Fancy Stuff Review #4: Giant Cupcake Pan

Yes, after two years of pressure and a charity ask from my team, I finally baked, not one, but THREE giant cupcakes.  All I have to say is the giant cupcakes are a giant pain in the... BUT they did look pretty cool and raised a total of $132 for just three cakes.

If you're wondering what made them such a pain, I can narrow it down to two pain points:

Pain Point #1: Baking Time - because of the size, they took over an hour to bake.  To me, the best part about cupcakes is how quick they are in the oven.

Pain Point #2: Cake Removal - I had a few choice words while I was trying to remove the cakes from the pans in one piece. Despite the parchment disc on the flat surface of the cake, MAJOR buttering efforts and final flour dusting, the cakes were still a pain to get out...but I was successful.

All in all, the cakes were a BIG hit but I certainly won' t be making them again anytime soon.  One of the cakes I made was a Sinful Cinnamon Buttermilk Cupcake.  Recipe coming soon, but no photo as I tragically lost several pictures off my phone...still not over it.

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Fancy Stuff Review #3: Cupcake Corere

I was pretty spoiled this past holiday season with some wonderful cupcake and baking inspired gifts. One of those gifts was a cupcake corer. You may be asking yourself... "What the heck is a cupcake corer?" Well, it's a great little contraption that lets you make a medium sized hole in the centre of your cupcake so that you can fill it with all sorts of delicious things like cream, berries, chocolate, custard, etc.  It's also a great tool to have in the kitchen to make your cupcakes seem super fancy and that you slaved over them for hours.  The first time I used it I made a Strawberry Balsamic Cupcake that was not only super yummy, but it's also a great cupcake to make for your Valentine on February 14. Stay tuned for the recipe this week.

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Fancy Stuff Review #2 - Chocolate Decorator

A little while ago my friend was at an Epicure party and she bought a little device simply called a Chocolate Decorator (also called a Decopen).  Since she wasn't going to use it right away, she gave it to me to experiment with - thanks AM.  Well, after the big move move, multiple trips to the Rock and a chaotic few weeks at work, I finally had the chance to try it out.  In fact, I also finally baked my first batch of cupcakes at my new place!

So what is the Chocolate Decorator or Decopen exactly?  Well, as you can see in the picture to the right, it kind of looks like a mini plastic pot with a nozzle.  To use it, all you need to do is take the cover off, add in some chocolate, stick it in the microwave to melt the chocolate, put the cover back on and decorate. Super easy and super awesome!  You can do all kinds of fun things with it like decorate a plate, draw designs on the top of desserts or create decorative chocolate figures you can put on your baked goods to make them look super fancy!  Surprise surprise, I did the latter and boy did my cupcakes look fancy... and spooky!  In preparation for Halloween I made a Pumpkin Patch-Pie Cupcake complete with a spooky touch.  Stay tuned for the recipe in my next post.

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Fancy Stuff Review #1 - Flower Power!

I have decided that I should have started this blog long ago cuz it just got me a free pan!  Well, kinda free...ok, it was a gift from two good friends of mine (shout out and BIG thank you to MM and NC).  But the gift was inspired by my blog, so it counts:) 

So here it is, my new flower power cupcake pan - love it!  And do you know why...because you can make fancy cupcakes with even less work than lots of my faking fancy cupcake ways.  I mean how much fancier can you get than a shaped cupcake.  You don't even need icing....but that would be foolish because icing is delicious and you should always have a sugary topping on all cupcakes!

There are lots of fun shaped pans out there so feel free to experiment or just send them my way and I'll gladly use them.  Also (shameless plug) I've never used a silicone cupcake pan and have no thoughts on them...YET;)  But for now I will continue to use my metal pans and the next cupcake recipe to be featured is the classic childhood favourite... Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcake.

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