimmies, slivered almonds and blue & white candies. They were a joy to make and I was so proud upon finishing.

The delivery however was a disaster as I used a metal party tray (you know the regular red rimmed ones you find sushi in?) and it was extremely hot that day, the Hazelnut chocolate icing softened in the heat. I think for parties in colder weather this would be great and the tray fits exactly 54! Also a bit of refrigeration or freezer would have did some good before delivery as well. Regardless they were enjoyed and the house was better than the photo!

Happy new house to Janet, Milan, Olive & Dorathy Dog!

For those that dream in chocolate...

So I made a special batch of Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes topped with milk chocolate frosting and centered with a caramel filled Hershey's kiss, exactly a year ago from today for my good friend Scott (who just ordered me my first shipment of cupcake containers - thank you!). They turned out so beautiful i took a photo of them, anticipating that i will be blogging about cupcakes one-day (j/k... but i did take a photo cause they looked so scrumptious). I can't say I LOVE CHOCOLATE like those around me (minus David, my other half, who actually hates chocolate flavored anything), and I don't know why that is, but I do love chocolate cake - a lot. For me chocolate cake must be moist and chocolaty and the icing must not be too sweet - you know, the type of icing you can eat cups of without feeling like well... you ate cups of it.

Cool facts about chocolate:

• 71% of chocolate eaters prefer milk chocolate. (i like dark myself ;)
  
• 40% of women and 15% of men crave chocolate but it is not physically addictive.
• 51% choose a chocolate from a selection box depending on its shape.
• Chocolate makers use 40% of the world's almonds and 20% of the world's peanuts.
• Hershey produces around 23 million kisses a day in a variety of flavors
• The U.S. produces more chocolate than any other country but the Swiss consume the most.
  
• In 1939, Nestle introduced Chocolate Chips.
• Chocolate's melting point is just below your body temperature, so it melts in your mouth.

Also about my first order of cupcake containers: It turns out that the prices in the states are 60 times...yes i repeat 60 times cheaper than the suppliers in Canada. I spent 2 days calling, reseraching online, with over 20 suppliers, both in Canada and the USA before I placed an order. I mean, there is a chance that I missed a key supplier here in Canada but for now, I'm sticking to what my research shows. How unfair is it to us Canadian business owners? My cupcake containers and boxes are going to be shipped to my place in Bellingham. Let's just hope they don't charge me an arm and a leg at the border... regardless though, it's not going to be 60x the price! Entrepreneurship is harder in Canada than the US... proof is bank!

Forget Chicken & Waffles, Chicken & Cupcakes is where it's at!

My ol'friend Arty - aka Buddha Sax came over with a bucket of KFC yesterday and his new girlfriend Jackie (very sweet & charming girl, good job art! ;). I was feeling still a bit under the weather (because I once again caught what Ari had) and didn't feel like baking, but he so desperately wanted me to make a batch of cupcakes for dessert and you know i can't refuse a request from someone that brings me fried chicken... plus i had a new recipe i wanted to try from the Cake Bible. I took a few short cuts such as... eggs weren't at room temp. and i replaced the milk with soymilk and i didn't let the butter soften (i microwaved...shhh...). The result was a harder top than the other cake recipes i tried but nonetheless they were gobbled up and the minty green cream cheese frosting was light and yummy! I was also out of fondant so I topped it with one of my daughters whole-wheat puff stars and centered it with some pink frosting. Turned out to be very cute! In the end we were all happy and that's what important.

I also realized that i need new mixing bowls! This one is too heavy for my little weak under worked out arms. As they say? A baker is only as good as the ingredients and tools she uses?? i dont know if that is a saying or if i made that up right now. Regardless, I'm getting new mixing bowls and soon!