Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes

I love mint.

I can eat it everyday.

I love chocolates.

I can also eat it everyday.

Now, if I can get my hands on some chocolates with mint or mint with chocolates....

That's another story.

I can eat it every hour of every day.

I would even wake up in the odd hours of the morning to raid the fridge for some.

That's how I love mint with chocolates (or chocolates with mint).

These cupcakes came from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book. It was so yummy, I want to eat all of it!!!

But I can't do that... so I gave some away... okay... just a few... I can't help it...

Wanna know why?

I love mint.

I can eat it everyday.

I love chocolates.

I can also eat it everyday.

Oooopps, deja vu... I said that already, right?

Happy cupcaking!

Aikko

Glee - Theatricality - Bad Romance - Lady Gaga Cupcakes

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!

Roma-Roma-ma-ah!

Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!

Want your bad romance

Gotta love Gaga!

And what way to better way to celebrate Glee's tribute to Lady Gaga than to make...

drumroll please....

Bad Romance Cupcakes!!!

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!

Roma-Roma-ma-ah!

Okay, I should stop now... but I keep hearing it in my head!!!

Since I love Glee, and I lurve Lady Gaga why not make Lady Gaga inspired cupcakes? My idea can not be achieved by buttercream alone so I made some fondant and used it to make the miniature Gaga, the iconic heels and the topsy turvy headresses. Everyone knows that Glee + Lady Gaga = Spectacular Theatricality!

These Hershey's Devils Food cupcakes were bare but with the help of a little "Theatricality", each cupcake has been transformed in true Gaga fashion.

Little Lady Gaga. Inspired by her sort of wide-eyed look at the beginning of the video. I curled each strand of her hair one by one. I almost wish that sugar craft apparatus that makes making fondant hair easier. I wish!

The Alexander McQueen Armadillo 10-inch heels. I'll write a tutorial on how to do this on my blog in a few days.

I almost dropped the little head on the floor while I was forming it. Good thing I was able to catch it with out damaging the face. Otherwise, I would have dropped this project entirely. The head was the most difficult to make!

It all started with a sketch

Happy Cupcaking!

Aikko

Pinoy Cupcake: Kapeng Barako Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Marie Buscuits

I remember when I was younger, my Decembers wouldn't be complete without the yearly trip to NAIA to fetch my father so we could spend the holidays together. And my mother's Decembers wouldn't be complete if she wouldn't see me get so impatient waiting for him to arrive garbed in his "uniform" so we wouldn't miss him.

When my mother sees me impatiently playing with the rails which separates us from the ones arriving in Manila, she would instantly produce a bag of Marie biscuits in her bag which she knows would keep me (or rather my stomach until the Barrio Fiesta dinner/lunch) occupied till my father arrives.

As part of my Pinoy Cupcakes series, this has been inspired by --- you guessed right, Marie biscuits. Those little round biscuits that just melts the moment you dunk it in a steaming mug of hot coffee. Yum yum yum.

The cupcake is coffee-flavored and to give it a Pinoy twist, instead of regular coffee, I used kapeng barako for an added kick. To make it fancier, the cupcakes have been frosted with Chocolate Ganache and Marie biscuits. Now, if only I could dunk it in the coffee cupcakes.... nah, never mind.

Hershey's Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy cream

36 Special Dark Hershey's Chocolate Kisses

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Simmer heavy cream and vanilla extract

Chop kisses to even smaller pieces.

Place in a mixing bowl

Pour cream into the Kisses and stir until thick.

Refrigerate Ganache for 30 minutes then whip it as you would a whip cream.

Ganache is now ready for piping!

Happy cupcaking!

Aikko