Furbaby Fridays

It's Friday, so that means a Furbaby Spotlight.  

This is Sadie sitting on the clothes we were about to pack for the honeymoon we were about to go on.  That's why I haven't blogged in a little while - we've been on a long overdue honeymoon.  First we went to Paradise Island, Bahamas and then Miami for two days.  But we're back!  I've been baking and you'll be seeing posts very soon.  

But for now, I wanted to share with you a recent visit to a customer of ours, Ali's Sweet Treats.  She makes some absolutely gorgeous decorated cookies, custom cookies, photo cookies and logo cookies... but I couldn't resist her array of cupcakes!  We bought a dozen mini ones and sampled them all.  We tasted (if memory serves me correctly): Triple Chocolate, Triple Vanilla, Cookies and Cream, Glazed Donut, Red Velvet, Vanilla Chocolate, Chocolate Vanilla, Lavender, Strawberry Lemon, Strawberry with Chocolate Cake, and Lemon Ginger. 

While they were all delicious (really, they were all delicious, that's how Daniel and I were able to eat 12 mini cupcakes between the two of us) I think my favorites were Glazed Donut and Cookies and Cream.  Lavender was very interesting - I've often seen lavender flavored desserts but hadn't tried one until our visits to Ali's.  It was subtle and fragrant.  And while I'm not generally a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, the red velvet at Ali's may have won me over - what a delicious cream cheese frosting she makes!  If you're in or around Miami, make sure you stop in to Ali's Sweet Treats for some cupcakes.  Or keep her in mind for custom cookies if you want a unique party favor or gift.  I think she ships nationwide, too!

Ali's Sweet Treats

7094 S.W. 117th Avenue

Miami, FL 33183

305-279-7944

Square Cake Pop Stand and Cake Pop Accessory for Cupcake Tower

Recently I posted about our new Round Three-Tier Cake Pop Display and our Round Cake Pop Rings - an add-on accessory for our 5-Tier Cupcake and Treat Tower.  Well, now we have the Square versions of both of those items.  It looks like the square versions quickly became the favorites and are currently outselling the round ones.  Check them out!

Sesame Street Cupcake and Dessert Tower

This weekend, our niece Ella turned two years old!  In honor of her second birthday and her Sesame Street theme celebration, we made her a Sesame Street Cupcake and Dessert Tower.  Nothing but the best for our niece's birthday party!  We used our Round Cupcake and Dessert Tower, and on it there were vanilla cookie monster cupcakes, red velvet elmo cupcakes, cake pops, and cookie pops with her name on them.  All the preparation was worth it when she stood next to her dessert tower (which was almost as big as she was) and made that adorable two-year old smile.  :)

New Product Photos - Our line of Cupcake Towers

I know, I've been a bad blogger lately.  Right now I need to find my way through my first 1/4 year of teaching and focus on surviving, rather than getting blog posts up two or three times a week.  But my blog will have a comeback soon!  Only one more week until spring-break when my kitchen will be full of baking smells again and Ice Cream Before Dinner will have new posts :)

For now, I'll leave you with our new product photos.  I'm so proud of them!  This weekend we made 80 cupcakes and 4 batches of buttercream frosting so we could adorn our line of cupcake towers with adorable cupcakes for a photoshoot.  See??  I have been baking!! I think these pictures came out great, and they showcase our Cupcake and Dessert Towers wonderfully.  

Cupcake Plunger Review

My blogging has been a bit slow lately because I've been busy getting used to the new job.  I'm teaching art to grades K-6 and it has been going very well - I'm very grateful!  I'm also very tired so my blogging has suffered a bit.  I'm sure not before long I'll be back in the swing of things baking up all kinds of goodies.  For now, I'll post the product review I promised a few weeks ago - the Cupcake Plunger.


I've made filled cupcakes before - a bunch of different kinds.  I've always done it using a knife and cutting a little cone out of the top of the cupcake, putting in the filling, and then replacing the cone.  It worked just fine, but it was a little time consuming and the size of the cone I cut out was never consistent.  Not too long ago, my mother in law got me one of these Cupcake Plungers by Chicago Metallic.  Pretty soon after getting it, I tried it out.  

The plunger gets pushed down into the top of the cupcake.  Then, with a twisting motion you pull the plunger back out and pop out the cupcake core with the spring.  Very simple!  It worked flawlessly for me.

I filled my cupcakes with peanut butter and fluff side-by-side.  I just put them both a zippy bag next to each other and piped it out as evenly as I could.  

Replace the cupcake core (cutting away some of it if necessary to get it to fit)

And then frost as usual.  It could be a nice surprise for a taste tester - they'd never know there was a filling inside!

Cross-section!  The plunger makes a nice even hole in the center of the cupcake.  

I'm very happy with this little gadget.  It makes it much easier to make cupcakes with a filling - and I'd probably be a lot more willing to do so now that I have this little thing.  This makes the task much quicker and more uniform.  I'd definitely recommend this product to a Cupcake-lovin' friend!

Christmas Tree Cupcake and Treat Tower

Check out how cute our Christmas Tree Cupcake & Dessert Tower is when it is all decked out for the holidays!

I can't wait to display my Christmas goodies on it!  Maybe I'll alternate tiers - Christmassy cupcakes on some and brownies on others.  Or maybe I'll put Christmas tree Cake Pops on it (you've seen Bakerella's book right?)  So excited to show it off!

It can hold up to around 56 cupcakes and can be made smaller to hold smaller amounts (for Christmas festivities where 56 cupcakes is a little excessive)  What do you think of it?

First Birthday Cupcake Tower

Lately, there has been a lot of Cupcaking going on around here.  Just last weekend was my nephew's First Birthday Party!  For the celebration we made the little man a Cupcake Tower to match the theme for his party ("Lil Rebel").  The colors were Gray, White, and Blue.  I was so excited to get to use our Cupcake Tower again!  For more info on the cupcake tower, visit my store here: www.TheSmartBaker.com

This is what we came up with!

We made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, both with buttercream frosting - but to make the vanilla look a little more fun, we turned it into Confetti cupcakes by mixing a small spoonful of blue sprinkles into the batter just before going in the oven.  It added a nice little touch!  The top tier is a 6 inch round cake decorated in fondant. 

I can't wait to keep using my Cricut Cake and my Cupcake Tower!  We took off the bottom tier of the Five Tier Round Cupcake Tower, and put on the optional fourth tier bases - and it became the perfect size for this party!  I must say, I am quite proud of our work on this one. 

My Wedding Cake!

I wanted to share photos of my wedding "cake" with you all!  If you are reading this blog, you're likely as obsessed with desserts as I am, so I know you'll appreciate these. :)  And no, I did not wind up making my own cupcakes - as many people warned me not too!  I think it was a very wise decision.  The cupcake tower structure that the cupcakes are sitting on are our latest product on www.TheSmartBaker.com.  It worked wonderfully at the wedding!  We used it in our candy buffet, too for our hand-dipped chocolate covered items.  Yum!  Take a peek!!

My cake topper!  Yep, thats my pup on it, too :)

Here is the tower for the candy buffet.  We had around 40 pounds of other candy, too - like sour watermelons, chocolate covered pretzels, yogurt pretzels, chocolate covered gummy bears, neon sour worms, mini gummy bears, jelly rings, sour belts, and peachy penguins.  Guests got to take home a box full of candy!  We got all of our candy from www.AJsCandyCastle.com

50 Best Cupcake Recipes on the Internet

This afternoon while sitting at home letting my novocaine wear off (being a dessert lover is not without its punishments... 3 cavities filled today), I was catching up on some blog reading and saw that All Things Cupcake mentioned a post by Restless Chipotle called the 50 Best Cupcake Recipes on the Internet.  Sounds amazing, right?  I know, so I had to go check it out.  What did I find?  My very own Turtle Brownie Cupcakes made the list!  How exciting!  I am very honored to be included!  

You'll definitely want to check out this collection of cupcake recipes on Restless Chipotle.  I mean... Browned butter banana rum cupcakes?  Apple crisp cupcakes?  Snickerdoodle cupcakes?  Yep, you'll definitely want to read all 50 recipes... and eat them, too.  

Thanks Marye at Restless Chipotle!!

Kiwi Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cupcakes

Summer is right around the corner. Actually, here in Florida is seems like it began a few weeks ago. So, Ice Cream Cupcakes are the perfect thing to cool you down on these hot days... while satisfying your sweet tooth, too! And what better way to welcome summer with a delicious fruity flavor combination. For my second attempt at making Ice Cream Cupcakes, me and the fiance came up with an AMAZINGLY fresh and fruity concoction: Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream on top of Strawberries-and-Cream Cake, topped with Kiwi Sauce and Vanilla Whipped Cream It tasted like the frozen ice creamy version of Strawberry Shortcake, with a little extra something from the homemade Kiwi Sauce. This recipe was a total winner. Absolutely FULL of flavor, refreshing, and decadent all at the same time. And this is my entry for CupcakeProject's 2010 Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup! Please see details for this contest here at Cupcake Project and here at Scoopalicious





Strawberries and Cream Cake, adapted from The Hungry Mouse
Ingredients:
3/8 cup sugar
2 Tbls butter, soft
1/2 an egg (whisk entire egg, discard half of it)
3/8 cup heavy cream
1 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
heaping 1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 cups strawberries, sliced

Put 12 - 16 foil cupcake liners (depending on how much cake you want per ice cream cupcake) on a cookie sheet. Preheat to 375. Beat the sugar, egg and butter together to combine. When slightly cream, pour in the cream and mix to combine.
In a separate small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the wet mixture. Beat on low to combine and then turn it up to high for a short while to make the consistency thick and creamy - but do not overbeat.
Add in the strawberries and stir by hand with a spatula to incorporate. Divide between the liners and spread slightly with a spoon. Liners will only be about 1/2 as full as if you were making full sized cupcakes.
Bake for 16-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, move to the freezer to freeze the cakes. Then, make your ice cream...




Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream adapted from epicurious.com
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
Strips of lemon zest, from about 1/2 a lemon
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 lb strawberries (by weight), hulled and halved
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine heavy cream, zest, and sea salt in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
Whisk the eggs with 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl. Put a strainer on top of this bowl, and slowly pour the cream/zest mixture through the strainer/sieve. Discard the zest. Pour back into the saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F (do not let boil).
Immediately pour custard through a sieve into a metal bowl, then cool to room temperature by putting this metal bowl into a larger bowl full of ice water, stirring occasionally to quickly cool. Chill, covered, at least until cold, about 2 hours, and up to 1 day.
While custard is chilling, purée strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice in a blender until smooth, then force through fine sieve (to remove seeds) into chilled custard. Stir purée into custard.
Freeze in ice-cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer a bit more, so it is soft enough to pipe through a piping bag. Pipe on to frozen cupcakes and freeze to harden.





Kiwi Sauce:
Ingredients:
4 kiwis
1/8 C sugar + additional, if desired

Peel the brown skin off of the kiwis. Place kiwis in a food processor and blend until completely pureed. Add to a saucepan set on medium to high heat with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir over the heat until it thickens slightly. Remove to a small metal bowl and, set the small bowl within a larger one filled with ice water. Stir the kiwi sauce constantly to quickly cool the sauce. Add sugar until the sauce reaches your desired sweetness. Force through a strainer to remove (most of) the seeds. Serve, cold, on top of ice cream cupcakes.



Vanilla Whipped Cream:
Ingredients:
1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
2 tsp mexican vanilla
1/8 C granulated sugar + additional, if desired

Beat all ingredients together, on high, until mixture reaches light and fluffy consistency. Add more sugar if desired to reach desired sweetness. Serve on top of ice cream cupcakes.

Ice Cream Cupcakes: Banana Pound Cake with Mango-Lemon Ice Cream & Blood Orange-Orange Syrup

Ice Cream Cake is one of those simple treats that are an absolute favorite in this house. In all honesty, if Dan had his choice, our wedding cake would be a giant Fudgie The Whale cake from Carvel. I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't be opposed to it either... And no, I'm not getting paid to promote Fudgie the Whale... though I would gladly accept a cake as payment.
If we love ice cream cake so much, and I so often make cake and ice cream, why oh why have I never tried to make my own ice cream cake before?? More importantly, why have I never tried to make my own ICE CREAM CUPCAKES before?? Ice Cream Cupcakes are just like Ice Cream cakes except better because they're tiny, adorable, and you get to eat the whole thing. When I saw that Cupcake Project is now doing her annual Ice Cream Cupcake Contest, I vowed to make a new ice cream cupcake every week for the month of May, to select the best one to use as my entry into the contest.

So, how does you make ice cream cupcakes? I took pictures of the process...

1. Make cupcakes, but put half as much batter in as you normally would. You need room for ice cream! Bake, let cool completely, then throw in the freezer.
2. Make homemade ice cream.
3. After churning and before chilling said ice cream, so it is still a little soft, put a dollop on to the half-full, frozen cupcakes.
4. Spread smooth with an offset spatula. Dip the spatula in warm water before smoothing if necessary.
5. Freeze cupcakes until firm.
6. Peel and enjoy your very own Ice Cream Cupcake!

For my first attempt at making Ice Cream Cupcakes, we came up with... Banana Pound Cake with Mango-Lemon Ice Cream and Blood Orange-Orange Syrup. Yu-u-um.

Banana Pound Cake Recipe adapted from The Dutch Baker's Daughter
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 C mashed ripe banana (around 1 - 1 1/2 medium bananas)
1 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup 2% milk
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated orange peel, lightly packed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with 19-21 standard size cupcake liners, or if using foil liners, place on a cookie sheet.
Cream butter with an electric mixer. Gradually add sugar, beating on low, then increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Beat several minutes on high until the mixture is smooth. Mix in the bananas.
With a whisk, mix flour, baking powder, salt and ginger. In a separate bowl, combine milk and vanilla. Beating on low, add dry ingredients, alternating with milk-vanilla mixture. Stir in the orange peel.
Divide the batter between the cupcake liners, filling each liner up about half as full as you normally would to make regular cupcakes. Bake for 14 - 18 minutes. Let cool completely and then pop them in the freezer and begin making the ice cream.



Mango-Lemon Ice Cream with Blood Orange-Orange Syrup adapted from Dianasaur Dishes
Ingredients:
1-2 mangoes, depending on your desired mangoiness.
Most of the zest from one lemon (the rest from about 3/4 of a lemon)
1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
4 egg whites
4 tablespoons sugar

Peel mango and cut into cubes (click here for mango cutting 411 if you've never cut a mango before!). Using a food processor, blend the mango well to a smooth consistency. Add lemon zest and pulse until incorporated. While blade is running, pour in the cream and beat until mixed.
In a separate large bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy, and then add in the sugar gradually. Fold in the mango-cream mixture. Churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions.


And just so you know...

If you can BARELY get a knife into your mango because it is too hard, your mango isn't ready for use. Your mango should be darker in color, moist, and relatively easy to cut in to.

When your ice cream maker is done churning your ice cream, spread the still-soft ice cream on to the tops of your frozen cupcakes. Spread smooth with an offset spatula, dipping the spatula into warm water occasionally if necessary. Then, return the cupcakes to the freezer while you prepare your syrup.



Blood Orange-Orange Syrup also adapted from Dianasaur Dishes
Ingredients:
1 blood orange
1 naval orange
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp blood orange zest, packed

Zest and juice the blood orange. Mine didn't yield much juice (maybe a half a tablespoon!) so I juiced a naval orange as well. Add juice from both oranges, sugar and zest to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce and let simmer for 4-8 minutes until thick, about the consistency of maple syrup. Refrigerate and serve over ice cream. This syrup is POTENT, and though the recipe didn't make so much, it was enough for all of the cupcakes. You really only need about 1 teaspoon at the most per cupcake.




This recipe was a total success. It was enjoyed by everyone who tried it! The banana pound cake and the mango-lemon ice cream was delicious and refreshing, and the syrup complimented all of the flavors, tying them all together nicely. I can't wait to try another Ice Cream Cupcake recipe!

Ladybug Cupcake Pull-Apart Cake (Baby Cupcakes!)

I love trying new things in baking! I especially like trying new things when they work out in the end. This weekend, I made a Cupcake Pull-Apart Cake for the first time, for my adorable niece's ladybug themed FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY! If you don't know what a Cupcake Pull-Apart Cake is (which I didn't either until recently) - the concept is to make a cake out of cupcakes, so that they're still easy to serve (no knives to cut the cake needed) but decorate it as one big cake so you still get the look of a real cake. So when it comes time to serve, all you have to do is walk up and take a cupcake. Clever!

While looking at others' cupcake pull-apart cakes to figure out how to do this, I found a bunch of different ways to make them. Some people arranged cupcake liners reallllll close together in a cake pan and filled the liners much higher than you would with usual cupcakes. When they bake, the batter puffs up and touches. So, it is still individual cupcakes but they are connected at the top. Its frosted and decorated together as one cake. This technique made me nervous for a few reasons. What if you fill the liners TOO much and instead of just gently connecting at the top, it oozes all the way down the sides and you have a cupcake cake blog mess. Orrr, even if done correctly, if they're connected at the top, I thought it would make easy pull-apart a little bit less easy.

Another technique is to just make cupcakes as you normally would, then arrange them close together on a pan, and frost all together as one big cake. I found this video at Betty Crocker, and thought it looked do-able!

For the recipe, I chose a 1-year-old friendly no sugar added cupcake from Amy Berman, Executive Pastry Chef & Co-Owner of Vanilla Bake Shop. The only sweetness in these cupcakes comes from the addition of bananas and apple juice concentrate. Perfect for the little ones who aren't used to the Sugar-Loadedness of regular cupcakes! They were nice and moist due to the bananas and sturdy because of the rolled oats. Tasted like banana bread! I also used Amy's Cream Cheese frosting recipe (not quite no-sugar-added). You can see both recipes here at Holidash or here at Celebrations.com. So, Low Sugar 1st Birthday Banana & Apple Juice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting it was!

I made the full batch of cupcakes, which made about 18-20 cupcakes, but I only used 17 in the arrangement.

After they were fully cooled, I arranged them like so. I did it like this rather than a regular rectangular cake shape so that the lines of cupcakes could kind of interlock, reducing the amount of space in between them.

After arranging them on the pan, I filled a piping bag with frosting and put an enormously generous amount on each cupcake. I repeat you NEED to use A LOT of frosting to get this to work. In order for it to not fall down in to the cracks, there needs a real thick layer of frosting (you can always scrape some off before baby gets it). So I piped a giant dollop on top of each one. Then, I went in with my offset spatula and gently coaxed the dollops to touch each other. Then we smoothed it all out and decorated.






The lady bug and letters were made with fondant, and the dot border is M&Ms. What do you think?

The Wall Street Journal talks CUPCAKES

I have heard of freezing cupcakes before. You take fresh-baked mini-cake beauties, let them cool, wrap 'em in plastic wrap or foil, throw 'em in a zippy bag, or fill up some plastic storage containers with them and pop 'em in the freezer. If you're baking for a big event and need a million cupcakes, this can save considerable amounts of time and the possibility of many gray hairs. There are even some HOW-TO's available on the subject. Notably, Cupcakes Take the Cake did a cupcake freezing experiment to decide the best method. The result? Any method of storage will do, but make sure you unwrap or un-package them before letting them thaw (or else they'll get gummy) and only plain UNFROSTED cupcakes should be frozen. I emphasize this last part because I've heard it several hundred times. According to the Cupcakes Take the Cake girls, "When freezing baked cupcakes, we wanted to prevent the common problems of freezer burn, dryness, and gummy tops... the texture and consistency of frostings and icings can change drastically in the freezer..." so... save the decorating and frosting for AFTER they've thawed. Right?? Right.

But after reading this Wall Street Journal article by Abigail Pesta, I became intrigued. In it, Pesta recounts her taste-test of several different mail-order cupcakes from big shops like Georgetown Cupcake in Washington, D.C., Dean & DeLuca, Godiva and Crumbs. The thing that surprised me was that the mail-order cupcakes arrived to the customer FROZEN! Both Georgetown and Godiva shipped out there baked-goods, PRE-FROSTED, already decorated, and FROZEN. Now, I've shipped cupcakes before but used different methods. I've baked the cupcake in jars and shipped it with a separate baggy of buttercream frosting, ready for piping on by the recipient once it arrives (like THIS). I've even shipped it in the jar already frosted (like THIS and like THIS). But never like this! These actually still look like cupcakes! And Abigail reports that not only were they still pretty, but that the cupcakes were GOOD. Hmm! Has anyone frozen a frosted cupcake?? Now I'm curious. I sense an experiment of my own coming on....

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Red Velvet Cake (or Red Velvet Giant Cupcake)

I recently got a fabulous giant cupcake pan as a gift, but haven't got around to using it yet. I rarely make cakes because there are only two of us here, and cupcakes, cookies, brownies and other single-serve goodies are easier to give away. But I wanted to use my new pan so badly! Finally, I had an opportunity. Rosy of Rosy Lips and Lavender chose Red Velvet Cake as the recipe of the week for Sweet Melissa Sundays. As soon as I learned we were going to make a cake, I knew I'd make a GIANT JUMBO CUPCAKE! Plus, I need practice... I plan on making my own cupcake tower for my wedding in October, and topping it with one of these giant cupcakes (as the cake we can cut together).

Melissa's recipe for Red Velvet Cake was a rather simple one to put together. The only changes I made were to reduce the cinnamon to 1 tsp (only because I ran out!!) and to use apple cider vinegar instead of red wine. I also used food coloring gel, so I had to guesstimate how much of it equalled 2 tsp of the liquid stuff. In my jumbo cupcake pan, I lowered the oven temperature to 330, and it baked for about 70 - 75 minutes.

I used all the batter in the giant cupcake pan and it rose quite a bit... (which was totally fine with me because it meant I got to taste the scraps).



But it leveled out nicely.


I omitted the Classic Cream Cheese Filling & Frosting, and instead, used my favorite Vanilla Buttercream to frost it, and a Marshmallow Fluff Cream for the filling... mmm [see recipe below]. I took about 1.5 or 2 inch layer out of the middle to make room for a nice amount of filling.




With its hat on!

Now to frost it.. I was a little anxious about this. I googled pictures of giant cupcakes to see different ways of frosting it. Piping didn't seem like a good option, it looked a little silly to me. And frosting it smooth looked bizarro. I knew I had to use an offset spatula to make it look natural and billowy... and I also knew I'd get really frustrated with this. So... In comes Daniel! He's really very good to me when I get frustrated frosting things. He took over the frosting job and within 5 minutes it was done, and I love it! Good job Daniel!!


For scaling purposes, I put a normal sized cupcake liner next to it... Woah.


I will have to put up a picture of the cross section later after we cut into it!

Marshmallow Fluff Cream Filling adapted from Please Pass the Pie
Ingredients:
4 oz. Marshmallow Fluff (I recommend Non-Stick Spraying your measuring cup first... it'll plop out nice and easy!)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 t. of vanilla

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Cream together ingredients. When all are combined, turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat for about 5 minutes until nice and fluffy. Spoon onto cake and spread with a rubber spatula.

This filling was deliciously sweet and complimented the moist red velvet cake very nicely! I used this entire recipe to fill the cavity I made in the cake. It came out nice and sticky so it kept the hat on the cupcake perfectly.
Judging from the cake scraps, this cake came out very moist and had great flavor. I like the addition of cinnamon - not something I've done in a Red Velvet cake before, but I think it adds a nice touch. I can't wait to try it later all put together with the fluff filling layer and the buttercream frosting :)

Curious how it came out for the other bakers? Visit the blog roll here and see their results! And thanks to Rosy of Rosy Lips and Lavender for hosting this week (Good choice Rosy, I loved this one!) - visit her blog to see the recipe.