Summertime Key Lime

Key Lime pie is literally the perfect summer pie.  It is light, fluffy, green, and hard to beat that graham cracker crust.  This flavor has been on the Baking Sue's radar for quite awhile, but we were having a difficult time deciding on a recipe.  One was a lime cupcake with key lime curd and a key lime frosting.  That would be a bit too much lime.  But yesterday, we literally "stumbled upon" a fabulous key lime pie cupcake...with graham cracker cake on the bottom and a cream cheese key lime frosting on top!

The batter required us to combine all of the dry ingredients first, and then gradually add the butter, so that the batter was crumbly.  We were kind of skeptical, but the final result was crispy and delicious!  It really tasted like a graham cracker pie crust.  We topped it off with our cream cheese key lime frosting and had a winner.  We liked them so much that we made more today to take with us on our vacation to Colorado!

And now it is off to Colorado for some relaxation.  We will see if we can keep ourselves from baking for a whole week.  Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Edible Elegance

Today, the Baking Sues took a dive into a unique flavor.  Rose cupcakes with rose buttercream frosting. We infused the batter with Rosewater, which is an interesting ingredient to use. It smells very strong, but when added to the batter, the taste becomes very subtle. It was difficult to find the balance between having too much or too little of the rose in the cake. The final result tasted like a sophisticated vanilla cake with hints of rose. The frosting was a buttercream with a dash of Rosewater. The cake is definitely a unique taste, and makes for a fun eating experience. These would go great with brewed tea!

We also tried our hand at edible sugared flowers, and the results were divine! It was quite easy to do, and the final flowers were beautiful...and tasted pretty good!  These would be perfect toppers for bridal showers, weddings, etc. Here are a few pictures:

Yum! What fun! We have one more flavor to bake this week, so look for an update on Friday!

-The Baking Sues

Time of the Season: Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes

In our family, balsamic vinegar is a mainstay in our kitchen. Tonight we pondered the question over the dinner table about a cupcake with balsamic vinegar in it. Sarah got curious, and an hour and a half later, we had our first batch of Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes!

First strawberries, sugar and vinegar were combined together and simmered down into a sauce used lots for the rest of the cupcake.

Thanks Trader Joe's, for the great balsamic!

Mixing everything together.  Here they are pre-frosting.  I was surprised to see how brown the cupcakes turned out.  Even with a decent amount of fruit in the batter, the final result didn't sink, which was exciting!

And finally, the frosted finale, which included cream cheese, balsamic vinegar, and a bit of the strawberry mixture. These cupcakes are officially going on our menu, right now as a seasonal option. May is strawberry month, so this cupcake is perfect for the moment and a different spin on usual strawberry cupcakes.

Put a strawberry garnish on there and we are good to go!

For the Love of Peanut Butter

I love peanut butter.  I will pretty much eat it with anything (peanut butter burgers are great!)  My favorite way to eat peanut butter is by the spoon, and lately I have been loving Trader Joe's Roasted Flaxseed Peanut Butter!  So of course, it only made sense to eventually make peanut butter cupcakes, and tonight was the night!  The batter included a 1/2 cup of peanut butter, and I was nervous the flavor wouldn't come through.  However, that was thankfully not the case!

Here they are before baking:

They had a nice texture when I put them in the cups, so I was quite excited!  Here they are fresh out of the oven:

Beautiful!  And they were crispy on top, which was a bonus.  Next I made the frosting, which had a whole cup of peanut butter...yumm.  I also crushed up some peanuts for a bit of garnish.  Here is the final result:

These turned out...great.  Seriously, some of the best we have made yet.  They could also be good with some variations, including a peanut butter and jelly cupcake, or a peanut butter cupcake with chocolate frosting.  For now, I am pretty happy with the peanut butter peanut butter combination!

First Post!

Well, after lots of brainstorming and discussion, my mom and I have finally taken the first step to delving into the business world of cupcakes!  We debated for awhile about a name and finally settled on Sue's Cupcakery.  We share the same middle name, and because we are sharing in this cupcake endeavor, it made since to include a part of both of ourselves in the name!  We are currently working on a menu, which will include traditional flavors and favorites, as well as some unusual cupcake flavors.  But all of them will be delicious!  We will post these updates, as well as updates about what kind of flavors we are experimenting with!  We also have a website, facebook page, and email that will be developed very soon!

So excited!